The truth is that I have never really cared for most of the American poetry canon. Yes, there are exceptions. If you count TS Eliot as an American (and since he was born in St. Louis, you kind of have to), then he was my favorite (although, since he abandoned the US and went to […]
S&R Poetry: “Eyebrows,” by Elizabeth Ballou
and they say that’s how Brooke Shields landed the 1980 spring issue of Vogue, after all – before those eglantine eyes made her a tabloid queen, it was her brows that floored the likes of Thierry Mugler and Azzedine Alaïa: those martial, luscious supercilia, cutting across her forehead like two thick rows of Idaho barley […]
ArtsWeek: Where can you go for free e-books?
A question arose in a comment thread on an earlier post. To wit: I love reading, and Kindle is cool, but books are expensive. (Okay, that’s really more of a statement than a question. You get my point.) It’s true. Now granted, the average e-book is a lot cheaper than even a paperback, but still, if […]
The Strain: A new vision of vampirism
Anyone who’s seen Guillermo del Toro’s recent movies—Pan’s Labyrinth and the Hellboy movies (and a two-part The Hobbit on the way)—probably expect anything spawned by that mind to be boldly imaginative. Del Toro takes risks and he paints large while paying attention to the most meticulous details. So when del Toro teamed up with Chuck […]
Is your house haunted?
Horror of the “gothic” variety that occupied so much of the conversation between Byron and the Shelleys (these would be the conversations that ultimately gave rise to Frankenstein) has traditionally traded in some easily recognizable tropes. Among the most common are your haunted places. Swamps and moors are always a little scary. Graveyards and crypts, […]
ArtsWeek: Costumes and Parties
by mentalswitch Tonight, tomorrow you will see people dressed up in their Halloween finest. For your viewing pleasure I present others who are dressed up in their, well, regular party clothes. But it might as well be for Halloween, right? The following content is NSFP/W (what does NSFP mean?). Click below for more….
Zombies: The new media darlings
Zombie: Don’t worry. Only people with brains get eaten. You’re safe. They aren’t sexy. They aren’t romantic. They aren’t tragically doomed. In fact, they’re ravenous, violent, and virtually unstoppable. They ooze all sorts of bodily fluids. And they want to eat your brains. So how come zombies are getting such mainstream media treatment? As a […]






