By Northumbria.
Click below...
Sunday, July 27, 2025
Equal Treatment For All
Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, a French physician, proposed a more humane method of execution, advocating for a machine that would ensure equal treatment for all, regardless of social status. While he didn't design the machine itself, his name became synonymous with it. A German engineer named Tobias Schmidt is credited with building the prototype based on the design by Antoine Louis, a French surgeon. The first execution using the guillotine took place in 1792.
Thursday, July 24, 2025
Saturday, July 19, 2025
The Legend
An opening in the trees now cheered him with the hopes that the church bridge was at hand. The wavering reflection of a silver star in the bosom of the brook told him that he was not mistaken. He saw the walls of the church dimly glaring under the trees beyond. He recollected the place where Brom Bones’s ghostly competitor had disappeared. “If I can but reach that bridge,” thought Ichabod, “I am safe.” Just then he heard the black steed panting and blowing close behind him; he even fancied that he felt his hot breath. Another convulsive kick in the ribs, and old Gunpowder sprang upon the bridge; he thundered over the resounding planks; he gained the opposite side; and now Ichabod cast a look behind, to see if his pursuer should vanish, according to rule, in a flash of fire and brimstone. Just then he saw the goblin rising in his stirrups, and in the very act of hurling his head at him. Ichabod endeavored to dodge the horrible missile, but too late. It encountered his cranium with a tremendous crash—he was tumbled headlong into the dust, and Gunpowder, the black steed, and the goblin rider, passed by like a whirlwind.
- Washington Irving, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Now Playing: Late Night Call
By Goblin, Alan Howarth, and Retrofuture.
Praying this means an album is coming.
Click below...
Wednesday, July 16, 2025
Monday, July 14, 2025
No Trespassing
But had they lived very, very long lives, they could not have expected nor would they have wished to see as much of the mad and macabre as they were to see that day. For them an idyllic summer afternoon drive became a nightmare. The events of that day were to lead to the discovery of one of the most bizarre crimes in the annals of American history, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.
Sunday, July 13, 2025
Friday, July 11, 2025
Mark Snow
We lost composer Mark Snow on July 4th. He was 78 years old. When I was young, I can perfectly recall the disgust and uneasiness that my dad would project whenever a favorite Hollywood figure or big band composer would pass away. He would yell into the other room where my mother was and say something like "Betty! James Cagney died! I remember when he was a young man! Everybody's dying!"
I never gave it much thought back then, as those people seemed to be some kind of relic or fossil. My dad would add later "Never get old, boys!" (Though he'd also often say "Never get married!...and if you DO get married, never have kids!")
I feel like everyone who reads this blog probably has a deep love for The X-Files. And if you feel that love, you probably know the show's composer by name. His music was as much a part of that show as the two main characters. I wonder if the show would have been as popular had he not scored every episode. Would the aliens have been as horrifying? Would those wonderful moments between Scully and Mulder have been as touching?
Absolutely not.
Here's to a man who made an enormous impact on this guy.
It's rough getting old and seeing your favorites pass on.
Everybody's dying.
Click below for the absolute perfect example of Mr. Snow's talents...
The October Country Project
It was one of those things they keep in a jar in the tent of a sideshow on the outskirts of a little, drowsy town. One of those pale things drifting in alcohol plasma, forever dreaming and circling, with its peeled, dead eyes staring at you and never seeing you.
- Ray Bradbury, The Jar
Monday, July 7, 2025
Terrain Halloween 2025
Looking forward to visiting one of these stores come the season...They're one of the last ones that get it right.
Sunday, July 6, 2025
Yokai
Yokai (妖怪) are a class of supernatural monsters, spirits, and demons in Japanese folklore. They are not easily categorized, encompassing a wide range of beings, from mischievous spirits to fearsome monsters, and even objects imbued with supernatural power. Yokai often blur the lines between the natural and supernatural, and are frequently featured in Japanese art, literature, and popular culture.
And click here to learn about a Yokai event occurring in Philadelphia.
Day Of The Dead
You want to put some kind of explanation down here before you leave? Here's one as good as any you're likely to find. We're bein' punished by the Creator. He visited a curse on us. So that man could look at... what Hell was like. Maybe He didn't want to see us blow ourselves up, put a big hole in the sky. Maybe He just wanted to show us He's still the Boss Man.
Sunday, June 29, 2025
Saturday, June 28, 2025
Kaidan: An Evening Of 100 Spirits
And it's coming to Philadelphia in September.
The Hyaku-Monogatari Kaidanki is a Japanese, Heian-era pastime of telling ghost stories to one another of increasing intensity with the hopes one of these spirits does not appear in your parlor. Drawing from the rich history of Japanese folklore and Victorian spiritualism this is a parlour and stage magic show encased in the mysterious and often eerie world of yurei and yokai. The production is a multi-media and performance evening combining illusions, history, storytelling, bunraku, kabuki, noh, and more to weave a creepy web of scary stories each paired with a performance or art piece to transport the audience to a time of onmyōji and 10th Century court pastimes. Educational, beautifully macabre, distinctly Japanese, and entertaining of course. Featuring Schreiben the Conjurer as he takes you through this peculiar world of spirits, investigating it through a Westerner’s perspective while tackling biases and misconceptions to spirit the audience away to another time and place in our world’s history.
Click below for details...
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