A Far Out Fantastic Site

Hey, everybody! I hope you’ve been having a great week. I also hope you enjoyed my story that I posted in two parts between the last couple of entries. If you didn’t, drop me a comment why so I can crank out some stories you will enjoy. If you didn’t get a chance to read it, you can do so by going to these two links:  http://faroutfantastic.blogspot.com/2011/07/mermaids-pirates-sea-monsters-and.html ; http://faroutfantastic.blogspot.com/2011/08/upcoming-online-horror-con-and-part-ii.html . A lot of events are coming up in the speculative culture, at least here on this side of California, good old NorCal. The World Science Fiction Con, a. k. a. Renovation , in Reno, Nevada, is next week, Wednesday the 17th through Sunday the 21st of August. I’m not sure if I myself will be able to attend, but if I do it will only be for a day or two and if that’s the case I’ll try to have a brief recap in my column at Examiner.com . I’ll keep you updated. I attended a talk sponsored by the Jos...

Warning: Contains material that some readers may consider offensive and/or objectionable. Hey, everybody! I told you I would have Part Two to my short story that I posted for you the last time and so I do! I hope you're enjoying it. If you missed that one, you can read it here . If you want to read more of my short fiction I may be posting some in a blog at HorrorAddicts.net 's very first online horror con which will occur in November. I'll try to update you on this con as much as possible, but you can also go to HorrorAddicts.net yourself for updates if you'd like. And while you're at it, you may as well read some of the interesting blog entries by other bloggers there who have a lot of neat things to say about the dark genres of literature, film, television, music and in some cases even video games! Speaking about video games, there are also a few music videos there. Many of these are of music genres such as dark alternative rock, goth metal, and even some horror...

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Warning : Contains material that some may consider offensive and/or objectionable. Hi, everybody! I’m back again. Summer’s a time for fun in the sun (as the cliché goes), beaches, picnics and definitely releases of new blockbuster movies! But it can also be a time for old (and even new) cheap budget movies too. At least if you’re a B-rated movie nerd like me. Whether you like to watch them merely to laugh at or if you simply like obscure movies of all kinds, you may want to take a look at my new article at examiner.com on sci fi horror movies that are perfect for summer beach parties (or pool parties for those of you who live inland, like me) or even just to watch on your own or with a small group of friends. The list of movies I suggest in the article actually include both blockbusters and B-rateds, although all of them go back pre-2010. There just hasn’t seemed to be any new releases of great (A- or B-rated) sci fi-horror with summer or beach party themes out there lately. Although ...

Paramount Pictures Sorry for not posting in such a long while, everyone. I've probably said this before but will say it again, I've had several writing projects going on and so haven't had time to post here more frequently. But in those times of waiting please feel free to look at my other stuff at Examiner.com , in which my most recent article was posted there only a few days ago. But here's film review I wrote especially for all of you who like visiting this site particularly. Directors Kenneth Branagh and Joss Whedon's Thor is Marvel Comics’ first big screen movie adaptation of a comic book based on a super hero of ancient myth. Yet while the movie sticks to the root elements of the Norse mythic origins, it also portrays the title character (played by Chris Hemsworth) through the science fiction genre of story telling like most super hero comic books have done. So as with the comic book series it is adapted from, Thor uses the elements of both fantasy and scien...

I just wanted to be sure to make this birthday wish to a TV/movie star who has not only been a favorite science fiction actor of mine, but a favorite actor and performer of mine period. Besides his performance in the Star Trek franchise, there have been countless other movies and television series that his work has been absolutely fantastic in. One of these is the hosting and narrating he did in the 1970s paranormal/strange phenomena documentary TV series In Search of . . . So . . . Happy Birthday, Leonard "Mr. Spock" Nimoy ! and may you continue to live long and prosper.

Cinema Insomnia 10 Year Anniversary: TV horror host Mr. Lobo looks up Photo: Eric Lobo I apologize for being gone from the Fantastic Site for so long. It's been a very busy month for me. I'm trying to resume weekly posts. Many of you probably remember when horror movies that aired on TV were hosted by someone. Remember Elvira Mistress of the Dark's Movie Macabre . If you're a native Sacramentan like me you may be old enough to remember Bob Wilkin's show that screened both B-rated as well as classic horror and sci fi movies. These TV hosts I go for way more than Oprah, Montel Williams, and don't even get me started on Jerry Springer's televised freak show! These TV horror movie hosts were mostly popular in the 1970s and early '80s as were many others going as far back as the early 1950s. Well TV horror hosts are not an extinct species. Below are some links to today's generation of horror hosts, many who's shows you can see on the Web! http://ww...

Last week's post was about the Poe house and museum under threat of closure due to lack of funding. I talk about it a little more in my latest Examiner.com article , but not a whole lot, mind you. However, what I do talk about a whole lot more is Poe's science fiction. What? You didn't know Poe wrote science fiction in addition to his many horror stories of the supernatural? Well then you need to read a lot more of his work! I mention a few of Poe's science fiction titles in the article, but you can find more titles by checking Amazon.com for Harold Beaver's The Science Fiction of Edgar Allen Poe and either purchase this collection of Poe's sci fi stories or look at the table of contents in the book's virtual sample pages and see what those titles are. If you go the first route, you'll have a very informing and insightful introduction and commentary by the editor to read. If you go the second route then you can read the stories in a complete wor...

They say the Recession is dying out, and that may be true in a sense, but most of us would agree that we're still seeing the impact. Many of us would agree that we're still feeling the impact! The sad thing is that what has really been getting cut or at least threatened to be cut are many art and literary programs. Many public libraries have had to reduce their hours which has been definitely the case with the one in my town of the Woodland. In addition to libraries, museums have been closing up and that includes the closing of one of Davis, California's Explorit Science Center locations. Further out from my home area of Sacramento--like way, way out--a museum is in danger of having its doors closed and that is the Edgar Allen Poe museum in Baltimore, Maryland. This includes the Father of American horror's house that he resided in when he was alive and living in Baltimore. This would be really sad to see these literary historical sights shut down for eternity and God ...

Hello, All! For those of you who love B-rated sci fi movies (or any genre of B-rated flicks) or you hate them so much you just like to watch them as a means of masochism, you might be interested in this . This was made in the era of the premiere of the Star Wars Saga, the late '70s, and so is probably one of Star Wars 's knock-offs. Let me know how good (because you think it's so bad) or how bad (because you think it really is bad) it is and whether you loved it because it was so bad that it was good, or you absolutely hated it for the very reason that it was bad. Personally I haven't seen this clip myself, but I'm going to watch it tonight. I just happened to have encountered it on io9 while doing research for one of my Examiner.com articles (hopefully to be published by tomorrow evening). So it will be just as interesting for me to see how terrible it is as it will probably be for you. Oh, and you may want to read the article that presents this clip ; it's...

Well, everybody, finally it's all taken care of. I finally got the software reinstalled that I needed along with some compatibility software that was required in order to post the final part to my short story. I know many of you waited for this for a long time, and I apologise for the long delay. But since I'm back on track pretty much, I'll have a new blog entry here each Wednesday again, occasionally others on additional days of the week. You may want to skim through the two earlier parts of the story, Parts I and II , so you can fit this final installment into context better and more easily. As I said, it's been a long time. Until next week . . . The Puppet Show (Part III) by Steven Rose, Jr. # The wind never came back. There was no moon nor any stars that night. None of the lights in Woodvale ever came on. While Manuel wandered blindly throughout the blackness of the town hoping to run into a relative or acquaintance (but never even running into a stranger), he sli...

Hey, everybody! Well I finally got my laptop back and it's working good as new. However, the techs who worked on it were not able to recover my MS Word and so I wasn't able to convert "The Puppet" show successfully. When I would try to open it up with Notepad or Wordpad it would open revealing alien characters--no, not alien characters as in sci fi story characters, alien characters as in unfamiliar code due to the file not being compatible enough. But do not fear, do not frown! I have software on its way that can fix the problem and therefore reinstall my MS Word. So I'll have part three of the story posted as soon as possible. So hang tight; don't let the bummer bugs bite! In the meantime . . . I saw Tron: the Legacy just before Christmas sometime. It was so out'a sight! I wasn't aware until I saw it that it wasn't a remake of but a sequel to the 1980s original. Unfortunately I didn't have time to look for a copy of the the orig...