Tag: Inspirations

Other News

In addition to the new story, check out the new Inspirational Media Page for a collection of Youtube clips that have entertained or inspired me over the years. I’ll be adding to that as time goes by.

And of course, I could still use help from anyone who has read and enjoyed Hometown. Please: if you’ve read it and if you’ve liked it, head on over to Amazon and leave a review. It makes a big difference in how they treat my book. And hey; while you’re there, you could consider leaving a review for my other books as well.

On The Truth of Rock and Roll – Part 1: The Inspiration

I started The Truth of Rock and Roll shortly after my first wife told me we were through.
Continue reading “On The Truth of Rock and Roll – Part 1: The Inspiration”

We Are The Old Ones

It’s a very common trope in science fiction: humanity are newcomers to the cosmic scene.  There are empires out there that are older than the existence of our species, or even our planet.  Their technology makes ours look like toys.  Their knowledge and intelligence makes us look like children.  Their personal abilities make us look like puny, feeble creatures.  Sometimes that makes us the scrappy, up-and-coming newcomers that have something the other species have lost, other times – if the writer really wants to rub it in – we are primitive, violent, superstitious savages.  In the right kind of sci-fi (and some horror), some aliens might be literally beyond our comprehension.

It does make a certain amount of sense.  After all, the universe is very old, and we’re only new arrivals on our own planet.  Surely other intelligent life has arisen in the vast reaches of time between now and the Big Bang.  But that raises the question – scientifically expressed in the Fermi Paradox – where are the aliens?  Is there some barrier that prevents spacefaring societies from developing…or life from developing in the first place?

The thought made me very sad.  Afraid for our own future, certainly, but more, the universe seemed dreadfully lonely and sad if we were alone in it.

Then, at the urging of an online friend, I saw this:

(Skip to 9:15 if you don’t want to watch the whole thing)

This was…a revelation.

It seems that the universe, like a living creature, might need to reach a certain stage of maturity before it can have children, and our planet – and thus we – came into being very early in that stage of maturity.

We may be the universe’s firstborn.

We are the Old Ones, the First Ones, the Precursors.  We are the Shadows and the Vorlons.

Before, I thought it would be unfathomably sad and lonely if we were the only intelligent life in the universe.  But if we’re only alone because our younger brothers and sisters and others haven’t been born yet, that’s not so bad.

I just hope that when they do come along, we’ve become wise enough to be a kinder big brother than Cthulhu.

Found a Marvelous Story: Cat Pictures Please

A few days ago, I was reading Amanda Marcotte’s Salon column on the alt-right hijacking of the Hugo Awards, and it quite naturally mentioned some of the winners.  There was actually a link to the winner of the short stories category, Cat Pictures Please by Naomi Kritzer, so I took a look.  You should too. It’s a heartwarming little story about an AI that just wants to help, and thinks the greatest things humans ever created was cat pictures.  I finished it in the time it took me to take the subway home, so it’s just a quick, satisfying little literary snack that richly deserves the award it won.

 

Reviews: Streets of Fire

streets_of_fire_poster

 

This review was first published on March 8, 2013, back on Dreams of the Shining Horizon.  I bring it here for several reasons.  First, I intend to bring  all of my reviews over – I believe they have relevance to writing theory and my philosophy as a writer.  I bring this review over  first because it was the first and, in my opinion, one of the best on the old site.  What’s more, this movie remains a great inspiration to me as I continue to write fiction about myths and dreams.  Finally, it’s summer time, and this is by far my favorite summer movie.  Enjoy.

On my About page, and again in my first post, I mention that one of the things I intend to write about on this site is movies.  It would be strange if I didn’t: I’ve been a movie buff ever since I was a little kid hanging out in the local video store, wishing I could take the entire stock home.  And while there are certainly movies I’m going to pick apart or hold up as examples of what not to do, most of them are going to be movies I love, or that inspire me in some way.

That’s why the very first movie review on Dreams of the Shining Horizon is going to be about Streets of Fire.  It fits into both categories, and I wanted to get the whole endeavor off to a positive start. Continue reading “Reviews: Streets of Fire“

Coney Island: Opening The Beach

Coney Island Greeting Card

I had an experience I didn’t expect this weekend.

It was a bright, sunny summer day, and my fiancee was going record shopping with some friends to commemorate the closing of several well-beloved old record stores.  As you can probably guess from the banner, I decided to go to Coney Island instead.

When I got there, I saw people in colorful costumes and makeup, and I started to get worried.  Then I saw the police barriers set up, and I was dismayed to realize I was right: I had arrived on the day of the Mermaid Parade.

For those who are unfamiliar (and who didn’t follow that link), the Mermaid Parade is New York City’s Mardi Gras, a celebration of the beginning of summer at Coney Island, a tradition that goes back to 1983.

I’d been to the Mermaid Parade before, once on purpose and once by accident, and resolved to never go again.  Way too crowded for an introvert like myself to enjoy.  But after this weekend, I may need to make it a yearly thing.

While I would still want to avoid the parade route itself, Coney Island that day was filled with the strange and beautiful creatures of New York, with their makeup, their colored hair, and their costumes.  See here, here, here and (for this year’s event) here to see what I’m talking about, but be careful – those links are very NSFW.  It is legal for women to go topless in public in New York, and the Mermaid Parade is one of the few times you’ll see any significant number of women actually exercise that right.  Seriously, so many bare breasts in those links, you guys.

One of the Strange Beautiful Creatures you don’t see in those pictures is the Snake Guy, who was walking the boardwalk with his pet boa constrictors wrapped around his shoulders.  I didn’t pet them, but others did.

I was out on the Steeplechase Pier getting ready to leave – more specifically, to head to the Violent Femmes concert in Prospect Park where I spent the evening with my fiancee and some friends – when I noticed a bit of commotion down on the beach.

I looked down, and who should I see but Dick Zigun himself, founder of the Mermaid Parade and unofficial mayor of Coney Island:

Dick Zigun

That’s when I realized I was present for the annual Opening of the Beach!  This is the ceremony that marks the traditional beginning of summer at Coney Island.

I don’t know if this happens every year, but this year they had a houngan perform a blessing: there was drumming and chanting and shaking of an asson gourd rattle; rum was sprayed all around, and a tall, strong fellow placed a basket of fruit on his head and walked out into the water until the fruit floated out of the basket, which I believe is an offering to Agwe, the loa of the Sea.

I’ve written many times and in many places of the spiritual connection I feel to the waters, to Coney Island in particular.  To see someone else, even from a distance, even from a tradition I don’t understand very well, recognize and honor that holiness was a powerful and moving experience.

So I think I’ll go again next year.  Avoid the worst of the crowds as best I can, mingle with the strange beautiful creatures, and take a more active part in blessing the waters that have so blessed me.  I can’t think of a better way to spend a Saturday in June.

Sights of New York: Green-Wood Cemetery

Green-Wood Cemetery 6-11-2016

My fiancee and I were in the neighborhood this past Saturday, and we happened to stop by Green-Wood Cemetery.  That gatehouse you see up above caught our attention.  It was beautiful and peaceful – everything a cemetery should be, instead of everything that horror writers like myself always turn them into.  We’re planning to go back sometime, to get more and better pictures.  And I’m almost certain to set a future story there.

(Still and all, we might have been better off if we hadn’t watch all four Phantasm flicks before we went to visit this place…)

Spotlighted Link: Slacktivist

slacktivist-banner

I’ve been following Fred Clark’s blog, Slacktivist, for a very long time.  Back to the Typepad Days, as other long-running Slacktivites might say.  Nearly fourteen years now, almost since the very beginning of Fred’s famous deconstruction of the Left Behind books.

I chose Fred Clark to be my first Spotlighted Link, and the first link on my Links page, for three reasons:

  1. Fred’s Left Behind posts may be the best “What Not To Do” primer for writers on the Internet.  The Left Behind series is, as Fred himself says, “Instructively Bad”, and seeing their many flaws dissected (complete with suggestions as to how it could have been done better and even fix-fic in the comments) has aided the development of my own writing a great deal.
  2. Fred grew up in the White Christian Evangelical subculture, and remains a member to this day, though he is known in that subculture as “controversial” (which, if you were a reader of Fred’s work, you would know means “heretical”).  Reading Fred gives you an intimate view into this subculture, with all its traditions and shibboleths.  If you’re an American, you may think you know them.  You don’t.
  3. Last but not least, Fred has been a tremendous inspiration to me personally.  His compassion and hunger for justice, and his writings on those topics, have given me both desire and directions to be a better person.  His post LB: The Rise of the Anti-Huck (a post from his Left Behind critique) is probably the best example I can offer, as he analyzes the greatest moment of Salvation and triumph of love over The Rules in American fiction…and contrasts it with the “heroes” of Left Behind.

Check it out!  Before you go, check out my brand new Links page.

By the way, as we say in pretty much every thread on Slacktivist, Fred has a Patreon.  Support the artist.

And while you’re at it, consider picking up some of Fred’s books, which collect his blog posts.

There’s

Long March of the Koalas

…which discusses his opinions on Creationism (spoiler: not only bad science, but bad religion).

And of course, there’s what you really came for: the two-volume The Anti-Christ Handbook, which collects his columns on the first book of the Left Behind series.

Anti-Christ Handbook 1

Anti-Christ Handbook 2