ESPN Shutting Down Grantland?

October 30th, 2015

Though the site itself is still up, EPSN has announced that it is shutting down Grantland, it’s longform sports and pop-culture essay site.

Which is a shame, since Grantland sucked considerably less than ESPN’s regular site, which TO READ THE REST OF THIS SENTENCE, SIGN UP TO BECOME AN ESPN INSIDER! Grantland did a lot of interesting, in-depth analytics stuff and essays that were actually worth reading.

This is probably part of parent company Disney’s program of cost-cutting at ESPN, despite the network being their undisputed cash cow.

Random Halloween Ghost Decoration

October 30th, 2015

Something I saw walking around my neighborhood…

Camouflage Level: GrandMaster

October 30th, 2015

Not so much scary as unbelievably impressive…

Halloween: Giant Flying Spider

October 29th, 2015

Not particularly convincing up close, but it doesn’t have to be…

Library Addition: H. P. Lovecraft’s Collected Fiction: A Variorum Edition

October 26th, 2015

This came in recently:

Lovecraft, H. P. (edited by S. T. Joshi). H. P. Lovecraft’s Collected Fiction: A Variorum Edition, a three volume set consisting of Volume 1: 1905—1925, Volume 2: 1926—1930, and Volume 3: 1931—1936. Hippocampus Press, 2015. First edition hardbacks, one of only 750 sets, all Fine copies in Fine dust jackets and shrinkwrap, new and unread. “For the first time, students and scholars of Lovecraft can see at a glance all the textual variants in all relevant appearances of a story—manuscript, first publication in magazines, and first book publications. The result is an illuminating record of the textual history of the tales, along with how Lovecraft significantly revised his stories after initial publication. Along the way, Joshi has made small but significant revisions to his earlier corrected texts. He has determined, for example, that Lovecraft slightly revised some stories when a reprint of them was scheduled in Weird Tales, and he has altered some readings in light of a better understanding of Lovecraft’s customary linguistic usages.” So not only do these three volumes represent the complete and super-duper definitive edition of Lovecraft’s work, hardcore Lovecraft fans can see how both Lovecraft and others revised his work over the years.

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Update: They later published, and I obtained, a fourth volume.

I have sets of all four volumes for sale through Lame Excuse Books.

Shoegazer Sunday: The Horrors’ “Scarlet Fields”

October 25th, 2015

This is as close as I could find to a Shoegazer song appropriate to Halloween week.

I’m assuming the name of the band refers to their haircuts

“Shambleau” Read By C. L. Moore

October 24th, 2015

Was checking out something about C. L. Moore while preparing the latest Lame Excuse Books catalog (which should go out via email early next week) when I stumbled across a recording of Moore reading her own story “Shambleau”:

And if you haven’t read any C. L. Moore, she’s well worth checking out…

Halloween: 25 Urban Legends That Turned Out to be True

October 21st, 2015

A nice lazy disturbing video list to keep you nicely creeped out:

Sunday Shoegazer: Air Formation’s “Low December Sun”

October 18th, 2015

Here’s Air Formation’s “Low December Sun.” I should probably save this for December, but I’m obviously an impatient sort…

Halloween: Nurse Ghost Stories

October 15th, 2015

I’ve been busy, so I’ve been falling down on my Halloween link duties.

But if you’re looking for some creepy October reading, these theoretically real nurse ghost stories from a nurse interest board should fit the bill.

I arrived at work very early one morning, and as soon as I stepped off the elevator a call bell was ringing. I answered it, and it was a resident asking if someone could come into his room and turn the light on. I went into the room and asked what he needed, and he said, “There’s a man on my ceiling! Do you see him? Get him out of here!” The resident had the most terrified look on his face. I assured the resident that no one was there. I even pulled the curtain back to show him. He looked frightened and said, “He’s right there! Turn the light on! He keeps looking at me!”

And there’s 180+ more pages where that came from…