Werewolves (April 2016 Literary Meeting)

tales of ravenloft

Welcome to the April 2016 Literary Meeting!

The theme this month was werewolves.

As always, I’ve made informal references in text, with full references listed at the end .

Aromatic Accompaniment: Black Birch by Chesapeake Bay Candle.

The April literary meeting was somewhat shorter than usual on account of a busy academic term (I actually don’t think we even broke out the wine!), but we were happy to have it after the tumultuous start to the year (I had an internship in DC for all of January, during which time my apartment flooded, and I didn’t even get to move back in until March 1st, upon which time I was decidedly NOT prepared to play host for some weeks).  For the same reason I don’t have much analysis, but I wanted to get it posted to at least preserve the reading list.

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Spooky Spotlight: Lost in the Pines, A Haunting New Play Produced by Magnetic North Theater Co.

Martin and Jaime Gutfeldt recently formed a theater company, Magnetic North Theater Co., and their first production, Lost in the Pines, will have its debut performance, in San Diego, the final weekend in February 2016 (roughly one month from now).  The Gutfeldts graciously provided me with an advance copy of the script for this Spooky Spotlight.

The theme for the production is “Path 3” by Max Richter from the album Sleep.  The music is as haunting as the play, and I’d suggest turning it on before you continue reading.

Here is the description of the play:

When Ben and Elise move into a remote mountain home after a traumatic event they don’t expect to get mixed up with a thirty-year-old mystery. They struggle to keep their marriage alive as they uncover the town’s troubled past, while a supernatural force works to drive them apart.

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Movie Review: The Forest (2016)—The use of setting is great, but for a film plot centered on supernatural illusions, this is no Oculus

Here’s the official marketing blurb: A woman goes into Japan’s Suicide Forest to find her twin sister, and confronts supernatural terror.

the-forest-poster-2The Japanese Suicide Forest is something I heard about several years ago, and yet when I heard that someone was making a horror movie about it the premise still felt somehow simultaneously too soon and too late to me, in that it felt like an attempt to cash in on the latest timely thing, in the same way I would react poorly to hearing that someone was making a Slenderman movie. Once something becomes well-known enough to merit a mainstream movie, you generally know something has run its course. Continue reading

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My Quick Thoughts On Tanis Episode 4: The End of Rocketman

Just hours after I got the results of my investigation into the William Blake reference posted, Tanis Episode 4 was released.  Here are my thoughts.

Tanis has finally turned the corner.  Not only am I now ready to endorse it as the best Spookypasta this year, but I’m finally onboard with the myth of Tanis as organizing theme.

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Your Tuesday Dose of the Spooky: Tanis, William Blake, and Songs of Sorrow (This Fictional Text is Some Spooky Pasta)

"Blake manuscript - Notebook - page 114 rev" by William Blake - http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=add_ms_49460_fs001r See also: http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/ttp/blake/accessible/folion14andn15.html. Licensed under Public Domain via Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blake_manuscript_-_Notebook_-_page_114_rev.jpg#/media/File:Blake_manuscript_-_Notebook_-_page_114_rev.jpg

It’s Tuesday again! Time for your weekly dose of the Spooky, culled from around the web, the world, and life. Every week I’ll have something new to send a shiver down your spine.

This week’s theme is Tanis.  As in, the podcast.  Specifically, I want to talk about one of the references to Tanis that the show makes.

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