Jared Shurin's Blog, page 29

Justin Landon on "Hamilton and Steph"

Hamiltonhas transcended musical theater, illuminating issues of inequality and success in new ways. Stephen Curry has transcended athletics, redefining what it means to be the best. This duocame to a head in February.Hamiltonmade its television debut during the Grammys, and Stephen Curry dazzled in Toronto at the National Basketball Association (NBA) All-Star Game. In these moments, we had front row seats (metaphorically, I mean who can afford those?) not just to history, but to an apotheos...

Stark Reviews: Alice's Wild West Show (1924)

Stark says: Gimme uh double one

Yes, so granted youre getting used to me reviewing some pretty odd Westerns, but I have to say this ones particularly odd, even for me. In it a six-year old girl who also happens to be Sheriff smokes a cigar and cheerfully massacres a room full of strangers, later beating up a load of troublemakers with a stick. Sounds like something out of a peyote-crazed Acid Western, right?

Wrong. Its a Disney film.

Alices Wild West Show was released in May 1924 which mak...

Prince: Stories from the Purple Underground

In a few weeks itll be five months since Prince died.

Its still not believable, still inconceivable, still a complete and utter shock to his fans worldwide. I haven't been able to write about him, but so many have, and so well. A great many people have started disclosing their personal stories about him - or so they claim, since some of these seem to be of the People magazine variety.

But the real ones, the authentic Prince stories are always, always a treat to hear. Even when he was alive, h...

The Extinction Event: Order Your Copy and/or Join The Party!

20 October 2016, we launch our final book:The Extinction Event.

The Extinction Eventweighs in at over 600 pages of wonderful,with 31 stories, over a dozen illustrations and a double-handful of special guest introductions.

Plus, as it is our verylast book, we've gone slightly off the rails with the special features. Slipcase! Ribbon! Crazy Iguanadon Binding! Printed Endpapers!

The details of the book are here.

Thereare only 150 copies total, so order yoursquickly.

Plus, we're having a party!...

Monsters & Mullets: The Phantom of the Opera (2004)

More than 130 million people have seen The Phantom of the Opera on stage since it first opened in London in 1986. It has won a million awards, is the longest running play in Broadway history, the second-longest running West End musical and its soundtrack has gone four-times platinum.

Having clocked an estimated $5.6 billion in revenue in the last 30 years, The Phantom of the Opera is considered the most financially successful entertainment to date.

The Phantom of the Opera is one other thing,...

Villain of the Month: Loki

This month, were looking at Loki, as represented in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (who differs a little from Comic Book Loki, and a lot from Norse Mythology Loki).

Loki is a great place to start, because hes a perfect example of a villain who isnt really all that impressive on paper. Oh sure, hes got some nifty tricks up his sleeve notably his talents as an illusionist but on his home turf of Asgard, a world populated entirely with godlike denizens, Lokis powers barely set him apart from th...

"No Man's Sky" is This Man's Sky

Theres something about the idea of walking somewhere that no one else ever has which connects to why I fell in love with sci-fi as a kid. The idea of walking alien soil, taking in bizarre vegetation and unknown, inexplicable wildlife appealed to me far more than the epic space battles or the jetpack and robot futurescapes. That moment of arrival; that sense of what have you got for me today, universe? Exploration for its own sake is at the heart of my sci-fi.

So No Mans Sky is at the heart o...

Hate by Peter Bagge, or, Buddy Bradley is You and Me

If the recent and successful relaunch of ArchieComics is any indication, it appears that the age of youthful cynicism is dead. While punk had a rebellious spirit, it was the grunge movement that solidified the apathetic and bleak outlook of the 90s MTV Generation X-ers, which might have faded before now had it not been swept up in the chain of catastrophes in the noughties. Optimism had no place in the world of 9/11, the War on Terror, natural disasters, climate change and financial crises i...

Weirdness Rodeo: Sales Figures, DC Films

Illustration from Power Styling (1964)

Meanwhile, in publishing

Terrific - and thorough - piecefrom Electric Literaturethat explains the basics (and not-so-basics) of book sales. Also immensely helpful at demystifying some of the bollocks:

Actually, one of the things that makes the conversation about book sales so confusing is that there are several different numbers thrown around, and often even people in the publishing industry completely confuse them.

Also on sales figures, Amazon is r...

Radio Drama: "The Insect" (1950)

"The Insect" first aired in 1950, onthe series 2000 Plus.

Thoughts Before Listening

So if I was a smarter writer lady, I would say that I have chosen this radio drama because it is called The Insect and my first book has a title which features the word insects, thus making them one like the other so please buy my book. But. As I am an honest individual, I must confess that it struck me that the Tamil word for insect is poochie which made the title of this The Poochie. So obvs here we go.

Th...