Mark Cantrell's Blog, page 55

REVIEW: Boris Karloff - More Than A Monster

[image error]Boris wasn't a monster, he was a really nice guy! As Frankenstein’s Monster, Boris Karloff has become a cultural icon encapsulating the ‘golden era’ of movie horror, writes Mark Cantrell on Cheshire Today. Beneath the make-up and the macabre roles, however, was a thoroughly nice chap who earned the affection and respect of his peers, as this detailed but sometimes heavy-going biography reveals

 

FOR horror aficionados, Boris Karloff needs no introductions; he is the fac...

POEM: Cosmic Meanderings Of Temporal Inclinations

All In A Life's TimeBy Mark Cantrell

Temporal flowing stops

To admire the view

Of A glowing simulacrum

That exists

In the framework

Of Arctic frozen ink.

The world goes on oblivious,

Gushing ever upwards

To the elliptical whirlpool

Plug

Somewhere in the sky

Of Cosmic Awakenings.

Stars waltz,

And whirl their crazy zig-zag

Around the pin-wheel

Of galactic clusters.

Black holes indulge

Infinite appetites for the

Beauty of Creation

And gorge on all that is.

I watch, side by side

With Time,

And capture the rhythm,

The e...

FICTION: Vampire Noir

Deadly Night Shade
 By Mark Cantrell
When Shade's lover is killed by a vampire slayer, she vows revenge, but her murderous fury will lead to a terrible revelation about the man she intends to kill...

THE night air kissed her shoulders like an unwanted paramour. She shivered at its chilly touch and pulled her jacket tight around her slender body. The cold and the dark were terrible. She hated them, but they seemed like perfect companions for somebody alone.

 

It was dangerous, hangin...

BLOG: Olympics Farewell

A curmudgeon to the end, but didn't the athletes do well?Mark Cantrell confesses to being an Olympics cynic, but all the same he applauds the sporting prowess demonstrated by the athletes: they put sincerity and spirit into an otherwise corporate festival of bread and circus

For the record, I'm an Olympics curmudgeon and thoroughly unapologetic about my lack of suitable patriotic fervour about the damn thing.

 

Since the sports men and women took to the field to do their thing, however, th...

POEM: The Benefits Of ATOS

ATOS SaysBy Mark Cantrell

 

The doctor says you're ill,

The consultant says it's serious,

Adds, you're unfit for work,

Life is far from good,

Contemplating the hardships ahead,

But there's worse yet to come.

 

ATOS says, your doctors are liars,

ATOS says, you are lying,

ATOS says, you're not ill, you're feckless scum.

ATOS says, fill in this form, we'll prove it.

 

Tick the box, the box that says you're fit for work,

Or pick the box, the one that says you're a liar.

Heads or tails, you lose,

A...

POEM: Vision In The Sky

Under Star FallBy Mark Cantrell

I surrender,

Every limitation

And take upon myself

Each sin and singular persuasion

Of life's folly and illusion,

To dazzle truth

In the glare of outward aspiration.

Thus,

Shall I stand, wide-eyed with arms high,

To stare skyward

In primate awe, dreaming of

Dark stars

Beyond reach of Earthbound

Folly, where those grounded aspirations born

To fertilise soil forever languish unfounded.

There, in that posture of solitude,

Under starlit shadow,

Shall I call forth creations unbound,...

FEATURE: A Strategy For Housing

Is this a radical plan for blowing smoke and bubbles?
From the December 2011 issue of Housing magazine, this feaure examined the Coalition Government's new strategy for housing...

Politicians love blowing their own trumpets. Well, they’re never going to declare their efforts mediocre and startlingly unoriginal when they can use words like “radical” and “unashamedly ambitious” even if those sat in the commentary box are shuddering with déjà vu – doe...

COVER: What A Mess, Minister

The house that ministers made
My cover story for the October 2011 edition of Northern, Midlands and Southern Housing magazine pondered the almighty mess that politicians have made of the UK's housing provision these last thirty years...

 

With welfare reform, Ministers appear to be rather more concerned about the lifestyle ‘choices’ of the poor rather than focused on fixing Britain’s broken housing market. That’s ironic, given it’s not the poor that got us in...

COVER: Don't Crash Here We're Slumming It

Shacked up in a slumdog future?The following article is from the day job on Northern, Midlands and Southern Housing magazine. The cover story for the July/August 2011 edition, it speculated the awful outcome of the crisis in housing affordability...

House prices are falling but the barriers to home ownership are as strong as ever. Private rents are rising to record levels, while incomes are stagnant, and there’s just no room at the social housing inn. It all begs the urgent question –...

ARTICLE: Don't Crash Here We're Slumming It

Shacked up in a slumdog future?The following article is from the day job on Northern, Midlands and Southern Housing magazine. The cover story for the July/August 2011 edition, it speculated the awful outcome of the crisis in housing affordability...

House prices are falling but the barriers to home ownership are as strong as ever. Private rents are rising to record levels, while incomes are stagnant, and there’s just no room at the social housing inn. It all begs the urgent question –...