Lawrence C. Connolly's Blog, page 17
August 2, 2021
Splash Music: What are the shortest songs ever recorded?
Two of the more popular posts featured on this website deal with flash fiction. That is according to Google Analytics, which shows Putting the Flash in Fiction and The Shortest Flashes Ever Written continue to garner clicks years after being posted.
Such interest in ultra-short stories has me pondering their musical equivalents … and contemplating the question What are the shortest songs ever recorded?
With this post, I don’t intend to provide a definitive answer so much as open the discussion a...
July 28, 2021
Like a Preternatural Flash:New Music from Craig Spector
Back in the early days of the pandemic, when the world was hunkering down for a year of cautious isolation, I posted a piece titled “Music to Span the Social Distance.” In it, I recommended finding respite from the bleak news of the day by seeking out tracks by some of my favorite musicians – ones who (in keeping with the general theme of this blog) are also accomplished writers (ala 21st Century Scops).
One of those writer-musicians is Craig Spector, whose last novel Turnaround is a “twisted me...
July 15, 2021
Sandra Becerril’s Nightmares:First US Edition Coming this Fall
Thanks to streaming services, it’s never been easier to catch shows from around the world. In the past week, I’ve watched episodes of Lupin (France), 30 Coins (Spain), Babylon Berlin (Germany), and Kingdom (South Korea). I’ve also noticed that many of the best children’s cartoons on Netflix are dubbed imports.
Books, unfortunately, are another matter. They can’t be subtitled or dubbed, and for the moment (at least until translation software reaches something approximating AI capability) the tran...
July 9, 2021
New From Borderlands Press:Past Masters of Horror and Dark Fantasy
Scholars, critics, and even psychologists have long touted the therapeutic benefits of vicarious horror. See, for example Why Do We Like Watching Scary Films? (from Psychology Today) or my previous post Horror Films are Good for You. And of course, there were the ancient Greeks, who some 7,000 years ago recognized the importance of purging intense emotion through the process of catharsis.
Why watch a play in which a murderous, incestuous king gouges out his own eyes? Because it allows us to expe...
May 16, 2021
Craic at the Fright Pub:Remembering the Premiere of Creepshow
Stephen King and Peter Straub read from The Talisman at the World Fantasy Convention in New Haven, Connecticut, October 1982.
Photo:The 21st Century Scop
The first rule of Fright Pub is you must listen to Fright Pub. And the second rule of Fright Pub is bring something to drink. That’s because, at this horror-movie podcast, it’s not only about the movies. It’s also about the craic – aka, the Irish tradition of freewheeling conversation over a couple of pints … or more than a couple if the craic ...
March 26, 2021
This Week on Mystery Theatre:Going Up in “The Play’s the Thing”
It’s opening night. You make your entrance, hit your mark, and then – silence. Your mind goes blank. You can’t remember your first line.
It’s called “going up” on stage – a reference to the reflexive way people have of looking up and to the side when they can’t remember something. According to actor John Mahoney, “It happens to everybody. I’ve read stories about John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson, Noel Coward and Olivier.”
Knowing that such luminaries have had it happen to them may make it easier fo...
March 19, 2021
Who’s listening?Advantages and Pitfalls of Wireless Audio
“I do community theater, and all muting and unmuting is done from the tech booth. Well, every once in a while, if the tech person can’t mute an actor’s mic right away when they leave the stage, the audience catches them saying something like, ‘Well, I really f****d THAT up!'”
The above account, courtesy of Buzzfeed’s “17 Seriously Cringeworthy ‘Forgot To Turn The Mic Off’ Stories,” is one of many that deals with the ways wireless audio has … [read more at the 21st Century Scop].
Who’s listening?Advantages and Pitfalls of Wireless Audio
“I do community theater, and all muting and unmuting is done from the tech booth. Well, every once in a while, if the tech person can’t mute an actor’s mic right away when they leave the stage, the audience catches them saying something like, ‘Well, I really f****d THAT up!'”
The above account, courtesy of Buzzfeed’s “17 Seriously Cringeworthy ‘Forgot To Turn The Mic Off’ Stories,” is one of many that deals with the ways wireless audio has complicated life in the 21st century.
Likewise, the Co...
March 12, 2021
The Sound’s the Thing:Audio Clues on Mystery Theatre
In Francis Ford Coppola’s film The Conversation (1974) surveillance expert Harry Caul (Gene Hackman) becomes obsessed with a cryptic recording that he believes suggests a young couple is in danger. Similarly, in Brian De Palma’s Blow Out (1981), sound engineer Jack Terri (John Travolta) investigates a mystery by listening to a recording made at the scene of a crime. And even master sleuth Sherlock Holmes demonstrates the importance of audio clues in the story “The Speckled Band” (1892), when a w...
March 5, 2021
Prime Stage Mystery Theatre:“What’s the alternative to looking?”
The image at left is from the recently restored film Sherlock Holmes (1916), starring William Gillette in the first-ever screen portrayal of the master sleuth. The film is currently streaming on Apple TV.
There’s more than one way to find a missing person, but could you do it without actually looking? This week’s episode of Mystery Theatre invites you to consider not one but two prompts that could lead to solving the mystery: “What is the alternative to looking?” and “What does one do when one d...
