#German Robles

[screamscenepodcast]

It's number TWO FIFTY! THANK YOU to all of our patrons for sticking with us over the last 250 pieces of bonus audio!

This clip is from our episode on EL ATAUD DEL VAMPIRO (1958), aka THE VAMPIRE'S COFFIN from director Fernando Mendez and starring German Robles and Abel Salazar!

[mexcine]

Swipe File 26: El Vampiro Goes Viral

In honour of the upcoming Blu-ray premiere of El vampiro and El ataúd del vampiro, here are some of the many times the likeness of actor Germán Robles as "Count Duval aka Count Lavud" has been borrowed (clockwise from top left):

USA video release of a different film (Guess What Happened to Count Dracula, 1971);

Mexican lobby card for a different film (Slaughter of the Vampires, '62);

Italian fumetto Il Vampiro 44 (1978);

Spanish horror comic SOS 44 (1976);

German horror comic Gespenster Geschichten 1285 (cover by Sanjulián);

Mexico horror comic El Viejo 54 ('70, cover by García Tena);

Ad mat for a different Mexican film (El imperio de Dracula, '66, with Eric del Castillo as the vampire);

Ad for a spook show circa ’74;

Spanish horror comic Horror 10 ('74, cover Rafael Cortiella);

1977 Italian disco record

[popsixsquishcicerolipschitz]

weirdlookindog

dettman-ima-meat-popscicle

La Cabeza Viviente (1963) Mexican Poster

AKA El ojo de la muerte, The Living Head

[lalocamposhernandez]

TP24. El Vampiro (1957)

[ronmerchant]

German Robles- the VAMPIRE'S COFFIN (1958)

[hedgehog-moss]

do you ever read scifi or fantasy in french? i am trying to read more sff that was originally published not in english but it's not easy to find 💀

I do! It’s not my favourite genre but one of my friends loves it so I read a bunch of SFF books every year ahead of her birthday to try and find a gift for her. I’m glad I do this because it’s allowed me to discover N.K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy which was amazing, and I don’t know if I would have picked it up otherwise!

Here are some French-language authors I’ve read or plan to read (unfortunately English translations are few and far between :( I bolded the names for which I found English translations—if you read in another language you can check out the non-bolded authors, there are often translations available in other languages long before English ones)

When it comes to classics you've got Pierre Boulle (Planet of the Apes of course; also Garden on the Moon, which is (deservedly imo) less known), Jacques Spitz (La Guerre des mouches—it was translated but not into English), René Barjavel (The Ice People, Ravage, Future Times Three—I read them a long time ago but I remember them as very sexist even by French classic standards), Bernard Lenteric (La nuit des enfants rois), Alain Damasio (La Horde du Contrevent—maybe too recent to be a classic but it’s everywhere. I was surprised to find no English translation!), Bernard Werber (I feel like he rehashes the same 3 ideas again and again but some of his earlier stuff was fun), Alexandre Arnoux (Le règne du bonheur), Jules Verne of course, Stefan Wul (Oms en série which was adapted into the film La Planète sauvage—Fantastic Planet in English. I like the film better!) And some I haven’t read: Georges-Jean Arnaud, Serge Brussolo (I liked his Peggy Sue series when I was in middle school but it spooked me so much I haven’t dared to pick up any of his SFF for adults, like Les semeurs d’abîmes), Élisabeth Vonarburg.

Newer authors: Estelle Faye (L’arpenteuse de rêves, Un éclat de givre—I tend to like her worldbuilding more than her plots); Sandrine Collette (The Forests—if you count speculative fiction as SFF) (I didn’t like it at all personally but others might), Jean-Philippe Jaworski (I really liked Janua Vera; didn't like Gagner la guerre but it was mainly because I have a low tolerance for rape scenes in fantasy books) (he’s about to be translated into English according to his editor), Stéphane Beauverger (Le déchronologue)

More authors I haven't yet read: Pierre Pevel (The Cardinal's Blades—I've been told it's "17th century Paris with dragons"), Romain Lucazeau (Latium), Laurent Genefort (Lum’en), Christian Charrière (La forêt d’Iscambe), Roland Wagner (La saison de la sorcière), Aurélie Wellenstein (Mers Mortes—I love the synopsis for this one), Magali Villeneuve (La dernière Terre, trilogy)

And non-French, non-anglo SFF authors: Maryam Petrosyan (my review of the Gray House last year was that I understood maybe 1/3 of it but I liked it anyway!), Hao Jingfang (haven’t read her yet), Arkady & Boris Strugatsky (idem), Jaroslav Melnik (I’ve read Espace lointain (originally Далекий простір) but didn’t like it much), Andreas Eschbach (The Carpet Makers), Walter Moers (I read The City of Dreaming Books back when I was still learning German and found it very charming), Liu Cixin (I loved The Three-Body Problem but The Dark Forest was so sexist it made me not want to pick up the third volume), Lola Robles (El informe Monteverde, translated as Memoirs of an Interstellar Linguist), Elaine Vilar Madruga (Fragmentos de la Tierra Rota), Tatiana Tolstaya (The Slynx), Karin Tidbeck (Amatka), Emmi Itäranta (Memory of Water, The Moonday Letters), Angélica Gorodischer (I’ve read Kalpa Imperial and found it only so-so but it always takes me a while to warm up to characters or a setting so I struggle with short story collections. I’ll still give Trafalgar a try) Also my favourite fantasy book as a kid was Michael Ende’s Neverending Story, I was obsessed with it. I re-read it in the original German a few years ago and it was still great.

[ronnymerchant]

German Robles-the VAMPIRE (1957)

[theanticool]

Yesica Nery Plata vs. Kim Clavel - 1/13/2023

Mexican light flyweight star Yesica Nery Plata (29-2) has been on a run since 2018. She's got wins over a lot of top fighters around the weight class - Silvia Torres, Sandra Robles, Yesica Bopp, and most recently Kim Clavel. That run has netted her the WBA and WBC light flyweight titles.

Now she is headed to Germany, where she will attempt to defend her title against German boxer Sarah Bormann (17-0) this Saturday (Dec. 16).

[cerebraldischarge]

They say, you have to leave in order to return.

But I have been both at home this whole time and far away from home. My body is a lumbering RV rolling through this ambiguous vacation. I see every new landscape through a window, without being a part of the scene. I have accepted that as my role, for the most part. Maybe that’s why the destructive whispers of most humans barely reach my ears anymore, let alone my heart. Or maybe I just got used to the fact that, by virtue of not being human like them, I will always attract suspicion with my unusual nature. The vitriol itself abated, too - perhaps they figured out that I meant no harm, and classified me as a non-threat simply because I’m just an observer. And yet, I still hope that keeping this travel diary can sort of count as participation. After all, I may be the only one who notices a certain thing on the road.

There’s one observation that I keep spotting out there, attracting my attention like an odd-shaped cactus in the dry orange sea.

This is it: What the hell happened to the queer community?!

Willem Arondeus, before being executed for resistance activities by everyone’s favorite German villains, made the statement: “homosexuals are not cowards”.

Amelio Robles Ávila, a trans man born in 1889, would shoot anyone who taunted him by calling him a woman.

Aileen Wuornos made the world a slightly safer place for women by taking out seven male creepers, then went to her death with the knowledge that she did nothing wrong.

But are we still not cowards? Are we still ready to fight in a revolution? Are we still willing to protect ourselves?

I won’t get into the statistics here, because they can be just as easily used to prove one thing as its opposite, but there seems to be a theme within the bulk of the queer community (and the allies) which puts a strong emphasis on peacefulness, warm and fuzzy feels, community-orientedness, and projecting a generally “cute and harmless” public image. That on its own is not really a problem, but the balance seems to have been shifted. In the content the community leaders share, there seems to be a lot of talk about how we are supposed to be afraid, targeted by the baddies, experiencing dread and hopelessness, being essentially a helpless victim and expecting to be validated by legislation and flashy, organized gestures of acceptance. Is this really necessary?

I don’t mean we should “be fine with” discrimination and actual rights being taken away, but do you think the people who legitimately want you dead (whether they admit it in daylight or not) will suddenly change and start giving a damn if you show them how miserable they are making you the hundredth time? And do you really think any politician actually cares? I don’t know who said this, but it appears to be truer than ever: people who think politicians truly represent their interests are the same people who think the stripper at the bar really likes them.

As for my personal reason why this bugs me so much: while projecting the image of “we love everyone”, nonviolence, peace-light-and-harmony, these same community leaders shut down any sort of disagreement or criticism with the help of technology, money, and clout. It’s as if some people (I’m not naming names because 1. It’s not important, 2. I don’t remember half of the names of the people I had this experience with) have a poor ability to distinguish between bigots and real enemies on one hand, and potential allies with a different perspective on the other. Let’s not mince words here: I have been banned, deleted, harassed, and made out to be the bad guy multiple times by my fellow queers because I dare to advocate for self-defense - both on a personal and on an organizational level. I try to educate and infect the community with my love for the Second Amendment and the ideas that often come associated with it, such as personal responsibility and economic sensibility, as well as restricted government power and mostly unrestricted discussion of ideas. (Am I the only one who expected this stuff to be part of the default American attitude package in the first place, by the way?) Occasionally I get a positive response, but most often I get called out for “bigotry”, “ignorance”, and “disrespectful” behavior.

I get it, y’all. You probably only heard stuff like this (especially the Second Amendment part) from actual bigots who 1. hate you without even knowing why, and 2. have less than zero idea about what being a sexual or gender minority even means and think that gays have been invented in the 1980s. That’s who gets on TV, that’s who gets to be heard - because perturbed emotions equal higher ratings, and you can’t sell a media product without covering some kind of conflict. The more exaggerated, the better. People - all people - have a ghoulish side to them: they want to “spill the tea”, “own the libs”, see someone fly high and fall down. We are drawn to gawking at tragedy, even if we hate it - at least it’s not boring, after all!

(one of my favorite songs seems relevant here: TOOL - Vicarious)

So, it’s natural to associate the words in my mouth with the rotten people who try to weaponize them against us. (Mostly the “religious freedom for me, but not for thee” crowd, who often have the audacity to display patriotic imagery while spouting their nonsense. I forgot the name again, but years ago I’ve seen a white-haired man preach the wrath of his god on anyone who isn’t 100% cis and straight - and he did this with the Preamble as his graphic backdrop. I remember that part, because it made me livid. You would never say that stuff if you have read the damn thing!)

But stop and think. As the popular slogan goes, “we don’t want to make your kids queer, we want your queer kids to survive” - if that’s really the case, what are we actually doing towards that goal? Could we be more effective? Have the years of dragging out statistics proving our victimhood changed anything? Yes, some minds can be changed through discourse, as the growth of the secular/atheist community has demonstrated. But some minds will not be changed and will not respond to anything gentle. In fact, I myself have been embarrassed to be associated with people who, frankly, appear to be weak and vulnerable. Yes, some of us are genuinely vulnerable, gentle souls who could never hurt a fly - even if said fly actively works for the KKK or something. But that’s not all we are.

Perhaps I’m painting too bleak a picture here - after all, Erin Palette and Gina Roberts, with their wonderful organizations, are already doing the work I’m trying to urge y’all to start doing. But there is still, in many places, this self-destructive resistance towards the idea of putting on some big girl pants and protecting our own community, and it’s just sad to see.

The government is not there to feed and save you. Not even if you sacrifice everything to it and let it micromanage all your choices and lives. If you let it control you in exchange for bribes and comforting feelings, you risk it turning against you on a whim - all it takes is an election, or one corrupt person, or an unforeseen situation in your life that the algorithm cannot handle. (There was a British series in the 1970s called Space: 1999, in which the main computer brain, when faced with a particularly difficult problem, ethical dilemma, or outlandish occurrence, displayed the words “Human Decision Required” on its screen. I’m sure you can think of situations from your life where, inevitably, human decision was required. Or even a moment when the option applicable to you was not present on a standardized questionnaire you had to fill out. I mean… do I really need to explain this to you, of all people?)

[brookstonalmanac]

Birthdays 6.20

Beer Birthdays

Greg Robles (1964)

Forest Gray (1967)

Lisa Zimmer (1977)

Five Favorite Birthdays

Wendy Craig; English actor (1934)

Andy Etchebarren; Baltimore Orioles C (1943)

Errol Flynn; actor (1909)

Nicole Kidman; actor (1967)

Brian Wilson; pop singer, songwriter (1942)

Famous Birthdays

Danny Aiello; actor (1933)

Michael Anthony; rock bassist (1954)

Chet Atkins; guitarist (1924)

Charles W. Chesnutt; writer (1858)

Candy Clark; actor (1947)

Len Dawson; Kansas City Chiefs QB (1935)

Eric Dolphy; jazz musician (1928)

Olympia Dukakis; actor (1931)

Stephen Freaks; film director (1941)

John Goodman; actor (1952)

Billy Guy; pop singer (1936)

Lloyd Augustus Hall; chemist (1894)

Lillian Hellman; writer (1905)

Martin Landau; actor (1928)

Audie Murphy; actor (1924)

Anne Murray; pop singer (1945)

Jacques Offenbach; composer (1819)

Miles O'Keeffe; actor (1954)

Lionel Richie; pop singer (1949)

Gigi Rivera; pornstar (1989)

Robert Rodriguez; film director (1968)

Kurt Schwitters; German artist (1887)

Vikram Seth; Indian poet (1952)

John Taylor; rock guitarist, bassist (1960)

Dave Thomas; comedian, actor (1949)

James Tolkan; actor (1931)

Bob Vila; television construction host (1946)

[mariacallous]

The Kyiv Independent Ukraine Daily: Friday, December 2

Reznikov believes Russia behind letter bomb attacks in Spain. “The world is beginning to recognize that (Russia) is a terrorist state. And terror knows no borders,” Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said. “They use terrorist means to cause terror.”

Media: US Embassy in Madrid receives letter bomb similar to one that exploded in Ukraine's embassy. This is the sixth explosive sent to administrative or military buildings in Spain. All of them contained similar, homemade substances, according to Spanish authorities.

General Staff: Russian troops withdraw from some settlements in Zaporizhzhia Oblast. Russia is withdrawing some of its military units and preparing to evacuate occupation administration personnel from some settlements in the Russian-occupied part of Zaporizhia Oblast, the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said in its evening update.

ISW: Russian military movements in Zaporizhzhia Oblast suggest that it can't defend critical areas amidst increasing Ukrainian strikes. Russia may be withdrawing its military personnel from positions closer to the front line in Zaporizhzhia Oblast to reduce the impact of increasing Ukrainian strikes on Russian manpower and equipment concentrations, the Insitute for the Study of War said in its latest report.

Energoatom fires engineer Russia made ‘head’ of occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. Ukraine’s state nuclear energy operator Energoatom Head Petro Kotin on Dec. 1 fired Yury Chernichuk, acting chief engineer of Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, for collaborating with Russia. On Nov. 30, Russia’s state nuclear power operator Rosatom said it made Chernichuk run the Russian-occupied nuclear power plant.

50 Ukrainian soldiers return home in new prisoner exchange with Russia. President’s Office Head Andriy Yermak said on Dec. 1 that Russia had released 50 Ukrainian prisoners of war under the prisoner exchange. Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that it also received 50 people back as part of the prisoner swap.

International response

Macron, Biden say West will 'never persuade Ukraine' to unacceptable compromise with Russia. "We will never call on Ukrainians for a compromise that will be unacceptable. Because they are defending their lives, nation, and our principles, and because this will never lead to lasting sustainable peace," French President Emmanuel Macron said during a joint press conference with U.S. President Joe Biden.

France, its partners discuss creation of special tribunal for Russia’s crimes. France has started to work with international partners, including Ukraine, on a proposal to set up a special tribunal to investigate Russia’s war crimes during its full-scale war, the French Foreign Ministry reported. “We mobilized in support of both the Ukrainian justice system and the International Criminal Court, which are competent to conduct impartial and independent investigations so that those responsible for these crimes are held accountable,” reads the report.

Germany to supply Ukraine with bridge-laying tanks, border protection vehicles. Germany has handed over to Ukraine unmanned surface vessels, some bridge-laying tanks and dozens of border protection vehicles as part of their new batch of military aid, according to a statement posted on the German government website.

Spanish minister: Letter bombs won't change decision to help Ukraine. Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles said on Dec. 1 that no letters with explosives or any other violent actions would change the country's "firm and clear" commitment to support Ukraine in its defense against Russian aggression, BBC reported.

Reuters: EU governments 'tentatively' agree on $60 a barrel price cap on Russian seaborne oil. The decision envisages an adjustment mechanism to keep the cap at 5% below the market price, according to diplomats and a document seen by Reuters.

Ukrainian soldiers to train on Czech territory. The Czech Republic's parliament on Dec. 1 approved a proposal to train Ukrainian soldiers in the country and deploy Czech soldiers in European Union member states to train Ukrainian service members, Radio Prague International reported.

Switzerland freezes almost $8 billion in Russian assets under EU sanctions. Switzerland has frozen financial assets worth nearly $8 billion as a response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) said on Dec. 1. Fifteen Russian properties have also been blocked as of Nov. 25, the agency reported.

In other news

Ukrainian authorities seek to ban Moscow-backed church amid Russian invasion. Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council has proposed banning Russian-affiliated religious groups, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his evening address on Dec. 1. The most significant of the groups is the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, an affiliate of the Russian Orthodox Church.

SBU finds Russian propaganda, xenophobic literature in Moscow Patriarchate monastery in Zakarpattia Oblast. The Security Service of Ukraine said it had found brochures where Ukraine's right to independence is denied, while stating that Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus "cannot be divided."

Parliament appoints Infrastructure Minister Kubrakov as Deputy PM for restoration of Ukraine. Oleksandr Kubrakov has served as Infrastructure Minister since May 2021.

[elmundosegungiorgio]

¿Béla Lugosi? Ni que mis huevos, German Robles, nuestro vampiro.

[moonwaif]

My toxic trait is frothing at the mouth when people misuse "magical realism."

It is NOT fantasy tropes like wizards and ghosts in a realistic setting; as in it is not urban fantasy (genre fiction). It is extremely literary and specific. It is about unsettling strangeness that defies reality (or disrupts our understanding of reality, showing a reality in which the strange exists side by side the mundane), often taking elements from indigenous folklore and beliefs (as in indigenous to the setting of the story, heavily influenced by the history and culture).

👏educate yourselves👏

The term magic realism is broadly descriptive rather than critically rigorous, and Matthew Strecher (1999) defines it as "what happens when a highly detailed, realistic setting is invaded by something too strange to believe."[10] The term and its wide definition can often become confused, as many writers are categorized as magical realists. The term was influenced by a German and Italian painting style of the 1920s which were given the same name.[2] In The Art of Fiction, British novelist and critic David Lodge defines magic realism: "when marvellous and impossible events occur in what otherwise purports to be a realistic narrative—is an effect especially associated with contemporary Latin American fiction (for example the work of the Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez) but it is also encountered in novels from other continents, such as those of Günter Grass, Salman Rushdie and Milan Kundera. All these writers have lived through great historical convulsions and wrenching personal upheavals, which they feel cannot be adequately represented in a discourse of undisturbed realism", citing Kundera's 1979 novel The Book of Laughter and Forgetting as an exemplar."[11] Michiko Kakutani writes that "The transactions between the extraordinary and the mundane that occur in so much Latin American fiction are not merely a literary technique, but also a mirror of a reality in which the fantastic is frequently part of everyday life."[12] Magical realism often mixes history and fantasy, as in Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children, in which the children born at midnight on August 15, 1947, the moment of India's independence, are telepathically linked.

...magical realism is often associated with Latin-American literature, including founders of the genre, particularly the authors Gabriel García Márquez, Isabel Allende, Jorge Luis Borges, Juan Rulfo, Miguel Ángel Asturias, Elena Garro, Mireya Robles, Rómulo Gallegos and Arturo Uslar Pietri. In English literature, its chief exponents include Neil Gaiman, Salman Rushdie, Alice Hoffman, Louis De Bernieres, Nick Joaquin, and Nicola Barker. In Bengali literature, prominent writers of magic realism include Nabarun Bhattacharya, Akhteruzzaman Elias, Shahidul Zahir, Jibanananda Das and Syed Waliullah. In Kannada literature, the writers Shivaram Karanth and Devanur Mahadeva have infused magical realism in their most prominent works. In Japanese literature, one of the most important authors of this genre is Haruki Murakami. In Chinese literature the best-known writer of the style is Mo Yan, the 2012 Nobel Prize laureate in Literature for his "hallucinatory realism". In Polish literature, magic realism is represented by Olga Tokarczuk, the 2018 Nobel Prize laureate in Literature.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_realism

[whitepolaris]

"Do Not Go Alone!"

by Greg Bishop

Some fourteen miles west of the wine mecca of Paso Robles, on California's central coast, is a historic burial ground that plays host to a tragic but harmless spirits-and, so they say, any number of more sinister ones. The graveyard can be found in the community of Adelaida, first settled in the late nineteenth century. Pioneers flocked to the area for the perfect weather that seemed to make everything grow. A post office was established at Adelaida in 1887, and Mennonite Christian of German origin soon became a presence in the town.

It is said that the cemetery's most famous ghost is that of Charlotte M. Sitton, supposedly a Mennonite woman who met with a horrible misfortune when both of her children died in a diphtheria epidemic. Most accounts say that Sitton was so distraught over the loss of her children that she committed suicide. (While this is make a good story, there has been no evidence uncovered that lends credence to the tale.) Several other accounts have Sitton sinking into a depression from which she never recovered and taking her own life a few years later by either hanging herself in the schoolhouse or taking poison.

Many of the youngsters' graves in the cemetery give 1887 as the date of death-probably the year the diphtheria epidemic raged through the little town. Sitton, who was nineteen when she left the world of the living, died in 1889.

Charlotte is supposed to make her appearance every Friday night, anywhere form 10:00 to 11:30, either drifting through the tall grass and weeds in a white dress or wandering about the headstones weeping for her children.

Mrs. Sitton's Companions

Because the Adelaida Cemetery sits atop the summit of a commanding hill amid thousands of fog-shrouded vineyards, it's hardly surprising that the lonely hillside has attracted the attention of amateur parapsychologists for years. And they are not often disappointed.

On entering the cemetery, the first thing a visitor notes sis the thick strands of Spanish moss hanging from the oaks, as if the place were decorated for some sort of year-round Halloween party. Ghost hunters and run-of-the-mill thrill seekers alike have reported seeing shadowy human-shaped mists and furtive glowing red eyes and hearing the sound of footsteps. Newly bought or fully changed batteries fail, and EMFs (electromagnetic field meters) go wild. Cold spots come and go, and hooded black figures chase the adventurous.

Daniel Barry, an investigator who made it at least two trips to the area, stated that the hooded specter appeared in his bedroom three weeks after a visit to Adelaida.

Perhaps the last word should be left to Mr. Barry: "If you go to this cemetery to investigate these findings, DO NOT GO ALONE. . . . There seems to be an evil presence in the grove of trees at the center of this cemetery. Red eyes are normally connected to a poltergeist, which can be very harmful."

[ronmerchant]

German Robles- the VAMPIRE (1957)