#peter crowther

[jhl1031973]

PS ARTBOOKS PRE-CODE CLASSICS: WEIRD MYSTERIES PART 2

Horror Mike has had his second part of his look at PRE-CODE CLASSICS: WEIRD MYSTERIES for about a month. I've been unable to promote it due to writing deadlines. If you're looking for both volumes of PRE-CODE CLASSICS: WEIRD MYSTERIES which have introductions written by myself, they are still available at https://www.psartbooks.com/pcc-weird-mysteries.php for an economical price. Listings on eBay tend to be expensive for the books, but maybe you can find a bargain there, too.

Special thanks to Horror Mike for letting me ramble on via e-mail about my work on WEIRD MYSTERIES and for PS Artbooks. Extra special thanks to Peter and Nicky Crowther and all the PS Artbooks gang for giving me the opportunity to work on the WEIRD MYSTERIES essays. The greatest, most special thanks, dedication and love to my wife Laura. Without her inspiration and encouragement, none of this would be possible.

Until next Time, I wish you...

All The Best,

James Heath Lantz

[anthromimicry]

peter crowther, armored heart | franz kafka, diaries | ernest hemingway, the garden of eden | chris mcgeown | 664, yag65 | morrissey, harukimuracallme | pat the bunny, i'm not a good person | fyodor dostoevsky, notes from underground

[celebrateeachnewday]

Artist Jane Crowther

My 2024 Booklist

Found in a Bookshop by Stephanie Butland The Merlin Trilogy by Mary Stewart The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods The Last List of Mabel Beaumont by Laura Pearson The Color Purple by Alice Walker Maskerade by Terry Pratchet (#18 of Discworld) The Lone Star Ranger by Zane Grey The Rainbow Trail by Zane Grey The Great Gatzby by F. Scott Fitzgerald Coraline by Neil Gaiman The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman Always Running by Luis J. Rodriguez The Arm of the Starfish by Madeleine L'Engle Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones Murder Most Royal by Jean Plaidy A Man Called Peter by Catherine Marshall

[jmreynolds]

Yule Cat (2008)

Yule Cat (2008) Starring Bruce Campbell, Julian Sands, Lindy Booth, Matt Frewer, and Lesley-Ann Brandt. Based on a screenplay by Sam Raimi and Anthony Hickox. Directed by Anthony Hickox.

Vestron Pictures, the makers of Dirty Dancing (1989),  had been dead and buried for more than a decade when Lionsgate Pictures, the owners of the Vestron catalogue, decided to revive the company as a front for low-budget direct-to-video films.

Among these were several notable horror films, including Anthony Hickox’s Sunrise: The Vampire in Ascendance (2002) – a sequel to 1989’s Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat – and the Stuart Gordon-directed Eater (2009), based on the Peter Crowther short story. But the jewel in the tarnished, slightly bent crown was a 2008 oddity called Yule Cat, focused on the exploits of the eponymous feline – a shape-changing ‘troll-cat’ from Icelandic folklore – slaughtering its way through the inhabitants of an isolated ski-lodge on Christmas Eve.

The film starred Julian Sands as the Yule Cat and none other than Bruce Campbell as Santa Claus, foreshadowing the actor’s turn as the jolly old elf a few years later on the TNT fantasy-adventure show, The Librarians. Of course, Santa is neither jolly nor particularly elfish in the film. Rather, Campbell plays him as a character on par with that of his more familiar role as Ash Williams in the ‘Evil Dead’ franchise – by turns humorous and manic, more akin to a deranged hobo than a holiday saint.   

Anthony Hickox, director of a list of well known horror films, including the aforementioned Sunrise: The Vampire in Ascendance, was brought on by Vestron/Lionsgate to oversee the film. The original screenplay was written by Sam Raimi in the late ‘90s, but according to Campbell, Hickox gave it a second pass in order to bump up both the gore quotient and the running time. Hickox had worked with Campbell before in his vampire films, and Sands as well, in Warlock: The Armageddon (1993).

Other members of the cast included Lindy Booth as the put-upon manager of the besieged ski-resort, Matt Frewer as a jumpy folklore expert, and Lesley-Ann Brandt as the single mother whose children are targeted by the Yule Cat. The cast was rounded out with the likes of Stephen Root, William Sadler, Dale Dickey and Bill Camp – all playing the Yule Cat’s hapless, if somewhat eccentric victims.

The script bears the expected similarities with other trapped-with-a-monster horror films, such as The Beast Must Die (1974), The Thing (1982) and Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight (1995). The film opens with Sands’ character – ostensibly an archaeologist – accidentally freeing the Yule Cat from its imprisonment in a barrow and subsequently becoming its first victim after a tense pursuit sequence. It’s in this opening scene that Raimi’s influence can most clearly be seen, as the trademark ‘Evil Dead’ cam-chase is employed as Sands flees across the broken ground, pursued by what the audience does not yet know.

From this grisly opening, the film takes the audience to the other side of the world – a snowbound Colorado ski-lodge, enveloped by a sudden blizzard, and the arrival of Campbell’s Santa Claus, staggering out of the howling snow much to the consternation of Lindy Booth’s anal-retentive manager. Santa’s arrival of course coincides with the brutal murder of one of lodge’s guests for which Saint Nick is inevitably blamed, with shades of Black Christmas (1974). A quick call brings out the sheriff – played by William Sadler – and finds Santa isolated in a conference room until the next death reveals the true threat.

What follows is a fairly pacey ninety minute romp, with ably-acted characters being picked off one-by-one in gruesome ways by the unseen Yule Cat, even as it circles its true prey – the precocious children of Lesley-Ann Brandt’s character. There are a few more Steadicam chases down tight corridors or through snowy trees, but real jump-scares are few and far between. The film only has a few missteps, but it also doesn’t do much with its material. What it does do is competently craft an atmosphere of increasing menace around the dwindling cast as they stumble across bodies, find sabotaged snow-mobiles and discover runic taunts carved into walls.

Sands makes a meal out of his role as the archaeologist/monster, trading barbs with Campbell even as he pretends to help with the hunt. Since the audience already knows that Sands isn’t who he claims to be thanks to the opening, there’s a sort of freedom to the role that wouldn’t be there ordinarily, and Sands makes the most of it. His arguments with Frewer on the nature of the Yule Cat and the gods are some of the most entertaining and effective bits of the film.

That said, Campbell more than holds his own, investing Santa with a louche charm and menace that’s a far cry from the more common sterile depictions of the character. Campbell’s Santa knows who’s been naughty and who’s been nice, and isn’t afraid to elaborate on the particulars as he tries to discover who among the lodge guests is actually the Yule Cat in disguise. At times, Santa comes across as a hardboiled detective, ferreting out the character’s various secrets in an effort to trip them up and force his quarry to reveal itself.

As to why Santa Claus is hunting the Yule Cat, well – the script isn’t long on backstory. Frewer’s character fills in the gaps, equating the modern Santa Claus with Woden – or Odin – and the Norse gods, and naming the Yule Cat as one of Loki’s offspring, but that’s all the audience is given as far as a reason for what’s occurring save for an early mention of the Yule Cat seeking revenge on the descendants of those who originally imprisoned it. Whether this is an omission in the shooting script, or the result of something left on the cutting room floor, isn’t obvious.

The climax of the film takes more than a few nods to the 1991 werewolf film, The Runestone, with the final confrontation between hunter and quarry taking place in a sort of netherworld – another largely unexplained element. In a debatable false step, Sands is replaced by a CGI cat that looks like a cross between a panther and a crocodile. The monster, while technically impressive, lacks Sands’ personality to give it any flavor, and its dispatch by an axe-wielding Campbell is almost a relief.

 The film was released to video with little to no fanfare and almost no critical reception save on a few genre-adjacent websites. It would have joined other direct-to-video horror cheapies in oblivion, if not for the Sci-Fi Channel choosing to make it part of their holiday rotation in 2008. The film proved popular enough with audiences to become a staple of the channel’s holiday programming until 2017, when it inexplicably vanished from the line-up due to an ongoing rights issue with Vestron Pictures.

Happily, in 2020 the film was released to DVD and Blu-Ray for the first time, as part of the Vestron Pictures Collection, alongside other Vestron horror classics such as the aforementioned Eater, the 2012 South African found-footage film, Boomslang and Ernest Dickerson’s 2013 blues-inspired ghost story, Cutting Heads.

[freakingoutthesquares]

Preaching From The Pulpit Words: Roy Wilkinson, Photographer: Karl Lang Taken from Sounds, 27 June 1987 Transcript: Acrylic Afternoons

Sheffield popsters Pulp are creating a haunting music which is virtually without peer in the Britain of 1987. We meet them on the eve of the release of their new LP 'Freaks'.

The album's called 'Freaks', for as the opening line proclaims, "Nature sometimes makes mistakes". There they are over there, and if you must avert your eyes, don't cover your ears because Pulp have a qualification for you. "These freaks we're talking about, they're just normal people gone a bit wrong. It's sad but don't bother crying: they still eat and drink and watch TV just like anyone else. And they smoke."

The freaks who populate this record's "ten stories about power, claustrophobia, suffocation and holding hands" are resolutely ordinary, characters you're far more likely to see through the front room windows than down at the fairground. In fact, far from being Pulp fictions, these blighted souls are very real: a lot of them play in the band, and if that sounds funny then that's alright, because Pulp are comic band. I know this because their singer and lyricist Jarvis Cocker told me: "A lot of our songs deal with fairly mundane things which are a bit over dramatised - it's a bit like a comic."

As well as being a bit like a comic, Pulp are a bit like a mixture of slapstick comedy and some understated macabre novels. I know this because I read it in a magazine. Then again, you should never believe what you read and in the light of Jarvis' claim that his namesake Joe once installed a gas fire at his house, it's difficult to know whether to believe him. The one thing you can safely say about Pulp is that they are out on a limb, one that may or may not be reconnected to a body with seven more and two heads.

Pulp are a Sheffield band and 'Freaks' is their second album, following 1983's long forgotten 'It' and a handful of singles, and houses their current 45, 'Master Of The Universe'. Pulp's core of Cocker and violinist/guitarist Russell Senior are creating a haunting music which is virtually without peer in the Britain of 1987, their nearest relatives being The Band Of Holy Joy. The similarities come with the way both have fostered a host of neglected styles (waltzes to crooning balladry), transmuted mundanity into a grotesque, projected an overriding mood of melancholy and drawn on a wealth of literary references.

Pulp have been compared to anything from Brecht to author Ian McEwan to Mills & Boon. Along with books they've been juxtaposed with buffoons, a pre-AIDS epidemic of jesters that includes Leslie Crowther, Peter Glaze and Charles Hawtrey. It's a curse the band have mixed feelings about. Jarvis: "All those references make us seem a bit contrived when hopefully it's quite raw, getting at emotional nerve endings. It's not as if we go, 'let's do a song about the latest novel we've read'. I don't mind people comparing us to Ian McEwan because I like his stuff (psycho sex dramas) but when someone says Charles Hawtrey (Carry On's bespectacled, ineffectual butt), you don't think 'cheers pal!'." Russell: "In Sheffield we get more 16-year-old kids at our concerts than we do post graduates in Cabaret Voltaire studies."

Pulp songs are direct, stripping emotions down to a naked unsightliness and then coating them with a pervading sense of gloom. "I've never been a very carefree adolescent," says Jarvis. "I wouldn't go out with me if I were you. All those types of songs are basically about one girl who I went out with and unfortunately it went from being quite an innocent thing to being a very traumatic thing without either of us knowing why. The freaks thing is like getting divorced from the rest of the world through something like that relationship. The other reason we called it 'Freaks' was because we always get called freaks, the escape party from One Flew Over A Cuckoo's Nest, stuff like that. When we play live, everybody dwells on the fact that I'm thin with specs, he (Russell) looks like Count Dracula, Candida (keyboards) although she's 23 looks 14, while Pete (Bass) looks like a football hooligan. We were always getting called freaks so we thought let's call the LP 'Freaks' just to... put two fingers up."

As far as Jarvis is concerned he's not an eccentric. Throughout our conversation he maintained a slightly resigned blank faced jocularity but keeps his speech prosaically direct, miles away from the contrivance that Pulp's press might lead you to expect of this 23-year-old with his long limbs and disgusting brown crimplene 'slacks' which terminate six inches short of his ankles: as does Russell, a slight man of 26 with a ghastly pallor and a down at heel clerkish air.

Nonetheless this pair's conversation does dispel a lot of Pulpish preconceptions. It does, that is, until you ask them what they do in their spare time. It seems that this pair have a sideline which is Dickensian enough to fit in with their public image. Get down on that Davenport for these two Arthur Negus' of rock are heavily into... antiques. "Antiques Roadshow is our favourite programme," says Russell. "Our ambition is to see one of our records on there. If you want any 50's art deco then Jarvis is your man. I like Italian 17th century paintings but I haven't been able to get hold of anything yet. That's what I'd eventually like to deal in because I like beautiful things. At the moment I can only afford ugly things."

Frustrated sensualists priced outside paradise, that's Pulp for you.

[kwebtv]

Act of Will  -   ITV  -  September 15, 1989 - October 6, 1989

Drama / Miniseries (4 episodes)

Running Time: 200 minutes total

Stars:

Victoria Tennant as Audra Crowther

Kevin McNally as Vincent Crowther

Peter Coyote as Miles Sutherland

Elizabeth Hurley as Christina Crowther

Lynsey Baxter as Jane Sedgewick

Serena Gordon as Gwen Thornton

Jean Marsh as Eliza Crowther

Melanie Jessop as Laurette Crowther

Sheila Allen as Lady Dulcie Sedgewick

Richard Bebb as Sir Ralph Sedgewick

Judy Parfitt as Alicia Drummond

Simon Merrick as Percival Drummond

Stuart Milligan as Alex Newman

Gillian Bevan as Millie Arnold

Rebecca Callard as Maggie Crowther

Julian Gartside as Jeffery Freemantle

Andrew Castell as Mike Leslie

Ewan Hooper as Alfred Crowther

Ken Jones as Dr. Stalkey

Sheila Ruskin as Candida Sutherland

Fiona Walker as Matron Lennox

Sarah Winman as Kyle Newman

Rachel Robertson as Audra Aged 14

Jo Gabb as Christina Aged

Louisa Janes as Christina Aged 10

[newtras]

European Markets Mixed, Tech Stocks Down (EUR: USD: USD: USD null)

25. February 2025 4:12Euro / US Dollar (EUR: USD), USD: EUREwg, Gf, Song, Ewq, Bond, STM, ASML, FXB, Ul, Ppruf, Eeadsf, Sbgsf, Greek, Construction, Fkuhi, FGM, Dax, FLGR, FLGB, Xauusd: cus., Smegf, GBP: USD, CHF: USDWritten by: Arundhati Sarkar, From the news editor's news Simon Carter Peter Crowther London (It's) + 0.09% Germany (Dax: Ind) -0.11% German GDP contracts 0.2% in Q4 France (CAC:…

[satrthere]

European Markets Mixed, Tech Stocks Down (EUR: USD: USD: USD null)

25. February 2025 4:12Euro / US Dollar (EUR: USD), USD: EUREwg, Gf, Song, Ewq, Bond, STM, ASML, FXB, Ul, Ppruf, Eeadsf, Sbgsf, Greek, Construction, Fkuhi, FGM, Dax, FLGR, FLGB, Xauusd: cus., Smegf, GBP: USD, CHF: USDWritten by: Arundhati Sarkar, From the news editor's news Simon Carter Peter Crowther London (It's) + 0.09% Germany (Dax: Ind) -0.11% German GDP contracts 0.2% in Q4 France (CAC:…

[bloodmaarked]

➸ reading list

just added:

the moor's account, laila lalami

dance of the jakaranda, peter kimani

at night all blood is black, david diop

black mamba boy, nadifa mohamed

house of stone, novuyo rosa tshuma

mount pleasant, patrice nganang

river spirit, leila aboulela

beneath the lion's gaze, maaza mengiste

yorùbá boy running, biyi bándélé

the four winds, kristin hannah

[thelenazavaroniarchive]

30th September 2024.

𝐒𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝟑𝟎𝐭𝐡 𝐒𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟗𝟕𝟖. Lena’s 14th article was printed in emma comic. The photograph of Lena and Leslie Crowther was one of a set taken by Universal Pictorial Press and Agency on 12th/22nd July 1977.

𝐓𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝟑𝟎𝐭𝐡 𝐒𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟗𝟖𝟎. The Glasgow Herald mentioned that Hercules The Bear was joining Lena’s Christmas show.

𝐓𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝟑𝟎𝐭𝐡 𝐒𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟗𝟖𝟎. The Daily Mirror had an article about “Herc” joining Lena.

𝐒𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝟑𝟎𝐭𝐡 𝐒𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟗𝟖𝟗. Lena married Peter Wiltshire at Saint Mary’s Catholic Church, Finchley.

Peter Wiltshire 30 years later as a Brexit party candidate;

[ulkaralakbarova]

Australian journalist Guy Hamilton travels to Indonesia to cover civil strife in 1965. There—on the eve of an attempted coup—he befriends a Chinese Australian photographer with a deep connection to and vast knowledge of the Indonesian people, and also falls in love with a British national. Credits: TheMovieDb. Film Cast: Guy Hamilton: Mel Gibson Jill Bryant: Sigourney Weaver Billy Kwan: Linda Hunt Pete Curtis: Michael Murphy Colonel Henderson: Bill Kerr Wally O’Sullivan: Noel Ferrier Kumar: Bembol Roco Kevin Condon: Paul Sonkkila Hartono: Domingo Landicho Tiger Lily: Kuh Ledesma Immigration Officer: Hermino De Guzman Ali: Ali Nur Betjak Man: Dominador Robridillo Palace Guard: Joel Agona Sukarno: Mike Emperio Dwarf: Bernardo Nacilla Pool Waiter: Coco Marantha Ibu: Norma Uatuhan Udin: Lito Tolentino Moira: Cecily Polson Hadji: David Oyang Embassy Aide: Mark Egerton Naval Officer: Joonee Gamboa Officer in Cafe: Pudji Waseso Security Man No. 1: Joel Lamangan Security Man No. 2: Mario Layco Doctor: Jabo Djohansjan Roadblock Soldier (as Agus Widjaja): Agoes Widjaya Soedjarwo Airport Official: Chris Quivak Film Crew: Screenplay: Peter Weir Novel: C.J. Koch Producer: Jim McElroy Original Music Composer: Maurice Jarre Director of Photography: Russell Boyd Editor: William M. Anderson Screenplay: David Williamson Executive Producer: Freddie Fields Art Direction: Herbert Pinter Continuity: Moya Iceton Camera Operator: Nixon Binney Second Unit Director of Photography: John Seale Sound Recordist: Gary Wilkins Boom Operator: Mark J. Wasiutak Production Accountant: Elaine Crowther Production Supervisor: Mark Egerton Production Coordinator: Carolynne Cunningham Second Assistant Director: Chris Webb Third Assistant Director: Michael Bourchier Gaffer: Brian Bansgrove Best Boy Electric: Paul Gantner Key Grip: Ray Brown Costume Design: Terry Ryan Costume Supervisor: Anthony Jones Makeup Artist: Judy Lovell Hairstylist: Cheryl Williams Assistant Art Director: Anni Browning Casting: Alison Barrett Still Photographer: Jim Townley Movie Reviews:

[vatt-world]

hi

Julia Alvarez Tahereh Mafi Diana Abu-Jaber Yasmin Crowther: Jenny Lawson ohn Kennedy Tool Dave Barry: Terry Pratchett Stephen Fry Spike Milligan Bill Bryson Maeve Higgins Christopher Moore Sloane Crosley "I'm Judging You: The Do-Better Manual" by Luvvie Ajayi: "Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations" Jenny Lawson (The Bloggess): Augusten Burroughs: "Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood" P.G. Wodehouse Jonas Jonasson ( Amy Tan My Family and Other Animals" by Gerald Durrell: Born Confused" by Tanuja Desai Hidier "Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation" by Lynne Truss: A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian" by Marina Lewycka: Jhumpa Lahiri: How to Be Black" by Baratunde Thurston Nora Ephron Erich Kästner

"The Tent, The Bucket and Me" by Emma Kennedy: Emma Kennedy's memoir offers a hilarious account of her family's disastrous camping trips in 1970s Britain, filled with mishaps, misadventures, and laugh-out-loud moments.

"Notes from a Small Island" by Bill Bryson: Bill Bryson's memoir recounts his journey through Britain, offering humorous observations on its quirks, customs, and idiosyncrasies as an American expatriate.

"Bridget Jones's Diary" by Helen Fielding: While technically a novel, Bridget Jones's diary-style memoir offers a humorous and relatable look at the life of a single woman in London, navigating relationships, career, and the quest for self-improvement.

"Don't Point That Thing at Me" by Kyril Bonfiglioli: This darkly humorous novel follows the exploits of Charlie Mortdecai, a charmingly roguish art dealer, as he gets embroiled in a series of absurd and comical misadventures.

"A Year in Provence" by Peter Mayle: Peter Mayle's memoir chronicles his experiences living in the South of France, offering humorous anecdotes and charming insights into the joys and challenges of adapting to life in a new culture.

"The Great Railway Bazaar" by Paul Theroux: Paul Theroux's travel memoir offers a humorous and insightful account of his journey by train through Asia, capturing the sights, sounds, and eccentric characters he encounters along the way.

"The Outback House" by Leonie Norrington: This memoir follows Leonie Norrington's family as they leave city life behind to live in the Australian outback, offering humorous and heartwarming tales of their adventures and misadventures in the bush.

"Out of Africa" by Isak Dinesen: Isak Dinesen's memoir offers a lyrical and humorous account of her experiences living on a coffee plantation in colonial Kenya, capturing the beauty, romance, and challenges of life in Africa.

"Foreign Babes in Beijing: Behind the Scenes of a New China" by Rachel DeWoskin: Rachel DeWoskin's memoir offers a humorous and candid look at her experiences as a young American woman living and working in Beijing, navigating cultural differences, romance, and the complexities of modern China.

"Cider with Rosie" by Laurie Lee: Laurie Lee's memoir offers a humorous and nostalgic look at his childhood in a small English village, capturing the innocence, wonder, and mischief of youth in rural Britain. François Rabelais Azar Nafisi: Marjane Satrapi

[vtgbooks]

Vintage PETER CROWTHER Escardy Gap Vintage HORROR Fantasy Vintage Steampunk 1998

[debutart]

Peter Crowther for a recent cover of The Telegraph Magazine.

[jhl1031973]

PS ARTBOOKS PRE-CODE CLASSICS: WEIRD MYSTERIES PART I

Horror Mike has been diuscussing the incredible pre-code Golden Age horror comics on his YouTube channel, inclusing some of the editions PS Artbooks has published. This week, he's put up the first part of his look at the PRE-CODE CLASSICS: WEIRD MYSTERIES. The second part should be out sometime next week. For those who may not recall, the WEIRD MYSTERIES hardcovers consisted of two volumes that collected the entire 1952-1954 Stanley Morse WEIRD MYSTERIES comic series. I wrote the the introductions to both PS Artbooks volumes that reprinted every issue in handy hardcover editions. Special thanks to Horror Mike for letting me ramble on via e-mail about my work on WEIRD MYSTERIES and for PS Artbooks. Extra special thanks to Peter and Nicky Crowther and all the PS Artbooks gang for giving me the opportunity to work on the WEIRD MYSTERIES essays. The greatest, most special thanks, dedication and love to my wife Laura. Without her inspiration and encouragemnt, none of this would be possible.

Until next Time, I wish you...

All The Best,

James Heath Lantz

[k-i-l-l-e-r-b-e-e-6-9]

𝔏𝔢𝔰 𝔈𝔡𝔴𝔞𝔯𝔡𝔰