Technology is a tricky mistress. Just when you think she’s reaching out to help, her other hand whips up to smack you round the face. In theory, smartphones should be fantastic news for serious researchers of the strange, combining as they do portability, ubiquity, and increasingly high-quality video and photographic capabilities. These days, more than ever before, anybody stumbling into...
Examining The Fabric of the Cosmos with Brian Greene
Good old reality just isn’t what it used to be. Recall the Stephen Hawking story about the woman who insisted the earth was a flat plate that rested on the back of a giant turtle. When asked what supported the turtle, she said “It’s turtles all the way down!” The structure of the universe as we are coming to know...
A Vampire Bit Our Housekeeper! Real Tales of the Supernatural
Shirley Spycalla lives on the tiny island of Montserrat in the eastern Caribbean where, with her husband Lou, she runs the Erindell Villa Guesthouse. While holidaymakers love the Caribbean for its sandy white beaches and clear turquoise waters, beneath the stunning scenery these islands are positively steeped in dark tales of mysterious forces and supernatural beings, the best-known example being...
An Interview with John Shiban, Executive Producer of AMC’s New Western Hell On Wheels
Over the past few years we’ve seen an abundance of TV shows whose quality of acting, production, and writing have inspired many to consider this the “Golden Age of Television.” Shows like Mad Men, The Killing, Dexter, and others are beautifully rendered and many times more cinematic than what we’re used to seeing on the small screen. It’s a grand...
Might This Be The Best Way To See A Ghost?
I’m sitting in a blacked-out room, gazing into the empty depths beyond a mirror’s surface, waiting for a spirit to appear. The only source of light is a small candle behind me, throwing flickering shadows onto the darkened walls and ceiling, and the overall effect is more than a little eerie. To be honest, I’m a bit nervous here. My...
Create a Black Garden for Halloween
In October even the pastel flower gardeners want to walk on the scary side. So spook your neighbors — speak the language of black plants. Not a wholesale garden redo (unless you want to let your inner Morticia Addams out), a few planters and window boxes oozing black foliage and flowers should do the trick-or-treat. Get ghoulish in a warm...
Zachary Quinto and the Art of Subtlety
The media’s all over this handsome Spock-nouveau’s recent un-closeting, but not because he, oh, I don’t know, announced it on an awards show red carpet. In a refreshing change of pace, Quinto nonchalantly dropped a few references to his sexuality in a recent interview about his upcoming movie Margin Call and his part in the acclaimed Angels in America. When...
Zombies: The “Real Life” Walking Dead
Zombies have a lot of life left in them, it seems. The continuing popularity of the genre is great news for those of us who like our entertainment on the gruesome side, especially as it brings back The Walking Dead for a very welcome second season. Not everyone has the luxury of enjoying zombies in the guise of fiction, though....
Comics: Director Patrick Meaney on Warren Ellis: Captured Ghosts
It was inevitable, really. Even as the comics medium has continued to mature, it has experienced a growth in acceptance as a legitimate medium by academics. Simultaneously, the general populace rediscovered the particular joys that comics have to offer, and that same increased public interest has led to a burgeoning curiosity on the part of those entering the hobby about...
Countdown To Halloween With Doug Hutchison (The X-Files)
There is no denying that the first few seasons of The X-Files were among the show’s scariest, especially the standalone “Monster of the Week” episodes. One of the most frightening of these weekly baddies was Eugene Victor Tooms, a genetic mutant with the ability to squeeze himself through the narrowest of openings. Introduced in the first season episode “Squeeze,” Tooms...