Saturday, November 24, 2018

Sunday, November 18, 2018

National Larvae Cake Day - Monday before Halloween

Larvae Cake Day:

Well, you never know when something will become viral on the internet, or in this case: parasitic. When a Dyscrasia Fiction fan, Mr. Ward, was reading Spawn of Dyscrasia, his wife interrupted to see if he wanted to eat lava cakes (a gourmet chocolate cupcake with gooey insides). Mr. Ward first heard this as "larvae cakes" since the book (the whole series actually) features lots of larvae creatures, Larvalwyrmen in particular (giant larvae of the elder insects cursed never to mature once the Queen is killed). Larvae-filled cupcakes sounds gross! But they can taste good if we use non-parasitic ingredients.

After five experiments to capture the essence of a gooey lava cake that represented the Blood Bogs and Larvarlwyrmen of Dyscrasia Fiction, we arrived at a decent recipe. Sharing these at work catalyzed the even which we hope will become a national phenomenon: "Larvae Cake Day."

So the Monday before Halloween will hence forth spawn the sharing of Larvae Cakes. No need to wait for me to deliver them to you. Below is the recipe so you can make and share your own!

RECIPE for 24 "Larvae Cakes" cupcakes



INGREDIENTS:

Red Velvet cake mix (~15oz Box)
Eggs (3 needed for cake)
Vegetable Oil (1/3cup for cake)
Chocolate Frosting <16oz
White Sprinkles / Jimmies 1 jar
Maraschino Cherries 
Marzipan (Almond Candy Dough) 7oz

INSTRUCTIONS:


1: MIX CAKE BATTER
2: BAKE CUPCAKES
3: SLICE TOPS/INSERT CHERRY
4: FILL WITH WHITE SPRINKLES
5: COOL CUPCAKES & FROST WITH ICING
6: DIVIDE  MARZIPAN INTO 24 SIMILAR BALLS
7: EXTRUDE WITH CLEAN GARLIC PRESS




Other Dyscrasia Fiction Crafts
Two instances begin a trend.  How better to enjoy dark fantasy than to immerse yourself in crafts! Take note of the 2011 posting of Spooky Apple Head dolls used to inspire Lords of Dyscrasia







Saturday, November 17, 2018

Barczak Loot and XP - 2018

"Bakassas The Witch Queen" - 2018 Tom Barczak
As I attended an annual Surfactant Consortium meeting (IASR) in Norman, OK, I swung by Tom Barczak's art show. His Prophecy of Evarun series is emotive dark fantasy. He's working on the next installment now: "Hands of the Dragon".

He had over a dozen sketches and paintings presented at a boardgame boutique called Loot and XP, a comfortable establishment with snacks and hugs tables... and tons of games to play. "Loot" is a good theme for the trip, since I returned with a sketch of the above painting and Prophecy of Evarun coffee mug. If you are a Norman local, check that out that place.

What started as a chance meeting has turned into an annual join up (list below). Every time we share our muses on weird art and writing. 

Reviews by SE of Tom Barczak's works:

My interview with Tom Barzcak on the topic : "Beauty in Weird Fiction"


SE and Tom with the sketch used for the "Bakassas Witch Queen" painting

We had to meet at 6:45AM prior my work meeting and school, and Tom had some of his boys with him in tow. Coffee helped wake a few. Was nice meeting them all.
That's me, stewing about whether or not I could actually by the Bakassas painting 
A sampling of other Barczak paintings on display at  Loot and XP








Loot: my very own Mouth of the Dragon cup!

Monday, November 5, 2018

Mushinkan Dojo: Seth Lindberg - now Shodan

   Mushinkan Dojo: Seth Lindberg - now Shodan cross-post from OhioAikido.com.

"Another ZAA Instructor’s Seminar has come and gone. Mushinkan Dojo would like to thank Noble Sensei and all the Teaching Committee members for the great instruction in both how to perform techniques and how to teach. 
I cannot say enough about the caliber and quality of everyone who attended. Our time on and off the mat strengthened our connections and friendships. As always everyone of us gave our attention and sacrificed time to make the seminar awesome.
Mushinkan Dojo also has the great pleasure of announcing that Seth Lindberg was promoted to Shodan this weekend. Mushinkan Dojo is thankful to Seth for his years of dedicated practice and help developing the Dojo. 


In gassho, Domaschko Sensei" 


[Thank you, Sensei, Mushinkan, and ZAA. I am very grateful for reaching this milestone. Years of training with local Mushinkan members and at many of the ZAA seminars developed me; the journey has just begun of course. Looking forward to growing more, helping others, and developing the dojo. I won't repeat my whole speech here, but will do so to Mushinkan members over Raymond's Pizza soon--my treat.

Sincerely appreciative, Seth]



Tuesday, October 30, 2018

Post Mortem GDC Videos

These Post Mortem talks at the Game Developer's Conference are awesome. They recap history, communicate how to tell stories, how to work with technology.... how to have fun.

 DIABLO

 

GAUNTLET 


 PRINCE OF PERSIA

 

 ULTIMA ONLINE

 

ZORK


ADVENTURE

Sunday, October 28, 2018

Fugazzotto's Skin - Review by SE

Skin by Peter Fugazzotto
SE rating: 5 of 5 stars

Was in the mood for a short horror story (well maybe a short novella) and had already enjoyed Peter Fugazzotto's The Witch of the Sands. So when Skin released with an Andreas Vesalius cover--I knew I had to track it down (Vesalius was a 16th French Anatomist famous for posing his dissected subjects in his Fabrica).

Fugazzotto explains in an afterword that he intended to write a "Thing with swords," the call-out being to the 1982 movie (novelized by Alan Dean Foster: The Thing). He succeeded. This short story is well polished Sword & Sorcery novel, fully in the Grimdark flavor with tons of grittiness filling in a military milieu. The book blurb is pretty accurate, so I'll just copy it here to summarize.

Vesaliu's FabricaVesaliu's FabricaVesaliu's Fabrica

Book Blurb: "SKIN: Horror in a snow-bound medieval fortress.

Former soldier Hemming spends his days drinking and avoiding his companions at the isolated border keep where he has been posted. But his world is turned upside down when a naked, bloody woman shows up outside the walls of the keep. Soon a monster is hiding among them, and it’s up to Hemming to figure out which one of them is the monster before it kills them all.

Skin by author Peter Fugazzotto blends fantasy with horror in a way you’ve never seen before. If you enjoy horror movies like The Thing and the medieval world of the Game of Thrones, then you’ll love this novella as you race along on a terrifying journey of fear and paranoia in a medieval world right up to the shocking ending.

Buy this book today to begin a terrifying journey of horror set in a medieval world."

Skin by Peter Fugazzotto The Witch of the Sands (The Hounds of the North, #1) by Peter Fugazzotto




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Saturday, October 27, 2018

Ports of Shadows - review by SE

Port of Shadows by Glen Cook
SE rating: 3 of 5 stars

Port of Shadows is Fake News: This Black Company installment from Glen Cook (chronologically #1.5, but published >#10) will be enjoyed by long-term fans much more than newer folk reading the books in order. I came from reading only the first book and recommend skipping it (I am still intrigued to read Shadows Linger eventually). As part of group read in the Goodread's Sword & Sorcery group, series fans suggest reading the original trilogy first (Chronicles of the Black Company) and reaffirm that the other books are more engaging.
1.5- Port of Shadows (2018)
2- Shadows Linger (1984)
3- The White Rose (1985)


Some spoilers follow as I explain why Port of Shadows is alluring Fake News:
To quote the main narrator Croaker (physician and official historian of the group): "I had no idea what this ferocious campaign was all about. Well, yes, there were Rebels and Resurrectionists in need of butchering out here. Hints from the wife and kids suggested a possible connection to the Port of Shadows business, but … I could not help suspecting that something more was afoot.

The most reliable information about the late empire is not reliable at all. It, too, is consensus guesswork woven from untrustworthy fragmentary records and hand-me-down oral histories."

Alfred Hitchcock once said, "The MacGuffin is the thing that the spies are after but the audience don't care"; the titular "Port of Shadows" is not quite a MacGuffin--but it's pretty close: the mysterious "Port" is the focus of the Black Company's quest/conflict, but ample threads/arcs regarding the danger stemming from it are consistently left unexplained or shown to be not dangerous.

Ostensible conflict (excerpt): "…if the Lady had spoken truly, Tides Elba was a threat to the whole world. She could become the port through which the hideous shadow known as the Dominator could make his return. No doubt she was sought by and beloved of every Resurrectionist cultist hoping to raise the old evil from his grave. No doubt she was the prophesied messiah of darkness."

We are told (not shown) that the Port is an exposed pathway for the evil Dominator to be resurrected--yet as a reader I was never engaged. For one, the Dominator's evilness is not demonstrated, nor do the flashbacks really feature him or his behavior; secondly, the "Port" and all its possible incarnations are not really dangerous (we are told, not shown, many times that the possible Ports are causing mayhem, but the Black Company and our narrator Croaker never seem to be in any danger); and lastly, any such resurrection (i.e., use of the Port) never seems close. Nothing ever seems to be at stake.

A lack luster tale told in a confusing fashion: The tale is told via a weave of historic (long time ago) and present-day chapters. The initial 1/3rd is great, but the mysterious "Just follow my command and do a mysterious task without explanation" [given by the Lady or the Black Co Captain to Croaker] starts to fall flat thereafter. Suspicious activity from the magician One-Eye and the Taken Limper introduced in the beginning are ultimately just snippets for old time fans to relish. Although entertaining, any tension from having untrustworthy companions is not capitalized on.

Fake News: We learn lots of what is going via journalistic accounts (not direct witnessing) as characters touch base with Croaker. This makes sense since he is the Annalist, but also keeps the reader distant. The alternating shifts in time also change point of view (first person with Croaker and third person). Within one yarn, there is time travel (forward and back) in which people are transported via time.

Everyone is unreliable, either because they are mischievous, possessed/"not acting like themselves," are clones, impostors, twins, or alternative incarnations of themselves (Mischievous rain had at least three version of herself; Laissa at least two, Ankou shapeshifts, etc.). The confusion does not seem to be unfurled intentionally (i.e., in a Phillip Dick story). Instead we are given a huge swath of characters, all unreliable, most only appearing for a short time, most with multiple instances of themselves… and none of them know what is going on (see below excerpts).

I am assuming that the following stories in the series follow through and make this feel more complete, but as a standalone novel, and even as a sequel, it feels incomplete.

Excerpts (a.k.a., Fake News headlines):
The most reliable information about the late empire is not reliable at all. It, too, is consensus guesswork woven from untrustworthy fragmentary records and hand-me-down oral histories.

We’re into something unlike anything we’ve ever seen. We don’t know what it is. That’s why we keep talking and talking. I can’t even express it. It’s something that we can’t handle the way we usually do. We can’t trick it. We can’t crush it by being the nastiest killers on the field. It’s all inside. Insidious.

Nobody knows what’s going on. Anything that we think we know is almost certainly not…

"…You don’t know anything more than I do. And now I’m beginning to think that maybe even the Taken is without a clue.” Our mistress was known for playing lives-long games that only she could fathom.

The Captain deployed his ingenuous smile, neither denying nor confirming, just suggesting that he knew something that would remain a mystery to everyone else.

Nothing was what it looked like. Nothing stayed the same. Nothing went the way that it should.

Somebody keeps making us forget stuff

I had no idea what this ferocious campaign was all about. Well, yes, there were Rebels and Resurrectionists in need of butchering out here. Hints from the wife and kids suggested a possible connection to the Port of Shadows business, but … I could not help suspecting that something more was afoot.

From the Old Man down to the Third and local kid Gurdlief Speak, folks keep asking me for news they need to make sense of a time that no surviving memories make sensible.

the Black Company must have been smacked with a widespread, savage, and utterly, angrily deliberate memory assault.

None of the Senjak sisters were described accurately. None of them were identified by their correct names.

The most reliable information about the late empire is not reliable at all. It, too, is consensus guesswork woven from untrustworthy fragmentary records and hand-me-down oral histories.

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