Creepy Short Visual Art Films by David B Earle

Morning my little plum berries! I’ve been experiencing my usual lady health difficulties this last few days so I’m afraid this will be brief, but I’d like to share the work of an artist called David B Earle.

The first, titled Dining Room or There Is Nothing, is intended to play on an endless loop and is fairly well known for appearing on ‘creepy youtube films’ lists.

His site says “This short film flips back on itself. At exactly the midway point, the film begins to run backwards, and the sound repeats itself backwards with it. The character (Lea Porsager), speaks the three words backwards as the film goes forwards, so that they can be deciphered at the end of the film when they are played backwards.

When looped, there is no actual beginning or end, and no real sense of where the beginning and end actually are.

This piece was inspired by a personal paradoxical desire for empirical proof that there is nothing on the ‘other’ side of life.

I wanted to blur the distinction between the two states, and to state the paradox by showing someone who is coming back from life (or death), and denies its existence, thereby fulfilling the paradox.”

This one, probably a glimpse into my future, is called Deleted Scene (From An Imaginary Film):

This one, probably my favourite, was uploaded only 7 months ago, Getting Off:

Writing Advice From Professional Authors

Oh, hello! You’re early! My my… I was just in the middle of baking macaroons. Erm, have a seat and chat with these well known author types until I’m finished:

Neil Gaiman’s advice for aspiring authors:

Octavia Butler on writing science fiction:

Ray Bradbury on writing:

Jeff Vandermeer on weird writing:

Angela Carter discusses her writing:

Jamaica Kincaid on finding her voice as a writer:

DIY Costumes, Nails and Crafts: The Dark and Weird Side of Easter

Merry Egg Day!!! Come join in the frivolity of scary bunnies and multi-eyed eggs, and may you never leave…

We begin proceedings with my favourite nail lady ProfessionalDQ doing psycho rabbits and scary chicks. Visit her channel for brilliants upon brilliantses and never feel sad again: That’s a 100 per cent guarantee from Dr Quack:

Still not dark enough for your nail bunny needs? Try some grotesquely evil circus rabbits:

Rather sweet tutorial on painting multi-eyed, cobwebbed horror eggs:

What’s better than the Easter Bunny? A zombie Easter Bunny. The sound is quite bad but bear with her:

Alternatively if you still wish to pursue your rabbit dreams but the zombie is too much, here’s a DIY on becoming Alice in Wonderland’s acquaintance:

More rabbits! Make your own gothic cuddly rabbit. The actual tutorial seems to start about three minutes in, so you might want to skip ahead…

There we have it! Merry Easter and watch out for those murderous egg wielding beasties

Board Games For Creative Types

Look at us, aren’t we cool?

Hello everyone! The other day I toddled off to a board game playing cafe thing – there were people, and games, I was outside my house, it was exciting. I know that games such as Dungeons and Dragons are good for creative types, but these are games I’ve played with my own little hands.

1. Gloom. Gothic families suffer tragedies and misfortunes! The aim is to make your family as miserable as possible before killing them off while making other player’s characters happier. Plus you get to tell a story with each move you make.

The best part for me was hearing our tentative attempts at fiction whilst simultaneously worrying about making an incorrect move, resulting in: “Darren Dark tripped over something…and it really hurt…and stuff.” Full marks goes to my friend Nathan for coming out with this: “So embarrassed was she by her fashion faux pas that she refused to be seen in public again.”

Here’s a video clip as an example of people who know what they’re doing:

2. Dixit. If I tried to explain this game, which won the 2010 Spiel des Jahres, it wouldn’t make sense. All I can say is that it’s very French and very wonderful, and the pictures give me lots of ideas. It’s a favourite of mine and my boyfriend and we force it on weeping people every Christmas. Here’s another video:

3. Slash: Romance Without Boundaries. I must make a confession here; I haven’t had a chance to play this yet. However it’s not my fault as they’ve run out of copies and are currently making more. Hooray! I’m sure we all know what slash fiction is. For those uninitiated it involves ‘romance’ between two fictional characters who aren’t known for being a couple, eg: Sherlock Holmes and Watson. What? We all knew what was going on. 

Anyway I’m sure this will be very entertaining, here’s a video of people who work for the Cards Against Humanity Game reviewing and playing Slash:

4. Cards Against Humanity. Self described as “the party game for horrible people,” it’s probably stretching it a bit to say this is creative. however you do have to construct sentences and ensure they’re as grotesque or weird as possible, which definitely counts. Fun!

You can play for hours or for a few minutes. One person reads out a black card and the others choose from their deck of white cards to finish the sentence. It’s up to you how terrible you want to be. Below are a couple of my very own choices, plucked from the depths of my mind. Enjoy!

Real Editors Give Writing Advice

Merry morn to you all! Although, it’s probably not morning where you are. And maybe not so merry. But it will be merry with all these lovely advice videos I handpicked just for you!

Without further ado, the first one is called The Top 5 Mistakes Amateur Writers Make

This one is a crazy length (about an hour and a half) but just pretend you’re at a college lecture – Writing Tips And Advice From Lovecraft Ezine Editor Mike Davis

This one is from a friend of the ‘vlogbrothers’, who are two professional writers who also make videos. It’s called Dare To Suck

This one is called Writing for Magazines: Top Tips by Freelance Writer Linda Formichelli and Editor Laura Pepper Wu

This is from the same channel, called: What a literary agent wants! With Rachelle Gardner

Weird true stories of the Witchfinder General

A mini documentary by me on a piece of local history. Yup, the Witchfinder General happened in my town and the surrounding areas. Amongst the usual stories of accusations and hangings are scary and strange tales told by frightened people of the time, including Betty Potter whose body ‘disappeared.’

Heroin, dating and popularity: life the 50s infomercial way

I don’t know what it is about these videos that makes me chuckle so, but they really do. Some of them are quite sweet, some are bordeline offensive, and for a happy life all require you to be middle class and white.

First is Choosing For Happiness, a film where Eve is slowly made to realise that her mostly quite valid concerns should be squashed if she’s to have anyone put up with her:

Next up is that quandry that faces us all, how to be a square without our friends hating us! Moral Maturity shows us.

Now the opposite end of the spectrum, Drug Addiction. What happens when one suddenly finds themselves addicted to heroin? The particularly clunky dialogue in this one really makes me laugh:

Here Woody shows us how to ask for a date in Dating Dos and Don’ts (made in 1947 but still counts). Wow, that girl is a bitch, is he sure he wants to go with her?

And now he shows us how to make girls angry when you drop them off

Here’s another clip considering the problems of How to Date:

Finally, the all important concern: Are You Popular? All the boys are happy to park with Jenny but apparently this doesn’t make her popular the next day. Dammit, I knew I was doing something wrong!

Fungi, drugs and bugs – The surreal and disturbing side of nature

It occured to me the other day how nature remains beautiful even when it’s being downright disgusting or bizarre, and I would like to honour that achievement.

So, today we shall look at the inspiration behind many people’s art: the Weirdness of Nature.

First let’s ease you in gently with some cute kitties on catnip, taken from BBC series Weird Nature:

Second is a series I find quite amusing (and very odd), Sacred Weeds. Shown back in the 90s, two test subjects take a natural hallucinogen (different in each episode) while men in suits ask questions and stare:

This is a rather sweet, inoffensive clip of mushrooms growing from the series Planet Earth (with some music added). I defy anyone not to chuckle at the willy shaped ones:

Back in March New South Wales, Australia was blighted by floods. The locals were evacuated and, desperate to escape the water, these spiders moved “onto higher ground” leaving an entire ghost town engulfed by webs. Story (and creepy pictures) here.

Next up I saw a lot of fairly grim things during the BBC series Life in the Undergrowth (creepy crawlies), but for some reason this made me go all funny:

And these leaopard slugs are beautiful (in a slightly grim, surreal way):

Anything deep sea is like visiting a hostile alien planet (just watch the BBC’s The Blue Planet). In the meantime here’s a little vid with some music:

I’d have loved to find a clip of vampire bats, particularly from the documentary that shows one creeping up on a pig. Unfortunately there isn’t one on youtube that doesn’t have a hokey American voiceover and I just can’t bring myself to do it. So you have to imagine it instead, which is probably good for you.

Penultimately have a look at series The Future Is Wild, where scientists hypothesise in a Walking With Dinosaurs kind of way on the direction the animal kingdom might go millions of years after we’ve disappeared.

Lastly is the one I find most amazing. It has all the elements: it’s beautiful, it’s disturbing, it’s insidious, it’s science fiction in the natural world; the cordyceps fungus, as shown on Planet Earth:

Monty Python – Almost the truth

I’ve been watching a series on Sky Arts called Monty Python, almost the truth. Its really good and I recommend it for any other obsessives out there. I don’t think anything else has made me so jolly as Monty Python has. If I feel unwell or a bit down I’ll watch that or Not Only but Also (even though there’s hardly any of it bloody left).

Although there are newer comedy series I love such as Spaced, anything Chris Morris does, the Office, the Ricky Gervais show, The League of Gentlemen, the first six series of Red Dwarf, Blackadder, South Park and the first couple of series of The Mighty Boosh, none of them quite seem to reduce me to the wibbly state of joy Monty Python does.

Therefore I shall include below some sketches of theirs I love. I couldn’t really say favourite because that would be impossible: