#eric robert nolan

The first three episodes of “Station 11” (2021) are utterly engrossing.

Think of what Stephen King’s “The Stand” would be like if you removed Randall Flagg and all of its supernatural elements — then told character-focused stories with an intertwining mystery in the manner of “Lost” (2004-2010).  And then maybe peppered it with a little “Dead Poets Society” (1989). I know that sounds weird, but if you pay attention, it totally works.

A review of “Dracula” (1931)

So I finally saw the entirety of “Dracula” (1931) last night, after being alive on this planet for nearly half a century.  The iconic image of Bela Lugosi was something I’d grown up with in the 1980’s … most boys back then hadn’t actually seen the  original Universal Pictures movie from 50 years’ prior (and of course we hadn’t read Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel), but everyone knew who Dracula was. …

“Night on Mill Mountain?”

I thought this Campbell Avenue storefront display was pretty cute.  (Sorry for the terrible picture.)  What you see is a gargoyle overlooking one of those quaint ceramic villages. I don’t know if it’s an intentional reference to the “Night on Bald Mountain” sequence  in Walt Disney’s “Fantasia” (1940), but that’s what it makes me think of.  It would make it a really clever homemade Halloween…

Ticking off the Halloween watch list.

I do realize the bizarre, preposterously first-world narcissism of bragging online about which TV shows you’ve watched.  I’m doing it anyway. Hey, I’m trying to get into the spirit of Halloween.  And it’s my blog, I figure. This is how I’ve marked the season so far:  “Midnight Mass” (2021).  Outstanding! “The Walking Dead” Season 11 mid-season finale *(2021). Predictably quite good. The start of…

I found another picture of Roanoke’s truly enormous turkey vultures!!  (I’m doing that thing where you rediscover those cool old photos when you clean out your computer files.  Snow pics are coming.)

Throwback Thursday: “Going In Style” (1979)

Does anyone else remember the original “Going In Style” (1979), with George Burns, Art Carney and Lee Strasburg? It was a really funny movie in which three old men become bank robbers. It got its share of air time on 1980’s tv; it was actually a big family favorite. I’d been looking around for info about it for years, but I remembered the title wrong — I kept thinking of “The Sunshine Boys”…

Throwback Thursday: “The World of the Dark Crystal,” by J. J. Llewellyn, 1982

“The World of the Dark Crystal” was a companion book to “The Dark Crystal” (1982); it was published the same year.   J. J.  Llewellyn penned it as a first-person narrative by the character of Aughra, and it was a terrific, detailed world-building exercise that expanded on the universe of the movie.  But Brian Froud’s full page artwork stole the show.  (This was an oversized book, too.) It was a…

Throwback Thursday: postcard from Mary Washington College, circa 1930 – 1945

Print postcard, linen texture.