Sword-and-sorcery and heavy metal are among a small handful of my great passions. I write about these and other related topics on my blog, The Silver Key (https://thesilverkey.blogspot.com/). Flame and Crimson: A History of Sword-and-Sorcery (2020, Pulp Hero Press) is my first book. I'm working on a second book, a heavy metal memoir.
I don’t actually want to talk about that right now, though I’m sure I’ll have much more to say later. I do want to talk about negativity.
Jim Zub, writer of the current Conan comic, posted the news with enthusiasm on his Facebook page. And was met with cheers … and a couple loud critics who took the opportunity to shit-post.
Jim rightly told the dudes to knock it off.
Time and place, people. This is not about Conan, it’s about common courtesy.
Constant negativity is why I find social media nigh intolerable. For every cool post you view or connection you make, you get slop and angry people tearing things down or saying things they never would in person.
Do you think people will casually toss insults in Zub’s face at Howard Days? They wouldn’t, I’ve been there and the people are great. Because it’s the real world. The dynamic of social media warps our behavior.
This is not a call for ceasing criticism. I believe in criticism, of the measured and thoughtful kind. It’s perfectly legitimate to explain why something is not to your taste. Everyone needs to express skepticism or complain once in a while, though you should do it on your own space—not rain on another’s parade.
The world has enough negativity. I’ve contributed my share and actively try to fight the urge, because when I do almost always feel terrible after.
I hope the film is made and is as successful as CtB 1982; it might suck and if it does, we’ll cross that bridge. But for now, thumbs up for King Conan.
In the spirit of positivity, a few positive news items.
It’s miraculous the OG Mad Max (1979) ever got made. Tiny budget, unknown cast, unproven director, makeshift props and sets. But George Miller and producer Byron Kennedy wouldn’t be denied. They knew what they had in their powerful postapocalyptic idea (given shape and form by scriptwriter James McCausland) and managed to raise a meager $350,000--$400,000 budget. When filming began they asked their camera crew to flirt with death getting the famous road-level wheelwell shots that give the film such kinetic force. Every stunt was real, real bikes were smashed, a few stunt drivers suffered real injuries.
To save money on hotels the biker gang actors would drive to the film shoot, sometimes sleeping in tents. The role of Max’s wife Jessie had to be recast when the original actress broke her leg in a motorcycle accident.
By the end of filming, 14 vehicles had been destroyed in the chase and crash scenes, including several donated motorcycles that were supposed to be returned. Mad.
The film has a raw, visceral power rarely matched, even today. Ultimately it grossed $5,355,490 at the box office in Australia and over $100 million worldwide.
Fun Fact: Mad Max was almost renamed Heavy Metal.
Yeah, it’s an entertaining documentary and I recommend it highly to fans of the franchise.
If I had a criticism of” The Madness of Max” it’s that it doesn’t get very deep into the filmwriting aspect, how Miller and Kennedy began to shape the mythology that underpins the series and whose beginnings can be seen here. But that’s for another documentary, some day.
I suppose I shouldn’t have been; Haggard was a global literary titan and one of the best-selling authors of his era. She sold over 83 million copies by 1965. Though his star has fallen, Haggard is today remembered as a founding father of "exotic adventure" and the Lost World literary genre. This collection is a startling reminder of his considerable writing skill. The last story alone is worth the price of admission.
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A few odds and ends…
I made great progress this past week on the heavy metal memoir. I’m halfway through the final edit of chapter 7 of 11 (all heavy metal books must go to 11, don’t you know). I remain on track to publish the book in August.
Battleborn looks cool; I am due to get a physical copy of issue #1 after backing this new sword-and-sorcery magazine. I like what the magazine is doing with the author lineup, the art and the cartoon mascot.
I think I shall feature Anthrax’s “Medusa” for this week’s Metal Friday, an absolutely terrific little song from Spreading the Disease (1985). I had somehow forgotten about it until the Spotify algorithm served it up as I was cutting the lawn. BTW this will be my 99th Metal Friday post, a feature I serve up on irregular Fridays on the blog. What should I do for number 100?
Sword-and-sorcery and heavy metal are among a small handful of my great passions. I write about these and other related topics on my blog, The Silver Key (https://thesilverkey.blogspot.com/). Flame and Crimson: A History of Sword-and-Sorcery (2020, Pulp Hero Press) is my first book. I'm working on a second book, a heavy metal memoir.
Dispatches from the silver key Arcane Arts Interesting fact: Ronnie James Dio was raised in New York, but born in Portsmouth, NH. Less than 30 miles/30 minutes from my home, practically my backyard. I’m tickled to live so close to the birthplace of arguably the greatest voice in heavy metal history. A man of whom Bruce Dickinson once said, “He was the world’s shortest singer apart from me, but he sang his ass off, and sang rings around me, and always will.” Pretty high praise coming from...
Dispatches from the silver key Arcane Arts I am behind--behind! on everything I want to read. Resigned to the fact that I shall never read everything I want to before I perish. Maybe Plato was right, I shall be born again … and therefore have another life in which to reduce my TBR. But I don’t want to stake my future on that possibility. What if I were to be reincarnated before the invention of the printing press? So I’ll just keep chipping away. I didn’t get much reading in over the Memorial...
Dispatches from the silver key Arcane Arts Here we go, another issue of Arcane Arts. Today I’m bringing you the usual dose: sword-and-sorcery, heavy metal memoir updates, and three videos I find interesting—and suspect you might as well. Howard on fire... Revisiting Queen of the Black Coast My reading tends to follow a stress-relax pattern. I alternate between non-fiction and fiction, difficult works of fiction I feel obligated to read followed by page-turning adventure in which I just want...
