Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai

Category Archives: Media


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Dark-haired beauties in red

Giovanni Boldini http://www.tuttartpitturasculturapoesiamusica.comI will not make it to the art exhibit in the Royal Palace of Venaria, dedicated to the work of Giovanni Boldini.
Time is short, money is tight, and one needs to make choices.
The up side is, thanks to the web, it is easy to create our own art exhibit – granted, it’s not the same as the real thing, but it’s still better than sitting in front of the local bar, waiting for death (which seems to be the usual pastime hereabouts).

Giovanni Boldini (1842-1931) was a weird chap – and is portrayed here by the side with Marquess Casati and another guy during a masked ball. Boldini is the one that does not fit in. Continue reading →


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Flash Fearless and friends

R-2187065-1268821030.jpegThis is a request piece, because after I mentioned Flash Fearless in my previous post, a few pulp/planetary romance loving friends wanted to know more.
So, for all of you out there that were curious, here goes.

The Rocky Horror Show debuted in the West End in 1973, doing a rock’n’roll parody of horror.
And somewhere somebody started thinking – could the same be done with other popular genres? With, say, comic-book science fiction?
And so, between October and December 1974, a rather eccentric group of musicians was assembled in Chrysalis Studios, to record a rock’n’roll spoof of the classic serials of the ’30s and ’40s, penned by Steve Hammond and David Pierce with a little more than a wink and a nod to Buster Crabbe’s Flash Gordon.
The project was called Flash Fearless vs the Zorg Women, parts 5 & 6.
The record that answers the question… can I get Alice Cooper on vocals with John Entwistle on bass and Bill Bruford on drums, produced by Bob Ezrin?

Of course you can. Continue reading →


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Sax Rohmer’s Sumuru in Space

Yesterday, taking a pause from my writing to enjoy a serving of chocolate cake, I watched one of the worst movies I ever saw.
And I saw plenty of bad movies.

The thing is called Sax Rohmer’s Sumuru, it was shot in 2003 and it goes more or lesslike this…

If you are perplexed, so was I.
And if you are not, let me bring you up to speed… Continue reading →


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Karavansara Free Library: Edith Nesbit’s Ghosts and other

staged-ghost-photoI’ve been looking up Victorian and Edwardian ghost stories, for a small collateral project I’m working on.
Now the bad side of this is, alot of my books are still boxed away. The bright side on the other hand is, you can find most Victorian and Edwardian fiction online on the Project Gutenberg pages, or in the Internet Archive.

So I started checking, and of course I ended up with Edith Nesbit.
I admit I have a sort of literary crush for Edit Nesbit.
Deservedly famous as an author of children’s books – including the classic The Railway Children from 1906 – Nesbit was also responsible for adult fiction, often of the ghostly and horrific kind.
And if her children’s books are based on her expanded family and show a good understanding of a child’s imagination, her horrors show a good grasp of human psychology and the dynamics of fear. Continue reading →