Randy | December 29, 2019
This Long Winter’s Night is dark indeed, coming as it does hard on the heels of yesterday’s preamble. Be warned that it will deal with extremely adult entertainments, the plurality of that word serving to set apart what follows from the distinctly singular “adult entertainment”, which term has come to define all things that are […]
Randy | December 28, 2019
A Long Winter’s Night is the perfect time for telling stories around the fire, and often those take a reflective bent on where things are, how they got here, and where they’re going in that handbasket. We’re doing that tonight to the chagrin of those younger members of the assemblage who suffer the stories of […]
Randy | December 26, 2019
The story you are about to hear was written by Frederick Forsyth as a Christmas gift for his Wife Carrie who wanted a ghost story. A former RAF pilot himself, the dutiful Husband veered wide of the usual terrestrial hauntings and delivered what you will hear tonight. The Shepherd is set on the Christmas Eve […]
Randy | December 25, 2019
Merry Christmas Aulde Sotts one and all, Gods help us, every one! I pray you will all find some peace today, and in that spirit present you with this selection of seasonal offerings to punctuate your day.
Randy | December 24, 2019
I have written here a number of times of Krampus, the dark side of the good cop, bad cop equation that is the reality of the visit from St. Nicholas, predominantly blamed on Austrian Christmas tradition. Most particularly, on this day in 2015, I presented A Krampus Carol, in which I said in part — […]
Randy | December 23, 2019
When I was growing up in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, long before the cultivation of Christmas Trees as agricultural operations had become a major industry, my Father had innumerable friends and customers who owned woodland we were granted freedom to harvest our annual Balsam Fir from. It was a big deal because my Father had high […]
Randy | October 30, 2019
On an individual level, Human beings are simultaneously insanely fragile and unbelievably hard to kill, both qualities having often been documented in the same individual. In our conceit, we find it easy to imprint that characteristic on other creatures, forgetting they don’t share our tendency to overthink things, overplay their importance, or react emotionally to […]
Randy | October 29, 2019
Welcome back Goode Reader. You will no doubt recall that I have invoked the august names of Edgar Allan Poe and Vincent Price more than once in these October forays and tonight we will revisit both Gentlemen simultaneously. Produced in 1970, An Evening of Edgar Allan Poe is just short of an hour’s worth of […]
Randy | October 28, 2019
Close on the heels of Day 26 comes this award winning German gem from 2018. Directed by David Wunderlich, Pets tells its story from that vantage from which the obvious conclusion is you should have been careful what you wished for. Take a draught of whatever you think will make the neutering hurt least — […]
Randy | October 24, 2019
In case you’re at risk of forgetting both the role a healthy dose of opportunism plays in the world, and that if you find yourself in a fair fight your tactics suck, tonight’s Dark Sentiment will set you to rights. Little Tombstone is a 2011 child of the Ecole Supérieure des Métiers Artistiques (ESMA) and I’ll […]