A Visit to the In-Between As a fan of dimensional horror, I found The Hollow Places to be an absolute treat—entertaining, unsettling, and deeply compelling. T. Kingfisher crafts a world that pulls you in with eerie wonder: the willows that whisper with menace, the shadowy remnants of those taken, and the strange bunkers that feel both grounded and otherworldly. The setting is richly fleshed out, and the storytelling never loses momentum. The protagonists are well-written and engaging. While the “eccentric […]
Lock Every Door by Riley Sager Is it haunted—or just ho-hum? I picked up “Lock Every Door” intrigued by the premise alone. A young woman gets a lucrative offer to apartment-sit at a mysterious, historic building in New York City with a troubled past? Sign me up. I was especially drawn to the idea that the Bartholomew itself could serve as a character—the kind of location steeped in so much atmosphere and sinister history that it starts to feel alive. […]
I recently finished Shatner Rules: Your Guide to Understanding the Shatnerverse and the World at Large by William Shatner, and I have to say — I’ve really grown to respect the man, not just as Captain Kirk or the Priceline guy, but as an author and a human being who’s lived boldly and unapologetically. His stories are genuinely interesting. There’s an energy to the way he tells them — a momentum that carries you along as he jumps from his […]
A Familiar Haunting I came into Hell House by Richard Matheson with pretty high expectations. Matheson’s name carries weight in horror, and I was hoping for something that pushed boundaries or offered a fresh take on the haunted house genre. Instead, what I got felt a bit too familiar. The book didn’t grab me right away. It struck me as standard haunted house fare — a team of investigators trying to survive the night and break the curse. I was […]
A Short Stay in Hell is a deceptively simple, deeply unsettling novella that lingers long after you’ve finished it. Drawing from a unique blend of existential horror and speculative fiction, the story imagines a version of Hell that is quiet, repetitive, and almost maddeningly mundane—more Kafka than Dante. The book does a masterful job of evoking despair not through gore or torment, but through endless sameness, pointlessness, and the slow erosion of meaning. For fans of liminal spaces—the eerie in-between […]
I didn’t click with this one at first—it was recommended to me after reading “Piranesi” and “A Short Stay in Hell”. I expected a similar atmosphere, but Mount Char opened very differently. As the story progressed, though, the novel’s strange blend of myth and mundane slowly pulled me in. By halfway through, I was fully absorbed in Hawkins’ world, where ancient cosmic forces brush up against everyday reality. The figure of “Father”—obsessed with unlocking universal truths and extending his own […]
Reflections in Stone Piranesi grabbed me right away. As a fan of liminal spaces, I was drawn into Susanna Clarke’s vast, mysterious labyrinth — a House filled with endless halls, shifting tides, and massive statues that invoke both grandeur and unease. The setting is dreamlike and strange, but also richly constructed and oddly comforting. Clarke does a fantastic job of crafting a world that feels ancient and sacred, yet unknowable. The House is odd — both hopeful and hopeless at […]
Weird Al At SPAC: Comedy Meets Energy July 17, 2025 Songs for the Restless Heart On Thursday, July 17, 2025, I took my wife and two sons to see “Weird Al” Yankovic at the Broadview Stage at SPAC in Saratoga Springs, NY. He kicked off the night with “Tacky”, backed by his expanded eight-piece band, delivering a zany, high-energy blend of parodies and originals—from “Smells Like Nirvana” and “Word Crimes” to deep cuts like “Skipper Dan” The show was packed with […]
When I picked up Danny Trejo’s biography, I thought I knew what I was getting into. I knew he had done time in prison, struggled with addiction, and was best known for playing the tough, intimidating — albeit often killed — presence on screen. But the book surprised me at every page turn, revealing the personal life of a complexly flawed, yet deeply compassionate man. I didn’t expect to learn about the deep respect he earned behind bars, or how […]
I’ve been listening to Trejo: My Life of Crime, Redemption, and Hollywood by Danny Trejo on Audible. Among the many stories he shares, one moment in particular stayed with me — a quiet, almost poetic, pivot point. While in prison, Trejo fantasized about hearing ice cubes fall into a crystal glass. He says he had always wanted to drink out of a real crystal glass. He imagined himself pouring whiskey into that glass to celebrate a big score. At the […]
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