FAIRYTALES PROMPT

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They were the earliest stories many of us ever heard, and sometimes you didn't realise 'til later how incredibly horrific a lot of them were. It's the 21st of the month, so it's time to think about the type of fairytales the people of Eerie tell their children?

This month's theme is:

JUNIPER TREE

BLACK MOON CHALLENGE

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It's a black moon tonight, so let us know what the inhabitants of Eerie get up to when the night sky is even darker than usual.

Musical Mondays

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It's Monday, the start of the working week. To counter-act the post-weekend blues, cheer yourself up with Radio Weird: Songs of Eerie. Whether you're checking out some of eviinsanemonkey's amazing filks, or taking up deifire's awesome recommendations for Eerie-centric listening, or creating a musical fanwork of your very own, share your thoughts, and your favourites, in the comments!

( Stabbity Steve: a Murder Ballad by Eviinsanemonkey )

( After Wolf Mountain: a Filk by Eviinsanemonkey )

( Pay Attention: a Filk by Eviinsanemonkey )

( Krampus: an Eerie Christmas Poem by Eviinsanemonkey )

( Moo! A World o' Stuff advertising jingle by Eviinsanemonkey )

( Bigfoot Stole My Mail: a Musical by Owen Neil )

( Eerie, Indiana fanvids by Roseveare )

( Weird Science (Don't Leave My Arms): an Eerie, Indiana Melanie/Devon/Marshall fanvid by Current Joys )

You Know That Show entry on TV Tropes

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Live action show about a high school or middle school student that keeps having sci-fi scenarios happen to him. Probably from the late 90's or early 2000's. Aired in Canada. Here are some episodes I remember.

1) He orders a machine from a newspaper. When he gets the machine it is just a decorated cardboard box. He goes to the newspaper office and complains. The newspaper employee shows him that the fine print of the ad says that the machine may not look as advertised or do the things the ad saids it can. The employee then smugly saids that everything that their paper saids is true (turns out the newspaper makes things that are written in it true somehow). Some time later they are asking the protagonist how many people should die in a story they are writing. The employee thinks it should be eight because it sounds sadder to him. He asks the protagonist the question like this "what do you think sounds sadder, fourteeen or eiiiight."

2) The protagonist's older sister meets a woman that makes beauty products. At some point the sister willingly allows herself to have a plastic mask affixed to her face (she also wears a blonde wig, and maybe a pink dress that matches the woman's aswell). She looks like she is in a Halloween costume. The brother narrates "when some one loves you they'll sometimes call you a doll, but now I'm afraid that [woman's name] is trying to make my sister into her plaything." The mask will break if the sister thinks too hard. The brother decides to give her a math problem to solve (as she has a love for math). She does the math problem, the mask cracks and she peels it off.

Jormis29: Could it be from Eerie Indiana: The Other Dimension?

dutchguy1986: Something like 2 definitely happened in Eerie indiana: the other dimension, but I think 1 was from the original series, not sure though.

Jormis29: 1 sounds like "The Newsroom" episode

Yam: It was Eerie Indiana: The Other Dimension. Thank you.

Eerie, Indiana Fic Title meme entries by Deifire:

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Fic title: Night Time, My Time

Dash X has a life beyond Marshall Teller and Simon Holmes and their never-ending struggle against the forces of weirdness. And he doesn’t need anyone’s approval to go live it. Despite what a certain amateur paranormal investigator seems to think. Tonight, he’s going to have an adventure, make some money, and go to sleep in his own apartment. Alone. Or at least without Teller.

No matter how weird things get.

Probably.

Title: That One Time (forgot about all the others)

It was one time at Martinsville…and one time at Bristol…and one time at Richmond…and now, four on-track incidents, two fist fights, one snarky meltdown in the media center, and an accidentally-opened portal to the underworld in the Talladega infield later, the feud between NASCAR superstar Marshall Teller and his Eerie Racing teammate, mysterious new driver Dash X is dominating conversation in the garage. Marshall just wants to win a championship. Dash just wants everything Marshall has, including his long-time crew chief Simon Holmes, who Marshall’s just been informed will be moving to Dash’s team next year.

Is Eerie Racing doomed? Or will these two be able to get over themselves and each other before everyone’s season goes to hell—literally?

Fic Title: "The Night the Lights Came On"

The North American bat bass: part bat, part fish, mostly completely made up marketing campaign. At least, that’s what everyone always thought, even after reports of flying fish menacing campgrounds near the Bristol Motor Speedway. And then the bat bass developed a taste for human blood.

They come out at night. They’ve learned to kill. And sometimes their victims come back, still holding season tickets.

Now, a couple of FBI agents, a trio of paranormal investigators from Indiana, a pair of brothers in an Impala, a family from Gravity Falls, Oregon, and one semi-retired NASCAR driver are on the case. Some will find out the truth. Some won’t survive. But motorsports radio announcers Ben Arnold and Sammy Stephens will be there to cover it all in “The Night the Lights Came On,” a NASCAR/X-Files/Eerie, Indiana/Supernatural/Gravity Falls/King Falls AM crossover.

Eerie, Indiana ficlets by Eviinsanemonkey for the Fic Titles meme

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fic title: Alas I Cannot Swim

Harley Holmes absolutely positively cannot possibly be a merman sent to hide on land. Because Harley Holmes doesn’t do water or swimming or anything. But apparently the prophecy they were trying to avert by hiding him is coming true and he has to go back to his people and well. He really doesn’t want to.

fic title: Breakfast in Hell

Dash X, on his never ending quest to find out who he his, winds up in the underworld. Trapped. Because once you’re in the underworld, Hades doesn’t really want to let you go. He tries to make it pleasant for his guests, though.

Vinessa Shaw (Alison from Hocus Pocus) has an announcement to make...

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Hocus Pocus' Vinessa Shaw might have given us one of the best pregnancy announcements of all time: https://t.co/O3aSa8HaDp pic.twitter.com/fQtnFB1QWu

— E! News (@enews) August 20, 2017

Gremlins 3?

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After Gremlins 2 turned the original film on its head – with Leonard Maltin reviewing Gremlins 1 in the movie and Gremlins overtaking the projection booth until Hulk Hogan stops them – it seemed to be the last word on the franchise. Decades later, talk of Gremlins 3 is finally real and original screenwriter Chris Columbus has written a script.

Speaking with /Film about the festival hit Patti Cake$, which he produced, Columbus said his script asks a question which may have been on fans’ minds since the original: if all the gremlins come from getting Gizmo wet and feeding his mogwai offspring after midnight, should Gizmo be eliminated?

“Very good observation,” Columbus said. “That comes up in the movie, certainly.”

That raises a number of ethical issues. Gizmo himself has done nothing wrong. It’s human negligence that allows him to get soaked and lets the mischievous mogwai transform. Still, even Columbus thinks cute and loving Gizmo might not be worth the risk.

“I think it probably is a good idea to be honest with you,” Columbus said. “Too many people are dying.”

Columbus says his script returns to the macabre tone of the original film, whose monster murders were so intense that it, along with Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, pressured the MPAA to create the PG-13 rating. Gremlins 2 was rated PG-13

“I’m really proud of the script,” Columbus said. “It is as twisted and dark as anything, so we’ll see. It’s always a budgetary conversation when we’re going to shoot it. I wanted to go back to the really twisted sensibility of the first movie. I found that was a very easy place for me to fall back into and start writing again so hopefully we’ll see that movie soon.”

Gremlins fans are also worried that a new film would use CGI gremlins in place of the puppets. Columbus assured fans the film would still use puppets, but visual effects could make puppetry easier to achieve than it was in 1984.

“Oh, without a doubt, minimal CGI,” Columbus said. “CGI will enable us to remove wires and make the puppeteers lives a little easier. It was brutal. It was like a marathon every night for those guys. In the bar scene alone there were 18 [or] 20 people behind the bar. No one had any space to move. It was just hellish for those guys so CGI will simplify that a little bit but it’s all puppets.”

Gremlins 3 is now in development at Warner Brothers. Come back on Thursday for our full interview with Columbus on his production company Maiden Voyage, discovering new talent, and looking back at his own career.

SyFy.com on the Z Nation SDCC 2017 panel

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If you thought they peaked with radioactive, glow-in-the-dark zombies, the cast and creators of SYFY's Z Nation want you to know there is more in store. At the SDCC panel, stars DJ Qualls (Citizen Z), Kellita Smith (Lt. Roberta Warren), Keith Allan (Murphy), and Russell Hodkinson (Doc) were joined by writer Karl Schaefer and producer Craig Engler to chat with the audience about the upcoming season. The cast and crew have a great chemistry, and there was so much chatter that they may need to add extra time to the panel at SDCC 2018.

The show returns for its fourth season later this year, and there are hints that a fifth season is in the works. When Allan was asked where he'd like to see the series go next, he noted that he'd "love zombie masseuses and a trip to a spa." And Qualls really wants to get out of that winter parka.

In other words, the cast isn't talking about anything too plot-specific. If there's a takeaway from this panel, it is this: "It's a dangerous show and people you like can die."

My 3D quest for a rare 'Blade Runner' and 'Twin Peaks' prop

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It's there when you enter the Red Room in "Twin Peaks." It's there when replicant-hunter Rick Deckard sits down at his piano in "Blade Runner." It's a lamp with a shade in the shape of Saturn, but it's also more than that. It's a glowing thread between the normalcy of my world, the shadowy, entwining secrets of "Twin Peaks" and the visionary future dystopia of "Blade Runner."

One prop unites two famous works, stretching across film and television and time. It may not be the exact same lamp, but it's definitely the same design.

My search for the art-deco Saturn lamp started with some googling, where I found the glass lamp is attributed to a maker that manufactured them for the 1939 World's Fair in New York City, though there are also some later reproductions floating around. Details on the lamp's origins are sketchy, but they came in various colors, included frosted clear, green and pink.

The lamps are rare and they can also be very expensive thanks to their notoriety within the "Twin Peaks" and "Blade Runner" fandoms, as well as with art deco and World's Fair memorabilia collectors. A recent listing for a replica lamp on eBay had a starting-bid price of $645 (£495 AU$830). That priced me right out of the market.

I resigned myself to never owning a Saturn lamp, instead focusing on other bits of "Twin Peaks" decor. And then in June, I stumbled on a Reddit post in the "Twin Peaks" group from a user named Richy_T, titled "The Lamp from another place." The post included a photo of a glowing Saturn lamp and a link to the Thingiverse 3D-printing files to make your own. My Saturn lamp quest reignited like our long-lost Agent Cooper's love for a damn fine cup of coffee.

The lamp's history, pop-culture connections and relatively simple shapes are what attracted Richy_T to the project. Richy_T used OpenSCAD software to build the shapes. "So it was mostly a case of trying to get the dimensions from a fairly low-resolution picture of it and then transforming that into the cylinders, spheres and toruses that the lamp deconstructs into. It's not especially challenging but it definitely helps to have developed a knack," Richy_T tells CNET.

I don't have a 3D printer and the original lamps are nearly a foot (30 centimeters) tall, which makes them too big for a lot of hobbyist-level printers. First, I checked with online 3D-printing service providers, but then turned my eye to local options where I found Jacob Ondra, CEO of Sandia3D in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Ondra was happy to take on the strange request of printing off a Saturn-shaped lamp replica. He says the most challenging print he's ever done was a life-size human body model that required nearly 1,000 printing hours, so the lamp was pretty straightforward.

I went to pick up the lamp and Ondra handed it to me in a box containing the base and the two-part planet shade. I peered at it. "It's a lot smaller than I expected," I told him. And it was. I had mis-read the specs on the 3D plans. Unphased, Ondra said it was no problem to scale it up and reprint it to match the size of the originals. About a week later, I picked up the new lamp, the "Twin Peaks" theme playing in my head.

Sandia3D printed the final lamp with an Ultimaker 3 printer that could handle the size of the pieces. It's made from a crystal-clear plastic filament from FilamentOne that comes out with a frosted effect, which was exactly the look I wanted to mimic from the original glass lamps.

I ordered a set of small green LED string lights online. If you happen to have an electrician around the house (or enjoy soldering), then this next step is easy. I attached the bottom of the Saturn piece to the base, secured it with hose washers, threaded the string lights up into the sphere and let the electrician attach a new, longer cord onto the string-light controller. The top goes on with double-sided sticky tape and a little silver paint brings out the accents.

I fired up the lamp on a Sunday, shortly before a new episode of the 2017 return of "Twin Peaks" on Showtime. It glowed a bright green as familiar characters flitted across the screen.

Prop collecting and making is about connection. It's about having a piece of a fictional universe that brings you closer to that world. The Saturn lamp is a slice of "Twin Peaks" and "Blade Runner" made real. It's best when seen from the corner of your eye, where its frosted green glow hints at both a neon-soaked sci-fi future and an otherworldly place where spirits speak in backward riddles.

Producer.com: Cult TV show renews interest in small town life

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As they drove through rural Alberta to a wedding in Wainwright, Lindsay Stamhuis and Aidan Hailes couldn’t help seeing and feeling reflections of Twin Peaks.

It helped that the two mega-fans were playing the soundtrack of the 1990-91 television series as they drove through Irma, Viking and into Wainwright, and buzzing with anticipation of the third season, which was beginning the next evening.

“There’s a diner and a gas station and maybe a cash-and-carry,” said Stamhuis about how the TV show has made rural Western Canada seem more exotic and less mundane than before they had seen the show.

Twin Peaks was and is set in northeastern Washington state, “five miles south of the Canadian border, and twelve miles west of the state line,” but its evocation of small town realities feels true to much of the western Canadian and Alberta foothills small town reality.

“It’s a universal feeling,” said Stamhuis, who co-hosts the Bickering Peaks podcast along with fellow Edmontonian Hailes. 

The podcast explores the series to a great depth with more than 50 one-hour episodes going through the original two series and new ones coming out after each new season three episode is released.

“I think in any small town you’ll find those elements, (although) maybe not the supernatural portals to The Black Lodge.”

Twin Peaks has carried along a massive cult-like fan base for the 25 years since it was cancelled. At the time it was a revolutionary television series, the first to demonstrate that high quality, sophisticated and challenging drama could work on network television. 

Many credit Twin Peaks with giving birth to the “golden age of television,” which is still taking place.

While the show is officially set in the Rockies, many have noted that it doesn’t really feel that way. In many ways it feels like the foothills or boreal forest, and that probably reflects the origin of director David Lynch in Missoula, Montana, which is due south of Pincher Creek, Alta., and arguably more similar to Alberta than the Pacific Northwest or any other part of the United States.

“For a show called Twin Peaks, the mountains play a very small role,” said Hailes.

“Boreal forest. It’s closer to that,” said Stamhuis, who also said the show’s general mood of isolation and exposure inside a beautiful but menacing environment fits the western Canadian flatlands too.

“Anybody who’s driven down a highway through wheat fields (in summer) or grasslands in winter, there’s just an isolation or a loneliness,” said Stamhuis.

“Even though (in the show) it’s mountains and pine trees, there’s still a sense that this is a lonely landscape.”

The podcasters have found that evocative environment engaging, ever since they belatedly got sucked into Twin Peaks fandom in 2010. (Stamhuis was five years old when the series was first broadcast and sneakily watched while her parents thought she was sleeping, but was so disturbed by what she saw she didn’t re-engage for years.)

Both have farming pedigrees, with Hailes’ family having farmed and lived along Alberta’s Highway 14, and Stamhuis’ family farming for more than a century around Athabaska, Alta.

Like millions of others after the series first appeared, Twin Peaks has made small, remote towns seem like something more than places to zip by in a speeding car. 

And as the show’s rebirth after 25 years reignites public interest in ignored rural places, more cars may be slowing as they pass through these places, either north or south of the border, in forests and mountains or fields and plains.