I like to walk through my local library at least once a week and grab something I’ve never heard of. A few weeks ago it was War by Candlelight. I liked the title and was looking for a collection of stories after just finishing the collected Breece D’J Pancake.
Alarcón focuses on voices from or related to Latin America, particularly families, like his own, with connections to Peru. I don’t mean it negatively, but they feel like workshopped stories for literary magazines. That may draw you in or send you away.
Alarcón writes with a kind of narrative distance–or maybe it’s that the narrative voice holds a kind of objectivity or lack of judgment to it. Rather than getting traditional story arcs or deeper connections to characters, you get impressions of lives, sometimes journalistic profiles, and sometimes poetic snapshots. There are many moments of moving and marvelously written prose. I’ll look for more by Alarcón on the shelves.
When I was growing up, Plan 9 from Outer Space was “the worst movie ever made.” I’ve never felt that way and I’ve come to love the other Ed Wood movies I’ve been able to track down. There is a high level of incompetency in every facet of every film I’ve seen by Wood, but hours of confounding wonder and charm.
Plan 9 is a plot from aliens to resurrect the dead to take over or destroy human life before humans discover solaranite, an element or compound that will explode sun particles and could, if usedwrongly, destroy the universe.
Because of how bizarre every choice is–scenes go from day to night for no logical reason, Vampira wanders a graveyard as a resurrected ghoul, but is rarely in a scene with another person, dialogue that is sometimes unintentionally howlingly funny–the atmosphere and mood remind me of the dreamlike qualities of some of the Italian exploitation directors like Fulci.
I’ve also been enjoying KOKOKO!s new song “Bazo Banga” and the new album BUTU.
Stephen McClurg 