Collage

n. A piece of art made by sticking various different materials, aka PHENOMENA Magazine
Department
insights
Useful sites for web developers
1. IP Locator API This API provides geolocation of an IP address. By default, the lookup only returns IP Country. https://api.iplocation.net/?ip=74.125.45.100 {"ip":"74.125.45.100","ip_number":"1249717604","ip_version":4,"country_name":"United States of America","country_code2":"US","isp":"Google LLC","response_code":"200","response_message":"OK"}   2. The Ultimate Oldschool PC Font Pack The Ultimate Oldschool PC Font Pack: Home The Oldschool PC Font Resource: HomeFont indexReadmeShowcaseDownload Text mode font: [✓] 1 2 3 4 5 6 IBM VGA 8x16 Enable JavaScript for full functionality of all site features. Oldschool PC Fonts: Home Fonts Readme Showcase Download Aa The Ultimate Oldsch https://int10h.org/oldschool-pc-fonts/   3. Favicon generator / Generate from image https://favicon.io/favicon-converter/   4. Base64 Online - base64 decode and encode Base64 Online - base64 decode and encode Base64 - Online Base64 decoder and encoder  decoding and encoding texts and files. Base64 links More about Base64 encoding (wiki) Encode image to a Base64 for html/css Css Images analyzer and encoder to Base64 You can use this base64 sample decoder and en https://www.motobit.com/util/base64-decoder-encoder.asp   5. WEBP to GIF Converter WEBP to GIF | CloudConvert cloudconvert Tools Convert Files Archive Converter Audio Converter CAD Converter Document Converter Ebook Converter Font Converter Image Converter Presentation Converter Spreadsheet Converter Vector Converter Video Converter Optimize Files Compress PDF Co https://cloudconvert.com/webp-to-gif
John Doe · Jan. 14, 2023, 5:15 a.m.
insights
REST Resource Naming Guide
1. What is a Resource? In REST, the primary data representation is called resource. Having a consistent and robust REST resource naming strategy – will prove one of the best design decisions in the long term. The key abstraction of information in REST is a resource. Any information that can be named can be a resource: a document or image, a temporal service (e.g. “today’s weather in Los Angeles”), a collection of other resources, a non-virtual object (e.g., a person), and so on. In other words, any concept that might be the target of an author’s hypertext reference must fit within the definition of a resource. A resource is a conceptual mapping to a set of entities, not the entity that corresponds to the mapping at any particular point in time. — Roy Fielding’s dissertation 1.1. Singleton and Collection Resources A resource can be a singleton or a collection. For example, “customers” is a collection resource and “customer” is a singleton resource (in a banking domain). We can identify “customers” collection resource using the URI “/customers“. We can identify a single “customer” resource using the URI “/customers/{customerId}“. 1.2. Collection and Sub-collection Resources A resource may contain sub-collection resources also. For example, sub-collection resource “accounts” of a particular “customer” can be identified using the URN “/customers/{customerId}/accounts” (in a banking domain). Similarly, a singleton resource “account” inside the sub-collection resource “accounts” can be identified as follows: “/customers/{customerId}/accounts/{accountId}“. 1.3. URI REST APIs use Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs) to address resources. REST API designers should create URIs that convey a REST API’s resource model to the potential clients of the API. When resources are named well, an API is intuitive and easy to use. If done poorly, that same API can be challenging to use and understand. The constraint of a uniform interface is partially addressed by the combination of URIs and HTTP verbs and using them in line with the standards and conventions. Below are a few tips to get you going when creating the resource URIs for your new API. 2. Best Practices 2.1. Use nouns to represent resources RESTful URI should refer to a resource that is a thing (noun) instead of referring to an action (verb) because nouns have properties that verbs do not have – similarly, resources have attributes. Some examples of a resource are: Users of the system User Accounts Network Devices etc. and their resource URIs can be designed as below: http://api.example.com/device-management/managed-devices http://api.example.com/device-management/managed-devices/{device-id} http://api.example.com/user-management/users http://api.example.com/user-management/users/{id} For more clarity, let’s divide the resource archetypes into four categories (document, collection, store, and controller). Then it would be best if you always targeted to put a resource into one archetype and then use its naming convention consistently. For uniformity’s sake, resist the temptation to design resources that are hybrids of more than one archetype. 2.1.1. document A document resource is a singular concept that is akin to an object instance or database record. In REST, you can view it as a single resource inside resource collection. A document’s state representation typically includes both fields with values and links to other related resources. Use “singular” name to denote document resource archetype. http://api.example.com/device-management/managed-devices/{device-id} http://api.example.com/user-management/users/{id} http://api.example.com/user-management/users/admin 2.1.2. collection A collection resource is a server-managed directory of resources. Clients may propose new resources to be added to a collection. However, it is up to the collection resource to choose to create a new resource or not. A collection resource chooses what it wants to contain and also decides the URIs of each contained resource. Use the “plural” name to denote the collection resource archetype. http://api.example.com/device-management/managed-devices http://api.example.com/user-management/users http://api.example.com/user-management/users/{id}/accounts 2.1.3. store A store is a client-managed resource repository. A store resource lets an API client put resources in, get them back out, and decide when to delete them. A store never generates new URIs. Instead, each stored resource has a URI. The URI was chosen by a client when the resource initially put it into the store. Use “plural” name to denote store resource archetype. http://api.example.com/song-management/users/{id}/playlists 2.1.4. controller A controller resource models a procedural concept. Controller resources are like executable functions, with parameters and return values, inputs, and outputs. Use “verb” to denote controller archetype. http://api.example.com/cart-management/users/{id}/cart/checkout http://api.example.com/song-management/users/{id}/playlist/play 2.2. Consistency is the key Use consistent resource naming conventions and URI formatting for minimum ambiguity and maximum readability and maintainability. You may implement the below design hints to achieve consistency: 2.2.1. Use forward slash (/) to indicate hierarchical relationships The forward-slash (/) character is used in the path portion of the URI to indicate a hierarchical relationship between resources. e.g. http://api.example.com/device-management http://api.example.com/device-management/managed-devices http://api.example.com/device-management/managed-devices/{id} http://api.example.com/device-management/managed-devices/{id}/scripts http://api.example.com/device-management/managed-devices/{id}/scripts/{id} 2.2.2. Do not use trailing forward slash (/) in URIs As the last character within a URI’s path, a forward slash (/) adds no semantic value and may confuse. It’s better to drop it from the URI. http://api.example.com/device-management/managed-devices/ http://api.example.com/device-management/managed-devices /*This is much better version*/ 2.2.3. Use hyphens (-) to improve the readability of URIs To make your URIs easy for people to scan and interpret, use the hyphen (-) character to improve the readability of names in long-path segments. http://api.example.com/devicemanagement/manageddevices/ http://api.example.com/device-management/managed-devices /*This is much better version*/ 2.2.4. Do not use underscores ( _ ) It’s possible to use an underscore in place of a hyphen to be used as a separator – But depending on the application’s font, it is possible that the underscore (_) character can either get partially obscured or completely hidden in some browsers or screens. To avoid this confusion, use hyphens (-) instead of underscores ( _ ). http://api.example.com/inventory-management/managed-entities/{id}/install-script-location //More readable http://api.example.com/inventory-management/managedEntities/{id}/installScriptLocation //Less readable 2.2.5. Use lowercase letters in URIs When convenient, lowercase letters should be consistently preferred in URI paths. http://api.example.org/my-folder/my-doc //1 HTTP://API.EXAMPLE.ORG/my-folder/my-doc //2 http://api.example.org/My-Folder/my-doc //3 In the above examples, 1 and 2 are the same, but 3 is not as it uses My-Folder in capital letters. 2.3. Do not use file extensions File extensions look bad and do not add any advantage. Removing them decreases the length of URIs as well. No reason to keep them. Apart from the above reason, if you want to highlight the media type of API using file extension, then you should rely on the media type, as communicated through the Content-Type header, to determine how to process the body’s content. http://api.example.com/device-management/managed-devices.xml /*Do not use it*/ http://api.example.com/device-management/managed-devices /*This is correct URI*/ 2.4. Never use CRUD function names in URIs We should not use URIs to indicate a CRUD function. URIs should only be used to uniquely identify the resources and not any action upon them. We should use HTTP request methods to indicate which CRUD function is performed. HTTP GET http://api.example.com/device-management/managed-devices //Get all devices HTTP POST http://api.example.com/device-management/managed-devices //Create new Device HTTP GET http://api.example.com/device-management/managed-devices/{id} //Get device for given Id HTTP PUT http://api.example.com/device-management/managed-devices/{id} //Update device for given Id HTTP DELETE http://api.example.com/device-management/managed-devices/{id} //Delete device for given Id 2.5. Use query component to filter URI collection Often, you will encounter requirements where you will need a collection of resources sorted, filtered, or limited based on some specific resource attribute. For this requirement, do not create new APIs – instead, enable sorting, filtering, and pagination capabilities in resource collection API and pass the input parameters as query parameters. e.g. http://api.example.com/device-management/managed-devices http://api.example.com/device-management/managed-devices?region=USA http://api.example.com/device-management/managed-devices?region=USA&brand=XYZ http://api.example.com/device-management/managed-devices?region=USA&brand=XYZ&sort=installation-date ref. https://restfulapi.net/resource-naming/ REST API - URL Naming Conventions In REST, having a strong and consistent REST resource naming strategy – will prove one of the best design decisions in the long term. https://restfulapi.net/resource-naming/
John Doe · Jan. 14, 2023, 4:56 a.m.
REST
java
Play with JSoup
Removing Html tags except few specific ones from String in java public String clean(String unsafe){ Whitelist whitelist = Whitelist.none(); whitelist.addTags(new String[]{"p","br","ul"}); String safe = Jsoup.clean(unsafe, whitelist); return StringEscapeUtils.unescapeXml(safe); } For input string String unsafe = "<p class='p1'>paragraph</p>< this is not html > <a link='#'>Link</a> <![CDATA[<sender>John Smith</sender>]]>"; I get following output which is pretty much I require. <p>paragraph</p>< this is not html > Link <sender>John Smith</sender>
John Doe · Jan. 14, 2023, 2:24 a.m.
jsoup
books
The Dawning
Despite a supposedly near-future setting that seems more mid-seventies than early twenty-first century, somewhat stereotypical characterization, and archaic dialogue, prolific horror master Hugh B. Cave still spins a grand story with his new tale of survival and ecological horror. A band of regular folks head into the Canadian wilderness to escape what is left of a society ruined by pollution, violence, and drugs. Cave never confronts the societal "big picture," nor does he deal with the question of why more people did not head for the woods just as our protagonists do. Instead, he concentrates on his small group of characters as they discover that Mother Nature is very angry indeed with humanity. Just as frightening is the one blue-collar member of the group who knows something about fixing things, hunting, fishing, and firearms. The others can't survive without his skills, but they may not survive the consequences of his behavior either. All a bit simplistic, perhaps, but still a good read. xwidget_72_The Dawning
John Doe · Jan. 13, 2023, 9:55 a.m.
books
The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Thirteenth Annual Collection
xwidget_71_The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Thirteenth Annual Collection Now in its thirteenth year, this excellent anthology series just keeps getting better and better. Stand-outs among the stand-out dark stories this year include two by Steve Rasnic Tem -- "Heat" and "Halloween Street"; the exquisite "The Emperor's Old Bones" by Gemma Files; the exotic "The Tree Is My Hat " by Gene Wolfe; Gary A. Braunbeck's melodic "Small Song"; Neil Gaiman's deliciously wicked "Keepsakes and Treasures: A Love Story"; the clever "What You Make It " by Michael Marshall Smith (both Gaiman and Smith also have excellent "fantasy" entries, as well); "Shatsi," a devilish piece by Peter Crowther; noirish "The Kiss" by relative newcomer Tia V. Travis and novella "White" by British newcomer Tim Lebbon; "You Don't Have to be Mad..." by the deservedly ever-present Kim Newman; Paul J. McAuley's evocative "Naming of the Dead"; the sensual "Crosley" by Elizabeth Engstrom Along with the usual yearly honorable mentions and summations -- Windling on fantasy, Datlow on horror, Edward Bryant on various media, Seth Johnson on comics, and "Obituaries: 1999" by James Frenkel -- Douglas E. Winter's must-read nonfiction essay on the horror field, "The Pathos of Genre," is also included. Datlow and Windling continue to set a standard that no one else can match.
John Doe · Jan. 13, 2023, 9:53 a.m.
books
Dreamside
xwidget_70_Dreamside Finally, with this edition from Tor, American readers have the opportunity to read Graham Joyce's 1991 debut novel, DREAMSIDE. It's a shame we had to wait so long. Imaginative and chilling, the novel explores the subject of lucid dreaming -- the capacity to be conscious of and to control one's dreams -- and questions what we perceive as reality. It's also a cautionary tale: those who, like Prometheus, steal fire from the gods will, inevitably, pay a price for their impudence. Four mid-70s undergraduates -- more attracted to one another than to science -- participate in an experiment in lucid dreaming under the aegis of an elderly professor. Meeting with more success than expected, they even learn to meet in what they come to call the "Dreamside." The time comes to stop the journeys to Dreamside, but the students push on until tragedy forces them apart. More than twelve years later, the dreams again invade reality and begin to tear them away from their daily lives and sanity. It becomes clear they must, somehow, reunite and return to Dreamside. Well-paced and smoothly written, DREAMSIDE, lacks a bit of the poetry of Joyce's later writing, but in no way betrays itself as a virgin effort. Better late than never, don't miss your chance to read DREAMSIDE this time around.
John Doe · Jan. 13, 2023, 9:47 a.m.
books
The Facts of Life
xwidget_69_The Facts of Life Joyce plays us all like a bloody banjo -- and it's a fine tune By Paula Guran Once in a rare while, a book reaches out and grabs you. It gets hold of you emotionally in a way that's hard to understand and impacts you with the force of a hurricane. Nails you to the wall, it does, and even makes you bleed a little. Graham Joyce's novel THE FACTS OF LIFE did that to me. I can't promise that it will do the same to you. I suspect you may have to have a few years under your belt to appreciate the novel fully. But even at half-gale force, it's still a hell of a book. On the surface, it's the story of the Vine family of Coventry, England during World War II and the years after. The focus is on young Frank, the illegitimate son of Cassie, the flighty youngest of seven sisters. Cassie is too unstable to care for an infant herself, but is unwilling to give him up for adoption. Matriarch Martha determines that the entire family will share in raising Frank, "Turn and turn about." Since Martha can play them all "like a bloody banjo" the matter is settled. Martha is the vital heart of the Vines. Her seven daughters, their mates and offspring, orbit around her as if she were a mighty planet and they her multitude of moons -- separate, but held in the universe by her natural force. Or perhaps that's "supernatural force" since Martha quietly receives inspirational otherworldly messages and has precognitive dreams; a knock on her door may as easily come from a visiting spirit as from the postman. Of all her children, only Cassie possesses similar "special" abilities. Cassie's "gift" is wilder and uncontrollable and leads to "blue patches" of self-destructive depression. It is soon apparent that Frank, too, is "special," and Martha realizes he must be particularly protected. U.S. CoverJoyce follows the family members through a decade of sharing in the care of Frank. Vivid and affectionately characterized, the Vines are both uniquely eccentric and a microcosm of post-war Britain. After three years with Martha, Cassie and Frank go to live with sister Una and her farmer-husband Tom Tufnel. (The sisters are named alphabetically by vowel -- Aida is the eldest, followed by twins Evelyn and Ina, Olive, and Una. Having run out of vowels, Martha started on consonants, ending with Beatrice and Cassie.) When Una has twins of her own, Frank and his mum go to the spinster twin sisters Evelyn and Ina. The twins are involved with spiritualists who wish to kindly exploit Frank's abilities. Next they live in an eccentric, intellectual, sexually "liberated," radical (and hilarious) commune in Oxford with Beatie, the sister afflicted with "too many brains," and her partner Bernard. After another stint with Martha, Frank goes to live with his Aunt Aida. Aida's husband Gordon is a mortician with a "home office"--a small mortuary behind his house. Olive and her husband William wind up not participating in Frank's upbringing. They have their own brood to contend with as well as a marriage troubled by William's affair with a dead comrade's widow. Joyce reveals these characters primarily through the story of William's extramarital activities with the widow Rita and later with Olive's bitter feud with Aida. Throughout his peripatetic familial upbringing, Frank frequently visits the Tufnel farm -- where his great secret, the mysterious "The-Man-Behind-The-Glass," is buried in a field. The novel is a nostalgic and warm examination of the strength of a family and the meaning of love. But it is also more than that. There's a completeness to this story. Not so much in its narrative progression from point "A" to point "Z," but in its all-incompassing humanity. Joyce presents a story that includes birth, life, death, all the mysteries between, and some of that which is beyond. He makes it whole in a way few writers can. U.K. CoverBut, there's still more to it. Martha, living in an ancient city being bombed into oblivion, is -- unlike most 20th century Westerners -- still connected to the living universe. Western culture has devised a world where everything is objectified and "reason" supposedly reigns. Humanity, as it seeks to control the world, manipulates and exploits it; literally destroys it with the ever-rational machinery of war. Martha Vine, however, is possessed by a wisdom granted only to those still in touch with the larger design of things. Precognitive abilities and attenuation to spirits are simply part of her being. Cassie's wild connection to the living universe is stronger and less controlled than her mother's. She is compelled to participate in life in ways the detached modern observer would see as impossible and insane. Her earthy sexually, her ability to talk to the dead, the way she can exist in a world where the symbolic is made concrete, and see straight through flesh and into the soul would have, in another era, made her a shaman, prophetess, priestess, goddess, or queen. But in the 20th century -- she's considered more than a bit crazy. Joyce has always been an outstanding storyteller and he is merely telling the story. He's drawing no conclusions. He's not setting out any explanations. The supernatural elements in The Facts of Life are portrayed with a naturalness, conviction, and subtlety that makes fantasy real. These things just are. You cannot doubt them. They are simply a different perspective than the "scientific" one we filter through. With prose now graced with even more assurance and power, Joyce has excelled himself and that's saying quite a bit. This one is Booker Prize material and the Brits are barmy if they don't see it.
John Doe · Jan. 13, 2023, 9:42 a.m.
books
The Limits of Enchantment
xwidget_68_The Limits of Enchantment The fictional worlds that Graham Joyce creates invariably lay in a territory that is a nexus of paths and borders, a place where the divides touch. His overall theme seems to be the nature of the supernatural -- that which is beyond nature -- in the context of the natural. The core question: If humans perceive something to be natural -- to belong within the ordinary -- then is this something of nature or beyond it? We filter the universe through a "scientific" rational perspective, but is our perspective any more "true" than a perspective that includes "magic"? Joyce's fantasy is very real; his reality is frequently fantastic. His fictional characters are highly believable, especially when facing the incredible, and they live in environments that, even if they don't exist, mold them. The darkness in his stories once came primarily from explorations of his characters' relationships and their own "darkest hearts. In the course pf the story, the dark became manifest and there were consequences of that manifestation. With just-previous novel, The Facts of Life and now The Limits of Enchantment, the connection becomes subtler. There are those who, despite living in "our" rational world, are still in touch with a world beyond our reason. In both books there is an older women whose wisdom comes from a larger cosmology and a younger woman forced to deal with the world's denial of that cosmology. The darkness in these two books lies in the friction between the two worlds and secrets that must be kept safe to survive. The heart of darkness is humanity's ability to be inhumane, but the light of salvation lies in humanity's ability to cherish its own. As for The Limits of Enchantment -- It is 1966 and the world teeters on yet another point of transition and even the small Midlands village where seventy-seven-year-old Mammy Cullen and her adopted daughter, Fern, live reflects it. Astronauts circle the Earth, but the cottage in which the women live lacks indoor plumbing. There is still a lord in a manor to deal with, but free-living hippies have moved in nearby. Old-fashioned midwives, like Mammy, can no longer legally ply their trade, but many people still rely on her skills. Abortion is illegal, but the women can rely on Mammy's hedgerow herbal medicine to help them. "Though she never let anyone go without a lecture, she never said no to a desperate girl" -- but each must also divulge the name of the father. Mammy and Fern live in an in-between world surrounded by secrets that can both protect and destroy. "Mammy was the apostle of the Don't Tell, preaching the gospel of the Say Nothing." Mammy's "resistance to letting it all spill" applies to her own "history" as well. What little Fern knows, she's had to piece together over the years. Fern, who narrates the tale, is also on an edge and in-between. She's 21, or near to it, but still a child for whom Mammy interprets the universe. She treasures a small transistor radio and the pop tunes of Radio Caroline, but has been taught (and sings) a wealth of folk songs. She's sexually naive, despite an intimate knowledge of the earthier side of Mother Nature and awakening sexually while all too aware of the dangers of involved. Mammy has taught her a great deal, but always keeps back the deepest of the mysteries in which she tells Fern she will someday partake -- mysteries and magic in which Fern only half-believes. When a local girl, pregnant with an illegitimate child, dies after obtaining Mammy's herbal help, it appears the old woman is responsible. Even Mammy fears her own guilt and feels doom is upon her. A woman who protects herself by knowing so many secrets can also fall victim to those who would prefer no one knew them. On a visit to town, an unknown assailant pushes her into a fall. The duel troubles bring Fern into contact with two more of "the few" -- Judith, a young schoolteacher near Fern's age, and William, an old man who Fern knows as a beekeeper. As mammy's health worsens, William warns Fern not to let Mammy be taken to hospital, but Fern finds herself with little choice but to allow it. Until then "Mammy had stood like a door of oak and iron between me and the outside world," says Fern -- and the world that begins pushing in on Fern is an ominous one. Fern has been left unprepared to do battle against it, but she is just as unprepared to further enter into a pact with the powers she only half believes in. A raft of characters just as convincing as the major players reveal and revel throughout the tale, hindering, helping, menacing, and aiding Fern. We become so entranced that, by the story's end we can't but help wanting to know the rest of her life. (She'd be about 60 now and we are sure she has a life worth telling.) There's a great deal more to The Limits of Enchantment than the surface story and its obvious "between two worlds" motif. On one level, this is a story of fecundity and fornication with everyone going "at it" except the "thee and me" of Mammy and Fern (and, despite overtones of the 1960s sexual revolution, always have been). On another it is a tale of the downfall of castes and classes. For those who can't remember the sixties (which were actually the seventies), a different story may be interpreted that others may not see at all. ("If you can remember anything about the sixties, you weren't really there." -- Paul Kantner) Meanings shift depending on what the reader brings to the story. There's hilarity and wry observations of humanity, but Joyce never plays judge. At the outset, he has Fern tell us, "If I could tell you this is a single setting, then you might believe all of it, even the strangest part... If I could unwind this story in a single spool, or peel it like an apple...in one unbroken coil...then you might bite in without objection...." That's exactly how he tells the tale and it is easy to believe no matter how strange it grows. Every time a new Graham Joyce novel comes out, it turns out to be even better than the one before. This is a frightening thing as "the one before" was itself wonderful. Has the man exchanged his soul for this magic? If he has, I suspect he's sold it to the Goddess (whoever or whatever She may be) because along with the acquisition of pure literary skills, Joyce has also become one of the strongest "female" voices in fiction today. This is all the more extraordinary because Joyce gives manly blokes their due, too, (most specifically in Smoking Poppy), and, as anyone who has quaffed a drink or twelve with the author will testify, he's a right manly bloke himself. (from Cemetery Dance #53)
John Doe · Jan. 13, 2023, 9:37 a.m.
python
Django migrate gets error "table already exists"
1. Remove all migration files in <appname>/migrations 2. Remove all data in django_migrations table where app = <appname> 3.  python manage.py makemigrations <appname> 4.  python manage.py migrate --fake <appname> 5. If you have a field to alter, then alter the field <field> on <appname> and then again python manage.py makemigrations <appname> 6. python manage.py migrate <appname> Child's play.   0003이 실제로 적용된 가장 최근의 마이그레이션이라 가정할 때에는? --fake를 이용하여 현재 상태는 0003이다 라고 장고가 인식하게끔 해주어야 한다. python manage.py migrate --fake <appname> 0003 그 후 평소 하던대로 진행.   django 1.7 migrate gets error "table already exists" I am trying to apply a migration but am getting the error: django.db.utils.OperationalError: (1050, "Table 'customers_customer' already exists") I get this by issuing the following command: ... https://stackoverflow.com/questions/25924858/django-1-7-migrate-gets-error-table-already-exists How to redo a migration on django 1.8 after using --fake Something went wrong on my migrations, I added a new datetimefield to a model then I used makemigrations and migrate. python manage.py makemigrations python manage.py migrate But after this the m... https://stackoverflow.com/questions/30626886/how-to-redo-a-migration-on-django-1-8-after-using-fake
John Doe · Jan. 12, 2023, 9:59 p.m.
django migration
books
The Goth Bible: A Compendium for the Darkly Inclined
This book has been out since October 2004. (Hint: If you want to be noticed by us humble dark reviewers, October is possibly the worst month of the year in which to publish anything.) If I hadn't received a copy (which I probably would not have if the author had not been a friend of mine), I would never have known it existed. Nor have I seen any evidence of it being out there. I hope I'm just being oblivious, because it does deserve attention. Veteran author Kilpatrick tackled a next-to-impossible task and accomplished it with acumen and a sense of humor. On the other hand, just having the audacity to write the "first complete guide to the goth movement" means that, no matter what she wrote or how she researched it, she's probably been condemned by at least some people who consider themselves goth. (The fact that goth godfather Mick Mercer and photographer Fred H. Berger, of Propaganda Magazine were both involved might deflect some subcultural sniping, but I doubt it.) Books like this are, of course, written for those outside a subculture not those within it. Kilpatrick offers respect and understands that "within shades of black, there's an awful lot of variation," something insiders and outsiders both tend not to comprehend. Although I've not asked the author, I also can guess, knowing publishing, that whatever this project started out to be may not be reflected in the ultimate product. Whatever the circumstances, it is a credible, readable reference sure to displease a great many people. Brava. (from Cemetery Dance #53) xwidget_66_The goth Bible
John Doe · Jan. 12, 2023, 8:24 p.m.
books
Blood of Angels
Michael Marshall's (AKA Michael Marshall Smith) "Straw Men" trilogy falls into the thriller category, but the books are so dark and disturbing they might also be considered as contemporary horror. There's also a weird, if not supernatural, vast-conspiracy-against-all-humanity theory that spooks them up somewhat. The third of three (following The Straw Men and Upright Man), Blood of Angels features ex-CIA operative Ward Hopkins, his now-girlfriend FBI agent Nina Baynam and, eventually, ex-Los Angeles police detective John Zandt. They are fighting the murderous Straw Men, an ancient brotherhood that feels humanity went haywire with civilization and sees killing as many members of it as possible as its duty. One of its most effective operatives is Paul, a twin who Ward never knew existed until his parents were murdered back in book one. At the end of book two, Paul was safely ensconced in prison, but springing a federal prisoner is nothing for the Straw Men. On the east coast, a deceptively mild-mannered Florida tourist photographer is set on a shady mission by the man he thinks of as the Forward Thinking Boy (Paul, of course). Across the country, So-Cal rich kid drug-dealer Lee John Hudek is drawn into bigger and more deadly things than supplying pills for his pointless peers. Ward and Nina's rural respite in the Pacific Norwest comes to an end when Nina is pulled back into FBI work to investigate a possible female serial killer in Virginia. The three story lines are braided into a quick-burning fuse of a standalone novel that's nearly impossible to stop reading. Marshall's fluid writing is several notches higher than that of the average thriller and there's more than sheer entertainment here, too. The novel is, to some extent, a meditation on the meaning of death and, more obviously, cannot help but consider a world where organizations of killers who delight in death and destruction are not fiction. The first of this trilogy was praised by Stephen King as a "masterpiece"; this one may be even better. (CFQ Vol. 37, Issue #8) xwidget_64_Blood of Angels • • • Note: The first two books of the series are The Straw Men (2002) and The Upright Man (2004) (known as The Lonely Dead in the UK). As Michael Marshal Smith, the author's works include the collection More Tomorrow and Other Stories (2003), and novels One of Us (1998), Spares (1996), and Only Forward (1995).
John Doe · Jan. 12, 2023, 8:22 p.m.
books
Spares
[Great modern horror is not always labeled as "horror". You'll probably find this one shelved under SF. Of course, it is also a dark mystery/thriller, and horrific...] xwidget_65_Spares Anyone reviewing Michael Marshall Smith's cross-genre novel Spares is apt to fall back on a variety of comparisons. And they are all accurate -- Spares does evoke hard-boiled detective writers like Jim Thompson and Raymond Chandler; Philip K. Dick and his cyberpunk descendants; the filmic atmospheres of A Clockwork Orange, Chinatown, and Blade Runner; even the humor of Douglas Adams. But to do so does a disservice to Smith, who deserves credit for his own unique imagination, skill, and this wonderfully diverse novel. Spares is told in a poignant first-person by Jack Randall, an ex-cop, ex-soldier, ex-husband, ex-father, ex-member of the human race, and ex-addict -- except there is no such thing as an ex-addict. At the outset of the novel he's come back to his former home -- New Richmond, Virginia: a 200-story flying megamall that has been "grounded" for 83 years due to technological failure compounded by bureaucratic ineptitude. Jack's brought seven "spares" with him that he rescued from a "farm" that, shattered and drug-addled, he found himself in charge of. Spares are clones who exist only to provide spare parts -- skin, eyes, organs, limbs, faces -- for their legally "human" counterparts. Jack has treated the spares as humans -- teaching them to communicate, to actualize their emotions, and allowing them to think for themselves -- and is attempting to save them from the system that exploits their bodies and ignores their minds, feelings, and souls. In New Richmond Jack becomes embroiled in a deadly mystery involving denizens of both the underworld and overworld, his ex-partner, a former enemy, and The Gap -- the surrealistic ex-war zone born from a virtual world that had "grown too heavy and sloughed off the wires and coalesced into something solid." Smith's future noir world of urban decay is one in which computers create their own programming and are sometimes more human than the humans. protagonist,The society is a plausibly corrupt extension of our current era with The Gap an obvious Vietnam allegory. And, of course, it is all the more chilling because we can so easily believe it. Smith falters in his culture only in one respect: his emphasis on class stratification is devoid of any racial overtones whatsoever -- as is the case in most SF. But, like the best SF -- and hard-boiled detective fiction -- Smith provides compelling philosophical and sociological underpinnings along with his energetic action. For all the other comparisons, Spares reminds me most of John Shirley's early cyperpunk novel City Come A Walkin', and Jack Randall is reminiscent of the flawed heroes in Shirley's work. Like Shirley, Smith writes of dark things in dark worlds where the horror -- disturbingly familiar no matter what the trappings -- is often found within our own souls. Spares could easily become a classic cherished by readers, argued over, dissected and discussed for years. And because it has been optioned by Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks SKG it has a chance of becoming more than a cult classic. Whatever Spares becomes -- it is required reading now. -- Paula Guran
John Doe · Jan. 12, 2023, 8:19 p.m.
Recommended for you