#riff herbert

[ectobiology-machines]

Not sure if hs^2 is allowed but harry anderson egbert and cirava?

Name: Riff Herbert

Title: The Grooving One

Ecto-components: Harry Anderson Egbert, Cirava Hermod

Radio DJ for a small town

Their actual taste in music is queationable at best but their boss won't allow them to play any of it

Groovin

[eyes-like-the-night]

Tanz der Vampire March 5th 2023

Um holy fuck???? Wouldn’t change a thing 12/10, seeing this show live after 6 years of subsisting off of bootlegs. It’s completely different seeing it live.

Act one, phenomenal, I got jumped scared by Krolock, also got a side eye and a smirk because I whipped around so fast once he was in the aisle and was smiling like an idiot.

The dancers were incredible black vampire put so much into it and also some fun little unexpected things from him. All the dancing was absolutely flawless from everyone else as well.

Magda was incredible, her fear leading up to her getting bit was palpable, was she was a vampire she was so cheeky!

I normally hate Chagal but he was so funny, like going to bite Magda, mocking her fear, and then realizing, oh fuck he’s a vampire. Weirdly charismatic, especially with Magda when they’re in a crypt. They were fun to see.

Herbert so so baby, tall as hell, very playful, also wonderful voice!

Alfred. What a cutie, I’m usually pretty meh on Alfred’s but I couldn’t stop smiling during Fur Sarah because he was so sweet and sincere.

Fun things

Alfred dropping on top of the coffin was a solid thunk so it was very funny

Krolock kept showing Sarah off after he bit her while carrying her, dipping her down to show her bite to the others. Krolock went to say something during Vor dem Schloss and was cut off by the professor, very funny, definitely being a playful asshole with the professor but delivered such a good and moving bit once it was just him and Alfred anything that was loud and big was followed by lines delivered so softly I couldn’t help but be entranced. On a spicy note, dear lord the growls, going to bite Sarah at the end of ToFi was, oof, held her close the entire time while touching her, almost had a kiss during ToFi as well. Gier was Heart breaking.

Rebecca was wonderful, definitely the wife tired of her husband’s wandering eye but still loved him dearly.

Wow look at that back to Krolock, filippo definitely has younger vibes as Krolock, gorgeous voice, went for it with adding riffs and having fun with it vocally, it works really well with everything he has going.

Kristen was fabulous as Sarah, definitely a favorite now. She’s so playful and sweet as Sarah, very clear voice, and beautiful on the high notes.

Froze at stage door, completely worth it though. Filippo was so kind, remembered my friend and I from when he walked through the aisle and took the time to talk with us.

[owlinaminor]

wanted to post one more fic before the end of the year, and somehow it's this: a 900-word riff on the end of Dune Messiah. something something postmodernism. :)

[metalverseofficial]

🔥🎸 𝗖𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗯𝗿𝗮𝐧𝐝𝐨 𝟭𝟳 𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐬 𝗱𝗼 𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗰̧𝗮𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗲 "𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗙𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗢𝗳 𝗜𝗱𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘀" 𝗱𝗼 𝗔𝗹𝗹 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗥𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘀! 🎸🔥

Hoje é um dia especial, pois celebramos 17 anos desde o lançamento de "The Fall Of Ideals" do All That Remains. Neste álbum, a banda mostrou ao mundo o seu potencial e marcou sua entrada triunfante na cena mainstream do metalcore. Embora tenham ajustado sua fórmula ao longo do tempo para atingir um público ainda maior, foi com "The Fall Of Ideals" que eles conquistaram seu lugar.

Comparado aos seus trabalhos anteriores, especialmente o incrível "This Darkened Heart", fica evidente que a banda evoluiu consideravelmente. A produção aprimorada e as performances instrumentais excepcionais são notáveis em cada faixa. Desde a abertura arrebatadora com "This Calling" até o encerramento impactante, o talento do saudoso e brilhante Oli Herbert nos solos de guitarra e as impressionantes habilidades vocais de Phil Labonte se destacam. A faixa "The Air That I Breathe" merece destaque especial, com riffs poderosos e a presença imponente de Labonte ao microfone. Não podemos esquecer de mencionar as incríveis habilidades de bateria de Shannon Lucas, que podem ser apreciadas em faixas como "Not Alone" e "Six", onde ele chega a flertar com o death metal melódico.

"The Fall Of Ideals" é um equilíbrio perfeito entre acessibilidade e peso, algo difícil de alcançar para muitas bandas do gênero. Ao contrário de outros grupos que se rendiam ao canto para atrair um público mais amplo, o All That Remains soube incorporar suas raízes do metalcore em um contexto acessível sem perder sua musicalidade. Esse álbum é a prova de que é possível conquistar popularidade sem comprometer a essência artística.

É verdade que em trabalhos posteriores, como "A War You Cannot Win" de 2012, a banda pode ter experimentado algumas mudanças em busca de maior reconhecimento. No entanto, quem pode culpá-los por isso? Até mesmo os fãs mais exigentes de metalcore reconhecem a grandiosidade deste álbum. O legado de "The Fall Of Ideals" permanece intacto e é um marco na carreira do All That Remains.

🎶 Se você ainda não conhece esse álbum épico, recomendo que o escute agora mesmo e se entregue a uma jornada intensa e catártica! All That Remains, parabéns pelos 17 anos de uma obra-prima que transcendeu gerações e continua a inspirar. 🙌🤘

All That Remains

#AllThatRemains #TheFallOfIdeals #Metalcore #AniversárioDeLançamento #ObraPrima

[writer59january13]

Argh daylight savings time ends – 2:00 AM November 6th 2022

Hour hands of o'clock get set back sixty minutes gaining extra hour of Autumn round about this same day of November every year, what a bum er, and inconvenient truth diverged from this wayfaring chum purposelessly manipulating a hold over sans yesteryear (first implemented in United States with Standard Time Act of 1918, a wartime measure for seven months during World War I in the interest of adding more daylight hours to conserve energy resources) doth rat a tat tat drum a plain sensation of jet lag (with earthling in the balance) as if flying backwards within Herbert George Wells celebrated time machine at warp speed from this station, where bumpy ride invariably finds me feeling ticked off and glum in no mood to rhyme, nor be funny, cuz I recall experiencing exactly lxii previous instances being forced to spring ahead, when countless months before viz Sunday March 13, 2022 at 2:00 AM one twenty fourth of said day surrendered to Father Time finding yours truly juiced barely equipped to cope mentally, physically, and spiritually whipsawed tantamount with impossible mission to get smart and gather scattered wits sun tide, and express mood as hoe hum analogous to coals (essence) raked over me noggin fortunate, this chronological seismic shift nada wider I assume, nevertheless mein kampf cerebral hemispheric plate tectonics comb pluck hated brush against jangling black keys helplessly boom fancifully drifting and boring into quick ribald sand trap doom mining an inducement for emergency convoy, when pitched from sea to figurative shining seagram defunct company name brand once the largest owner of alcoholic beverage lines in the world nsync with Johnnie Walker Scotch quite the ginned tonic he brewed, where live yik yak (going tiktok) wired vanguard trulia tried optimism to hum a lively Irish air, cuz I (Bailey) of Bailey Banks & Biddle the crown jewel scion scion of a wealthy family swallowed down sorrow regarding cremains of mother her inert ashes boxed for more'n an (eat turn) eternity like talcum powder went – me mum Chris Anne her namesake bling bloviation, emasculation, insinuation, nomination, termination once worth matchless peerage, now pitched numb skull into morass of temporary confusion, where plumb line delineating circadian rhythm offset, when athwart pilot rum dire straits found motley crue bickering where Lilliputians slum bring wherein Gulliver's Travels landed me upon islets of langerhans (endocrine cells scattered throughout the pancreas) defiantly, ham-handedly, liberally thumb ming nose, where body, mind & soul weeknd viz a bully did cower, hence mister clock, who got hijacked to Cuba 3600 seconds per hour experienced head, thorax and abdomen diminishing in power wrought indistinguishable Whitsuntide as sour grapes of wrath imposing ill fitting sea legs, which folded like a faulty tower crumbling skeletal carapace, quickly resoundingly surrendered, and back slid vis a vis space/time continuum did devour. Black hole (sun) event horizon indeed kept lock step as das joint mill hoard Sucker punched the band wagon of father time, whose riffs a silent chord nsync with atomic fractional second bored pesky quirky shenanigans toying with chronometers counter point of view shifted to oppose this minute accord.

[limelines]

i have noticed a trend

i have a very specific type, and thats pale, blonde, long-haired androgynous men who would never like me back! :D

[fuckyesdobiegillis]

Maynard G. Krebs + "What's My Lion?"

[chronic-boogara]

Hey I'd love a matchup if you have time! Big slasher fan lol. I'm nonbinary and studying forensic toxicology. I'm a scorpio and I'd generally say I align with most of their traits. I love horror games (especially psychological horror ones), painting and art, and playing piano. I love metal music and rock, but I'm also a die-hard Jimmy Buffet fan. I love tarantulas and other bugs, but praying mantises freak me out (they are small, but their eyes know too much). Thanks broseph :)

𝐢 𝗺𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡 𝐲𝗼𝐮 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡- 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐭 𝐰𝐞𝐬𝐭

♡your perfect match is another person of science dr. herbert west. while he tends to get very involved in his work he will always try to make time for you.

♡it’s safe to say herbert is a big fan of your choice of jobs..a very big fan. he finds it sexy in an almost perverse kind of way. he loves having someone to talk to about all his experiments and thoughts on his work without being shunned for his slight insanity. he might cover some things up at first but as time goes on he lets it all loose.

♡psychological horror is the best kind in his opinion. he loves the kind of media that really makes you think. he doesn’t mind the blood and gore aspect but he finds that kind of horror overplayed and made for the small minded.

♡your love of the arts is welcomed with open eyes by herbert. he loves seeing your works, so much so that he will find space in his lab to hang them on the walls. and of course she i’ll be bragging to everyone he knows aboit said talent. you’re the best of the best in his eyes and the entire world needs to know. play piano for him after a long day pls he finds it so so soothing.

♡herbert doesn’t understand what the big deal with metal music is. to him it sounds like a bunch of screaming and guitar riffs. he much prefers classical music, just something to relax his mind. he’s not an ass about his dislike of it at least. if you’re playing music he will sit and listen just because he knows it makes you happy.

♡he’s afraid of certain bugs but won’t admit it. if you were to have a pet tarantula he’d observe it from the outside but the minute you try to hand it to him he is out. he doesn’t mind beetles though. he finds them peculiar in a good way. praying mantis are not his favorite either. on

♡he’s never experienced a love like this before but it’s safe to say he’s into it.

[knifeonmars]

Comics that mattered to me in 2021

Every year when I sit down to do this I end up whinging about being exhausted with comics, and this year is no different. The churn of corporate superhero comics is deeply alienating, and after I made a concerted effort to read more prose this past year, I can't help noticing that a lot of the writing is, frankly, shit. Jonathan Hickman's Mr. Cerebral Scifi posturing looks a lot less impressive when you've been reading Herbert or LeGuin or Banks and realizing how shallow even the most acclaimed writing in superhero comics often is.

Nor did indie comics have much for me this year. 2022 will be Peow Studios' last year in operation, and while they're still publishing at the moment and their work remains stellar, knowing that they'll be gone casts a pall over things. Al Gofa's decision to cape for Brandon Graham by including him in his failed Gamma Twinkles Kickstarter campaign, even in light of the accusations of predation by Graham, after public backlash and the loss of multiple collaborators from the project really took the wind out of my sails re: indie comics by reminding me how shitty the space can be.

Spawn

The only comic which I read with any regularity in 2021 was, genuinely, Spawn, as preparation for my vanity podcast on the series, Regarding Spawn. I can't say that Spawn is good by any measure, indeed certain parts of it are complete shit, but as someone who has always struggled to find a community, it's nice to actually get to read along with someone and discuss a series for all its highs and lows. I guess the lesson is that comics and media in general are best when you share it with someone, so like, touch grass.

The Immortal Hulk

Probably Al Ewing's magnum opus at Marvel Comics, even if it is marred somewhat by its association with artist Joe Bennett and his unpleasant personal politics. While it was running there were few, if any comics like Immortal Hulk, certainly not from the mainstream superhero comics market. It was religious horror, it was action, it was sublime and funny and excellent. I'm glad that it got to have its run and, improbably for an Al Ewing comic, go uninterrupted by petty cash-ins and spinoffs (look at the current X-Men line to see what happens when that pointedly isn't the case). Immortal Hulk has unseated Planet Hulk as the best Hulk story, and it did so by being a completely different kind of story. We may not see its like again.

Home Time

The second part of Campbell Whyte's Home Time released this year, following a group of Australian middle schoolers trapped in a strange fantasy world during what was supposed to be their last summer together before high school. I'm no "YA adult", note my use of scare-quotes, but I really did love Home Time. It's hazy and weird, it evokes a kind of nostalgia which hit close to home for me, and I love the tricks and stylistic flourishes it displays in riffing on videogames.

Batman: Creature of the Night

Another title I've written about before, the last big project from the late, great artist John Paul Leon with collaborator Kurt Busiek, Creature of the Night is the companion piece to Busiek and Stuart Immonen's incredible Superman: Secret Identity, and yet it is totally distinct and its own beast. It's a story about mental illness and anger and grief, and it gets at the core of Batman in a way which is both more distinct and more honest than either fandom "BatDad" characterizations or self-serious "disturbed" takes on the character.

Jack Staff

It is a true pleasure to see a master at work in their craft, and Jack Staff is Paul Grist's clinic on the capabilities and potentials of both the comic book medium and the superhero genre. Grist pulls from reference points that a North American reader like myself has little familiarity with and in doing so constructs a superhero world which feels totally distinct from the one-millionth indie comics riff on Batman/Spider-Man/Superman/etc. The things he does with layouts, with lettering, with the page as a whole, must be seen to be believed. If you ever have the chance, do not miss Jack Staff.

Butcher Baker, The Righteous Maker

Neither Butcher Baker nor its creator Joe Casey are a problematic fave for me, and yet I guess they are. I don't love Butcher Baker unreservedly, but I can't help thinking about it in terms of my largely withered critical reading skills. I think that there is something profoundly ugly at the heart of superhero power fantasies, however much certain people online will argue that superheroes have always been politically "good" , and Joe Casey lays that bare in a totally unabashed, indulgent, but absolutely knowing way. Butcher Baker is a creep, a thug, and a libidinous bully, his enemies are over the top visions of American prejudices and fears, it's a weird book and I don't like every element of it, but I can't help thinking about it. Considering that so many superhero comics seem designed to slide smoothly off the brain as soon as possible, totally unprepared for or uninterested in critical reading, Butcher Baker is a welcome change.

Superman: Blue

It is with a heavy heart that I admit that Electric Blue Superman is Good, Actually, and these comics are damned solid. It'll sound like I'm damning it with faint praise, but this volume collecting the first set of stories from the brief Electric Blue era is just really solid superhero comics. I've slagged off series before for feeling like standard portions of superhero entertainment, but this isn't that. Superman: Blue has a lineup of great artists including Stuart Immonen in the early part of his career, and a rotating cast of writers telling charming, innovative stories using what I have to admit is a fun setup. There's no groan-inducing crossover high stakes here, nor the inflated self-importance of "nothing will ever be the same!" instead it's just solid, entertaining stories with fresh takes on characters new and old. Even as burnt out as I am on superhero stories, I must admit that you could do a lot worse.

[chernobog13]

I was not a fan of 90% of DC’s Future State event this past winter, but that’s a whole ‘other post that I don’t feel like getting into right now.

However, I am happy with the soft reboot that happened on various DC titles after Future State ended.  The Flash is one such title.

Despite being treated atrociously for the last ten years or so, Wally West is back at the forefront of the book (yay!).  Sure, Barry Allen is technically still the star of the book.   Wally was all set to retire forever back in issue #768 (by my count that’s like the 17th time he was giving up being a superhero), but writer Jeremy Adams comes up with a clever way to thrust Wally into the starring role for a time-hopping Quantum Leap-type storyline, with Barry relegated to the supporting cast.

For those who don’t know, or are too young to remember, Wally West was THE Flash for almost twenty years after Barry Allen was killed off in Crisis on Infinite Earths.  A team of writers, artists and editors worked extremely hard for several years to elevate Wally from former sidekick to A-level superhero, and they did.  Wally became the first DC sidekick to take the place of his mentor, one of many legacy heroes.  

The Flash, with Wally as the lead, was a much more interesting book than it ever was under Barry Allen (whom I found rather dull and colorless).  It was great to see Wally’s progression from sidekick to hero to family man.  And it was the first time I actually became a regular reader of The Flash.

I was saddened when a new regime came to power at DC and Barry Allen was resurrected, because it meant that Wally was ignominiously shuffled off to comic book limbo.

Anyhoo, if you want the full story of Wally’s journey, I suggest you get a hold of Back Issue magazine #128 from TwoMorrows. 

With that long-winded introduction out of the way, let’s just say I’m a fan of Wally as The Flash, hate what DC has done to him lately, and very happy that he’s headlining again.

Writer Jeremy Adams seems to be a fan of Wally, too, and is having fun with him in this storyline.  In a previous issue he had Wally catapulted back to the dinosaur era, and there was a clever bit of Wally channeling Fred Flintstone as he slid down an apatosaurus’ back.

This issue Wally has leaped into fellow speedster (and original Flash) Jay Garrick’s body during the early years of World War ll.  Jay and fellow superhero Happy Terrill (aka The Ray) are tasked by FDR to go to the Philippines and acquire the Spear of Destiny before Hitler can get his hands on it.

A few quibbles here: Jay is depicted as having gray hair, but he was a young man in his prime in WW2.  With a veritable army of superheroes (called “mystery men” back then) to call on, why does FDR only send these two?  Why and how is the Spear of Destiny in the Philippines?  Where is it now that Wally/Jay and Happy stole it from Hitler?  Also, it seems that writer Adams has either forgotten or ignored the role Hitler and the Spear played in the formation of the Justice Society of America.

Of course I know DC’s answer to all these questions: don’t worry about continuity, it’s the Omniverse.

Those quibbles aside (I don’t want to seem like a continuity-obsessed fan boy), I did enjoy the story for what it was, especially since it gave Wally another chance to shine.  It’s also a lot of fun (the running gag of Wally/Jay talking to his “support team,” and Happy’s reaction to it, made me smile).

And did I mention the artwork by Jack Herbert and Brandon Peterson, with colors byMichael Atiyeh?  I didn’t?  Well I will, because it’s phenomenal!  Don’t take my word for it; buy this issue and see for yourself!

And did I say that this issue was fun?  All, that’s nothing compared to what’s planned for Wally’s next leap:

Oh, yeah, baby!  It looks like we’re going the Super Friends route, with Kevin Maguire doing his best Alex Toth-riff (look at Luthor’s face!)!  I can’t wait!

Post Script: why does it seem that whenever the Spear of Destiny is in a story it looks like it was drawn by a first grader?  I mean literally just two parallel lines for the shaft connected to a simple, small triangle at the end.

There are plenty of pictures of the actual spear, or at least the spearhead.  Would someone at DC please Google “Spear of Destiny” or “Spear of Longinus”  and then forward the photos to the artists?  Thank you.

[jedivoodoochile]

Happy 78th birthday Keith!

Dec. 18, 1943: KEITH RICHARDS, born on this day to Doris and Herbert Richards (at Livingstone Hospital, in Dartford, Kent, England) aka ‘The Human Riff’, guitarist, singer, songwriter and member of some band called The Rolling Stones.

[magg0t-king]

🖤❤Dumb MTL art ideas I might draw or animate for Halloween❤🖤

Drawing the doods as RHPS characters (like murderface and/or Knubbler being frank and/or riff-raff)

Drawing three of the doods as my sister, her friend, and I's Halloween costumes: Banana Juggalos

The main 5 dressing up as one of those dramatic TV show families.

All or a few of them dressing up as slashers/horror characters. (Example: charles as Dr. Herbert west)

All of them dressing up as Dr rockzo as a tribute to his dumb ass-ery or all of them dressing up as Dr. twinkletits because I love that idea.

Idk, I might add more later.

[deagle]

What is all this obsession with "Tanz der Vampire" all about? Why do you like it?

:DDDD thank you for the ask, IT SPARKS JOY!

Hmmmm whyyyyy...

It‘s so... ✨haaaa✨

There‘s DANCE and there‘s SINGING and there‘s FUNKY COSTUMES (which might be because it‘s a musical but i‘ll have to run some scientific tests to prove that part)

There‘s SARAH who wants to be WILD 'N FREEEE

There‘s ALFRED who DON‘T GET ME STARTED OR I‘LL LITERALLY NEVER STOP TALKING ABOUT HIM-

There‘s the PROF who‘s got NEAT SCENES!!

Herbert who needs a fuck and a hug and a puppy, in that order

Also Drew Sarich

AND THE PIANO RIFFS

yk i‘m not sure if i have to elaborate any further at that point

THANK U FOR THE ASK!! = D

[jmroscoe]

Halloween Review #4 — Bride of Re-Animator (1990)

It’s not hard to see why Brian Yuzma was chosen to direct Bride of Re-Animator, the sequel to Re-Animator, Stuart Gordon’s absurdly gory adaptation of H. P. Lovecraft’s story about a mad scientist obsessed with bringing the dead back to life. Just four years after Re-Animator premiered in 1985, Yuzma directed Society, a movie about a teenage boy who discovers the social elite are all part of a gruesome cult, and it was even grosser and scarier than Re-Animator was.

But Yuzma’s Bride of Re-Animator is not as gross or scary or clear in its messages as Yuzma’s Society or Gordon’s Re-Animator. It’s more a screwball comedy with a horror backdrop than a proper horror movie. Bride of Re-Animator is closer to Scooby-Doo or Young Frankenstein than it is to Re-Animator. 

Is that a problem? No, of course not. There’s a very fine line between being horror and humor. Yuzma has a good grasp on the distinction and delivers an enjoyable hour-and-a-half movie that doesn’t drag on too much.

Its cast of characters includes a cartoonishly evil Dr. Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs) who is more obsessed with reanimation than ever, a Dr. Graves (Mel Stewart) who displays more emotion when a disembodied head insults his thesis than when it comes back to life and a fat, wife-beating, bumbling police officer who misses the obvious clues all around him.

Dr. West reanimates a body only to immediately shoot it in the head with a gun, killing it again. West steals a dead body from the hospital by putting dark sunglasses on it and wheeling it out while propping its head up with his hand, a clear riff on Weekend at Bernie’s (which came out the same year as Society). All while a playful, silly score by Richard Band plays in the background. 

Yes, there’s gore. But nothing on the scale of Re-Animator or Society. There are some morals you can glean from the movie — living things are more than the sum of their parts, it’s unhealthy to never let your mistakes go, giving birth can be a traumatic experience — but none that aren’t explored better in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, which the movie obviously borrowed a great deal from.

Perhaps Yuzma, in taking apart an H. P. Lovecraft story and a Stuart Gordon film then re-assembling it into something unlike its parents, is telling us about originality of ideas or death of the author?

No, I genuinely think he just wants to make us watch a bunch of gross-out gags and say, “Oh man, that was so gross, haha.” It rules.

[jacobsvoice]

Brandeis: Learning on the Left

No other American city of proximate size and population is surrounded by universities and colleges like Boston. From center city to the suburbs Boston University, Boston College, Northeastern, MIT, Harvard, Tufts and Wellesley are highly rated. But there is only one secular (and flaming liberal) Jewish university among them: Brandeis, located in suburban Waltham.

Founded in 1948 and named after the first Jewish Supreme Court Justice, it blossomed over the years to become a university overflowing with institutes and centers, among them Modern Jewish Studies, Investigative Journalism, Social Research and Women’s Studies. Its renowned alumni, with their left-wings flapping, include Thomas Friedman, Angela Davis and Abbie Hoffman.

Among its lesser-known professors is Stephen J. Whitfield, whose academic career of forty-four years was spent in the relatively marginal American Studies Department. He is the reverent author of On the Left: Political Profiles of Brandeis University (2020). With more than four hundred and fifty pages of text (many of which are extraneous to Brandeis), and one hundred pages of footnotes, it is not exactly light reading. It is difficult to imagine that anyone without a Brandeis connection would care to read it.

Names of important people with little or nothing to do with Brandeis – Harry Truman, Joe Biden, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Lyndon Johnson, John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Barack Obama, Fidel Castro and Leon Trotsky among them–pass by so fleetingly that at times it feels like Grand Central Station during rush hour. Several pages are even devoted to Russian Nobel Prize winner Andrei Sakharov, whose only connection to Brandeis was the donation of his voluminous papers and letters to the library by his daughter.

Whitfield reverently dotes on alumni achievers whose Brandeis blood caroused through their veins. Among them, in excruciating detail: Michael Walzer, whose scholarly writing consumes fifteen pages; and Michael Sandel, praised in twelve pages for his You Tube lectures. Other chapters are devoted to foreign-born radicals on the faculty: Herbert Marcuse, whose career “dramatically” reveals “the radicalism of the 1960s” (twenty-one pages); and Bolshevik revolutionary Jean Louis Maxine van Heijenoort (six pages). Among left-leaning Americans who were ”connected” to Brandeis, Whitfield devotes twelve pages to Philip Rahv, co-founder and editor of Partisan Review; and ten pages to Dissent editor Irving Howe.

Whitfield is mesmerized by the impact of the turbulent 1960s on his beloved institution. Having taught in the History Department between 1965-70 I was all too familiar with the left-driven chaos by rampaging students who occupied buildings and ignited fires among their preferred strategies. The “radical spirit” that Brandeis exuded even prompted Newsweek to report “the atmosphere of barely controlled chaos [that] continued to build steadily at Brandeis.”

Whitfield’s wandering chapter on race relations at Brandeis begins elsewhere at another time. It includes Gunner Myrdal, the Swedish author of An American Dilemma, published before Brandeis existed; and Philip Roth’s The Human Stain, which had nothing to do with Brandeis. Nor did “spring theory,” the conceptual invention of Princeton professor and Nobel Prize winner Edward Witten. Whitfield seems eager to demonstrate the range of his research, including people and places far outside the Brandeis orbit.

Even when he focuses on Brandeis, Whitfield can be over the top with lengthy and doting narratives of his chosen people. Abbie Hoffman, the 1969 graduate and “radical Jokester,” consumes thirty pages having virtually nothing to do with Whitfield’s beloved university. But he deems it important to mention that Hoffman “gave the impression of liking hamburgers.” And he preposterously identifies Hoffman with “the ancient Hebrews, whose Bible describes them as stiff-necked.” It may not be inappropriate to ask: who, other than Whitfield, cares?

Whitfield’s propensity for hero-worship climaxes with ten pages devoted to Brandeis graduate Thomas Friedman, ironically deserving of recognition as the unrelenting and flaming liberal New York Times critic of Israel. But Whitfield’s overflowing recital of the wonders of Friedman reads as though he was worshiping at a Brandeis shrine–which, to be sure, he is.

Unwilling, or unable, to stop rambling (even by page 443), Whitfield concludes with a paean of praise for the university of his dreams (largely because he had no academic experience elsewhere). For no discernible reason other than his evident need for self-preening, his riffs include President Jimmy Carter and Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Clarence Thomas; the Hebrew word for “truth”; Hannah Arendt; and those who wonder “Will Jesus return to earth”–none of whom had anything to do with Brandeis.

Whitfield’s concluding words (at last) favor “an epistemological task – addressed to the young”–whatever that means. It is a shame that Whitfield’s Brandeis story is buried in irrelevant minutiae. The academic love of his life deserves better.

The Jewish Voice (July 23, 2021)

Jerold S. Auerbach is the author of twelve books, including Print to Fit: The New York Times, Zionism and Israel 1896-2016, selected for Mosaic by Ruth Wisse and Martin Kramer as a Best Book for 2019

[neon-green-reagent]

Thoughts on Adapting Lovecraft

Requested by @aloy-of-the-nora

Let’s start easy. What did Lovecraft do right? Cool monsters. The idea of a warped reality or something so strange it can warp the human mind. Cults. Unknowable civilizations. 

What did he do wrong? Literally everything else. Characters you can’t connect with that no one gives a single shit about. And just a cavalcade of hate spewing crap. Also, let’s be real, a writing style that either captivates you or puts you to sleep, no middle ground. 

Obviously, when adapting his work, the hate spewing crap should be the first thing to go. Anyone that would even consider keeping anything like that in should be drawn and quartered. But I’d go a step further and say embrace the othering aspect of what Lovecraft wrote but turn it into a positive. The Reanimator trilogy plays with the idea by coding Herbert as gay or asexual depending on your point of view. There’s Lovecraft Country, and while I haven’t seen the show yet, I can vouch for the book as being excellently done. Also, a novella called The Ballad of Black Tom. I understand if there are people that don’t agree for their own reasons, but I think there is power in seizing something like this and making it for the very people Lovecraft hated. I think any of us that feel othered regularly are looking for more things that celebrate strangeness and oddity.

I wanted to address that enormous elephant in the room first, but there’s another aspect to adaptations that irks me. You can’t just stick a big ole boy with tentacles in the middle of it and tell me it’s Lovecraftian. That’s not enough. There needs to be a depth to the world building. There needs to be a sense that we’re seeing something not just forbidden but dangerous. That witnessing these events could break you. That the people who are about to endure this horror will never be the same afterward, if they survive. 

Color Out of Space is an excellent example of this. Black Mountain Side is another I highly recommend that feels like a riff on At the Mountains of Madness (and a riff on The Thing, another work that mimics Lovecraft really well.) Also, In the Mouth of Madness, the best Lovecraft movie that isn’t based on anything he actually wrote and proves that more than straight adaptations that obsessively film every molecule of the story, we’re going for tone here. Atmosphere. A feeling. And sure tentacles if you insist.