Antichrist Photo Shoots, the Most Expensive Movie Poster, Older Than Dracula

Uncovering Hollywood’s 1920s “Antichrist” Photo Shoots
- Francky Knapp, Messy Nessy Cabinet of Chic Curiosities

The Mummy: the story of the world's most expensive movie poster
- Jordan Hoffman, The Guardian

Older than Dracula: In search of the English vampire
- Sam George, The Conversation

Feast Your Eyes

Art that has inspired me lately:

Andrew Mar

 Andrea Sorrentino

 Drew Hayes (from Poison Elves)

Philippe Druillet (from The 6 Voyages of Lone Sloane)

Artist unknown, community college mascot

 Becky Munich

 Santiago Caruso

Toshio Saeki

Satoshi Matsuura

Decadent Berlin Superclub, Disturbed Minds, Hidden History of African-American Burials

Sex, seafood and 25,000 coffees a day: the wild 1920s superclub that inspired Babylon Berlin
- Philip Oltermann, The Guardian

Disturbed minds and disruptive bodies
- Rachel Bennett, Catherine Cox and Hilary Marland, Wellcome Collection

The Hidden History of African-American Burial Sites in the Antebellum South
- Evan Nicole Brown, Atlas Obscura

Ultimate Fashion History: The Weimar Republic

Becky Munich, whom you might remember from the cover and chapter art in Krevborna, passed this video about the fashion of the Weimar Republic along to me. 

From the description: "People often ask me which moment in the past do I think has had the greatest impact on fashion today. Without hesitation, I answer; 'The Weimar Republic!'  The 'divine decadence', cabaret scene, sexualization and 'the outsider as insider' of Germany 1919-1933 gave birth to some of fashion's most immediate signifiers.  So WILKOMMEN to this Ultimate Fashion History special."

Check it out:

Also, while we're on the subject, y'all know this is out, right? 

Good god, that cover!

Beardsley, Carmen Maria Machado, Gothic Eurowesterns

Erections, buttocks and beheadings: it's an Aubrey Beardsley blockbuster
- Jonathan Jones, The Guardian

A Perfectly Normal Interview with Carmen Maria Machado Where Everything is Fine
- Theodore McCombs, Electric Literature

Gothic Eurowesterns: A Grotesque Perspective on a Hollywood Myth
- Evert Jan van Leeuwen, Bright Lights

Jojen Paste and All Your Other Game of Thrones Needs

"Did...I get eaten??"

With only two more episodes left until Game of Thrones concludes, it feels like Thronz Mania is in full swing. If you need a source for episode recaps, livestream chats, and fan-theory summary, I think you could do worse than checking out the Alt Shift X Youtube channel.

(It also covers other shows like Westworld, but nobody is really excited about that, right?)

Here's my favorite insane theory Jojen Paste: Does Bran Eat Jojen?

A Drug-Fueled Ship Sailing the Silver Sea

(continuing the adventure that started here and then continued here.)

Setting & System: Cinderheim, 5e D&D

Characters: Warleader Kro (human barbarian), Sylvester Tremaine (human mystic), Blatherskite (kenku fighter), Lilai (human cleric)

Events: A lot of time has lapsed since this part of the adventure was played; I'm going on hazy memories here, but this is what I remember happening:

Lilai took an instant dislike to Petros. She sidled up to him casually, then kicked his barbed staff across the room and brought her maul down on him.The group's combined efforts took him out swiftly. That wet degenerate never had a chance.

While exploring further, the party found a kitchen in which robed skeletons were mechanically chopping vegetables and adding them to a simmering stew pot. Warleader Kro ate the stew to no ill effects, although he has now unwittingly committed cannibalism.

In the back of the larder, the group discovered another member of Kro and Sylvester's mercenary band hanging by meat hooks that pierced his ankles. The body appeared to have been drained of blood. Sylvester and Lilai tried to get him down but the body began to shudder and convulse as it came to unlife and attacked. The skeletons from the kitchen joined the fray, but a well-timed turn undead stemmed the tide.

The search for intoxicants with which to fuel the vessel they discovered in the prior session continued. The smell of opium greeted the party as they discovered another young dancer blissed out of her mind in her bedroom. They took her stash, and Kro slung her over his shoulder.

However, Lilai felt that they had unfinished business with Navara. Navara felt the same way; she was waiting for them in one of the central tower chambers. Since they were unwilling to do her bidding, combat witht he group was inevitable. Navara's limbs turned into hideous flesh-whips tipped with demonic barbs. Blatherskite was nearly felled when one of those barbs caught him and sent poison coursing through his body. Lilai was also pierced by one of the barbs, but instead of being poisoned she was cursed. She now bears a demonic mark upon her skin that she is not best pleased by. And yet, Navara was ultimately no match for the party that opposed her.

Returning to the vessel, the group fed opium into the ship's "control maw." Acrid smoke filled the interior of the vessel, which sighed contentedly. Then, suddenly, the ship was no longer in the stone chamber in which it was discovered; it was now sailing a silver sea.
After a few hours, the vessel exited the silver sea and appeared in a cavern. A passage was carved in the rock, and a number of rope ladders run down from apertures in the cave's ceiling where the light of the demon sun streamed into the chamber.

The characters climbed the rope ladders to get some idea of where they were. At the top, all they could see was sand and desert stretching as far as the eye could see. However, they also realized that the "cave" below was the interior of a great statue. The apertures they had ascended through were the statue's eyes and nostrils. The rest of the statue's body was buried in an enormous sand dune.

They descended into the cave to explore and were greeted with a horrific smell that was like a combination of spoiled milk and rotting rice. They surprised the source of the stench as they stumbled into a den of troglodytes who fled at their approach. Sylvester's attempts to communicate psionically were no use; the trogs ran for it and attempted to steal away with their treasury (but only secured about half) before collapsing a passage behind them in a rain of rubble.

Currently, the characters are regrouping within the "cave system" with other passages yet to be glimpsed.