Burning Zeppelin Experience

Burning Zeppelin Experience
This blog provides creative prompts for creative writing that have been quite interesting. We kind of got derailed in our efforts along these lines due to the A-to-Z Challenge, but as that craziness has passed, we're planning on returning to this site for a few more good prompts, like This One, and the micro-story that resulted HERE.

B-Movies on the Brain

We love B-Movies. Usually. Even the ones like White Zombie from the Golden Age of the B Movie, the ones that came before the big transition in the 1950s. And who doesn't enjoy some low quality Seventies Exploitation movies once in a while? It's not just Tarrantino who watches this crap. Then there's all the B-Movie stuff that came out around the Eighties and of course the devolution of the form into the dreaded Z-movie. But we already slipped-in a link for the remake of Plan 9 From Outer Space last time, so we'll just skip ahead to B Movies again. Gotta stay on track. We're on a schedule. There's a ton of B-Movie goodness (and badness) over at B-Movie Central. Sometimes they just make our heads hurt. Like these wonderful specimens of cerebrophagy and other Brain-related weirdness.

Eat Brains. Nope, it's not Thrakkorzog, but if you do watch this thing, you'll probably wish it was the Tick's brain-eating supervillain's home movies instead. But hey any movie that promises "Crawling, Slimy Things Terror-Bent on Destroying the World!" --with an exclamation mark!-- can't be all bad. Well, not unless you watch it. But the idea of crawly, slimy, brain-nibbling misanthropes does have a lurid sort of appeal to it, at least from a monster-designing standpoint...

Not quite Lovecraft, and no ultraterrene fungi from yuggoth or any other such exotic locale were harmed in the making of this amazingly dull non-epic. In fact, watching this B-movie will make you even more inclined to watch the HPLHS Motion Picture release of The Whisperer in Darkness.

Disembodied heads/brains--sure it's been done before, but it's still creepy, weird, and could make for a truly memorable encounter whether you're in Zalchis, Planet Algol or some safer, kinder, gentler place...

The Brain is one of the mostly-lost and discarded movies from the VHS era that only shows up occasionally, like a mysterious rash. Everything you could want to know about this movie is available at the aptly named Bad Movies site. If that isn't quite enough badness for your brain, you can also go over to Amoeba Blog and wallow in even more Brain-ness.
We might stat-up a Brain-thing as a monster for one or another system, if we get the chance. And we get bored. Really bored.

A is for Acephali, B is for Blemmyes

Acephali are a legendary race of people who were reported by various dead old naturalists as having no head. The Greeks claimed that these people lived in Libya. In some respects they resemble the Blemmyae that Pliny talked about, but there are also some actual specimens of actual acephalic types. The term has also been used in the past to refer to those without any lands, or to those groups that lacked a leader, being in effect 'headless.' It's an interesting term. It brings to mind several intriguing options that we shall explore below, and elsewhere.

Some links regarding Acephali

• Wikipedia on Acephali
• Muses' Realm on the Acephali from Mythology
• The Encyclopedia Mythica at Pantheon on Acephali
• Wiktionary on Acephali -- this one is a little more helpful in sorting out the various sub-types
• Freedictionary on Acephali -- but hey, it's free, right?
• The Catholic Encyclopedia at New Advent site: very helpful on the ecclesiastical end of things
• Theoi.com really puts it all together nicely--the Acephali and the Blemmyes--they're essentially the same critter, historically, legendarily, but not necessarily for our nefarious purposes...and they add the Sternopthalmoi to the mix. More monsters are always cool, right?

So the Acephali are also the Blemmyes, at least in terms of the root legends.

Some links regarding Blemmyes

• Wikipedia on Blemmyes
• Freedictionary has a bit more to offer us on Blemmyes
• Wiktionary wants an entry, maybe some other time
• Encyclopedia Mythica on Blemmyes. A whole sentence. Wow.
• We have no Blemmyes at Muses' Realm, but they do have loads of other mythical creatures

There is a nice Monstrous Races or Fantastic Tribes group at Flikr that shows off a bunch of old Acephali and Blemmyes images from a variety of sources. It beats trying to track down medieval manuscript illustrations one at a time. Really.

So looking over these various links, a few books that we have on hand and after a trip to the local library, here is a quick-list of monsters we're going to stat-up for Labyrinth Lord, Mutant Future, Humanspace Monkeyspace Empires and possibly some other systems:

Acephali

• Acephali for Labyrinth Lord  Two Sub-Types of Acephali at Zalchis
• Acephali for OD&D/Swords & Wizardry
• Acephali as a mutation for Mutant Future: ---

Blemmyes

• Blemmyes for Labyrinth Lord
• Blemmyes for OD&D/Swords & Wizardry
• Blemmyae as a mutation for Mutant Future: ---

Pseudo-Acephali

• Pseudo-Acephali for Labyrinth Lord
• Pseudo-Acephali for OD&D/Swords & Wizardry
• 'Removable Head' as a mutation for Mutant Future: ---

Sternopthalmoi

• Sternopthalmoi for Labyrinth Lord
• Sternopthalmoi for OD&D/Swords & Wizardry
• 'Chest Eyes' as a mutation for Mutant Future:  ---

(We'll leave Anthropophagi, Arimaspsians, and those other As for another post. Though you might want to look at There's Dungeons Down Under for another nifty bit of RPG Anthropophagy from The Arid Coast.)

 We'll update the links here as the other posts go live.

Resource Links: B

Last Updated: February 9, 2014

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Bad Astronomy

Loads of good real-science stuff written by a guy who isn't boring.

Balthasar Gracian's Art of Worldly Wisdom

We read this newsletter every day.

Ralph Bakshi's Blog

Yeah, the guy who did Fritz the Cat, Wizards, and the first rotoscope version of LotR...and that Fire & Ice movie that we just saw at the Trylon...

The Best Bio of E. A. Poe ever. At least until we find a better one.

The Best Copyright-Free Photo Libraries is a handy reference over at the Dor Gov Watch site and details a bunch of online, public domain photos that are all yours for the low price of free.

This dovetails directly into Best Photos site, where besides the nice collections of flowers, mountains, etc. they have over a thousand uncategorized photos that might be more useful for potential RPG-type usage...just saying...

Beowulf Resources

I was researching Beowulf at one point. This site is particularly good, if you're likewise digging into this hoary old classic.

Beyond Victoriana

From the site: "Beyond Victoriana is the oldest-running blog about multicultural steampunk and retro-futurism--that is, steampunk outside of a Western-dominant, Eurocentric framework. Founded in 2009,Beyond Victoriana focuses on non-Western cultures, underrepresented minorities in Western histories (Asian / Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern, First Nation, Hispanic, black / African & other marginalized identities), and the cultural intersection between the West and the non-West."

Bibliodyssey 

This is an amazing blog that will let you while away the hours looking at all the pretty pictures--there is a very high Rabbit Hole Index on this one!

Bibliomania

A site that has over 2,000 ebooks for you...

Big Think 

This site will give you plenty to ponder.

Black Coat Press

All the cool French pulps, comics and more--translated into English.

Black Seas of Copyright

Essential information on the copyright realities of H. P. Lovecraft's fiction that we wish a lot of people had read/known about long, long ago...

Blackmoor Archives

The ultimate repository of Blackmoor Materials on the net.

Blueprints

This is a site that will give you access to all sorts of blueprints, diagrams, etc. You can request vector-versions of some of the schematics and diagrams as well. A thoroughly useful site. 

Boilerplate

One of the coolest robots you not have ever heard about. go here and find out all about this amazing specimen of mechanical manhood.

Bookforum

Packs a lot of interesting stuff into their website, and it is well worth taking a look at, especially if you've never spent a few hours reading through everything ...

Booklife Now

If you write, then read this blog. Really.

British Library

a treasure trove looted from across the world during the height of the largest and greatest empire in history (so far), and it's all made available to anyone, anywhere with the click of a mouse.

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