Stuff: “Scaled, forked-tongued Lizarde Men from the Deepe” and other hazards of life in the Royal Navy.

This is one of the most disappointing stories ever, but I share it here because I think there's a nifty idea behind it. Apparently, there was a long-standing rumor that the Royal Navy's archive of ship's logs contained a special collection of logs detailing the Royal Navy's various encounters with sea monsters. Sadly, this turned out to be BS. Here' the entire article from The Military Times's "Scoop Deck" blog:

Do the archives of the Royal Navy include volume after gilt-edged volume detailing secret encounters between Her Majesty’s warships and horrifying sea creatures? Do archivists in catacombs deep below Whitehall maintain stacks of leather-bound books with reports about ships battling giant squid, or sea dragons, or the dreaded kraken? Are there pages upon pages of hand-drawn sketches or official — but censored — woodcuts depicting men ‘o war being pulled under the waves by enormous tentacles?

In one of the lamest and most disappointing answers in history: No.

The Ministry of Defence says it has no centralized records of ships’ reports about sea monsters or other unusual maritime creatures. Officials acknowledge there may be interesting details in individual ships’ logs, but there is no immense room with immense, floor-to-ceiling shelves full of 18th Century-era reports like the one about the frigate HMS Sabre, which was lost off the Seychelles after the ship was overrun by what its surviving crew members called “Scaled, forked-tongued Lizarde Men from the Deepe.”

That said, what a cool idea for a novel series. Creative types, I give you the freebie, now scribble fast and get first to market.

Movies: After our Tigeropotomus project fell through . . .

Karen O'Hara, Syfy Channel's director of original movies, just dropped this tweet earlier this week:

Just got off the phone with the legendary Roger Corman who's doing a new movie for us this year. Yes, it's the long-rumored SHARKTOPUS! . . . Spent half an hour discussing what a sharktopus should look like, how many mouths it should have and how it should kill.

This shocks the hell out of me. I find it hard to believe that a whole 30 minutes of conceptual planning would ever go into a Syfy Original Movie.

Thanks to Dave for calling this to my attention.

Music: "The Old Man and the Sea Monster," plus "Enter the Laggin'""

With its puppetry and disarmingly low-fi effects, the video for Feist's melancholy "Honey Honey" is a grim fairy tale that recalls the somber folk tales of Northern Europe. Plus, it's got a sea monster. That's pretty awesome.



On a lighter note . . .

Though perhaps not very horror related, this Old 97's video has some geek cred. Thrill to the fightastic action as one somewhat out of shape, asthmatic, BSG-lovin', World of Warcraft guildin' dofus opens up an economy-sized can of whoop-ass on a nightclub full of bouncer thugs!



I actually like the Walter Mitty-ish end. Furnishes the thing with a nice little comedic barb on its tail.

Stuff: Sea monster attacks Manhattan again!

A trailer for Cloverfield 2: Clover Harder? Not quite. This collapsible fabric Nessie sculpture was installed over a Manhattan street grate. The rushing wind of subway trains passing underneath inflated the beastie.



The artist, Joshua Allen Harris, has made numerous inflatable sculptures in various locations around NYC. You can check out his polar bear and a garden of oddly plant-shaped monsters here.