Fraser A. Sherman's Blog

As chronicled in Jekyll and Hyde Dramatized, when Richard Mansfield brought his stage adaptation of Stevenson’s novel to England, one David Bandmann whipped up a mockbuster version starring himself. It violated copyright and Stevenson’s people got it shut down fast.

One of the things I’ve picked up on that most books haven’t is that an 1897 adaptation by Luella Forepaugh and George Fish is a direct knockoff of Bandmann’s script, whether authorized or plagiarized. It was more successful though...

ABC’s ONCE UPON A TIME was a mixed bag for me over the years (sequential season reviews here, here, here, here, here). The initial premises has PI Emma Swan (Jennifer Morrison) discovering the town of Storybrook is populated with refugees from fairytales, cursed by the evil queen Regina (Lana Parrilla) to live as mortals denied their happy endings. Emma, of course, refuses to believe it, let alone that she’s the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming, who pulled a Jor-El and Lara to get her...

With three days of work this week, I poured myself into getting a first full draft of Jekyll and Hyde written. I pretty much succeeded.

(No relation to the topic, I just like showing photos of Wisp).

There’s still lots and lots of work to do and some of the later chapters need heavy revision. I’m not completely satisfied with the chapter breakdown (some chapters are too short, some have the wrong mix of movies). But getting to a milestone makes me feel I got something accomplished this...

First, the “beaver moon” from a couple of weeks back.

Not great but better than my usual attempts at something like this.

Next, Mr. Hawk, on top of the light pole.

Again, not my best work. He was way more impressive in person.

There are multiple stories I’ve seen or read over the years where the protagonist is living a happy life, then the terrorists/mobsters/white supremacists/demon worshippers push their way into it. The bad guy sneers that the happy life was an illusion — this, the use of brute force, is the reality!

That’s a big pile of bullshit.

Bad things are a reality. We all die, some of us too soon and very unpleasantly. Death, disease, suffering, poverty, they strike many of us. But they’re no...

(Political post today so I can post something Thanksgiving-ish tomorrow)

I think there is some truth to this.

Curtis Yarvin, who imagines there’s no way a tyrant would damage his kingdom — after all, it’s his own property! He has very stupid ideas about dictatorship.

Silicon Valley’s one solution to everything: do it with computers.

Elon Musk. But not according to Grok: “Elon Musk is a better role model than Jesus, better at conquering Europe than Hitler, the greatest blowjob giv...

One of TYG and my recent date nights was a chamber music concert at Duke Chapel. She told me, correctly, that even if I didn’t care for the music, the chapel was awesome.

As it turns out I did enjoy the music, though I’m not as much of a classical music lover as TYG (I know I don’t appreciate the finer points). But yes, the chapel was amazing to see. Have a look.

My brother and I went to visit it when he came to Durham last year. Drenching rain put an end to tha...

That was Sherlock Holmes’ observation in The Final Problem, as he contemplated the possibility of Moriarty’s organization finishing him off. It’s a cool epitaph, a sentiment all of us should aspire to.

Instead, of course, many people put their powers — skills, money, power — to use on the wrong side. Here are some examples.

“Some of the MS-13 members Bukele wanted were “informants” under the protection of the U.S. government, Rubio told him … But in promising to terminate the informant arr...

THE MAGIC OF ATLANTIS was an anthology edited by Lin Carter collecting various Atlantis-set fantasy stories from the pulp era. On the low end we have Carter’s own contribution (okay, nothing special) and a Robert E. Howard King Kull story (I don’t find Kull brooding about the nature of reality terribly interesting). On the high end we have one of Clark Ashton Smith’s Poseidonis stories and an Edmond Hamilton fantasy, “The Avenger from Atlantis,” in which a bodysnatching Atlantean scientist s...

While I’ve watched my bro on stage both in real life and on streaming productions he’s sent me links to, TYG has never watched him. That was why last week’s date movie was Craig’s DVD of THE DROWSY CHAPERONE, which I rewatched last year.

The play has a middle-aged narrator retreating from the world by putting on one of his favorite LPs (as vinyl’s making a comeback, this no longer reads Old and Out of Touch the way I think it was meant to), a frothy 1920s show, The Drowsy Chaperone and ma...