Here I am in provence with my friends Jason and Yuka, and our kitty Peter. I survived the tedious cramped flight from Toronto to Paris, the seven hour wait at the train station at CDG, and the four hour train to Aix-en-provence.

The 30 minute drive from Aix to Puyloubier took 2 hours thanks to Jason's marvelous sense of direction, not helped by the fact that it was dark on the back roads. Puyloubier is a small village of about 1000 people with Mt. Saint Victoire on one side and vineyards on the other sides. We've been feasting on french bread, a variety of cheeses and and lots of local wine.

We're in a farmer's house on the main street, not far from the cafe and the winery.

The weather has been beautiful, sunny with a pleasant breeze.

And here, below, are some photos, that I took and that jason has uploaded to Flick



I've started a whole set on provence that I'll be adding to over the week.

I am leaving tonight for Europe. Vacation begins in Provence, followed by a few days in Barcelona and a 12-day Mediterranean cruise. Yippee!!

I hope to be able to post details to this blog along the way - maybe even a few photos.

Sorry, Dracula fans, but I am not talking about THOSE bats! I am trying to recover from a state of shock induced by the dreadful performance of my beloved Toronto Blue Jays.

Here we are at the beginning of May and they are in last place in their division. Following a recent 6-game losing streak, they finally won a game (OK, so it was against the Kansas City Royals - but a win is a win is a win...). Since that, they have lost 2 straight to the Red Sox, both by one run and both in spite of superb pitching performances.

So what's the problem? It's those pesky bats! The offense sucks big time. It's rather difficult to win a game if you cannot score a run. The Blue Jay hitters have been especially pathetic with runners on base.

They play the Red Sox again tonight. I hope the bats come out.

This item just crossed my desk. Looks interesting. I'd love to attend but on May 15-16 I will be in Provence on my way to Barcelona and a 12-day Med cruise!

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Hi Friends and Colleagues: We'd just like to draw your attention to the conference details listed below. All are welcome, and attendance is free, but places are limited so please do get in touch with us soon if you would like to attend, and if you could foward this to anyone who else who might be interested, we'd really appreciate it.

All the best,

Bernice and Elizabeth.

It Came from the 1950s: Popular Culture, Popular Anxieties.

In association with Trinity College Dublin and the School of English’s MPhil in Popular Literature we are delighted to announce that a conference on the theme of 1950s Popular Culture is to be held in Dublin on the 15th and 16th of May 2008. To find out more, please follow this link to our conference homepage: http://1950spopularculture.homestead.com/index.html

Our main speakers are:

DAVID J. SKAL: An author and filmmaker, Skal's publications include Hollywood Gothic: The Tangled Web of Dracula From Novel to Stage to Screen (1990), The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror (1993), V is for Vampire (1995), Dark Carnival: The Secret World of Tod Browning (1995 with Elias Savada), the Norton Critical Edition of Bram Stoker's Dracula (1996, co-edited with Nina Auerbach), Screams of Reason: Mad Science and Modern Culture (1997) and the anthology Vampires: Encounters with the Undead (2001).

CYNDY HENDERSHOT: An Associate Professor in the Department of English and Philosophy at Arkansas State University. Hendershot has written widely on American Popular Culture, and particularly the 1950s. Her publications include Anti-Communism and Popular Culture in Mid-Century America (2002), The Animal Within: Masculinity and the Gothic (1998) I Was a Cold War Monster: Horror Films, Eroticism, and the Cold War Imagination (2001).

WAYNE KINSEY: Author of the definitive 2 volume history of Hammer Studios - Hammer Films: The Bray Studios Years (2002), which charts the history of the studio from the 1950s and early 1960s and Hammer Films: The Elstree Studio Years (2007).

KIM NEWMAN: Novelist, Film Critic and Broadcaster, whose non-fiction publications include Nightmare Movies, Ghastly Beyond Belief (with Neil Gaiman), Horror: 100 Best Books (with Stephen Jones), Wild West Movies, The BFI Companion to Horror, Millennium Movies and BFI Classics studies of Cat People and Doctor Who.

The conference is admission free and all are welcome! There are however a limited number of spaces available, so if you are interested in attending contact us at: popularculture1950sconference@yahoo.co.uk to reserve a place.

Conference organisers: Dr Darryl Jones, Dr Elizabeth McCarthy, and Dr Bernice M. Murphy, School of English, Trinity College Dublin 2, Ireland.


The Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies: http://irishgothichorrorjournal.homestead.com/

UPDATED April 20

June 27 is fast approaching. In Bay Roberts, the focus will be on my father - Ted Russell - and his creation, Pigeon Inlet.



Plans are well underway for the gala concert in the evening featuring Kelly Russell and friends - including former members of FIGGY DUFF!

For an update, visit http://www.pigeoninlet.ca

For tickets ($15 adult, $12 Child - HST included) e-mail pigeoninlet@bayroberts.com or phone 709-786-2126.

This is something you will NOT want to miss!

The following is an obituary for my friend Anne Fraser who died Thursday night. This will appear in Monday's edition of the Toronto Star. Anne will be sorely missed by her many friends both in the Toronto area and around the world. Rest in peace, dear one.

Fraser, Anne Elizabeth

Peacefully passed away on Thursday April 3, 2008 surrounded by her close friends and family after a courageous battle with cancer at St. Joseph's Health Centre. Anne was a loyal friend, an amazing aunt, an award winning author of short stories and was in the process of publishing her first novel. Loving daughter of Miriam. Cherished sister of Andy (Kerry). "Auntie Anne" to Lindsey and Kelsey. Anne will always be remembered by her extended family and friends. To celebrate her life Anne's family would like to invite friends to a gathering on Wednesday April 9th, 2008 from 6 to 7pm at the Ridley Funeral Home, 3080 Lake Shore Blvd. W. (between Islington and Kipling Aves., at 14th St., 416-259-3705). A Celebration will take place at 7pm. Cremation to follow. At Anne's request in lieu of flowers donations may be made to the Canadian Cancer Society or to a Charity of Your Choice.

Messages of Condolence may be placed at www.RidleyFuneralHome.com

 

The Lord Ruthven Assembly, named after the vampire in John Polidori’s “The Vampyre” (1819), recently announced its awards for 2007 at the annual banquet of the International Conference of the Fantastic in the Arts (held in Orlando).

 

The winner in the category of fiction is The Un-Dead: The Dracula novel, rewritten to include Stoker's deleted characters and events by Joel H. Emerson (Xlibris, 2007). In a most original work, Emerson not only reinserts Stoker’s deletions but manages to add major sections to the original, adhering to Stoker’s style, weaknesses and all.

 

Honorable Mention in the Fiction category goes to Baltimore; or The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire by Mike Mignola & Christopher Golden.

 

The winner for non-fiction is David Keyworth, for Troublesome Corpses: Vampires and Revenants from Antiquity to the Present (Desert Island Books, 2007). In this extensive piece of scholarship, Keyworth examines the vampire of folklore through the lens of theology and compares vampires to other undead creatures.

The Media award goes to Anthony Bourdain for No Reservations: Romania. This food/travel show irreverently captures a trip to Romania/Transylvania and a host of disasters well known to those who have been there.

I've been in Florida for the past week. Yes, Florida - the state that, better than all others, knows how to screw up an election!

But I didn't come here to vote. Last week I attended the annual International Conference of the Fantastic in the Arts, held this year in Orlando. I've been attending this event regularly since 1992. This conference brings together scholars and writers in the fields of fantasy, science fiction, and horror literature. A significant contingent of the latter category comprised several scholars of Dracula and vampires. This year, the "old reliables" were joined by a number of young, enthusiastic students whose work bodes well for the future of "vampire studies".

My own presentation was on Bram Stoker's Dracula Notes, which Robert Eighteen-Bisang and I have been working on for an upcoming publication from McFarland. I gave some background about the Notes as well as an overview of the forthcoming facsmile edition (with transcriptions and annotations galore) and used several pages for illustration. The presentation seems to have gone over quite well - a large crowd was in attendance and the post-paper discussion was lively. It helped that the other presenter in the session (film historian Lokke Heiss) had treated us to an excerpt (with commentary) from Orson Welles' reading of Dracula. 

Now I must head back outside and enjoy the Florida sunshine. And yes, Dracula CAN walk about during daylight, in spite of the movies.... In Stoker's novel, there are at least nine occasions throughout the text when the Count is up and about during daylight hours. 

Are you in Newfoundland? Or will you be there on June 27th? If the answer to either of these questions is “yes,” then this might interest you.

"Celebrating Ted Russell and Pigeon Inlet" is a project undertaken by a group of enterprising residents of the town of Bay Roberts to celebrate the life and work of one of their most famous native sons, Newfoundland author and humorist Ted Russell, creator of “The Chronicles of Uncle Mose”. The official ceremony will take place on Friday, June 27, to be followed by “A Time in Pigeon Inlet” featuring story-telling, traditional Newfoundland music and dancing with well known musician Kelly Russell and friends.

Kelly Russell is Ted’s son and I am one of Ted’s four daughters. The others are as follows: Rhona (Kooskia, Idaho), June (Northwest River, Labrador), and Peggy (Lake Placid, Florida). All of us will be attending the launch.

The events on June 27 mark just the first stage of this ambitious project. For further details, check the following websites.

http://www.bayroberts.com
http://unclemose.wordpress.com
http://www.pigeoninlet.com

Flanker Press (http://www.flankerpress.com) has published both my biography of dad entitled Uncle Mose: The Life of Ted Russell and The Chronicles of Uncle Mose, a selection of 75 of his best stories.

Earlier this week, I took a short trip to Montreal to give a lecture (on Dracula, of course) to a class at Dawson College. Normally, I would have driven the 5-6 hours from Toronto – but there is nothing “normal” about this winter. It’s been very snowy, both here in Toronto and in Montreal. So I took the train.

For the Toronto-Montreal trip, it’s actually faster to go by train than to fly, when one factors in getting to the airport, being there early enough to go through security, etc, experiencing the inevitable flight departure delays, and having to get to downtown Montreal from Trudeau airport.

Train is my favorite means of travel. Unfortunately, it’s not always convenient (or even possible) to take the train, but I do so as often as I can. My earliest experiences with trains were with the “Newfie Bullet”, a train that earned its nickname because it took 24 hours to cross the island of Newfoundland on a narrow-gauge track from St John’s to Port-aux-Basques, a distance of about 560 miles. There was a standard joke about the Bullet: at one long upgrade in central Newfoundland, the train traveled so slowly that if a passenger jumped off from a front car, he’d have time to pick a quart of blueberries and hop back onto the caboose!

I traveled on the Bullet several times between 1954 and 1968. My last time aboard (in 1968) was as part of a train trip from St John’s all the way to Jasper, Alberta (5 days). In the following year, the cross-Newfoundland passenger service came to an end.

Over the years I have enjoyed train rides on many other routes including Halifax to Toronto, Miami to New York, Whittier to Denali (Alaska), London to York, Budapest to Bucharest, and Moscow to St Petersburg.

I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for trains. All aboard!