The Poppies of Terra #50 - Golden Jubilee

Half a hundred columns!

This seems like an opportune moment to look back on this series of commentaries as a whole.  

On occasion, through the writing of the preceding forty-nine pieces, some friendly reader who enjoyed one of these takes has asked me to point them toward a particular piece because they couldn't remember the title of the article. While titling these columns provides a not inconsiderable source of pleasure, I readily concede that the titles don’t always make it obvious what the subject under discussion is.

So, in order to celebrate this milestone entry, and at the same time do something useful for readers, I'm organizing this content in two ways:

1. I’ve created an index, split into two sections–Film Commentary and Book Commentary–, where titles are arranged in alphabetical order. These are linked to the pertinent columns for your convenience.

2. If you enjoy browsing, and want to get a sense of Poppies of Terra’s coverage in chronological order since its inception, below you will find capsule descriptions of each column. May your perusal turn up something of interest.

It’s been a joy to share my thoughts on all manner of topics since April 2023. Whether you’re a first-time reader or a loyal follower, thank you for your time and interest. Here’s looking forward to the next fifty!

Summaries:

#1 - New Ideas (2023-04-12)

Introduction to the column, explaining its name, and some general thoughts.  

#2 - Sound Familiar? (2023-04-26)

Voice cameos (“Sound Familiar”) and the sub-sub-genre of Director voice cameos (“Voice of God”), with some comments on Lee Cronin’s film Evil Dead Rise.

#3 - My Little Assistant Health Monitor (2023-05-10)

Ari Aster’s film Beau Is Afraid.

#4 - Who Will Drive Your Hearse? (2023-05-24)

Steven Wright’s novel Harold.

#5 - Boogeypalooza (2023-06-07)

Rob Savage’s film The Boogeyman.

#6 - No Foolish Heroics, If You Please (2023-06-21)

Andy Muschietti’s film The Flash.

#7 - They Were Making This Up As They Went (2023-07-05)

James Mangold’s film Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.

#8 - Red Door, Blue Pill (2023-07-19)

Patrick Wilson’s film Insidious: The Red Door.

#9 - Weaving Secrets (2023-08-02)

Samuel Bodin’s film Cobweb.

#10 - Four Score and Seven Exorcisms Ago (2023-08-16)

Nat Segaloff’s non-fiction book The Exorcist Legacy: 50 Years of Fear.

#11 - Animalia Farm (2023-08-30)

Trends in genre film scoring. Amine Bouhafa’s score for French-Moroccan science fiction film Animalia.

#12 - Fit For a King? (2023-09-13)

Daphné Baiwir’s documentary on Stephen King, King on Screen. A discussion of the notion of film adaptations.

#13 - Where the Greydads Sing (2023-09-27)

Brian Duffield’s film No One Will Save You.

#14 - Seven Haunted Train Cars (2023-10-11)

Seven horror films recent at the time of writing:

Kevin Greutert’ Saw X; Cru Ennis & Lee Roy Kunz’s Deliver Us; David Gordon Green’s Exorcist: Believer; Demián Rugna’s When Evil Lurks; Kitty Green’s The Royal Hotel; Lindsey Anderson Beer’s Pet Sematary: Bloodlines; Nahnatchka Khan’s Totally Killer.

#15 - Pigeon Tunnel Vision (2023-10-25)

Errol Morris’ documentary The Pigeon Tunnel. 

#16 - Happy Ninety (2023-11-08)

Five spooky pictures from 1933:

Michael Curtiz’s Mystery of the Wax Museum; A. Edward Sutherland’s Murders in the Zoo; Kurt Neumann’s The Secret of the Blue Room; Victor Halperin’s Supernatural; Ramón Peón’s La Llorona. 

#17 - Of Thumbs Opposable But Unopposed (2023-11-22)

Matt Singer’s non-fiction book Opposable Thumbs: How Siskel & Ebert Changed Movies Forever.

#18 - Adventures In Time (2023-12-06)

Coffee-table non-fiction book The Art of Classic Sci-Fi Movies: An Illustrated History, edited by Adam Newell.

#19 - Shadow Horror (2023-12-20)

The notion of Shadow Horror. Examples: Back to the Future & Totally Killer; Groundhog Day & Happy Death Day; Freaky Friday & Freaky; It’s a Wonderful Life & It’s a Wonderful Knife.

#20 - My Top 10 of 2023 (2024-01-03)

Top ten personal favorite films of 2023.

#21 - For All Fankind (2024-01-17)

Attending the Collider theatrical screening of For All Mankind’s Season 4 finale, “Perestroika”; meeting Bill Hunt and Robert Meyer Burnett. 

#22 - Orbiting Meaning (2024-01-31)

Samantha Harvey’s novel Orbital.

#23 - Novel Kid on the Block (2024-02-14)

My debut novel, Equimedian.

#24 - A Tale of Three Picards (2024-02-28)

Joe Fordham’s non-fiction book Star Trek: Picard: The Art and Making of the Series. 

#25 - Stream and Stream Again (2024-03-13)

Ian Hunt-Duffy’s film Double Blind; Anthony Cousins’ film Frogman. 

#26 - Sloane Crosley Is For People (2024-03-27)

Sloane Crosley’s memoir on loss Grief Is For People. 

#27 - Foreshadowing the Omen (2024-04-10)

Arkasha Stevenson’s film The First Omen.

#28 - Our Living World (2024-04-24)

Four-episode nature documentary series Our Living World.

#29 - Women! In! Peril! (2024-05-08)

Jessie Ren Marshall’s short story collection Women! In! Peril!.

#30 - I Saw I Saw the TV Glow (2024-05-22)

Jane Schoenbrun’s film I Saw the TV Glow.

#31 - Naughty By Nature (2024-06-05)

Chris Nash’s film In a Violent Nature.

#32 - Cinemaxtrapolation (2024-06-19)

Some reflections on the decline of traditional moviegoing; algorithm-driven content consumption; passive vs. active viewership; a future where AI personalizes film recommendations based on biometrics.

#33 - A Literary Tastemaker (2024-07-03)

Sara B. Franklin’s non-fiction book The Editor: How Publishing Legend Judith Jones Shaped Culture in America.

#34 - Filmmaking Generations (2024-07-17)

Ishana Night Shyamalan’s film The Watchers; Anthony Miller’s film The Exorcism; Oz Perkins’ film Longlegs; Zelda Williams’ film Lisa Frankenstein.

#35 - Dreams and Oddities (2024-07-31)

Pablo Berger’s animated film Robot Dreams and Damian Mc Carthy’s film Oddity.

#36 - My Mother (2024-08-14)

In Memoriam - Alicia Amaro Roldán (January 6th 1946 - August 10th 2024)

#37 - The March of Our Penguin Friends (2024-08-28)

David Schurmann’s My Penguin Friend, a family-friendly film inspired by true events, and recent penguin-centric documentaries.

#38 - Red Rooms (2024-09-11)

Pascal Plante’s film Red Rooms.  

#39 - How They Spent Their Summer (2024-09-25)

Chris Nashawaty’s non-fiction book The Future Was Now: Madmen, Mavericks, and the Epic Sci-Fi Summer of 1982. My personal bibliography of books related to the biggest films of 1982.

#40 - How Am I Not Myself? (2024-10-09)

Aaron Schimberg’s film A Different Man.

#41 - A Woman's Trek (2024-10-23)

Nana Visitor’s non-fiction book Star Trek: Open a Channel: A Woman’s Trek.

#42 - Music for a Lifetime (2024-11-06)

Laurent Bouzereau’s documentary Music by John Wiliams.

#43 - Hereditary Heresies (2024-11-20)

Scott Beck and Bryan Woods’ film Heretic.

#44 - Loscon and Found (2024-12-04)

Appearing on the 1,000th episode of Robservations; how to explore things non-algorithmically; attending Loscon 50; meeting Larry Nemecek.

#45 - Sony's Last Hunt? (2024-12-18)

Sony’s Spider-Man adjacent comic book films; J. C. Chandor’s Kraven the Hunter; ten interesting facts about Kraven the Hunter from the comic books.

#46 - We Suck Young Blood (2025-01-01)

The significance of the vampire figure in pop culture; Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu; top ten personal favorite vampire films.

#47 - My Top 10 Films of 2024 (2025-01-15)

Top ten personal favorite films of 2024.

#48 - Old Wolves, New Tricks (2025-01-29)

Leigh Whannel’s film Wolf Man and Steven Soderbergh’s film Presence.

#49 - Love Is In the Script (2025-02-12)

Drew Hancock’s film Companion and Josh Ruben’s film Heart Eyes.

#50 - Golden Jubilee (2025-02-26)

Capsule descriptions of the first forty-nine columns, and a link to an alphabetical index of films and books discussed.