There weren’t too many thrills. This magazine was published once in 1939 and that was it.
Author Archives: Dazzling Erin
Artwork of the Day: Fireside Ghost Stories (by W.J. Roberts)
Artwork of the Day: Gripping Terror! (by Oliver Brabbins)
So, I Watched Kill Shot (1995, Dir. by Nelson McCormick)
A group of college students all live in a California apartment complex that’s owned by Jake Mondello (Gianni Russo), who also owns a restaurant and sponsors a beach volleyball team. From the description that I read of the movie’s plot, I thought there would be a lot more beach volleyball and, from the title, I thought there would be a lot more thrills. Turns out I was wrong on both counts.
It’s pretty obvious that this was a pilot for a tv show that was inspired by Melrose Place. A lot of characters are introduced and they’re all shallow but pretty. Just like with Melrose Place, everyone has a drama and everyone has someone that they like but who they can’t tell about their feelings. Casper Van Dein is the most recognizable person in the cast. He plays a rich boy who likes to play volleyball and who falls for a poor girl. Other characters include Jacqueline Collen as a former volleyball star who is going back to college and who is being stalked by her ex (Jack Scalia), Catherine Lazo as the med student who loses her scholarship, and Ria Pavia as an abrasive science student who falls in love with her new roommate (Mushond Lee), even though he’s gay. Ernie Reyes, Jr. plays Koji, who is a computer nerd who says stuff like, “I just got a new CD-rom game.” He’s so good with computers that the police turn to him to help track phone calls and match finger prints. Denise Richards appears for two seconds and smiles at Casper. Gianni Russo is the worst actor in the movie but everyone loves Jake because Russo also wrote the script.
This was largely plotless and pointless. Casper was nice to look at but I didn’t care about any of the characters. There is a big beach volleyball game at the end but it only lasts for a few minutes and it was impossible to tell who was winning. One important character is taken out by a kill shot but no one notices. Watching the movie made me hate both the beach and volleyball.
And Then There Were Four
For the first time in years, I don’t have a team in the MLB post-season.
My beloved Rangers won their first World Series last year but they didn’t even make the playoffs this year. I wasn’t happy about having to support the Astros but, since they were the only Texas team left, I cheered for them until they were eliminated in the Wild Card.
With the League Championships starting later today, there are four teams left. Playing in the ALCS will be the Yankees and the Indians Guardians. Meanwhile, the Dodgers and the Mets will be competing for the National League Championship and the right to move on to the World Series.
I’ve given it a lot of thought and, out of those four, I’ll be cheering for the Guardians. I thought it was a largely performative and dumb move for Cleveland to change their team’s name but, of all four teams left, the Indians-turned-Guardians have gone the longest without a World Series win. The last time Cleveland won the World Series was in 1948! For Cleveland to finally win another World Series after a 76-year draught would be a great baseball story. Who knows? If the Guardians win, maybe it will cause all the other teams that have struggled to make it to or win the post-season to change their names too.
Good luck to all four teams in the Championship Series!
Go Guardians!
Artwork of the Day: Clues (by Edgar Whittmack)
The Covers of Science Fiction Adventures
In the 1950s, there was actually two magazines called Science Fiction Adventures. Neither one of them ran for very long. The first Science Fiction Adventures lasted for two years, from 1952 to 1954 and it was canceled due to low sales. The name was then used for another magazine, that ran from 1956 to 1958 and which was also canceled for low sales. After the second cancellation, publishers got the hint and didn’t use the name again.
Below is a handful of covers from both versions of Science Fiction Adventures.
Artwork of the Day: Argosy (by Paul Stahr)
Artwork of the Day: Detective Fiction (Artist Unknown)
Artwork of the Day: Hollywood Detective (by Hugh Joseph Ward)
















