Weekly Briefing from the North Texas Apocalypse Bunker, 6/10/23
Shakespearian Shenanigans Edition
The boys down in the Bureau of Vital Statistics have informed us that while the calendar indeed points to the arrival of Summer, the weather has continued to behave as if it were mid-May. Their conclusion: it’s a sneak attack. Their extended forecast calls for being able to roast a small pig on the sidewalk this Fourth of July weekend, and we will not refute those prognostications, preferring instead to remain in the shady grotto of the trusty apocalypse bunker.
Field Report: The Backdoor Theatre, Drunk Midsummer
By the time most of you read this, I’ll be half in the bag, awaiting my triumphant return to the Backdoor Theatre Main Stage, wherein I’ll but one of the many talented actors bringing Shakespeare’s most hippy-trippy of plays, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, to that cultural bastion of North Texas, downtown Wichita Falls.
To help ease the transitional shock and cultural chasm that would develop from dropping fairy queens, Iambic Pentameter, and general British frivolity into the quagmire of Wichita Falls, we will be performing the Bard’s most famous acid-trip drunk. Snockered. Blotto. Three sheets. Pickled.
That’s right, all of the actors will have scripts in hand, trying like hell to keep it together, as the audience, themselves in mid-bender (or at the very least, slightly unwound) will be watching us miss our marks, our cues, our stage directions and try to keep the play on something resembling two of its four wheels.
This is my first acting gig in, oh, let’s call it six years. You likely know as to why this is, but if you don’t, just search out my old blog for all of the details. I am quite excited to do this show; it’s a great ‘half-step out,’ meaning it’s a lesser commitment than the usual play, and one that gives me a chance to get back onstage in a friendly fashion without worrying about my physical appearance or dealing with old ghosts.
I snapped a few pictures of the cast at Dress Rehearsal last night—we won’t get any pics of the actual show, as we’ll be in our cups and quite unwilling to show anyone our drunk face. Tickets are very sold out, and we’re thrilled about that. I hope we get to do this again. It’s been a blast to work on and I’m looking forward to the show. Well, what I’ll remember of it, anyway.
Project Report: Literary Repatriation is Live!
After last week’s field excursion to the Fury Road Killing Fields of the Metroplex (the details of which can be found here, I can report that the launch of the N.T.A.B. Literary Repatriation Project was a resounding success.
The purpose of the project is simple: we have, since combining our bunkers, an embarrassing excess of books, by which I mean, there’s a lot of overlap. Also, my own paperback rescue project had been sidelined by various personal problems and public pandemics. I was still finding and rescuing certain books in the wild, but they were not being relocated to loving homes.
Thus the Literary Repatriation Project was born. These books have been deaccessioned from the library archives, or if you prefer, removed from circulation. Now, they still bear some of the markings of their time in the N.T.A.B. library, but we feel that adds to the charm. They have been packaged blind, and are to be distributed to any subscriber of the newsletter that desires one. You won’t know what book you’re going to get, and that’s part of the fun. If you find it’s a title that does not speak to you, or that you already have the book, that’s okay—simply give it to your friend or colleague you think would best benefit from a random book taken out of an Apocalypse Bunker Library.
We used the field excursion to North Texas RPG Con to give away a number of these parcels, and we were met with the appropriate amount of wonder, gratitude and excitement upon opening their mystery packages. They were also given stickers to acknowledge they participated in the project!
If you’d like to receive one of these books and thus earn your badge of completion, simply send your physical mailing address to: NTABLibrary@gmail.com and we’ll mail your N.T.A.B.L.R.P. book to you. Also: if you post a picture of yourself with the book or otherwise mention the book and the project on your social media feeds, we will send you another badge for your promotional efforts. Who doesn’t like stickers?
Trend Notes: Sword and Sorcery on the Upswing
The boys in statistics have been busy of late, taking note of the re-emergence of an old trend, the sub-genre of fantasy known as Sword and Sorcery, a term that was coined by none other than Fritz Lieber to describe the picaresque, low magic strain of heroic fantasy that Robert E. Howard was best known for, but that also applied to his own work, and that of Michael Moorcock, Karl Edward Wagner, and many others. Its pinnacle was reached sometime in the mid- to late-1980s, fueled by the emergence of what I call Pop Culture Conan and the seemingly endless stream of oiled musclemen who “acted” their way through a number of direct-to-VHS masterpieces on a special effects budget equal to somewhere south of the price of a used Datsun.
To wit: there are a number of sword and sorcery anthologies forthcoming, and several magazines devoted to stories in that vein, such as Tales From the Magician’s Skull and the forthcoming New Edge Sword and Sorcery.
There are also a number of games being produced, such as The Black Sword Hack and the forthcoming Wasted Lands: The Dreaming Age which has not yet launched, so please go watch the trailer for the game and sign up for updates. The game designer, Jason Vey, is a tried-and-true Robert E. Howard fan from way back and he knows his stuff. Check it out.
We at the N.T.A.B. applaud and fully support these new iterations of sword and sorcery and recommend that you try them out for yourself, particularly if you are tired of epic fantasy with simplified morality and daunting, world-ending stakes. Whether you go back to the original architects: Robert E. Howard, Fritz Lieber, Karl Edward Wagner, Michael Moorcock, et.al., or try out any of the new voices such as Scott Oden, Howard Andrew Jones, Christopher Buehlman, Joe Abercrombie, et.al. you’ll find the swinging steel and fast action a perfect tonic for escaping the drudgery of the real world.
Thanks for the sword and sorcery game info. I just signed up for updates for the Wasted Lands: The Dreaming Age kickstarter!
I applaud your booksharing but I already have more books than I can read in the next five years and would feel gulty depriving somoeone else of books.