Happy September!

Happy birthday to marthawells and aragornlover! May your next year be your very best yet.

And happy first day of September to everyone! My favorite time of year is just around the corner. How can I tell? I am told that Starbucks is offering pumpkin spice lattes again. * fist pump of triumph* Fall is coming soon, my friends - we can, quite literally, taste it!


I have a couple links to share:

* From Damien G. Walter: "Today is Support Our 'Zines Day!: How to Support Our 'Zines."

* From Brainplucker: "10 Sensational Sense of Wonder Covers from Vintage Science Magazines."

* From Unique Scoop: "101 Shirts for Scientists, Science Geeks, and Nerds."

* On the latest episode of The Sofanauts podcast, I am one of three guests in a roundtable discussion on "the week in science fiction news" along with Lawrence Santoro and Damien G. Walter. You can stream or download this episode here.


And in other news...

* Thanks to those of you who have taken part in my fall science fiction/fantasy television poll. It's still open, if you haven't voted and would like to do so.

* I've settled my schedule for which next upper-division seminars I'll be offering soon at Belmont.

In the spring, I'll be teaching "The American and the Frontier."
( Read the course description. )

In the summer, I'll be teaching a brand new course: "100 Years of Fiction About One-Sex Worlds."
( Read the course description. )

The upper-division seminar I'm currently teaching is "History and the Gothic Imagination."
( Read the course description. )

While thinking for this class about some moments in popular culture that were not framed as Gothic, but that clearly reflect the Gothic imagination, I thought of a classic music video that was all the rage back when I was an undergraduate. Do you remember Richard Marx's "Hazard"? I recall extended debates about who, in fact, killed Mary. If you ignore the unfortunate mullet of doom, I think the video still holds up extremely well...

Watch it HERE! You know you want to watch it now!

Ah, taste that Gen-X nostalgia. It's almost as sweet as a pumpkin spice latte.


Departing summer hath assumed
An aspect tenderly illumed,
The gentlest look of spring;
That calls from yonder leafy shade
Unfaded, yet prepared to fade,
A timely carolling.
- William Wordsworth, September