Weird happenings in Argentina or viral marketing for Travelocity? You decide. A video purporting to show a ‘gnome’ in a pointed cap stalking the streets in the town of General Guemes.

“Suddenly we heard something - a weird noise as if someone was throwing stones. We looked to one side and saw that the grass was moving. To begin with we thought it was a dog but when we saw this gnome-like figure begin to emerge we were really afraid.”

Read more and see the video here.

In this episode of Strangetastic we encounter spirits of a religious disposition.

This episode of Strangetastic includes:

1. Ghostly Hooves
2. The Devil’s Portrait

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Stories adapted from the book ‘Ozark Superstitions’ by Vance Randolph
Music licensed by Magnatune
Theme by Atomic Opera
Background music performed by Andreas Haefliger

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

In this episode of Strangetastic we explore a world seen only by those with a second sight:

This episode of Strangetastic includes:

1. A Thirsty Spirit
2. A Hanged Man
3. The Gliding, Headless Ghost
4. The Whiskered Man and His Dog
5. Marital Discord

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Stories adapted from the book ‘Ozark Superstitions’ by Vance Randolph
Music licensed by Magnatune
Theme by Atomic Opera
Background music performed by Andreas Haefliger

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

1. The Booger Dog
2. Ghost Pigs
3. Spirit Cattle
4. A Headless Dog
5. Another Booger Dog

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Stories adapted from the book ‘Ozark Superstitions’ by Vance Randolph
Music licensed by Magnatune
Theme by Atomic Opera
Background music performed by Andreas Haefliger

I read Neil Gaiman’s first solo novel over the holidays, and it excited me in a couple of unexpected ways. First, it’s a fun story and quick read, which are two things I hadn’t encountered in a while. The world Gaiman builds is strange, but also familiar to anyone that’s had the pleasure of combing through the nooks and crannies of London. London is probably my favorite city in the world, and reading this book felt like a three day stopover.

The book excited me even more because it isn’t perfect. You can tell that Gaiman was still finding his footing as a prose writer. The influence of his previous collaboration with Terry Pratchett is evident, as if he didn’t quite trust his own voice yet. The book is also very visual, with intricate descriptions of setting and characters. Of course, the book is based on the BBC television series created by Gaiman, so this was likely inevitable.

Watching a writer I admire struggle to find his own voice was comforting, and since I know he did find it, inspiring.

In this episode of Strangetastic we encounter:

1. The Ghost of Paris
2. Grandfather’s Treasure
3. The Peddler’s Ghost
4. The Betrayed Girl
5. The Stepmother

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Stories adapted from the book ‘Ozark Superstitions’ by Vance Randolph
Music licensed by Magnatune
Theme by Atomic Opera
Background music performed by Andreas Haefliger

M.D. Crinnell, MD left a note that described
the catalogue of symptoms that inevitably led
to diagnosing dysphoria, for which he prescribed
one noose (to be taken as directed ’til dead.)

“A more serious case involving anti-vampire hysteria occurred in 2002 when a number of villagers living in southern Malawi claimed to have been attacked for their blood. The resulting panic led to two men being stoned to death on suspicion of being vampires. Elements of the vampire rumour suggested that foreign aid agencies were aiding the vampires and three Catholic priests were attacked by vigilantes due to the resulting xenophobia. The Malawian government was accused of supplying blood to foreign aid agencies in exchange for food aid and one senior government official was seriously injured after being stoned by an angry mob. Much as in other cases of mass panic, it took an aggressive government media campaign coupled with arrests of “irresponsible parties” caught spreading rumours to quell the mobs and return life to normal.”

Incidentally you can read the first chapter of Food for the Dead here.

This story is old news, having won the 2004 Hugo Award for best short story, but  I just discovered that you can get a free audio version (read by Neil Gaiman himself) at audible.com.

If you aren’t familiar with A Study in Emerald, it combines the Cthulu mythos of HP Lovecraft with Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes to amazing effect. I have to confess that I’ve never given Lovecraft a real chance, and I’ve found the Holmes stories to be hit and miss, but this story left me wanting more of both.

Read it for free here, or listen for free here.

This episode continues our adaptation of ghost stories collected by folklorist Randolph Vance in his book Ozark Superstitions. This week’s stories include:

1. A Preacher’s Tale
2. The Devil’s Promenade

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