#Spooktober 12 – Happy Town

October 12, 2023

There’s a high chance you will hate me for this recommendation, so let me warn you in advance: the show was never finished and the “ending” will leave you standing like an idiot.
Regardless of that, this 8-episode 2010 tv series really does the trick for the spooky season as it features: a cursed Minnesota town with a mysterious serial abducter called “the Magic Man”, severed hands, mass hysteria, a bird named Cicero, a clever use of music that has no reason whatsoever.
If you like horror in the style of Stephen King and you roll your eyes at cheap tricks or jump scares like I do, you’ll probably enjoy this. And the cast is remarkable too, as it features a young Lauren German, future star of Lucifer, and a Sam Neill whose performance – to quote one of the characters – is “difficult to describe, almost impossible to replicate”. It’s available on Disney+ in almost all Countries (except for mine, of course).

comics and illustration

Leo Ortolani, Tapum

A un certo punto ci sarà una battuta, in questo fumetto, e riderete. Sappiate che è l’unica. Com’è giusto che sia. Se devo paragonare quest’opera a qualcosa, il confronto più azzeccato è probabilmente lo spettacolo che Marco Paolini trasse dal Sergente nella neve di Rigoni

August 9, 2026 9:00 am

Summertime

Omeros in the Caribbeans

Derek Walcott was a Saint Lucian poet, playwright, and painter, and one of the major voices of Caribbean literature. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1992, and his work often explores Caribbean history, identity, colonial inheritance, and the meeting of European and African

August 9, 2026 6:00 am

books and literature

Ioanna Papadopoulou’s The Castaway and the Witch

I had a genuine “oh shit” moment when I read the author’s preface saying this was darker than “Winter Harvest” because – and I absolutely ADORED “Winter Harvest” – that was pitch-black dark. I thought “we’re all going to die”. This maybe has something to

August 8, 2026 9:00 am