Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press 2012 - Red Circle of ...

Feb 12 #7 Daniel McGachey's SHERLOCK HOLMES: THE IMPOSSIBLE CASES (Colu-
sa: Dark Regions Press, 2010; 273 pp., $18.95) is a collection
of five pastiches, echoing the unrecorded cases and with considerable em-
phasis on the supernatural. Dark Regions also has published William Meik-
le's SHERLOCK HOLMES: REVENANT (2011; 135 pp., $14.95); Holmes and Watson,
on the run from the official police, travel to Scotland and back to London
in pursuit of an evil genius with supernatural powers. The publisher has
a web-site at .
John Baesch spotted a profile of Umberto Eco in the Sunday Times (Oct. 30)
that reports that Eco was astounded by the success of his novel THE NAME OF
THE ROSE, and that he regarded the film as a travesty.
"Remember kicking back in the 1890s? There was nothing better than relax-
ing with the latest Sherlock Holmes adventure in The Strand Magazine and a
Gilbert and Sullivan cylinder on the phonograph." According to CNET story
(Feb. 6), spotted by Bill Barnes. Michael Greensmith has made a Steampunk
iPhonograph that will play music from your iPad. You can read all about it
at .
Joan Proubasta, who presides over Círculo Holmes, the Sherlockian society
in Barcelona, has donated his Sherlockian collection to La Biblioteca Arús,
and there's a 4-minute video showing the library's exhibition (and Joan) at
.
The latest Sherlockian audio from Big Finish is THE TANGLED SKEIN, adapted
by Richard Dinnick from David Stuart Davies' book (1992) and starring Nich-
olas Briggs as Holmes, Richard Earl as Watson, and Giles Watling as Count
Dracula; on two CDs ($23.91) and as a download ($12.99); PO Box 3787, Maid-
enhead, Berks. SL6 3TF, England) . It's a full-cast re-
cording, with featurette interviews with cast and crew, and nicely done.
Noted by Greg Darak: MR. MAGOO: THE COMPLETE TELEVISION COLLECTION, 1960-
1977, a new set of 11 DVDs from Shout! Factory ($79.97); the contents in-
clude the 30-minute NBC animated television series "The Famous Adventures
of Mr. Magoo", in which "Mr. Magoo's Sherlock Holmes" (1965) featured Jim
Backus (Mr. Magoo/Dr. Watson) and Paul Freas (Sherlock Holmes). Mr. Magoo
also appears briefly in Sherlockian costume at the end of "Mr. Magoo's Dick
Tracy and the Mob" (1965). If you're willing to settle for lower fidelity,
both episodes are available on the Internet at YouTube .
Greg also reports that LOOK I MADE A HAT, the second volume of Steven Sond-
heim's collected lyrics, includes "I Never Do Anything Twice" (the song he
wrote for the film "The Seven-Per-Cent Solution"), and that an article in
the spring issue of The Sondheim Review that lists Steven Sondheim's favor-
ite films, one of which is "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" (1939); the
magazine's web-site is at .
"People sometimes wonder why I belong to The Baker Street Irregulars," Mi-
chael Dirda wrote in his blog at the N.Y. Review of Books, adding that "the
answer, of course, is elementary: friendship, collegiality, fellowship." A
sentiment that applies equally to the wider world of Sherlockians; the blog
can be read at .