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

Apr 12 #3 The Bristol Riverside Theatre will present the world premiere
of Allan Knee's play "Faery Tales", which the theater describes
as "the true story" of the Cottingley Fairies (Conan Doyle sent the photo-
graphs to his good friend Harry Houdini, "pitting the two men, each famous
for their own brand of bringing the fantastic to life, against each other
in a war over reality and magic"), Jan. 29-Feb. 17. 120 Radcliffe Street,
Bristol, PA 19007 (215-785-0100) . Conan Doyle and Hou-
dini were involved with the Cottingley Fairies in the film "Fairy Tale: A
True Story" (1997), but that wasn't true, either (there's no record of Hou-
dini having been involved in the investigation). Knee's earlier play "The
Man Who Was Peter Pan" (1998) was adapted for the film "Finding Neverland"
(2004), in which Ian Hart was seen briefly as Arthur Conan Doyle.
The Eastbourne Herald has reported (Mar. 19) on how the locals are honoring
Sherlock Holmes and his retirement at East Dean: there's a plaque, and a 6
km walk, and an informative web-site at ; search for
[sherlock holmes].
The film "Titanic" (1997) has been reissued as "Titanic 3D" as part of the
commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the ship's sinking. It's not a
compelling reason to see the film again, but: near the beginning, when the
salvagers discuss whether 100-year-old Rose Calvert could be a survivor of
the disaster, one of them says the other, "There's your first clue, Sher-
lock."
A marginal item for record collectors: "Back into the Future" is a double-
LP album issued by the Welsh psychedelic/progressive rock band Man in 1973
with a cover photograph that shows Sherlock Holmes standing on the platform
of an Edwardian railroad station; you can see the cover at the album's en-
try at Wikipedia . The album
has been reissued as a CD with the same cover photograph.
Those who fondly remember the grand gourmet Sherlockian dinners at the CIA
(that's the Culinary Institute of America) may wish to attend the celebra-
tion of the 40th anniversary of The Hudson Valley Sciontists in Poughkeep-
sie, N.Y., on May 27; the theme of the gathering will be "Sherlock Holmes
on the Hudson River", and the dinner will be supervised by CIA award-winn-
ing chef Fritz Sonnenschmidt. Details are available from Lou and Candace
Lewis (2 Lookerman Avenue, Poughkeepsie, NY 12601) .
Christopher Boone, narrator of Mark Haddon's award-winning best-seller THE
CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME (2003) is an autistic teen-
ager who enjoys the Sherlock Holmes stories, and turns detective himself;
the National Theatre in London has commissioned a dramatization of the nov-
el, for performance starting in July.
"Cloud Lovers, Unite!" is the motto of the Cloud Appreciation Society, re-
ported by Karen Ellery, and one of the attractive photographs at the soci-
ety web-site shows "Sherlock Holmes' smoking pipe over Teglio, Italy." The
URL is . Accord-
ing to a society press release there will be a Sherlockian cloud in CLOUDS
THAT LOOK LIKE THINGS, by Gavin Pretor-Pinney (London: Sceptre, 2012; 112
pp., £12.99), due in April.