I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere

An Inspired Sherlockian Christmas Card Tradition

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"production of the photograph" [SIXN] </h4>
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Each year for the last five or six years, I've been lucky enough to receive a Christmas card from fellow Sherlockian Richard Ray Green of the Genus Loci of Birmingham, Alabama. His son Joshua has been a fellow co-conspirator in Richard's interest in the Canon and in many ways has eclipsed his dad with his own activity in plays and other local events.<br />
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But the highlight of their year - something they take great pride in - is their Sherlockian Christmas card. It's always a set of photographs that recreate scenes from the Sherlock Holmes stories that are well known. And you can tell that they really put serious thought and hard work into making their creation a reality.<br />
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This year, they chose a number of appearances of Holmes in comics and graphic novels, and a couple of stills from the latest film thrown in for good measure. Here's <a href="https://flic.kr/s/aHsjoYYt2R" target="_blank">a slideshow</a> of the original images that inspired their card and the resulting scenes that they shot:<br />
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<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wsmonty/albums/72157622916655031" title="Sherlockian Christmas Card"><img alt="Sherlockian Christmas Card" height="640" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/2590/4201922459_22c24f1e7f_z.jpg" width="485" /></a><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js"></script></center>
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If you like what you see here, you can get an entire 2010 Sherlockian calendar with images from Richard and Joshua. The Sherlockian purveyors <a href="http://www.sherlock-holmes.com/paper.htm">Classic Specialties</a> have used their images, along with the matching Canonical images and Sherlockian dates of interest throughout the year. As Classic Specialties themselves wrote:<br />
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In order to show the degree of canonical authenticity which Joshua, his contemporaries and his dad have achieved, we have taken the liberty of including appropriate illustrations from the original magazine publications (The Strand and Colliers). As has been our custom during the past couple of years, we also include on each month of the calendar, annotations of the birth dates of all our Sherlockian friends who were kind enough to share that information with us, and, of course, annotations of important canonical events with their associated dates. The graphic at your right shows the Greens' re-enactment of the slaying of The Hound of the Baskervilles (the insert is the Paget version). We certainly hope that you will receive this unique exposition of these Young Sherlockians' energy and creativity with the same enthusiasm that we have.</blockquote>
You can <a href="http://www.cafepress.com/sherlockholmes2.413504042">purchase a 2010 Sherlockian calendar for yourself by clicking here</a>.<br />
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An Inspired Sherlockian Christmas Card Tradition

"production of the photograph" [SIXN] Each year for the last five or six years, I've been lucky enough to receive a Chri...

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by Scott Monty

The Asylum's 'Sherlock Holmes' Is Unique

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"Enough to drive a patient into an asylum" [DYIN]</h4>
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Everyone wants a piece of the action that Warner Bros is stirring up. Certainly we here at the blog are happy about the additional attention that the greatest literary detective is getting. But as with any push in the entertainment industry, we get all sorts of attempts to cash in at varying levels of quality.<br />
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Using the very original title <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1522835/" target="_blank"><i>Sherlock Holmes</i></a>, a home entertainment company aptly named <a href="http://www.theasylum.cc/index.php" target="_blank">The Asylum</a> has developed the crazy idea that Holmes should be battling robots and giant monsters in Victorian London (!) as they release their creation directly to DVD. To show you how serious they are about their work, <a href="http://www.theasylum.cc/blog/2009/12/were-number-1/" target="_blank">they take great pride</a> in having their video<i> <a href="https://amzn.to/339v9b4" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus</a></i> named by <i>Entertainment Weekly</i> as the worst DVD of 2009. Says The Asylum: "They obviously didn't see any of our other films..."<br />
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<a href="https://amzn.to/3lXptte" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><i>Wired </i>magazine ("<a href="http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/12/ff_the_asylum/all/1" target="_blank">Now Playing: Cheap-and-Schlocky Blockbuster Ripoffs</a>") has a term for this: <b><i>mockbuster</i></b>. And they refer to the Asylum as "a low-budget studio specializing in shamelessly derivative knockoffs." Evidently, their version of the eponymous film will be made for less than $500,000 thanks to "cheap digital technology and even cheaper talent," and will join the pantheon of other B-movie titles such as <i><a href="https://amzn.to/2F8oCow" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Snakes on a Train</a>, <a href="https://amzn.to/335UuSS" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Transmorphers</a>,</i> and<i> <a href="https://amzn.to/3jOHsQA" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Day the Earth Stopped</a></i>  that have made the company $5 million in the last year. not only includes robots, dinosaurs and giant squid, but the creators have graciously added hookers and a bomb-throwing dragon to the mix as well. <div><br /></div><div>Originally, we had thought it might have been <a href="https://amzn.to/3lY7inh" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><i>The Lost World</i></a> meets Sherlock Holmes, but something tells us that there's more (less?) to it than that. <b><i><a href="https://amzn.to/3h4iwCZ" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Sherlock Holmes</a></i></b> by Asylum is a fun and fanciful romp that is neither historically nor Canonically factual.<br /><br />
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Count us even less excited to see this version. If completist collector <a href="http://www.ash-nyc.com/JBS.htm" target="_blank">John Bennett Shaw</a>, BSI ("The Hans Sloane of My Age") were alive, you can bet he'd add it to his collection. Will anyone else? Until then, we recommend picking up a copy of <a href="https://amzn.to/32YnZWS" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><i>Schlock Homes: The Complete Bagel Street Saga</i></a> by Robert L. Fish. At least that volume is clearly a parody.<br /><br />Perhaps Asylum's <i><b><a href="https://amzn.to/3h4iwCZ" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Sherlock Holmes</a></b></i> will achieve something of an underground/cult-like status in the years to come. And if people have fun with it, that's all that matters.<br />
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A tip of the deerstalker goes to <a href="http://movingpictureblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/whats-this-sherlock-holmes-tangling.html" target="_blank">MovingPictureBlog</a>.<br />
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The Asylum's 'Sherlock Holmes' Is Unique

"Enough to drive a patient into an asylum" [DYIN] Everyone wants a piece of the action that Warner Bros is stirring up. Ce...

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by Scott Monty

"A Large Collection of Valuable Curiosities" [SIGN]

The <a href="http://www1.umn.edu/news/multimedia/2009/UR_CONTENT_165024.html">University of Minnesota Libraries</a> have a valuable claim to fame: they house the Sherlock Holmes Collection - positively the largest collection of material about the great detective than any other in the world.<br /><br />The curator, Tim Johnson, is a very knowledgable Sherlockian and librarian. He brings his personal passion and professional expertise together in a way that few can. Please sit back an enjoy a few minutes with Tim and others as they take you through some of the wonderful collection you can find at the library.<br /><br /><br /><br /><center><br /><object height="295" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/PHKdBSZo5is&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/PHKdBSZo5is&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object><br /><br /><object height="295" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/T1VmX63qaR8&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/T1VmX63qaR8&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object><br /><br /></center><br />It goes without saying that if you're ever in the upper Midwest, take some time to get to the collection. They're always happy to have visitors. And you can even join the <a href="http://special.lib.umn.edu/rare/holmes.phtml">Friends of the Sherlock Holmes Collection</a>.<br /><br />Here are some previous posts about Minnesota and its connection to the Sherlockian world:<br /><a href="http://www.bakerstreetblog.com/2007/11/for-sixty-years-bulwark-blac.html"><i><b>"For Sixty Years the Bulwark..." [BLAC]</b></i></a><br /><a href="http://www.bakerstreetblog.com/2007/07/my-collection-of-ms-is-fine-one-empt.html"><i><b>"My Collection of M's is a Fine One" [EMPT]</b></i></a><br /><a href="http://www.bakerstreetblog.com/2007/06/he-has-peremptorily-requested-seco.html"><i><b>"He Has Peremptorily Requested" [SECO]</b></i></a><br /><a href="http://www.bakerstreetblog.com/2007/03/at-this-conference-maza.html"><i><b>"At This Conference" [MAZA]</b></i></a>