Fan Fiction gets a bad rap, which the folks who give it a bad rap justify by pointing to countless poorly written, often highly sexual examples. On the other hand, there are works of FanFiction that rival or eclipse their cannon, and deserve greater respect than the moniker of FanFic currently affords them. Remixing is the future, embrace it.

Here is a collection of 1,000 hours (originally spread across 650 cassette tapes) of “Early Jazz Legends”, serving as something of an Early Jazz education. The collection was originally curated by David W. Niven, an avid Jazz collector. He culled the best 1,000 hours of material, along with historical commentary, from more than 10,000 hours of source material.

Today, for Silent Cinema, we feature an 1896 short film by Georges Méliès featuring a new score by Kai Engel. The Devil’s Castle (also called The Haunted Castle) is, in one stroke, the first Vampire film, the first Horror film, a comedy, and one of the longest films produced up to this point. It clocks in just over 3 minutes, and it’s exactly what you want to watch.

This 1913 Silent, Feature Length, Science Fiction Film is the first science fiction movie to be made in the UK. Long considered a lost film, it was meticulously restored by the British Film Institute in 2014, and it looks fantastic. I haven’t watched it yet, but I’m looking forward to spending some time with it today.

I keep a weekly newsletter, in which I share things I’ve written, video games, music, books, and movies from all over. Sometimes I use it as the basis for experiments, as well.