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Total: 1 book

- The Institute by Stephen King. Blew through it in a day. Very Stranger Things-esque. 

Short stories: 52 total

- Civil Peace by Chinua Achebe;
- Africa Emergent by Nadine Gordimer;
- The Collector of Treasures by Bessie Head;
- Shingles by William Faulkner;
- The River by Flannery O'Connor;
- The Life You Save May Be Your Own by Flannery O'Connor;
- A Stroke of Good Fortune by Flannery O'Connor;
- Where I Live by Kurt Vonnegut;
- Cloud, Castle, Lake by Vladimir Nabokov;
- Scenes from the Life of a Double Monster by Vladimir Nabokov; 
- The Enormous Radio by John Cheever;
- I Stand Here Ironing by Tillie Olsen;
- Sonny's Blues by James Baldwin;
- Ghost Bird by Nic Pizzolatto;
- The Man of Adamant by Nathaniel Hawthorne;
- Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne;
- The Conversion of the Jews by Phillip Roth;
- Everything That Rises Must Converge by Flannery O'Connor;
- Nineteen Fifty-Five by Alice Walker;
- A Temple of the Holy Ghost by Flannery O'Connor;
- Amy's Watch by Nic Pizzolatto;
- The Prussian Officer by D.H. Lawrence;
- Who Will Stop the Dark by Charles Mungoshi;
- 1987, The Races by Nic Pizzolatto;
- Two Shores by Nic Pizzolatto;
- The Striding Place by Gertrude Atherton;
- A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner;
- The Last Feast of Harlequin by Thomas Ligotti;
- The Dachau Shoe by W.S. Merwin;
- Spiders I Have Known by W.S. Merwin;
- The Approved by W.S. Merwin;
- Postcards from the Maginot Line by W.S. Merwin;
- In Bed One Night by Robert Coover;
- Sucker by Carson McCullers;
- The Siege at Whale Cay by Megan Mayhew Bergman;
- The Artificial [HP Lovecraft's Cat] by Flannery O'Connor;
- Between Here and the Yellow Sea by Nic Pizzolatto;
- Fingerprints by Justin Bigos;
- Happy Ending by Kevin Canty;
- Fountains in the Rain by Yukio Mishima;
- Pigeon Feathers by John Updike;
- A Circle in the Fire by Flannery O'Connor;
- Will You Please Be Quiet, Please by Raymond Carver;
- By the River by Joyce Carol Oates;
- The School by Donald Barthelme;
- Moving On by Diane Cook;
- Traveler's Joy by Noel Coward;
- A Late Encounter with the Enemy by Flannery O'Connor;
- Emergency by Denis Johnson;
- The Priest and the Acolyte by Oscar Wilde;
- Bride by Julia Elliott;
- The Big Cat by Louise Erdrich. 

I discussed most of these already. The ones I read in the latter half are:

The Artificial [N word] by Flannery O'Connor -- excellent short story, not really a justified title. It follows a (white) grandfather and the grandson he takes care of. Both resent each other, but the grandson is ultimately far more moral... The grandfather takes him to the city, where he plays a mean trick on him, then publicly denies that the kid is his, even though everyone can see their faces are copy-pasted from each other. The shame of this moment is overwhelming for him, and the fact that his grandson forgives him anyway leaves him shaky and uncertain. 

(The title comes from a racist lawn jockey-type statue they see on a rich person's lawn after the grandpa's betrayal; the boy has been giving his grandpa the silent treatment, but when he sees this statue, they're both amazed and can't puzzle out why anyone would want an "artificial" ... well...)

Between Here and the Yellow Sea: The most interesting Pizzolatto so far. This one is narrated by a young man who has agreed to help the high school football coach locate--and even kidnap--his adult daughter. The young man had a crush on her in high school but never dated her, and he knows that the girl ran away as a teen and is now a porn star. He unquestioningly agrees with the old man that his daughter needs "rescued," maybe deprogrammed. But when they make their way to L.A., where she lives now, her reaction to her dad implies something very seedy, and the young man is unsettled, unsure of himself, has to reconsider his own motivations. 

Fingerprints: A very lyrical, poem-y story told in vignettes, all centered around a complex father-son relationship marked by alcoholism and mental illness. Hard to describe but worth the read. 

Happy Ending by Kevin Canty: This one I loved. An older guy lost his wife years ago, and now his daughter has moved out of the house and is in a state far away. In his loneliness he seriously considers visiting a happy-ending massage parlor. It goes against his morals but he reflects that his morals were never really decided upon by him, himself, anyway. So he goes, he loves it, and at the same time he tries out the Christian singles group, and at the same time he assesses and re-assesses whether these massage parlors are harmless after all, with no easy answers.

Fountains in the Rain by Yukio Mishima: A young man breaks up with his girlfriend. Not because he really dislikes her, but because he's never broken up with anyone before, and he wants to try it. Really, that's the whole reason he dated her to begin with--to break up! But when he tells her, she bursts into tears, which embarrasses and annoys him. And the tears grow, and become ever more absurd, and his feelings change to panic, to ecstasy, to madness...

Pigeon Feathers: My favorite non-O'Connor of late August. Rivals "Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin. It's by John Updike, and it's really a simple story of an adolescent whose faith in God is shaken in a very mundane way--by reading that atheists exist in one of his mom's books--and is further shaken by the realization that everyone around him (parents, classmates, pastors) believe that heaven/hell aren't literally real. At the end, he hunts pigeons at his mother's request, and the description of the feathers is so detailed and beautiful that you'll feel like you're on shrooms.

A Circle in the Fire by Flannery O'Connor: A great little story. A cautious, even cowardly old woman who believes strongly in good maners is troubled by the appearance of three rascally, disrespectful boys on her farm. They follow no rules, no social norms. They take over her farm, torment her animals, steal and damage property, and eventually even burn her farm down. It's awful, it's so grimy. It's also weirdly awesome to read. 

Will You Please Be Quiet, Please by Raymond Carver -- guy gets cheated on, has a menty b about it, goes for a long walk. Really quite good. 

By the River by Joyce Carol Oates -- girl does some cheating, leaves her husband AND her lover AND her baby about it, gets murdered. 

The School by Donald Barthelme -- Short, surreal, very conversational. A teacher tells you, quite casually, about the escalating waves of death in his elementary school classroom, starting small (plants) and moving up to absurd, grotesque human deaths.

Moving On by Diane Cook - Interesting, kind of Margaret Atwood-esque short story in a not-very-fleshed out dystopian world. Widows and widowers (maybe also divorcees?) are not allowed to remarry freely; instead they're sent to halfway homes where they must take classes to improve their value (for instance, knitting, cooking, makeup lessons) and the caretakers will show their files to prospective brides/husbands who are for some reason free on the outside. One recent widow is advised to suppress her grief entirely and forever, and fails to do so. 

Traveler's Joy by Noel Coward - a vain, elderly twink/actor meets a lonely hunch-backed spinstress. They have sex.

A Late Encounter With the Enemy by Flannery O'Connor - maybe my least favorite story of hers so far, just didn't grip me as much as they usually do. It follows an elderly ex-Confederate whose mind has largely left him, and whose daughter or granddaughter is parading him onstage for her college graduation. 

Emergency by Denis Johnson -- LOVED IT. Vignettes, hysterically funny and super moving, about E.R. employees who steal drugs from their patients and go on terrifyingly bad adventures. 

The Priest and the Acolyte -- attributed to Oscar Wilde. Not a very good short story in terms of writing mechanics. Also not very good in terms of subject material XD It's about a 28-year-old priest who "falls in love" with his prepubescent altar boy, and eventually persuades the boy to kill himself (suicide pact) when they're caught. This is very much an unabashed pro-pedophilia story, there's no other interpretation. It's very bald-faced. 

Bride by Julia Elliott -- reminds me of Benedetta, the movie about gay nuns, and Immodest Acts, the book it’s based on. It follows a young nun at the start of the Black Plague who punishes herself fiercely every morning (flagellation, self starvation) but is also becoming enamored with a new sister, an Irish girl with wild hair. When the Abbess dies of plague, the POV character and her crush break into the Abbess’s tower and feast on her hidden cache of delicacies, some of which shocked me although off the top of my head I can’t think of any reason these delicacies shouldn’t exist back then—marzipan bunnies, almonds. Almonds? Anyway it’s a great vividly written story about ascetism, masochism, quarantine, sexuality and the devil, with an abrupt but memorable ending where the devil arrives in the flesh.

The Big Cat by Louise Erdrich — sad and moving and funny. A married man suffers through his wife’s snoring, which sounds like a buzz saw or a wild cat. All the women in her family snore ferociously. When they eventually get divorced, he gets a good night’s sleep for the first time in years, but his teenage daughter starts worrying that she’ll never find love because she snores too. 

My favorites for the second half of the month were Pigeon Feathers, Emergency, A Circle in the Fire, and Happy Ending :) 

 July 12: Lee Cronin's The Mummy (total stinker);
July 12: They/Them (total winner, fuck the haters, this movie rocks and I'm not saying that ironically);
July 14: Drive (so severely not my cup of tea);
July 15: Thelma & Louise (CHARACTER ARCS?? REAL CHARACTER ARCS? I can't even remember the last time I witnessed this);
July 19: Obsession (adore);
July 19: Knock at the Cabin (better than I expected; based on a Paul Tremblay book I didn't care for, but it was still better than the movie, which erased all of Tremblay's delicious ambiguity and angst);
July 20: Ed and His Dead Mother (Steve Buscemi very yummy in this);
July 21: Drowning Mona (favorite comedy of all time);
July 25: Song Sung Blue (cute, sad, generally feel-good in that all the characters are good people and you feel good rooting for them);
July 25: Wind River (ass);
July 28: Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender (really beautiful animation, kind of shit writing, but not offensively bad);
July 29: Murderers' Row (fun campy 60s spy comedy);
July 31: The Drama.

They/Them and The Drama are tied for my favorites of the month, although obviously Thelma & Louise and Drowning Mona would win, were they not rewatches. 

Well...actually, hell, The Drama might beat them both anyway. It was delicious. Robert Pattinson and Zendaya are about to get married when they indulge their friends in a drunken game of "what's the worst thing you've ever done." Each person tells a story about a real-world, tangible harm they've done, ranging from cyberbullying to spousal abuse to, basically, attempted murder of a mentally handicapped child. They tell these stories jokingly and mostly without shame or judgment. But Zendaya, who goes last, cops to planning a mass shooting when she was 15. Unlike the others, she didn't actually DO anything, and no one was harmed ... but they definitely react as if she carried the damn thing out XD

It's a very black comedy, wrapped up in the sexiness of guns and the disturbing nature of shootings, friendship drama taken to comical extremes, with a super touching end. Also, although it starts out fairly simple (Zendaya didn't actually DO anything! Why are they judging her!), it does get more complicated than that, especially because she struggles to explain herself and Pattinson struggles to listen, prefers to make up his own explanations. Like, we do find out that this was far more than an idle, angry thought she had as a teenager--she got deep into school shooting communities online, filmed videos in her shooter-sona, practiced with her dad's rifle, even brought it to school...but also, she didn't do it! The reason she chickens out is because there's a different mass shooting in her hometown before she can strike; it's up to interpretation whether the aftermath gave her perspective/empathy or whether she just lost interest because someone else got there first, and it wasn't as cool anymore. 

They/Them was universally panned, to my memory. It's got rotten ratings on every review site and I remember seeing intense backlash online, from both anti-woke types and queer people. I found it charming and really competent, writing-wise. Also funny as fuck, and Kevin Bacon is chilling as the conversion camp counselor--rather than go full stereotypical, Bacon's counselor is a hippy-dippy, peace-and-love California Christian who assures the queer campers they can be themselves, they don't have to become straight if they don't want to. But it's definitely not that simple... He plays games with the campers psychologically, tortures them physically, tries to turn them against each other, etc. For example, and this is from early in the film -- Bacon splits the campers up, girls in Cabin A and boys in Cabin B. As the kids shuffle off, one androgynous kid stays behind and asks, "What about me?"

Bacon praises the kid for their transition and honesty, and tells them they can stay in the boys' cabin. The kid seems surprised and a little pleased by this, which is your first clue that they're AFAB and transmasc (I couldn't tell personally, I had to wait for the movie to tell me). So, although Bacon is technically not respecting the kid's nonbinary identity, he's still respecting that the kid isn't female. But, a few scenes later, a girl from Cabin A takes a shower alone and is caught by the camp counselors, and outed as a trans girl. She's forced into the boys' cabin and commanded to wear boys' clothes from now on, and to go by her deadname. Kevin Bacon lectures her and explains this isn't because he disrespects her transition, but because she wasn't honest with him... UGH! Very creepy, realistic. Hated it. 

I had only one criticism for this movie, and it's about the ending. When the killer is revealed, there's a fairly typical "join me!" "never!" discussion between them and the protagonist. Didn't mind that, thought it was better-written than most such confrontations. But I WAS majorly disappointed that the killer is subsequently caught and arrested XD I had really high hopes that they would get away and continue demolishing homophobes up and down the coast. I think the "join me!" "never!" discussion would seem less judgmental if the "bad guy" was permitted, narratively, to continue her reign of terror.

Not that killing people is righteous. Obviously you are allowed to judge murderers. But this is FICTIONAL murder, which means the argument is not actually "is it okay to kill" but "is it okay to fight back against bad people." It's fine for the protag to say, "I don't want to fight back like that," but it's a little seedy for the villain to get punished for disagreeing. Let fictional murderers roam free 2026. 

Total: 22 books

- Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kinsolver;
- Death in Venice by Thomas Mann;
- Naruto Vol. 4-18 by Masashi Kishimoto;
- Naruto: Konoha's Story-The Steam Ninja Scrolls Vol. 1-2 by Masashi Kishimoto;
- Home Far Away by Teki Yatsuda;
- The Man from the U.S.S.R. & Other Plays by Vladimir Nabokov;
- Uncle Tom's Children by Richard Wright;
- Bloodline by Ernest J. Gaines. 

Short Stories: 8

- Python's Kiss by Louise Erdrich;
- The Whole World Knows by Eudora Welty;
- Those Are as Brothers by Nancy Hale;
- That Will Be Fine by William Faulkner; 
- The Cracked Looking-Glass by Katherine Anne Porter;
- Babylon Revisited by F. Scott Fitzgerald; 
- Haircut by Ring Lardner;
- My Old Man by Ernest Hemingway.

To go through the short stories real quick:

( Short Stories )

OK, for books:

( Manga )
( Books )
( Lesbian romance that is clearly Taylor Swift RPF )

To explain why I think this is Taylor Swift RPF:

The two main characters are Juliet Jacobs (Taylor Swift) and Darcy Kincaid (possibly Charli XCX). Juliet's backstory is that her mom married a rich stepdad when Juliet was young, and he poured money into her music career, allowing her to release a bombshell debut album at 17. Juliet started out in country and was known as America's country sweetheart before she hit her early 20s and tried to swerve into artsy folk-pop. After these albums were panned, she tucked her tail between her legs and returned to country, to much acclaim.

Darcy, meanwhile, is a trailer trash kid from a tiny town, whose mother struggled with addiction and eventually abandoned her. She's been working odd jobs while working on indie music with her half-sister and best friend. After years of hard work, festival circuits, competitions, etc., Darcy and co. finally self-produced their debut album. It was such a huge success that their band actually beat T-Swift for Best Album of the Year. Juliet is so furious to have her comeback stolen that she says some very nasty things about Darcy to the press, and it starts a media feud between them that results in both artists writing diss tracks about each other. 

There are some passing attempts to make Juliet likable by hinting that her stepdad is a big old meanie, but it's really not working for me when the shit she says about Darcy early in the book is so heinous, and when Darcy's responses are so mild. Especially when Juliet's comments are like, "You're trailer trash, you're a slut and you're only famous because trashy guys think you're sexy, you're a high school drop-out who pretends to be smart, you don't have any talent of your own, you literally worked in a bowling alley last year lol" and all of that is obviously tied up into Juliet's extreme privilege as the child of a rich-ass rancher who's been mega-famous since she was a kid. This could have been evened out if Darcy's comments were similar, but her comments were shit like, "Critics didn't like your last two albums," and "You're famous for being sweet and pure so what do you know about my sex appeal or lack thereof." The narrative treats these comments like they're just as bad or worse than Juliet's, which is grating. Give Darcy from real teeth, first of all. And give equal weight to both characters' reactions instead of treating Juliet like a fragile princess who needs to be protected from the mean trailer trash girl, and Darcy like a tough-as-nails ADHDer who just gets riled up irrationally because she needs more Ritalin. 

May 09: Death to Smoochy
May 10: Primate
May 23: Motocrossed!
May 27: The Birdcage

I also watched Conclave multiple times but didn't mark the dates, probably somewhere between Primate and Motocrossed!

Thoughts: 

Adored "Death to Smoochy," one of my new faves. I'm such a simp for Danny Devito films, and this one was right up my alley. Objectively I can see that it's too long, but I don't care, and I have no other criticisms. The dark sense of humor was perfect for me, loved Robin Williams as Rainbow Ralph. Rich is a huge Ed Norton fan, so it also appealed to him, since Norton plays Smoochy.

Primate was decent but flawed, and the flaws are mostly personal gripes that won't apply to everyone who sees it. First of all, I used to be completely obsessed with ape language experiments, so I was a little miffed at this movie for its "the chimp only attacks because of rabies" plotline; I guess I expected more of a commentary about the abuses common in these programs, more of a real-world consequences vibe. The other gripe I had was that I found the main character totally insufferable XD And dumb! But I can forgive "dumb" in a horror movie. I found all the other characters much more likable, generally decent people, so it was painful to watch them all die while the main character limped on. It was notable, imo, that the main character was white, and all (or most?) of the side characters who died were people of color. That's a racist faux pas you don't see as often in movies these days, so it was a bit startling. 

Side note, do y'all remember that ultra-racist KKK character from the Final Destination movies? The one with the race track? He's from my city. Our claim to fame. 

Motocrossed!: This Disney Channel Original Movie keeps getting mentioned in gay essay collections I've read, and every time, I'm like, "UGH, I WANT TO WATCH THAT!" It's a loose Twelfth Night retelling. Andi and her twin brother Andy (I know) are both talented motocross riders, but their dad will only let the male Andy race. When Andy breaks his leg just before the start of the season, Dad goes on an international hunt for a new rider, while Andi chops her hair and takes her brother's spot, incognito. I like it far better than other genderswap movies like She's the Man and Just One of the Guys. Andi's switch is way more convincing than She's the Man, imo, and the acting and humor all struck me as more competent/skilled. Overall, honestly, this was like shockingly good for a DCOM. (I had a moment of envy when I told my mom about it and she knew the entire plot. GIRL how were YOU watching this 2001 cable-TV movie when we didnt have cable in 2001? And I never saw it?? But it was a good bonding moment. Mom loves genderswap sports movies.)

The Birdcage: Streamed this with Yani. I think this was my first rewatch as an adult; I was obsessed with the movie as a kid. It hits better now, believe it or not, and of course there were tons of jokes I get now that I didn't get at age 9 or so. The last time I tried to rewatch it as an adult, I was in my early 20s, so I was smack-dab in the middle of that ultra woke stage a lot of Millennials went through, and I couldn't enjoy the film; I was too busy disapproving of casting choices and "stereotypes" that the Internet told me to be mad at. 

 April 1: The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo;
April 1: Joe Dirt;
April 02: Bring Her Back;
April 03: Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere;
April 04: Throw Momma from the Train;
April 17: Dear Evan Hansen;
April 17: Five Nights at Freddy's 2;
April 17: Finders Keepers;
April 18: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes;
April 24: Y2K;
April 24: The Pope's Exorcist;
April 24: Crawl;
April 30: Whale Rider.

Favorites for this month: Whale Rider, Y2K, Throw Momma from the Train, and Bring Her Back.

Whale Rider was for class and is undeniably the best of the films I watched in April lmao. So fucking good. I wondered why we were watching the movie instead of watching the book, but then I bought the book on Kindle and it's just not very well-written so far. I keep picking it up, reading a chapter or two, and then getting weary. But the movie is fantastic. 

Finders Keepers was fun. Horrible movie from like 2008 about a haunted doll. Marina Sirtis is in it, though; she's a crazy cat lady who gets murdered by a little girl. 

I was surprised by how much I still liked Joe Dirt as an adult. I think I only like the worst comedies. If it's got bad critical reviews I'm gonna love it. 

For the horror movies, brief thoughts:
1) Bring Her Back. Sleek, horrifying. Commentary on foster care. Gut-churning gore. Creative and fun. Only criticism: why does the mysterious evil voodoo have to come from Russia?? Just feels like thoughtless anti-Slav shit for no reason. 
2) Five Nights at Freddy's 2. More fun than the first one, imo. Not scary at all, but entertaining and fairly compelling. Extra bonus points for getting the Scream duo back together, and extra extra bonus points for casting the guy from that one Netflix horse show that my ex-wife said looked like me. He is creepier than ever in this and unfortunately looks even more like me when he's being a creep. 
3) Y2K. SUPER FUN. Funny, gory, quick, cute. I loved this??? I expected it to be a hate-watch??? It was so fun. Definitely recommend. 
4) The Pope's Exorcist. Rich loved this. I will withhold judgment. (No I won't, it sucked). 
5) Crawl. Neither of us liked THIS shit. Oh my god, this has to be the dumbest horror movie protagonist I've ever seen, and I'm usually immune to dumb protagonists -- like I never understood it when other people criticized a movie because the protagonist makes "dumb" decisions...but this... it follows a champion swimmer who gets trapped in an underground crawlspace with her dad just as a hurricane is coming in. Gators fill the crawlspace. Stupidity ensues. I was yelling myself hoarse. 

 March 06: There Will Be Blood
March 11: If Footmen Tire You, What Will Horses Do?
March 13: Hamilton
March 13: Little Shop of Horrors
March 20: Drop Dead Gorgeous
March 21: See No Evil, Hear No Evil
March 22: Wicked: For Good
March 22: Zootopia 2
March 23: Zootopia 1
March 30: The Talented Mr. Ripley

Thoughts on each movie, in order

There Will Be Blood: Liked it deeply up until the end. Felt like the end kind of warped the obvious anti-capitalist anti-greed message of the movie. Or undermined it. Wish it had focused harder on the destruction of HW's relationship with his father, rather than his father's feud with Eli. At the same time I loved Eli and would have been sad if he never came back. 

If Footmen Tire You: Very funny Christian propaganda piece I watched with the boys. Grindhouse schlock. 

Hamilton: Don't come for me. I genuinely enjoy Hamilton. I hate Lin-Manuel's voice but I love this musical. 

Little Shop of Horrors: Absolute banger, fucking love it. I've had people tell me, "You need to watch this movie, you'll LOVE it" since I was a kid but I never get around to it. Periodically people show me clips (like, after I got my wisdom teeth removed by the military in a torturous no-meds dentist visit, my friend Lopez showed me "I'm a Dentist") and it's gotten to the point where I think I've seen the whole damn movie, just out of order. Watched it with Rich and adored it. 

Drop Dead Gorgeous: Madelgard recommended this one. Dark comedy about small-town beauty pageants. Favorite joke was at the very beginning: Home of the World's Oldest Living Lutheran. 

See No Evil: Richard Pryor/Gene Wilder buddy comedy that reads as very gay. One of Rich's favorites since he was a kid. 

Wicked: For Good - yeah, no, I had fun. 

Zootopia 2: I thought this was awful until I rewatched Zootopia 1. Then I realized they're both awful, but Zootopia 2 wins because it actually made me laugh several times. 

The Talented Mr. Ripley: Finally succeeded in watching this. I've tried before and was so turned off by Matt Damon's and Jude Law's performances that I couldn't finish it. The performances didn't seem as bad to me this time (but they did seem bad to Rich, who's never tried to watch this before) -- and I was able to watch it the whole way through. Enjoyed it a lot. Very different from the book, but in ways that don't really change the story, and DO help adapt it from book to film. Biggest difference is Ripley's personality/motives. The movie rehabs him a little, makes him less dark ... up until the end, at least. 

 January: 

Jan 16: Black Phone 2, rollicking good fun, absolutely hilarious, new favorite horror movie. When the Grabber came out on his sinister little ice skates I fell in love.
Jan 17: American Psycho, fav. Finally made Rich watch it.
Jan 18: Longlegs, which I love but STILL doesn't stick in my memory after multiple rewatches. I'm astonished to see it here and realize I've rewatched it that recently. 
Jan 31: What Lies Beneath, with Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer. Ghost movie. Very long and a bit tedious at times but I'd still call it a bit of a forgotten gem. The way Ford is written as an abusive husband is perf, and to me at least it reads like real lived experience from the writer. 


Feb 04: Bomb Hunters, documentary on Cambodian scrappers.
Feb 04: Iron Lung, Markiplier's new movie.
Feb 06: Shadow Magic, Chinese film from 2001-ish about the introduction of silent films to China.
Feb 08: John Carpenter's The Fog.
Feb 16: Blades of Glory, yeah the ice skating movie with Will Ferrell. Unabashed fan of this film. The real Yuri on Ice.
Feb 19: Power of the Dog rewatch. FFFFFUCK it's so good.
Feb 20: South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut. Genuinely, the musical sequences are so skilled. 
Feb 22: 8 Seconds (the Lane Frost story).
Feb 24: The Endurance (documentary)
Feb 27: The Quick and the Dead - the made-for-TV HBO Western with Sam Elliott, 1987. Not the Sam Raimi one from 95. 
Feb 27: This Boy's Life, AMAZING EXPERIENCE watching this with my dad and listening to him giggle at all the sad parts. 
Feb 28: Dead of Winter. Not fantastic but worth a watch. Basic thriller with admirable pretensions to art. 
Feb 28: Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. Yuri on Asphalt. Did NOT remember the fully passionate French kiss between Sacha Baron Cohen and Will Ferrell at the end. 

Forgot to tell y'all I was in the car with my mom WEEKS ago driving to her house and we had this conversation.

Mom: Have you heard that song, uh, what's it called? "Massacree?"
Me: Massacre?
Mom: Massacree...
Me: Is it metal?
Mom: "Massacree" something, "restaurant..."
Me: "Alice's Restaurant?" By Arlo Guthrie?
Mom: Alice's Restaurant Massacree! By Arlo--
Me: Guthrie
Mom: Arlo Guthrie.
Me: Yes I've heard it.
Mom: You know he was Woody Guthrie's brother?
Me: Son.
Mom: Do you know who Woody Guthrie is?
Me: I know Arlo was his son, for example
Mom: But have you heard the song?
Me: Yes I Have Heard The Song
Mom: The 30-minute version?
Me: Frankly I do not like the 2-minute version so--
Mom: (opens Spotify)

Plus, before I get into this, I wanted to say that A. David stopped by the house yesterday with a wrapped gift for me and Rich, which turned out to be his Christmas mixtape! It's a DVD full of pirated Christmas terror (terrifyingly bad Christmas specials and Christmas-iana, I mean) with a hand-illustrated cover and a cheeky warning on the back. 

He also brought in some unexpected packages from the front porch. And then he had to zip off to work, so we didn't chat at all XD But the packages were a fun surprise. One was a Gargoyles trade paperback that I didn't order, don't know why it was sent to me -- I assume something went wrong at the Gargoyles comics Kickstarter and I got sent a free extra as a mistake. The other was a huge box from Madelgard, full of wrapped presents and a birthday card that cracked me up (my favorite part was where she pasted an Andy Warhol Christmas tree painting, and then a picture of Warhol himself, with a speech bubble addressed to my very long nonsensical email address). 

The gifts she sent me were so on-point and hilarious -- an erotic Mr. Burns-themed zine called 742 Evergreen Ter., a Simpsons Treehouse of Horror mystery figure (Mr. Burns and Homer sharing the same body), and a hardback copy of "Desperate Passage" about the Donner Party, one of my favorite historical tragedies and something I love to read about during the winter. She didn't even know that, she just correctly assessed my vibes. 

Rich and I ended the night by rewatching It, Chapter 2, which was oodles of fun. 
( TE Lawrence, Gu Cheng, Carol Emshwiller )

( Tiptree, The Tenants, The Fates ) 

I got a little messed up on Days 4-5 because of going to Michigan with A. David one day, then working all day + going home to my parents' the next. But I still did my best XD

( Mickey and Minnie, F. Scott Fitzgerald )


( The Dark Room, Judas Iscariot )

( Upstream, The Elephant Man, Yuki Tanaka )

( A Hanging, The Yellow Bird, Glamor on the West Streets )

( Writing off the Subject, Rattlesnake, There Shall Be No Darkness )