tag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-06:307003KestrellKestrellKestrell2023-04-09T15:29:14Ztag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-06:307003:467368But what if you can't die2023-04-09T15:29:14Z2023-04-09T15:29:14Zpublic6so your soul can find neither rest nor resurrection?<br /><br />While others have been preoccupied with resurrection and the afterlife, I've been attempting to find legends regarding people who are too evil to die, who have a literal inability to cease living, no matter how burdened by their own sins they may become, and the very ground itself refuses to allow them to be buried in it.<br /><br />Specifically, I've been obsessed with this Josh Ritter song<br />"Ground Don't Want Me"<br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuadfchdsiI">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuadfchdsiI</a><br />which is about a gunslinger who is cursed by his dying mother to "go to Hell real slow," while the chorus and the title dwell on the theme of someone who is so evil that he cannot die, and the very ground itself refuses to hold and shelter him.<br /><br />This theme seems like its a really old legend or piece of religious folklore, but I'm drawing a blank when I try to think of legends or stories that have used it. Kudos to Ritter for creeping me out in just a few verses.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=kestrell&ditemid=467368" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-06:307003:466756I'm pretty sure this is a me problem2023-04-04T16:03:00Z2023-04-04T16:03:00Zpublic7I'm still trying to find where the sighted housemates hid the stopper for the bathroom sink so that I can plug it in order to rinse out my prosthetic eyes without worrying that they are going to drop down the drain into whatever lies down in the ancient pipes of our old Victorian house, and then we will have to call the special plumbers who still know how to fix things in very old Victorian houses in order to retrieve my very expensive eyeballs from the eldritch horror of whatever lives in the abyss.<br /><br />So, yes, one of my few nagging anxieties is that I will lose my eyeballs down the bathroom sink, and checking that I know where the plug for the sink is is a thing I do on a regular basis. And this plug is a heavy metal stopper, it isn't easy to lose, so really, people *sigh*...<br /><br />I probably wouldn't be so freaked if I hadn't read all those Clive Baeker stories in which he goes into *excruciating* detail about things that can live in your bathroom pipes...<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=kestrell&ditemid=466756" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-06:307003:462628Books about mushroom horror2022-11-24T16:51:34Z2022-11-24T16:51:34Zpublic0I recently finished an online course about Lovecraft in which we read "The Whisperer in Darkness," and we talked a bit about creepy fungi, so this post by the Gothic Librarian is very timely.<br /><br />And hey, don't let this stop you from having some of that mushroom stuffing during Thanksgiving dinner! <br /><br /><a href="https://www.thegothiclibrary.com/mushroom-horror/#more-2867">https://www.thegothiclibrary.com/mushroom-horror/#more-2867</a><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=kestrell&ditemid=462628" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-06:307003:460323"Barton Fink" film geekery2022-11-14T14:35:25Z2022-11-14T14:35:25Zpublic3This past week Alexx and I rewatched "Barton Fink" (Dir. Coen Brothers, 1991), which is one of my *favorite* movies, and when I say "favorite movies," I mean it is one of those movies which causes me to babble on like the movie geek I can be which, fair warning, this post is all about. <br /><br />There are many reasons to love "Barton Fink": it's a Coen Brothers film with the usual wonderfully quirky performances, including a really funny/terrifying performance by John Goodman. <br /><br />The reasons I love this film are 1, it's a movie about making movies in Hollywood and 2, it has one of the most innovative and impressive sound designs of any film, ever. It's the film that made me--and many other people-- really sit up and pay attention to how sound design could become a significant part of the narrative of the film, instead of something tacked on as an after thought. <br /><br />Regarding this last, if you do an online search for films with the best sound design, "Barton Fink" will show up in the top three almost every time ("Apocalypse Now" often shows up as number one). <br /><br />Having spent the past week researching and reading about "Barton Fink," I thought I would share some of mthe best resources I found.<br /><br />"Barton Fink" is a movie about making movies in Hollywood circa 1941, and much of the sense of time and place is taken from books written by writers who were actually writing in Hollywood during the 1930s and 1940s. These included many writers such as Raymond Chandler, Nathaniel West, and William Faulkner, who is the basis for W. P. Mayhew. Another book used by the Coens was Otto Freidrich's City of Nets, about German expatriates living in Hollywood in the 1940s. An astounding amount of the dialogue and some of the character details are taken from these books. <br /><br />The most complete exploration of the literary influences of "Barton Fink" I found is<br />"Barton Fink: ‘For the Common Man’" in _The Cinema of the Coen Brothers_ by Jeffrey Adams (2015, Columbia University Press) (available on Bookshare.org) <br /><br />Online resources which provide a similar exploration but which is not quite as extensive are<br /><br />15 Fiery Facts About 'Barton Fink' | Mental Floss<br /><a href="https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/67383/15-fiery-facts-about-barton-fink">https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/67383/15-fiery-facts-about-barton-fink</a><br /><br />and<br /><br />How the Sausage Gets Made: Inside the Hollywood Film Industry in Barton Fink and Hail, Caesar! by M. Keith Booker<br /><a href="https://bookerhorror.com/how-the-sausage-gets-made-inside-the-hollywood-film-industry-in-barton-fink-and-hail-caesar/">https://bookerhorror.com/how-the-sausage-gets-made-inside-the-hollywood-film-industry-in-barton-fink-and-hail-caesar/</a><br />(this article can also be found in _The Coen Brothers' America_ (2019) by M. Keith Booker) <br /><br />If you are interested in film sound, the ultimate online resource is<br />FilmSound.org: dedicated to the Art of Film Sound Design & Film Sound Theory<br /><a href="http://www.filmsound.org/">http://www.filmsound.org/</a><br /><br />The following article provides a basic introduction to what sound design is and what a sound editor does, and then gets into exploring the sound design of "Barton Fink."<br /> <br />When Sound Is a Character<br />By Judith Shulevitz<br />Aug. 18, 1991<br />Posted online at<br /><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1991/08/18/movies/film-when-sound-is-a-character.html">https://www.nytimes.com/1991/08/18/movies/film-when-sound-is-a-character.html</a><br /><br />This is an academic article which is part of a journal issue on sound design in film <br />Barton Fink: Atmospheric Sounds of the Creative Mind<br />Sound Practices of the Coen Brothers<br />by Randall Barnes <br /><a href="https://offscreen.com/view/barnes_bartonfink">https://offscreen.com/view/barnes_bartonfink</a><br /><br />As I said, "Barton Fink" shows up on most links of best film sound design, and here is a great example:<br /><br />The Films That Influenced a Sound Design Master<br /><a href="https://www.filmmakeru.com/blog/the-films-that-influenced-a-sound-design-master">https://www.filmmakeru.com/blog/the-films-that-influenced-a-sound-design-master</a><br /><br />"Barton Fink" is filled with many small but anxiety-producing details, and one of these is the motif of the shoes. We always see empty shoes, but never the people they belong to. This reminded me of folklore associated with shoes and death, but also of concentration camp pictures of piles of shoes ("Barton Fink" has other references to World War 2 and fascism). <br /><br />Folklore abounds with stories of shoes and the dead. In times past, it was thought worthy to make a gift of a pair of new shoes to a poor person at least once in a lifetime. The belief was that, in the afterlife, the person would have to cross barefoot surfaces of thorns and gorse. If one had given shoes to a poor person during life, an old man at the beginning of one's journey would meet one with the same shoes to travel over the thorns without scratch or scale. <br />This belief is most memorably and creepily covered in <br />the Lyke Wake Dirge <br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgr65_MPVEo&ab_channel=stewuk">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgr65_MPVEo&ab_channel=stewuk</a><br /><br />Old boots and shoes are commonly found in cemeteries as gravesite remembrances. From Canada to New Orleans modern finds of shoes of various styles have been found draped across and or surrounding grave sides. According to Heck and Heck, the modern practice was inspired by Canadian songwriter Felix Leclerc’s (1914 – 1988) song, “Moi, Mes Souliers” (Me, My Shoes).<br /><br />foot talk: Dead Men’s Shoes : A brief history of funereal footwear and toe pointing<br /><a href="http://foottalk.blogspot.com/2020/06/dead-mens-shoes-brief-history-of.html">http://foottalk.blogspot.com/2020/06/dead-mens-shoes-brief-history-of.html</a><br /><br />and here are some more pictures and folklore about shoes and the dead, especially in New Orleans<br /><a href="https://diggirl.wordpress.com/2017/01/16/565/">https://diggirl.wordpress.com/2017/01/16/565/</a><br /><br />the infamous "Paul is dead" conspiracy theory, when Paul McCartney was pictured not wearing shoes on the album cover of "Abbey Road." <br /><a href="http://feetshoesandsuperstition.blogspot.com/2008/10/feet-shoes-and-superstition-dead-mens.html">http://feetshoesandsuperstition.blogspot.com/2008/10/feet-shoes-and-superstition-dead-mens.html</a><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=kestrell&ditemid=460323" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-06:307003:458587I have a fog machine and an axe!2022-10-31T13:10:09Z2022-10-31T13:10:09Zpublic3I'm going to be a Green Woman: I have a pseudo-medieval green velvet dress and cloak, a mask with ivy leaves, lots of fake velvet ivy, plus my ivy bracelt tatoo. <br /><br />And an axe!<br /><br />Sadly, when you live with historical reenactors, and announce that you have an axe, no one even looks up from their breakfast oatmeal. I asked, "Aren't you even a little scared?" and, in the most bored voice in the world, my housemate replied, "No."<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=kestrell&ditemid=458587" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-06:307003:455930Interested in taking an online course on the literature of H. P. Lovecraft?2022-10-13T12:11:45Z2022-10-13T12:11:45Zpublic0My friend and fellow scholar, Faye Ringel, will be teaching an online course on Lovecraft over four weeks beginning on October 25. Faye has published two books and many papers on New England gothic literature, and I don't know anyone who knows more about H. P. Lovecraft. <br />I can also say that the online registration page is fully accessible, as is the etext resource that Faye provides. Any outside resources I mention on Lovecraft I mention in class (and I have many books on Lovecraft and gothic literature) will also be available in accessible formats. <br /><br />The registration fee is $40. <br /><br />Lovecraft: Horror, Fantasy & Science Fiction (Online) | EdAdvance Adult Education FALL 2022 Catalog (coursestorm.com)<br /><br />Description: Who is H.P. Lovecraft? Why do writers like Stephen King and Neil Gaiman admire his horror fiction? The work of this racially controversial and creatively influential writer will be discussed via his stories and letters. What are Cthulhu and the Necronomicon? The focus will be on "The Shunned House", "The Festival", "The Shadow Over Innsmouth", and "The Dunwich Horror" plus more. Suggested reading prior to first class is found at the following free online Lovecraft resource: <a href="https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/">https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/</a><br /><br />Oct 25th, 2022<br />Tue for 4 weeks from 7:00 - 8:00 pm<br /><br />Register here<br /><a href="https://ed-advance-foothills-adult-continuing-education.coursestorm.com/course/lovecraft-horror-fantasy-science-fiction-online?search=Lovecraft">https://ed-advance-foothills-adult-continuing-education.coursestorm.com/course/lovecraft-horror-fantasy-science-fiction-online?search=Lovecraft</a><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=kestrell&ditemid=455930" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-06:307003:448531Women Gone Feral book list on Book Riot2022-09-13T13:25:50Z2022-09-13T13:25:50Zpublic0For those of us who are fans of Angela Carter's fairy tales, the Gingersnaps movie, and Brandi Carlile's "Mama Werewolf," among so many others, here are some more recent offerings.<br /> <br />WOMEN GONE FERAL: WEREWOLVES AND OTHER ANGRY CREATURES<br />by Steph Auteri Sep 9, 2022<br /><a href="https://bookriot.com/books-about-women-gone-feral/">https://bookriot.com/books-about-women-gone-feral/</a><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=kestrell&ditemid=448531" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-06:307003:443558Has anyone else been using the Merlin app?2022-05-22T11:50:02Z2022-05-22T11:50:02Zpublic2It's definitely a very cool app, and I know we have lots of different kinds of birds around our house, including wild turkeys, crows, owls, and cardinals.<br /><br />However, whenever I start recording with the Merlin app the only bird sounds it picks up are house sparrows.<br /><br />Yes, we have flocks of house sparrows, and they just never get tired of twittering along. <br /><br />There are some outside my window right now, mocking me.<br /><br />Alexx and I were sitting outside in the patio furniture, listening to that other sound of the great outdoors, lawn equipment, and I have to admit, I was impressed that the sparrows were not at all cowed (can birds be cowed?) by the roar of lawn mowers. I think they even upped the volume to eleven. They really seemed to be projecting the message "There are more of us than there are of you, and we can do. this. All. DAY!"<br /><br />So now they are even popping up during my Internet browsing, per the following webpage: <br /><br />The Meaning of Sparrows: Symbolism and Identification<br />JENNIFER STONE<br /><a href="https://owlcation.com/social-sciences/The-Meaning-of-Sparrows-Identification-and-Folklore">https://owlcation.com/social-sciences/The-Meaning-of-Sparrows-Identification-and-Folklore</a><br /><br />According to sparrow symbolism, I live in either a very lucky house or the house of the dead. <br /><br />Now, anyone who saw the very awesome movie "The Dark Half," directed by George Romero and based on the book by Stephen King, knows that sparrows are psychopomps, and I do love psychopomps. If only they didn't sound as if they were providing the soundtrack to a Disney movie, and I'm not talking about "Night on Bald Mountain."<br /><br />Anyway, here are some other sparrow facts from that page: <br /><br /><br />According to the Audobon Society, a common superstition states that sparrows carry the souls of the dead, and as such, it is bad luck to kill them. This superstition closely resembles the ancient Egyptian view of sparrows and that of traditional sailors, some of whom would get sparrow tattoos in hopes that the birds would catch and carry their souls should they die at sea. Modern authors have also shared <br />systems for interpreting sparrows and other birds as omens.<br /><a href="https://exemplore.com/spirit-animals/birds-as-omens-and-signs">https://exemplore.com/spirit-animals/birds-as-omens-and-signs</a><br /><br />Alternatively, sparrow tattoos can represent joy, freedom and inhibition. A popular example of this meaning is Jack Sparrow's sparrow tattoo in the Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise. In addition to being a tribute to the infamous pirate's last name, Jack's tattoo also points to the counterculture of freedom, expression and self-determination prized by those who choose to live outside of the bounds of structured society....<br /><br />According to the ancient Egyptians, sparrows would catch the souls of the recently deceased and carry them to heaven. (Years later, it became common for sailors to get sparrow tattoos in hopes that the birds would catch their souls if they died at sea.) The ancient Egyptians used a hieroglyph that represented the house sparrow. It was used as a determinative in the words "small," "narrow," or "bad."<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=kestrell&ditemid=443558" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-06:307003:429073Deafula: 1970s version of Dracula in ASL2021-09-20T11:48:01Z2021-09-20T11:48:01Zpublic3Hold on to your seats, I just found out about this: someone made a version of Dracula entirely in ASL. The bad news is that of course it was an experimental 1970s thing and of course it has the expected poor quality, but you can find it on Youtube<br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Si3cNB33Ui8">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Si3cNB33Ui8</a><br /> or, supposedly, on DVD<br /><a href="https://kingofthewitches.com/products/default-dvd">https://kingofthewitches.com/products/default-dvd</a><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=kestrell&ditemid=429073" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-06:307003:419229I've got those post-sf convention distopian blues2021-08-18T10:48:19Z2021-08-18T10:48:19Zpublic5It's that state of mind that occurs for a week or two after you've been to a science fiction convention, like this past weekend's Readercon, and news stories strike you as even more ominously dystopian than usual which, after 2020, is saying a lot. But, seriously, creating your own doppleganger, you know that never goes well, especially when you compare them to cute harmless puppies. I mean, WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?!<br /><br />Deepfakes Are Now Making Business Pitches <br />TOM SIMONITE<br />08.16.2021 07:00 AM<br /><a href="https://www.wired.com/story/deepfakes-making-business-pitches/">https://www.wired.com/story/deepfakes-making-business-pitches/</a><br /><br />The clips are presented openly as synthetic, not as real videos intended to fool viewers. Reeder says they have proven to be an effective way to liven up otherwise routine interactions with clients. “It’s like bringing a puppy on camera,” he says. “They warm up to it.”<br /><br />New corporate tools require new lingo: EY calls these its virtual doubles ARIs, for artificial reality identity, instead of deepfakes. Whatever you call them, they’re the latest example of the commercialization of AI-generated imagery and audio, <br /><a href="https://www.wired.com/story/covid-drives-real-businesses-deepfake-technology/">https://www.wired.com/story/covid-drives-real-businesses-deepfake-technology/</a><br />a technical concept that first came to broad public notice in 2017 when synthetic and pornographic clips of Hollywood actors began to circulate online. Deepfakes have steadily gotten more convincing, commercial, and <br />easier to make <br /><a href="https://www.wired.com/story/cheap-easy-deepfakes-closer-real-thing/">https://www.wired.com/story/cheap-easy-deepfakes-closer-real-thing/</a><br />since.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=kestrell&ditemid=419229" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-06:307003:411390The original goth rock band2021-06-25T17:08:29Z2021-06-25T17:08:29Zpublic3Alexx: I read some more of the David Jay biography.<br />Kestrell: Remind me who David Jay is.<br />A: He was in Bauhaus, the original goth rock band.<br />K (scoffs(: That wasn't the original goth rock band.<br />A: What was the original goth rock band?<br />K: You know, that one with Byron and Mary Shelley.<br />A: That wasn't a rock band.<br />K: Many hardcore goths would back me up on this. Liz Hand would back me up on this.<br />A: I'm not going to win this one, am I?<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=kestrell&ditemid=411390" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-06:307003:370576Haven't these people read that M. R. James story??2020-11-08T14:22:29Z2020-11-08T14:22:29Zpublic0"O Whistle and I'll Come to Thee" -- you know, the one with the creepy sheet?<br /><a href="https://mashable.com/video/yale-robotic-fabric/?utm_medium=onsite&utm_source=internal">https://mashable.com/video/yale-robotic-fabric/?utm_medium=onsite&utm_source=internal</a><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=kestrell&ditemid=370576" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-06:307003:366860NASA's creepy Halloween posters2020-10-30T15:49:53Z2020-10-30T15:49:53Zpublic0Dead stars and black holes and lots of spooky red lighting, free to download<br /><a href="https://scitechdaily.com/heres-how-to-get-new-nasa-posters-featuring-cosmic-frights-for-halloween/">https://scitechdaily.com/heres-how-to-get-new-nasa-posters-featuring-cosmic-frights-for-halloween/</a><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=kestrell&ditemid=366860" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-06:307003:36597619 spookiest things Alexa can do2020-10-30T14:45:32Z2020-10-30T14:45:32Zpublic010. Ask Alexa to play the Aerye's theme song, "The Attic," by Professor Elemental<br /><br />Here are the other nine<br /><a href="https://www.cnet.com/how-to/9-spookiest-things-alexa-can-do-on-halloween/">https://www.cnet.com/how-to/9-spookiest-things-alexa-can-do-on-halloween/</a><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=kestrell&ditemid=365976" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-06:307003:363074Article on the Wild Hunt in medieval folklore2020-10-19T17:42:39Z2020-10-19T17:42:39Zpublic0The Wild Hunts of Medieval Lore<br /><a href="https://www.medievalists.net/2020/10/wild-hunts-medieval/">https://www.medievalists.net/2020/10/wild-hunts-medieval/</a><br />Have you read?<br />The Wild Hunt by Jane Yolen - The best Winter Solstice read aloud book ever, plus you will never forget what a gerund is. <br />The Wild Hunt of Hagworthy by Penelope Lively - Captues that sense of the uncanny, definitely folk horror. <br />The Last Hot Time by John M. Ford - So much to love about this book, plus the elves are not annoyingly pretty. <br />Phantom Armies of the Night by Claude Lecouteux - One of the few nonfiction books I've found on the subject; the author is sort of the French Ronald Hutton<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=kestrell&ditemid=363074" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-06:307003:363003My week in review: health care policy and becoming tri-lingual in screen readers2020-10-18T15:09:15Z2020-10-18T15:09:15Zpublic0The healthcare policy advocacy group that I participate in had a fascinating speaker this week: Richard Antonelli, who is currently working out of BOston Children's Hospital, and is a researcher for developing metrics that can be used to measure care coordination and care integration, which is a huge, complex, confusing but incredibly vital issue in developing person-centered healthcare policy. You can learn more about what he does here<br /><a href="http://www.nhpf.org/speakerbio_richardantonelli">http://www.nhpf.org/speakerbio_richardantonelli</a><br /><br />During a different presentation, I brough up the issue of hearing other consumer express confusion about the different phrases that are used: "care coordinator," "care manager," and one geographically-specific healthcare program that coined the phrase "care partner." At the same time, many of the consumers are using phrases such as "case worker," to refer to their contact person at the health insurance program, which suggests that they are still unclear that this is using a different model than the social welfare system, and this model gives them more agency over making choices.<br /><br />Bottom line: I get to continue the conversation with someone at the health plan who wants to get a better grasp on what consumers are confused about. Heck, I've been doing this for a couple years now and I'm still confused How much of the word choice is about creating a different and (implied) improved model of delivering health care, and how much is branding to make your plan appear to be different than the others? This is where the intersection of disability advocacy, media studies, and semiotics has brought me: it's an interesting crossroads, but you have to be careful around such trivium.<br /><br />Also spent huge amounts of time this week learning to use VoiceOver and Google Classroom--I'm still trying to figure out how to move files from Google Classroom to Google Drive (I keep hearing that it's supposed to be automatic, but that appears to be a lie, er, misconception), and NVDA. NVDA is just different enough from Jaws to be tricky, and I haven't figured out why I keep hearing so much of the formatting and field codes (I really do not need to hear about every carriage return, or every cell location of an object in a table).<br /><br />Oh! And Alexx and I finished watching Mike Flanagan's "The Haunting of Bly Manor," and it was really wonderful, perfectly splendid! (such an innocuous term, and yet, now, so creepy...) Mike Flanagan is a director with the soul of a bibliophile: I am in awe of how much Henry James he must have read to create this series. I'm almost tempted to go back and read the stories Flanagan references in his series, but then I remember how annoying James can be. <br /><br />Okay, I'm off to risk having my brain explode and do a bit more Voiceover review before lunchtime.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=kestrell&ditemid=363003" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-06:307003:361309MurderBaby and me pic, take 22020-10-12T17:41:02Z2020-10-12T17:41:02Zpublic3<img src="https://kestrell.dreamwidth.org/file/100x100/435.jpg" /><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=kestrell&ditemid=361309" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-06:307003:361028MurderBaby is back!2020-10-12T17:30:34Z2020-10-12T17:30:34Zpublic1MurderBaby started off as a prop for my sinister harlequin costume for Halloween last year, but then MurderBaby followed P. home and now...MurderBaby is back!<br /><a href="https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1229087324130806&id=100010886508851">https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1229087324130806&id=100010886508851</a><br /><br />I'm going to try to insert a pic of MurderBaby and I, let's hope it works...<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=kestrell&ditemid=361028" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-06:307003:360693Love this cover featured on the House of Bly trailer2020-10-11T13:45:14Z2020-10-11T13:45:14Zpublic0It makes even "home" pages feel creepy...<br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rkzRRML-BA">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rkzRRML-BA</a><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=kestrell&ditemid=360693" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-06:307003:359467The House of Bly Manor begins tomorrow on Netflix2020-10-08T09:56:58Z2020-10-08T09:56:58Zpublic1Directed by Mike Flanagan, who was one of my favorite directors even before The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of the House of Bly begins tomorrow on Netflix.<br /><br />You can find the trailer here (but can you name that tune playing on the music box?)<br /><a href="https://www.canstarblue.com.au/streaming/haunting-of-bly-manor-netflix/">https://www.canstarblue.com.au/streaming/haunting-of-bly-manor-netflix/</a><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=kestrell&ditemid=359467" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-06:307003:359368Five of my favorite Halloween movies2020-10-05T14:39:23Z2020-10-05T14:39:23Zpublic4Yesterday a couple of sister horror fangirls and I watched "Addams Family Values," which is as fun as ever --one of our number had never seen it, imagine!!-- and we all agreed we wanted to live in the Addams family mansion, or at least, heavily borrow from its interior design.<br /><br />I realize that there are lots of movie suggestions being posted this time of year, but I thought I would add my own, because these are six films that I feel are tragically underrated and even rarely mentioned. In a couple of cases I would almost call them lost classics. Speaking of lost classics, has anyone else ever come across mention of an unreleased film starring Christopher Lee and Donna Riggs in a film directed by Roddy McDowell, based on Midsummer's Night Dream? <br /><br />1. City of the Dead aka Horror Hotel (1960) <br />Christopher Lee as a professor of occult studies somewhere near a town that obviously stands in for Salem: how do I love this movie, let me count the ways<br /><a href="https://horroraddicts.wordpress.com/2014/06/09/kbatz-christopher-lee-delights/">https://horroraddicts.wordpress.com/2014/06/09/kbatz-christopher-lee-delights/</a><br /><br />2. Tam Lin (1970)<br />Directed by Roddy McDowell, soundtrack by Pentangle, Eva Gardner as the aging faerie queen (I want her wardrobe!), a young Ian McShane as Tom Lin and Stephanie Beecham as Janet—I swear, when I first read about this film I thought I was hallucinating, especially as no one to whom I’ve raved about it seems to have seen it.<br /><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tam-Lin_(film)#Production">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tam-Lin_(film)#Production</a><br /><br />3. The Nightcomers (1970) <br />Stephanie Beacham stars in this one as the infamous Miss Jessel opposite Marlon Brando as Quint, and I don’t even know how I managed to find this film on cable TV when I was a susceptible young teenager, because Quint is a bad, bad man, who really likes tying his girlfriend in knots, literally…<br /><br />4. Baffled (1973)<br />If you like occult detectives (as I do), and Leonard Nimoy (as I do), this is a British made-for-TV movie that was supposed to be the pilot episode for a series, and I weep at the loss.<br /><br />5. Spectre (1977)<br />Directed and written by Gene Roddenberry and starring Robert Culp and Gig Young as a pair of occult detectives who end up at a mansion which resembles what you might get if you crossed the Addams Family mansion with Playboy Mansion, and the slashiness between the two male leads, not to mention Majel Barrett as Lilith, add an additional layer of “Am I hallucinating this?” to the experience. <br /><br />6. Simon King of the Witches (1971)<br />Set in psychedelic 1970s Los Angeles, this story literally follows Simon, a ceremonial magician, through the stormdrains (where he lives) and the mansions of LA as he pursues his desire for godlike powers. A weird mix of camp and references to real magical rituals, I would recommend not taking mind-altering drugs before watching this, but we’re pretty certain that Grant Morrison did <br /><a href="https://ultraculture.org/blog/2013/04/17/simon-king-of-the-witches/">https://ultraculture.org/blog/2013/04/17/simon-king-of-the-witches/</a><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=kestrell&ditemid=359368" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-06:307003:358497Keeping Halloween alive, er, in your heart through scare packages and secret witches2020-10-03T14:02:11Z2020-10-03T14:02:11Zpublic1For years, a mutual friend and I have been sending scare packages to a friend who moved to LA from Boston. We are all horror fans, and we all love Halloween, and autumn, so we try to include a little of all these things in the packages we send her.<br /><br />What goes in a scare package? Anything spooky, or autumnal, or just plain silly.<br /><br />Things we have included in previous scare packages:<br /><br />a small jar (spice jar sized) labeled "Autumn," which included autumn leaves, acorns, tiny pinecones, a tiny pumpkin (these came in an autumn-themed potpourri), cinnamon and cloves<br />Handmade cards, handmade art, postcard with crows on it, Edward Gorey cards<br />A small bat finger puppet (this was a big hit)<br />Halloween socks<br />Bat earrings, handmade bead necklaces<br />Halloween balloons<br />Rubber bats with a suction cup to stick to a window/wall<br />Edgar Allan Poe temporary tattoos (we bought these in Salem during a one-day trip) <br />A thumb drive with spooky/Halloween/goth/horror movie soundtrack music on it<br />A thumb drive with old Halloween movies on it<br />Halloween chocolate or peeps, depending on the sendees favorites<br />An orange (it's her favorite color) silk handkerchief, fabric with autumn or Halloween themes, Halloween-themed ribbon <br />Mysterious-looking boxes into which to pack everything <br />Real or silk autumn leaves, black feathers, real acorns scattered through the contents to lend the contents a sense of having drifted there and being layered over time. <br /><br /> We, the senders, acquire spooky/Halloween-themed odds and ends all year long, so usually we just plunder our supply for things to include in the scare package, and then we get together and have a fun time constructing it as an art object. The other sender is great at making the handmade items, so the package really does have an overall sense of being thoughtfully and carefully put together.<br /><br />The first few times we sent the scare package, we didn't tell the sendee, so we got to be something like secret witches, instead of secret Santas.<br /><br />2020 could really use some secret witches sending scare packages to friends and family who usually celebrate Halloween in a big way, but may not be able to do so this year, so I'm circulating this idea in hopes that scare packages become a thing: you could even include a tag that says "Do not open until October 31."<br /><br />2020 has been full enough of the bad scares: let's put some good scares in it.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=kestrell&ditemid=358497" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-06:307003:343894Cute monster stories, please2020-08-10T13:58:23Z2020-08-10T13:58:23Zpublic6It's definitely one of those days which, if I had eyeballs, I would spend the day looking at cute cat pictures. <br /><br />But stories with cute monsters would really make me feel better.<br /><br />Any suggestions?<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=kestrell&ditemid=343894" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-06:307003:341670A selection of horror books from this week's browsing2020-07-31T14:08:49Z2020-07-31T14:16:24Zpublic0After finishing _Meddling Kids_, by Edgar Cantro, I am craving more dark delights. Here are some tantalizing selections which I culled from this week's browsing, but which I have not read yet.<br /><br />Masks in Horror Cinema: Eyes Without Faces<br />by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas <br /><a href="https://www.uwp.co.uk/masks-in-horror-cinema-eyes-without-faces/">https://www.uwp.co.uk/masks-in-horror-cinema-eyes-without-faces/</a><br /><br />"[O]ne question was always at the front of my mind: how do I write a book about one of the most ubiquitous yet under-studied iconographic elements of the horror genre, but simultaneously balance it with the bigger questions around identity, politics and power that I was more broadly interested in? To keep these later elements to the forefront of my analysis as I worked through the history of masks in horror movies, I focused explicitly on a number of central concepts that effectively became the drumbeat to which my book danced: power, ritual and transformation.<br /><br />But that was then, and this is now...."<br /> <br />Kes: This book was published by University of Wales Press, specifically as part of their Horror Studies series, Editor: Dr Xavier Aldana Reyes, Manchester Metropolitan University.<br />https:/<br /><br />Earlier this week, I posted about the following book, which Alexx bought for my birthday (Puer puellae dat!):<br /><br />The Greenwood Faun by Nina Antonia<br /><a href="http://www.egaeuspress.com/The_Greenwood_Faun.html">http://www.egaeuspress.com/The_Greenwood_Faun.html</a><br /><br />published by <br />Egaeus Press, which has a description that not only calls to me, but sounds as if it should be a BPAL scent.<br /><br />The foundations for Egaeus Press were laid in the cold English summer of 2011 in the dreamclutter of a childish melancholia - a nursery room agoraphobia compelling us to recall the anguished ticks of broken clockwork, the smell of curdled milk, the image of a songbird’s funeral on the tobacco-dry pages of an antique scrapbook … We are moved by the concept of the world as a haunted house, and by the paradox of all life’s darkest fears and most ecstatic wonders being essentially one and the same.<br /><br />We like (amongst other things):<br /><br />lych houses and gallow trees<br />connoisseurs and collectors<br />crumbling ancestral homes<br />decadents and decadence<br />scrapbooks and cuttings<br />masks and toy theatres<br />the folk tales of Europe<br />forests and mountains<br />clocks and clockwork<br />puppets and players<br />dreams and visions<br />seasons and cycles<br />furs and antlers<br />poison gardens<br />hermetic lore<br />ghost stories<br />music boxes<br />attic spaces<br />old forces<br />old songs<br />old bones<br />old maps<br /><br />It is our intention to publish morbid, decadent and baroque fiction in limited volumes of a quality of ornateness rarely seen in modern books.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=kestrell&ditemid=341670" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-06:307003:340197I am in love with this book2020-07-27T15:28:44Z2020-07-27T15:28:44Zpublic0It's a little pricey, and I would have to scan and OCR it, but it is calling to me...so many of my narrative fetishes. Maybe I'll make it my birthday present to myself.<br /><br />The Greenwood Faun by Nina Antonia<br /><a href="http://www.egaeuspress.com/The_Greenwood_Faun.html">http://www.egaeuspress.com/The_Greenwood_Faun.html</a><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=kestrell&ditemid=340197" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> comments