Everybody drink!

Do I recommend The Addiction? Yes, but with trepidation. Or at least with qualifications. If ever there were a movie where you'd say it's not for everyone, this is it.

It's a vampire movie centered on a philosophy grad student (Lili Taylor, demonstrating why she should have been huge and probably never will be.) So a certain amount of making subtext text is to be expected. Your mileage may vary on it.

It's got a very interesting look. Shot entirely in black and white, it's also in a narrower aspect ratio than most movies made after the fifties. But it doesn't look like an old Universal or Val Lewton horror movie. The camera takes everything in with the detachment of a Warhol screen test.

An unusual casting tidbit: The guru vampire Peina was written as a woman, but when Christopher Walken read the script he fixated on that role and Abel Ferrara agreed to cast him. Balancing the gender switch, Annabella Sciorra wound up playing the part Walken was supposed to get. She makes an impression, and not just with her teeth.

Aye-aye, cap'n

Lemurs are primates, and have the prime primate traits in terms of hands and placement of eyes. They're related to us, but more distantly than monkeys and of course apes are. They're an interesting peak into earlier mammal evolution, being limited, at least in the wild, to the off-Africa island of Madagascar.

Relatedly the Denver Zoo has just seen the birth of a new aye-aye, which is a species of lemur. And a birth in captivity is still better than none. The parents are named Smeagol and Bellatrix, which is delightful. The baby is named Tonks, which is weird because Nymphadora Tonks was sorted into Hufflepuff House, even though she's Draco's cousin.

Beach scene

Stevie Smith reads her immortal poem inspired by a newspaper story of a man who drowned because  Phil Collins wouldn't save him.

Smith, it turns out, had a great voice, literally as well as figuratively. This musical lilt carries her through even when she's just explaining herself.

composition & decomposition

I've been working on a short story. Never mind what it's about. (Well, at some point I may talk about it.) But my trouble, as happens so often, is that I tend to psych myself out. Put so much pressure on every little decision that it's easier to just avoid the whole subject and do something else. So I'm trying to un-psych myself. And who knows? I might even wind up with something presentable.

chirp chirp

Part of the environmental sound, along with the hum of the refrigerator, is the humming of crickets. You associate them with the country, but they're urban, too. The sound is soothing from a distance. Once, I think when I was in college, I came home and saw a big cricket in my room. That freaked me out. Probably because I'm always trying to keep my conscience at bay.

What's your beef?

MINOTAUR from Karlis Vitols on Vimeo.

Not sure exactly what medium was used on this short film, but it's pleasing to the eye. Reminiscent of watercolors, or even fingerpaint.

Then there's the content, which presents the Minotaur figure in perhaps a more sympathetic light than usual. And shows Sysiphus pushing a briefcase uphill. Natch.

Prepared

A lady on the bus today was asking around if anyone had any ibuprofen, because she had a toothache. She didn't ask me, but as it happened I had some acetaminophen. She was happy to take it but surprised. It was usually women who have things like that on them.

Which is true and I've noticed. It's just that sometimes without much warning I get headaches. It doesn't happen that often, but in those cases I'd rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it. So anyway it worked out for her.