May, 2022
What I'm...
Doing:
I’ve set up a horror discussion and promotion forum. Please join and have fun! https://theremightbecupcakes.com/horror
Reading:
For the podcast I am reading:
Of course I am continuing House of Leaves. For those reading along with me, the next episode in this series will begin with section VIII, p. 97.
I am also starting Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Myth, Metaphor, and Morality by Mark Field. I have a bibliography of five books for my upcoming Buffy series. This should be interesting and fun.
Ebooks:
On my iPad, which is my multitasking ereader (I use it so that I am not tied to Amazon), I just finished the most astounding horror novel Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt, a Dutch horror novel. It frightened me, looking into the corners of my dark bedroom frightened me, had a dream about it frightened me. I am now going to read all of his novels translated into English. I am currently reading Salvage by my friend Duncan Ralston. Fascinating story: imagine a town flooded by a planned dam. Only the steeple of the church protrudes from the water. Now imagine the church was run by a cult. Throw in ghosts and the claustrophobia and agoraphobia of diving…
Audiobooks:
I just finished my choice for Audible this month, Ann Burgess’ book on the creation of the Behavioral Science Unit. Burgess, a professor from Boston College and an expert on sexual violence victimology, is the third party in the creation of the Crime Classification Manual…and the woman that you saw on Mindhunter. This is her autobiography, and it’s enthralling. Warning: it’s also quite graphic. You can snag this book for free and check out Audible for a month with no strings attached, and help out the podcast, by using my link.
I am now listening to the novelization of the movie Halloween Kills, written by my friend Tim Lebbon, narrated by the awesome Bronson Pinchot. He really understands book narration.
Hardcover/paperback:
Reading The New Evil: Understanding the Emergence of Modern Violent Crime by the amazing Dr. Michael Stone. It’s the follow-up to his work The Anatomy of Evil, where he created his twenty-two degrees of evil scale for classifying violent crime and criminals, in order to better understand them. The New Evil has an afterword by Ann Burgess.
Next up is finishing Pearl by my friend Josh Malerman. I started it at the Scares That Care AuthorCon, where he gave it to me. I became enthralled, and then became distracted by working on House of Leaves and chronic pain (when I am seriously unwell, it is so much easier to read ebooks and audiobooks). Pearl is a horror novel about a very special pig…
Watching:
The Girl From Plainville. They have done a good job illustrating this case—the manslaughter of Conrad Roy III by Michelle Carter, showing her clinging, desperate, disordered personality. I knew someone like her: she told me we were destined to be best friends because we have the same initials. And she meant it—she acted like we were besties from that moment on until I put up firm and strict boundaries. She later faked harming herself. How do I know? While supposedly waiting for the ambulance, she posted in her blog what had happened, and that she had changed the mailing address for her wishlist to the hospital, and thank you in advance for the cards and presents. I see a million things about her in Michelle. It’s chilling.
Started The Little Girl Who Lived Down the Lane (1976), with Jodie Foster, then realized Joe Bob Briggs showed it on The Last Drive-In, so I think I may restart it with him. It’s from the era of movies like Pretty Baby (1978), so “artsy” underage nudity was a thing…but I was still surprised to see Jodie’s pre-teen butt. Looking forward to Joe Bob’s knowledgeable commentary on it. This is another film that proves to me that Martin Sheen is terrifying.
I have been meaning to read the novel for some time; this bumps it up on my TBR list.
Last four movies on my Letterboxd watched list:
The Devils five stars
The Sadness five stars
Metallica: Some Kind of Monster five stars
Conversations with a Killer: The John Wayne Gacy Tapes five stars
The Devils has been on my radar for a while, but I was nervous to watch it, because of the torture. I was worried for nothing; it’s suggested off-screen. The main uproar over this movie is the nudity (naked bald nuns, as I messaged Best Friend Joshua) and the religious fervor imagery. For example: the Mother Superior imagines her obsession, the priest, on the cross as Jesus. He falls from the cross into her arms and then they roll around on the ground together in front of the crucifixion witnesses. Yeah, I understand why people were upset. But overall it’s actually a beautiful movie, rather Shakespearean in scope (stars Oliver Reed and Lynn Redgrave) and has Ken Russel’s outstanding scenery. One scene looks like the madness of a Bosch painting.
It’s based upon a true story, written up by Aldous Huxley in The Devils of Loudon. Cardinal Richelieu was horrified by the French town of Loudon, because the Protestant Huguenots and Catholics were living in harmony. The horror. He convinced the king to let him “handle it”. Meanwhile within the city gates, the Mother Superior is obsessed with the priest, and is willing to cry possession and witchcraft if she can’t have him.
I mentioned I was nervous to watch this for a long time, because of its reputation as one of the most controversial horror movie of all time, and because it originally had a X rating in the US and the UK. So I decided to finally watch it because I was high on much stronger than usual pain medication. I don’t recommend this course of action; Ken Russell stoned is…an experience. I can’t imagine watching Lair of the White Worm stoned.
The Sadness I watched with my friends at Rue Morgue and the director, Robert Jabbaz, over Zoom, with an Q&A afterwards with him and the composer. Wonderful and disgusting experience, with an incredible female main character. This is a Thai pandemic zombie movie, with this alternative Covid (mild spoiler) messing up the connection between the limbic system and the frontal lobe. Id zombies—sex and violence. This is goopy and gory as hell, but the verbal horror is almost worse. All of us agreed that the incel conversation might have been the scariest part of the entire movie.
This movie is extreme. Not for everyone. I could not eat, let’s put it that way.
Metallica: Some Kind of Monster. YES. This is a documentary made by the creators of the West Memphis Three documentaries (the Paradise Lost series). Metallica had been a dysfunctional group for years, partially because they hadn’t dealt with the grief of the death of their original bass player, Cliff, and his replacement, Jason, has jut left the band, which triggered a lot. So they agreed to go into modified family therapy with a therapist that also is an expert in performance therapy (working with performers on anxiety and other issues). At the same time, in real time, they write and create the album St. Anger. It’s so fascinating and moving and you have to watch it if you have ever loved them. I rocked and cheered and cried. I listened to the Black Album the next day for the first time in a while.
There is a book about this documentary, I am going to have to read it! Metallica: This Monster Lives: The Inside Story of Some Kind of Monster by Joe Berlinger and Greg Milner
Conversations with a Killer: John Wayne Gacy: Directed by Joe Berlinger, director of the Paradise Lost docs and Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows, and the Ted Bundy movie Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Wicked and Vile. It ended beautifully with the victims, just as it should. I cried. It started with the search for the last victim, Rob Piest, and then mostly stays with the police and the defense attorney and their experiences, intersplicing Gacy’s own words (he was recorded for hours by the defense attorney’s office).
Listening:
Music: Like I said, Metallica is back in rotation. Also Tori Amos’ latest album “Ocean to Ocean”. Not listening to a lot of music lately—mostly podcasts and audiobooks.
Podcasts I’m currently binging are Faculty of Horror and Bye Pumkin (I’m a patron of both); Bye Pumkin takes a critical look at older reality tv shows, to see if they look the same in the light of today. Always listening to This American Life, which was my first podcast way back in 1999 or so. I’m old school.
Playing:
I play Words with Friends; please feel free to add me, I’m Carla21672.
The main game I play is The Sims; my EA gallery and Origin name is CarlaCupcakes. Let me know yours please. Under CarlaCupcakes, you can see the Sims I have created, including the ghosts (I love them) and my version of the Brown family from Sister Wives.
Learning:
You can add me as a friend on Duolingo as CarlaCupcakes. I’m refreshing my high school and college French, and learning Spanish, Gaelic Scottish (very beginning level), and Latin (I think I need a book supplement; any suggestions?)
Knitting:
I am currently knitting worsted-weight socks flat. I sometimes have spatial issues with knitting socks with double-pointed needles, and I have not mastered the Magic Loop yet (using one giant circular needle to knit both socks at once). So I found this cool book, Knit Your Socks On Straight by Alice Curtis. I am knitting the first pattern, Your First Socks (the only one for worsted-weight), and have modified it for a longer rib cuff and longer leg. It’s in Lion Brand Wool-Ease Marigold. Isn’t this cool? When I am done, I weave through the toe stitches, then leave a tail five times the length of the sock. I fold the sock, and use that tail to crochet the slipped stitch edges together. I can make the seam as invisible as possible, or I can make it fancy. This picture shows the sock before I started turning the heel; the bottom ribbing is the cuff, the top ribbing is the back of the heel. (The weird blanket with lettering is my Halloween 1978 VHS blanket, I love it so much.)
I hope you all all having a good May, Please feel free to comment with what you are enjoying. Love you all!