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Several folks requested texts about which I don't have too much to say... We didn't think it was possible.... Perhaps it's better this way... Anyway! Collected for your pleasure and my peace of mind: 

The Lady's Not For Burning for nextian 

Wow. The language is good in this one, huh??? I'm afraid I read it right after finishing Tam Lin, which ended up being an interesting experience... Couldn't help comparing it to Dean's interests--beautiful language, the marriage of minds alive to the world surrounded by idiots, particularly of a depressed man and a life-hungry woman--and the pacing flaws in Tam Lin... Lady, I think, might echo them. Not that Lady is too long, but the ending... we rise to a pitch and then we--don't. This could work on stage, I think, if you played the silences right. Worked less good in TL. 

Damn it was delicious to read, though. And I'll always happily read about people getting their belief systems shaken. And they're foils? How fun. 

Fleabag, Ep. 1 for queenlua and osprey_archer  

I liked it! I like watching people make expressions. I Love to See Olivia Coleman. I'm interested in the fourth wall, and I'm especially interested in reading the play that birthed the tv series, and comparing the choices. It's depressing, and the narrator sucks, but I was surprised and interested in the Friend Situation Reveal at the end of the episode, and the control of tone that reveal ... revealed. I'd love to hear why you each bounced off!

It's worth noting that I've only seen the one episode, and that I saw it on Dracula night, so I'd watched, in order, Bram Stoker's Dracula, and then Gatiss/Moffat's Dracula ep 1, and then topped it off with this. At that point, I was thrilled to watch a whole cast act. Also it was midnight by the time it finished. I do plan to watch the rest of the series, though!

The Freelancer's Bible for genarti 

I read this for my Business of Copyediting class. It's very good. I'm certain it was helped by the context, which forced me to Actually Do Things with the Information, but I really was impressed by this self-help book, alas. The writing is clear, the advice specific, the resources relevant, and the tone is cheerful and excited about the opportunities freelancing can afford people while being extremely clear-eyed about the difficulties of being a freelancer, both on the individual level and the systemic. The main author is the founder and former president of the Freelancer's Union, and so she brings a fiery labor organizer's point of view to a very entrepreneurial topic that I Appreciated. The book's a bit outdated in some respects--not everyone has a cellphone! you might consider getting wireless internet! AI doesn't exist!--but the overall guidance I found as helpful as ever. 

Spirited Away for genarti, osprey_archer, and geestellar 

Stares into the middle distance. It's a good movie, Brent. No. Sorry. I watched it at a friend's place with a ton of friends, and my takeaway was, "Don't watch good movies with friends." Bless 'em. Nobody would shut up. 

It was kind of an interesting experience, in that before we got started, friend H said it was one of his least favorite Ghibli films, because it doesn't have a plot. This was a shocking statement to me. Of course it has a plot. It's about Chihiro... not growing up, exactly, but becoming More Herself. We argued about this a bit to start, and friend Z brought up that it has a Japanese-style plot, and Z is of course right. The movie's a bit episodic. There's a whole near-silent sequence on the ocean train. (Beloved.) But I also just think friend H is wrong and didn't grow up reading books about practical heroines who learn to Be Themselves. Or appreciate the soot sprites enough. Or Chihiro running down the stairs. Or my wife. Or---

Spirited Away doesn't pry me open with an oyster knife the way Kiki does. It doesn't have the evil lesbian capitalist foil to a hot feral wolf girl that Mononoke does. But it's my favorite. 

As requested by passingbuzzards, skygiants and door, it's.... Dracula!

I'd never seen any Dracula adaptation at all ever--unless one counts Buffy as a Dracula adaptation, in which case I've seen Hush and the singing one--and may I just say, I would not recommend starting with any of the three adaptations I saw this month!

I've a longstanding interest in adaptations, though, so when some friends decided to go see Luc Besson's Dracula (2026), I joined them. Now, none of us knew that in other markets, this movie was subtitled "A Love Tale."

Me: Between... Mina and Jonathan?
Besson: Mais non! Dracule et Mina!

( Oh dear. )

I had a great time. What a series of swings. My takeaway was "Terrible movie. Everyone should see it." I laughed so much that I made friends with the folks on the other side of our group. I haven't even mentioned the gargoyles, which ended up being one of the funniest things I've seen in a movie in recent memory. Do not spend 20+ dollars to see it, but if you're hanging out with buddies, eating snacks, and ready to yell delighted disparaging comments at a Bad Movie with A Huge Budget, put it on the list.

I mentioned seeing Dracula (2026) to a Media Professional friend, and when she learned I hadn't seen Bram Stoker's Dracula, she was like oh, we should get high and do that. And I was like can we please, actually. So last weekend, we did. Minus the getting high, plus another Media Professional friend, whose apartment we invaded. (He has a TV and a couch.)

( New astonishments )

Ok. So, after we finished BSD, we tipsily decided it was early (10pm) and we could watch!! the first episode!!! of BBC's Dracula! They did not tell me it was an hour and a half and a Gatiss/Moffat production!!!

I'm not going to write this up in as much detail. I had fun with it, actually. There are parts in it that Gatiss and Moffat Simply Cannot Stop Themselves, of course, but overall I liked the Jonathan, Mina, Van Helsing (a Religiously Troubled but Very Self-Confident nun), and Dracula. Claes Bang, who plays Dracula, has more fun as he gets younger and sexier, and absolutely homosexually tortures Jonathan to pieces. Loved that. (Oldman and Landry Jones both become wooden as hell as they get younger and sexier, which was homosexually torturous for me---) I also adoooored Dolly Wells as Sister Agatha Van Helsing.

My understanding is that the third episode absolutely blows shit. From Gatiss and Moffat? Shocking. But the first episode, at least, felt more interested in the book's specific death-dread than the two movies, even as it turned much of the plot on its head. I've been told the second episode is even better. It's unlikely I'll watch it on my own, but I'm happily passing that information on to you.