Thursday night and I’m sick. Yeah, yeah, I’m a sicko yada
yada. That’s not what I meant and you know it. I rarely get ill, but when I do
it’s usually a doozy (the bigger they are…) Not sure the scale of this one yet
but ugh. And it’s a week where I’ve worked overtime already. Since my brain is
both fried and on fire (along with my lungs) it seems like a good time for
another episode of seven things.
1. Blair Witch
So yeah, I saw the new “sequel” Blair Witch. And it was
fine. Not great, not bad, just kind of there. The original is one of my
favorite movies ever—one that has somehow retained its power even after the
overexposure, one that I still watch every couple of years. The initial sequel,
Book of Shadows, I actually
quite enjoyed and I think I’m the only one who did. (On opening night, in the
theater I saw it in, there were less than a dozen other people. It was a bomb.)
It wasn’t a perfect movie by any means but it wasn’t slavishly devoted to the
original and went after a different spin on the story—something that Blair
Witch could have benefited from. There were effective moments in Blair Witch
and if you’re claustrophobic you might want to walk out before the ending, but
the pacing and lack of character development (it desperately needed a scene
like the original’s food discussion; this is what makes characters real)
prevented it from being truly effective. Still a good popcorn movie for a
Sunday afternoon. But Book of Shadows has Erica, who I may or may not still have a bit of a crush on...
A fantastic, literate Southern Gothic horror novel from
the early 80s that deserves to be well known. Yes, this is the guy who wrote the
screenplays for Beetlejuice and A Nightmare Before Christmas but he was a damn
fine novelist who should be read by anyone with an interest in the field. I
loved this book and I’m going to track more of his down.
3. SubRosa: For
This We Fought the Battle of the Ages
There are a lot of book nerds in the heavy metal world. Heavy
metal itself is a pretty nerdy culture, especially if you get into the
underground side. Still, it’s not too often an album comes out based on a nearly 100-year old Russian
dystopian novel. One of my favorite bands since I discovered them in 2011
with No Help for the Mighty Ones, SubRosa’s crushing heaviness (highlighted by
two violinists that are integral to the sound) is everything great about doom
metal and much larger than doom metal. Quite simply one of the best bands
going.
4. You’ve Read All
the Stephen King books from the 70s and 80s, Right?
Would you believe I haven’t? There is just one novel I
haven’t read from this period: The
Talisman (co-written with Peter Straub.) I’ve been jonesing hard for some
classic era King lately and finally decided to read this instead of re-reading
a novel from this era. I’ve just started so no “hot take” yet. But I’ll be
shocked if I don’t enjoy it.
5. Homemade Nachos
With cheese, jalapenos, black beans, chicken or beef,
olives, salsa, sour cream, guacamole, hot sauce…few things are finer.
6. Rose Tea
Not to be confused with Red
Rose tea, which I remember my dad drinking for a brief period when I was
around kindergarten age. He went back to coffee soon enough. I’ve been
experimenting with herbal teas at night as a way to help get my anxiety and
stress under control, which has been some negative physical effects on me
lately. And I’ve discovered, to my surprise, that herbal rose tea works well,
even though I generally despise perfume-y teas (or anything else.) Maybe it’s
all just in my head but it seems to be helping and at this point I’m not picky.
It’s my head that needs the help anyway…
7. Finding Value in
My Creative Work
I spend a lot of time (though not nearly enough) writing.
Some of it’s good, a lot of it’s bad and most if not all of it will likely
remain largely unread. But in the process of trying to get some of my work into
a shape that someone might want to publish someday, I’m finding that there is
value in it for me on a personal level. That the writing is not merely a waste
of time, and it deserves to have that extra attempt at polish, at making it
work. It’s ok that it’s hard, it should be hard to do this. And working through
the process is its own reward.
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