stuff read and watched

[kindkit]

1) I just finished volume 11 of Ellen Datlow's Best Horror of the Year anthology, which covers stuff published in 2018. These kinds of anthologies are always a bit of a mixed bag, but as usual I found most of Datlow's choices pretty good. Interestingly, the story that most truly horrified me is the one further away from genre horror, Joe Hill's "You Are Released." It's set pretty much now, and is about a bunch of passengers on a plane that's in midair when the world political situation starts to take a very, very bad, and very plausible, turn. It's scary 'cause it's true. (NB the story has a thread of "can't we all be civil to one another across political divides?" that I don't like at all, because no, we can't be civil to homophobes and transphobes and white supremacists. But it's powerful enough that I liked it despite that.)

No idea what I'm going to read next. I keep getting stalled on A Memory Called Empire, but I've got a bunch of other unread books.

What I really want to read is John Le Carré's newest, but even as an ebook it's $14.99. *sigh* And my library probably hasn't even ordered it yet.


2) I've been feeding my new obsession with Julian Firth by watching the episode of Jeeves and Wooster he was in (it's 3x02, and he's charming and pretty) and the 2015 short film Somewhere in Macedonia, which is adapted from letters by two gay soldiers during the First World War. It's not really all that good, but Firth is as good in it as he has time to be, and of course it would have been relevant to my interests even without him.

ETA: And here is the trailer for Devon Gothic, another short film with Julian Firth by the same director, Alice Evans. I find it a bit "everything I don't like about avant-garde short films, condensed," but YMMV.


3) I've also been rewatching Cadfael, by which I mean skipping all the plot stuff and only watch the bits with Brother Jerome and/or Prior Robert on screen. Because reasons.

Comments

[sovay]

and the 2015 short film Somewhere in Macedonia, which is adapted from letters by two gay soldiers during the First World War. It's not really all that good, but Firth is as good in it as he has time to be, and of course it would have been relevant to my interests even without him.

I had no idea that existed! Thanks for the pointer. (Even if it's only all right.)

[sovay]

ETA: And here is the trailer for Devon Gothic, another short film with Julian Firth by the same director, Alice Evans.

I don't know what this filmmaker has against context or even credits, but at least she's got good taste in muses: "Echo Piano Lesson."

[edit] Oh, this is interesting: "Letters Home." Some of it is the same footage as the previous short, but here it's mixed with (or seen to derive from) what looks like background to "Somewhere in Macedonia." (So he must have been involved with the project from the start.)

I'm still not sure I understand her aesthetic.

[halotolerant]

adapted from letters by two gay soldiers during the First World War. It's not really all that good, but Firth is as good in it
Well that sounds relevant to my interests *g* I'm glad anyone wanted to make that movie, even if they couldn't do too great a job on it

Isn't he sweet in Jeeves and Wooster! I mean every male character except Jeeves is always totally useless unless they're evil (sometimes both i.e. Spode) but his hair is long and fluffy... *g*