So, I've never before seen Gypsy, but I have very recently seen and was almost traumatized by Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?.

The first part of Gypsy is creepy as all hell in that context.  Is creepy if you haven't seen Bette Davis sing "A Letter to Daddy"?  What I mean is, is it creepy in and of itself, even if you haven't seen Whatever Happened ( Read more... )

I'm watching the original Dial M for Murder, and I realized that Grace Kelly's husband's cunning plot to lure his wife downstairs and thus get her into position to be murdered by his old schoolmate by calling home from the stag party would never work on me.

When I am in bed and the telephone rings, I just let it ring, on the theory that very few ( Read more... )

When I was a girl, one of the bands I used to like to see played an awesome version of "MacPherson's Lament."  For reasons I'm not going to go into because life is short, I no longer have their album.  I'm wondering if anybody out there knows a good version on itunes or youtube or something, for I have a powerful desire to hear it again.

So, as you know if you've ever met me, I am rather scatter-brained.  In fact, I am a classic absent-minded professor, insofar as I can quote large passages of text verbatim, recreate off the top of my head a page of a paper if I'm delivering it at a conference and somehow my printer skipped a page, and remember all kinds of arcane and interesting ( Read more... )

Let's have the good first:

I'm currently watching The Knights of the Round Table (1953) and enjoying it immensely, even if Stonehenge does appear to made of styrofoam (that stuff does last a long time, after all).  It is also super slashy.  I just watched a scene in which Lancelot takes Arthur aside on Christmas in order to give him a special ring, ( Read more... )

Look, couldn't Suzy Hendricks of Wait Until Dark have saved a lot of trouble for herself simply by locking her apartment door?

But I have learned a very important lesson: if I ever have to stab somebody, I will not stab them once and then run away.  It is clearly very important to keep on stabbing until you are certain that your enemy is dead.

Also, ( Read more... )

I was looking at my profile the other day, basking in my own brilliance (well, I was bored), and I noticed that in the wake of the Readercon situation, there are new people who have friended me.  Which is great.  Hi, new people.  I'll friend you back, but if you wanted to say hello and assure me that you're not one of my students, or even tell me ( Read more... )

Readercon's Statement, Apologies, and Positive Reinforcement

Readercon's Concom's excellent statement regarding their former board's actions and how the con apologizes and will make every effort to prevent such another fiasco is here.

And Rose Fox Chaiya's announcement of the statement is here.

This statement is awesome, in my opinion. It includes ( Read more... )

Today has been a bit of an unexpectedly hectic day for me, and I find myself able to sit at a computer for the first time since Readercon's concom issued their public statement.  I'll have a more coherent, thoughtful post later, but right now, I just want to say that I think it is an eminently thoughtful statement that demonstrates a keen awareness ( Read more... )

Another reason women don't come forward

Often, women who come forward to publicly complain about sexual harassment and name and shame the harassers are told that they are over-reacting, that the harassment wasn't really “bad-bad,” that at least she wasn't raped, that she should be glad of any response from an official body. That's all part and ( Read more... )