Cleolinda everywhere

I am a little tired right now.

@cleolinda: I did not sleep at all last night. Just lay there hoping Bad Cat was making That Rustling Sound.

@SuperCricket: @cleolinda and that's how Cleolinda found out she had a heffalump infestation.

Speaking of Twitter: please do not contact me there if you currently are or are pretending to be on hard drugs. Thank you.

@NASA_Hubble: Helium walks into a bar. Bartender says "We don't take kindly to Noble Gasses here." Helium doesn't react.

You know, as Mark gets ever further into Harry Potter, I began to wonder why I never did Order of the Phoenix in Fifteen Minutes. What the hell was going on at the time? So I went back and checked some dates. ( MARK DON'T READ THIS THERE ARE SPOILERS. DON'T READ THE COMMENTS EITHER )

Speaking of which: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Behind the Scenes Photos. ( More linkspam )

Still "recovering" from burnout a bit. Attended two separate social gatherings last night, believe it or not. Now need to find something to wear for The Lovely Emily's wedding (did I mention she's getting married at the end of May?), which ought to be... interesting, and possibly depressing. The wear-finding, I mean, not the wedding (I approve of The Future Mr. Emily 110%).

I do have some linkspam today, if only because some really good stuff just came out. (Nothing gets my attention like the word "EXCLUSIVE," by the way--because I automatically know which site's version of a news item I ought to go with. Also among my priorities: trailers and images.)

( Nine, The Road, Princess and the Frog, Deathly Hallows, Dawn Treader, Wuthering Heights, a lot of exclamation points!!! )

Fairly productive day--a long slow slog, but I kept on keepin' on. I mean, my eyelid's started twitching again, but what're you gonna do.

Today's journal flashback: Van Helsing in Fifteen Minutes, because that's pretty much what started everything. And, you know, Halloween and stuff. Speaking of which, I have something fun planned for tomorrow, if I can get it all to work.

Meanwhile, the dogs went crazy yesterday evening while everyone thought someone else was watching them and they tore a large strip of wallpaper off near the kitchen window. Which means that if we can't match the wallpaper (we probably can't), we'll have to re-paper the entire kitchen. You know, because we have the money or the fortitude to deal with that right now. Also, they ATE THE WALLPAPER, WHAT THE HELL. So now we're going to have to get a second crate (they're too big to both fit in the old one) and crate them during the day because I can't watch them and get work done, which hurts my heart but guess what? It's not like we can let them run around and destroy the house, either--they've already acquired a taste for magazines as it is. Fnarr.

Total change of subject: can anyone recommend a good, free music player/program for my computer that is NOT iTunes? Yahoo Jukebox has decided to suck hosewater since they killed Y! Unlimited and tried to send everyone over to Rhapsody, WHICH IS NOT FREE, leaving the player a shell of what it once was. ( I downloaded Media Monkey and it seems okay... )

Linkspam! ( Blogger bloodbath! )

I'm several days behind on the 'spam, so I harvested as much as I could off Google Reader before I just lost my will to spam completely. Because there was a lot.

( Spaaaaam )

Turns out my poor dog has arthritis and/or bursitis in his shoulder... and a bit of gravel wedged between the pads of his paw. The doctor's advice for the aches brought on by cold weather? "Get him a sweater." I am totally going to ask the Lovely Emily to knit him a giant muffler that I can wrap all around his neck and front legs (because God knows I'd never get sleeves on the boy).

Those messages from yesterday? Farsi.

More seasonal reading!

"The Dionaea House," from last year. (Note: "An online Halloween story was based on the 'dionaea' concept. It was called the "Dionaea House", and the writer has reported the concept has been optioned for a movie.")

If you want more (and are prepared for an extremely intellectual, multimedia/print book approach), check out Mark Danielewski's House of Leaves, which seemed to inspire the Dionaea story, and his sister Poe's (Ann Danielewski) album Haunted. (The Idiot's Guide to House of Leaves. Be prepared to spoiler-swipe the entire page, because the white text blocks aren't marked very clearly, and you may miss a lot.)

Algernon Blackwood: "The Man Whom the Trees Loved," "The Willows," and "The Empty House."

F. Marion Crawford: "The Screaming Skull." I seem to remember another story of his, "The Upper Berth," that was in an oversized picture-book anthology called Mostly Ghostly. Mostly a showcase for the illustrations, but fun nonetheless.

E.F. Benson: "The Room in the Tower." I really like this one for some reason.

Louisa May Alcott: "Behind a Mask." I love the stuff she wrote for adults--neither "Gothic" nor "thriller" really cover it. Maybe "scheming and intrigue" is the best way to put it, although some of the stories do have a supernatural bent. Not this one, though--the Jean Muir character just completely pwns, is all.

From the site where I got the Alcott story: Gothic Tales from the Past. and Some Weird & Horror Tales. Seriously, I'm just bookmarking this here because if I start reading I'll be here all week.

The works of H.P. Lovecraft. I promised to post links to a few of his, ahem, less-tentacled works, so... well, okay, there are some tentacles. But I wanted to put up stories that didn't depend on the Cthulhu Mythos per se--a scary story about a wax museum is, at the end of the day, just that.

"The Picture in the House." " I thought of the rain and of a leaky roof, but rain is not red."

"The Rats in the Walls." Try to ignore the cat's name if you can. It bothered me like hell, but it was published in 1924. Sigh.

"The Strange High House in the Mist." It makes me think a little of a Lovecraftian Tom Bombadil.

"The Thing on the Doorstep." One of my favorites.

"The Shunned House." This is one of the stories that reminds me of Bierce--only a lot wordier, a lot more baroque, and with more ooze.

"Herbert West: Reanimator." Yes, that Reanimator.

"The Whisperer in Darkness." BPAL fans will get a kick out of this one--to say why would give the twist away, but you'll know it when you see it.

There are others I have printed from a site no longer in existence--sadly, the wax museum story seems to be one of them.

Speaking of wax museums, however, Marie Belloc Lowndes' "The Lodger" is another favorite. Take a guess as to who the lodger is.

Gothic novels, with links to e-texts where available. I particularly recommend Northanger Abbey (Austen's semi-parody of the genre) and The Castle of Otranto.

Speaking of both of those, there's Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho.

If you're in the Gothic mood or perhaps waiting for the Fifteen Minutes book to arrive, you can always go back and read the first three chapters of Black Ribbon. (Yes, I do remember the story about the girl with a yellow/green/red/black ribbon tied around her neck, and what happened when her fiance/husband pulled it off. Yes, my Black Ribbon is kind of named in homage to that story, although not really for the same reason. Mostly just so people would go, "Oooo, I remember that story about the girl with the yellow/green/red/black ribbon around her neck...!") I'm going to try to put up the last two chapters (rough versions or not) next month in the spirit of NaNoWriMo. Black Ribbon 1, therefore, is five chapters. Black Ribbon 2 will in theory follow the same lines, but who knows? Besides, I'm writing that one for my creative writing thesis.


And just one more link, unrelated but interesting: Hollywood Boulevard Just Isn't Big Enough For Elmo and Friends. I'm hearing that the Fiona and the Puss 'n Boots mentioned are Hall of Fame wankers you may remember if you kept up with the Jordan Wood/Bit of Earth saga.



  

So. I'll head you off at the pass and tell you that my updated cartoon icon is from avatar.yahoo.com. You'll need a Yahoo Messenger account to make one, but all you have to do is hit shift + Print Screen, paste it into a photo editor, and go to town.

Independence Day is going well, except for the whole being overdue part. The only reason I stopped just now is that Sister Girl needed help getting all her pastry into the house--apparently her team won an informal cook-off in bake shop today. She brought home boxes of croissants and danish and pecan rolls. Mmm, danish.

In more serious news, Mom's having to go in Friday for a biopsy. They think it's a calcium deposit, but it could be breast cancer; the surgery is to find out. Tonight, she's going out to dinner with my stepfather for their anniversary--I think it's their fourth, since they got married the year I graduated college. I sound pretty calm about this, but that's basically the only way I've learned to cope with stress. Better living through denial and all that.


Pimp Request Amnesty Week continues:

From Jillian and Christina: "We just put 14 items on eBay & I updated the items listed on the Associates page of the 4Christina website includes A Series of Unfortunate Events DVD, some Sin City, and Star Wars stuff. ;) "

From allthelivesofme: "Since it's Pimp Amnesty week-- can I ask you to put up a link to the book I co-authored, We Were Strangers? If you wouldn't mind? *bats eyelashes and all that stuff*  :-)"


Misc. links:

Jodie Foster, Denzel Washington, and Clive Owen to do Spike Lee joint film:

On a news day slower than a snail with chronic fatigue syndrome, we bring you the other of several small morsels of interest. Raise a cheer (or, being Monday morning, raise your eyebrows) to the news that Jodie Foster is all signed up to appear in Spike Lee's next project, Inside Man.

The film has at this stage been described as a complex cops and robbers tale (with a twist, of course), pitting bank robber Clive Owen against cop Denzel Washington. The bank robber is trying to pull off that elusive 'perfect heist'. Fate has other ideas, and the standoff ensues. Foster enters the already tense scenario playing a lawyer who further complicates the situation. Never one to coast, we're expecting Jodie to wring every last drop out of the role, and raise this already promising premise. We're thinking Heat, we're thinking Dog Day Afternoon, we're thinking the good bits of The Negotiator. (Empire Online)

Doctor Who To Play 'Da Vinci Code' Thug?

British actor Christopher Eccleston has wasted no time in finding his next big project after giving up on TV series Doctor Who after one season - he's reportedly in talks to play the villain of The Da Vinci Code. The Gone In 60 Seconds star is said to be the new favorite to play killer monk Silas in director Ron Howard's adaptation of Dan Brown's best-selling book, according to website Digitalspy.Com. Jim Carrey was also rumored to be in talks for the role of the monk, who is a fearsome albino in the story. The Da Vinci Code, which will star Tom Hanks, Jean Reno and Audrey Tautou, begins filming in June. (IMDB)

My next garage band is totally going to be called Fearsome Albino.


Am longing for samples I ordered from Black Phoenix Alchemy. In the meantime, check out their new Springtime in Arkham scents, which crack me up (Yog-Sothoth: "The perfume of eternity in vast, unknowable space. A glittering oil, ephemeral, iridescent, and horrifying in its immeasurable emptiness. This is the scent of air and darkness"). I kind of want to try out the tarot oils, and the forums have been really helpful in terms of finding out, you know, what they actually smell like. (I really wish I could get a sample of the Sagittarius blend, but apparently it's discontinued.)

Anyway. Must go do laundry, walk dogs, not panic.