Consortium of Seven: Year 2

What begins as a joke becomes frighteningly real in this spirited fantasy with a dark undercurrent. On a rainy afternoon at the end of a vacation trip to Ireland, two young friends, Norman Huntley and Henry Beddow, seek shelter in a church. The sexton shows them around, pointing out what he considers to be the musty old building’s many fine features. Norman and Henry impishly claim to be acquainted with someone who knew the church’s late pastor, a Mr. Archer. The sexton is obsessed with Archer and is eager to hear more. They oblige by spinning a tale about an elderly woman named Constance Hargreaves, who knew Archer in her youth. Norman and Henry leave the church delighted by their mutual act of creativity. They adjourn to a bar, where they continue the game by making up details about the fictitious Miss Hargreaves. She is a niece of the Duke of Grosvenor. She writes poetry, having published a volume of verses titled Wayside Bundle. She owns a cockatoo named Dr. Pepusch and a Bedlingto...

Continuing from last week's post...  In recent weeks I've been remembering how, as a teenager, I  searched out Greta Garbo's films at 2 a.m. on the local lower-power TV station in Indianapolis....  Today, we have three more movies in a  series of TV Guide style capsule summaries for Greta Garbo's movies.  If you would like to learn the origins of each film,  here's a link to a previous post about the films on today's list. Today's films are all from the silent era.                                             "The Temptress" Like "Torrent," the movie released before it, "The Temptress" is  based on a melodramatic novel by Vicente Blasco Ibanez.  Garbo is a Marquess this time, which is a nice change from Countess, and she still gets to go to masked balls. Elena is pretty poison. She's already caused a man in her past to go bankrupt,...

 by whiteray A while back, writing in another location and pondering the music of the years between Buddy Holly’s death and the arrival in the United States of the Beatles (1959-64), I wrote “[I]t wasn’t quite the desert that some writers have claimed it to be,” which is probably as good an example as you’ll ever find of praising with faint damns. That praise should have been louder.   (A confession: I borrowed that phrase – “praising with faint damns” – after recalling it this morning and then finding out it came from a 1980 headline in Time magazine, though I suppose it might have originated earlier. I only wish I were that clever.)   A reader then dropped a note about those years, 1959 to 1964, reminding me of a genre I’d not mentioned: rock instrumentals, leading to surf instrumentals. He didn’t mention any performers’ names, but he didn’t have to; as I read his note, I thought instantly of the Ventures and of Dick Dale. And if I wanted to think a little harder, ...

Seeing my children, being in green places, in good company, and feeling gratified by everyone's progress and disposition, I bid Ohio, adieu. On my way to Missouri, listening to Vilette on audio, driving in rain, I am happy making the most of my 50 days off work.  Bon voyage, ~Dorothy Dolores 

Started ten months ago, we’re at the end at last.  Here is a recap of the previous ninety & then today’s last ten. It was in no order of course. They’re all great. 1. Harry Clarke 2. Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres 3. Vilhelm Hammershøi 4. Charles White 5. Artemesia Gentileschi 6. Katsushika Hokusai 7. Austin Osman Spare 8. Albrecht Dürer 9. John Tenniel 10. Tamara de Łempicka  11. Otto Dix 12. Max Kurzweil 13. Georgia O’Keeffe  14. Jackson Pollock 15. Jean-Michel Basquiat 16. Alfred Conteh 17. Samuel John Peploe 18. Hina Ayoama (蒼山日菜) 19. Steven Higginson 20. Bessie MacNicol  21. Felix Nussbaum 22. Henri Fantin-Latour 23. Maurits Cornelis Escher 24. Gwen John 25. Kehinde Wiley 26. Giovanni Battista Piranesi 27. Andrea Kowch 28. Jasper Johns 29. Beatrix Potter 30. Louis le Brocquy  31. John Singer Sargent 32. Wangechi Mutu 33. Jacob Epstein 34. Romaine Brooks 35. Pearl Thompson 36. Stanley...

               I've watched two r ecent additions to Netflix since last time:       Season two of the fast (and roaring) zombie infection apocalypse series Black Summer hit Netflix June 17th. Season one had appeared back in April 2019, which feels a lifetime ago. (The show was conceived as a prequel series to SyFy's Z Nation , as in set in that world, but focused on the early days as things fell apart. No character crossovers.)        Season two's episodes are each told out of sequence, playing with the audience's reactions to the characters' actions, as earlier scenes, shown later, show us recent history that often changes the perspective of what we'd seen. It's a brutal environment, and if there's one lesson in this violent apocalypse it's that compassion, empathy and humanity are early casualties as they're readily exploited by opportunists. Weeks and more into events the likelihood of me...

 Happy Thursday, everyone!  More class than trash this week in new finds, so let's get right to it! ______________________________ Somehow, I feel like Notorious  is an under appreciated Hitchcock these days.  But it's a great use of Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant, and it is also a reunion of Bergman and Claude Rains after their great work together in Casablanca, here in a much more twisted take on World War II that has one of the great endings of any spy film.  It's kind of a weird spy noir that's a must see for anyone interested in film (and hey, it's almost the 75th anniversary in September!) Also, the rare case where I love both Criterion covers when they've updated the art. Notorious  is currently streaming with ads on Tubi , for free on IndieFlix  and on subscription on Fix Fling . _______________________________ Look, I'm a sap about   Star Trek  and its hopeful vision for humanity.  Even when it gets dark as a war allegory or...

  This past January when the skies were grey and the temps were low, I wanted a book to match. Winter Tide was very much that.  A sequel to an online fan fiction called "The Litany of Earth,"  this novel fleshed out what "Litany" left bone.  To know what's what,  I highly suggest reading Lovecraft's Shadow Over Innsmouth first.  I suppose you might be able to follow what's going on without it,  but having the background makes it so much easier.   Winter Tale author Ruthanna Emrys chose a pair of siblings from Innsmouth as her protagonists: the only known survivors of the Marsh family. Aphra, the elder,  and Caleb her younger brother,  who was so young when their family was incarcerated that all his childhood memories are from the camps.  They survived the internment camps that killed their natal family, and manage to build a new one when they are joined by Japanese Americans,  held against their will,  during WWII. ...

Before cable TV and the streaming services, people used to buy each week's issue of TV Guide , a small magazine designed to fit on an end table in the living room. If you were unwilling to pay to get info on your favorite programs, a brief schedule for over-the-air television shows did appear on the inside back page of the front section of the newspaper. Ah, newspapers. . . Remember those? The  large multi-part paper compendiums of recent news events which came to your house each day?  A lad just like this one delivered  The Indianapolis News  right to the family welcome mat when I was young. Or somebody in a rusty Pontiac drove by and flung the paper into the yew bushes. It's been a while and I can't quite remember.  A quick nostalgic look at the TV listings page from a now-vintage newspaper reminds us all why people bought TV Guide if they could afford it.  During the 1930s and 1940s, in the golden age of old-time radio, there was no TV Guide yet, of co...