Never Let Me Go

Never Let Me Go is a 2005 novel by Kazuo Ishiguro. It's dystopian science fiction, but think again if you think you'll find it in the science fiction section in the bookstore. Nooooo. It gets prime placement in the literary fiction section. Maybe that has something to do with it being a Booker Prize finalist by the author of a Booker Prize winner. But still... I'd love to see it shelved in its rightful home.

from the back of the book:

From Booker prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro comes a devastating new novel of innocence, knowledge, and loss.

As children Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy were students at Hailsham, an exclusive boarding school secluded in the English countryside. It was a place of mercurial cliques and mysterious rules -and teachers were constantly reminding their charges of how special they were.

Now, years later, Kathy is a young woman. Ruth and Tommy have reentered her life, and for the first time she is beginning to look back at their shared past and understand just what it is that makes them so special –and how that gift will shape the rest of their time together. Suspenseful, moving, beautifully atmospheric, Never Let Me Go is another classic by the author of The Remains of the Day.

I love this book. It's touching but not sweet or sappy. It's measured in how it lets the reader in on the story. It's written to let us know things in the same way the students learn them: little by little, and always in such a way that we don't realize the full implication until we learn more. This book can break your heart.

SF Signal gives it a glowing recommendation and says, "PROS: Thought-provoking; emotional resonance; sympathetic characters; written with an unmatched and beautiful subtlety." Slate Magazine calls it "a thoughtful, crafty, and finally very disquieting look at the effects of dehumanization on any group that's subject to it." Salon.com calls it a "stunning page turner".

Flavorwire Essential Horror Films

Flavorwire.com has been posting weekly installments of a 50-movie list of "essential horror films". Their top 20:

1. Halloween (1978)
2. Psycho (1960)
3. Jaws (1975)
4. The Exorcist (1973)
5. Nosferatu (1922)
6. Night of the Living Dead (1968)
7. Dracula (1931)
8. The Shining (1980)
9. Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
10. The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
11. Alien
12. Suspiria
13. Dawn of the Dead (1978)
14. Black Christmas (1974)
15. Friday the 13th (1980)
16. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
17. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
18. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
19. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
20. Freaks

with the ones I've seen (11 out of 20) in bold print. I have Halloween, Jaws, The Exorcist, Rosemary's Baby, Suspiria, Friday the 13th, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and A Nightmare on Elm Street on the shelf waiting their turn. There are so many of these lists. I wonder if anybody has ever collated a lot of them to see where the major points of agreement are. Surely someone has. I mean, this is the internet!

I think I must've gotten this link from SFSignal.com but have lost track of it while I was waiting for the final installment to post.

Scariest Science Fiction Films

ScienceFiction.com has a list of 10 scariest science fiction movies:

The War of the Worlds (1953)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) (but I've seen the 1978 remake)
Village of the Damned (1960)
The Andromeda Strain (1971)
Alien (1979)
Scanners (1981)
The Terminator (1984)
Pitch Black (2000)
The Forgotten (2004)
District 9 (2009)
Contagion (2011)

Ones I've seen are in bold print. I have District 9 on my shelf, and I'm waiting until the used copies come down in price a bit more to buy Contagion. It's nice to see Pitch Black get some attention.

HT: SF Signal

Jigoku

Jigoku (Hell) is a 1960 Japanese horror film about Hell, offering graphic images of what is to come. The soundtrack is heavy on the jazzy percussive drama. I could swear I hear a theremin during the last 35 minutes or so.

We are all evil, and we are all doomed. Dooooomed.

Watch at this Youtube link.

DVD Talk says,

Jigoku never heard of atonement. Its wailing songs and poetry preach only one lesson: We're all sinners, we're all damned, and there'll be Hell to pay. All humanity is marked by an Original Sin that cannot be erased.

Criterion says,

Shocking, outrageous, and poetic, Jigoku (Hell, a.k.a. The Sinners of Hell) is the most innovative creation from Nobuo Nakagawa, the father of the Japanese horror film.

Psycho Killer

Psycho Killer:



by Talking Heads. It's been covered by many an artist, including Phish, Peter Doherty and The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. I think the ukelele suits it:



better run...

House (1977)

House (Hausu) is a 1977 Japanese horror film. I found it on Hulu's free list last week and watched it then. It is sooo strange. It reminds me of a Saturday morning children's show, filled with bright colors and happy giggly schoolgirls with cutesy descriptors instead of real names, and pretty bright blue skies with fluffy clouds, and a furry white cat named Blanche, and cheerful plinky-sounding music, and slapstick pratfalls, and scarves blowing gently in the breeze, and watermelons and bananas. Also death, dismemberment and blood. There's no attempt to achieve any kind of realism.

Moria says that Director Nobuhiko Obayashi "seems to have set out to make a kaidan eiga (or Japanese ghost story film) that is wacky and way-out as he possibly can" and that he

experiments with every cinematic technique in his arsenal – random freeze-frames, spiral effects, colour tints, cuts to black-and-white stock, the screen forming into gauzed-out hearts and circles or irising down to a small dot.

Slant Magazine concludes with this:

House, despite the claims, isn't really a horror movie; it's a dark cartoon of unfettered play, an attempt to directly channel budding teens' stream of consciousness .... House is successful in that aim, which means it's about equal parts brilliant, baffling, ridiculous, and unwatchable.

Fangoria says, "HOUSE is something truly special, a film that’s unique and mind blowing—and one whose qualities have not been tarnished by time." It has a score of 90% at Rotten Tomatoes.

Chipmunks on the Patio

Try as I might I haven't been able to get a picture of this little creature, running back and forth across the patio. She comes from the townhouse next door. I'm not sure if she's just passing through our patio or making her winter nest here someplace. One of their old entry spots was under the concrete pad our central unit sits on, and I kept filling it up with rocks until she finally gave that up. No telling where the access is now. We're assuming ours is an Eastern Chipmunk, and so I've used a Wikipedia picture of one of those at the top of this post.

The Tennessee Plateau blog says,

The genus name Tamias means “storer” and the species name Striatus means “striped”. That is the perfect name because this squirrel is a striped storer. They carry seeds and nuts in their expandable cheek pouches to underground storerooms for eating later.

I think they like the seeds and cover my wild sunflowers provide.

We've been enjoying watching the chipmunk carry things across the patio, then come back across, then carry something else across the patio. Reportedly, they don't actually hibernate in the winter but enter a period of torpor for several days at a time. Then they wake up to eat some of that stored food and go back to sleep. I remember a picture book the kids had when they were little that had a picture of a chipmunk all curled up in its underground burrow safe and warm for winter. Sweet. I imagine that's what our chipmunk is doing -storing up treats for winter.

Usually, they sound like birds chirping. When they're being attacked by a cat, they scream. It's horrible. We've heard it more than once, and it hurts. But cats don't know, do they? It's part of their nature to attack small furry moving creatures, and one can't fault them for it. You can hear some of the sounds they make here or watch the chipmunk calling:

Werewolves of London

Werewolves of London:



sung here by Warren Zevon. I hadn't realized many had covered this, but it has been done by others. Video is hard for me to find of their efforts. I can't imagine any of them top Zevon's rendition.

Love Potion No. 9

Love Potion No. 9:



a classic -yes, I did say "classic". The one embedded above is by The Searchers. Originally sung by The Clovers, it's also been covered by Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass, The Ventures, The Coasters, The Nylons and many others.

The Bird With The Crystal Plumage

The Bird With The Crystal Plumage is a 1970 Dario Argento film, his first as director. The score is by Ennio Moriccone (A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, The Battle of Algiers, Once Upon a Time in the West, Two Mules for Sister Sara, Exorcist II: The Heretic, The Thing (1982), White Dog, Red Sonja, Hamlet (1990), The Mission, The Untouchables (1987) and many others).

I have seen few films by this director and have heard that his earlier ones are a better introduction than his later movies. I'm not finding this one or Deep Red at all difficult to watch, and I do not like modern slashers.

Slant Magazine says, "the film is arguably Argento's most Hitchcockian venture" and suggests that it "is perhaps best enjoyed by those new to Argento." Classic-Horror.com says, "Argento is a creative force to be reckoned with. The Bird with the Crystal Plumage proves that he has always been so." DVD Talk closes with this:

Crystal Plumage has its plot holes and unfair red herrings, but nothing we can't live with. Argento also requires a couple of extra scenes to wrap up his story, but otherwise his murderous movie machine is a winner.

Roger Ebert says, "It works mostly by exploiting our fear of the dark." Rotten Tomatoes scores it at 91%.

The Crosstown Beacon

When I saw this Flyer article in my news reader a while back, I drove right over to N. Watkins and Cleveland to see the sculpture:


The Flyer reports the "large, spinning sculpture made from 51 repurposed bicycle wheels" is named Beacon, is "Intended to serve as the new "gateway" into Crosstown" and that it was installed by artists Eli Gold and Colin Kidder across the street from the long-abandoned Sears Crosstown building.

In another article, the Flyer quotes the artists: "In their artists' statement Colin Kidder and Eli Gold describe their whimsical, spherical contribution to the landscape as an "eye-catching kinetic sculpture that moves dramatically in the natural wind and shines brightly with reflected sunlight." Colin Kidder's web site has pictures of his other work. There is information on Eli Gold here.

I love it. It does shimmer in the sunlight.

The Flyer has a more recent article here.

This is #256 on the I Love Memphis blog list of 365 things to do in Memphis.

Smoke and Mirrors: Short Fictions and Illusions

Smoke and Mirrors: Short Fictions and Illusions is a book by Neil Gaiman. This was loaned to me by The Younger Son at the same time as a Stephen King collection of short works. I prefer the King, which surprised me. I didn't expect to have a real preference, as I like both Gaiman's and King's longer works. At this point I'd read more of King's short stories but give Gaiman's a pass.

This book has several pieces that are poems. Or like poems. I just don't care for works in poetic form, except, of course, for limericks and Little Willie types. There are also a couple of folk/fairy tale re-tellings, and I don't generally like those. "Write your own story" -that's my motto.

SF Site says, "if you're not a fan of Neil Gaiman, read this collection and you will be." The Guardian recommends it as a good entry into Gaiman's work. Kirkus Reviews concludes their review with this:

Gaiman miscalculates only in leading off With “Chivalry,” the unforgettable tale of a placid widow who discovers the Holy Grail in a secondhand shop. Nothing later on matches it in a volume that’s otherwise an exhilarating display of the work of one of our most entertaining storytellers.

The Oblong Box

The Oblong Box is a 1969 British horror film, the first to star both Vincent Price and Christopher Lee. It also has Rupert Davies (who was Maigret in the tv series). Wikipedia reports the film was considered "pro black" and that this caused it to be banned in Texas. That claim isn't referenced, and I can find no evidence of such a ban in my -admittedly limited- search. I wonder why it's still in the article. Ah, the joys of Wikipedia!

Moria concludes their 2 star (out of 5) review with this:

Considering the torrid stew of elements, the film emerges with more of a staidness than it ever seems to promise. On the plus side, the colour contrasts are rich and full and Gordon Hessler directs the killings with reasonable style.

1000 Misspent Hours calls the script "bewilderingly stupid" and Price's performance "one of his most tasteful and understated," says Lee's "talents are almost totally wasted here" and concludes:

During its first half hour, I had high hopes for The Oblong Box. But as the film progressed, those hopes gave way to an escalating sense of dismay as it became increasingly clear that not enough remained of the film’s running time to answer any of the questions that would make sense of the story.

Stomp Tokyo says, "The Oblong Box manages to make voodoo curses, vengeful maniacs and premature burials paradoxically languid and diffuse."

To Whom This May Come

To Whom This May Come is an 1888 short story by Edward Bellamy. It can be read online. It explores communication and how isolating it can be.

I'm familiar with Bellamy through his science fiction novel Looking Backward, which I enjoyed when I read it back in high school. I don't think I had read any other of his work until coming across this.

The Hunger (1983)

The Hunger is a 1983 horror film directed by Tony Scott, who killed himself this year. It stars Catherine Deneuve, David Bowie, Susan Sarandon, Cliff DeYoung (who has a ST:DS9 connection), Bessie Love (whose 1st film was in 1915, in her last film), Willem Dafoe (in his 2nd credited film role) and Bauhaus (yes, the band).

This is a bizarre little piece, beautiful to watch. The score is integral to the scenes and to the film as a whole rather than being used as background music and to predict coming action. This is much more my "style" of movie, with violence being mostly off-screen and without the kind of extended scenes of pain shown in films like Audition. I find this style much easier to watch and more enjoyable than films that glory in the gory.

Moria gives it 4 out of 5 stars, describes it as "such a relentlessly revisionist vampire film that we never see any fangs, crucifixes or even hear the word vampire mentioned anywhere throughout" and says,

More than anything, what the film embodies is a fear of death and aging. Rarely has the sense of the creeping obscenity of age eating away beauty and the sense of powerlessness it brings been conveyed than during the first half of the film

Classic-Horror.com says

The Hunger is much more than just a retread of the Hammer vampire lesbian story. It is a multi-layered visual and thematic onslaught with nuances often overlooked.

Slant Magazine calls it "ludicrous". Roger Ebert calls it "an agonizingly bad vampire movie, circling around an exquisitely effective sex scene."

Ghost of the Navigator

Ghost of the Navigator by Iron Maiden:



from the 2000 album Brave New World.

lyrics:

I have sailed to many lands, now I make my final journey
On the bow I stand, west is where I go
Through the night I plough, still my heart, calculate and pray
As the compass swings, my will is strong, I will not be led astray
Mysteries of time clouds that hide the sun
But I know, but I know, but I know

I see the ghosts of navigators but they are lost
As they sail into the sunset they'll count the cost
As their skeletons accusing emerge from the sea
The sirens of the rocks, they beckon me

Take my heart and set it free, carried forward by the waves
Nowhere left to run, navigator's son,
Chasing rainbows all my days

Where I go I do not know, I only know the place I've been
Dreams they come and go, ever shall be so,
Nothing's real until you feel

I steer between the crashing rocks, the sirens call my name
Lash my hands onto the helm, blood surging with the strain
I will not fail now as sunrise comes the darkness left behind
For eternity I follow on there is no other way
Mysteries of time clouds that hide the sun
But I know, I know

I see the ghosts of navigators but they are lost
As they sail into the sunset they'll count the cost
As their skeletons accusing emerge from the sea
The sirens of the rocks, they beckon me

Take my heart and set it free, carried forward by the waves
Nowhere left to run, navigator's son
Chasing rainbows all my days

Where I go I do not know, I only know the place I've been
Dreams they come and go, ever shall be so
Nothing's real until you feel

I see the ghosts of navigators but they are lost
As they sail into the sunset they'll count the cost
As their skeletons accusing emerge from the sea
The sirens of the rocks, they beckon me

Take my heart and set it free, carried forward by the waves
Nowhere left to run, navigator's son
Chasing rainbows all my days

Where I go I do not know, I only know the place I've been
Dreams they come and go, ever shall be so
Nothing's real until you feel

Deep Red

Deep Red is a 1975 Italian horror film directed by Dario Argento. David Hemmings stars.

Moria gives it 3 out of 5 stars and says, "Seen, Deep Red is an interesting film, although not quite the masterwork that many have called it." 1000 Misspent Hours gives it a 1-star review and says, "Against these glaring defects of both narrative cohesion and genre integrity, Deep Red has basically one thing to offer in its favor— it looks nice." Weird Wild Realm says, "I just don't find films that can mostly boast only about their good meat-cleaver scenes to be at all consequential." Slant Magazine calls it "a great horror film". DVD Talk says it "might the most beautifully shot horror film ever made" and concludes their review with this:

Not quite the fever dream that other Argento films are, Deep Red is still a totally arresting dive into the creative psyche of one of horror's true masters. In fact, it may be Argento's masterpiece. The movie's flawless visual scheme and concise editing make it a commanding experience regardless of genre considerations. Highly recommended.

Early Voting

There didn't seem to me to be as many candidate signs as usual when The Daughter and I went to vote the other day, but what was striking to me was the absence of any Obama signs. Nary a one did I see. What's with that?

There was a long line, which I hadn't expected, but at least it didn't stretch out of the building. The entire process took about half an hour, which wasn't bad.

The woman behind us told The Daughter she looked too young to vote. The Daughter said, "That's what they told me last time." I wish strangers could make casual conversation without critiquing your personal appearance. We tend to think of things we can't say in response. Because, really, how do you respond to that? It's ok for that woman to say how young The Daughter looks, but if The Daughter responds with a comment on how old that woman looks... well, I know how that would've turned out. She's about ready to start responding to comments on how thin she is with comments on how fat they are. Comments about how fat someone is are rude, though, right? But comments about how thin someone is are ok? How is that ok?

I surely did get sidetracked.

To get back to the signs (or lack of them) at Early Voting: I thought I'd pick up a couple of signs and place them myself. I couldn't find an Obama headquarters here. There's a Cohen headquarters. Maybe they would have Obama signs. I think since Tennessee is lost to Obama, and our votes don't matter, it's not worth it to them to bother with things like campaign signs. I think that's so sad.

Maybe I should've voted for Jill Stein.

Timeout London's Best Horror Film List

Timeout London has a list of their top 100 best horror films, and I've copied the top 50 below, starting with #1:

The Exorcist (1973)
The Shining (1980)
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
Psycho (1960)
Alien (1979)
The Thing (1982)
Rosemary's Baby (1968)
Halloween (1978)
Suspiria (1976)
Dawn of the Dead (1978)
Jaws (1975)
Don't Look Now (1973)
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
The Innocents (1961)
Carrie (1976)
An American Werewolf in London (1981)
The Haunting (1963)
Audition (1999)
Evil Dead II (1987)
The Omen (1976)
Freaks (1932)
Nosferatu: Eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922)
The Fly (1986)
The Birds (1963)
The Changeling (1979)
Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
Videodrome (1982)
Let the Right One In (2008)
Cat People (1942)
Frankenstein (1931)
Martyrs (2008)
Cannibal Holocaust (1979)
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Eyes Without a Face (1959)
Dead of Night (1945)
The Blair Witch Project (1999)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
Possession (1981)
The Descent (2005)
Carnival of Souls (1962)
The Evil Dead (1981)
Peeping Tom (1960)
The Tenant (1976)
Hour of the Wolf (1967)
Deep Red (1975)
The Devils (1971)
Les Diaboliques (1955)
Kwaidan (1964)
The Beyond (1981)
Vampyr (1932)

Ones I've seen, pitiful few that they are (just half), are in bold print.

Audition

Audition is a 1999 Japanese horror film. The first 45 minutes or so move slowly, concentrating on character development and setting, and even after that the build-up to the climax is slow. There is foreshadowing. The film is talky in some spots, while having long periods of silence and little action in others. Moody, maybe? There's a stillness about it that makes the sudden movements that are there more striking. I like the style; I just don't like what it builds up to in this movie.

It's known to be particularly gory, with graphic torture. I don't like torture. I don't like images of pain and the infliction of pain. I don't like films in the "torture-porn" category whose raison d'être seems to be exposing the audience to ever more graphic images of that very thing. Why, then, did I watch this? Well, you see, it shows up on various lists of "best" horror films.

I found the last 30 minutes impossible to watch. I did try. I kept having to look away. I found the last part of this film more disturbing than any other I can recall right now. The Younger Son is surprised I tried to watch it and advises me against anything by this director.

trailer:

Moria gives it their top 5-star rating but warns:

It is during the last fifteen minutes or so that Audition enters into the genuinely disturbing with some of the most extreme and seat-squirmingly uncomfortable scenes of torture ever placed on screen

Stomp Tokyo says,

Audition is a film you'll tell your friends about, not so much by way of recommendation as much as to tell them how messed up it is.

1000 Misspent Hours calls it "exceptionally twisted" and warns, "“subjecting yourself” is the right phrase to describe the experience of watching Audition’s final 45 minutes."Slant Magazine calls it this directors "only truly essential" film. Rotten Tomatoes gives it 78%.