Yes, hi, hello once more! (how do I make this title not sound like spam)
I missed you. I missed writing my little emails. I missed the occasions on which one of you said "Hey, like your emails" (I've screenshotted each one and they live in a small oasis on my hard drive called big-ups to which I return when I am feeling emotionally parchèd. Also, I've been mainlining other peoples' newsletters (cf. She's a Beast, DrawTogether, Austin Kleon, Ann Freidman, Citation Needed) and am inspired!*)
The eyeball holes have teeth around them like a little mouth
I picked up Ring Shout because of the cover and read it in one go. Clark has some wonderful disgusting body stuff in it and the zonked-out Klanspeople reminded me of the people from Innsmouth (likely a purposeful similarity given that the author's sci fi bona fides but with Lovecraft's famous racism looped around itself. Maybe not exactly inverted but definitely echoed; the Klanspeople are a poisoned and evil race born of regular humans and their veneration of a disgusting monster is more evidence for the author's low opinion of them. Clark towards white supremacists, Lovecraft towards anyone not white).
It's as light a read can be for the subject matter.
The cat has sunglasses
I've been telling everyone so if this is redundant, sorry, but you really gotta check out at least the posters and some stills from Az prijde kocour (1963) which I have been calling The Cassandra Cat but has a couple different names in English. It's got that good, syrupy technicolor and often when the cat (Mourek if I am not mistaken) is onscreen, a child is holding him up under the armpits and his little cat arms stick out like the poky bits of a bagpipe.
It's the kind of movie I won't go back to for narrative enjoyment (it's not, in a narrative sense, a "good" movie) but to witness unashamedly bonkers movie-making with 👀 political themes. The mid-movie dance break has a White Christmas flavor and you know what, why not? Why shouldn't we have a little dance break?
Stupetebuary 2025 is in the air
Charlotte and I are doing it again but slightly less: I will be talking about La Femme Nikita biweekly and I recommend you consider watching at least one episode for the stars Peta Wilson and Roy Dupuis (hot; hot) but also for the Toronto cameos and the outfits.
If you haven't read them:
How Hitler Dismantled a Democracy in 53 Days by Timothy W. Ryback
Who Goes Nazi by Dorothy Thompson
*I am sending this newsletter on a new platform (Buttondown if you're interested) that I'm trying out. I anticipate this "try out" being a full "use" given that it's annoying to switch platforms and I've already put it off for almost two years, so it seems unlikely that I'll get it together to swap over but this year has already been full of 🎡changes🎡 so who's to say, really.