Links 6/15

Hi hi hi. I missed the links post last week not because I didn’t have enough to share, just from pure laziness.  So it’s a bit heavy on the links today, but I have broken them down into bite-size and easily digestible categories.

Trailers:

• Robert Redford looking fine.
• How toTrain Your Dragon is trilogy-ing (!), and this time there’s a lady-dragon!
• Jamie Lee Curtis is back for a Halloween sequel!
• Doggies! Apparently service dogs go through intensive training and aren’t just born being helpful little angels?
• I’m considering a post detailing all of the ways the Tim Burton Dumbo trailer is a crime against the original.
• The next installment in the universe of The Conjuring.

Father’s Day:

• A wince-worthy compilation of Dad Jokes.
• The New Dad: What the evolution of stock photos shows about our changing understanding of paternity and parenthood.

Identity:

• On avoiding the box and embracing your multi-faceted self.
• Body positivity is selling you something.
• Raising a feminist (with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Trevor Noah).
• The stifling nature of masculinity today.
• Kate Spade’s Death and suicide contagion
  If you or a loved one or a general acquaintance is struggling with getting through, please reach out to or for help. We’re all in this together.

Miscellaneous:

• How ASMR became an internet phenomenon.
• This Parisian restaurant only lets you in with a baby or a bump.
• I’ve been following this illustrator for a long time and now she’s selling some of her prints of Etsy!
• Bumblebees use scent and color patterns to tell flowers apart.

Links 2/26

Happy Friday Monday!

I haven’t been posting much/at all this past week because I’m traveling and on break and in Spain (and tomorrow I’ll be meeting my parents in Malta).  But this evening I’m being antisocial and hanging out in my basement room, and I have a few links to dispense with.

• A few exciting trailers:
  On Chesil Beach, with Saoirse Ronan, based on the novel by Ian McEwan. I’m kind of excited because 1) Saoirse and 2) Ian McEwan. But I tried to read On Chesil Beach and had to put it aside. I just wasn’t interested, but that’s been my experience with every McEwan novel that wasn’t Atonement.
  MFing PANDAS
  More films to get excited about (Thanks, Bob!). I’m so here for a Lizzie Borden biopic. And Ocean’s Eight. And Incredibles II (as I’ve said 50+ times). And Padmaavat (which I haven’t talked about yet). And Jamie Lee Curtis returning for Halloween. Gasp.
• All I do is think about movies. Here’s a spicy biopic. Weirdly inspiring and heartwarming story, actually.
• Speaking of biopics- Lupita Nyong’o is going to play Trevor Noah’s mother and it’s perfect.
• On breaking the stigma around vaginal health and getting familiar with your vulva. Are we such strangers because of a prudish and anti feminine culture of because it’s located at such a weird and difficult to see place on our bodies? I don’t know.
• What it feels like to slide downhill at 90 mph.
• A review of one of my favorite films of all time.  The dubbing never bothered me anyway.
• The new choir teacher.
• An Olympics streaker in tutu and monkey penis pouch. You do you.
• I love Livia Marin’s Nomad Patterns series.
• Adorable and hilarious illustrated guide to dog breeds.  Check out the creator’s tumblr here.
• A lovely personal article about the promise of gay Olympians like figure skater Adam Rippon.

Old-Style Scares: Halloween Films in B&W

I’ve already mentioned that Halloween isn’t a big thing here in France, but it continues to be a big thing in my America mind- which explains why I’ve let go of the crutch that is mindlessly watching television shows for the first time (Game of Thrones and Sherlock) and turned to some more spooky stuff.
Not that GoT and Sherlock don’t get kind of… odd.

So creepy black and white films, what have I got? Quite a bit actually.
I’m trying to capitalize on the creepy and supernatural over suspense, because then (knowing me) we would wind up with just a list entirely of Hitchcock films.

But there’s still some Hitchcock:

• Psycho, 1960: Psycho is fair game because it’s one of the most famous, most impactful horror films of all time. Also, you knew it was on the list because of the header image, so no surprises here.
• The Birds, 1963: Another granddaddy horror film, but this time with some definite shades of the supernatural. Truly I don’t find this very scary, but it is a magnificent film.

What did I watch yesterday?

• Death Takes a Holiday, 1934: Spoiler alert, he falls in love. I actually had a very good time with this film- and Henry Travers is in it. ❤

Hey, that was a good book:

• The Innocents, 1961: The Innocents is based on Henry James’ Turn of the Screw and it definitely captures the novella’s encroaching claustrophobia and uncertainty. Is there evil afoot or is the governess batshit crazy?
• The Haunting, 1963: Based on Shirley Jackson’s Haunting of Hillhouse, the film isn’t quite true to the book, but it’s fantastic in it’s own unique way. Very atmospheric and spine-tingling. I recommend both.
• Nosferatu, 1922: The original vampire movie, based on Dracula, the original vampire book.  Even more chilling than the titular villain? A wife calling her husband by his last name.
• The Uninvited, 1944: Based on a little known book by the same title, this is a beautiful and suspenseful family mystery/ghost story/romance.
• The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, 1947: So this is neither creepy nor scary so much as good wholesome odd couple romance. With Gene Tierney and Rex Harrison. So yeah, pretty good.
• The Hound of the Baskervilles, 1939: Not supernatural but almost so, and the desolate moors and howling lend a fair bit of creepiness. It stays.

I love Bette Davis:

• Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, 1962: Not supernatural but definitely one of the more disturbing and creepy films on this list (possibly ever). Child stars, faded glory, and a permeating air of decay.

Dream within a dream:

• Dead of Night, 1945: Supernatural tale-telling between guests at a country house starts takes an odd turn as one begins to experience some pretty spectacular deja vu.

The artsy French are so weird:

• Eyes Without a Face, 1960: I find this to be a completely amazing movie, both in terms of its haunting beauty and the simple but strange plot. Face stealing.

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Friday Links 10/6

I forgot to show you my October desktop last time!

• Ungrateful as the new ‘Uppity’, some thoughts from The New Yorker on African American civil rights protest and taking a knee.
• A love story on the train.
• Empathy for the Privileged: A YDN article that’s pissing me off.
• An interesting sociological study: Are you the big spoon or the little spoon?
• Pissed off by this Anorexia sweatshirt on Amazon.
• Definition of a meet-cute: NYPD horse meets French bulldog.
• Sam Heughan is hot.
• Getting in the Halloween spirit: What is the creepiest urban legend in your state? Honestly disappointed by MA. Not scary.
• Designing a water-marbled scarf. What a beautiful process.
• ALLLLL these films.

Late Links on a Sunday

Apologies for the spurious posting but really in a #sorrynotsorry kind of way because I’m in France living my busiest and #bestlife.
I’ll stop with the hashtags now because I’m quickly losing all self respect.

• I like this Ted Talk about how there’s more to life than being happy. I’ve always thought of being happy as a very pure and rare feeling. I find I like my life best when I can feel contentment, or at least be at peace with whatever is going on with me.
• The story behind the greatest internet recipe comment of all time– you know a recipe like Kate Hepburn’s brownie one is going to spark some drama.
• How language defines our emotions.
• What women really need. Seriously, I didn’t know how much I was missing. Please add specifically gendered scissors to the list.
• It’s like if you had a country fair, but for nail art.
• I’m going to miss Halloween being in France. This haunted train ride is calling to me. And Spooky World has been texting me promotions.
• How Pennywise and the Babadook became gay lovers and gay icons. I kind of ship it. But I liked IT much more than Babadook.
• How to flirt. Short and direct.
• The trailer for The Killing of a Sacred Deer, which I’ve been hearing lots of good things about.
• Don’t be a tourist in Paris. I’m here for tango on the Seine.
• I find all the French-themed commercials I’m getting intriguing. This one even more so because it’s targeted to English speakers (most of my youtube ads are in French now). Also because Roger Vivier.
• Nice and satisfying moments. Can you think of more? (I definitely can- like opening a fizzy beverage, with the crack sound and the hiss).
• Disney animated movies ranked by Collider. Expect a future post on this because I have strong thoughts and feelings.
• I don’t think I’ve ever seen an article that resonates with me so much. How can you experience so much heartbreak over such small disappointments so far removed from your life? I don’t know, but you definitely can.

A Costume Rundown

^Totally me, am I right?

Tomorrow is Halloween(!) and also Monday (booooo) so I think I’ll do a quick rundown of my favorite getups that I ran into last night.  Because I don’t plan on going out again.
Although would it count if I did heavy mascara and liner on one eye, for a Clockwork Orange sort of vibe? You know, something class-appropriate.

A Fragrant Wishlist

It’s a quiet evening and the school week is winding down for me (bless no-class Fridays)- I’m here in my room with the heat on and a cat, listening to ASMR and playing on Pinterest.  I’m wearing pajama bottoms, a giant T shirt some guy in Boston gave me when I got caught in the rain a few summers ago, and a leather jacket (because the heat is not enough).
Perfume: Botrytis by Ginestet, a delicious sweet autumn apple wine.

And then I started thinking about perfume and decided to do a list of the fragrances I have tried and sampled and want more of, whether that’s another sample or a healthy-sized decant.  And then I went on Facebook Fragrance Friends and discovered (GASP) that my fragrance wish list document is missing.  Let me just say that this document was the pinnacle of my perfume evolution. It’s been mutating since I first got interested in collecting- as I bought and loved or tried and discarded.  Horror of horrors, it had disappeared without a trace.
Thankfully, I had backed up perfumes that had captured my interest on Fragrantica. Whew. Crisis averted.

Halloween Movies

So yeah, I said I was on break and I would have more time to post and here I am back off break and posting again.  Life’s a funny old thing.

Anyway, Halloween movies! In some semblance of order- from more to less child-appropriate.  Also, this only includes movies that are actually and actively set on Halloween.

Anti-Virtue Names

Do you remember back in the day when almost everyone had a biblical or virtue name? me neither, I wasn’t alive during colonial times.  But I don’t know if it was the coming of Halloween or what- I’ve been thinking about what I would name my kids if I had my own little Addams-family style hive of demons. Which would be cute, no?

Now, please be aware, for those more literally-inclined, that I’m not planning on raising a hoard of demons- and if I did, I would give them much more kind names.  I imagine it’s hard enough being a young demon in this day and age without being saddled with a name like Sorrow.

And in terms of the color coding.  I’m dividing the names up a bit into what I imagine to be feminine, masculine, and unisex divisions.  Given that these aren’t legitimate names with a traditional gender and that the enforced sexual dichotomy of names is arbitrary and archaic, there’s nothing to stop you from naming your little boy Falsity. Though there are other reasons why I would not recommend it.