Did I ever tell you my favorite color was blue?

[sovay]

And then of course I forgot to post anything for Lovecraft's birthday, but rushthatspeaks and I did catch In the Mouth of Madness (1995) at the Brattle on Sunday night. It's like someone constructed a H.P. Lovecraft story out of Stephen King parts. It is also so meta that it doesn't just settle for disappearing up its own ass, it more or less bursts out of its own chest afterward and waves at you. Suddenly that one icon of cucumberseed's makes perfect sense.

Yesterday involved a dentist's appointment for which I had to get up at stupid o'clock, but since most of this afternoon was taken up by the wooden hot tub at Inman Oasis and wandering around the Harvard Museum of Natural History with derspatchel afterward, I have no grudge against the week so far. I re-read John Bellairs' The House with a Clock in Its Walls (1973). There's a shout-out to M.R. James' "Count Magnus" in the graveyard scene. Also, I had no idea in fourth grade that Odilon Redon was not as much of Bellairs' invention as the Fifth Michigan Fire Zouave Lancers or New Zebedee. I really envy Mrs. Zimmerman that coiling purple dragon.

I have found on YouTube one of the classic things my grandparents first played for me: Shelley Berman, "Department Store." I am now trying to avoid spending the rest of the night listening to Bob Newhart.

Comments

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

Well now I gotta...


the Fifth Michigan Fire Zouave Lancers or New Zebedee.

I have been collecting brand names out of my dreams for something dystopian (possibly a werewolf dystopia, because it's not like I haven't already tried that twice...), but these things remind me of the collection I have so far:

Marilou Dark Couplet (some kind of liquor)
Shiffolk (cheap ass beer, also called, predictably Shitfuck)
Sita Delites (New Flavor: Cardamon Caramel!)

[greenlily.livejournal.com]

I love John Bellairs' books, and The House With A Clock In Its Walls in particular (it was the first one I read--thank you, fifth grade teacher with a sense of what smart ten-year-olds will find interesting).

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

I'm glad for the good things.

I've never read Bellairs--it sounds as if I might should do that.

I have to admit I'm a little puzzled by the idea of "zouave lancers", when every zouave outfit I ever heard of was infantry, but I suspect there's something interesting going on there and, if not, maybe things were different in the verse where Michigan has a city called New Zebedee.