Brass monkeys out there.
OPERATIONS: Yesterday I got 500 words down on a prose experiment and about six pages on a script that’s been giving me trouble since early December. Today is all about that script, to see if I can break its back and get it to the point where I can finish it over the weekend. The prose experiment is open-ended, and currently feels like it might land in 15,000 words, but I’m interested to see how it goes. Things on the main board are stacking up and I have to deal with some of them next week.
STATUS: Inbox finally under 100, exult.
READING: WAR FOR ETERNITY (UK) (US+)
By Traditionalism—with a capital T—we were referring to an underground philosophical and spiritual school with an eclectic if minuscule following throughout the past hundred years.
LISTENING: Dark Ambient Noisescapes, which I would embed, but the episode I’m listening to is six hours long
LAST WATCHED: NOSFERATU, at the cinema. My first takeaway was that I re-learned that I used to go to afternoon, not evening, screenings for a reason, and that reason was the guy sitting across from me who sniffed loudly every seven seconds for two and a half hours. I am kind of waiting to discover what I caught yesterday evening. My second was the feeling that Robert Eggers may have been auditioning for his $150M fantasy adventure movie. It is beautifully shot. And I mean, really fucking clever and really fucking pretty. I had occasional issues with audial legibility in the sound mix. Willem Dafoe is a lot more dialed-down than I had expected. I’m still processing it all. I’ve read that there might be a three-hour cut ready to go to Blu-Ray, which makes me curious, because the film as it stands felt to me to be a little unbalanced. But I will want my own copy to study those images, as there are some extraordinary shots in there. It is meticulous, the early evocation of 1800s Germany is stunning, and I swear I saw elements of POSSESSION in there. (Which would connect through its star Isabelle Adjani also starring in Herzog’s version of NOSFERATU.)
MISSION CONTROL: I can be contacted via the Cheng Caplan Company. Link in masthead to join my free newsletter. Now: DESOLATION JONES: THE BIOHZARD EDITION, THE DEPARTMENT OF MIDNIGHT audio drama podcast. Forthcoming 2025: FELL: FERAL CITY new printing THE STORMWATCH COMPENDIUM, THE AUTHORITY Compact Edition, The LIGHTS OUT Anthology