I spent this week’s movie nights with the middle two of Eric Rohmer’s Moral Tales. I hadn’t known My Night at Maud’s was a Christmas story! Very good timing. And it was a particular pleasure after having just endured Frosty the Snowman. I love all the traditional Christmas TV specials, but Frosty has always annoyed…

You’re just making me feel worse for my terrible calendar. Dinosaurs, Lego, so many superior options. I’m looking at a picture of the Schleich Advent calendar right now. There’s a baby tyrannosaurus! It doesn’t seem to be in swaddling clothes, thank goodness. That skeleton does look really neat. I might just have to…

I’m glad for you to recommend that one in particular! I’m going through all of his features, in order more or less, and while I’m looking forward to all of them, I am a bit apprehensive about his historical stories. But I have seen stills from Perceval and you are right, it is striking! I should get to it by the end…

I spent my Monday movie night with La Signe du Lion, which, among other things, warns of what to expect from Jean Luc Godard at a house party. On Thursday night I watched two shorts, La Boulangere de Monceau and La Carriere de Suzanne. My movie nights until March will be all Eric Rohmer. I’m not entirely sure what to…

So you are halfway through cram school? Is the cramming all leading to one big test at the end? I’m glad to hear you are doing so well! After its all over I hope you have the biggest treat lined up. Well, not having to think about Math again for months and months is a pretty big treat in itself.

I spent my two movie nights this week with troublesome titles. First there was Fellini’s 8-1/2, presumably titled because it was his 8th feature, with the 1/2 referring to his contribution to the omnibus Boccaccio ‘70. This, however, adds up to 9-1/2, and it has been argued that he did not include Variety Lights which…

Have you ever tried one of those exercise things that let you hang upside down? I’ve always wanted one of those. I don’t know how its exercise just to hang upside down, but it looks kind of relaxing. Maybe for Christmas this year if there’s a sale. Oh, that just reminded me of an exercise thing we had in the house…

What sort of exercises are you doing? You’re probably getting too much exercise already with Mimi Puff!

Consider it a reasonable sacrifice for me not being eaten by wolves! And besides, light is wasted on the morning. Its all just overloaded dumpsters and garbage trucks and grumpy people who’d prefer to be back in bed. 

Why don’t we stay on daylight saving time? I’m now daily dashing home through the forest with the sun quickly setting behind the trees and I will eventually get stuck out there in the dark, I do at least once each year! To make matters worse, it is also hunting season so I am forced to wear a FLUORESCENT ORANGE TOQUE.…

I watched Fellini’s Casanova this week with a big bowl of leftover Halloween candy. Mostly Coffee Crisps. The movie told the same story as La dolce vita, more or less, of a dissatisfied playboy who considers himself culturally superior to his debauched bourgeois companions. There’s a lot of Satyricon in it as well,…

I’m very proud of you for taking on so many challenges all at once. I know you can do it, but it sounds like those ten days are going to really test your limits! I wish you could do the school from home with Skype or something. So much of your energy is going to be spent just travelling! You aren’t going to have to…

I just checked, and I have that! It shares a disc with another Vincent Price movie called Madhouse. I’ve seen neither. I like DVD slimcases, but movies do tend to get lost in them around here because the spines are too narrow to be noticed as I putter about. I will get to them eventually! Ordinarily I don’t like…

I suppose that might not traumatise me too much. What you’re describing sounds to me like the Dr. Phibes movies, is that about right?

That’s a pretty good double feature! Do you remember any scenes in particular? I’m curious about images that remain with us. I like to watch movies I haven’t seen since I was little and look for the few images that have stuck with me. Sometimes they aren’t even there, they’re just amalgams. And other times the images…

I haven’t seen Horror Hospital. Is it very gory? I have a low tolerance for body horror! Even Hammer went overboard with the gore once they got into the 70s. I’m fine with a bit of ketchup blood from a vampire staking, but beyond that I start disappearing behind a wall of pillows. I’m looking at the poster now. That…

I watched Hammer’s Phantom of the Opera this week. It was very strange seeing Herbert Lom with curly blond hair! Last week it was a blond Vincent Price in The House of Usher. One of the very earliest Hammer movies is The Phantom Ship, in which Bela Lugosi is blond! That’s a great movie for Halloween, by the way, keep…

Four hours of Math! Are there even enough numbers to fill up four hours? Poor Claudia, that is going to be awful. There are some classes that can be made fun with the right teacher but Math, I don’t know. I’ve never found a fun way to do Math. Well, except for geometry because of the little box with triangles and a…

Was it Tomb of Ligeia maybe? I have seen Pit and The Pendulum but it was so long ago it can’t be the movie I was thinking of. Tomb of Ligeia I saw only about a year ago and I think is my favourite of the bunch.

Do you know what your first word was? I don’t know mine. It will be so exciting when Mimi Puff can start to talk and when she can understand when you tell her stories. Of course I can think of at least one series of books that you are probably looking forward to telling her the most!