Haha, I posted one, not to worry! That’s so sweet of you to ask, after both of us.

I know, he’s so soft and shiny! Never get tired of petting him. He’s still a bit of a butt when I try to brush him (his original owners clearly never groomed him), but he’s getting a bit less bitey about it, which is good.

Aw, thank you! I just sort of naturally assume (and not just online) that they don’t, so that’s always nice to hear. :)

Hate to leave a second/separate comment, but ack, forgot to include it in my usual essay!

All very good advice. I’m a lifelong artist, but I feel like y’all have already got the good suggestions covered! I’m partial to Caran D’ache myself, but more for colored pencils; Staedtler are still a great staple basic pencil for anyone.

Seconding this, it’s been a total classic for decades for very good reason!

Yay always for your shelter kitty updates! I always love reading about all of them.

I remain in awe of your skills, holy shit

Ah, what the hell, I’ll wade back in. Anybody miss me? (lol no)

I honestly can’t recall the last time I posted in SNS — four weeks ago? longer? — both because the times it was being posted kept varying wildly, I wasn’t able to recently, and then I was sick, but I’ve also kind of reached a kind of depressing attitude about it, which is that nobody notices nor cares whether I’m here…

Thank you for mentioning this! I wasn’t aware of Callow’s books on him, but your review makes me want to go out and find them.

Branagh for sure is responsible for my favorite, more “contemporary” Shakespeare works on film. His Henry V, Much Ado and particularly Hamlet are all modern masterpieces. (I’m not obsessed with the Olivier, either, so you’re definitely not alone there.)

Seriously? It’s an app, like what you like.

Ugh, it just keeps getting scarier all the time.

Yes! I lucked into a copy of that blu-ray not long after that triple feature, because I liked the film so much I needed to track down one to have at home immediately. It’s interesting how many cuts (and titles, lol) so many gialli have!

True! I do think Cronenberg’s Crash comes closest to really pulling it off, but Ballard really is particularly difficult. (My favorite novel of his, that I’ve read thus far anyway — his last, The Day of Creation — I can’t even imagine a film version of...)

Because it’s one of the best jump scares in a film ever. (There are actually two incredible ones in Exorcist III; this one, and the crawling-on-the-ceiling bit.)

I love The Girl Who Knew Too Much SO much. I love most gialli as it is, but I happened to catch that one at the tail end/third entry of a Bava triple feature at a Hollywood theater last year, and while I went in worrying “can I stay awake for the last film if it’s basically starting at 2am?” and came out loving it the…

It was solid! Just wish it were a much better adaptation of Ballard’s original novel than it turned out to be.

I’m still not sure whether it even qualifies as a “decent” adaptation of it at all, but technically, Identity runs very closely with the plot concept behind And Then There Were None.