Once, in one of my Drama classes, we got into a discussion about blackface. A lot of drama students are interested in musical theatre, and one of the ancestors of American musicals as we know them today is the minstrel show, in which white actors (and sometimes African-American ones, too)…
3D movies have never worked for me. Sometimes, they give me a fleeting sense of motion, but when I saw The Dark Knight in IMAX, I didn’t notice much of a difference from a regular movie screen. I remember seeing Spy Kids 3D and getting those cool glasses with one…
OK, I lied – these have nothing to do with New Year’s, except for the fact that I have lots more free time around this time of year and my parents like to watch movies, so I have a lot more filmic contributions this time. Porco Rosso (Studio Ghibli, 1992)…
One of my very favourite short stories is “A Study In Emerald”, by Neil Gaiman, which speculates on what might happen if the famous Victorian detective, Sherlock Holmes, had lived in the same universe as the famous Victorian horror-demonic-god-creature, Cthulhu. I’m not such a big fan of Lovecraft myself, but,…
I know, I know – you’ve waited since last week with bated breath. (Well, if you had, literally, you’d be dead – maybe half-bated breath? Occasionally bated breath?) So, without further ado…
I can tell you’re shivering with anticipation. Well, you already know I love most things by Diana Wynne Jones, so it should come as no surprise that I enjoyed these. After enjoying House of Many Ways so much, I thought I’d reread all of DWJ’s work, especially the ones that…
I’m not sure why I’ve never really enjoyed the work of Isaac Asimov – or at least, his science fiction. (He also wrote mystery stories about the Black Widowers and their waiter, Henry, which I liked to read in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine.) Foundation never really did it for me;…
I can’t think of anything interesting to write about. So here are some speculative fiction for middle grade and young adult readers that I like. None of them is by any means flawless, but I enjoyed them all. So there. As a bonus, here is one non-speculative fiction middle-grade book…
I’ve been meaning to re-read His Dark Materials ever since I attended a lecture by Philip Pullman in November. Because I’m an awful procrastinator, I haven’t yet done so. BUT – I did see The Golden Compass this month when it was one of the movies available on that cool…
Otherwise known as, “here are some books and films I read and/or watched lately”. Because I don’t have anything else to write about, I will tell you what I thought of them. 1. The House on Haunted Hill (1959).