Week 3 of the year was pretty slow for me. I couldn’t quite get going on anything. Played a lot of Minecraft. I started playing a modpack called Raspberry Flavoured, which is fairly low-stress. Eric has pointed out that I seem to like early-game Minecraft the best, and I can’t deny that. Above is my simple, cozy bedroom.
Writer: Macon Blair Director: Macon Blair Stars: Peter Dinklage, Jacob Tremblay, Taylour Paige, Elijah Wood, Kevin Bacon
A janitor’s life is upended when he seeks to rob the corrupt “healthstyle” company he works for in order to cover his impending medical debt.
I watched the original The Toxic Avenger (1984) just last year. I enjoyed it for what it was: a low-budget horror-action-comedy. I was intrigued by this reboot mainly due to Peter Dinklage’s involvement.
Probably the best thing about this reboot is how it updates the story. The plot shifts away from the nuclear waste, a concern in the 80s, to the bio-hazardous waste created by a pseudo-medical company. Instead of a character that is beset by actual bullies, Winston is at the mercy of his “platinum” health insurance as a health crisis looms. It’s topical and using topical issues is how reboots should be done. Sadly, the pacing, or something, is really off. Maybe it’s that the setting is so much of a visual feast that when you come to an action set-piece it doesn’t hold enough narrative weight.
The Toxic Avenger is ridiculously violent and ridiculously gory; so much so that you can’t really take the violence and gore seriously. I have to say, I enjoyed it. There were a few funny bits that had me chuckling. While it’s far from being perfect, it was pretty fun.
After deciding that her depleted fishing outpost cannot sustain possible shipwreck survivors, Eva begins to fear they are being beset by vengeful undead.
Beautiful cinematography by Eli Arenson is one of this highlights of The Damned. I get annoyed lately by how many movie have such murky, incomprehensible dark scenes. Arenson handles the stark whites of the arctic days and the deep blacks of candle-lit nights equally well. I appreciated the character of Eva—she’s trying to do the best for her people—but I appreciate more that her judgement isn’t questioned by others because she’s a woman. Eva herself is her biggest source of self doubt. I was taken off-guard by the ending. It wasn’t really satisfying.
Death of a Unicorn
Year: 2025 Runtime: 1h 47m Rated: R
Writer: Alex Scharfman Director: Alex Scharfman Stars: Paul Rudd, Jenna Ortega, Will Poulter, Téa Leoni, Richard E. Grant
A single dad who works for a pharmaceutical company accidentally runs into a unicorn on his way to a weekend at the estate of his ruthless boss.
Huh, the second movie in this post where big pharma is the real bad guy.
There aren’t enough unicorn movies and the promise of a unicorn monster movie had me all-in on Death of a Unicorn. Maybe my expectations were too high. Actually, in comparison to The Toxic Avenger, I think Death of a Unicorn needed more over the top. Despite the impeccable scenery chewing by Richard E. Grant and details like purple unicorn blood, it doesn’t ever quite commit to being as ridiculous as it could have been. It was, in fact, very predictable, relying on the subversion of unicorn tropes to be the unique thing. Lastly, on one hand, not enough unicorns on screen. On the other hand, the CG unicorns weren’t very good. Disappointing.
I figured I’d kick off International Gothic Reading Month by rereading a classic of the genre. I believe I previously read Jane Eyre way back in 1995 during my first semester as an English major as part of a “History of the Novel” course. To be honest, I didn’t remember much about it other than the most infamous part (spoilers for the 1847 novel): Jane the governess, Mr. Rochester falling in love with her, and Mr. Rochester’s insane wife being secretly kept in the attic.
I was twenty when I first read Jane Eyre and it is definitely a different experience reading it at age fifty-one and after twenty-five years of marriage. Even at twenty I wasn’t caught up enough in the romance to ignore the plenitude of red flags concerning Jane and Rochester, but it’s her third act relationship with St. John Rivers that strikes me now. St. John is good and pious; zealous and inflexible. His request of Jane isn’t unreasonable; it is also not what Jane wants. She knows this and is never able to convince him otherwise. To him, she’ll forever be a silly and sinful woman. That shouldn’t hurt Jane, but it does due to her esteem for him. And I suppose it’s those feelings that hit differently at middle age.
Also interesting reading this against the beginning of Anna Karenina, which is currently about marriages and match-making. In the same day of reading, both Jane and Kitty Shcherbatskaya are lamenting to God about men and marriage . . .
Speaking of marriages and not very good ones . . .
Katherine is tired of the wind and the monotony of Nebraska farm wife life. She’s not sad at being relieved of her husband.
I write back that the roof has caved in; he should go back to Boston.
I sort of wish there was more to this story; or, that I knew the story that comes next, with Katherine and Alice in town.
Readathons & Challenges
I’m joining Winter’s Respite, hosted by Michelle at Season’s of Reading. I’m especially looking forward to the 24-hour readathon on the 21st. I don’t have a TBR for February yet, but I’m going to the library on Tuesday; I’m sure that will sort itself out then!
It’s only the twelfth out of three hundred and sixty-five; I think “Happy New Year” is still valid. That said, the Christmas decorations are down and the holiday goodies have been eaten. It’s back to business as usual, I suppose.
The “Tricks” and “Nonsense” posts weren’t working for me, so I’m back to my standard blog posts and schedule. I eternally feel the push/pull of routine versus new. Routine is good and it keeps me honest. But it also gets boring. There is always enthusiasm for doing something in a new way, but that can lead to things feeling chaotic. I often feel I’m just the right amount of autistic to well and truly annoy myself.
Eric and I don’t play winter ultimate frisbee league (at night, in the cold, in the dark), but we had a nice turn-out to the Friday lunchtime game. We’ve had a warm winter and the weather has been darn near perfect for running and throwing during the day.
Nebraska basketball is continuing its impressive run. At 16-0, this has been the sort of season fans can’t believe is real. We live in a perpetual realm of waiting for the shoes to drop.
Listening To Lately
David Bowie, Hours (1999) Massive Attack, Mezzanine (1998) Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch, Blade Runner 2049 (soundtrack) (2017) David Bowie, Early On (1964–1966) (1991)
I’ve been having troubles finishing stories. Are my usual dithering tendencies causing the problem? Perimenopause brain fog? Long COVID brain fog? I don’t know. I managed to finish two short works at the beginning of last year and then tinkered around with a couple longer concepts.
I didn’t have any acceptances last year. Here’s where my current submissions stand with the number of rejections received in 2025 and all time for older works:
“Doors” 6 rejections (18 all-time)
“Phoenix” 5 rejections (13 all-time)
“Talking Skull” 5 rejections
“Witch Bottle” 10 rejections
I did have a story accepted back in 2024 that is still in semi-limbo. That will be resolved this year, one way or another.
So, yes, on one level this clever tale is about a threat more imagined in the Medieval mind than dragons. But it’s also about the characters that are on the margins of those tales. Snail or no snail, Margery still has her aging mother to take care of, her little brother to look after, and a stew that needs to be made to feed them all. In stories about fighting dragons (or snails), one rarely stops to think about the other work that still needs doing. I imagine Margery and Molly Grue might have stories to trade.
“Marginalia” was superb start to the year and is not surprisingly a Eugie Award-winner.
Reading
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Reading a chapter a day of Anna Karenina is hard. The chapters are very short—the longest has been seven pages, four pages is closer to the mode—and the cast is quite large. It’s a struggle not to race ahead. I feel like I’m not quite getting into the rhythm of the novel while reading so little at a time.
The only thing keeping me in check is a rather ambitiously-paced reread of Jane Eyre. Brontë is not a succinct writer and I wonder at my ability to have quickly read the novel in college.
Number of Books Read: 36 Confession: My goal for 2025 was 36, but by December I had read 30. I knew I was going to finish the two anthologies I was reading for Deal Me In and the two books that were in-progress. That still left me two short. At the eleventh hour, I fit in an audio book and a graphic novel collection. (I also read Moby-Dick and 1100 pages of The Weird in 2025; I’m okay with an easy ending.)
% Fiction: 75% % Nonfiction: 25% I think that’s the lowest my nonfiction percentage has been in years.
% Owned: 22% % From Libraries: 56% % ARCs: 8% I did not reach my goal of reading 12 books purchased before 2025 that I had not read before. The percentages not accounted for above were rereads and 2025 purchases. I should improve this grouping for 2026
% Physical: 61% % Ebook: 36% % Audio: 3% I’ve gotten back into the habit of going to the library and checking out actual books.
Number of Short Works Read: 64 These are “loose” short stories, not ones included in other anthologies. I read nine short story collections/anthologies, include the aforementioned mammoth The Weird.
Writers: Danny Philippou, Bill Hinzman Director: Danny Philippou, Michael Philippou Stars: Billy Barratt, Sora Wong, Jonah Wren Phillips, Sally Hawkins
Bring Her Back was another 2025 horror film that I knew little about other than it was by the guys that did Talk to Me and was perhaps more brutal than that movie. Actually, the two go very well together. Like Talk to Me, Bring Her Back deals with not-entirely-understood found media that is being improperly used by characters in the film. In both, there is possession and characters dealing with traumas not related to their supernatural predicaments. (Btw, the above trailer is great for not giving too much away.)
There is never a moment in Bring Her Back when I didn’t believe that Piper and Andy were in some sort of peril. The film begins with a video being shot of terrible things happening just out of sight. From that moment on, I was only wondering when that was going to rear its head in the main plot. Add to that characters who are helpless despite their best efforts. Piper’s lack of sight is translated for us as blurry backgrounds that we can’t quite see. Andy’s desperation to be “safe and reliable” in order to gain guardianship over his step-sister is only used against him. All the performances are superb, but especially well-done by the young cast. Top it off with great sound design and gnarly special effects.
Book ~ About Time by Jack Finney
Book Info: Trade paperback, purchased at BookMaze. Bookmark: Green bookmark from A Novel Idea bookstore in Lincoln, NE. (Why I didn’t use a BookMaze bookmark, I don’t know.)
About Time by Jack Finney
I bought About Time due to a case of mistaken identity. “Author of Time and Again,” it says right on the cover, which I misremembered as being the title of the time travel novel with H. G. Wells and Jack the Ripper. Alas, no, that’s Time After Time by Karl Alexander. Oh well, I figured, it’s still a collection of short stories . . .
I don’t think I’ve previously encountered stories written in the late 1950s and early 1960s that were so full of pessimism about the present and nostalgia for the past. As a child of the 1980s, I’m used to that form of nostalgia being reserved for the 1950s. In most of these stories, Finney’s character want to go back to the 1920s, or further. To be fair, I can understand maybe wishing to go back to the time before two World Wars. Still, I can never quite get behind “modern world is bad” sentiment (including present day).
Most of the female characters and the male character’s reactions to them are pretty cringey. “Lunch Hour Magic,” one of the few non-time travel stories, features X-ray glasses and a “Genuine Egyptian Slave Bracelet.” It’s played for laughs, but that don’t make it any less problematic. The last story two stories of the collection, “Second Chance” and “Hey, Look at Me!”, were the stand-outs. Both had more of a ghost story vibe.
Movie ~ Warlock: The Armageddon (1993)
Year: 1993 Runtime: 1h 38m Rated: R
Writer: Kevin Rock Director: Anthony Hickox Stars: Julian Sands, Chris Young, Paula Marshall, Steve Kahan
Warlock: The Armageddon isn’t a good movie, but it’s not terrible either. You definitely have to be in the mood for its brand of loud, cheesy 1980s/1990s horror. Julian Sands is Capital-E-Evil as he wreaks havoc on his way to California to have a showdown with a group of druids. The visual effects haven’t aged very well, but the gloopy-gloppy practical effects are fun.
Simple Tricks & Nonsense