Beautiful Feet

They had me at "dystopian;" I changed my movie plans immediately. Equals (dir. Drake Doremus, 2015)   is a surprisingly successful (but not perfect) movie with the poutily pretty Nicholas Hoult and solid Kristen Stewart as futurish Romeo and Juliet types (or are they?...), in a world that tonally, although not visually, echoes the one in Children of Men.  The story, shot largely in Japan, revolves around a post-apocalyptic world where life has been re-created, supposedly a post–common cold and –cancer utopia, but is threatened by SOS, a gene defect whose arc is like real-life's experience with HIV-AIDS. Social constraints swiftly eradicate those with "the bug," called "Switched On Syndrome." There is a far-flung place, The Peninsula, where degenerates live, embracing social bonds, but it is a no man's land that, if emotions were present, would give the people the heebie-jeebies, so adverse are they to the thought of social contact with any c...

It's lovely when nothing's said about photographs.         ~Josef Sudek

Closet Monster (dir. Stephen Dunn, 2015) is completely original and completely wonderful. I had heard Dunn and star Connor Jessup interviewed on the often-dreadful q  CBC radio show and decided to see it once I heard Isabella Rossellini had done the voice-over for a hamster. (How ridiculously cool of her!) Also because it was Canadian, indie and fresh. I wasn't disappointed. Caveat: you might have issues with this film. Like, if you're a homophobe. Or if you hate violence and horror, which I avoid watching, but the Cronenbergesqueness [what's the noun for this??] which covers these elements made it bearable (...okay, I had to turn away once). They are necessary to the film, which is simultaneously genre-busting and genre-melding. As Dunn said, it is not intentionally a queer film: LGBTQ identity is a catalyst for the plot and an essential theme, but its "aboutness" is much broader than that. He also provides some much-needed light moments. Our beloved Mariti...

V.Wells 2016 Don't mess with this.

©Vanessa Wells, 2014 All rights reserved. I spent the day deliberating about posting a personal commentary here, which I rarely do. And maybe that's part of my problem. I've been feeling depleted lately (physically, spiritually, emotionally) and this has been complicated by feelings of grief for which I still haven't attained "closure." The best info I have seen on this topic is that it's not linear, it's very individual in its course, and it doesn't make any damn sense. I have come to accept that. But there are moments—and they tend to hit me in the early morning—when I am hit by grief like a Mack truck. This is both unexpected and really annoying. I tend to be a morning person (that is, I don't want to actually talk to anyone in the morning; I just have all my energy and optimistic outlook for the day then), and then wham , I'm crying. Backtrack: I'm a child without a real sibling [skip that story]. My dad died ten years ago. H...

The Lady’s Dressing Room in the Tapestry Suite of Lancaster Tower in Windsor Castle  circa 1870.   Retrieved from  http://longliveroyalty.tumblr.com/post/132260918325/the-ladys-dressing-room-in-the-tapestry-suite-of WELL! Clearly I don't know my Jonathan Swift as well as I had thought... Reproduced without sharing literary criticism or my comments. The Lady’s Dressing Room Related Poem Content Details BY JONATHAN SWIFT Five hours, (and who can do it less in?)  By haughty Celia spent in dressing;  The goddess from her chamber issues,  Arrayed in lace, brocades and tissues.           Strephon, who found the room was void,  And Betty otherwise employed,  Stole in, and took a strict survey,  Of all the litter as it lay;  Whereof, to make the matter clear,  An inventory follows here.           ...

I met with Larry on the eve of the ASI/ISC 2016 Indexing Conference in Chicago, just before the conference’s official reception. Just like in his novels, my walk to our meeting place was blustery and foreboding, but the welcome I received from him and his lovely wife, Rose (whom I recognized instantly from one of her accessories as a fellow cat-lover), could not have been more reassuring. After warning him that I was not attempting to stalk him (since I was also writing a review of his second book for EAC’s Toronto Branch blog, BoldFace , and summarizing his keynote speech the next day for the ISC’s upcoming edition of The Bulletin newsletter), we sat down to talk business: that of writing and indexing and how the two connect. In the first book of the series, See Also Murder [1] , there had been mention of a magpie, so I started by asking him if that had been a total coincidence: indeed, it was only by fluke that he had used a species that is the mascot of the Indexing So...