"Noel" by Linda Pastan

 

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Like a single
ornament,

the red cardinal
on a pine

outside
the window

is our only
decoration,

until
the snow.

Victorian Christmas Horror

Merry Christmas Eve! We are blessed to be able to listen to a brand-new spooky Victorian Christmas tale read by author Carla Pettigrew this year. Enjoy. 

These are Carla's links from the show notes, should you wish to explore more about William Wilthew Fenn:

Strange Stories of Coincidence and Ghostly Adventure

Table of Contents

Bibliography

About the Author

Carla's Substack

Carla's Reddit

Support There Might Be Cupcakes Podcast on Spreaker

W. W. Fenn Building, Fenn School, Concord MA. John Phelan, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

This Movie Could Have Been An Email

On Sunday, December 22nd, I watched Joker: Folie à Deux. I didn't enjoy it. I thought I would after roughly the first third, but it descends quickly into grimness after that.

It's a movie that could have been an email. That email would go approximately like this:

From: Todd Phillips

To: Joker Fanboys

Some of you undersocialized incels* took the completely wrong message from the first Joker film. In response, here are three pumps and an apology. Now fuck off forever, weirdos.

With all due respect, which is none,

Todd

*For a nuanced discussion of the so-called manosphere and its relationship to misogyny and male supremacy, please listen to Jamie Loftus's manosphere series on her Sixteenth Minute (Of Fame) podcast.

Todd Phillips, you directed Lady Gaga in A Star Is Born; you know she deserves better than to play the audience stand-in in your fan disservice film. You owe her another movie in which her character is a  well-developed and fully rounded human being with complex emotions.

Which is not to say that Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga played their roles badly. I feel they did the best the could with the material they were given. Their dance sequences were lovely. The material simply wasn't very interested in their characters as much as it was interested in pathologizing (certain members of) the audience of the first movie.

Given the recent folk heroization of the 27-year-old man accused of murdering the CEO of United Healthcare, this movie was badly timed as well as uninterestingly written. Americans aren't very much in the mood for a lecture about how the televised murder of a wealthy elite is the worst thing that could happen, more punishable than the daily degradation and abuse visited upon the poor and disenfranchised.

Wasn't one of the intended messages embedded in the first film that Arthur, an abused 7-year-old boy failed by the social safety net, unable as an adult to access the medicine (health care) that would help keep him emotionally stable, deserved real help with his problems? Wasn't Joker in part about institutional failure?

A movie about how individual responses to institutional failure are pathetic, useless, wasted efforts performed by doomed sociopaths is a bit bleak for the moment, Todd Phillips. Sure, no one wants to watch a movie where people from Arthur's neighborhood run for the local housing commission seats and work together to provide more low-income housing for Gotham City's poor.

Still, Lady Gaga was there when Vice President Kamala Harris was inaugurated. She needs a less grim, more hopeful project.

"Lady Gaga enters the inauguration platform as she prepares to sing a rendition of 'The Star-Spangled Banner' at the 59th Presidential Inauguration ceremony in Washington, Jan. 20, 2021. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris took the oath of office on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol. (DOD Photo by Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Carlos M. Vazquez II)." Carlos M. Vazquez II, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Arthur Fleck's defense attorney is played by Catherine Keener. She was in Hamlet 2, a goofy comedy about high school musicals. The actor who played her character's romantic partner in Hamlet 2 was Steve Coogan, and Steve Coogan also appeared in Folie à Deux as a smarmy tv journalist. That appears to be a coincidence; I didn't see anything that said Keener and Coogan were both friends with Phillips or that Phillips had anything to do with Hamlet 2.

Keener, of course, also played Ms. Nelle Harper Lee in Capote. Always and forever fascinated by Harper Lee and Truman Capote, I happen to be reading Deliberate Cruelty: Truman Capote, the Millionaire's Wife, and the Murder of the Century by Roseanne Montillo. 

Everything always comes back to Capote, even the other movie I watched on the 22nd, Dear Santa, in which a middle school English teacher referenced To Kill a Mockingbird. And if that happens to pull once again at my Lucifer thread, then so mote it be.

___

A dream: Yesterday (April 25, 2016) I saw a screen capture from the "Book Job" episode of The Simpsons. In that drawing, a shelf of books about Southern vampires has one called Tru Blood. On the cover, Truman Capote is enjoying a blood martini.

Perhaps because of that cartoon doodle, I dreamed about Capote. In my brain's wacky scenario, I was in a 1960s prison with movie-Dick Hickok, as played by Mark Pellegrino.

I assume Perry Smith was also there, but I didn't see him.

Now, in theory, the male and female prisoners were supposed to be kept separate. In actuality, the prison looked a lot less like a prison and more like a coed dorm. My work detail involved cleaning rooms that women had vacated.

Ordinarily I was very scrupulous in my work. I didn't take any belongings left behind by the other women. But I take a small pink plastic bird and stick it in my pocket. I gave it to Dick because he told me he was saving up to buy a pigeon. He wanted to raise birds, like the Birdman of Alcatraz.

My Top 100 Songs 2024: Top 20

19. "Folsom Prison Blues - Live at Folsom State Prison" Johnny Cash

18. "Gin House Blues" Nina Simone

17. "pocket poetry" Sara Diana

16. "Helter Skelter" The Beatles

15. "Cherub Rock" The Smashing Pumpkins

14. "Joke's On You" Charlotte Lawrence - this is on the soundtrack of the Birds of Prey movie and therefore somewhat Joker-related, and therefore included on my Folie à Deux playlist

13. "Want You Bad" Bite Me Bambi - ska cover of the Offspring song from the year 2000

12. "I Want a Little Sugar In My Bowl" Nina Simone

11. "1979" The Smashing Pumpkins - probably my 2nd favorite SP song, lyrics-wise. It genuinely captures, impressionistically, the feeling set of teen years fading into dawning adulthood

10. "Malibu" Hole

9. "Pink Pony Club" Chappell Roan

8. "Already Gone" Kelly Clarkson - I very specifically associate this song with fictional Vicky in "A Broken Man & the Dawn."

7. "Drunk In Love" The Dan Band - this tongue-in-cheek Beyoncé cover slotted nicely into the Destiel playlist

6. "Poet" Bastille - I know I've been listening to this writing-themed song at least since September, when I shared in this Linda Pastan post. 

5. "Spider Pig" Hans Zimmer

4. "Cruel Summer" Taylor Swift. I came late to this song, but I was hung over from watching Good Omens season 2 and the line "Devils roll the dice, angels roll their eyes" pulled me in. (The Aziracrow of it all, yes, but also Gabriel and Beelzebub. I thought Gabe and Bub made a nice celestial couple.)

Taylor Swift really is a very talented lyricist. The more lyrics I learned, the more I liked this.

3. "Crazy For You" New Found Glory - Madonna Louise Ciccone was coming up in too many of my playlists, so I banished her and made a playlist exclusively of Madonna covers. This happens to work for Destiel playlist too

2. "Ava Adore" The Smashing Pumpkins - these are my favorite Billy Corgan lyrics; there’s a lovely symmetry to them. I love the guitar parts, and I love Ms. D’Arcy Elizabeth Wretzky’s bass part at the end. 

1. "Joyride" Kesha

My Top 100 Songs of 2024: 30-21

30. "What's the Frequency, Kenneth? Live at the Palace 1999" - R.E.M.

29. "20%" Hans Zimmer - instrumental, from the Rush soundtrack, went onto my Daniel Brühl playlist

28. "Come As You Are" Nirvana

27. "II Most Wanted" Beyoncé, Miley Cyrus - this was my favorite song on Cowboy Carter

26. "Red Wine Supernova" Chappell Roan

25. "One Night In Bangkok (US club remix)" - Murray Head

24. "Ralph Wiggum" - Bloodhound Gang

23. "Wicked Game (Live, Acoustic)" Stone Sour - Destiel playlist

22. "Fake ID" Riton, Kah-lo - I first heard this one when Tit Elingtin had Sirius XM satellite radio in his car and we listened to the Chill channel the first time we drove down to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, to visit my cousin's son. That was Memorial Day Weekend this year.

Riton is a dj from the UK; Kah-lo is the Nigerian-born American singer

21. "Runaway Crush" Stella Soleil

https://thatwritererinoriordan.tumblr.com/post/697009137517723648/got-a-new-ls-450-aint-no-keys-in-this-doohickey

My Top 100 Songs of 2024: 50-31

50. "Disease" Lady Gaga - the song came out on October 25th and Spotify cuts off its metrics a week or two into November, so that gives some indication of how much I've had this track on repeat

49. "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" - R.E.M.

48. "'90s Baby" JT

47. "You're So Impatient" Pixies

46. "The Simpsons Theme" Green Day

45. "Father Figure" George Michael - Destiel playlist

44. "All Star Kansayasai" Onnen, Juicy JJ

43. "Heroes" Jill Sobule

42. "American Idiot" Green Day. You know why.

41. "Love Buzz" Nirvana

40. "Loverboy" Billy Ocean - I heard this song randomly in a CVS drug store and I thought, yes, that was a pretty good song from my childhood. So I listened to it some more.

Written by Billy Ocean, Keith Diamond, and Robert "Mutt" Lange, this song masterfully combines '80s synthpop with soul. It's really well-crafted, from the back-up singers' "oooh-waahs" to the galloping bassline. 

Also the video is giving Lando Calrissian and I love that for it.

Mutt Lange is Shania Twain's ex-husband. This recent podcast episode dives deep into the careers of two Canadian pop stars, Twain and Celine Dion.

39. "Till the World Ends" Britney Spears

38. "Batman, Wolfman, Frankenstein or Dracula" The Diamonds - Halloween playlist. Note that there was also a LVCRFT cover that came out this year. 

37. "Heart Shaped Box" Nirvana

36. "Wish I Knew You" The Revivalists

35. "Celebrity Skin" Hole - yeah, the original is lots better than the Doja Cat version. I'm a walking study in demonology; don't change the lyrics on me

34. "Ava Gardner" Superknova

33. "I'm On Fire" Bruce Springsteen

32. "Baby One More Time (from Kung Fu Panda 4)" Tenacious D

31. "Ava Adore (Remix)" The Smashing Pumpkins

My Top 100 Songs of 100: 60-51

60. "Buffy Theme" The Breeders - instrumental, on the Reading Playlist. My mom watched Buffy; I never did. But I know it had Anthony Head, the brother of Murray Head.

59. "Demons" Imagine Dragons - on the Destiel playlist

58. "Rebel Rebel" David Bowie

57. "Telephone" - Lady Gaga, Beyoncé

L-L-L-Lobster Phone

L-L-L-Lobster Phone 

https://www.tumblr.com/thatwritererinoriordan/750834452546125824/nacaru-cc-by-40?source=share

56. "Baby Daddy's Weekend" Elle King - fluffy summer party song about getting drunk and high

55. "Fictional Men" Peggy - is this the only song on the list that makes explicit mention of the COVID-19 quarantine? I hope so. I feel like I dug deep enough back into that trauma when I read Amanda Gorman

54. "Crush" Billianne - feels true. That IS what it feels like to have a crush

53. "No Ordinary Love" Deftones - Destiel playlist

52. "Stand Inside Your Love" - Smashing Pumpkins

51. "A Bar Song (Tipsy)" - Shaboozey - interpolates "Tipsy" by J-Kwon, which reminds me of the years I worked at a child & adolescent mental health facility and alternative school. It came out in January 2004

My Top 100 Songs of 2024: 70-61

Bart, I don't want to alarm you, but there may be a starman or starmen waiting in the sky!

70. "Simply the Best (from Schitt's Creek)" Noah Reid - Reid's newer album is great, but this super-romantic Patrick x David track from the tv show is irresistible. I like to imagine that by this point in their marriage, David has totally given in to Patrick's wish to have children and they currently have 3 or 4.

69. "Suerte (Whenever, Wherever)" Shakira

68. "Why Can't I?" Liz Phair - I may have been inspired to listen to Liz Phair after hearing this back episode of Chelsea Devantez's books podcast 

67. "The Diva Dance - Remix by SWO" - Eric Serra, Inva Mula, SWO - on the Reading playlist

66. "SMOKE HOUR" Beyoncé, Willie Nelson - another short, spoken word track that frequently made its way into the rotation while I was enjoying Cowboy Carter

65. "Hard To Be the Bard" Christian Borle

64. "Starman" David Bowie - I made a meme. 

63. "Radioactive - GROUPLOVE & Captain Cuts Remix" Imagine Dragons. Ages ago, this song was used in the advertising for the film based on Stephenie Meyer's The Host. I like this remix because it sounds like it's playing while I'm riding the merry-go-round.

62. "Only Happy When It Rains" Garbage 

61. "911" Lady Gaga

My Top 100 Songs of 2024: 80-71

See yesterday's post for numbers 90 through 81.

80. "Human Touch" Bruce Springsteen

79. "For Halloween" AndrisMusic - Halloween playlist - Instrumental

78. "Typing" Nico Muhly - Instrumental track that emulates the sound of a typewriter, from the Kill Your Darlings soundtrack, on the Reading playlist. [And I still haven't seen Tulip Fever.]

77. "Falling In Love Again" Friedrich Hollaender, Marianne Faithfull - cover of the song made famous by Marlene Dietrich in her film The Blue Angel. One day last July I happened to hear the Diahann Carroll version of this song. Terrible. It sent me scrambling for Faithfull's very good cover.

76. "You Ruined Nirvana" McKenna Grace - Grace plays the granddaughter of a Ghostbuster in the last two movies in the franchise. Which is funny because the next song is...

75. "Good Girls (from the Ghostbusters Original Motion Picture Soundtrack [2016])" Elle King - that's the all-woman Ghostbusters reboot with the Chris Hemsworth scene that cracks me so consistently up. I laughed my ass off at that movie. 

The lyrics are written from the POV of a naughty woman who may be some kind of minor demon or evil spirit. I had it on my Halloween soundtrack.

74. "I Like It Rough" Lady Gaga

73. "Algorhythm" Childish Gambino - samples "Hey Mr. DJ" by Zhane (1993)

72. "I'm In Love With a German Film Star" The Passions -  Daniel Brühl playlist

71. "My Baby Loves a Bunch of Authors" Moxy Früvous:

Dave: Well you should see my story reading baby, you should hear the things that she says

She says "Hon, drop dead, I'd rather go to bed with Gabriel Garcia Marquez."

Cuddle up with William S. Burroughs, leave on the light for bell hooks

I've been flirtin' with Pierre Burton 'cause he's so smart in his books 

All: I like to go out dancing

My baby loves a bunch of authors

My heart's so broke and bleedin'

Dave: Baby's just sitting there

Murray: Doing some reading

Dave: So I started watching some tv, played my new cd player too

She said, "Turn it off or I'll call the cops and I'll throw the book at you."

All this arguing made me get dizzy, called my doctor to come have a look

I said, "Doctor hurry!" He said:

Murray: "Don't worry, I'll be over when I finish my book"

All: I like to go out dancing

My baby loves a bunch of authors

We've been livin' in hovels

Dave: Spendin' all our money on

Murray:  Brand new novels

Dave: So I got myself on a streetcar and it drove right into someone

You know the driver said:

Jean (as bus driver): "I was lookin' straight ahead!"

Dave: But he was reading the Toronto Sun

Jean (as bus driver): "So?"

Dave: So my honey and me go to a counsellor to help figure out what we need

She said, "We'll get your love growing

Mike (in funny Dr. Ruth voice): But before we get going, here's some books I'd like you to read."

All: I like to go out dancing

My baby loves a bunch of authors

Lately we've had some friction

Dave: 'Cause my baby's hooked on

Murray: Short works of fiction

Dave: So we split and went to a party, some friends my girl said she knew

But what a sight 'cause it's authors night and the place looks like a who's who

Dave: Now I'm pounding the ouzo

rest: With Mario Puzo*

Dave: Who's a funny fella?

rest: W.P. Kinsella

Dave: Who brought the cat?

rest: Would Margaret Atwood?

Dave: Who needs a shave?

rest: He's Robertson Davies!

Dave: Ondaatje started a food fight, salmon mousse all over the scene

All: Spilled some dressing on Doris Lessing, these writer types are a scream!

I like to go out dancing

My baby loves a bunch of authors

We'll be together for ages

Dave: Eatin' and Sleepin' and

Jean (in bus driver voice): Eatin' and Sleepin' and

Mike (as Dr. Ruth): Eating und Sleeping und

Murray: Turnin' pages

All: Yeah!

From the Liner: Mike-vocals; Murray-vocals, bass, spring muffler; Jean-vocals, sheet metal, snare; Dave-lead vocal, guitar

You can tell this is a song from the ‘90s because it contains the words “new cd player.”

*You can still go to the Sidewalk Cafe in Venice Beach, California, but they don't have this awesome literary menu with a sandwich called the Mario Puzo anymore.

My Top 100 Songs of 2024: 90-81

See yesterday's post for numbers 100 through 91.

90. "It's Oh So Quiet" Betty Hutton - I learned the Björk version first and so was surprised and delighted by this original. Except that Björk correctly noticed that the word "gorge" is meant to be short for "gorgeous," whereas Hutton mispronounces it as "George."

89. "Sugar In My Bowl" Camille O'Sullivan - on my March playlist of Irish music. She doesn't get all the words quite right, which I sometimes feel forgiving of and at other times get annoyed by. I like how she belts, though. 

O'Sullivan is the life partner of actor Aidan Gillen, who can be found reciting poetry in English and Irish on Spotify. I most recently saw him as the big bad in Mayor of Kingstown, but remember him best as the heroic Aberama Gold in Peaky Blinders, late-life love of Aunt Polly (Helen McCrory).

88. "Dead End Road" Jelly Roll - the song from the Twisters soundtrack is simply a bangin' country-rocker

87. "David Duchovny, Why Won't You Love Me? (The Reboot)" Bree Sharp

86. "Me and Mr. Jones" Amy Winehouse 

85. "S.O.S. (Sawed Off Shotgun)" The Glorious Sons - I don't love the band name; it sounds like something Confederate sympathizers would name themselves. And it might not be great for one's mental health, as it implies suicidal ideation. But it's a very catchy song.

84. "You & I" Lady Gaga - I listened to Lady Gaga in anticipation of the release of Joker: Folie à Deux. (I still haven't seen it.)

83. "Sacrilege" Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Fallen for a guy/ [who] Fell down from the sky." On my Destiel playlist

82. "It's the End of the World As We Know It" R.E.M.

81. "Drunk (And I Don't Wanna Go Home) (GOLDHOUSE Remix)" Elle King, Miranda Lambert, GOLDHOUSE

Emily Blunt as Kitty Oppenheimer

And this is the recipe for Robert Oppenheimer's signature gin martini. 

My Spotify Wrapped 2024

Happy Spotify Wrapped release day 2024! What was your top song of the year? Mine was "Joyride" by Kesha, surprising no one, since I already wrote a blog post about my obsession with this fun pop song.

Is 128 times a lot of times to stream one song? My top song last year was one that I listened to 49 times. 

Kesha wasn't my top artist, though. 

My #1 artist was The Smashing Pumpkins. 

Rounding out my other top songs are tracks from ZZ Ward, New Found Glory, and Taylor Swift. But I'm not just a music girlie: I'm also a podcast girlie. These were my Top 5, including of course Disaster Area. 

Now let's dive into my Top 100, which I'll divide into several posts over the next few days for easier readability. 

100. "Headless Horseman" Kid Kasino, Shea - an electroswing version of the Bing Crosby-Disney tune with a female vocalist; Halloween playlist

Of course, I was in Sleepy Hollow, New York in October. Here's my photo of the Headless Horseman Bridge.

99. "Talking Body" Tove Lo - on the Daniel Brühl playlist

98. "Piano Mashup: Moonlight Sonata/L'Interludio Ambivalent/Ain't Misbehavin'" Alicia Keyes - on the Reading playlist

97. "Siva" The Smashing Pumpkins - the 1st SP song I ever heard and still one of my favorites

96. "Cruel Summer - triple j Like A Version" G Flip - Sapphic cover of the T. Swift hit

95. "Unspoken Word - Intro" The Soil - wordless vocalizing, on the Reading playlist

94. "Oysters In the Pits" Hans Zimmer - Rush soundtrack/Daniel Brühl playlist

Sidenote: more about oysters

Does the mention of oysters make you think of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, specifically "The Walrus and the Carpenter?" Coincidentally, the next-most listened song is...

93. "The Lobster Quadrille" Franz Ferdinand. Not the Franz Ferdinand you're thinking of. This is from the soundtrack of theTim Burton movie Alice in Wonderland (2010).

92. "Lover Please" Melissa Etheridge - my go-to karaoke song

91. "Captain Speaking" Ghettobillies - short spoken word track that I don't remember how I stumbled across 

Tune in tomorrow for 90-81. What was YOUR top track of 2024?

More Unfortunate Happenings of Past Decembers

Read last December's post here.

Lupe Vélez appeared in Photoplay magazine in 1928.

December 5, 2016: A 28-year-old man from North Carolina arrives at Washington, D.C.’s Comet Ping Pong pizza restaurant armed with a rifle and two additional firearms. The man, who had been reading completely falsified conspiracy theories that the restaurant served as a front for child abuse by D.C. elites, threatened staff with the weapons and fired the rifle in the restaurant’s kitchen, apparently a “warning shot” not directed at anyone. He is arrested before anyone inside the pizza place is hurt. In March 2017, the man pleads guilty to federal weapons charges and judge Ketanji Brown Jackson (not yet an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court) sentences him to four years in prison. He is released from prison in 2020.

December 14, 1944: Golden Age of Hollywood actress Lupe Vélez dies by suicide, taking 75 barbiturate pills with a glass of brandy. Her secretary found her body lying in Vélez’s bed and not, as urban legend has it, drowned in her toilet. 

December 16, 1988: Disco singer Sylvester James dies at his home in San Francisco from AIDS-related illness. He’s 41 years old.

December 17, 2021: Visual artist, classic album cover designer, and novelist Eve Babitz dies at age 78 from Huntington’s disease, the same hereditary neurodegenerative disease that killed Woody Guthrie.

December 20, 1882: Swiss Romantic poet Alice de Chambrier dies at age 21 from complications of diabetes.

December 22, 1995: Retired actor and dancer Butterfly McQueen, then 84 years old, dies at the hospital from burn wounds she suffers when she attempts to heat her home using a kerosene heater that malfunctions.

Cropped screenshot of Butterfly McQueen from the film Affectionately Yours. Trailer screenshot, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

December 24, 1936: Stage and early silent film actress Irene Fenwick dies at age 49 due to complications of an eating disorder. Her husband Lionel Barrymore (great-uncle of Drew Barrymore), who famously plays Ebenezer Scrooge on the radio every Christmas, is forced to turn the role over his brother John (great-grandfather of Drew Barrymore).

December 26, 2002: Photographer Herb Ritts dies of AIDS-related pneumonia at the age of 50.

December 29, 1170: Knights loyal to King Henry II assassinate Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, inside Becket’s cathedral.

December 30, 1999: Former Beatle George Harrison, his wife Olivia, and their son Dhani are asleep in their home, Friar Park, outside London at around 3 a.m. local time. George and Olivia hear glass breaking. George goes downstairs to investigate, only to find a 33-year-old man screaming. The stranger had broken into the home by breaking a window with a bit of lawn statuary. The man has a knife and stabs George repeatedly in the chest until Olivia comes down and hits the man with a fireplace poker. The intruder then tries to strangle Olivia with the cord of a lamp. Olivia manages to fight off the attacker. 

George survives but has to have part of a lung removed. The attacker, who is experiencing serious mental illness, is found to be not criminally liable for his actions because of his mental state and is admitted to a secured mental health hospital, where he stays until after George’s death in 2001 from cancer.