Erin O'Riordan writes smart, whimsical erotica. Her erotic romance novel trilogy, Pagan Spirits, is now available. With her husband, she also writes crime novels. Visit her home page at ko-fi.com.
October 15, 1917: Dutch exotic dancer Margaretha Zelle, who performs under the stage name Mata Hari (a Malay expression for “the sun”), is executed by a French firing squad, having been accused of spying for Germany in the Great War. Modern biographers believe she was innocent of spying and was scapegoated.
October 15, 2020: 26-year-old South African adult film star and aspiring social media influencer Karissa Rajpaul dies following a cosmetic procedure in Encino, Los Angeles, California. The mother and daughter who performed the “butt lift” procedure, which involved injected silicone into the buttocks, had no formal medical training in this procedure.
In 2025, both women were convicted of involuntary manslaughter, sentenced to 3-4 years in prison, and then released when it was determined their time had been served.
Beatles Trivia Sunday, April 26, 1998, St. Mary’s College: I spent most of the day writing papers and working on a Sculpture project. In the evening I saw the 200th Simpsons episode, “Trash of the Titans” (production code 5F09). Bart and Homer crashed a U2 concert; best guest voices ever. The episode was dedicated to another previous guest voice, Linda McCartney.
April 26, 1865: John Wilkes Booth dies of a gunshot wound inflicted in the attempt to capture him.
April 26, 1909: Major League baseball catcher Michael “Doc” Powers dies of peritonitis. On April 12th he’d collided with the wall in Shibe Park in Philadelphia, sustaining internal injuries. His peritonitis resulted from one of three surgeries he endured in attempts to repair his injuries.
April 26, 1937: Spanish dictator Francisco Franco coordinates with Adolph Hitler to have the Luftwaffe bomb the Basque town of Guernica. Franco knew Guernica to be a stronghold of his political opponents the Republicans. Between 400 and 1,600 civilians are killed in the bombing.
April 26, 1942: An estimated 1,500 miners lose their lives in the Benxihu (Honkeiko) Colliery in Liaoning province, China, when coal dust ignites. The Japanese, who operated the mine at the time, are believed to have sealed the mine before it was completely evacuated, needlessly adding to the death toll. Only 31 of the dead were Japanese. Most of the those killed didn’t die from the explosion, but from carbon monoxide poisoning after the Japanese shut off the ventilation system.
April 26, 1986: Lucille Ball dies of an aortic rupture at the age of 77.
On the same day, the Chernobyl Power Plant in Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union, experiences a nuclear meltdown that leads to a massive fire throughout the plant. The radioactive fallout in the 19-mile radius around the plant is expected to remain too contaminated for human habitation for 20,000 years.
April 26, 2006: A van carrying nine students and a staff member from Evangelical Christian school Taylor University in Upland, Indiana, is traveling along I-69 when it collides with a tractor trailer. Five people inside the van died at the scene. A survivor of the crash is initially identified as Laura van Ryn.
Unable to communicate and suffering from head trauma, the young woman is cared for in the hospital by Laura van Ryn’s family. Five weeks after the crash, the survivor was able to identify herself as Whitney Cerak. Laura van Ryn had been among those killed in the crash and was given a burial by Cerak’s family and buried under Cerak’s name.
Author Julie S. Howlin post of the day: Pooh Day (birthday of A.A. Milne)
The extremely specific Simpsons meme that goes with that almanac entry:
Bummer January 18th
January 18, 2019: A gasoline pipeline explosion in Tlahuelilpan, Hidalgo, Mexico, kills 137 people and injures an unknown number of people. The Mexican government compensates the families of the victims approximately $800 each.
January 18, 2024: Sanjay Shah, the 55-year-old CEO of Chicago-based software company Vistex, attends an event in honor of the company’s 25th anniversary in Hyderabad, India. As part of a presentation on a film set, Shah and company president Raju Datla are lowered onto the stage in an apparatus made to look like a hot air balloon. A cable supporting the apparatus snaps, sending Shah and Datla plummeting onto the stage below. Shah dies shortly afterward. Datla dies at a Chicago hospital on July 19, 2024.
Scenes from my visit to Shelbyville, Indiana, on Sept. 25, 2025, spiced up with a few Simpsons quotes about the fictional Shelbyville, Springfield's rival city.
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.
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
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.
May 14, 1998: Frank Sinatra dies of a heart attack. He's 82 years old.
Sinatra was born on December 12, 1915, in Hoboken, New Jersey, to parents who were both immigrants from Italy. He got a ukulele for his 15th birthday and taught himself to play it. He made his first record as a singer in 1939. In November of that year, he became the lead singer of the Tommy Dorsey Band. He recorded his first hit song, "Polka Dots and Stardust," in 1940.
On March 25, 1954, Sinatra won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for playing Maggio in From Here to Eternity.
His 1954 album Songs for Young Lovers includes Cole Porter's "I Get a Kick Out of You" and the George Gershwin song "They Can't Take That Away From Me."
He recorded Porter's "I've Got You Under My Skin," reportedly in 22 takes, for the 1956 album Songs for Swingin' Lovers.
On July 2, 1966, the #1 song in the U.S. is Sinatra's "Strangers In the Night." The melody was composed by Bert Kaempfert, who's got the mad hits. That same year, 50-year-old Sinatra marries 21-year-old Mia Farrow.
On April 15, 1967, the #1 song in the U.S. is "Something Stupid" by Sinatra and his 26-year-old daughter Nancy. Where did I first hear this song? Performed by Kelsey Grammer and Julie Kavner as Sideshow Bob and Selma Bouvier on Simpsons episode 8F20, “Black Widower,” which originally aired April 9, 1992.
Nancy Sinatra is like Mary Wollstonecraft in that mother and daughter have the same name. Frank Sinatra's first wife and eldest child are both called Nancy Sinatra.
On November 13, 1967, NBC gives him a TV special with guest star Ella Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald, Sinatra, Count Basie, and Pat Henry's Orchestra performed a revue together on June 6th through June 18th at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Although allegedly "retired," he recorded two best-selling Duets albums, the first in 1993 and Duets II in 1994. These include the "I've Got You Under My Skin" duet with Bono.
I don't have a source for this, but I remember watching Bono talking on TV about a night of drinking that the two had together. Bono fell asleep with a glass of whiskey in his hand and spilled it on himself in his sleep. He woke up and got terribly embarrassed that the great Frank Sinatra would think he, Bono, had gotten so drunk he pissed himself.
Frank Sinatra had a good, long, musical life. He died in 1998, and his second child Frank Sinatra Jr. died in 2016. Nancy and Tina Sinatra are still with us, as is Ronan Farrow, Mia Farrow's son of whom Sinatra may be the biological father. On paper, the alleged sexual predator Woody Allen is Ronan's father, but Ronan looks a lot more like Sinatra than Allen.
Defn: A black, granular, explosive substance, consisting of an intimate mechanical mixture of niter, charcoal, and sulphur. It is used in gunnery and blasting.
Note: Gunpowder consists of from 70 to 80 per cent of niter, with 10 to 15 per cent of each of the other ingredients. Its explosive energy is due to the fact that it contains the necessary amount of oxygen for its own combustion, and liberates gases (chiefly nitrogen and carbon dioxide), which occupy a thousand or fifteen hundred times more space than the powder which generated them. Gunpowder pile driver, a pile driver, the hammer of which is thrown up by the explosion of gunpowder.
-- Gunpowder plot (Eng. Hist.), a plot to destroy the King, Lords, and Commons, in revenge for the penal laws against Catholics. As Guy Fawkes, the agent of the conspirators, was about to fire the mine, which was placed under the House of Lords, he was seized, Nov. 5, 1605. Hence, Nov. 5 is known in England as Guy Fawkes Day.
-- Gunpowder tea, a species of fine green tea, each leaf of which is rolled into a small ball or pellet.
Should ever be forgot.” - traditional nursery rhyme
November 5, 1664: Samuel Pepys sees Macbeth: “Up and to the office, where all the morning, at noon to the ‘Change, and thence home to dinner, and so with my wife to the Duke’s house to a play, Macbeth, a pretty good play, but admirably acted. Thence home; the coach being forced to go round by London Wall home, because of the bonefires [for Guy Fawkes Day]; the day being mightily observed in the City. To my office late at business, and then home to supper, and to bed.”
I still find it incredibly charming and cute that "Pepys" is pronounced "Peeps," like the marshmallow candy.
November 5, 1946: Disco, Gospel, and soul singer Loleatta Holloway is born in Chicago. I become aware of her when I check out the Madonna tribute album Virgin Voices from the South Bend public library; Holloway covered “Like a Prayer” (and in my opinion, it’s the best track on that album).
She also provided vocals for the 1991 hit single “Good Vibrations” for Mark Wahlberg’s group Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch. I knew that song in 1991, and although Holloway appears in the music video, I wasn’t aware of her at the time.
Sunday, November 5, 2006, Mishawaka: On my way to Meijer to buy some groceries, I heard a story on NPR. Samuel Menashe had won the Poetry Foundation’s Neglected Masters Award. I heard his poem “The Shrine Whose Shape I Am.” It reads in part:
“There is no Jerusalem but this
Breathed in flesh by shameless love
Built high upon tides of blood
I believe the Prophets and Blake
And like David I bless myself
With all my might”
Later we visited my parents, and in the evening I was privileged to watch a new Simpsons Treehouse of Horror episode. The first segment parodied The Blob, the second was based on the Jewish folktale of the golem, and the third parodied War of the Worlds.
Sunday, October 18, 2009: The highlight of my day was watching the new Simpsons episode, “Treehouse of Horror XX (LABF14).” The first segment parodied an Alfred Hitchcock movie. Better still, the second story parodied I Am Legend. Krusty Burger’s new sandwich turns everyone into cannibal zombies. The Simpson family manages to survive and discover that Bart is immune to the disease. They get him to the safety zone, where Bart transfers his immunity to the other survivors by bathing in their soup.
The last segment was a musical one based on Sweeney Todd. After a gruesome accident, Moe the bartender discovers his beer is greatly enhanced by Homer’s blood. Moe schemes to get on Marge’s good side; he tells her Homer turned gay and ran off. Homer’s “The Gay Song” is rather funny:
Slight spoilers below if you haven't already listened to this audiobook. Nothing major - no Cursed Child-type surprises.
When I first read Quidditch Through the Ages by "Kennilworthy Whisp," one of the schoolbooks Harry Potter and his cohort are said to have read and studied at Hogwarts, I wasn't too impressed. Quidditch was never one of my favorite aspects of the Harry Potter books, although I do have quite the fondness for some of the lady quidditch players, especially Ginny Weasley and Angelina Johnson. But the history of the sport didn't interest me, so I only gave it three stars on Goodreads.
Still, it sounded like fun to listen to the new audiobook version read by Andrew Lincoln, available through Pottermore. It has sound effects and bonus material, namely new writing by J.K. Rowling. It consists of 21 tracks, of which the first 12 are the actual text of the book.
Andrew Lincoln has a lovely reading voice. I can imagine it's the voice Edgar Linton used to read bedtime stories to baby Judith Cathy Linton before he remarried Michonne and lived happily ever after sadly passed away. Somehow his natural English accent sounds nothing at all like Rick Grime's Georgia accent. Actors are amazing.
The audiobook's bonus tracks also feature the voice of Imogen Church as Ginny Weasley-Potter (reading bulletins she wrote for the Daily Prophet as a Quidditch World Cup correspondent) and Annette Badland as Rita Skeeter (gossiping at the World Cup finals).
A portion of the proceeds from sales of this audiobook go to charity, so I didn't feel bad at all about paying the $16 to Pottermore. One charity is the Lumos Foundation, which helps support families who might otherwise give their children up for adoption, since it's normally in a child's best interest to stay with their birth family whenever possible. Its goal is to reduce the number of children who live in the world's orphanages. The other charity is Comic Relief UK, which supports poverty alleviation projects. Introduction
The first track of this book is an introduction by Albus Dumbledore. Dumbledore describes the process of borrowing the Hogwarts library's copy of Quidditch Through the Ages from librarian Madame Pince, who was not keen on letting the book be released into the muggle world. Lincoln reads this chapter in the voice of elderly Dumbledore. It's amusing, but I'm glad he doesn't have to use this voice for the entire book.
Chapter Three
This chapter relays the recollections of early quidditch play recorded by Gertie Kettle at Queerditch Marsh. Andrew Lincoln's Gertie Kettle voice is one of the funniest parts of this book.
Chapter Ten
Lincoln pronounces "patent" with a long A. It's the most British thing I've ever heard, aside from perhaps Benedict Cumberbatch's guest appearance on The Simpsons.
...which is, of course, a parody of Love Actually, in which Andrew Lincoln plays would-be wife-stealer Mark.
Afterward
In the 12th track, Lincoln reads the biography of Kennilworthy Whisp and the book's "reviews" from in-world celebrities such as Rita Skeeter. The best of these reviews, in Lincoln's reading, is from Gilderoy Lockhart. He might have been brilliant at playing Lockhart, had he been given the chance. (No offence to Sir Kenneth Branagh.)
History of the Quidditch World Cup
In this bonus material, track 13, Lincoln does Viktor Krum's Bulgarian accent, and this is very cute. You'll be happy to know that Viktor is still playing competitive quidditch at the age of 38.
Quidditch World Cup 2014 - First Round Matches (Track 15)
The match between Chad and Lichtenstein seems like it will never even, and Imogen Church's Ginny sounds sufficiently exasperated at the seemingly-endless play. Church's real accomplishment, though, is pronouncing the many multi-ethnic names required of her here. In this bonus chapter we learn that Viktor Krum has come out of retirement to play again at the age of 38 and that he's the oldest player in the tournament.
Quidditch World Cup 2014 - Rita Skeeter's Gossip Column (Track 18)
Skeeter is a notoriously unreliable narrator, and she's clearly jealous of Ginny. Should we believe her when she reports that Harry, age 34, has some streaks of gray in his black hair?
Rita Skeeter is certainly a character one loves to hate; I'd have some words for her over her snark about Hermione's hair or her speculation about why Charlie Weasley is still unmarried. (He's probably just asexual.)
I hope she's correct in her assessment that Bill and Fleur's daughter Victoire and Harry's godson Teddy Lupin are taking every available opportunity to sneak off to a dark corner and snog.
Quidditch World Cup Final 2014 - Live Match Commentary (Track 20)
Rita Skeeter and Ginny Potter perform the live match commentary together (with a brief introduction narrated by Andrew Lincoln). It's the most highly-enhanced track as far as sound effects. Harry, James Sirius, and Lily Luna are rooting for Viktor's Bulgarian team in the finals, but Albus Severus is rooting for Brazil. They're sitting with Neville Longbottom.
Skeeter also gives us a vivid description of Luna Lovegood's wedding dress when she married Rolf Scamander (grandson of Newt Scamander and Tina Goldstein): "Rainbows, spangles, and a tiara of silver unicorn horns." It sounds awesome.
Will Viktor Krum finally walk away with a Quidditch World Cup trophy on his third attempt? If he does, will Ron still be jealous of Hermione's teenage crush on Viktor? Will Ginny jinx Rita to get her to shut up? You'll have to listen to find out.
And the 21st and Final Track...
...is only the credits and a little spiel about Pottermore, read by Andrew Lincoln.
Summary
If you're not the biggest fan of sports/quidditch, you won't find this the most interesting of J.K. Rowling's books. It certainly relies much less on traditional mythologies than, say, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. The voice actors' performances are enjoyable, but not so amazing that they can hold your attention if you're simply not interested in the material. But if you're like me and you feel compelled to read all of J.K. Rowling's books, you're going to listen to this anyway. And you should, because the proceeds are going to a really good cause.
I've finished listening to the audio book of Ready Player One, but I haven't gotten Ernest Cline's follow-up novel, Armada, out of the library yet. So, to tide me over, I've been listening to the Spotify playlist of all the songs mentioned in the book.
These are my personal favorites. As you may recall from this post, I was born in 1977 (as were Orlando Bloom, Ludacris, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and other ridiculously hot hotties). I grew up in the 1980s and will always have a special place in my heart for '80s music.
Among my favorites has always been Duran Duran. My all-time favorite DD song that I never seem to get tired of is "Hungry Like the Wolf." I even used it in the book trailer for "Oliver's Good Night Kiss."
Two Duran Duran songs show up in RP1. Both have incredibly weird videos. Here is one of them, "Wild Boys."
I own many Duran Duran albums on CD. One song that I like without knowing much of anything about the group that produced it is "Blue Monday" by New Order. I know they were British; that's about it.
"Blue Monday" is one I don't actually remember from the '80s, but discovered during the '90s. Pat Benatar, on the other hand, I have always been well aware of. The book Dead Is a Battlefield kept reminding me of her. Her song mentioned in RP1 is "Invincible."
Lastly from the Spotify list, I enjoy the Cline mention "In Your Eyes" by Peter Gabriel and Youssou N’Dour. I know it reminds a lot of people of a scene in the John Hughes movie Say Anything, but honestly, I've never been very interested in John Hughes. It's just a beautiful song.
The playlist has other artists I like, but not my preferred songs from them. I like Cyndi Lauper, but not necessarily for "Time After Time." I'll listen to some Blondie songs if they're on the radio, but I don't know "Atomic." When I was a kid I thought Billy Idol was pretty cool, but I wouldn't necessarily enjoy listening to "Rebel Yell" now. The fictional James Halliday's playlist is a bit testosterone-heavy for my rather feminine tastes.
If I were to make a playlist inspired by RP1, I would add "Rock Me Amadeus" by Falco. The song isn't mentioned by name in the book, but Falco is. Parzival's asteroid home base in the Oasis is named after him.
Parzival/Wade, having studied The Simpsons, would be aware of the "Dr. Zaius"/Planet of the Apes parody of the song.
"Amadeus" is mostly in German -- Falco was Austrian -- but I don't care and never have cared. I have loved this song since it was a brand-new hit in 1986 when I was nine. And that was probably before my music teacher made us watch the Milos Forman movie that inspired it, Amadeus, in school.
I guess I've always been a sucker for 18th-century period costume, even before I discovered Jane Austen. (Which was 1996 when I saw Gwyneth Paltrow in Emma.)
What are your favorite tracks from the book soundtrack?
The beginning is a bit slow, but once it gets into the actual show and not just the participants' backgrounds, it gets more interesting. The last chapters are quite harsh on the show's latter seasons, and even the Simpsons movie, which I think is fairly brilliant. I liked Planet Simpson: How a Cartoon Masterpiece Defined a Generation better - it is more personal and reverential. Comprehensive and factual, but lacking in heart.
Planet Simpson: How a Cartoon Masterpiece Documented an Era and Defined a Generation by Chris Turner
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I got a tremendous amount of pleasure from listening to this audiobook - but then, I've been a fan of the Simpson clan since the days of the Tracey Ullman shorts. Turner's writing is humorous and insightful. He does show a bit of bias, however, and I hope you won't think it too, as the French say, Lisa-esque of me to point out that Turner:
- Uses the word "mankind" when, clearly, he means "humankind"
- Uses the word "coed" when, clearly, he means "student" - an anachronism which, by the way, makes a person sound as if he or she is as old as Mr. Burns
- Assumes the reader finds Lisa shrill/strident/obnoxious while at the same time admitting she is the closest thing to the voice of the (almost exclusively male) writers
- Throws out the suggestion that Marge Simpson is "anti-feminist" because she's a homemaker, when in reality feminism is all about empowering women to have choices and to be homemakers if they choose to do so.
I could do without the casual sexism and anti-feminist assumptions. (And I am so sick of saying so. My queendom for an unabashedly feminist male author in the mainstream media!)
That said, Turner's analysis of the major characters and themes of the long-running cartoon series seem accurate. His overall thesis is useful in understanding one of the wittiest things on television, programming which has consistently entertained me for over 20 years now.
I purchased this audiobook with my own funds and was not obligated to listen to or review it in any way.
[Press Release] - (Woodland Hills, CA) October 6, 2014 – One of the most popular animated series on television is about to go from the small screen to the ball screen, because WoodRocket.com presents the Bob's Burgers adult parody: Bob's Boners.
Today's special is the Bob's Boners Burger (made with 100% real adult spoof). One bite and you'll taste the sexiness!
When the Adult Entertainment Exotic Biz Con XXX Convention comes to town, Bob and Linda prepare the restaurant for a weekend of hungry adult stars, with appetites as big as their boobs and wangs. But fixing the menu isn't the only hard work the Belchers get up to.
Bob and Linda get down on today's special, Vaggie Burgers, while Tina writes some sexy slash-fiction about her 18th birthday party, featuring some hot Tina-Jimmy Junior-zombie butt action!
From WoodRocket.com, the website behind SpongeKnob SquareNuts, and Lee Roy Myers, the director that brought you the hit adult parodies of The Simpsons and Family Guy, comes a brand spankin' new live-action parody of a cartoon that's sure to get your spatulas up and your orders out!
Bob's Boners stars legendary adult actress Tabitha Stevens as Linda, Anthony Rosano as Bob, and features some of your favorite characters like Tina, Teddy, Jimmy Junior, and more!
You've seen it on the boob tube, now see it on the BOOB tube!
Check out Bob's Bonersfor free, only at WoodRocket.com
WoodRocket.com is your source for free adult entertainment with a comedy and pop culture twist. With thousands of high quality adult movies and scenes like The Royal Tenendongs, Porks and Recreation, and Doctor Whore, as well as original web series like “James Deen Loves Food”, “Topless Girls Reading Books”, and “Stoya Does Everything”. WoodRocket.com and its content has been featured on Gawker, Gizmodo, The Hollywood Reporter, Jezebel, Esquire, Bon Appetit, Vice, Fleshbot, and more. WoodRocket even found its Game of Bones and The Knobbit parodies as a trivia question on the highly acclaimed Comedy Central Game Show, @Midnight.
[Press Release] (Woodland Hills, CA) August 29th, 2014 – Prepare yourselves for naughty space crustaceans, naked robots, a sexy Cyclops, and the most luscious live-action cartoon characters in the universe!
WoodRocket.com is bringing sexy back in a sci-fi way, with the adult parody of the popular television series, Futurama, entitled F**karama.
Created by the team behind the XXX parody of The Simpsons, F**karama is an all-female, quite often naked, live-action cosplay photo shoot that spoofs and pays homage to the beloved cult classic cartoon.
And it is now available for Free to view on WoodRocket.com.
Photographed by Chad Duerksen (Weird + Naked UHF, The Royal Tenendongs), F**karama features models Vuko, Lily Bergman, and Jessica Dawn portraying sexy parodies of some of your favorite Futurama characters like Fry, Leela, Bender, Amy, Professor Farnsworth, Zapp Brannigan, and even the sexiest red crab-like alien from Decapod 10, Zoidberg.
Check out F**karama for free at www.woodrocket.com
Thought of you as everything I had but couldn't keep..."
--The Velvet Underground, "Pale Blue Eyes"
Over the weekend, two cultural figures who were instrumental to the workings of my subconscious passed away. Marcia Wallace, the voice actress who lent her voice to Edna Krabappel on The Simpsons died on October 25th (Friday night). Wallace was born on November 1, 1942, and passed away from complications of pneumonia. Simpsons producer Al Jean is reported to have said that the character of Mrs. Krabappel will be retired.
According to Internet Movie Database, her first role was in an episode of Bewitched. Her face is probably best known to fans of The Bob Newhart Show (it went off the air when I was still a baby), but she made brief appearances on a vast number of shows and voiced a number of cartoons. She did a voice on Darkwing Duck, the TV version of Aladdin, Captain Planet, and some other '90s ones while she was doing The Simpsons.
Just in case anyone didn't already know, I am a huge Simpsons fan and have been ever since they were shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show. I've seen every episode at least twice - probably dozens of times if I have it on DVD, which is up to Season 9 or 10. I still have to watch the new ones as they come out on Sunday nights, and if I you hear me say a non sequitur, I'm probably just quoting The Simpsons. I'm deeply invested in the cartoon series and its cultural impact (for 20+ years!), so to lose the voice of Edna Krabappel seems sad to me.
Especially since Edna just married Ned a season or two ago. And yes, I went to the website and voted for them to stay together.
Then, on October 27th (Sunday), Lou Reed died from liver disease. He was an ethnic Jew but said "my God is rock 'n roll." He was bisexual, and his family tried to "cure" him of this with electroconvulsive shock therapy. If all you know Lou Reed from is "Walk on the Wild Side," then oh, my friend, you have not even begun to crack the surface.
His solo music career was much longer than his stint with the Velvet Underground, but it's the VU songs that are really part of the landscape of my subconscious.
The first time I ever heard a Velvet Underground song, it was this one.
At around the same time, I also would have heard Duran Duran's cover of "Pale Blue Eyes" on their second eponymous album ("the wedding album"), but it doesn't have nearly the depth and power of the Nirvana cover, or of the original as sung by Nico. You can love Nirvana or hate them, but you can't deny they were a cultural influence on kids like me, going to high school in the early 1990s in the U.S.A. This cover got me to go to the library and check out a copy of the VU album with the Andy Warhol banana painted on the front (The Velvet Underground and Nico).
Nico had died in 1988, but I soul-bonded with her poor drug-addled soul while reading James Young's memoir of his late-career European tour with her. (It used to be called Nico: The End and was subsequently retitled Nico: Songs They Never Play on the Radio.) When I was 19 or so, I actually once tried to write a play based on the events in that book.
When I heard the original "Here She Comes Now" on the album White Light, White Heat (which I think I actually had to go to a music store to buy - that's what we used to do, kids, before they had the iTunes), I thought it was probably the most perfect pop-rock song in all of history up to that point. Lou Reed has this very sexual and somewhat mournful longing in his voice, and you're not quite sure if he wants some woman or some guy or some heroin, but either way, you could listen to it two dozen times in a row.
Sometimes, I did. Especially after I got the boxed set, and I could rotate between the album version and the demo. I used to get really excited to hear VU songs in movies, like The Doors and I Shot Andy Warhol.
One of Lou Reed's college professors was the poet Delmore Schwartz. I always thought that was cool. The VU song "European Son" is dedicated to Schwartz. No one is quite sure why; maybe the title is because Schwartz's parents were from Romania.
I also remember Lou Reed from:
- His song "Tarbelly and Featherfoot" from the compilation/charity album Sweet Relief: A Benefit for Victoria Williams
- His associations with '90s U2, including a duet with Bono on Reed's "Satellite of Love" on the Zoo TV tour (which I witnessed only via pay-per-view) and their joint appearances on the soundtracks to two Wim Wenders films (Faraway, So Close! - featuring Lou Reed's "Why Can't I Be Good" and Until the End of the World - featuring Reed's "What's Good")
- Magic and Loss, the album he made when Sterling Morrison was dying of cancer, which is actually where "What's Good" came from. It includes the line, "What good is cancer in April? Why no good, no good at all."
- I remember when the performance artist/violinist/experimental musician Laurie Anderson started dating him in the late '90s. I didn't realize it, but they got married in 2008.
Which, I suppose, kind of shows that I lost track of his career after the 1990s. Reed and Anderson did quite a few collaborations, it seems. The last time I heard Lou Reed's name was probably when Norah Jones' side project The Little Willies put a song called "Lou Reed" on their album - a little story-in-song about cow tipping. I don't think Lou Reed was ever really down in Texas tipping cows. I think he was happy at the end, though, even though he'd gone through a liver transplant.
The two living original members of the Velvet Underground are John Cale and Maureen (Mo) Tucker.
Safe passage to the other world, Marcia Wallace and Lou Reed.
Next Wednesday, much closer to the actual date of All Hallow's Eve, I have a post of vintage Halloween pins scheduled. This OHP! Wednesday, just for fun, let's have an all-Simpsons, version!
Marge: Hello, everyone. You know, Halloween is a very strange holiday. Personally, I don't understand it. Kids worshipping ghosts, pretending to be devils. Things on TV that are completely inappropriate for young viewers. Things like the following half-hour! Nothing seems to bother my kids, but tonight's show—which I totally wash my hands of—is really scary. So if you have sensitive children, maybe you should tuck them in early tonight instead of writing us angry letters tomorrow. Thanks for your attention.
Lisa: If they're really witches why don't they use their witch power to escape?
Homer: That sounds like witch-talk to me, Lisa.
Lisa: Never mind.
Bart: Dad! You killed the zombie Flanders.
Homer: He was a zombie?
Groundskeeper Willie: Care for a pumpkin seed?
Grand Pumpkin: You roast the unborn?!
I haven't had much time for reading or blogging this week. On Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning, I had a ton of cleaning to do to the apartment underneath mine, getting it ready to show to a potential renter. I probably spent a total of 12 hours vacuuming, dusting, scrubbing, and sorting items to keep or donate to charity - and the guy was a no-show. I'm glad the apartment's clean, but now I'm a day behind on my writing and editing. (Still, I make time to blog.)
Late-summer chaos is contagious, apparently: I popped in to The Vintage Apple and found that the chaos has eaten the weekly Oh How Pinteresting! link-up, which will now be monthly link-up on the first Wednesday of the month, starting September 4. Which is cool with me - I still wanted to show you a thing today.
(You'll see some pre-written Halloween posts pop up on odd Wednesdays in October - just pretend like I knew Oh How Pinteresting! was going to a monthly format and I did them on purpose anyway.)
Here's the thing. Laura Keykens is a self-proclaimed nerdy girl, and she has a Pinterest board of nothing by amigurumi. Said board covers all kinds of subjects knitted in colorful yarn, and many of these subjects overlap with my nerdish obsessions interests. I like this almost as much as Isabelle Disraeli's fictional character ship-fest.
And Harry Potter. (Note to self: you have two Pinterest boards of nothing but Harry Potter, but you've never done a Pinterest post exclusively about The Boy Who Lived. You should do that.)
And even Jane Eyre. Repinning this with the misspellings intact wasn't easy for me, but I persevered.
I personally have no knitting or crocheting skills whatsoever, but I admire the crafty people who do. I don't personally own any amigurumi, either. Somehow, I don't think my husband would appreciate me carrying around a Spiderman doll all the time like I did when I was 3, or going to bed with a stuffed Loki and calling it Tom.
