Almanac for January 30th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for January 30: https://ko-fi.com/post/January-30-In-a-Dark-Dark-House-R6R419KB8R

Artist Birthday: Christian Bale

Beatles Trivia

January 30, 1969: The Beatles perform a 42-minute concert on the roof of their Apple Corporation record company building in London, as documented in the concert film Let It Be. It will be their last public performance together.

Author Julie S. Howlin post of the day: Romeo and Juliet

Bummer January 30th

January 30, 1926: 29-year-old early Hollywood actress Barbara LaMarr dies of nephritis and pulmonary tuberculosis.

January 30, 2006: 55-year-old playwright Wendy Wasserstein dies of lymphoma.

January 30, 2021: 34-year-old electronic musician Sophie Xeon dies from injuries suffered from an accidental fall from a roof in Athens, Greece, where Sophie had climbed to look at the full moon.

July 31: Lammas Eve

July 31, 1994, South Bend. After a visit to Target at which I ordered a Frozen Coke in the café, I saw Baz Luhrman’s Romeo + Juliet for the first time. I wrote, “It really is a good story. The actor who played Romeo was seventeen when it was filmed.” I noticed Leonardo DiCaprio but I didn’t know his name yet. 

According to Shakespeare, July 31st or Lammas Eve is Juliet Capulet’s birthday:

Nurse. Even or odd, of all days in the year,

Come Lammas-eve at night shall she be fourteen.

Susan and she—God rest all Christian souls!—

Were of an age: well, Susan is with God;

She was too good for me: but, as I said,

On Lammas-eve at night shall she be fourteen;

That shall she, marry; I remember it well.

Saturday, July 31, 2010, Mishawaka: Tit and I went to Battell Park for a free, open-air performance of The Taming of the Shrew by Notre Dame’s The Young Company. It was positively delightful. It had been too long since Tit and I had seen live Shakespeare. 

December 2021 Currentlies

Currently Watching: I'm currently watching the new Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) kid on the block ("the block" in this case being Disney+): Hawkeye, starring Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton and Hailee Steinfeld as the younger Hawkeye, Kate Bishop. 

Hailee Steinfeld also stars in another current fave series, this one on Apple+, which I just got this year: Dickinson. The series is loosely based on the life of Emily Dickinson, but it uses the Civil War-era setting to comment cleverly on current events. Plots frequently revolve around the love triangle between Emily, her brother Austin, and their mutual paramour Sue. Guest stars include comedian John Mulaney as Henry David Thoreau and Billy Eichner (voice of librarian Mr. Ambrose on Bob's Burgers) as a wonderful, openly queer Walt Whitman. My favorite guest star, though, is musician Wiz Khalifa as the personification of Death, who frequently stops his phantom coach for Emily. 

Of course, as a teen, Steinfeld famously played Juliet opposite Douglas Booth's Romeo. She also has a fantastic singing voice and my little pop-loving heart appreciates her as a recording artist. 

I hope Hailee is having a happy Hanukkah 5782.

Here are some of Emily Dickinson's recipes, via LitHub, by the way. 

Currently Reading: Continuing with the American literature theme, I'm finally reading Mark Beauregard's The Whale: A Love Story, a fictionalized account of the relationship between Herman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne. It's so good. Hawthorne's characterization is exactly the way I always imagined Nathaniel Hawthorne to be. 

I'm also midway through Rainbow Rowell's Attachments. No, I have not read the third Snowbaz book yet. I hope to get to it...someday. 

Further, I'm reading this book I picked up at the Book Warehouse at the outlet mall my husband and I recently visited:

It's not great. I was really hoping for a more folkloric book about contemporary urban legends, but what it really is is a lot of eyewitness accounts of alleged sightings of abnormally large dogs with Anubis-like ears but surprisingly humanoid faces. This seems to be a common misperception or hallucination that apparently a lot of Americans have had, but I wanted more theory and fewer examples. 

Readers of this blog will recall that I don't literally believe in the supernatural, but I did, in real life, have a misperception experience that took the form, in my mind,  of a weird black dog. It was over by the Center for the Homeless (where I used to volunteer) in South Bend, Indiana. I looked down the street and saw what appeared to be a black dog moving very quickly away from me in a very unnatural way. It looked like a dog on a skateboard, only I didn't see a skateboard; it looked like it was floating rapidly down the road. What it probably was was a black garbage bag being blown down the street by the wind. But for the record, I did momentarily have a weird canine experience once. 

Currently Listening: These were the podcasts I mentioned in October 2020: 

- Omnibus with Ken Jennings and John Roderick

- FireStarters Podcast

- None of This Is Real

- Terrible Book Club

- Book Vs Movie Podcast

- You're Wrong About

Here are some of my other top podcasts:

- Big Gay Fiction Podcast. This episode is an interview with Sara Dobie Bauer; I know her from Tumblr.

   

- The History of Literature

- ArtCurious

- Black History Year

- Useless Information

 I (still) listen to all of my podcasts on Spotify Free, but many of these are available across numerous platforms. Curious about what music I listen to on Spotify? Here's a snapshot of my 2021 Spotify Wrapped:

Yeah, it's mostly Lady Gaga. So sue me.

The ultimate favorite is There Might Be Cupcakes by author Carla Pettigrew Hufstedler. I get stupidly excited every time Carla has something new to say. She introduced me to the tradition of Victorian Christmas horror stories, and I'm looking forward to another spooky Victorian episode this month. 

What are your currentlies? What are you making, reading, watching, and listening to? Everyone is welcome to comment. 

The Inside Story of the Darkest Batman #Nonfiction

Christian Bale: The Inside Story of the Darkest Batman by Harrison Cheung

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Harrison Cheung, a Canadian who loves movies, was Christian Bale's unpaid personal assistant for many years. He does not have a very high opinion of Mr. Bale, whom he characterizes as incredibly self-centered. Disdainful of publicity to an extreme, Bale didn't even attend Heath Ledger's funeral because he didn't want to face the public, even though Bale and Ledger had become friends. (Some people get along with Christian Bale. Heath Ledger was one, and Russell Crowe is another.)

This book is full of short, interesting tidbits, but it also contains some strange errors and omissions. When mentioning Christian's interest in playing Mercutio in the Baz Luhrmann 'Romeo + Juliet' film of the '90s, Cheung and co-author Nicola Pittam mention that Bale lost the role to "an African-American." What an odd, vague way to describe Harold Perrineau, the actor who not only steals the movie with his impassioned portrayal of Romeo's volatile friend but is also well-known to American audiences through the TV shows 'Lost' and, now, 'Claws.' Do the authors really not know who Harold Perrineau is?

Another section refers to Colin Farrell as a British actor. Colin. Farrell. Is. Irish. Irish people are NOT British, and since Cheung lived with a British family (Christian, Louise, and David Bale - brother, sister, and father) for years, shouldn't he know this?

Cheung also has a low opinion of Winona Ryder, a former friend of Bale, his co-star in 'Little Women,' and the one who introduced Bale to his wife, Sandra (Sibi) Blazic. He describes the petite star as foul-mouthed and rude.

The whole narration has to be taken with a small grain of salt because Cheung obviously has a bone to pick with the Bale clan. They owe him thousands of dollars, if he genuinely never received a paycheck for working as Bale's personal and social media assistant from the earliest days of the Internet. Maybe he's exaggerating, or maybe he has cherry-picked the incidents that paint Christian Bale and his semi-con-artist father in the worst possible light. I don't know. It was still an interesting, relatively quick read.

I purchased this book at Barnes and Noble with my own funds as was not obligated in any way to review it.

https://amzn.to/3PfOwbN - this is an affiliate link

Review: 'Unmasking Juliet' by Teri Wilson

Unmasking Juliet by Teri Wilson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Two households, both alike in dignity/In fair Napa, where we lay our scene. In this delightful modern twist on a beloved Shakespearean classic, author Teri Wilson turns a bloody tragedy into a chocolate-drenched romance in which the worse thing that happens is a non-fatal, accidental dog poisoning. (Animal lovers, fear not.) Wilson tells us in her introduction, "I really wanted a chance to give these star-crossed lovers the happy ending they deserve." This is a romance novel, after all.

No Tybalts were slain in the making of this novel.

Personally, my first exposure to Romeo and Juliet was in the 7th grade. My English teacher, Mrs. O'Brian, went on maternity leave midway through the play, and the class finished it out with Mr. Bowerman. He was the greatest substitute teacher of my life. I'll never forget that when it came time for him to read the line, "How now, Balthazar?" he said, "How now, Brown Cow?" The class laughed for a solid 10 minutes, and it still makes me chuckle to this day. I re-read the play with my 9th grade class, and it hadn't lost any of its charm or magic.

For me, some of the fun of this novel is the way Wilson incorporates familiar lines from Shakespeare's play. Unmasking Juliet seems to be set in a slightly alternate universe in which no one has heard of the fictitious Romeo and Juliet. The characters aren't referencing the play within the world of the novel the way Bella and Edward consciously do in New Moon. They're simply living a (happier) version of it.

The female protagonist of Wilson's version is third-generation chocolatier Juliet Arabella. The male protagonist is Leo Mezzanotte. (Leo - as in DiCaprio - as in the Romeo of the Baz Luhrmann film adaptation. I see what you did there, Ms. Wilson.) He's the grandson of Juliet's grandmother's original business partner in the chocolate business. The Arabellas and Mezzanottes are now rivals as bitter as unsweetened baker's chocolate.

Of course, Leo's only love springs from his only hate. From the moment the two meet - identities concealed in Italian carnival masks - there's a magnetic attraction. They can't get each other out of their minds. I think we all know where this is going, but the fun is in getting there.

By coincidence, the names Arabella and Mezzanotte can combine to make Bellanotte - Italian for "beautiful night."

For never was a story of more "Whoa!"/Than this of Juliet and her Leo.

I received a copy of this book through the Amazon Vine program in exchange for this review, which represents my own honest opinion.

The Hanukkah Hotness, Night Six: Natalie Portman

Put on your kippahs, it's still time for Hanukkah! Yeah, I prefer the perfectly good Hebrew word kippah to the Greek word yarmulke - no offense to the Greeks. The Greeks aren't exactly the heroes of the Hanukkah story, but we'll let the historians debate over whether the Maccabees' revolt was against the Seleucid Empire led by the Greek king Antiochus IV Epiphanes or against a philosophy within Judaism itself that favored embracing Hellenistic culture.

So, about tonight's Hanukkah hottie:

There are about a million billion reasons to love Natalie Portman.



- She was born in Jerusalem and is a U.S.-Israeli dual citizen. She went to high school in Syosset, New York. I like to say "Syosset" because it sounds like it's in Parseltongue. Outside of her professional life, her family name is Hershlag.

- Her great-grandmother, a Romanian Jew, was a spy for the British during World War II.

- She has a bachelor's degree in psychology from Harvard.

- She was the producers' first choice to play Juliet in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet, but eventually lost the part of Claire Danes because she was too young.



- She played Evey in V For Vendetta.

- She said this awesome feminist thing:

"I want [female characters] to be allowed to be weak and strong and happy and sad - human, basically. The fallacy in Hollywood is that if you're making a 'feminist' story, the woman kicks ass and wins. That's not feminist, that's macho. A movie about a weak, vulnerable woman can be feminist if it shows a real person that we can empathize with." Preach, sister.



Natalie Portman starred with Night 4 Hanukkah Hottie Kat Dennings in Thor and Thor: The Dark World, and with Night 5 Hanukkah Hottie Mila Kunis in Black Swan. (She was also in Your Highness with James Franco, but I didn't see it.)



But honestly, I've been impressed with Portman ever since Luc Besson's Leon, or The Professional. It was her first movie.



The next time I took note of her was as Amidala in the Star Wars prequel. I was obsessed with Star Wars when I was a kid. Now, I was born the same year the original film - Episode Four now - was released, and I was only 6 when The Empire Strikes Back come out, so I probably didn't see any of the movies until later in the '80s, when we got cable and/or a VCR. (Before that, we did have Episode Four on a projector reel, but it didn't have sound.) I do remember my R2D2 Underoos and being jealous of my friend Mark because he had plastic light sabres - we were probably fans of Star Wars without even having seen the movies when we were very young.



By contrast, when my niece Eira was four or so, she told me the entire story of Anakin Skywalker, from his birth to his death. She used to watch a Star Wars movie or two every night while she was falling asleep.



So in 1999, I was excited to see Episode One: The Phantom Menace, more from nostalgia than from anything else. How could it not be great? But then when my brother and I went to see it in the theater - meh, not that great. But that was not Natalie Portman's fault.

At one time, Portman was slated to play Elizabeth Bennett in the film adaptation of Seth Grahame-Smith's Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, but she has since dropped out. :( It is really too bad, because she would have made an awesome ninja Lizzie.

Review: 'Seductress: Erotic Tales of Immortal Desire,' Edited by D.L. King

Dropping by from Evernight's Valentine Snippets Blog Hop? Please see this post and leave a comment for a chance to win your choice of book from Evernight Publishing. 

Last week I had the pleasure of reading Seductress: Erotic Tales of Immortal Desire, a Cleis Press anthology of tales of that most erotic of mythological creatures, the succubus. I'm not unfamiliar with the lore of the daughter of Lilith who seduces men (and sometimes women) in their sleep, stealing their essence through pleasure. In fact, I already have a favorite succubus book: Hell's Belles by Jackie Kessler (and its sequel The Road to Hell - I have yet to read the third book, Hotter Than Hell, about Daun the incubus). It's fun to get a new book on a topic I already enjoy. Wherever folklore and erotica meet, there you will find me.



Honestly, I loved just about every story in this collection, and even the ones I didn't love, I liked. I really love a "bad girl," a lady of the night with claws and fangs (literally, in some cases) who might seduce her lover into the illusion that he's in control, but dominates him stealthily, or the vixen who takes control outright. Her lover might be a momentary amusement, a means to an end or her truest love, but there's always an edge of danger to her affections. It's not that I don't love an alpha male, but sometimes femdom is exquisitely satisfying.

The anthology begins on a high note; Aurelia T. Evans' "Harvest" is scorching hot. It's your classic "boy summons succubus into a pentagram drawn on his bedroom floor" tale, expertly told. "In the Service of Hell" by Michael M. Jones is the anthology's first "succubus meets girl" tale, and it has a nice twisty ending. I enjoyed the setup of Kannan Feng's "Before a Fall:" a spirit of lust vs. a spirit of pride.

I was highly looking forward to "Star-Crossed" by Canadian author Evan Mora, because she really impressed me with "Real Boy" in the Cleis Press anthology Lustfully Ever After. I wasn't disappointed.  "Star-Crossed" turns Romeo into a vampire and Juliet, through a last-minute deal with the devil, into a succubus. The result is much sexier (and surprisingly romantic) than Shakespeare's "everybody dies" ending. (No offense, Will.) It was like a more adult take on Juliet Immortal.

Jay Lawrence's "Deliverance" has a nicely haunted, old-fashioned feeling to it, like a really good ghost story with an erotic twist. Anya Richards' "Minions Have Needs Too" is one of those power-play stories I enjoy so very much. Nan Andrews' "Sweet Tooth" features some nice food/sex writing that would've worked well in Hunger. It's basically about an enchanted recipe box, in a really fun and sensual way. Giselle Renarde, whose food/sex writing does appear in Hunger, contributed "Neither Love Nor Money," a guide to how to care for your succubus when she cares for you too much to suck out your essence and her health suffers as a result.

NJ Streitberger's "The Girl on the Egyptian Escalator" has an interesting perspective, in that the succubus is a manifestation of one of my favorite goddesses of destruction, ancient Egypt's lion-headed Sekhmet.

Everything that comes afterward is pretty good stuff, too. Really, there is no bad story in this anthology.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for this review, which represents my own honest opinion. I did not receive any other compensation.

OHP Wednesday: It's a Love Story Baby Just Say Yes

Happy New Year! This week as I link up with http://www.thevintageapple.com/ from Oh How Pinteresting!, I look at that most romantic of New Year's traditions, the kiss.



The tragic kiss: Romeo and Juliet.



People say "parting is such sweet sorrow" when they're actually separating, but Romeo's "that I shall say goodnight till it be morrow" tells us he has every intention of spending the night.



The fairy tale kiss.



The fantasy kiss.



The vintage kiss.



The assisted vintage kiss.



The pop art almost-kiss.



The anime kiss.



The lava lamp kiss.



The just-married kiss.



The secret library kiss - possibly my favorite.



Did you get a kiss at midnight on New Year's Eve?

New Moon ~ 3 Days Until 'Breaking Dawn Pt. 2'

"These violent delights have violent ends
And in their triumph die, like fire and powder,
Which, as they kiss, consume."

-William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act II, Scene VI

See also: Twilight Fans Want to Know: Is St. Marcus Day Real?

New Moon movie poster: the love triangle

New Moon movie poster: the wolf pack

"Before you, Bella, my life was like a moonless night. Very dark, but there were stars, points of light and reason. ...And then you shot across my sky like a meteor. Suddenly everything was on fire; there was brilliancy, there was beauty. When you were gone, when the meteor had fallen over the horizon, everything went black. Nothing had changed, but my eyes were blinded by the light. I couldn’t see the stars anymore. And there was no more reason, for anything." 
— Stephenie Meyer (New Moon (Twilight, #2))

New Moon movie poster: the Volturi

Trailer


"Time passes. Even when it seems impossible. Even when each tick of the second hand aches like the pulse of blood behind a bruise. It passes unevenly, in strange lurches and dragging lulls, but pass it does. Even for me." 
— Stephenie Meyer (New Moon (Twilight, #2))

The humans

Volturi

"I honestly have no idea how to live without you." 
— Stephenie Meyer (New Moon (Twilight, #2))

Bella in Volterra

Edward in Volterra

The kiss

A Post Blogged by an Idiot, Full of Sound and Fury, Signifying Nothing

Melange Books has released The Smell of Gas, an erotic, pulp-style crime thriller by your humble author and her husband Tit Elingtin. It's available now in print and e-book formats. I don't want to blog about it here, though. I already blogged about it today on Breaking In Before Breaking Down. I would rather blog about...breakfast.

It was a fine, sunny morning in my home town this morning, so Tit Elingtin walked over to our usual breakfast spot, then went on a 3-mile walk along the river. I had the pancake special, chocolate chip pancakes. Delicious. Along with the chunks of candy in my breakfast, I was also treated to a hunk of eye candy, a guy at a table across from us who looked just like Sam Worthington. (I wish I had a Hunk du Jour photo to link to, but somehow HdJ has managed to miss the Aussie stunner.) Well, almost just like - this guy's hair was a little redder.

Many of you will remember Sam Worthington from Avatar. I like to remember him from Terminator: Salvation, because, well, I just like to think about Christian Bale.

I also like to remember Sam Worthington's interpretation of MacBeth. Those who love Claire and Leo in the contemporary telling of Romeo + Juliet (may Pete Postlethwaite rest in peace - best Friar Laurence ever!) will enjoy the 2006 version of MacBeth starring Worthington. I like the sexy, redheaded Scottish witches. They're like a trio of soothsaying Shirley Mansons.



This weekend I have rented, but have not yet watched, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead. Should be a good one, though. It has Hamlet, vampires and a score by Sean Lennon. So far, the best film take I've seen on the Hamlet story remains Royal Deceit, with Gabriel Byrne, Kate Beckinsale and Christian Bale. Not just Christian Bale, but a NAKED TEENAGE Christian Bale. Best Shakespearean version? I like Ethan Hawke's attempt. Julia Stiles is a particularly charming Ophelia.

Do not get me started on the Mel Gibson version of Hamlet. I will no longer watch films with that anti-Semitic, misogynistic douchebag. Except maybe Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome; Mel is canceled out by Tina Turner, feminist icon supreme and possible reincarnation of ancient Egyptian woman-pharaoh Hatshepsut.

Sooooo anyway, Sam Worthington's redder-haired doppelganger sat in the restaurant, eating sausages off a fork in a way that would make an erotica writer with an active imagination think impure thoughts. In stepped a cute woman with a ponytail, approximately Sam 2's age, and I thought they would make a good couple. They would have adorable babies. Because, you know, babies are what you're supposed to be thinking about when it's a warm spring day, you're surrounded by egg and bunny decorations and everybody's getting ready to celebrate Ostara.

I would like to have some brilliant post connecting the Pagan celebration of Ostara with Jewish Passover and Christian Easter, since Passover was this week and it is Easter weekend. I don't. I have this, a post blogged by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. (I promise you a worthy Beltane post on May 1.) Buy a copy of The Smell of Gas!

https://amzn.to/49Sd9SB

Excerpt from 'Midsummer Night:' Imbolc

Welcome to PS! When you're done here, please check out my guest blog post, "The Ten Best Jobs For Men in Romance Novels," at The Best of Everything. Now, enjoy a brief excerpt from Midsummer Night!

Zen completed the circle of candles around the two of them. She held up the candelabra with the white, red and black candles in front of Allie. She offered Allie the lighter in her other hand. “Would you like to do the honors, oh daughter of Brigid, goddess of fire?”

Allie nodded her head graciously and took the lighter. She lit the white candle as she composed an impromptu prayer. “Oh Brigid, our mother, goddess of fire, we dedicate this sacred feast of Imbolc to you. At this dark and gloomy time of year, when it seems winter will never end, we know the days are actually getting longer and warmer, and spring is coming soon, thanks to you. Care for us, mother, and do not neglect to give us your light and your heat so we may live. Give your light and your heat to the earth so the springtime crops grow so we may have food to sustain ourselves and our children. Let the young be birthed and plants renewed so that fresh breath is given to life. So let it be.”

“So let it be,” Zen echoed her. She set the lighter aside and placed the candelabra in the circle. She used its black candle to light the candle next to it, and then used that candle to light the next, until she had gone all the way around the circle. As she did, she added her own prayer. “Goddess, if it is your will for Allie’s son to be born today, on your sacred day, then please grant that she and the baby be safe in childbirth. And please don’t let us fall asleep and burn the house down. So let it be.”

“So let it be,” Allie said. “Now, what do you want to watch?”

“Since it’s just the two of us, how about Thelma and Louise?"

Allie shook her head. “How about something a little less tragic?”

“How about Romeo and Juliet, the Leonardo and Claire version?”

“Zen, that movie is tragic in every sense of the word. Since you want to be all Shakespearean, how about A Midsummer Night's Dream, the Rupert and Michelle version? There’s nothing like Midsummer to get your mind off a long winter’s night.”

“Good call. Romance, magic, fairies, and a young Christian Bale. Yummy.”

“Down, girl!” Allie laughed. “Is it possible my pregnancy estrogen is screwing with your brain?”

“It’s almost certain, and yet knowing this does nothing to diminish Christian Bale's deliciousness."

She gave Allie a satisfied smile, then went to the entertainment center and looked through her sister’s movie collection until she found the right disc. The costumed fantasy, with its star-crossed lovers and mischievous fairies, distracted them from Allie’s discomfort. When the movie ended, they started it up again.

The candle light aided the mood, and soon Zen almost forgot they were waiting for Kameko and Melissa. The headlights of Melissa’s ancient, battered Volkswagen outside of Allie’s house snapped Zen back to reality. She got up and opened the door for them.

************

Midsummer Night by Erin O'Riordan, new January 2010 from eXcessica Publishing. In print, e-book and for Kindle.