5-25-2025 MY FAVES: you got your h.p. lovecraft...

 books of the week

currently reading h.p. lovecraft's great tales of horror. while the dialogue is a bit hard to understand (rural english from literally 100 years ago), the stories are fantastical and creepy. the way to describes the rural countryside of new england between 1916 and 1930, when you put it in context, it was a creepy time: world war i, the great depression, it reminds me of the ohio countryside and the horrors hiding in grain silos. it also reminds me of the movies pearl  and the devil all the time. my literal roman empire is the dust bowl, old rural americana, the american gothic. 

there were some parts of most stories that were in true form racist: all these evils came from non-white groups. mentions of voodoo among new orleans african americans, the "evil book" necronomicon coming from an arabic author, and a racist portrayal of the innuit in the cthuhlu story itself. lovecraft was indeed a white supremacist, according to his wikipedia. check out that habsburg jaw. should've known.

movies of the week

i always make a specific movie watchlist with films that seem related to the book i'm reading at the moment - on my letterboxd app. so sib and i had two movie days this past week and watched the neon demon and the love witch. both visually stunning, both filled with beautiful looks, and both with warped societal ideals for women, and finally, both came out in 2016.

he neon demon stars elle fanning in a tense thriller that keeps you guessing who the real villain is. it's got that pearl vibe with wanting to be a star, and an unhealthy confidence. some weird sexual moments, and a spoiler cameo: keanu reeves!

the love witch truly feels technicolor, but some moments bring us back to the true time the film was made (with occasional bmw's clashing with old timer cars, and one or two smartphone moments). i loved the witchiness and the artwork based off the medieval revival of the 70s and classic tarot cards. 

music of the week

here's my niagara road trip playlist that accompanied me on my trip to the falls.