The Aviary

One of my favorite experiences is watching a movie from the 1930s and coming away from it thinking, "Wow, that was super fucked up."

Tonight's movie was Murder in the Zoo, a delightfully nasty little horror film from 1933 starring Lionel Atwill. It starts with ( somewhat gruesome spoilers ), which would be a pretty damn bold way to start a horror film today.

Lionel Atwill is Eric Gorman, a zoologist who thinks every man in existence is trying to get with his wife, Evelyn, and that the only way to deal with this is not to give Evelyn the divorce she so clearly wants but instead to torture or murder any dude who gets too close to her. He does this with ( a very cool and original murder method that is worth waiting for the reveal ). Later, someone is eaten by alligators (in the worst designed zoo exhibit I can imagine) and someone else gets crushed to death by a large constrictor snake. The alligators are offscreen but the constriction absolutely happens on film. Pre-Code films, man! Atwill is great in this - he's completely repellent but magnetic at the same time.

Another way you can tell that this movie is pre-Code is that Evelyn is indeed having an affair and planning to run away with her lover but the film presents this not as a sin but as the only reasonable and intelligent choice. Evelyn in general is pretty great, especially in the scene where she escapes her terrible husband by sneaking out the window as he pounds on her door and then climbing back into his study to discover evidence of his crimes. She's played by Kathleen Burke, and I'm going to have to look into what else she was in, because she was delightful. The movie is only 62 minutes long, so all the other characters are fairly lightly sketched, but there's a very cute scientist couple who work at the zoo that were very enjoyable and wholesome - a nice contrast to the Gormans.

Caveats: There is, unfortunately, some period "comedy" throughout, courtesy of Charlie Ruggles, and it's as awful as you would expect, but since the film is so short, none of his bits last terribly long. Along with the horror content mentioned above, the film does contain a good bit of animal-on-animal violence and since it's from 1933, it's possible that some of that was real. (There are a few moments towards the end that I found fairly concerning on that front.) There are a lot of snakes of various kinds, so people with snake fear should approach with caution.

You can watch the whole thing over on the Internet Archive and if you have an hour free, it's totally worth it.

Things:

- Since November, I've been trying to write in my paper journal every day. I find this leads to not writing here. Sorry.

- Earlier this week, a notoriously child-hating patron of the library came in and handed me a box of candy canes saying, "There'll be kids in here soon, maybe you can hand these out." I thanked him, put them in the office, and didn't give them to anyone. They were still wrapped, so I'm pretty sure they weren't poisoned, but you never can tell.

- I am still reading a lot of Revolutionary War-related nonfiction. The thing about reading about Thomas Jefferson is that I want to make notes that just say NERD in big letters on basically every line, which is probably not helpful. (Oh god, he was so hilariously terrible.)

- Yesterday, I told a coworker my theory about Washington having magical powers. She nodded and then asked if I had read Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, and we talked about that for a while. Sadly, she works mostly at Poulsbo and was only subbing at Kingston, so she can't be my new work-best-friend.

- I went to see Deadpool yesterday and it was pretty much everything I wanted out of a Deadpool movie, by which I mean that it was full of stabbing and jokes I would feel uncomfortable about if my parents were in the room. Sometimes, that is all I want in life.

- For the past few weeks, I've been attending a Quaker meeting on Sundays. (You can be a Quaker and not be a Christian. Who knew, right?) It is immensely satisfying. Which is maybe a weird thing to say about sitting in a circle with a dozen other people and mostly not talking at all while you all think about god/the gods for an hour, but yeah, it really is. I won't be able to go next week, and I'm pretty sure I'm really going to miss it.

- The reason I can't go is that next week is my grandmother's 90th birthday and all the aunts are coming. Also my cousin and his wife. And my sisters. And while I'm super happy that they can all come to celebrate Granny's birthday, oh my god, where are we going to put them all, what are we going to do with them, I have never met my cousin's wife and will have to make conversation with her, oh no.



And that's what going on with me!

Things:

- So that "posting every day in December" thing didn't work out. Ah well. Holidays screw things up a little.

- Tangentially - so, hey, holidays! My Christmas went quite well. We had fun family times and good food, I received many pairs of socks and bars of soap*, some beautiful stationery paper and fountain pen ink, and a new book on monster movies. Plus, a PEZ dispenser shaped like the Flash! We played a lot of Uno and ate a lot of cookies and Megan played the Marty Robbins pandora station a lot. Good times. I hope that you all had a nice time as well, whatever you may or may not be celebrating at this time of year.

- Also, we went to see Into the Woods. Which I have some quibbles with, ( which are under here, ) but generally enjoyed. Also, the staging of Agony alone is worth the price of admission, so there's that.

- Yesterday, I bought three tiny colorful cactuses for my windowsill because I decided that I needed more plant life around. And then I remembered that I had bought flower seeds this summer for indoor planting and never used them, so now they are in pots on my windowsill. They may not grow, as it is midwinter, but the possibility pleases me.

- I did some Christmas knitting this year - a pair of socks for Dad - and it came down to the wire a little in that I didn't finished them till Christmas Eve. (We open presents on Christmas Eve, to give you some perspective.) Pressured knitting is no fun, but it did remind me that I love making socks and haven't done so in a which. And I have a lot of sock yarn that I haven't knit up yet. So now I am knitting some socks with this yarn, which was given to me three years ago. They are mildly hideous and I love them. And I am not allowed to buy anymore sock yarn until I knit the yarn I have.

- I am pretty sanguine about going back to work today, but there is still a part of me that want to stay home, get out all my dvds of monster movies, and have a day-long marathon. I feel like I need some black and white vampires and beautiful staircases.




*I suppose it is a sign of adulthood that I asked for those things. Most of the socks have monsters or dinosaurs on them, though.

Things:

- Did I spend a good chunk of this morning making a big list of apocalyptica on goodreads? Yes. Yes, I did. Alas that much of it is not at my library, because it is old sci-fi and, unless it is considered "classic", we don't have a lot of that. (Some of it is, though, so I will work my way through that first.)

- My mother, sisters, and I are going to grown-up Girl Scout camp next week, so I am carefully placing holds so that I have a couple books to bring with me. I had thought that I would be able to bring Riddley Walker, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to be done with it before then, even if the language does slow my normal reading speed.

- The thing about reading Riddley Walker especially if you, as I did today, spend time reading it aloud to yourself and you are, like me, something of a sponge for turns of phrase, is that you end up feeling like saying things like, "I ben on my oansome" out loud to other people is perfectly normal. It changes the way I form sentences in my head. Lots of books with particularly strong voices do that, of course (I am apparently very obnoxious after reading Dorothy Sayers, for example), but I haven't read one that did it this strongly in a while. The last one I remember that did was Grapes of Wrath.

- Good gods, has it really been ten years since I read Grapes of Wrath? Maybe I should do that again.

- Tonight was movie night at Bainbridge and we watched Lady from Shanghai. Which was fun. Less fun was the discussion afterward, during which there was a small argument over the question of "is film noir in general and the figure of the femme fatale in specific misogynist?" Which, yes, of course it is. Look, I love me some femme fatales, but if your film genre overwhelmingly presents women as being manipulative and evil and then being punished for it, maybe your film genre has a problem with women. But several middle-aged dudes disagreed with me on that and were condescending and one of them actually said, "Well, some women really are like that." Which, just, wow. Look, dudes, I am not trying to take your movies away or tell you that you are bad people for liking them - I like them too. And I get that it can be hard liking something that is problematic - you want to talk about a genre that has problems with women? Come watch horror films with me sometime. But middle-aged dudes do not get to tell me that the movie I just watched about an evil scheming woman destroying all the men in her life because she is an evil scheming woman is not maybe a little misogynist.

- Staff meeting tomorrow. I do not want to go. Alas.

Things:

- I seem to have gotten out of the habit of regular blogging. I should correct that.

- We are now officially over two weeks into Summer Reading. (Excuse me - I believe we are calling it "The Summer of Learning" this year.) I have mixed feelings about Summer Reading. On the one hand - reading is awesome! Everyone should do that and it should be celebrated! On the other hand, I kinda hate dealing with it. However, there is a pretty cool robots/mad science theme this year, so that's nifty.

- I have started knitting a sampler afghan and am really enjoying it. I recently did a little lap blanket knitalong with my mom and, y'know, as much as I enjoy making garments, there is something really satisfying about blankets. So now I am making an afghan big enough to be a bedspread because why not? A sampler afghan is nice, because it's all made in separate bits and each bit is a different pattern, so I don't have enough time to get really bored with any one particular bit. Which is good because I get bored easily.

- When I bought the yarn for the afghan, the cashier told me that the colors were too autumnal to be buying this time of year. Which irked me a little, I will admit, because I think it is a bit rude to comment on someone's purchases in a negative way. (Or at all, really, but I think that may just be a me-thing rather than a normal person-thing.) Also, have you ever tried to find yarn colors that are bright enough to be summer-appropriate and aren't on the much less pleasing side of the acrylic spectrum? Because it is hard, let me tell you. Also also, autumnal colors are the best colors.

- Because I am ridiculous, I may have started reading old Fourth World comics from the 70s. I feel like New Gods should be completely ridiculous and it really kinda is, but I also find it weirdly compelling. Even if everybody does have ridiculous names. (I am reading 70s Mr Miracle at the same because why not and also because Barda is the best ever. Yes.)

- Due to a couple of articles I read on The Toast this morning, I now really want to have some sort of vintage film fest, but I'm pretty sure that none of my family members would wish to join me, which is a little disappointing. Maybe I will ask the sisters anyway.

Am currently at movie night on Bainbridge.

Discussing The Caine Mutiny in a navy-heavy/sailor-heavy area is kinda awesome.

Things:

- A patron came in and told me that she was glad I was here because she had just heard an interview with Anne Rice where people who practice IRL vampirism were talked about and she figured, if anyone knew anything about that particular subculture, it would be me. I'm not entirely certain how I feel about that. (For the record: I have read about people who practice IRL vampirism - there is a chapter about them in David Skal's The Monster Show - but I've never personally met any. Also, YKINMKBYKIOK and all that.)

- Last night was movie night at Bainbridge and we watched The Scarlet Empress. About which three things. 1) Hey, wow, pre-Code film. There are totally naked ladies in this movie. I did not expect that. 2) One of the really neat things about the film is the way that it's so clearly a transitional work between silent movies and talkies. There are long stretches with no dialogue and much broader acting than you get later, and there are intertitle screens every five minutes or so. Often hilarious intertitle screens. Even though it was made years later than, say, Frankenstein, it feels older because of that. 3) I kinda want the entire Imperial Russian palace from this movie. Not quite as much as I want the castle from Son of Frankenstein or Hjalmar Poelzig's house from The Black Cat, but the furniture is just amazing.

- We have a sub today - one I've worked with a lot - who was not around while I was reading Les Miz. (Which, no, I still haven't finished. Someday!) And somehow, we ended up talking about it. Apparently, my sales pitch for getting people to read Les Miz is totally the wacky dead nun shenanigans. I think this is because I figure that everyone knows the book is sad but no one ever told me that it was also occasionally really really funny.

- So, I am currently listening to an audiobook of Clash of Kings. It is not a bad audiobook, so much, as an audiobook in which the reader makes decisions that I do not understand. For instance: Tyrion is inexplicably Welsh. I understand that with a cast that large you have to do what you can to distinguish characters but none of the other Lannisters are in any way Welsh and so it throws me out of the performance every time Tyrion talks. (On the other hand, the reader has at least remembered that maybe Stannis and Renly should have similar accents and thus is one up on the show.)

- Starting next Thursday, the parentals are going to California to visit my sisters. And I have that Friday through Tuesday off. I am counting down.

Today, I finally managed to see The Hobbit. (I have not yet managed to see Les Miz. ::shakes fist at the sky::) It's not a perfect movie, but I found it to be very enjoyable. I don't have any deep thoughts about it, but I do have three not-really-spoilery comments to share with the internet:

1) Movie!verse Thorin Oakenshield = the universe's shortest Klingon. Seriously, the whole movie I was waiting for him to pull out a bat'leth. I think it's the combination of the hair and the cloak. (In this AU, the elves are Vulcans, hobbits are probably Terrans, I have no idea what the Orcs or Men are, and the Istari are probably part of the Q continuum. I would totally read that, wouldn't you?) I loved movie!verse Thorin - probably more than I have ever loved Thorin before - which makes him officially the first Klingon I have ever wholeheartedly loved.

2) While I am very pleased that several of the songs were included in the film, I am going to admit that it is always jarring to me to hear songs from The Hobbit that are not set to the same tunes as those used in the Rankin-Bass movie. Which I now possibly need to watch again. (Also that, since watching the Riddles in the Dark scene, I have had the one riddle that got set to music in the animated film stuck in my head.)

3) So, I am not an elf person. Or a hobbit person. My major identification figures in Tolkein have always been the Rohirrim and the dwarves. It is awfully nice to have a fantasy movie that is full of badass dwarves.

I think I am going to get the audiobook from audible and start it as my new bedtime listening.

Twice in the past two days, I have had conversations at the library - with different people - about the film Billy the Kid Versus Dracula*.

Only one of these conversations was started by me. Sometimes, these things just happen.



*Which is totally on my list of Terrible Movies I Want To See Solely Because Of The Title. Along with Hell Comes to Frogtown, The Howling 2: Your Sister is a Werewolf, Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter, and Chopper Chicks From Zombie Town.

Movie night at Bainbridge. This month, we watched Fat City. About which I have nothing to say except that every time I watch movies from the 70s, it reminds me why I don't watch more movies from the 70s.

It was one of those situations where everyone else there loved the movie, too. Which is good, in a way, because then they explain what it is about the film that works for them and I can go, "Oh, okay, I can see that - it doesn't work for me, but I can see why you like it." But it doesn't make the film any more pleasant for me to watch.

Next month, we are watching a Hitchcock movie. Hitchcock, at least, is seldom boring.

Went to see Prometheus. There were goo snakes and robots and many people died.

I approve of the fact that the determined I-will-go-into-space-and-find-stuff-out scientist is named Elizabeth Shaw, even if she isn't a redhead and doesn't work for UNIT.

Things:

- Today was actually a very good day. I read ridiculous and happy-making fanfic before work*, I had a good time at work, and also it was movie night at Bainbridge, which is almost always fun.

- Accomplishment that was a big deal for me, if not for anyone else: Today was library snapshot day, which means that we record certain stats and also take a lot of pictures. So there was a guy going around with a camera, recording the goings on of the library. He snuck up on my while I was shelving in adult nonfiction and started taking pictures without asking which is, in my opinion, really rude. And I hate being photographed. I'll do it if I have to, or if a family member or good friend insists, but I really dislike it. I thought for several seconds about which would be worse, making a request of a stranger or having to endure being photographed, and then said, politely, "I know that you're just doing your job, but I really hate being photographed. Would you mind not taking my picture?" Which he did, though he didn't apologize. So I got what I wanted, even if I did have to spend the next couple minutes talking to myself to get over the anxiety of Talking To a Stranger and Asserting Boundaries When They Might Inconvenience Someone Else. Go me!

- My favorite thing about movie night, other than the movie, is the two hours that I have between work and movie time. It's not enough time to go home and come back, so it's two hours wherein I don't have to talk to anyone and can just be quiet and by myself with no expectations upon me. Today, I bought fake grocery store Chinese food and ate it in my car near a little park, and then knit and listened to Doctor Who audios until it was movie time. And it was my favorite kind of day, where it's not too cold but a little rainy and the clouds are like a thick grey blanket that makes everything quiet and soft and cozy. It's been sunny here recently and I know that many people were happy about that and I'm glad for them, but it made a cozy grey day like this kind of a relief for me. So that was pretty great.

- Tonight's movie was The Sweet Smell of Success, which is a very good film but full of thoroughly dreadful people. One of the things that I like about the movie group is that we watch movies that are quite good but that I would likely have never watched on my own. This isn't my favorite of the movies we've watched that were new to me - that's probably a tie between Night of the Hunter (which is gorgeous) and Witness for the Prosecution (which is amazingly fun) - but is certainly in the top ten. (Also, I won a bet with myself. Halfway through the movie, I thought to myself, "I will bet a dollar that there is slash fic about this movie, probably written for yuletide." Well, friends and neighbors, I have won that dollar.) Next month, we are watching Harvey, which I have seen before but love. And neither of the guys running the group have seen it before, so that's something to look forward to.

- Tomorrow is going to be long, what with training and work and dress rehearsal. Hopefully, it will still be a pretty good day.






*Animal transformation fic. Seriously, if I have even the slightest interest in a fandom and you turn one of the characters into a small furry animal and then have other characters take care of him/her, I will read your story and probably make dolphin noises. I am not even slightly ashamed.

Things:

- Today, we are celebrating my birthday! (Since I was on a plane for much of the actual day.) There will be pizza and swashbuckling movies, one of which has Christopher Lee as a pirate! And also tangerine cake! (In my house, not in the movie with Christopher Lee the pirate. I believe he is a French pirate, also.) And it is blustering quite nicely outside and I have sock knitting to do while we watch and basically, today is ideal.

- Speaking of Christopher Lee. A little while ago, I watched The Devil Rides Out and found it to be quite entertaining, so now I am reading the book. ( Thoughts of the rambly and incoherent type. )

- Also, while in Santa Barbara, I read the first Hilary Tamar novel, which was recommended to me back when I asked for new mystery novels. It was hilarious and terribly entertaining and I may have ordered the other four used on amazon. (This is an idiosyncratic thing but it heightened my enjoyment: I am not a visual thinker, so I don't visualize things much when I read, but I do fairly clearly hear the character voices in my head. And I was watching a lot of Blakes 7 before starting this novel. So, for whatever reason my brain decided that everything Hilary says - including all the narration - should be read by Paul Darrow. Totally awesome. I hope it continues for the other three books.)

- I am almost halfway done with my Christmas knitting. Unfortunately, the rest of it is for a person who lives in this house, which means that I can't work on it while watching tv with other people. Which means I get to work on more socks for me in public, and secret knitting in private or while on breaks at work. 8)

- I am really looking forward to that tangerine cake.