Category Archives: Deep Thoughts & Fun Stuff
THAT GOLDEN GIRLS SHOW! is not to be missed!
There are very few sitcoms that make me honest-to-God fall out of my chair. The Golden Girls has been one of them since I watched it first-run as a teen in the 1980s.
A friend of mine wanted to treat me to an evening out—and when she saw That Golden Girls Show!: A Puppet Parody was coming to The Palace in Waterbury, she surprised me with tickets.
I wanted to write a specific review to encourage everyone to go if it comes to a nearby city, but this 80-minute show, composed of three “episodes,” is honestly more fun if you go into it blind. There are some awesome surprises Read the rest of this entry
I just watched DIANA: THE MUSICAL …
I’m not a ga-ga person when it comes to celebrities or the royals. I honestly couldn’t care less. However, Princess Di was integral to my teen years, so I’ve seen just about everything there is on her and her life; she was just part of the Gen-X experience. Diana: The Musical was taped and is on Netflix, so I gave it a watch.
I’ll start by saying that I knew critics were crapping all over this, but if you know me personally, you know I don’t much listen to critics if I’m interested in something—I can make up my own mind, thank you, and that goes for movies, too. This time around, I only partially agree with some of what the critics had to say.
So, if you are interested in Princess Di—or at least curious and wondering if it’s worth two hours of your life—then yes check it out, if nothing else to take in the spectacular performance by the woman playing Diana, Jeanna de Waal—she was absolutely awesome (I strongly feel she deserves to at least be nominated for a Tony; that’s how great a job she did). In addition, seeing Diana’s famous outfits come to life again was magical, and in many places, so impressive I wondered how they did it (the wedding gown swap—you’ll understand what I mean if you see this—is particularly mind-blowing. I still can’t figure out how the hell they pulled that off). The costume designers deserve awards, as far as I’m concerned.
The wedding scene in DIANA: THE MUSICAL.
I was enamored with Erin Davie as Camilla—she was honestly one of the most interesting parts of the show and a joy to watch; in addition, I actually felt a little sympathetic toward her, and I’m sure that’s in Davie’s performance, not in the book. I also enjoyed seeing extended interactions between Diana and her sister, which doesn’t get highlighted too much in biopics or documentaries (I’ve not seen Spencer yet, but plan to, so I don’t know if that one touches upon it).
However, emotionally—and for me that’s key in a show—there’s nothing going on here. It’s rather flat. In fact, the whole thing feels like a docudrama; I didn’t cry when Diana died at the end. I cried for days after the real one passed, so … that tells me the writers of this show screwed up. It doesn’t seem to have any emotional draw, in fact, until the last two numbers, and even then, it’s kind of like, ‘well, so what. Required big finish.’
If you can see it on Netflix for free? Do it.
The perfect accompaniment to “Carving Grace” …
Acapella group VoicePlay performs “Hoist the Colours.”
Our month of celebrating figureheads has come to an end. If you’d like to know more about real figureheads and their mythology, there are loads of resources—I didn’t spend any time this month talking about the real things because honestly, there are experts out there who have researched and published information that is much more eloquent and accurate than anything I could’ve written; there’s no point in paraphrasing something someone else did much better.
Here are some links if you’d like to learn more about figureheads and what it requires to make them:
The Historic England Blog: A Brief History of Ships’ Figureheads
https://heritagecalling.com/2019/01/31/a-brief-history-of-ships-figureheads/
Martin Jeffrey—Ship’s Figurehead Carving (he’s a real figurehead carver)
Daily Art Magazine: Wild Women of the Waves – Art of Ships Figureheads
https://www.dailyartmagazine.com/art-of-ships-figureheads/
Need a little bit of atmosphere to take with you? Here’s an acapella version of “Hoist the Colours” by a group called VoicePlay that’s absolutely unforgettable.
VoicePlay’s rendition of “Hoist the Colours”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vO8NEsx9m58
“Hoist the Colors,” while many think it’s a legitimate sea chantey, is not. It was written by Hans Zimmer for one of Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean films, but that doesn’t make it any less creepy. It’s so good it’s really hard to tell it’s not authentic—and I think it’s a perfect fit with “Carving Grace.”
Haven’t read “Carving Grace” yet? If you’d like to—and you’d like an anthology full of lots of other fun creepy creatures—you can pick up a copy of Wicked Creatures here: https://bit.ly/WickedC
Dark Thoughts of the Ladies of Salem: Lady Mermaid
Sponsor: Salem Beautification Committee
Artist: Shella Billings
Lady Mermaid
I will never go home.
About this Series
In my dark love story “Carving Grace,” figureheads wander the streets at night in pursuit of happiness—yours. In honor of its publication in NEHW Press’ Wicked Creatures this month (get your copy here: https://bit.ly/WickedC), I’m celebrating figureheads for 2021 Poe Season!
In Salem this summer, I discovered a collection of figureheads called The Lady of Salem Maritime Public Art Celebration, https://www.salem.org/listing/lady-salem-maritime-public-art-celebration/. I took photos of as many as we spotted, and thought if, they were figureheads in my story, what would each be thinking? I made up their names (except for where indicated) and included sponsor and artist names if they were legible.
Dark Thoughts of the Ladies of Salem: Lady Marigold and Lady Lorna
Sponsor: The Home Depot
Artist: Keri May Killam
Lady Marigold
The fields went fallow.
A visit to Mystic Seaport’s Figurehead Exhibit
“Carving Grace” has an enormous back story of inspiring experiences. One of them was a visit to Mystic Seaport’s Figurehead Exhibit, which Nathan and I visited in February 2021. At that point, I’d started the story, and I felt I needed a kick.
While vaccinations had started to happen, we wouldn’t be eligible for ours until March. We desperately needed to get away, and because most of the seaport is outdoors, it seemed the perfect place to secure a change of scenery (we’d also gone there in September of 2020 for our anniversary).
Nathan and I on our way to Mystic, CT for a special birthday/Valentine’s Day escape (to also do research for “Carving Grace”). The weather was beautiful. Winter overcast, but definitely not too cold; it was the perfect atmosphere. In my mind, Mystic Seaport itself is what the community of Timber Inlet—to a point—looks like.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
It’s funny–as a horror writer, I always get the question, “what are your plans for Halloween?” The answer usually surprises people–NOTHING.
Halloween comes at the end of four to six weeks of celebrating fall, horror writers events, writing scary stories, cocktailing it up at an old cemetery, decorating like crazy, at least one weekend-long short film festival, reverse trick-or-treating at the day job, prepping the Fall issue of 34 Orchard, and eating too much candy. It’s a month crammed with FUN…and when the actual day arrives? I’m done. We don’t get trick-or-treaters where we live, so Halloween is a blessed day of rest.
Today, I’m going to watch some of my old favorites: Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark (1973), Chernobyl Diaries (2013), The Blair Witch Project (1999), The Forest (2016), The Uninvited (2009) and Lake Mungo (2008), among others. And maybe I’ll lay in bed and READ! …and, of course, I’ll have cake. No holiday is complete without cake.
From our house to yours … Happy Halloween!
Dark Thoughts of the Ladies of Salem: Lady Tempest and Lady Icarus
Sponsor: www.sinisterstoriesofsalem.com
Artist: Kenneth Glover
Lady Tempest
The storm killed them all.
Dark Thoughts of the Ladies of Salem: Lady Peacock and Yvonne
Sponsor: Salem Beautification Committee
Artist: Jeanne Paré
Lady Peacock
They burned our home.
Our Corn Maze adventure
I’ve always loved a corn maze, though I must admit I’d never heard of them until the early 2000’s—it seemed like that was a “new” thing back then. Every farm around here was doing them, and there were plenty to choose from.
We always pick some kind of Halloween adventure every year for the two of us to do. We’ve done Pumpkin Blaze, Forest of Fear, and the Bronx Zoo’s Boo at the Zoo a few times. Before that, I did things down in Sleepy Hollow. I’ll tell you out of the gate, too, that although I am a horror writer, I’m seriously not a fan of being abjectly terrified. I like things more on the creepy, atmospheric side than the thrill and scream side.
The other issue is that a tradition is Read the rest of this entry
