I’ve been watching *so* many movies lately, but I haven’t been writing longer reviews for them. I’ve been too busy doing the actual work required in fulfilling a Kickstarter, launching a new horror novel, and editing another book of mine…while trying not to burn out. That means aggressively allocating time to Normal Life as well as Work and Work-like Things. That means fewer reviews!
Still, I am watching lots of new-to-me favorites! I loved the original Night of the Living Dead. Although it wasn’t as good as the first one, Scream 2 was a hoot that made me want to watch the rest of the franchise. And I can’t stop thinking about Rec!
Also on my list of worky stuff: trying to get a TikTok account to the size that I can actually put links in my bio.
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There’s a new 4K restoration of Tarsem Singh’s The Fall that we need to watch. (The Film Stage)
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Apparently Cape fur seals have an outbreak of rabies. (AJE) This is kinda scary to read. The seals bit five people before they identified them as rabies-infected. Luckily, no humans contracted rabies from the bites, but still.
The interaction between diseases in animals and diseases in humans is generally scary. Smithsonian Mag notes that infant mortality is higher in places where bats have white nose syndrome.
Also, someone caught H5-type bird flu without animal contact in Missouri. (Ars Technica) Bird flu has reached California dairies. (Ars Technica)
And salmonella has been found in some eggs (NPR), but not in Nevada, so I’m still eating raw cookie dough.
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A study suggests that vaping screws up your lungs just as much as smoking. (The Guardian)
As a piece of total anecdata, I definitely found this was true for me. Sometimes vaping was way worse for my lungs. Kinda depends on the vape.
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“Can You Feel the Love Tonight?” almost stayed on the cutting room floor of the Lion King. (Variety) It’s bananas to consider we almost didn’t have the sequence with the horny lioness gaze.
Other strange cinema history: The sexy piano scene with Julia Roberts and Richard Gere in Pretty Woman was improvised. (Vanity Fair)
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Selena Gomez is a billionaire so we gotta eat her too. (Variety)
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We might as well note that The Graveyard Book has been delayed (Variety) because of allegations against Neil Gaiman because I predict there will actually be no long-term consequences for his predatory behavior.
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Bad news for publishing. Apple Books has had one of the best teams in the industry, but Apple failed to recognize it and laid off a bunch of staff. (Ars Technica)
