Sunday Short: 'Magdala Amygdala' by Lucy A. Snyder

“So is the new job going well? Are you able to sleep?” My doctor shines a penlight in my eyes and nostrils and marks off a couple of boxes. Thankfully, she doesn’t ask to see my tongue. It’s the same set of questions every week; I’d have to be pretty far gone to answer badly and get myself quarantined. The endless doctor-visits wear down other Type Threes, but I hang onto the belief that someday there might be actual help for me here.
I've been tentative about engaging with horror short fiction. It's not exactly a secret that I adore horror cinema, but it's no more a secret that there are huge sectors of the genre bogged down with brutal misogyny. I've become very good at navigating those waters, but dipping my toe in the pool of horror shorts revealed a lot of the same hatred that has taken me longer to sift through. Some days it feels like panning for gold, waiting for a nugget of good, bigotry-free fiction to catch. That said, when little gems like Lucy A. Snyder's 'Magdala Amygdala' show up, it makes them all the more special. It's taut, original and all in all a pretty horrifying monster story, with the implications of a bigger, bolder new world.

Friday Finds

This has been such a slow week for this blog, sorry! I did have things scheduled, but I've been distracted trying to finish a YA manuscript to submit to The Text Prize. It's one I've been working on for quite a while, but I made the questionable decision to make some drastic changes. It's been good, and ambitious, and good, and I'm really happy with the direction of it, so fingers crossed, right?

Anywho, your Friday Finds.
- Your week in trailers: I'm loving that the rom-com seems to be making a comeback. Man Up looks like a pretty delightful entry into the genre too! Every trailer for Dope makes me want to see it more and more. Plus, how great does Slow West look?

- Species in Pieces is a pretty remarkable and beautifully designed site on endangered animals.

- This day in the life of Alaskan sled dogs are giving me a serious case of heart eyes.

- On that note, these photographs capturing the lives of Reindeer People are also pretty amazing.

- Rihanna's new song is awesome. 

- These Orphan Black dresses over at Hot Topic are giving me life too.

- This tumblr devoted to teen bedrooms from movies is everything.

- These vintage wedding photographs are beautiful and full of so much history and personality.

- Five ways to tell if he's into you: the animalia edition


- This dude's fake self-help books are basically the best.

- As are these classic novels redesigned as food cans.

- This list of awesome female protagonists are adding a lot of books to my to-read list!

- This interview with Janelle Asselin who's currently kickstarting a new romance comic imprint is a delightful and interesting read into the medium. And hey! You should totally help Kickstart it. I know I have.

- This article on rape in art and why it's not a justification for it as a narrative tool in comic books is a fascinating and compelling read.

Sunday Short: 'Miriam' by Truman Capote

It was while waiting at the corner of Third Avenue that she saw the man: an old man, bowlegged and stooped under an armload of bulging packages; he wore a shabby brown coat and a checkered cap. Suddenly she realized they were exchanging a smile: there was nothing friendly about this smile, it was merely two cold flickers of recognition. But she was certain she had never seen him before.
Truman Capote is such an atmospheric writer. More than that, he has a way of capturing an ugly undercurrent with beautiful prose, layering it, occasionally, more than it deserves. The interplay between Mrs Miller and the young Miriam in this story have such an ominous tone to them, and raises a lot of really compelling questions about age and loneliness.

You can read 'Miriam' by Truman Capote over at Literary Fictions.

Friday Finds

- I'm already excited for Season 3 of Orange is the New Black, and this video from the set is making me EVEN MORE SO. Gimme.

- Your week in trailers: Gayby Baby had me crying in about twenty seconds. Barely Lethal has an awful title, but looks like awesome fun. Moar Avengers! Paper Towns looks like a pretty fun teen flick too.

- REAL Cookie Cat's from Steven Universe! Amazing.

- These illustrations of iconic R-rated films by a storyboarder from Pixar are hilarious.

- How amazing is this house?! I'm a little obsessed. And with these surreal homes too! 

- These rare and candid photos of The Rolling Stones and The Beatles on tour are lovely and energetic.

- The 100 Years of Beauty series is awesome generally, and the most recent installment about Korean beauty is super great and interesting.

- On a semi-related note, these photos of elderly people with tattoos are amazing.


- Unusual library collections around the world! I want to go to all these places!

- Which Hogwarts teacher would be your mentor? I got Professor McGonagall AKA I won.

- And start your weekend with these famous author insults.

Sydney + All About Women

It’s been almost eight years since I last went to Sydney. That trip was a highschool graduation present from and with my mum. We ate pancakes and had our fortunes read and went to Supanova Pop Culture Expo and it was basically the best.

So it was weird in some ways to go back now, so much older. I don't know if I'm wiser, but it was with different eyes that I saw Sydney. Of course, I was going at a very different time too. It was the final day of Mardi Gras when I arrived, and the second day was the All About Women conference at Sydney Opera House, so in a lot of ways it was a weekend of gender and sexuality, unfolding loudly, with bite and shine and fury. 

It was escalated in some ways by the heat. Australia's been pretty hot generally lately, but to head to a cloudless Sydney with an unrelenting sun made a lot of the weekend feel like a boiler pot. It gave the conversations a little more sweat, and meant a lot of the walking my friend and I did between venues and bars was a wee bit more intense.

But hey. Enough about that.


All About Women
While the conversation is one that I'm always interested in, I'd really been drawn to All About Women this year because of the guests. Roxanne Gay, Anita Sarkeesian, Jane Caro and Clementine Ford are all brilliant women apart of dynamic and important dialogues internationally, and they really demonstrated that in full over the day.

But let me backtrack for a second. All About Women is a conference held out of Sydney Opera House and focuses on issues concerning or related to women. I went to three panels throughout the day, How to Be a Feminist, with the pretty stellar line up of Clementine Ford, Celeste Liddell, Roxanne Gay, Tara Moss, Anita Sarkeesian and Germaine Greer, Gamergate & Beyond: women in pop culture and video games with Anita Sarkeesian again and lastly What I Couldn't Say with Tara Moss, Randa Abdel-Fattah, Jane Caro and many more.

It was pretty terrific across the board, and raised really compelling questions about the nature of feminism in modern society and how it interacts and opens up things from pop culture to other forms of discrimination and bigotry, where we've been and where we've still got to go.

You can watch a selection of the panels over on the Sydney Opera House YouTube channel, which I'd totally recommend doing. It was a pretty impressive day and one really worth the trip.

Bon x Desert Vintage Spring 2015


Oh, man. I'm a little in love with this vibrant lookbook from Bon and Desert Vintage. I've never been much of a tulle gal in reality, but I pretty much always love the way it looks in these sorts of shoots. They look particularly sweet with the plain t-shirts too. Similarly, the locations are great, and you can really pick up a lovely narrative thread through the two looks.

Check out the full collection over at Miss Moss.


  

  


  

Sunday Short: 'Me and My Girls' by David Carr

After shooting or smoking a large dose, there would be the tweaking and a vigil at the front window, pulling up the corner of the blinds to look for the squads I was always convinced were on their way. All day. All night. A frantic kind of boring. End-stage addiction is mostly about waiting for the police, or someone, to come and bury you in your shame.
It's hard in life and in memoir to own your faults. To lay yourself totally bare and try to identify the roadmap of your life. That's exactly what David Carr does though in this riveting and ache-inducing piece on addiction and recovery, a story told in track marks, abuse, and babies left in cars. It's wonderful and it's heartbreaking.

Friday Finds


- Your week in trailers: Veep season 4!!! The Connection looks really good. The cinematography in the trailer's sublime. Tomorrowland looks like a lot of fun. The new Inside Out trailer is infinitely better than the first. I am getting progressively more and more excited for Netflix's Daredevil. Roar looks kind of batshit. This new Kurt Cobain documentary looks moving. Adult Beginners looks good too.

- This Cinderella versus Belle rap battle is giving me life right now.

- I am totally obsessed with The Madonna Inn, captured over at A Beautiful Mess.

- These forty pictures in forty years are a beautiful and moving project in aging and growing up.



The Baileys Women's Fiction Prize longlist has been announced! 

- So has The Stella Prize shortlist!

- And on a related note, 12 empowering children's books to give to little girls.

Pioneering woman surfers in Iran!

One of the things that got me into superheroes and geek culture was watching the Teen Titans series when I was a young teenager. Starfire was always my fave, which is why it's been a little rage-inducing to see her character so poorly treated recently in the comics. Her new costume though is certainly a step in the right direction. There's a great #longread on her history over at Women Write About Comics which I totally recommend everyone read. 

Shop Girl: Kamala Khan 'Ms. Marvel'

I've always been a Marvel girl in the Versus DC debate, and it's been great recently to have such an excellent suite of new issues - particularly in Matt Fraction's Hawkeye, Kelly Sue DeConnick's Captain Marvel and the new Ms. Marvel by G. Willow Wilson.

The latter is a terrific series, with a ferociously awesome heroine in Kamala Khan, a young Muslim women who, after a freak accident, becomes a superhero. At the series' worst, it's a moving and generally very funny portrayal of a teenage girl's coming of age and full realisation of her strength of will and character, and at it's best it's one of the best new comic book series in years.

Kamala's basically the best.

Kamala Khan, Ms. Marvel comics
1. Ms. Marvel t-shirt, We Love Fine. $25.
2. Navy Patent Belt Skater Skirt. Desire Clothing. $12.
3. Simone Faux Fur Hooded Parker. Forever New. $150.
4. Layer It On Tights in Cherry. Modcloth. $13.
5. Planet Shoes. Myer. $180.

Oscars 007

Ho boy, guys. I've watched seven years worth of Oscar nominees. That's 157 movies. Crazy!

Unlike any year before it, Oscars Year Seven was all about the romance. Of the 23 films nominated for awards, 16 were straight up romance films and another four had it as a major subplot. Whether it was back stage love affairs or military-musicals (which were incredibly popular at the time) featuring soldiers falling fast for their marks, love was in the air. It made for a weird few weeks watching, that's for sure, but what became really apparent was how difficult it is to make a timeless romance. There are some charming nuggets in these 23 films, but the transcendent ones are masterful efforts at creating not just something sweet, but intimate narratives that often commentate on social constructs, expectations and class. This is especially present in It Happened One Night, The Richest Girl in the World and Of Human Bondage.

It wasn't just the genre that was repeating though. Certain actors were too. Claudette Colbert starred in It Happened One Night, Imitation of Life and Cleopatra (all three of which were nominated for Best Picture), Clark Gable was in It Happened One Night and Manhattan Melodrama, William Powell and Myrna Loy were in both The Thin Man and Manhattan Melodrama, Fredrich March was in The Affairs of Cellini and The Barretts of Wimpole Street. This wasn't exactly uncommon in this era, but it was more noticeable than ever in this year and you were left watching films in the same genre with the same actors rotate the same themes.

Weird, right? In some ways it was interesting though. I mean, to have a genre dominate so fully really means you start to identify the beats of it, the pacing, the scenes so formulaic and trope heavy you can predict them as they come. It's why when films like It Happened One Night and Of Human Bondage come along to in the former's case, utilise the tropes to make magic, or in the latter's case to revert them to make magic, but a near diabolical kind, they easily become talking points. The former also, y'know, swept up

The Seventh Oscars is also significant as it's the year Bette Davis exploded onto the scene and showed the rise (and rise) of a few established movie stars, particularly Clark Gable and William Powell, who'd continue their Hollywood domination for the next ten years. 

Three to watch
1. The Thin Man. This wasn't really what I expected and I mean that in the best sort of way. Crime and detective movies weren't rare in the twenties and thirties, but what was - and still is - is the degree of affection and sense of partnership that the movie finds in Nick and Nora, played wonderfully by William Powell and Myrna Loy. It's fun, brilliantly paced and utterly charming.

2. Of Human Bondage. Let's be real, watch this for Bette. There's a reason she's one of the best actresses in modern history, and she's on full show here. Vulnerable, angry, biting and bitter, she's a spectrum of woman trapped in a man's ideal. It's 500 Days of Summer's spitting spinster aunt and man does it work.

3. It Happened One Night was the first straight romantic comedy to win the best picture Oscar, and in a year of romance films, it really deserved it. It's charming and lovely, and Clarke Gable's a total swoony delight.

Three to miss
1. The Affairs of Cellini. Nothing is exactly wrong with this film, it's just how many old school Lotharios schmoozing their way across a continent am I going to have to watch?

2. One Night of Love. It was a big year for romance, and this one just really misses the mark.

3. Flirtation Walk is another retread of a million other films circulating the era, and doesn't offer any real new thought into the concept.

Sunday Short: 'The Snow Child' by Angela Carter

As soon as he completed her description, there she stood, beside the road, white skin, red mouth, black hair and stark naked; she was the child of his desire and the Countess hated her. The Count lifted her up and sat her in front of him on his saddle but the Countess had only one thought:how shall I be rid of her?
The best fairytales are usually the most brutal. The ones that worm their way into the common, darker thoughts and roll with them. There's a lot at play in this very short story by the indomitable Angela Carter. Envy, greed, lust, but mostly you're left with a strange and aching back and forth between characters usually rendered villains in these stories. The girl could be Snow White or Sleeping Beauty, but she's neither, and she's not as important as this tug between the Count and Countess, but she's the victim of their sins anyway.

You can read 'The Snow Angel' by Angela Carter over at Biblioklept.

Friday Finds

I'm heading to Sydney this weekend for the All About Women conference at Sydney Opera House. I'm ridiculously excited for a couple of reasons - one, travelling to Sydney's always pretty fun, the guests are amazing and I'm ticking off another of my 24 Before 25 items - going to a festival for a festival and not to work at it. I'll be livetweeting over on my Twitter too, so feel free to follow me.

Also the Gold Coast Film Festival released it's program this week and it is a total killer. Check it out here.
- It's International Women's Day this weekend! Celebrate with this feminist ranking of female superheroes.

- Your week in trailers: more Orphan Black!! I'm counting down the days! Mr. Holmes looks like a really interesting take on a story that's been told to death recently.

- This article on 10 films that inspired Mad Men is pretty fascinating.

- An Adventure Time movie! Sign me up!

- Accidental wolves are the best sort of pet!

- This Wes Anderson-esque X-Men is giving me life right now.

- Start your weekend by reading 8 of the 10 Oscar nominated screenplays.

- Which book should you read next based on your zodiac sign?

- Which Hogwarts House were you ALMOST sorted into? From Pottermore, I know I'm a Ravenclaw, and apparently now an almost-Slytherin.

- This tiny, mobile library is basically all of my retirement plans.

- Book mugs!

- Book jewellery! 



This piece by the ever wonderful Catherynne M. Valente on writing strong, kick-heart characters is awesome and has me fist pumping like crazy.

The nameless narrator may have been around forever, but it's hard to argue the narrative tool is on the rise these days. This piece in The New Yorker talks about it pretty poetically.

Dina Khalifé SS15: The Swimmers


It's not exactly a secret that I love a good lookbook, especially ones that take a limiting theme and utilise all aspects of them. Dina Kalifé's Spring Summer 2015 collection, aptly named the swimmers, does exactly that. From silhouettes to bathing caps to all the bright teals, this is a collection that runs with that idea pretty darn perfectly, even if I wouldn't necessarily wear every outfit here. Although, man, that scarf is to die for.

You can check out the full collection over at her website.
   


  
  

  
  

Even when the night changes


March 2015 by Sophie Overett on Grooveshark

I've never really believed in guilty pleasures. If you enjoy something, enjoy it! There's nothing to be ashamed of in liking something. Well, unless it's less than savoury, I suppose, but I've recently outted myself as a pretty huge One Direction fan. I can't help it! Their music is catchy and they're pretty charming or whatever.

This mixtape sums up my February feels pretty well, and I hope will set off a better March. February always feels like such a strange month, with less days and the weird, stagnant weather - whether that be Brisbane's heat or the freeze in many other parts of the world. It just doesn't seem to move as fast as anyone would like, I suppose. But then, that feels like this part of the year in general. 

GrooveShark didn't have the Washington song unfortunately, so I've popped the YouTube link in below. 


What are you listening to at the moment?

Sunday Short: 'Mary Magdalen with Head of Flowers' by Laksmi Pamuntjak

A trail of bare feet, some bones and the eggshell white of a girl’s dress tell us that a woman has sailed across an impossible desert, leaving a skeleton of a man in her wake. 
There's some stunning imagery in this short meditation by Laksmi Pamuntjak. There are also some clear character sketches, some poetic language and a really compelling little story which unfolds in a bitter sweet fashion.

You can read 'Mary Magdalen with Head of Flowers' by Laksmi Pamuntjak over at her blog.