The WP map does show my hits have come from 22 countries around the world with Mauritius still in the top 10! Hello Trinidad – invite me down to give a workshop lol. The most popular posts were no surprise. I’m glad to see my Wednesday poetry ‘chats’ are garnering more interest.
Watched some great films. The DVD of Chilean Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Endless Poetry (2016) – follow up to The Dance of Reality – both surreal, poetic autobiographic films that are stunning visually & intellectually challenging without budging an inch in regards to plot. In an extra Jodorowsky rants about the difficulties of making films outside the studio system, about making films that don’t involve violence, adventure or rom-com romance. In fact some of this film was financed by crowd funding. No word on a part of the autobiography.
Mexican Guillermo del Toro has managed to interact with the studio system though his first few films were ‘credit card’ creations. One of which is Cronos (1993). I’ve sent his before many years ago & it was worth seeing again (thanks to TCM). It is an astounding horror movie told with great acting, excellent plotting & stunning attention to detail. It does go on as he runs out of steam & plot for the last ten minutes. When ever people climb to the top of buildings you know someone is going to fall to their death (yawn).
Less predictable is Keisuke Kinoshita’s Ghost of Yotsuya (1949). A fun, tense, Japanese film that reworks a familiar Kabuki plot: a man murders his wife so he can marry a wealthy woman & is haunted by the ghost of his first wife. Is she really a ghost of merely his guilty conscious? I’ve seen other Japanese versions of this plot & love it. Diabolique owes something to this plot.
A TV competition show I really enjoyed was Best in Miniature. Produced by the CBC! They did a Boxing week marathon of the first season’s episodes. I was totally unaware it until this marathon. Miniaturist build ‘doll’ houses & fill them with amazing, tiny, details. One contestant had a working, small, pottery wheel on which she threw real clay vases etc. The winner had the most effective story (a haunted house). A new season starts in February & I’ll keep my eye open for it. Season 1 is available to stream now on CBC Gem.
The festive season was made more festive thanks to a couple of advent calendars I bought for myself. One was of crystals/stones that was full of mostly polished pieces i.e. smoky quartz, sodalite, etc. some were palm stones, some were points, a pendulum & even a bracelet. The ones I didn’t want went into Xmas gifts. The other was a witchy one that I started in the middle of the month to be finished on January 6. It had a variety of items: spells, candles, ritual salts, soap etc.
January promises to be a much quieter month.
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