“Life just ran more smoothly when she got her way.” Leigh Bardugo, KING OF SCARS. Oh, Zoya, I love you so. 📚

I finished reading SIX OF CROWS almost 4 months ago. It’s time for me to get back to the Grishaverse with KING OF SCARS. 📚

Finished reading: Fan Fiction by Brent Spiner 📚

Went to Internet Archive to find my blog post from 20 years ago. More interesting than anything I had to say was this comment from my grandmother, who died this January:

Dearest Kimber…yes, you will remember today & what you did & were doing…and possibly feel a sadness for the terror and loss and a little bit of maturing….I know, for I can vividly recall the memories of the Pearl Harbor Attack when I was in 7th grade and the impact & saddness that followed those war years…but happiness as well as tears come along and in a wink, blink & nod the years go on, but memories linger….I love you very much my precious, gorgeous granddaughte.

Wearing my 90s pop culture goth uniform today: Buffy the Vampire Slayer tee, Nightmare Before Christmas leggings.

I’ve been thinking a lot about how I want to spend my time and one of the things I want to do is make higher ed better for caregivers. It only just occurred to me that both my parents were student-caregivers & staff-caregivers when I was young. ❤️

New bio: Extremely online since 1995. Mom. Household COO. Consulting scholar-librarian. Book person. Geek-of-all-trades. PhD in Information & Library Science. ♿

🔖💻 Read Why bad technology dominates our lives, according to Ron Norman. If you didn’t already believe we were living in the Matrix, this article will convince you we are.

📽️ Watched In a Lonely Place.

I watched this because it’s on the movie list on the aesthetics wiki page for dark academia. I’m not sure what qualifies it as dark academia; is it its noirness? The suspense? The sad inevitability of its conclusion? It doesn’t have a connection to learning or school.

Regardless, I enjoyed it and recommend it.

One of the elements of the film is that temperamental screenwriter Dixon Steele (one of the inspirations for Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Dixon Hill writes feverishly, composing by hand and then giving pages to his neighbor/girlfriend, Laurel Gray, to type up. He also gives her elaborate breakfast orders and makes other demands of her that are things people normally get compensated for doing. This reminded me of stories of J. D. Salinger and other writers relying on the women in their lives to take care of everything except the writing. It didn’t sit well with me in this movie and I think Steele’s behavior is supposed to serve as evidence that he is Not A Great Guy. It’s a little hard to be sure, as the film was released in 1950, but within the film a massage therapist tells Gray that she should be getting paid for typing and to look after her own career.

Steele being a dude who can alternate between charming and scary reminded me of Jenny Offill’s term, “art monster,” a concept I first encountered in Austin Kleon’s writing. He can be terrifyingly violent. At one point in the film, Steele’s friend’s wife says to Gray something like “He’s an artist; he can get away with being temperamental.” I read this not as an excuse being made by the film, but rather as another moment that is designed to make the audience worry for Gray’s wellbeing.

All told, a great movie, well executed.

Me:

yesterday for #StarTrekDay: AHHHH Star Trek, everything Star Trek!

this morning when it was all gray and rainy: AHHHH Dark Academia, everything Dark Academia!

after watching the new #Matrix trailer: AHHHH Cyberpunk! everything Cyberpunk!

I contain multitudes.