Feeling the spur to finish my recap of June’s adventures as the month draws to a close (unlikely to finish that in time but hey, I am trying), I decided to do something that requires less effort than an exhibition reel — especially since the next one in line is Schiaparelli which may require two….
Tag: reviews
Review: Savage House
Wondering where to begin in recapping my travels — this past week has been a WHIRL of course — The Fall: Futures and Pasts was amazing and Tarot Cultures was magical and then there was more Leonora (even more than expected!) and friends and good meals and so much — so I need to get…
Review: Leonora in the Morning Light
It will probably remove any sense of objectivity to say that I was one of the Kickstarter supporters, but then whilst objectivity has its uses, reviews are by nature subjective anyway. And anyone who pretends otherwise is a jerk (as the kids say [I’m told] I don’t make the rules!). Objectively I can tell you…
Forecast Review!
MIDBROW 30 Artists Explore Divination Nadine Nelson’s installation for Forecast: Reading the Signs — running now in the upper gallery at the Institute Library through March 28 — is a sunny nook in the middle of the art show: two cozy chairs in the window, a snug table filled with intriguing objects, among them a deck of…
Review: The Conjure Man Dies
Rudolph Fisher’s 1932 novel The Conjure Man Dies evokes both the Harlem Renaissance and Golden Age mysteries as well as embodying in important ways the more authentic voice of the streets that Dashiell Hammett had begun to make sing. Of course Fisher’s voice remains distinct from all of these: a polymath who studied to be…
Matinee: Quiet Please, Murder (1942)
Among the more obscure of films noir: George Sanders (although too little of him), Gail Patrick as the femme fatale she’s always meant to be, and Richard Denning with some well floppy hair. A winner because it’s set in the stolen/forged book racket and mostly in a library. Some library! Not only does it have…
Review: Trance by Appointment – Gertrude Trevelyan
TRANCE BY APPOINTMENT Gertrude Trevelyan Boilerhouse Press Trance by Appointment is the story of Jean, an otherwise ordinary working-class London girl. But Jean has what her mother calls “the Sight.” She sees what no one else can: the future. At first, under the patient guidance of Madame Eva, she learns to control this talent and begins…
Gothic: Black Magic by Marjorie Bowen
BLACK MAGIC (1909) Marjorie Bowen ‘I do not sin,’ he smiled. ‘I am Sin.’ I started this over at Internet Archive after seeing that Penguin would be republishing it as part of their ‘Weird Girls’ [yes, girls] series with funky faux psychedelic covers. At first I thought they looked kind of fun but the more…
Review: The Substance (2024)
There isn’t a woman alive who has not pasted a shiny smiling face on her monster body at some point. Spoilers, sweetie… Peg and I had the benefit of an empty theatre to ourselves so we could comment to one another with impunity in the midst of things — like that absolutely brilliant Vertigo music…
Quarry by Jane White
Quarry Jane White (Boiler House Press: Recovered Books 2023) FULL REVIEW HERE! I was fortunate to be pointed toward this 1967 novel by Anne Billson, who wrote the introduction to this new edition. It’s a wonderful example of the flexibility of the crime genre. White employs familiar tropes to unfamiliar ends, brings in the mythic…