Random watch of the week: The Breakhrough (1975) — I believe a rec strewn in my path from Stones perhaps. I nearly scrolled past when I saw Daphne Du Maurier’s name and thought oh, give a go. And Simon Ward (who led me down a side quest for the 1970 television series based on Dumas’…
Tag: writing
Surrealism, Tarot & Leonora
I am woefully behind on everything and making so little progress. What better time to watch some of the videos from the Biennale! This one of course I was very much anticipating. I know I have shared talks with Susan Aberth and Tere Arcq many times and they have spoken about Leonora and YET, there…
Only The Stones Remain
Before I was laid low with fever and dreams, I watched a couple of folk horror classics that I had often heard about but never watched. Being well-versed in 70s American television horror I remain sadly deficient in the British counterpart, though I have made great strides since the whole folk horror boom arose (mostly…
Spook Racket: Psychic Mafia
Oddly enough in the seemingly endless line of grifters and con artists in and around the spook racket, I had not read this volume. I first ran across the BBC radio series on it — part of their ongoing fascination with grifters like Anna Delvey. Lamar tells his story (with Spraggett’s help) with relish, albeit…
Saturday Matinee: The Clairvoyant (1935)
Apropos for Derby Day (no, the other one, my American friends) I can recommend the early Gainsborough film starring Claude Rains, Fay Wray and Jane Baxter. Rains and Baxter are music hall performers with a mind reader act very familiar to Nightmare Alley fans. It’s a family tradition and they seem happy on the circuit…
Film Noir Friday: Fallen Angel (1945)
FALLEN ANGEL (1945) Dir Otto Preminger Attempting to capture the magic of Laura the year before, Preminger got Dana Andrews back into a fedora and Joseph LaShelle lensing but no Gene Tierney, alas. Instead we have a ripe Linda Darnell as the bad girl Stella (she shines at night of course) and Alice Faye as…
#Folklore Thursday: In Search of Voodoo – Roots to Heaven
Belatedly catching up on episodes of Pam Grossman’s Witch Wave podcast, I heard the always fascinating Lilith Dorsey mention this film, available streaming on Az. Award-winning actor Dijmon Hounsou returns to Benin to follow the roots of this often misunderstood and generally maligned magical system and along the way examines how colonialism, racism and Christianity…
Surreal Noir: 17 May 22
Tonight, it’s SURREAL NOIR at NoBounds Radio. Episode Ten: Last episode was so talky I decided to double the listening pleasure this time around. Deep Listening from the 21st century back to the 14th—immersive sound to stop time and feed your ears! Musical selections include: Pauline Oliveros: Big Slow Bog (Mills Tape Center 1966-7) —…
Blithe or No
BLITHE SPIRIT (2020) An impulse purchase this week: I suspect it was the subliminal effect of the tarot spread in the cover image. And I like Judi Dench. And Dan Stevens. And I love Coward, the snap and crackle of his dialogue. Certainly the play could use an update — like removing all the casual…
Surreal Noir: 19 Apr 22
Tonight, it’s SURREAL NOIR at NoBounds Radio. Episode Nine: My text for this episode is Leonora Carrington’s ‘My Mother is a Cow’ which you can find in the collected stories. It features surrealism, ritual, goddesses, sacrifice, skin, magic, and a bit of Graves’ The White Goddess. If this sounds familiar, it’s adapted from the talk…
K. A. Laity 