Tyler Weaver's Blog, page 7

Das Phantom der Oper (1916)

Such is my fascination with the lost 1916 version of THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA that I’m moving it out of Friday’s Links post and giving it its own space here. Because I can.

This thread at The Classic Horror Board features some great information and discussion - as well as a synopsis of the film (which seems to be quite faithful to Leroux's original).

I’ll update accordingly if my ‘net scavengings reveal more.

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With a few exceptions, dystopian / post-apocalyptic stories rarely grab me. This week, I’ve added two of them to my favorite stories ever list: Tarkovsky’s STALKER and Octavia E. Butler’s EARTHSEED books. Finished PARABLE OF THE SOWER on Weds; PARABLE OF THE TALENTS (and the Blu of STALKER) arrived this morning.

Backburning Figure Eights

Good morning. K has returned from plaguecamp and there is, as of yet, no plague in sight. 10-14 window of anxiety shifted forward with each passing days without end.

Burkeman's FOUR THOUSAND WEEKS has led me to shift The Comics Thing to the backburner. Simply too big to work with what I'm trying to work with; I'm not doing it––or The Main Thing––any favors by spreading the fictive brainspace thin; trying to keep to three main projects at once: The Main Thing, TSR/this space, and the NonFic/Comics Thing I want to explore, the latter being a potentially more beneficial––in numerous ways––path forward.

Brief word on social media: from now on, I'm only posting News items, new TSR episodes, or other major project releases to Twitter. Photos / etc will mostly be posted to Insta (maybe, when I feel like it), while everything else - Links, Status, pieces, etc – remain here, the comment system and email - tww(AT)parentheticalrecluse(DOT)com – my main modes of communication. I still follow Twitter to keep up with what artists and writers and humans I admire are working on (to share here), but via private lists in Reeder. Everything’s available via RSS.

If anyone ever found my cardboard scrap / makeshift rulerthing I keep on my desk, they'd think I'd gone nuts, whatwith all those eights scrawled over it. Simple explanation, really: it's how I keep my Lamy 2000 nib from getting too scratchy: drawing figure eights on cardboard - or a paper bag - act as a sort of über-fine grain sandpaper to keep the nib smooth and less skippy.

The more you know. The day awaits; back to work.

Links, 03sep2021

Salman Rushdie to Serialize New Novella on Substack, via Publisher's Weekly.

ComiXology announces new app, more integration with Amazon, via The Beat.

Michelle Yeoh: ‘Jackie Chan thought women belonged in the kitchen – until I kicked his butt’, via The Guardian.

From Bendis's newsletter: TORSO, his brilliant crime graphic novel with Marc Andreyko, is free on Comixology through 08 September. It's a must-read; one of my favorites.

Fascinating thread at The Classic Horror Board on my current lost silent film obsession, the 1916 version of THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, “Das Phantom der Oper.” Some great information - and a synopsis of the film (which seems to be quite faithful to Leroux's original) - in the thread.

EarBliss, 03sep2021

ONE FLIGHT UP, by Dexter Gordon.

Organizing/Capacity

Hoodie weather has begun, if only for a day or so. Maybe a second. Runners running past in cool-weather gear amidst now-lifted fog. Doubtful I'll be in cool-weather gear at my anointed run-time; easybake oven principle in play.

Approximation of an organzing principle (and potential beginning dot/node/module) emergent for the Main Thing – though I'm trying not to get ahead of myself: general process of write a bunch of stuff and worry aout organizing it later still working – but a bit of organization to the chaos is welcome. Even if I throw it out sooner rather than later.

In local flavor: they caught the hometown asshole about three and half hours southwest of here... certain regional hospitals are near or over-capacity ... and there are 11 cases of student-Covid at my wife's school (only one among staff – where, it should be noted, two teachers started an anti-mask FB group because stupid, like Delta (and Mu, apparently) knows no bounds.)

In other news, I'm feeling fine, thanks for asking. On with the day.

I don’t have a title for this post but here’s my bonsai

Kirby and I have Frisbeed - and are learning "give..." Two hours and much mic-swearing whilst tangled in cables and TRRS fuckery later, the P4 lives; TSR0007 bits are recorded… moving release to next Wednesday because I'm weary... Ronnie the Bonsai, like the P4, lives again… (her predecessor, Bonnie, died a few years ago; it was tragic)… will wrap up Stalker tonight (so very, very good)…

Reading:

My complete reading list, from 2013 to the present, lives here.

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Two of the first comics in my collection, all those years ago - and the source of my lifelong love of Ditko's work.

Opportunity Simulacra

Good morning; a growlfest over the dogbed under my desk has come to a draw. Battle lines continue.

I am, according to my new doctor, healthy (other than that T1D thing, but I'll take what I can get). Tetanus shot and resultant blood sugar surge which should abate over the next day or so. Bloodwork next week for a fuller picture – fasting, which should be interesting: all persons within a five mile radius would be advised, next Thursday morning, to keep arms and hands away from me until at least 0800.

Thinking: my frustration with this area where comfort and tradition is valued above all else lies not in lack of "opportunity" itself, but in a lack of opportunity for chance, for serendipity; 99% of everything worthwhile in my life has come about because I wasn't actively seeking something; it sort of appeared – with the caveat being that I was, from a craft standpoint, ready for it to do so. Further: a recognition that I'm screwing myself by trying to create those chance / serendipitous opportunities via digital means (which is one of the great illusions of the social mediascape); it's like trying to create a tree from cut wood: I can stack the pieces into a simulacrum, but nothing new grows.

That said, I still love thinking here and putting these whatevers into the world. A useful brain salve between chunks of work. Dogchildren require sustenance; TSR intro/segue/outro recording later today.