"The Greatest Nobodies of History" by Adrian Bliss (2024)

Subtitled "Minor Characters from Major Moments", this irreverent, funny, witty and surprisingly intelligent little book presents ten chapters about some interesting moments in the history, but as told by unknown "witnesses" instead of famous people. So the story about Diogenes is told by some anonymous complainer who could not stand the stench coming from the famous Greek philosopher, The Plague is interviewed herself, the story of Henry VIII and Anne of Cleves is told by his “Groom of the Stool”, ancient old oak is the main protagonist in the story of Charles II (who was hiding in his branches), the horse is the main character in the story of Buffalo Bill tour of Europe, etc, etc. As you can see, it is a completely unusual approach to history of the world and as such it caught my attention immediately. 

The best of all is the story titled "The Master’s Ferret" and its told from a point of view of a beautiful Ferret who works as a model - at the very end of his short life (ferrets rarely live past six), he is send by his agent to Leonardo Da Vinci who uses him as a model for his painting A lady with the ferret" (humorously called "Ferret with a Lady" here) and later buys a ferret from its agent, to set him free in the nature (where he is immediately eaten by a badger). It is a beautifully written, gentle and affectionate story about basically shallow and superficial model (who just happen to be beautiful ferret) who achieves immortality trough a peace of art. 

"It was on the job, flushing a family of rabbits out of their twisting burrow in the woods, when I first realized I was unbelievably good looking. “I must be immortalized,” I whispered to myself as I preened in her terrified, twitching eyes. With no time to waste (ferrets rarely live past six), I parted ways with my handler and traveled to Milan with nothing but my outrageous good looks and a dream, and, because I was so breathtakingly beautiful, it wasn’t long before I was scouted by a modeling agent. Signor Serragli was the best in the business and had a whole host of animals on his books." 

My Goodreads stats for 2024

 

"The Underground Railroad" by Colson Whitehead (2016)

This novel was highly recommended everywhere online (even by Annie Lennox herself) so it made me intrigued enough to check it out. It was not exactly easy read as it deals with the days of slavery in US and in the beginning I was constantly getting flashes of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and "Roots" as this type of narrative generally deals with poor, illiterate slaves and their cruel white masters - with thousand and one variation on this story - but what makes this particular novel different is the uniqueness of its author's talent: this is the very first time I had encounter Colson Whitehead and he does magic here, adding his own special touch that reminds me a little bit on Toni Morrison. You see, what is special here is that Whitehead adds his own ingredients, which are almost fairy tale and fantasy combined with hard, realistic facts. In this book, the underground railroad is not a network of secret routes and places where slaves escaped to freedom but a real, genuine underground railway with the tunnels where carriages transport slaves across the borders. It is a bit confusing at first and I wasn't sure how will I like this toying with the reality, but eventually it makes sense and it works just fine.

The main protagonist here is Cora, whose mother escaped to freedom and never went back - Cora eventually joins another slave in his escape from the plantation and the novel follows them as they are running from place to place, trying to avoid a slave catcher Ridgeway and his companions. Along the way Cora encounters all sorts of people - some helping, others not - and changes her identity once the slave catchers are on her trail. Interestingly, the novel also makes it clear that white people could have also been lynched if found that they hide runaway slaves. Because Cora is never fully explained and I find her more like an symbol than real character, her catcher is actually better represented and there is a very memorable character of a little black boy Homer who unexplainably stays close and faithful to him. Even though I had my doubts at the start, it turned out into a really good read. Quite excellent. 

"Sweet Bobby: My Catfish Nightmare" by Lyttanya Shannon (2024)

 

I started actually listening to the podcast about this story - but podcast have 6 long episodes and even though I was intrigued, I got stuck on the second episode and thought, perhaps watching a full documentary all at once might be better idea. There is literary no difference between the two, except that podcast is a bit longer and more elaborate - the timeframe of a 82 minutes documentary suited me just fine.

So far, I have never heard of "catsfishing" - which probably means scamming somebody online - I have been lucky in that sense, since we live in a interesting new times where people still learn how to behave in a virtual world and have to decide for themselves whom can they trust. Yes, I did lost some money by ordering products online that were never delivered (or if they did, they wee nothing as on the pictures) but this was not a trauma, more a lesson how to behave in the future. What happened in "Sweet Bobby" was far more malicious and devious. 

The main character here is cheerful, 30-something radio presenter Kirat Assi who just ended her long term relationship and is now floating around aimlessly, feeling that her family and acquaintances expect from her to start her own family - she constantly talk about this while her voice gets more and more panicky, to the point that we are painfully aware of social expectations in Punjabi society. One day, out of the blue, she gets contacted by a handsome cardiologist from a very good and well known family who shares some friends with her - apparently everybody in Punjabi world is somehow connected - and she accepts his friendship on Facebook - with time they share close online friendship that eventually grows into a full-blown love affair, even though they never met in a real life. In fact, they did met once briefly in a nightclub, but Bobby was a bit reserved, which Kirat explained to noisy surroundings. Their online chats developed in a discussions about raising the family together, selecting babies name's, wedding dates, etc, etc - it went on for years and each time they were supposed to finally meet, Bobby would come up with another fantastic story. Most of us would give up on this imaginary "fiancé" long ago, but Kirat is all about validation from her Punjabi world and it looks as she would feel truly satisfied, fulfilled and happy only once she wears a bride dress and gets some children like all her acquaintances - she constantly talks about biological clock ticking and how she is afraid that she might miss her chance - her best chance is now this handsome stranger online (who accidentally, has a wealthy background, nice house, good job and looks like a good catch) . Of course it all eventually gets untangled towards the end and I won't spoilt the ending here - I just have to say that during the documentary, it was nobody else but Kirat herself who appeared a bit deranged, because of her intensity, gullibility and obsession with the wedding - we see photos of her as a little girl already "dressing up" as a bride, so it all gets a bit heavy, this nagging feeling of what women are expected to do to confirm their place in the society. There is a wound and emptiness here that I don't think bride's dress could ever solve. 

On the other hand, its interesting to note that "catsfishing" itself at this point is still not officially a crime. So police actually did not react when Kirat came to them with her story. Even though her life had been destroyed by malicious intent, there is still no law against it - this is where getting this story out in the public might help. 

"Wicked: Part I" by Jon M. Chu (2024)

Back in 1995 I read excellent novel "Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West" by Gregory Maguire - it was the best seller that made his name and he even continued with similar type of turnings famous fairy tales upside down ("Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister", "Mirror, Mirror") though nothing ever matched the impact of the first book, which posed a very interesting question: what is the difference between good and the evil - as the "Wicked" suggested, it is really just a point of view. So here we have a character firstly dreamed by L. Frank Baum in his now classic children novel, than again re-framed as the man character of 1995 best seller, than staged for a 2003 Broadway musical and now we have Hollywood movie version that apparently breaks the records of popularity (the day I went to cinema, it was bursting with audience clearly enjoying themselves).

First, let's get on with the elephant in the room - the book upon which the musical and the movie were based in a relatively simple, 500+ pages long novel. Nothing in it suggest that it must be a two-part saga with each part being more than two hours long. The only explanation behind this is a corporate greed and desire to sell more tickets, more merchandise, etc. Why on earth are we accepting this ridiculous length of the movies is another question - in the past, it was possible to watch a perfectly satisfactory movie that would go for an hour and half. Friend suggested that moviegoers should get free blanket and a pillow, but since I always snore first half an hour, this would be disastrous for me - I would snooze as soon as the movie starts. (I caught myself snoring during "Wicked" only once - with my eyes open!) So yes, dear reader, the movie was designed as a two part extravaganza and the second part is scheduled to be released Christmas time next year. With, no doubt, accompanying T-shirts, sunglasses, lip balms and the whole shebang.

It has been long time since I read the novel so to be honest, I remember only the impression - the story was centred around unlucky and green skinned Elphaba and her popular, fashion aware and blonde roommate Glinda & how Elphaba opposes The Wizard of Oz who eventually proclaims that she is a dangerous enemy. The movie obviously had a whole team of people tailoring the script so everything is bigger, louder and more exuberant than I remember - this is not necessarily bad thing because it works perfectly for a musical. The first thing that struck me was how similar to Harry Potter it is - I would even dare to say that Harry Potter, Mean Girls and Glee paved the way for the success of this movie, as it basically combines elements of all three movies - magic school, wizards, spoiled brats, student fraternities, outsiders, etc. Everything looks amazing, there is a lot of dancing, singing, flying and all sorts of tricks not possible to do on the stage - so yes, it is a perfect musical for the modern age. With this, I also mean to describe a impeccable cellophane and not much music beneath it - I know this is a musical but I could not remember one single song from it, as they all blend into some strange combination of sameness. I could see that people are singing and was aware there is a music in the movie, but nothing caught on. Not a single song. 

Cynthia Erivo is cast in the main role and she is good - I have already noticed her in "Widows" and "Harriet" (and as a Blue Fairy in "Pinocchio") - she can do things but to be honest, her main task here is to display various shades of sadness and misery - she is green skinned outsider and as such sulks in the background, yearning to belong somewhere - anywhere. Having only Elphaba in the movie would be a bit too morose so fortunately the script adds someone completely different and this is pop starlet Ariana Grande who is actually genuinely brilliant as goody two shoes Glenda - she kicks the heels, waves her hair and is so entertaining and funny in her knowing, exaggerated bimbo-ism that her pinkness and cheerfulness is perfect contrast Elphaba's teenage angst. I suspected deep inside that movie's success also has to do with basic simplicity of the story - two teenage girls sharing the room in a magic school and Glenda helping Elphaba to became popular by giving her make-over and teaching her how to use make up. What is actually much more interesting but its not discussed at all is how Elphaba is ostracised for her steadfast opinions while Glenda stays silent in her conformist role and ends up being proclaimed "Good Witch" - I am genuinely curious will anybody else notice this, because it is clear that Elphaba suffers her fate only because she is standing outside and dares to oppose the authorities. Glenda is good only because she does not stand up to anything, all she wants is her own comfort and safety. 

2004 in retrospect

Goodreads just informed me that so far I have finished 25 out of self-imposed 24 books this year. This inspired me to sit down and have a quick look at the 2024 & how was it for me.

Books:

As mentioned, I am slowly returning to reading. There was a time - before internet, I guess - when I used to read 4 books per month, but since internet came, I am too distracted with it. So I am still reading but this time is mostly articles, news and blogs. I had stopped beating myself over not achieving same reading numbers like before and accepted that perhaps one or two books per month is more realistic. Here perhaps lies the truth of the happy life - accept the reality and make the best of it - so since I am not pushing myself to feel guilty, its going nicely. I did managed to read 12 books in both 2022 and 2023, so this time I lifted the bar slightly and read two books per month, which worked out fine and was realistic. I read some SF, biographies, a few classics, even some hard cover graphic books that earlier in my time we would call comics. 

Music:

Spotify has completely changed the way I listen to the music now, because gone are the days of walking to a physical shop and buying albums - everything is available online now so its just a matter of discovering something new that I have not heard yet. Contemplating various playlists became a part of my morning routine and I always carefully prepare what I will listen that particular day at work. I am always conscious of what I don't know so occasionally I add something classical just to check it out and this is how Bach came on the top of my 2024 list as the most played name - his body of work is huge so obviously I was busy with that. Not sure where Elvis Presley comes in here, particularly because I actually genuinely love only one of his albums ("From Elvis In Memphis", 1969) but perhaps I was listening his many various soundtracks so it has accumulated. Streisand had memoirs published this year so I was obviously listening her along the way and Ella Fitzgerald is an old favourite so no surprises here. I guess this can all change if next year I decide to research the music of for example, Brahms or Beethoven - than they might be on my personal top - otherwise I always return to my old favourites, but I always find new ones, like country blues album "Yellow Peril" by Nat Myers.

Movies:

Because I listed what impressed me here on this blog, its easy to see what I was enjoying in 2024. "Society of the Snow (La sociedad de la nieve)", ""Georgetown", ""The Zone of Interest" , "Wicked Little Letters", and "Pearl" were just some of the movies I have seen in the cinema (the last one was recently seen "Megapolis"). I have also exploring streaming platforms and particularly enjoyed "Baby Raindeer" and recently fell totally head over hills for SF series "Silo" but have also enjoyed Dutch historical documentaries about their Golden Age, Industrialisation Age, etc. A few cinema visits turned out less exciting than what people recommended me - I didn't care for either "Oppenheimer" or "Barbie" and genuinely disliked both "Poor Things" and hyped Demi Moore horror "The Substance". As for the next year, I am still not sure do i want to continue having cinema prescription since I go to cinema less and less - everything eventually comes to TV sooner or later. But there are always big movies that deserve to be seen on a big screen, I might continue.

Theatre:

Some improvement here: been to the theatre twice this year. The first play was a very bad production made out of Agatha Christie's "Murder on the Orient Express"  and that was a big disappointment that made me even question do I enjoy theatre at all. Luckily, it was all healed soon afterwards, when I saw an exciting and vibrant production of "House of Troy" by Euripides. These two were so drastically opposite of each other that I got a lesson - to be more careful what I am planning to see live on the stage. 

Travels:

I have been travelling for work and during roughly 15 years I have sailed the 7 seas and seen most of the planet. That is why I don't feel any excitement about packing again and going somewhere - I am perfectly fine here in Amsterdam, love the city and enjoying being here. Contrary to so many people wishing to be elsewhere, I am happy here and would rather be here than anywhere else in the world. However, I did embark a plane twice this year: first I visited Croatia because of the wedding occasion that I did not want to miss. It was surprisingly pleasant and not traumatic at all + wonderful to see my friends again. Second journey was to Portugal, which honestly was exhausting - I wanted to do so much in such a short time, instead of recharging the batteries and just resting. So my next vacation must be a quiet place with food, reading and sleeping. Maybe some walks in the nature. But definitely no big, crowded cities because they are tiresome. 

"A Death in the Desert" by Willa Cather (1903)

 

I have yet to find anything by Willa Cather that does not cut me directly in the heart. Her 1918 novel "My Ántonia" is still one of my all-time favourites and to this day I marvel how she created such unforgettable and evocative story in what is basically a very short volume - it was a tiny, slim book that completely overtook me and just thinking about it makes me want to read it again. So it took me a while, but to Cather I eventually did return and it happened via this novella/short story published for the first time in 1903 and later again in her very first published book, which was a short story collection "The Troll Garden" two years later. Considering how much I had enjoyed this, I should probably just get the whole collection - it is even available free online.

"A Death in the Desert" is happening, like other Cather's works, in Great Plains - wide, open spaces, often dusty deserts, in this case somewhere between Nebraska and Wyoming - this is where the main protagonist Everett travels in a train and he is time and time again wrongly recognised as his very similar brother Adriance whom he greatly resembles. We learn that Everett spend his whole life in the shadow of his famous and celebrated composer brother, even to extent that he never married and quietly suffered as his only love, singer Katharine never paid any attention to him and followed his brother on the international tours instead. But now in the middle of nowhere, Katharine and Everett meat again and he learns that she is dying from Tuberculosis here on her brother's farm - she begs him to visit her and during the time spent together, they bond over memories they share, including the connection with Adriance. Everett informs his brother that Katharine is dying and she gets a very gentle and considerate letter that cheers her up enormously, but both of them are aware that the end is near and their love was never to be. Neither Everett nor Katharine never experienced genuine love, being always in the shadow of magnetic and charismatic Adriance. 

I have listened it as an audio book and was moved so much that i almost wept on the street.

Maggie Smith

 

Documentary: "The last seven months of Anne Frank" (1988)

The previous post was about two sisters who spent a year in hiding during WW2 and eventually later came to be arrested, deported and witnessed death of Anne Frank and her sister in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Both Janny Brandes-Brilleslijper and her own sister Lien were originally in Westerbork transit camp (used as limbo between arrests and real concentration camp), than transferred to Auschwitz and finally to Bergen-Belsen where they miraculously survived, instinctively holding on to each other. One of these sisters, Janny, is included in a 1988 documentary that gives testimonies of seven different ladies who were also prisoners in these camps and who witnessed Frank family being there. 

It is a very interesting documentary since each of included witnesses tells a story that follows what happened after the end of the famous diary in 1944, when Frank family was betrayed, discovered and arrested. Some of them (like Hannah Pick-Goslar) were actually Anne's childhood friends and never knew she was in hiding - they just assumed the family was long ago escaped to Switzerland. Janny Brandes-Brilleslijper comes in a documentary around 10:38 and she talks how she met Frank family int he same train that took them to Westerbork and how they later met again in Bergen-Belsen where, exhausted and sick, Frank sisters already gave up on living anymore, thinking that their parents were already dead (Otto Frank was in fact, alive and he was already liberated from Auschwitz but nobody knew it at the time). Janny and her sister might be the last people who actually saw Frank sisters alive and they were the ones who buried them. It is a very interesting documentary that includes many other stories by Anne's friends and contemporaries. 

"The Sisters of Auschwitz" ("'t Hooge Nest") by Roxane van Iperen (2018)

First thing first, let's face elephant in the room: translation by Joni Zwart is clumsy and there were few moments at the beginning of the book where I could clearly tell sentence does not make sense, but I persevered trough initially slow introduction and the patience paid off - once the story started cooking, I could not put the book down. It is fascinating that the authoress Roxane van Iperen accidentally discovered the history of the forrest villa where she just moved in with her family, but perhaps it was not an accident. Perhaps the house waited for her to tell its story. It could not have been anybody else but van Iperen who became deeply involved in her research and eventually created this exciting book.

During the renovation of the house, van iperen discovered way too many hiding places around the house - what initially she thought was perhaps just a storage, turned out much more interesting. It turned out the house was a hiding place for Jews during WW2 and there was a whole group of around 25 people. Here is what van Iperen have discovered: two sisters (Lien and Janny Brilleslijper) with their families, friends and whoever needed hiding space, rented this well-hidden summer house (their husbands posing as non-Jews and fooling some sweet old ladies who were the original owners) and were hiding here from February 1943 to the summer 1944 - while the rest of the country suffered horrible transportations, arrests and murders, these people lived pretty comfortable with their books, music and birthday parties, right in the middle of what was actually a wealthy Nazi neighbourhood. 

There were instances where group's activities and apparent carefree attitude alarmed me (you would expect a bit more common sense than banging on piano until neighbourhood hears it) but this is all just in hindsight. Its easy to see things differently from our present perspective, who knows how will posterity judge ourselves in a current position. Later the story gets even more interesting, as sisters encounter Anne Frank and her sister. It is a story that needed to be told and van iperen burns with desire to tell it: her fire and inspiration easily grab the listener and therefore I can't give it less than five stars - clumsy translation and all - its just too important to criticise it. 

The Redgrave Women

 

Natasha Richardson (left) with her grandmother, Rachel Kempson; niece, Daisy Bevan; mother, Vanessa Redgrave; and sister, Joely Richardson, photographed by Annie Leibovitz at Natasha Richardson and Liam Neeson's home in New York, April 1998 for Vanity Fair.

Vacation time: Portugal

I have recently returned from vacation in Portugal.

It was interesting experience - not because of the usual desire to change the scenery and because of what we have seen there - in many ways Portugal is beautiful and definitely worth a visit - but because of what this experience taught me. To my biggest surprise, once when we actually arrived in Lisbon, I found myself perpetually tired and exhausted, since there were so many things to do but everything was so tiring - not to mention that the weather was against us and we were constantly drenched and wet from the pouring rain - Lisbon is extremely hilly and every single walk turned out to be a Sisyphus mythical climb, it was non stop one climb after another. Porto was just slightly less hilly but even here we puffed and panted and were constantly sweaty (and afterwards sick with cold, after riding sightseeing bus or such) - it was almost as we were punished for having a sunny day, immediately we started to cough. 

So yes, it was beautiful. And interesting. But the best part of vacation was our return home, to our regular comfy nest, shower that actually works, soft and comfortable bed, etc. We were so tired of physical efforts to manoeuvre hilly streets, that coming back to a flat surface was wonderful. Seriously, we had enough of this unexpected fitness and came to conclusion that in the future, vacation should be deserved rest which means that from now we might select a small town or even a village with no traffic jams, no crowds and no tourist traps everywhere. I would not mind a walk in the nature but walks we suffered in Lisbon were not enjoyable. From now on, we will plan the vacations differently and we might simply stay somewhere local, out of town, no planes, no stress, no climbing hills. To recharge the batteries and to rest properly, I need a tiny place with silence, perhaps a sound of the rain, open space, some nature and please dear God, flat surfaces. It took me another week to recover from all this climbing (and cold) and that last week of just resting at home was the best part of my vacation. 

Ivica Krajač (1938 -2024)

Just found out a sad news that Ivica Krajač has died. Everybody who was growing up in the 1970s remembers his name, as Krajač was extremely busy and successful lyrics writer for anybody and everybody in Croatian pop music at the time. On every single than-popular pop festival, his name was often quited ceremoniously before the performance - "and now, the song composed by XY with lyrics by Ivica Krajač (and orchestra conducted by Nikica Kalogjera)!"

In a way, his zenith might have been 1970s when local, home-grown music enjoyed particular success and Krajač was particularly versatile as not only lyrics writer but also songwriter himself, serving everybody from peppy Ljupka Dimitrovska to big stars like Drago Diklić, Tereza Kesovija, Gabi Novak and zillion other names. In fact, without him it would be difficult to even imagine our local pop music, since he was one of the most creative people around. Apparently he was also a theatre director, which I didn't know. 

Krajač came to prominence in the late 1950s as one of the founding members of very popular vocal quartet 4 M - they were beloved as mainstream entertainers, but this was way before my time and I struggle to find any appeal in their recorded music. (They even represented Yugoslavia on Eurovision). When the quartet disbanded, Krajač created a name for himself as a songwriter and ever since he was a busy man, serving other singers with either lyrics or music or sometimes both. Basically, he is connected to every artist of his generation. While the posterity might remember him as lyrics writer of countless "schlager" pop hits of 1960s and 1970s, my connection to Krajač is his friendship and collaborations with Karlo Metikoš - as a tandem, they created two rock-operas (Gubec beg and Grička vještica) that I still own on the records and know every single lyric + in 1973 they teamed to create a debut LP album for than 23 years old Josipa Lisac and the result was "Dnevnik jedne ljubavi" (The diary of one love), to this day highly praised and beloved concept album and one of the first rock albums in a country. It was because of his collaborations with Metikoš that I noticed lyrics of Ivica Krajač - I also noticed that he carefully tailored his songs according to performer (very much like Arsen Dedić also did) so he would serve pop fluff to some and highly poetic lyrics to others. Decades ago, when I was young and hopeful journalist, I have actually meet and spoken to him, I still remember how excited I was when he mentioned casually that he still owns rehearsal tapes for both rock operas created with Metikoš - they will probably never be released in public, though I would love to hear how the work was created. 

Bonnie Raitt

 

A very young Bonnie Raitt during her 1976 visit to The Netherlands 

You can read ger interview here

"Pearl" by Ti West (2022)

It was a very long time since I was blown away by acting performance, specially in a horror movie - perhaps the last genuinely excellent horror I have seen was 2017 "Get out" and nothing since had thrilled me as much as 2022 "Pearl". After the movie I had to do some research and found out this is a part of movie trilogy directed by Ti West who decided that each movie will be created in a different style - "Pearl" is a tribute to classic sweeping old Hollywood movies - together, these three moves create a coherent story, but they can also be enjoyed on their own. Since I never heard of this, I simply dived in "Pearl" and later made my way trough the rest.

"Pearl" is happening on a desolate, isolated farm around 1918 and we know it because it is time of Spanish flu and everybody is keeping distance, their faces covered with face masks. The main character is a simple farm girl Pearl (Mia Goth) who lives with her impoverished German parents and waits for the return of husband from WW1. There is not much joy in her life - after the stroke, her father is basically a plant in the wheelchair, while stern mother suffers in silence and makes life hard by insisting its all the valley of the shadow of death & prayers before meals, etc. The only distractions happened when Pearl is sent away to the local little town to get medicine for the father and here she catches glimpses of glamour on the cinema screen and daydreams imagining herself as one of the chorus girls. Slowly, we also get impression that not everything is right with her, as she gets more and more sucked in her fantasies and things get really complicated when she finds out about the audition for a new dance troupe, which she feels is her way out of the farm life and into the stardom ... 

I won't spoil the rest of the movie (this is just a beginning in a nutshell) but after a slow start, it really gets extremely gripping and its all thanks not to excellent script but also to brilliant acting. First, I must compliment New Zealand actress Tandi Wright who is really powerful as a mother. She suffers in silence until the dinner where storm outside reflects the turmoil inside her mind and we find out she is literary as disturbed as her daughter. David Corenswet is also very good as a local cinema projectionist who flirts with Pearl until her bizarre behaviour turns him off (with dangerous consequences). But the movie belongs to Mia Goth who is so spectacularly brilliant in the main role that she became my new movie crush - her acting is out of this world, technically and physically a true perfection and honestly one would never expect such sensational acting in a horror movie. There are two scenes where camera is focused on her face and she just walks away with the movie.  I enjoyed this so much that I even watched the rest of the trilogy, but this one is by far the best of them. It could be also because other movies were created in different styles and happened in modern times, while this one has a certain artificial patina about it that makes is it so special. 

"Mexican Gothic" by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (2020)

Goodreads recommended this one, in fact the novel was winner of Goodreads Choice Awards 2020 as the best horror novel of 2020. And because I have so many books on my e-reader, it became difficult to choose what exactly to read so I decided (on the spur of the moment) not to bother with self-imposed tasks, classics, etc but to give chance to someone I have never read before. I even checked her pictures online and she looks incredibly young and fresh-faced, but the lady is actually 43 at this point so its just funny how everybody looks young to me now as I am over the hill myself.

"Mexican Gothic" is exactly what the title says: it is a heavy drama set in creepy house somewhere in Mexican mountains. It has a young, self-confident heroine (Noemi) who is sent by her father to find out what is going on with their cousin Catalina who is sending disturbing letters from her new home, where she got married despite family's objections. When Noemi arrives there, the scenery could have been Transylvania - not only that house is ancient, neglected and spooky but its inhabitants don't use electricity, move trough the house silently and demand no talks during dinner.  Being adventurous city girl, Noemi don't accept it easily and constantly clashes with them, asking too many questions, trying to help her comatose cousin (who is perpetually "resting" and should not be disturbed) and basically sinking deeper and deeper in trouble, until the reader starts wondering why she simply don't run for her life instead of staying in danger. Moreno-Garcia explain this is her loyalty to Catalina, but we never get impression that she actually care for Catalina in the first place (Naomi is described as strong-willed and somehow narcissistic, wealthy daddy's girl who probably until now never had any struggles in life) - we understand it helps the story that Noemi insist on her support for Catalina, but it stretches credibility a bit, since everybody else would run and bring some help. Moreno-Garcia is a pleasant surprise and she knows how to weave a very good, atmospheric and moody story - I read this breathlessly and (despite some reservations about credibility of characters behaviour) enjoyed it so much that now I am going further with another book by her. 

Gramophone records fair in RAI

 

Recently I found the advertisement for a big, second-hand gramophone records fair that was supposed to happen in Amsterdam - since I gave myself a brand new gramophone player for my birthday, it was just perfect occasion and I purchased ticket online, very interested to visit the place and have a look what they have there. My idea was to perhaps find and replace my old collection that I used to have as a teenager - I don't need anything that can already be found on Spotify, but would love to experience the thrill of taking the album out of its cover and enjoy the music the way I used to, a lifetime ago. So I was quite excited about the prospect of this and to be honest, anticipation was the best part of it.

When Saturday finally came, I took a underground to Amsterdam South where the fair was happening. Funny enough, I have never been to RAI building before, so this was my very first visit there. It turned out a bit different than I expected - namely, this was not just some second hand records sold for peanuts but a big business where sellers from all over Europe presented their collectors items and prices were just ridiculous - going on from € 20 to anything upwards, even € 90 and more. I mean, these were not just any old records but really something more like a status symbol. This quickly discouraged me and I roamed around a bit, until I found the bins with available second-hand records but here I had to be patient because the crowd was mainly focused on them and not on expensive records. 

At certain point, I got excited about a LP that was never released on CD and even went to ATM to get cash - it was pricy but I liked the idea of owning it - and than, because the way to ATM was so complicated, long and convoluted, on the way back I changed my mind. Why spending € 25 for a record that I already have in digital format and can listen at home anyway. So I keep to my inexpensive bins and found a handful of old records that simply reminded me on the childhood, like "We Are The World" , "Flashdance" and "Grease" that gave me kick of holding the original album covers in my hands. But I left the place thinking how perhaps these large fairs are not really for me - I will get much more excitement looking into second hand antique shops where something pops out unexpectedly and affordably. 

"The Other Pandemic: How QAnon Contaminated the World" by James Ball (2023)

 

I glanced at this out of curiosity and before you know it, the book was simply reading itself. It is a subject that always intrigued me and I have found it incredibly interesting, alarming and scary as any horror novel - except this is not a fiction, but our reality. 

James Ball is a British journalist and winner of Pulitzer Prize for investigative journalism, so he really has some solid background. His writing is exciting, inspired and straight to the point - in this book he elaborates about our virtual society that helped spread of all sorts of viruses that differ from other viruses in a sense that they spread trough our brains. He makes a good point that instead of bringing informations, the online world also spreads disinformation, fear, conspiracy theories and whatnot. To a big degree, it influences how people behave, what they think and worst of all, it can lead to serious crimes based simply on ideas, gossip or illusions. (Like father who kidnapped his kids and murdered them, to stop his wife from using them for satanic purposes) 

Unfortunately, we all know people who succumb to conspiracy theories. I personally know some old school acquaintances who got lost in the rabbit holes and surprisingly, every now and than I find out that even people I know as my work colleagues (for example) have weird ideas picked up online. Because computer algorithm always brings you more and more of what you searched for, its quite dangerous to succumb to these temptations - before you know it, it might affect your whole perspective on life and reality. I found this book to be very informative, interesting and quite disturbing. We are still learning how to cope with this sudden explosion of technical progress and it is very possible that its effect on human brains are in fact very dangerous and perhaps even self-destructive.