As usual, life is kicking my ass, so the Richardson/Dance is still sitting forlornly on my desk, unwatched.  I will be getting to it as soon as I possible can, because I am chafing at the bit of having to do nothing for so long.

Other thoughts, however: specifically, thoughts on fanzines.  More to the point, should stories in fanzines count under my self-imposed criteria?  I definitely said that I wasn't going to be doing fanfiction that hadn't been published, partly out of the hope for some small amount of quality control and partly because I'd be old and grey before I finished every bit of Phantom-based fanfiction out there.  Fanzine stories are, essentially, fanfiction (someone's just printed them out and stapled them together, basically), but do they count as published?  I mean, having a story published in an established magazine like, say, Fantasy & Science Fiction definitely means that you're published, even if said story isn't published in a book.  However, do I really want to open this can of worms?  And if so, does anyone with a little more insight into the fanzine scene have any advice or thoughts on it?

The Levitt/Cassidy review is up, with a greater modicum of grace and kindness than I expected of myself.  It's not that it was putrescent; I'm just usually not very kind.  So, I guess, kudos to me for being less of a jerk than usual.

On to the Richardson/Dance film, which I hear from many is either awesome or terrible.

More fun with packages!  Today, the Absinthe and the Hunt joined the serried ranks of angelic prose on my shelves.  I owe the Maranto, Black, and Johnson texts an apology; I said that they were a little improvised in format.  That wasn't improvised.  This is improvised.  May the writing inside be captivating and engaging enough to make me forget that it's crazy-looking!

Oh, man, I totally want to order more books.  I've forgotten what an undented paycheck looks like.

It's Mostly Unsupported Rumor Time again in these here parts!  This time, there're mutterings about a remake of de Palma's crazy, wacky, lovable Phantom of the Paradise.  Considering how much I loved the original movie--who could not love that kind of insanely cheerful drug trip?--I am bizarrely excited by this prospect.

Please make this movie.  I will review it with great glee, even if I hate it.  Pretty please make this movie.

The Kay review is up.  Whoa, nelly, am I tired now.

Next up, an unexpected treat: someone extremely excellent managed to find me a copy of an ancient film that nobody loves!  You know what that means... time for a viewing!

Bam, texts on my shelf.  Today it's the Maranto, Black, and Johnson.  They look a little... um... improvised in their binding and layout, but that doesn't mean there might not be pearls of literary wisdom within.

I've finished the Kay, but writing the review is kicking my ass hardcore.  I'm on it, I promise.

I was thinking today: I don't have any porn versions of the Phantom story yet.  Why is that?  After all, there are at least five that I know of out there, probably more.  Sex is such an elemental part of the story that I'm very interested to see how people play that out in a setting which caters purely to sexual fantasy.  And, as with all porn, there is so much potential for hilarity.

Goddamn pornos only being released on VHS.  Come on.  Show me some love, internet--surely there's some enterprising deviant out there that has some of these for sale.  PornQuest 2008 is on.

I'm finished with the Kay, so a review will be pending.  With little to no porn, in case anyone is worried.

Why, hello, little tax refund.  Do you know where you're going?  No, not to the bank.  No, not to the bill collectors.  No, not to the schools.  That's right, you're going to a magical place online where you go away to live with a nice company and they send me some books to console me for my loss.  It will be a magical journey.

I'm continuing my quest to find as much published material as I can, and in doing so am now hitting all the subsidy and self-publishing sites online (thanks a lot for making my life harder, Amazon).  So far, I've ordered three new texts (the Black, the Maranto, and the Johnson--hee!) and discovered a few more to add to my list.  They just keep coming out, don't they?  Notably, it seems that there's a new follow-up to the de Mendes text coming out that focuses on Raoul, who never gets his own novels, it seems like.  Should be interesting.

Apparently, the Woosley/Kisgen film has been pushed back yet again, probably to this winter.  My disappointment is probably surmountable.

The Little/Englund review is up, so guess what that means (other than that I just watched a horror movie and need to sleep with the lights on)?

Hallelujah!  I'm out of movie-land for a little while and I can read a book now!

Even better, it's time for the Kay text, which is apparently so definitive that many fans of the story consider it canon as much as Leroux.  I've heard, as usual, various good and bad things both about it, so we'll just have to wait and see what my inexpert but undoubtedly heartfelt opinion will be.

Ta-daa!  The Guest review is up and I'm on a roll (mostly, I suspect, due to the fact that it's no longer the busy season at work and I have time to type reviews while I'm sitting at my desk not doing anything).  I'll be hitting the Little/Englund film next, and then--God willing, please, please--I will be out of film-land for a while and able to go back to doing some reading.  Let's face it: film is not my first love.  Or my third love, really.  It's like a date that friends keep fixing me up with, and I'm always mildly confused as to how I ended up here.

This one may take a little while, however... this is the Englund Phantom, and I'm a complete wuss when it comes to horror films, so those two facts together mean that I'll have to keelhaul John into watching it with me.  Lest there be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Amazing people (John!) have not only fixed my Guest film problem, but bought me extra popcorn and sparkling cider, every film reviewer's hard tack and water skin.  He is a fantabulous man, especially since he now has to suffer through 2+ hours of Phantom of the Opera animation from the 1980s.

The Friedman/Rydall review is up (I had unexpected free time this weekend).

So... yeah, not really a genius sleeper hit.  But the theme song is endlessly entertaining!

On to the Little/Englund film next, but that review probably won't be finished until some time during the week.

So my copy of the Guest film turns out to be defective as well.  First Ye Bang ge Sheng, and now this.  I'm investigating alternatives while I cry inside, but in the meantime I'll probably move on... to that movie with Pauly Shore in it, the 1988 Friedman/Rydall flick.  I really put my money where my mouth is when I say I'm going to watch something bad next, don't I?

Maybe I'm being unfair.  Maybe it's a genius sleeper hit in disguise.  We'll just have to wait and see.

I was thinking about putting some kind of joke up here yesterday, but inertia and fatigue won out and I... didn't.  You know it's bad when I can't even be bothered to bestir myself for the extra effort of pranking someone.

However, I did manage to bestir myself enough to finish the review on the Markowitz/Schnell film, and to actually put it on the internet in (semi) presentable form!  I'm rather proud of that one.  It only took about half the time it usually takes me to finish a film review, which is still pretty embarrassingly long when compared to the literature and music reviews.  Leave me alone.  I'm not a visual learner.

I know I said I was going to do the Pauly Shore movie next, but extensive research (i.e., I remembered to look at my own chronology page) tells me that the animated Guest film predates it.  Hot dog!  So that's up next.  Pauly Shore will just have to wait.