The D'Amato review is up!  November has been a month of many changes, so as it draws to a close, I pledge to try to be better about keeping the reviews going at a reasonable pace.  Next up, a journey into the past to pick up that radio show that I never got to listen to.  Woot!

To the unfortunate gentleman or lady who, Google tells me, unknowingly stumbled upon this site while on a quest to "check how far her dark grotto goes"; I'm sorry for the confusion.  The only grotto here is the classical kind, made of rock and such.  I occasionally review materials that might fit your search criteria, but I'm afraid that this is probably a dead end for you.

Godspeed.

I've said a few things here, now and then, about the forthcoming low-budget feature film entitled Angel of Music, directed by John Woosley (which just had its first test screening, so those interested may have a chance to get their paws on it within the next few months). I try not to make too much fun of things I haven't had a chance to give a decent run-through yet, since I'm all about trying to keep the academic impartiality going, but I couldn't resist giggling at some really not flattering trailers for this film a little while back. My desire to giggle can seldom be contained.

Anyway, the film is nearing release at some unspecified future date (it's on its way to film festivals at the moment, from my understanding), so it's begun to get some press in the director's local area. My mirth for the day comes from an article about the film's premiere, in which Woosley discussed the reasons behind changing his film's plot from a faithful period adaptation of the story. After explaining that a producer had asked him to think about the reasons that the story had never been faithfully adapted before, he delivered the best direct quote ever:

“It turns out that it can’t be done faithfully to the novel because the story is really boring.”

Y'all pardon me while I clean up the soda from my spit-take snort-laugh. Shit, it's so true. That story is boring as fuck--that's why it's been so constantly and varyingly adapted, time and again, for an entire century! Leroux, you boring old bastard, it's your fault that I've had to sit through all these really bad adaptations! Write a less goddamn boring story next time, so people don't have to change everything to make it decent!

Man. It's too bad nobody writes good novels and we have to adapt the boring ones for our derivative literature. Oh, what a world.

(Edit: There's a new trailer! It's a marked improvement over the hilarity-inducing previous efforts, though still pretty amateurish, at least to my eye. Time and a full viewing of the film will tell.)

Hey, y'all.  Obviously, some things happened, and I was absent from the interwebs for an extended period of time.  This was mostly unavoidable.  But now I am back, and things will be like they used to me.  Come back, baby.  Please?

The Danova review is up, and hopefully things will continue to spin on as quickly as possible.  I'm on it, folks!