Horror Movie Synopsis + Halva +Dolly
May I recommend
Reading horror movie synopses on Wikipedia
I am a scaredy cat. I do not like jump scares or men in goalie masks (ever, really, but particularly when they are murdering) or ghosts, unless they are whimsical and friendly.
The last scary movie I saw on purpose was The Blair Witch Project in 1999 and I returned to my apartment in urban London Ontario and was terrified for weeks that a forest witch was going to trick me into getting lost and then kill me with sticks.
While I don’t like watching scary movies, I do love to know what happens. If I see a horror movie trailer (this is a big if, often they are too scary to watch) or if a scary movie is getting a lot of buzz, I definitely want to know what the story is and most importantly, what happens.
I have discovered (and hold on to your butts, because this is a major discovery) that Wikipedia will give you recap of any and all movies. Even the scary ones.
Skeleton Key, where you accidentally watched the first 10 minutes, thinking it was a chirpy Kate Hudson Rom Com? Done.
The Babadook, which someone referred to somewhere on social media and you Googled? It’s there and it is terrifying.
Pin, which you dimly remember watching with your brother 30 years ago, and recall as being the scariest thing you’d ever seen? They got it.
Us, which seems to be offering very compelling critique of race and class in contemporary society, but is also vewy scawy? Don’t worry, don’t watch it, just read Wikipedia!
The Human Centipede, which your little sister said she dressed up as one Halloween and so you innocently Googled to find out what she was talking about? YUP. [Full disclosure: I thought it was called “The Human Caterpillar” when I just Googled it for this entry]
Be careful in your Wikipedia deep dives though. My friend is also fascinated/repelled by horror movies. One time we were having lunch and she told me the plot of Paranormal Activity. She hadn’t actually watched it, just read the summary. I went home that night and had continuous nightmares about my friend’s retelling of the Wikipedia plot summary of a low budget horror movie.
The mind is a powerful thing.
Do you love or hate horror? Leave a reply in the comments.
Food and grief
This is a really lovely essay about food and culture and grief. I came across it because it centres around Iranian, and wider Middle Eastern, food and mourning customs. One of my viewpoint characters in THE HONEYBEE EMERALDS is Iranian and I’ve been researching the culture to get the details right.
I hired a sensitivity reader when the book was done who reviewed my manuscript and gave me some further insight on the Iranian immigrant/asylum seeker reality. One of the things she told me was that I got something about the food all wrong :) I’m so glad I got that feedback.
I never thought about halva being a funerary food for anyone outside of Iranian Jews, but as soon as I saw Zeynep’s story, I knew just what was going on, and it broke my heart. Here was this poor young woman, stirring halva in memory of her dead mother. I imagined her letting grief work its way through her body through this slow, repetitive act.
Thanks to my dad, I’ve been a forty-year fan of Dolly
How Dolly Parton became a secular American saint
This is an in-depth article on how Dolly walks the line - being loved by both Democrats and Republicans. One thing the article is missing, though, is discussion of her music. I think what really saves Dolly from being “cancelled” by either side is the fact that her songs are amazing. 9 to 5, Jolene, I Will Always Love You are obvious ones, but Two Doors Down and Here You Come Again, Applejack, Just Someone You Used to Know and so many more are amazing too.
Dolly Parton is a brilliant artist, and she also seems to be a nice lady who is doubtless doing her best for all her many fans. But asking her to solve America’s fractured social landscape and calling her Jesus is putting a lot on her. It’s putting a lot on anyone. And Parton knows it.
A rallying cry for straight male spooning
There’s a curious lack of cosiness in male friendships
My female friendships aren’t quite as touchy as what Caroline O’Donoghue describes, but I do cherish their softness.
Male friendships have much to offer: they have a lot of fun together, and there isn’t the same amount of emotional gardening and spiritual heavy lifting that intense female friendships often require. There’s generally less bitching, less picking apart of tone and meaning. But there’s also a curious lack of cosiness.
Twitter
TikTok
“Smudgy, you must be pretty hungry.”
If Alexis Rose worked for Moderna
Also, my website is now live… It’s not very content heavy, but I am rolling out old blog posts from when we lived in Belgium. You can find it here: www.amytector.com
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I love Wikipedia synopsis too. I do it while I’m watching the movie (I’m the worst) - especially if I’m not 100% into it, or not sure I want to keep watching. I also like blog posts and reviews of shows / movies I’ll never watch. The best, for reality tv. Im not interested in watching Real Housewives, Kardashians, whatever, but I LOVE the synopsis. They read like juicy gossip. :)
I've come to like the Wikipedia summaries of superhero movies, after discovering I get the same degree of satisfaction in less than a tenth of the time. And what is it with kids these days, who see absolutely nothing scary in Blair Witch??