Better Than Friday - 111 (Patreon)

Good late afternoon everyone.

The leaves are turning, beautiful out there. Hope it is wherever you are too. 

Have a great weekend. 

1. A French Gothic Novel that just arrived in the mail - Jean Ray's Malpertuis 

Another solid looking title that just arrived from Wakefield Press 

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Jean Ray brilliantly upends the haunted-house tradition in this widely acclaimed puzzlebox of a novel

A reinvention of the Gothic novel and an established classic of fantastic literature, Malpertuis is as inventive and gripping today as when it first appeared in French in the dark year of 1943.

Malpertuis is a puzzle box of nested narratives wrested from a set of manuscripts stolen from a monastery. A bizarre collection of distrustful relatives has gathered together in the ancient stone mansion of a sea-trading dynasty for the impending death of the occult scientist, Uncle Cassave, and the reading of his will. Forced to dwell together for the remainder of their lives within the stifling walls of Malpertuis for the sake of a cursed inheritance, their banal existence gradually gives way to love affairs and secret plots, as the building slowly exposes a malevolence that eventually leads to a series of ghastly deaths.

The eccentric personalities it houses―which include an obsessive taxidermist, a hypochondriac, a trio of vengeful sisters and a former paint store manager who has gone mad―begin to shed like skins to reveal yet another hidden story buried in the novel’s structure, one that turns the haunted-house tradition on its head and culminates in an apocalyptic denouement.

Jean Ray (1887–1964) is the best known of the multiple pseudonyms of Raymundus Joannes Maria de Kremer, a pivotal figure in the “Belgian School of the Strange,” who authored some 6,500 texts in his lifetime.

2. Nightmare Alley by Guillermo Del Toro 

Sent to me by a viewer the other day. 

It's an adaptation of the excellent book I've reviewed by William Lindsay Gresham.

Here's a great article about him by Paul Duncan entitled: 

William Lindsay Gresham: Nothing Matters In This Goddamned Lunatic Asylum Of A World But Dough

Reflecting on his life, Gresham told a fellow veteran from Spain, "I sometimes think that if I have any real talent it is not literary but is a sheer talent for survival. I have survived three busted marriages, losing my boys, war, tuberculosis, Marxism, alcoholism, neurosis and years of freelance writing. Just too mean and ornery to kill, I guess."

3. Criminologist Reviews Serial Killers from Movies and TV 

Disturbing, but fascinating. 

4. The band who put on the most insane Punk Show I Ever Saw 

I'd never been into Ceremony, but I did see them once, and the show was so intense it was almost like walking on a film set filming 'the punk-rock-show scene'. 

Kids were diving off the stage, picture-perfect chaos. 

This came up awhile ago, and all that teenage aggression of hardcore punk is perfectly encapsulated in this track. Perfect for the times. Terrific for the gym. I'm now a fan. 

5. Rober Altman's Nashville 

I'm watching this and it presents the most surreal kind of cinema-verité comedy, it reminds me of something like what John Cassavetes would've done had he written comedies. 

The trailer is also genius. 

'Jeff Goldblum is the psycho-freak who is everywhere the action is' hahaha