Very glad that this has been announced: All the BEASTS OF BURDEN stories done so far are being collected in a nearly 600 page omnibus edition from Dark Horse Comics in Feb 2025. Folks can pick up all the stories in one edition and be up to date for when the next arc is ready.
"What most of them really needed was a good long drink of arsenic, as far as I was concerned."
"Black Bargain" by Robert Bloch (1942)
This is supposed to be tied to Lovecraft mythology stuff, and I suppose there's an element of the unknowable horrors here, but it just comes across as a good spooky demon story.
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"She was interested in his skin."
"A Dog and His Boy" by Evan Dorkin, Sarah Dyer, Jill Thompson, Jason Arthur (2006)
I love this! It's got a human in it but it's mostly from the point of view of some dogs in a suburb, and that's a perspective I long for. Just keep those humans on the sidelines and tell me what the animals are thinking, because sometimes...
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"Do you happen to have a pair of birds that are just friendly?"
The Birds dir. Alfred Hitchcock (1963)
Sometimes the birds are absolutely terrifying. I mean, they're dinosaurs. Those clawed feet and sharp beaks are no joke. This one's a tougher watch when you know Hitchcock was an obsessive weirdo toward the blonde actresses he loved to cast.
Ten more days of spooky fiction! Where does the time go?
A weekend of shows for Cast 15 of the Oasis of the Seas.
Josie Harbertson as Sillabub stares you down.
Jared Johnson made his Rum Tum Tugger cover debut yesterday, here with Lucy Nolan as Bombalurina and Dani Ciaramitaro as Rumpleteazer. Congratulations Jared!
Backstage photos to end the double show Caturday, with Lucy as Bombalurina, Rachael Aust as Demeter, Sarah Moore as Jellylorum, and Zoe Hartley as Cassandra.
A few more photos from Lucy, also featuring Connor Dyer as Asparagus.
Before all the action, Nick Woodford as Munkustrap captured in-process Cats on Friday and yesterday, with Lucy as Bombalurina and Kane Verrall as Skimbleshanks.
My Style Analysis: The Woma(e)n in Black (and White)
Okay we are going to go there. This kilt and color scheme and aesthetic has a lot of history as Devi joins her sisters in in prep and B&W and let's just say they'd all agree with Devi: being a woman in this society is a fucking trial.
Let's meet her sisters across space and time:
The #girlboss trying to start a group for women in tennis and fighting to get them to be taken seriously.
The Copy Chief who is dealing with her drunk ass boss, her relationship with another boss, the death and funeral of another boss, her colleague/friend coming on to her when he's high and in deep mourning, and catching him in a compromising position.
The long-suffering wife who sacrificed her career...and had to work in a department store all for the ego and whims of her King Baby (thank you Melanie Hamlett for this term) comes back to her old workplace to help them steal their own property and start a new agency.
The young former intern being assured by her boss/lover that nothing bad will happen to her and her life will go on like nothing happened...famous last words
The girlfriend of the BMOC who is ambivalent about her relationship with him and still mourning her friend's death and gets drunk at a high school party while dressed as the sex worker in Risky Business
The young girl who was disturbed by a robber claiming to be her father's childhood nanny and believed her almost, because the woman figured some things out and because the girl knows nothing about her father.
The high schooler who is aiding her friends in investigating a real cold case in their town and finding that her affections for the young man next to her are being reciprocated but not in the way she wants.
The Princess who is in the middle of a messy separation from her Prince (who will surely weaponize his affairs against her) and makes a statement by breaking protocol and wearing a body-hugging, cleavage-y, off the shoulder black dress with a dramatic sash at a public event and becoming a fashion icon.
Let's get back to Devi, with bullet points because everything is...
After a summer where she is ghosted by the boy she lost her virginity to...
She is prepared to kiss the ass of a totally male-identified woman who likely was whooping and hollering when she heard Roe V. Wade was struck down just so she can go to the traditionally patriarchal institution of Princeton (which started letting female undergrads in 1969, not 1869).
After buttering her up with her mixed up prints (likely a reflection of her moods) and modest neckline/hemline combination (her armor to avoid getting pierced by this society), she finds that boy (who she really loves) with another girl.
She and this girl get into it and we become witness to a sad fact: fabulous ass women fighting over some piece of man.
Keyes (the male-identified older woman) faints hearing this news that the student she put on a purity pedestal actually lost her virginity and named the details of the boy's family jewels and Devi gets blamed for the fainting
Joan? Peggy?
After being made to feel like, to quote our fabulous redhead "a helpless, stupid little girl" by her mother and the school principal and Keyes and piece of man, she runs to her therapist who actually gives her sage wisdom after Devi reveals that the ghosting made her feel like something is wrong with her, like she isn't enough for him (same here girl *crying and screaming*). Hence the conservative preppy look was armor not only to impress a sexually repressed woman, but also to protect her body after she bared it for him, it made sure to hide her pin-up (another woman Keyes looks down on) worthy curves.
Dr. Ryan tells her nothing is wrong that she is an extraordinary young woman with real beauty and to vent in a journal about this girl (which end up getting read by said girl and earns the label of "too much" from said piece of man). Maybe some rare wisdom is needed for Devi from Don Draper
Time to mentally give that boy (who will eventually man up and own his feelings to you again) a good kick in the pants like the soldier you are Devi, because you have joined a legion of women fighting for their lives and dignity under the patriarchy, after all:
"They shouldn't have given us uniforms if they didn't want an army." June Osborne, The Handmaid's Tale
THE THREE MUSKETEERS
The Attic Theatre, Stratford upon Avon, Friday 11th August 2023
“This isn’t a pantomime!” sneers the eminently booable Cardinal Richelieu, after encouraging us to boo him. No, it isn’t. Billed as a family show, this new adaptation of the Alexandre Dumas classic is by Olivia Holmes, who gives us an exuberant retelling with an emphasis on daftness. Silly jokes abound. The…
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