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Julé! 27/31 Kat Reads Books and Consumes Media
Jul. 27th, 2025 01:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kat_lair***
Kat Reads Book
Sky Lime Sky by Al Hess - Denver, a nonbinary, neurodiverse food (well, pie) critic with a struggling blog lives in a Small Town Wyoming where they think no one much likes them (they are wrong) and not much happens (boy howdy are they wrong). Then there's a mysterious flash of light on the sky that no one except the hot (and kind) new bartender seems interested in solving. Evidence is gathered, new friends (and more!) made whilst reality starts to unravel and it's all up to Denver to make sure there is still a world and pies left. This was So Good. Like, listen, So Good. The protagonist and the love interest were the most well drawn characters but everyone felt real and complex in a way people are. The alien mystery itself was not like super original but it was more interesting than it first appeared and I really loved that we got a proper ending with 'what happened afterwards' getting several chapters. Diverse cast, good story, witty writing. Highly recced. I will definitely be checking out author's other works.
Kat Consumes Media
Nope - I did not read the description properly and was expecting an alien horror comedy. I got some far more straightforward alien horror instead. The protagonist and his sister own horse ranch near L.A., training horses for the film industry. People keep going missing and there's a cloud on the sky that doesn't move... The siblings are determined to get footage of the alien ship, except maybe it isn't a ship at all... This was a part commentary on the industry that consumes everyone, especially people of colour, part Western, and for a short 20sec clip that haunts me still, body horror. It was also very, very good with a twist on the story I have not seen done before. Would recommend.
Werewolves Within - A new ranger arrives in a small town filled with colourful characters. Mysterious attacks and bodies are followed by the town being cut off due to a snow storm and the suspicions arise that maybe one of the occupants is a werewolf... This was unhinged in all the best ways. The actors clearly had a great time. The body count increases steadily and the 'whodunnit' and 'is it really a werewolf or just plain old human killer' was pretty well done. I receive kudos point by calling the killer correctly pretty early on. Fun watch if you like this kind of thing.
Code of Silence - ITV series where a deaf woman gets pulled into a police investigation thanks to her lip-reading skills. Predictably she gets way more involved than she really should, including romantically with one of the suspects... The basic plot line of the planned heist wasn't particularly unique but I liked the three-dimensionality of all the characters (expect some of the villains) and of course it was great to see deaf representation among the actors/characters. There were some realistic sub-plots (eviction due to new housing development, wait to get access to work funding, fucking up in criminal investigations etc). The ending was left open for a second series which I would tune in for.
Puella Magi Madoka Magica - Godchild wanted to show me this so we watched it while they visited and it was good! Madoka's and her friends' lives gets upended when a mysterious transfer student joins their class, an even more mysterious creature offers to grant them any wish and make them... magical girls. There are witches rendered in beautifully surreal animation, timey-wimey shenanigans, and metaphysical lessons about hope and despair. And, perhaps even more importantly, more femslash potential that you can shake a magic wand at (pun intended). This did a great job at looking at the darker potential of the magical girl trope.
Nausicaä - A Ghibli movie I hadn't seen before but, also thanks to godchild, have now. I liked it! The 'environmental destruction has consequences' theme is strong as is the 'but nature is resilient' one. Felt like a trial run for those themes to really go to town with them in Princess Mononoke. I liked the world building and all the characters, and the continuing lack of (overt) romance subplots is refreshing.
***
Kat Reads Book
Sky Lime Sky by Al Hess - Denver, a nonbinary, neurodiverse food (well, pie) critic with a struggling blog lives in a Small Town Wyoming where they think no one much likes them (they are wrong) and not much happens (boy howdy are they wrong). Then there's a mysterious flash of light on the sky that no one except the hot (and kind) new bartender seems interested in solving. Evidence is gathered, new friends (and more!) made whilst reality starts to unravel and it's all up to Denver to make sure there is still a world and pies left. This was So Good. Like, listen, So Good. The protagonist and the love interest were the most well drawn characters but everyone felt real and complex in a way people are. The alien mystery itself was not like super original but it was more interesting than it first appeared and I really loved that we got a proper ending with 'what happened afterwards' getting several chapters. Diverse cast, good story, witty writing. Highly recced. I will definitely be checking out author's other works.
Kat Consumes Media
Nope - I did not read the description properly and was expecting an alien horror comedy. I got some far more straightforward alien horror instead. The protagonist and his sister own horse ranch near L.A., training horses for the film industry. People keep going missing and there's a cloud on the sky that doesn't move... The siblings are determined to get footage of the alien ship, except maybe it isn't a ship at all... This was a part commentary on the industry that consumes everyone, especially people of colour, part Western, and for a short 20sec clip that haunts me still, body horror. It was also very, very good with a twist on the story I have not seen done before. Would recommend.
Werewolves Within - A new ranger arrives in a small town filled with colourful characters. Mysterious attacks and bodies are followed by the town being cut off due to a snow storm and the suspicions arise that maybe one of the occupants is a werewolf... This was unhinged in all the best ways. The actors clearly had a great time. The body count increases steadily and the 'whodunnit' and 'is it really a werewolf or just plain old human killer' was pretty well done. I receive kudos point by calling the killer correctly pretty early on. Fun watch if you like this kind of thing.
Code of Silence - ITV series where a deaf woman gets pulled into a police investigation thanks to her lip-reading skills. Predictably she gets way more involved than she really should, including romantically with one of the suspects... The basic plot line of the planned heist wasn't particularly unique but I liked the three-dimensionality of all the characters (expect some of the villains) and of course it was great to see deaf representation among the actors/characters. There were some realistic sub-plots (eviction due to new housing development, wait to get access to work funding, fucking up in criminal investigations etc). The ending was left open for a second series which I would tune in for.
Puella Magi Madoka Magica - Godchild wanted to show me this so we watched it while they visited and it was good! Madoka's and her friends' lives gets upended when a mysterious transfer student joins their class, an even more mysterious creature offers to grant them any wish and make them... magical girls. There are witches rendered in beautifully surreal animation, timey-wimey shenanigans, and metaphysical lessons about hope and despair. And, perhaps even more importantly, more femslash potential that you can shake a magic wand at (pun intended). This did a great job at looking at the darker potential of the magical girl trope.
Nausicaä - A Ghibli movie I hadn't seen before but, also thanks to godchild, have now. I liked it! The 'environmental destruction has consequences' theme is strong as is the 'but nature is resilient' one. Felt like a trial run for those themes to really go to town with them in Princess Mononoke. I liked the world building and all the characters, and the continuing lack of (overt) romance subplots is refreshing.
***
It's a half-wolf - no, wait... (Fannish Fifty #29)
Jul. 26th, 2025 03:24 pmverushka70This popped up on the dS Facebook group a couple weeks ago... Meant to post it before now, but kept forgetting.
original post here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2213712434/permalink/10162496973117435/
Text of post reads: "No not Uncle Tiberius' cabbage leaves, look closer. I may have found a potential 20xx RCW139 convention table decoration. Or goodie bag item.. It was white funny overhearing this name in a garden center in Italy."
One Quick(ish) Thing
Jul. 25th, 2025 09:24 amsdk(This post was originally called 3 quick things. And then I started rambling about Dexter, and now I have no idea what the other two quick things were going to be.)
I've been on a Dexter binge. Not the original series (possibly starting that up again soon!) but I watched the first three episodes of Dexter: Resurrection and then found out there was a whole prequel series (Dexter: Original Sin) that I'd missed. I did watch the initial Dexter sequel (New Blood) when it first came out and remembered not being very impressed and kind of dissatisfied so my hopes weren't high for Resurrection, but honestly? I'm here for it. They seem to have gone back to the original formula with giddy fun serial killer vibes and not taking themselves too seriously. YAY. Plus Harrison (Dexter's son) is not just a whiny teenaged brat and is actually interesting. (Please don't screw up his plot, show.) YAY. Also Uma Thurman is in it? Which is an unexpected surprise. And she is as awesome as ever. (And apparently doesn't age like the rest of us mere mortals.) Fingers crossed they keep this going and don't fuck up by the end of the season (which I am sadly used to!).
But as there were only three episodes of that available (I think a new one comes out today?), I flipped over to Original Sin to give that a shot. I, again, wasn't expecting much. Actually, I expected that I'd hate it given that they'd had to cast all new actors to play younger versions of the characters I knew and loved from the OG series, and 9 times out of 10 that never goes well (for me, at least). But omfg, they nailed it, somehow? Young Dexter is AMAZING. Patrick Gibson (the actor playing him) is incredible at capturing Michael C. Hall's physicality, his awkwardness, his weird-ass charm, and I am so impressed. I can't leave out Molly Brown who plays Deb, Dexter's sister--she also does an incredible job in capturing Jennifer Carpenter's mannerisms and speech patterns while making the younger character her own. Also Christian Slater is Dexter's still-alive dad, and while he doesn't echo the ghost of Dexter's father we see in the OG series and beyond like the others, he is excellent at the emo-single-father-trying-to-raise-a-budding-serial-killer-but-full-of-man-pain thing. Bonus Points for seeing Sarah Michelle-Geller on my tv again. ♥
The show itself also is just very fun and leans into the ridiculousness of the whole concept of a serial killer with a "code" and I love that.
One kinda eye-roll-y caveat:
Obviously both of these shows deal with a lot of violence (and a lot of gore) and maybe I'm a weirdo for being like "oh yay they've gone back to giddy fun vibes for this!" but iirc, the original show aired kind of right before prestige television became such a big deal, and for New Blood, I felt like the show runners got caught up in trying to make the Dexter franchise more "prestige" and less pulp. But it is pulp. Dexter is the kind of show that has to be able to wink at itself. (See opening credits of the OG show and Original Sin for examples!) And I'm just really happy they've returned to that original vision and hope they stay the course and not try to force Dexter into becoming something it's not.
[h/t to bothlee_bella and pauraque for helping me with the spoiler coding for this entry!]
Unrelated Aside: I am slowly working on reorganizing my journal (updating my sticky and profile, reorganizing my tags--which are a mess), and I'm realizing it's going to be a bit of a project! Slow and steady, self, slow and steady.
I've been on a Dexter binge. Not the original series (possibly starting that up again soon!) but I watched the first three episodes of Dexter: Resurrection and then found out there was a whole prequel series (Dexter: Original Sin) that I'd missed. I did watch the initial Dexter sequel (New Blood) when it first came out and remembered not being very impressed and kind of dissatisfied so my hopes weren't high for Resurrection, but honestly? I'm here for it. They seem to have gone back to the original formula with giddy fun serial killer vibes and not taking themselves too seriously. YAY. Plus Harrison (Dexter's son) is not just a whiny teenaged brat and is actually interesting. (Please don't screw up his plot, show.) YAY. Also Uma Thurman is in it? Which is an unexpected surprise. And she is as awesome as ever. (And apparently doesn't age like the rest of us mere mortals.) Fingers crossed they keep this going and don't fuck up by the end of the season (which I am sadly used to!).
But as there were only three episodes of that available (I think a new one comes out today?), I flipped over to Original Sin to give that a shot. I, again, wasn't expecting much. Actually, I expected that I'd hate it given that they'd had to cast all new actors to play younger versions of the characters I knew and loved from the OG series, and 9 times out of 10 that never goes well (for me, at least). But omfg, they nailed it, somehow? Young Dexter is AMAZING. Patrick Gibson (the actor playing him) is incredible at capturing Michael C. Hall's physicality, his awkwardness, his weird-ass charm, and I am so impressed. I can't leave out Molly Brown who plays Deb, Dexter's sister--she also does an incredible job in capturing Jennifer Carpenter's mannerisms and speech patterns while making the younger character her own. Also Christian Slater is Dexter's still-alive dad, and while he doesn't echo the ghost of Dexter's father we see in the OG series and beyond like the others, he is excellent at the emo-single-father-trying-to-raise-a-budding-serial-killer-but-full-of-man-pain thing. Bonus Points for seeing Sarah Michelle-Geller on my tv again. ♥
SPOILER FOR THE ENDING OF SEASON 1
ALSO it was super fun watching McDreamy be revealed as the big bad and end up on Dexter's table, ngl.The show itself also is just very fun and leans into the ridiculousness of the whole concept of a serial killer with a "code" and I love that.
One kinda eye-roll-y caveat:
SPOILERS FOR NEW BLOOD
The whole premise that Dexter's life is flashing before his eyes while he's dying from his gunshot wound at the end of New Blood is okay, I guess. It's a framing that allows Michael C. Hall to narrate the whole thing, which helps it feel like Dexter, but then they proceed with his dad also having flashbacks in the middle of Dexter's flashbacks, and the whole concept breaks. Dad's flashbacks are really interesting and add a whole new layer to Dexter's origin story so I lean on the side of handwaving the "this-doesn't-make-sense" aspect, but IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE.Obviously both of these shows deal with a lot of violence (and a lot of gore) and maybe I'm a weirdo for being like "oh yay they've gone back to giddy fun vibes for this!" but iirc, the original show aired kind of right before prestige television became such a big deal, and for New Blood, I felt like the show runners got caught up in trying to make the Dexter franchise more "prestige" and less pulp. But it is pulp. Dexter is the kind of show that has to be able to wink at itself. (See opening credits of the OG show and Original Sin for examples!) And I'm just really happy they've returned to that original vision and hope they stay the course and not try to force Dexter into becoming something it's not.
[h/t to both
lee_bella and pauraque for helping me with the spoiler coding for this entry!]Unrelated Aside: I am slowly working on reorganizing my journal (updating my sticky and profile, reorganizing my tags--which are a mess), and I'm realizing it's going to be a bit of a project! Slow and steady, self, slow and steady.
Help?
Jul. 24th, 2025 08:21 pmsdkI might be misremembering, but is there a way to use spoiler tags in DW entries? I can't find anything in the FAQ and searching leads me to a lot of years-old possibly out-of-date info. But I thought for sure there was a tag for them here.
If not a natural built-in tag, what do people usually do when they want to spoiler cut something? Just make a regular cut for it? Or use code to have a highlight-to-read effect?
I swear to god, I used to know this. I stop posting for one whole year and I forget how everything works here, geesh!
If not a natural built-in tag, what do people usually do when they want to spoiler cut something? Just make a regular cut for it? Or use code to have a highlight-to-read effect?
I swear to god, I used to know this. I stop posting for one whole year and I forget how everything works here, geesh!
Fannish 50 Challenge 2025: Post # 22: SquidgeWorld Fundraiser
Jul. 24th, 2025 12:15 amride_4eversquidgiepdx has been showing fandom the love for 31 years (he founded Squidge.Org in 1994 to provide both website hosting and mailing lists for fandom and in 2020 he created the SquidgeWorld Archive) and I'm here to say let's have fandom show some love back with a successful fundraiser. (And I'm putting my money where my mouth is: I donated $100.00 to this fundraiser.)Click here for detailed post about the fundraiser and about how to donate.
Click here for Fanlore page about Squidge.Org and SquidgeWorld.
