Stuff I Think You’ll Like: The Good Place

On April 3, 2018March 23, 2018 By Jean Marie BauhausIn Pop Culture, Television, UncategorizedLeave a comment

What: The Good Place, a half-hour television comedy starring Kristen Bell and Ted Danson.

Where: Airs on NBC; the first season is currently streaming on Netflix.

Why: Because it’s forkin’ funny, for starters.

The Good Place stars Kristen Bell as Eleanor Shellstrop, a woman who realizes she has died and ended up in the proverbial good place as a reward for all of the saintly humanitarian work she conducted on earth during her lifetime. The only problem? They beamed up the wrong Eleanor. This Eleanor, it turns out, was kind of an awful person. She wasn’t evil, per se, but she definitely qualified as Not Nice. Not wanting to be found out and sent to the Bad Place, Eleanor convinces her supposed soul mate, Chidi, to cover for her and help keep her true identity from being discovered by the Architect, the angelic being who designed their eternal utopia, played by Ted Danson. Trouble is, Eleanor’s presence, and legitimate good person Chidi’s willingness to lie for her despite his frequent attacks of conscience, is causing environmental disruptions that are creating chaos and making the Good Place not so good after all.

That’s the premise. I won’t say much more about the plot, other than it contains some pretty entertaining twists and turns leading up to an end-of-season game changer that sets the stage for Season Two (which I have not yet seen). While they get top billing, Bell and Danson are part of a delightful ensemble cast that includes Chidi, a pair of neighbors–one of whom immediately becomes Eleanor’s best frenemy–and a supremely delightful artificial intelligence named Janet.

At the risk of making myself sound like an old poop, a lot of what passes for today’s comedy tends to be lost on me. But The Good Place is not only clever and creative, it’s legitimately funny on a consistent basis. I can only hope the trend continues for the second season. Considering that there’s a third season planned for fall, I’m pretty confident that this show-crush will continue for a while.

Who: Fans of Restless Spirits, snarky dead blonde female protagonists in general, Kristen Bell, clever writing and quirky comedies that are actually funny.

Have you already been captivated by this show? Leave a forking comment!

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3 Short Horror Films That Will Have You Sleeping With the Lights On

On March 27, 2018March 23, 2018 By Jean Marie BauhausIn Internet, Pop CultureLeave a comment

I’m old enough to remember the early days of YouTube when it was pretty much all video diaries, pet videos, memes and people doing their own Jackass-style stunts. So I never cease to be amazed at the level of talent and production value that goes into a lot of YouTube content these days. And if you’re a horror fan, it’s one of the best places to go for a quick and terrifying fix. YouTube is home to a plethora of short indie horror films, most of which pack a real wallop of scares in only 20 minutes or less.

Here’s just a small sampling of three quickie films I clicked to watch… and then kind of wished I hadn’t, for all the right reasons.

1. Based on a Reddit fiction challenge response that has already become an Internet classic, this two-minute film sent chills down my spine in spite of already being familiar with the source material.

2. I already have a thing with basements, especially at night. This didn’t help that.

3. It might not be fair to include this one here. A sci-fi horror short from Neil Blompkamp’s Oats Studios starring Dakota Fanning, this gives us all a good idea of what a Blomkamp-directed Alien sequel might have been. Although between this incredibly disturbing monster and a xenomorph, I think I’d rather take my chances with ol’ Double-Chompers.

Have you been down the YouTube horror rabbit hole? Share your favorites in the comments!

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Favorite Things of 2017

On February 12, 2018March 19, 2018 By Jean Marie BauhausIn Featured, Internet, Movies, Pop Culture, TelevisionLeave a comment

Note: I started this post right before my mom had her stroke. Since this is so clearly a January sort of post, I considered trashing it and moving on, but you know what? These things are still pretty rad and I still want to share them. Besides, I called a New Year’s do-over for February, remember? So without further ado…

I was originally planning to list my favorite books from 2017, but then I thought, why stop there? Especially because the latest obsession that I’m dying to talk about isn’t a book. So feast your eyeballs on the things that made me ridiculously happy, that inspired me or that were just really helpful or useful in 2017.

Note: Amazon links are affiliate links, because why not? But that in no way alters my feelings about the books in question.

The Greatest Showman – There were still three days left in 2017 when I saw this, so it counts. You guys. YOU GUYS! Go see this movie! You won’t be sorry, I promise. I’ve become pretty cynical when it comes to the movies these days. It’s gotten to a point where I rarely go, and when I do I usually don’t enjoy myself that much, and usually walk out of the theater feeling let down. I didn’t know what to expect from this movie going in, but from the first note, it was a sheer DELIGHT. Truly the best movie-going experience I’ve had in ages. I can’t wait to see it again.

The Greatest Showman Soundtrack – I’ve been listening to this practically non-stop. And when I’m not actually listening to it, it’s stuck on a loop in my head and I’m totally okay with that. This is my happy music. And I think Come Alive is my theme song for 2018. Or maybe This is Me. Can I have two theme songs?

iZombie – I already devoted a whole blog post to how much I love this show, and I can tell you that Season 3 did nothing to diminish my love. In fact, I think the addition of Logan Echolls I mean Jason Dohring to the cast only expanded it. Can’t wait for Season 4!

Supernatural – You guys, I was really skeptical about another season of this show, especially after the way they left things in last season’s finale. I really thought this might be the year I finally break up with the Winchesters for good. But I’m so glad I didn’t, because Season 13 has been amazing. Definitely the best season in a long time, and possibly one of the best seasons in the entire long run of the show.

Essentialism: The Discliplined Pursuit of Less – This was an extremely helpful book for helping me sort out what truly matters in my life and examining where I’m allowing my time and energy to be spent. This book has a lot to do with why my life no longer feels overwhelming and why I’m pretty confident that I can write three whole books this year.

A Million Little Ways – I did a slow re-read of this book in 2017 after having already devoured it the previous year. If you struggle with feeling like your art is unimportant, or like you don’t have anything to offer and your small contributions don’t matter, I highly recommend this book.

Jane Steele – Jane, a Victorian governess, is obsessed with the novel Jane Eyre, largely because her life trajectory is so similar to her literary heroine’s, except for one glaring difference: this Jane is actually a serial killer. Sort of. This was one of the most fun books I read in 2017, and a definite new favorite.

The Golem and the Jinni – A golem and a jinni strike up an unexpected friendship as they both try to navigate life among humans in their respective immigrant communities in late 19th-century New York. This book is magical.

The Girl with All the Gifts – I don’t want to say too much about this book, because if you don’t already know going in, you spend the first several chapters trying to figure out just what in the heck is going on with these children, and that’s a lot of fun. Then once you figure it out, it’s quite a ride, and a pretty original take on this particular genre. My favorite thing about this novel was how well developed each of the characters were. Even the “villains” had sympathetic motivations, and one character in particular goes from villainous and unlikable to downright heroic–one of my favorite character arcs. A fantastic read.

My Alphasmart Neo2 – I actually got this for my birthday in 2016, but it got a real workout this past year as I used it exclusively to draft Bound Spirits. It remains one of, if not THE, best writing tools in my arsenal. Lightweight, runs on AA batteries so I never need to worry about where to plug it in, no Internet, and a screen small enough to overcome my temptation to go back and edit as I go, this is a perfect story drafting machine. And the best part is it doesn’t even cost much.

The Lazy Genius Podcast – You guys, Kendra is so smart about how to be a grown-up person without exhausting yourself or driving yourself crazy. Her blog is hilarious and inspirational as well as being educational, and the podcast takes it up a notch.

The Popcast – Speaking of hilarious… this podcast about “things that entertain, but do not matter” is one of my favorite things, period. Hosts Knox and Jamie share their completely unbiased opinions on pop culture from the perspective of people deeply entrenched in the Bible Belt. It is a sheer delight.

Dog Rates – And speaking of sheer delights, this account is the best thing ever to happen to Twitter. I’m not going to say any more because if you don’t know what it is you should just go ahead and click through and be instantly happy.

41Strange – This account might be the second best thing to happen to Twitter. It’s full of the wonderfully weird, strange and macabre. If you like that sort of thing, check it out.

Erin H. Moon on Instagram – The third and silent member of the Popcast team is not silent on Instagram. Her Stories are the best thing on there. Worth it for everything, but especially for the ongoing saga of the apparent serial killer hiding in her walls.

There you have it. This list also includes knitting, writing in my journal, practicing gratitude, Jingle Jangle and Aldi dark chocolate, but you probably don’t need me to elaborate on the joy of any of those things.

What things saved your life, or at least made it easier or more bearable, in 2017? Share some of your own favorites in the comments!

Stuff I Think You’ll Like: Louise is Missing

On November 14, 2017November 13, 2017 By Jean Marie BauhausIn Internet, Movies, Pop CultureLeave a comment

It’s an oldie, but a goodie: back in 2007, before iPhones, before Paranormal Activity, before Marble Hornets, the video diary of Louise Paxton caused quite a stir on YouTube. Having just moved into her south London flat, Paxton initially started the vlog as a way to show off her living space and keep in touch with friends and family across town, but it quickly becomes instead a way to document the disturbing activity of a supposed “stalker” creeping around her home. When the police are no help, Louise becomes determined to document and collect evidence so that they’ll take her seriously. But as things escalate, it soon becomes apparent that Louise’s “stalker” may not be a person–but something much worse that she inadvertently let in. The final video is purportedly posted by her best friend, and contains footage of Louise’s final activities prior to vanishing from her locked bedroom, never to be seen or heard from again.

This series, which is also known as In the Dark, is notable for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the number of people who at the time were convinced that it was all true. It wasn’t, of course–the writer and producer has since come forward to take credit for it, and the actress playing Louise is alive and well and enjoying a steady career. This was a fairly early entry in the found footage genre of storytelling, before people became jaded to it and caught on to all the tropes. But part of the reason so many were fooled is that the videos are not only creepy and compelling, but also so convincing — even after events take an obviously paranormal turn. Louise is Missing is a better Paranormal Activity than Paranormal Activity.

Here’s a deep dive into the series and how it effectively blurred the lines between fiction and reality at The Ghost in My Machine, which is how I ended up watching it this weekend. The original website is here, but unfortunately the videos and the original channel are no longer available to US viewers. Fortunately for us, though, someone was kind enough to string all of the videos together into one feature-length movie, which you can watch below. A warning, though, to anyone who, like me, has a low-tolerance for shaky cam: there’s a fair bit of it in this. Not a ton, but just enough to force me to look away at times and leave me feeling mildly queasy by the end. It seems that’s just the price you have to pay if you’re a fan of found footage horror.

Stuff I Think You’ll Like: The Hallow

On September 18, 2017 By Jean Marie BauhausIn Movies, Pop CultureLeave a comment

If you’ve graduated from Disney to the Brothers Grimm, then you know that fairy tales can be dark and disturbing, even creepy. And if you’ve dug even deeper to the folk tales the Grimms’ writings were based on, then you know they can be downright scary. That’s what you have with The Hallow — a modern day Irish faerie tale that doesn’t pull any punches.

Adam (Joseph Mawle, a.k.a. Benjen Stark), a tree doctor working for an unspecified corporation, moves into a very old house in the middle of the Irish woods with his wife, Claire, and their infant son. Adam’s job is to identify trees for removal, a fact that doesn’t sit well with his neighbors or make him welcome in their neck of the woods. Which is why when strange things start happening, Adam and Claire are quick to believe that their neighbors are trying to frighten them into leaving. After one particularly frightening incident, they finally call the police. The Garda who answers their call is sympathetic enough, but admonishes them to be patient with their more superstitious neighbors, who still believe that the woods belong to the Hallow, the First Folk, “banshees and baby stealers and the like,” and are afraid of what these forest spirits might do when their trees get taken away. Naturally, as a scientist, Adam believes this is complete rubbish.

And just as naturally, he is soon convinced otherwise as he and his wife must fight to protect their son from relentless and increasingly violent attempts at abduction.

When I decided to check out The Hallow on Netflix, I was in the mood for something genuinely scary but not the kind of scary that would stay with me and make me too afraid to get up and go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, and this fit that bill perfectly.

It reminded me a lot of The Descent, in that while I found that movie terrifying in the moment, and while I wouldn’t want to go spelunking any time soon, I wouldn’t be worried that an albino cave CHUD would be lurking under my bed waiting to grab my ankle as soon as I set a foot on the floor, or hiding in the closet waiting for an opportune time to stab me with a giant knife. Also like The Descent, and like any good John Carpenter horror flick, The Hallow has a nicely slow build, gradually ratcheting up the tension until finally you’re plunged onto a relentless roller coaster, twisting and turning and plunging you deeper into terrifying darkness until the end.

This movie works on a couple of different levels. Not only is it an effective horror flick, but it also serves as a gut-wrenching and heartbreaking reminder that for centuries people truly believed that this sort of thing was a reality, and of the disturbing and often tragic ends real people went to in order to combat this perceived threat.

If you like an unflinching exploration of Celtic folklore, particularly stories involving changelings; if you like Joseph Mawle; or if you like movies that provide plenty of fun scares without making you lie awake at night worrying that a Japanese ghost will crawl out of your TV and murder you to death, you should definitely give The Hallow a try while it’s still available on Netflix.

And as a bonus rec, whether you decide to watch the movie or not, you might also enjoy the Lore podcast episode “Black Stockings,” which takes a look at real-life tragedies wrought by unwavering belief in the changeling myth.

Stuff I Think You’ll Like: Dear David

On September 6, 2017 By Jean Marie BauhausIn Internet, Pop Culture1 Comment

And we’re back! I’m still way behind on the novel, but I think this semi-hiatus has gone on long enough regardless. Posting will probably only happen on a weekly basis until the novel’s finished, though. ANyway, I thought I’d kick things back into gear with this new thing I can’t tear my eyeballs away from, and if you like my stuff, you’ll probably like this, too.

I was first tipped off to Dear David by The Ghost in My Machine, so if you followed my previous recommendation and started reading that blog, you probably know about this already. But if you don’t, you should get to know it, especially if you like a good ghost story.

What it is: a multi-media ghost story unfolding in real time on Twitter. It began when comics author/illustrator Adam Ellis tweeted, “So, my apartment is currently being haunted by the ghost of a dead child and he’s trying to kill me.”

He went on to tell about a sleep paralysis episode in which he was visited by a young boy with a misshapen head who sat in a green rocking chair near the foot of his bed, watching him until he woke up. A subsequent dream revealed that the boy is called Dear David and he was killed in a book store when a book case fell on his head. Apparently, according to this second dream, when Dear David appears you can ask him two questions, but he’ll become angry if you go beyond that, and the consequences will be dire.

So naturally, the next time Ellis saw Dear David he asked him three questions. And freaky things have been happening in his apartment ever since, all of which he’s been documenting on Twitter via a combination of tweets, video, photographs and sound recordings.

Is it a real haunting? Is it a deliberate hoax? Is it just a guy with an overactive imagination freaking himself out over a series of unrelated coincidences? Is it a highly entertaining exercise in experimental storytelling? Only Ellis knows for sure. My gut says it’s the last one — the guy is a writer, after all, and this whole thing follows a pretty well-constructed narrative. But part of what makes it so effective and addictive is the feeling that it could be real. And whether it is or not changes nothing about wanting to see what will happen next, or how all of this will end.

Ellis has been collecting all of the relevant tweets on Storify, which as of this writing is updated through the end of August. It doesn’t yet include the most recent thread from last night, which features nanny cam footage of some really odd behavior from his cats, but you can read that here. And you can either keep refreshing the Storify page or follow Ellis on Twitter and subscribe to his updates to follow the rest of the story as it unfolds.

Stuff I Think You’ll Like: Odd Thomas

On July 6, 2017March 26, 2018 By Jean Marie BauhausIn Books & Fiction, Movies, Pop CultureLeave a comment

Image result for odd thomas

This is both a book rec and a movie rec. About a year ago my husband and I spent a Netflix and Chill session watching a movie I’d never heard of–Odd Thomas, starring the tragically late Anton Yelchin as a young man who sees dead people–and then does something about it. Husband clued me in that it was based on a series of books that I’d also never heard of by Dean Koontz.

I kind of loved this fun, quirky, poignant little movie, and knew that I wanted to check out the books, but I was also hesitant to because of the similarities with my own series about a young woman who sees dead people. But there were enough differences, too, that a couple of weeks ago I felt safe enough to finally take the plunge and read the first novel in the series, the title of which is the same as the film. And then I went back and re-watched the movie, which is still on Netflix streaming, for comparison’s sake, and fell in love with it all over again.

I don’t want to say too much more about plot. If you decide to check it out, I want you to be as delightfully surprised as I was, and I feel like this is one of those things where the less you know going in, the better. I will say that the movie is a pretty faithful adaptation of the book–so much so that I’m not sure it matters whether you read the book first or watch the movie first, although I think each is also a unique enough experience that you should check them both out. I’ll also say that both book and movie made me cry BIG TIME.

As for the book series, as of this writing I’ve also read the second book, and plan to read the third as soon as I can get it from the local library. There are eight Odd Thomas books in all, but if the first two are any indication, they’re fast reads–I read each book in about two days, and I’m not exactly a speed reader.

If you like my Restless Spirits books, you’ll love Odd Thomas. I’d also say if you like movies like The Sixth Sense you’ll like it, too, although Odd Thomas is a little more lighthearted in tone and far more fantastical.

Check out the movie on Netflix, and find the books on Amazon or wherever it is you prefer to get your books.

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Stuff I Think You’ll Like: The Ghost in My Machine

On June 19, 2017June 6, 2017 By Jean Marie BauhausIn Pop Culture1 Comment

I stumbled upon The Ghost in My Machine after I listened to the first episode of Rabbits. Yeah, I admit it–I went searching to see whether or not it was real, even though I knew better. At any rate, this blog had done a review of that podcast, and after that I decided to check out some other posts, and before I knew it I’d spent more than an hour scrolling and reading.

The blog proprietor, Lucia Peters, is a freelance writer who shares my own affinity for creepy things. Specifically, creepy pasta, ghost stories and creepy internet lore. Her blog is a treasure trove of creepy pasta, mysterious YouTube videos, spooky ARGs, alleged hauntings and the sort of ritualistic games you read about on Reddit and think to yourself why would anyone ever, ever do such a thing? — all delivered with witty commentary and a sense of respect that nevertheless doesn’t take all of this stuff too seriously. So if you’re into that sort of thing, you should definitely check out this blog.

Here’s a sampling of my favorite posts:

CREEPYPASTAS OF THE WEEK: CLASSICS, VOL. 1

IF YOU LIKE THE ‘RABBITS’ PODCAST, YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE…

ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF THE IMPOSSIBLE: THE COOPER FAMILY FALLING BODY (AND) PHOTOGRAPH

HAUNTED ROAD TRIP: PEG ENTWISTLE AND THE HOLLYWOOD SIGN

THE MOST DANGEROUS GAMES: 11 MILES

And I just read this one because what the heck I didn’t need to sleep tonight anyway:

THE MOST DANGEROUS GAMES: CHARLOTTE’S WEB

So head on over there, and if you decide to say hi, tell her Jean sent you. Or, y’know, don’t, because she has no idea who I am and that would be weird.

Stuff I Think You’ll Like: Rabbits

On June 12, 2017June 12, 2017 By Jean Marie BauhausIn Pop CultureLeave a comment

Previously on Stuff I Think You’ll Like, I talked about the podcast The Black Tapes and its spin-off, TANIS. I think it’s safe to say that if you enjoy those, you’ll also enjoy the newest kid on the Pacific Northwest Stories podcasting block–their kid-sister series, Rabbits.

Rabbits follows host Carly Parker as she sets out to discover the truth about what happened to her best friend, Yumiko Takata, who seems to have vanished without a trace. Yumiko was researching dangerous and deadly games and at the time of her disappearance had become obsessed with an obscure alternate reality game known as Rabbits. Convinced that Yumiko’s disappearance is somehow connected to this game, Carly picks up where Yumiko’s research left off and unwittingly becomes a player. The deeper she goes down this (pardon the pun) rabbit hole of a game–of which nobody knows its origins or how long it’s been around, what the stakes or even what, exactly, happens if you win–the more it becomes clear that this is no ordinary game, but one with far-reaching–perhaps even cosmic–implications.

Here are the “rules” of the game, found posted in 1959 in a Seattle laundromat on rabbit stationery, hence how the current iteration of the game got its name:

“You play. You never tell. Find the doors, portals, points and wells. You play. You never tell. Step through the gates of life and hell. You play. You never tell. The wardens watch and guard us well. You play and pray you never tell.”

Cree. Pee. Who, or what, are the wardens? What happens if you tell?

Rabbits has been described as “Ready Player One meets The Blair Witch Project meets LOST,” and I think that’s a fairly accurate description. Gamers will love the obscure gaming references scattered throughout the podcast. Those who loved the way Blair Witch blurred the lines between fiction and reality and fooled many of us into believing it was real will enjoy how real this story feels as it unfolds–you’ll be tempted to do some Googling to find out whether or not certain elements are true. And if you loved the mysterious, what the heck is even happening here? nature of LOST and its whack-o island, then this will be right up your alley. Certain elements are also reminiscent of Fringe, and you should also like it if you’re a fan of ARGs or anything having to do with the deep web.

Rabbits is currently in the middle of its first season. You can listen to it on iTunes, at the website or wherever you prefer to listen to podcasts.

Stuff I Think You’ll Like: Tanis

On May 29, 2017May 29, 2017 By Jean Marie BauhausIn Featured, Pop Culture1 Comment

In the last installment of Stuff I Think You’ll Like, I talked about my favorite podcast, The Black Tapes. This time I’m talking about it’s kid brother, a spin-off of sorts hosted by Nic Silver, whom Black Tapes listeners will recognize as Alex’s senior producer on that podcast.

Tanis is presented to us initially as Nic’s pet side project, in which he’s tracking down information on an obscure myth that’s captured both his attention and his imagination. He’s seen references to Tanis in sources as seemingly disparate and unrelated as obscure scifi short stories, the writings of prominent occult leaders and cryptic personal ads. His main objective is to answer the simple question: what, exactly, is Tanis?

That innocent question takes Nick down a road to a Lovecraftian nightmare world filled with eldritch locations that make no sense according to the natural order, shady corporations, a creepy cult, people losing their ever loving minds and even an elder god or two.

Tanis reminds me a lot of LOST. Specifically, the mystery of the island. What is it? Why is it so weird? What’s up with the polar bears and black smoke? Why does every answer only raise more questions? It’s that kind of mystery. It also reminds me a lot of House of Leaves, the horror novel by Mark Danielewski about a faux documentary about a mysterious house that’s bigger on the inside — and not in a fun time-traveling blue box kind of way. If you like either of those things, or if you’re a fan of Lovecraft’s Cthulu mythos and/or of The Black Tapes, I’m pretty sure you’ll like Tanis.

Tanis is currently about halfway through its third season, which means there’s plenty of binge listening available if you like that sort of thing. New episodes are added every two weeks. You can find it on iTunes and all the usual places, or listen to it on the website. If you do, be sure to come back and tell me what you think!