Judge and measure: Perspective, work to be done, stairs, M.R. James, ninety-nine-years-old, John Brahm, My Bloody Valentine, NBA coach of the year

Thursday 3/26/26

Need to crank it today. Things to write and send off.

Finished a 1000 word piece about the 1961 film The Pit and the Pendulum yesterday.

One thing my horror film book aims to do is be a kind of critical reclamation project for a number of directors like Jack Arnold, Edgar G. Ulmer, Terence Fisher, Roy William Neil, and Terence Fisher. I'm adding John Brahm to that list. Rewatching The Undying Monster this morning, so I'll write on that and also have things on Hangover Square and The Lodger. The Undying Monster borrows from The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Wolf Man, but it's long on mood, and horror films and ghost stories that are long on mood are usually correspondingly rewarding.

My mom was telling me how Amelia asked her the other day if she was ninety-nine-years-old. I was trying to think of what one word describes Amelia best. I think it might be headstrong.

Downloaded the updated seventh volume of that Beatles recording sessions project which now has the Rubber Soul material exclusive to the fourth Anthology worked into the mix. Also a ten disc set of Bob Dylan soundboards from 1984, Duke Ellington's The Duke Box, a 12/13/85 Jesus and Mary Chain tape from Detroit, and My Bloody Valentine at Detroit's St. Andrew's Hall on 6/8/89. The MBV taper said that he missed Game 2 of the NBA Finals (featuring the Pistons mugging the Lakers) in order to attend the gig. The tape does a good job of capturing the crazy amount of volume MBV used at their shows (and often in small spaces, no less). The sonic overload that is "You Made Me Realise" on the recording is very exciting.

Perspective is something hardly any people possess. They don't have stable centers of understanding from which to judge and measure.

It's a special kind of idiot who punctuates what they've just written with, "Facts." If you asked people what the word "fact" meant, very few of them would have the correct answer, and almost all would think it means that something is true, which isn't what it means.

M.R. James's first ghost story collection, Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (great title, by the way), came out in 1904 and contained the follow stories in this order:

"Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book"

"Lost Hearts"

"The Mezzotint"

"The Ash-tree"

"Number 13"

"Count Magnus"

"Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad"

"The Treasure of Abbot Thomas"

That was also their order of completion, basically. I mention this because "The Treasure of Abbot Thomas" is a dud--it's a slog to get through with all its business about ciphers. This was en vogue back then and some writers went way overboard with "code" stories. They try and swap in this kind of mathematical cleverness as they end up swapping out the narrative and narrative immersion. But if you treat the book like its last story isn't a part of it, you have an almost perfect volume insofar as its ambitions within this form go.

As he went along, James's ghost stories became more oblique, almost experimental. Most of his readers, I'm sure, favor the earlier work by significant measure over the later stories, with a notable exception being "A Warning to the Curious," from 1925. James could actually be fairly radical in his writerly techniques. He wasn't afraid to take risks and try new things, either. Look at The Five Jars. What other children's book is like that?

The Bruins and Celtics each had a tough guy scheduled for last night and I thought it could be an 0-for-2 type of night, but the Bruins knocked off the Sabres in OT for a much needed two points--could have saved a playoff berth--and the Celtics snapped the Thunder's twelve-game winning streak at home in Boston.

The Bruins pulled a no-show against the Leafs the night before, with Swayman in net (he was the back-up last night). The Bruins are actually in line for a top ten pick from the Leafs, and the Leafs' win helped the Bruins' odds of receiving this pick. So, if the Bruins were going to split those games, that's how they'd want to have done it. This is just luck, obviously, and they were bad against Toronto when they can ill afford to be, which made last night's game borderline must-win. The playoff race in the East is to me the most compelling story in sports right now. These are the playoffs, essentially. The postseason just started early this year.

The Celtics won the way I think they need to come the playoffs. Brown led the way scoring, and Tatum had a highly effective, well-rounded game, dishing out 7 assists, grabbing 12 boards, and chipping in 19 points. Celtics had a balanced attack. Joe Mazzulla is going to end up winning coach of the year. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander shot 83.3% for the Thunder in the loss. This guy is so good. I can see them winning it again this year and a second straight Finals MVP for him after a second straight regular season MVP. The games threshold will have a say in that.

The Red Sox open today. It feels wrong to me starting the season against a team in the other league. That's not baseball as it ought to be. How will the Sox do this season? I can share some thoughts later on, but the short answer is I think they have more problems than people are presuming. They need a lot to go right. Like Trevor Story staying healthy, Roman Anthony being this big star, Marcelo Mayer being a good MLB player and second baseman, the new starting pitchers to perform well, and the closer to be within, say, ten percent of what he was last year.

If it all goes okay and the guys you need to be healthy are healthy and the new starters aren't complacent and under-performing, then yeah, sure, they can have a nice year, but personally I feel like that's pressing too much of your luck. But obviously it's good to have the Red Sox back. My beloved favorite team of all teams, and my favorite sport. I expect more dominance from Garrett Crochet, and I wouldn't be surprised if Triston Casas has a nice and surprising year. He's a guy to keep an eye on.

I had another hard-to-account-for time-wise stair-running session in the Bunker Hill Monument yesterday. I was slow to get in there and they didn't open early, either. A bunch of people were in front of me and I was on the phone at first, so I was going slowly for much of that first time up. And yet, when I left after doing five circuits, the time was 1:28.

Thirty minutes for five circuits is good. I've done it in a tick under twenty-five minutes. That's when you're in mid-season form and have the right attire and really push. But twenty-seven or so minutes is excellent, and I don't see how I had that kind of time yesterday, but the clock said what the clock said. Also walked three miles and did 150 push-ups.

This will be good stair-running weather today. I'll try to do a decent job in the Monument provided I've worked on what I need to work on. Need to start putting up some ten spots. Thorough here, then thorough there.

I've been working on "Boom the Ball" to start the day. This is really getting there. Added this new thing today. Started work on a piece about the 1986 film, April Fool's Day while writing this entry.