Please note, I apparently don’t have time to write about anything in depth, but plenty of time to make graphics about what I’m doing. Mmm, logic!

1. Reference image for a story I’m working on; originally was used for a story I just finished, but this image had another purpose. (It’s a worker.)

2. If I am not writing a story about someone in a coat of some kind, then I am writing a story about a post-human singularity…in which robots wear coats.

3. This looks like a still from a fantastic movie. It is, in fact, a still from One Night with the King, which is an absolutely terrible movie you will be seeing more of shortly.

4. Ditto. This is from Bathory. Not pictured: Hans Matheson painting a portrait of a baby that’s been stored inside the block of ice. (Oh, it happens.)

5. This is a picture of a juggler. Technically, he’s from an Anthropologie catalog, and he’s probably just a juggler because Hans Matheson found another stand-in. In my imagination, he’s my imaginary circus boyfriend. His name is Ben. You will probably see him again.

6. The novel currently with my agent takes place in a river city. This picture was from , and the time between me seeing it and me right-click-saving cannot be measured with modern instruments.

7. My next novel is set in the 1920s. Researching dance crazes of the time is repellent, grueling work that I absolutely do not enjoy whatsoever, but it has to be done.

8. Because it’s never the wrong time to watch Gleaming the Cube.

9. Inception. I have a piece about this movie lined up for Tor.com; in the meantime, just know that Joseph Gordon-Levitt must have signed an extra wire-work clause or something.

There’s something ceaselessly awesome about silent films. They’re a living time capsule of social mores, markers of technological leaps, proof of humankind’s deep affinity for storytelling, employer of piano-players everywhere.

The great ones are fantastically evocative and moving. The bad ones are hysterical.

Conveniently, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is both!

Also apparently a little judgey!

The story is straightforward: Dr. Jekyll is virtuous and awesome. Then he goes overboard with the science and ends up as villainous stringy-haired Hyde, until the love of a beautiful maiden redeems him and he kills himself. Though the film has some fancy techniques, including a flashback to Ye Olde Italy, the strength here is the cast, which is 100% Grade-A veteran muggers.

As with most movies she was in, the best thing about this movie is Nita Naldi:

Her intro card. I kind of wish we could still get away with these. You got ten words of exposition right up front!

Unfortunately, with Nita they were a waste, since she did a pretty good job conveying “world-weary dance hall girl who faces her world alone” all by herself:

However, when she sees Handsome Barrymore, she perks right up and slithers on over to introduce herself.

The movie’s conceit is that this one moment is enough to make the engaged Jekyll want to separate himself into two personalities, purely so that one of them can make out with this chick. I buy this.

Sadly, it’s hard to mack on a lady when you are about 70% less handsome than the last time she saw you. (A+ Pained Expression, though, Nita!)

Even though Nita Naldi is the screen siren of my heart, Barrymore is no slouch in this, either. There’s a makeup change between Jekyll and Hyde, but Barrymore being Barrymore, the transformation is mostly attitudinal:

This is pretty much how all the Jekyll scenes go: thumping around, mugging into the camera, waving at hookers. Shine on, you hammy diamond.

Though my favorite scene is still the pervy old aristocrat at the opening dinner party, and John Barrymore’s priceless facial expressions as the morals are discussed.

Subtext: approved!

So, last night was the Oscars, that gleaming bastion of class and merit, where they will give a woman an Oscar for directing the best film of the year and then play “I am Woman” before throwing to commercial. In keeping with this grand tradition, Hollywood takes the opportunity to go all-out, lining up for the fashion police in a glittery, flawless parade.

I am kidding. It was a disaster. This face says it all:

And when Kristin Stewart speaks for all of us, you know something is wrong.

It’s a sad, sad day.
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Today, two great tastes that taste great together: Olympic Pairs skating, and the greatest sports movie ever made, The Cutting Edge.

Here’s the thing about The Cutting Edge: it’s a seriously early-90s movie, as evidenced by D. B. Sweeney and Moira Kelly. It is super-predictable. It also tries to tackle What Ambitious Women Are Up Against, and ends up saying, “Ambitious women are up against an awful lot! Poor thing; let’s give her a boyfriend to help her with that.”

On the other hand, it is a movie that tells you pretty much everything you need to know about pairs skating, so at least it’s useful! It will be especially useful when applied to the Pairs event that just wrapped at the Vancouver Olympics.

“It’s a bounce spin into a throw twist?”
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The first time I saw it, I realized I was in the presence of something truly beautiful. And now, for all of you, this valentine:

via Ironic Sans

Whether or not you celebrate Valentine’s Day, know that Carl Sagan loves you every day of the year. Cosmos is, in fact, a heavily-coded love letter written just for you. (But you knew that.)