Spooky season is upon us again. (At least if you’re in the Northeast corridor.) So this week, Lit Hubbers enjoyed autumnal fare. I’m talking leaf-peeping, and freaky Fridays. We’ve got reflection and hibernation on the brain. Whether that means hunkering down with old friends, or making new ones.
Drew Broussard is tending the horror hearth. He’s been rewatching some late 90s/early 00s gems to high joy returns. Here’s a suggested syllabus, from our connoisseur. Your adult Halloween party is welcome.
“Bedazzled, an absolute romp! Event Horizon, truly spooky! Practical Magic, still a delight! Sleepy Hollow, possibly the last truly-great Tim Burton movie!”
These hits, Drew feels, circle a lack in today’s film culture. Our podcasts editor craves more movies that are “well-built and not trying to be anything other than what they are.”
Jonny Diamond recently returned from “the annual family trip to Montreal,” where the gang was “blessed with perfect fall weather, of the kind that drives the entire city out into the streets and to the parks.” Last week was Canadian Thanksgiving, so the mood was gratitude.
Says our editor: “There is nothing so good as drinking a (proper imperial) pint of beer in the sunshine as your two-year-old runs around the same park you used to ramble in 30 years earlier.” Bliss!
Oliver Scialdone also went roadtripping. This week took our Community Editor upstate, to a wedding with friends. Apparently IRL friendship > Online Alternatives. Says Oliver: “Everything’s always so busy, and it’s rare that we all just get to like…hang out? Talk to each other? It felt like a little reunion.” A sweet time was had by all.
On the flip side? If you can’t gather all your far-flung friends, Oliver’s got an indoor recommendation. He’d like to shout out “the first installment of this point and click adventure series.” The Telwynium: Book One is modeled after several 90s PC games. We’re told it’s a “fun way to spend about an hour and half.”
I, Brittany Allen, have been enjoying homages. We lost D’Angelo and Diane Keaton this week—and though these are obviously not “nice things,” some truly elegant tributes have refreshed my fandom. Harmony Holiday’s elegy/essay for D’Angelo is a stunning piece of writing. And I dug Hilton Als’ remembrance of DK’s unique ambivalence in The New Yorker. Both praisenotes really circle what was unique about these artists. What holes in the culture they seemed to fill.
For my own tribute, I plan to imitate Jonny and track down an Imperial to pour out. But speaking (again) of our editor: I’ve also been buzzing through this week off a previous JD recommendation.
Though I hate to recycle a nice thing, Cameron Winter’s solo record, “Heavy Metal,” has been playing on a loop in our house. This debut from a precocious Brooklynite—also known as the frontman of Geese—feels like a bunch of late greats (Leonard Cohen, Dave Berman) got together with some hep alien spawn. I’m here to cosign the fact that the record is weird, melancholy and quietly epic.
Fall, in any case, is a terrific time for tuning up the hi-fi. It’s lovely to sit with the old gods, and inspiring to dance to the new.
Wishing you a weekend of coziness, quietude, and little reunions.