Nolan needs Dairy Queen.
Don’t make fun and don’t be mean.
I really need to make the scene
Near that fabulous shake machine.
Photo credit: Mbrickn, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
The times they are a-changin’.
The former Roanoke Times building is now the administration offices for Roanoke City Public Schools.
It feels so weird to me — maybe because the building was one of the first landmarks I remember seeing when I first came to Roanoke.
“Vampire,” Jaroslav Panuska, 1900
“Ah, distinctly I remember …”
Source: The Poe Museum
Intersection of Church Avenue and Market Street, December 2023
“Visul lui Ulise,” Nicolae Vermont, 1893
“Ulysses’ Dream.” Oil on canvas.
A very short review of “The Exorcist: Believer” (2023)
I’m sorry to report here that “The Exorcist: Believer” (2023) is indeed a bit lackluster. (The buzz online was pretty critical of the this latest entry in the franchise.)
It starts off strongly enough. The story’s setup is methodical and well paced, that characters feel real, and the movie does a good job building tension. It’s in the latter half that the movie falls short — it slides into a chaotic jumble of characters and story elements. There is one major story development that arrives as a welcome reference to the classic 1973 original film … but it’s written off in an unsatisfying way that has little effect on the plot as a whole. (I am being intentionally vague here to avoid spoilers.)
There are a few things to like here … it is definitely a little scary in a couple of places. And the two girls playing the afflicted teenagers (Lidyah Jewett and Olivia O’Neill) are superb.
“The Exorcist: Believer” isn’t a bad horror movie, exactly. It’s really just average — and it has the misfortune of being compared to the original.
“The Shepherd’s Dream,” John Henry Fuseli, 1786
Drawing.
“I Heard a Bird Sing,” by Oliver Herford
I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December.
A magical thing
And sweet to remember.
“We are nearer to Spring
Than we were in September,”
I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December.
Winter Woods, Charles Warren Eaton, circa 1900
Eric Robert Nolan, Author 