mellicious | Reading

The Invite    HD720p 25MB
Chamber dramedy about Joe (Seth Rogen) and Angela (Olivia Wilde) whose marriage is on thin ice, and tonight might be when it all falls apart. Unfortunately, their upstairs neighbors (Edward Norton, Penélope Cruz) are about to arrive for dinner, and everything that can go wrong goes worse. Also directed by Wilde (Booksmart, Don't Worry Darling).
This is the US version of the Spanish film Sentimental/The People Upstairs that by now has been adapted about a half a dozen times. Looks funny and Sundance reviews are very favourable.

In the Grey    HD720p 30MB
Trailer for the latest action thriller written and directed by Guy Ritchie(Snatch., The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Swept Away). It follows a covert team of elite operatives (Henry Cavill, Jake Gyllenhaal, Eiza González) who live in the global shadows, as comfortable wielding power and influence as they are automatic weapons and high explosives. When a ruthless despot steals a billion-dollar fortune, the team is sent to steal it back on what would be for anyone else a suicide mission. Kristofer Hivju, Fisher Stevens and Rosamund Pike are also part of the cast.
IMDb informs me that filming already took place in 2023. Hopefully not all snappy bits of dialogue are already shown in the trailer.

Backrooms    HD720p 25MB
Horror mystery in which a strange doorway appears in the basement of a furniture showroom. Cast members include Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renate Reinsve, Mark Duplass and Lukita Maxwell.
Certainly an intriguing trailer, especially for genre fans. An earlier teaser: HD720p 7MB.

The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping    HD720p 35MB
Full trailer for the latest franchise extension, again directed by Francis Lawrence (The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Constantine, I Am Legend), to be in theatres in November. It will revisit the world of Panem 24 years before the events of The Hunger Games, starting on the morning of the reaping of the 50th Hunger Games, also known as the Second Quarter Quell. Cast members include Joseph Zada, Elle Fanning, Ralph Fiennes, Jesse Plemons, Glenn Close, Kieran Culkin, Mckenna Grace, Maya Hawke, Lili Taylor, Whitney Peak and Kelvin Harrison Jr.

The Devil Wears Prada 2   HD720p 27MB
A second trailer for the sequel. It follows Miranda Priestly's (Meryl Streep) struggle against Emily Charlton (Emily Blunt), her former assistant turned rival executive, as they compete for advertising revenue amidst declining print media while Miranda nears retirement. Anne Hathaway and Stanley Tucci also return. Among the new cast additions are Kenneth Branagh, Simone Ashley, Justin Theroux and Lucy Liu. Again directed by David Frankel (Collateral Beauty, Hope Springs, Marley & Me).

fauxklore

87 Days so far!

I finally had a chance to listen to the March guest poet presentation by Lauren Camp. She talked about and read from two of her nine books of poetry - In Old Sky and Is Is Enough. The former is about her residency in the Grand Canyon and focuses on darkness, while the latter has to do with her father and his descent into dementia. One comment she made that I liked was that poems can narrow in, rather than having to be about the whole. She also talked a little bit about revision. While I enjoyed her poems, I wished she’d had more practical advice about process.

Here are the titles of the poems I’ve written over the past month. As usual, I will not include the actual text of any poems I might ever try to get published, since most publications count blogs as prior publication.

Stafford Challenge Week 9:

14 March 2026 - Pi Day

15 March 2026 - The Ides of March

16 March 2026 - Road Trip

17 March 2026 - Black Hole Nightmare

18 March 2026 - Dancing at the Overcrowded Bar

19 March 2026 - Taking Another Friend for a Medical Procedure

20 March 2026 - Folklore

Stafford Challenge Week 10:

21 March 2026 - Book Club Irony

22 March 2026 - Emcee Challenge

23 March 2026 - Circumnavigation

24 March 2026 - Mary Talks About Names

25 March 2026 - Cynthia

26 March 2026 - Packing

27 March 2026 - Roald Dahl

Stafford Challenge Week 11:

28 March 2026 - Bigfoot

29 March 2026 - About Time

30 March 2026 - Pancakes

31 March 2026 - The Railroad Rhyme

1 April 2026 - Fools

2 April 2026 - Diana

3 April 2026 - Passover Haiku

Stafford Challenge Week 12:

4 April 2026 - More Living Room Archaeology

5 April 2026 - Pollen

6 April 2026 - Inaction Item

7 April 2026 - Zip Ode (22181)

8 April 2026 - Choosing Hotels

9 April 2026 - Taxes

10 April 2026 - Crosswords

Crosswords:

I’ll include the 10 April poem here, since an Acrostic is hard to find a market for. I wrote this on an Amtrak train on my way to the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament this past weekend.

CROSSWORDS

Constructors
rely
on
strange
synonyms,
wildly
obscure
rare
definitions.
Stimulating.

The Zip Ode

The Zip Ode is a poetic form that is new to me. The idea is to take your zip code and use each digit as the number of words per line. For example, my zip code is 22181. Here was my first attempt at this form:

Virginia days
in spring -
Weather
cannot make up its mind about the temperature.
Unsettling.

xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/3232/

Anyone who is caught counting 'three ... two ... one ... zero ... GO!' will be punished with a lifetime of eating only ISO standard food samples.

https://xkcd.com/3232/

myrmidon posting in

fandom_icons

Resident Evil Requiem (2026)
[ leon s. kennedy ]

[ here @

axisandallies ]

mific posting in

fancake

Fandom: Hockey RPF
Characters/Pairings: Sidney Crosby/Evgeni (Geno) Malkin, Alexander Ovechkin, Shea Weber, Joe Thornton
Rating: Explicit
Length: 15,934
Content Notes: no AO3 warnings apply
Creator Links: thehoyden on AO3
Themes: Arranged marriage, First time, AU: royalty, Secret identity

Summary: It’s actually his father who suggests it.

“Take the rest of the summer for yourself,” he says. “Do something fun.”

“Fun,” Sidney repeats blankly.

Reccer's Notes: I'm into hockey fics now! This is a classic, already reccd here ages ago and worth revisiting. It's a royalty AU with added hockey, which is where Sid meets Geno. There's a fun, hot and charming initial romance, then Sid has to get on with his life of obligations, including the frustrating search for a suitable royal-lineage husband to cement political ties. Ultimately, love wins, of course, and it's a satisfying, well written story.

Fanwork Links: You're the One That I Want (locked to AO3)

denise posting in

dw_maintenance

I keep forgetting to post about this: we've been troubleshooting the "missing notifications" problem for the past few days. (Well, I say "we", really I mean Mark and Robby; I'm just the amanuensis.) It's been one of those annoying loops of "find a logical explanation for what could be causing the problem, fix that thing, observe that the problem gets better for some people but doesn't go away completely, go back to step one and start again", sigh.

Mark is hauling out the heavy debugging ordinance to try to find the root cause. Once he's done building all the extra logging tools he needs, he'll comment to this entry. After he does, if you find a comment that should have gone to your inbox and sent an email notification but didn't, leave him a link to the comment that should have sent the notification, as long as the comment itself was made after Mark says he's collecting them. (I'd wait and post this after he gets the debug code in but I need to go to sleep and he's not sure how long it will take!)

We're sorry about the hassle! Irregular/sporadic issues like this are really hard to troubleshoot because it's impossible to know if they're fixed or if they're just not happening while you're looking. With luck, this will give us enough information to figure out the root cause for real this time.

xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/3231/

Maybe you should wear one too? I guess I'm taller than you, so as long as I have one we're fine.

https://xkcd.com/3231/

shehiemal posting in

addme

Name: Rhi, rhymes with sea, she/her

Age: early 30s

I mostly post about: Probably mostly books I read, music, fandom, and for the foreseeable future my much-planned writing project of noir biofuturistic middle-aged vampire lesbian erotica

My hobbies are: Writing, reading, music, being in nature (not "hiking" because I'm disabled but ykwim), watching video game letsplays

My fandoms are: Arthuriana, Skyrim, Baldur's Gate 3, Dragon Age (the first two), Homer, Dracula, Nero Wolfe, TTRPGs in general, a lot of random books

I'm looking to meet people who: I might gravitate toward accounts that also post about books, or post fandom meta...post about music...but I like hearing from people who have interests different from mine, too, as long as everyone's on a similar page on humans respecting each other as covered in the dealbreakers question :p

My posting schedule tends to be: Probably less than once a day and more than once a week

When I add people, my dealbreakers are:
My journal is 18+ only.
Bigotry including but not limited to racism, transphobia, ablism, sexism, or religious intolerance (including weirdos who hate atheists).
Strongly believing there is such a thing as "good art" and "bad art." Using "sees nuance" to mean "agrees with me."

Before adding me, you should know: I also have an Intro post here

fauxklore

Books:
I read 11 books this quarter, which is not quite the pace I need to reach my goal of 80 for the year.

Herman Melville, Moby Dick (reread). I’m not sure if this counts, since I’ve read it several times. I went to my third Moby Dick marathon (my second in New Bedford; the other was in San Francisco.) It’s an amazing book, with a mix of adventure, social commentary, and humor. If you haven’t read it, you should in order to understand why so many people consider this THE Great American Novel.
Sujata Massey, Girl in a Box. The title refers to a young woman who is overly protected, mostly by her family, Re Shimura is undercover at a Japanese department store, investigating financial malfeasance. The issues she stumble upon involve the yakuza, money laundering, and, unfortunately, murder. There are a lot of interesting details regarding Japanese culture, e.g. a funeral for old sewing needles. While the ending is abrupt and implausible, I still enjoyed this for the most part.
Christopher Buckley, Supreme Courtship. Buckley has long been the master of humor about Washington, D.C. and this is no exception. The story has to do with a TV judge who gets appointed to the Supreme Court, largely as revenge against the Senate Judiciary Committee, after they reject two perfect candidates. She’s hardly an intellectual, but she’s plain spoken and able to use her common sense. The things that happen are wild - and wildly funny. Overall, this is a delightful romp.
Jasper Fforde, Red Side Story. This is the sequel to Shades of Grey. It started out rather slowly , but picked up as soon as Eddie and Jane set out on a mission to search for spoons in Crimsonalia. The world building is superb and the ending is extremely satisfying. Lots of fun.
J. J. Marric, Gideon’s Power. Commander George Gideon of Scotland Yard is dealing with a strong of power outages that appear to be sabotage. And there have also been cases of children kidnapped, molested, and murdered. I didn’t find all of it particularly plausible, but I think it was a reasonably good read as procedurals go.
Terry Pratchett, Making Money. I’ve always found Pratchett to be amusing, but inconsistent, and this book is no exception. Moist van Lipwick (whose name I find very off-putting) was a crook who was saved from hanging and put in charge of the post office, which he made successful. Now he’s put in charge of the bank and the mint. But all the gold has vanished. There’s some funny stuff, but, overall, I didn’t find this book very satisfying.
Boris Kester, The Long Road to Cullaville. I read this for the Travelers’ Century Club Book Club. Kester is one of many people who has been to every UN country. His stories cover some of his travels, including places like Yemen, Cuba, and Equatorial Guinea. The roughest story involves a near-fatal auto accident in South Africa. The writing (which was his own translation of the original Dutch) wasn’t brilliant, but it was still reasonably interesting.
Susan Branch, The Summer Book. I was given several of Branch’s books by one of my mother’s neighbors. This is a mix of household tips, recipes, and such. It’s hard to read because of the fonts, which are meant to resemble handwriting. While I did save a few recipes, overall, I found this (and other books by her) eminently skippable.
Rona Jaffe, Family Secrets. This lengthy novel traces three generations of a Jewish family. The patriarch builds a real estate empire. His children marry, have careers and children, and live in a large compound he’s built. One granddaughter is clearly based on Jaffe herself, who went to Radcliffe and had a successful writing career, starting with her first novel. An okay read, but dated.
Annie Hartnett, The Road to Tender Hearts. I read this for Crones and Tomes and enjoyed it a lot more than I’d expected to. It’s the story of a road trip taken by an alcoholic older man, who has never recovered from the death of his older daughter, his younger daughter (who does the driving), and the two children of his estranged older brother, who he has become the guardian of There’s also a cat, who frequently steals the show. The premise sounds depressing, but there is surprising charm and humor throughout. Highly recommended.
Graham Greene, Journey Without Maps. This was another TCC Book Club selection. In the late 1930’s, Greene set out to cross Liberia on foot. Because maps were not available he consistently got conflicting information about the distances to towns along the way. He didn’t really know much about the people and, in general, didn’t seem to like them. There were also weird digressions, e.g. one abut an Estonian woman in Riga and another about his youthful episodes of depression. I thought, overall, it was fairly interesting, but a bit of a slog to get through. I wish it had been edited by someone neutral.

Movies:
I only saw one movie this quarter.

The Choral: This movie is set in 1916 and involves the choral society in a small community in Yorkshire. They’re putting on a production of Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius but, because of World War I, there are not enough men available, so they make some changes in the story. Ralph Fiennes puts on an excellent performance as the chorus master. The stories involve the various members of the choral society, and touch on several topics, including sexual relationships. The music throughout is exquisite. Recommended.

Goals:

I’ve got solid plans for one long distance train trip. In May. In Australia. The Ghan. I have an idea about another one.
I’ve got tentative plans for 2 minor league baseball games.
I’ve got solid plans for 2 new to me TCC countries / territories.
I have ideas about national parks, but haven’t acted on them.
I don’t feel like I am making much progress on reading Hangul.
I am way behind on shredding household paperwork.
I’ve read 12 books so far this year (the 11 discussed above plus one more in April) and should finish at least 2 more this month. So I am behind where I should be.
Finished one crafts project (a needle felted penguin.) I am getting close to finishing my Tunisian crochet afghan.
I have done nothing about getting rid of LP records.
I have been keeping up with the Stafford Challenge.

In short, I am doing reasonably well on goals so far this year.

sarajayechan posting in

fandom_icons

177 of a variety of pairings. Teasers:

Full post here [CW for adult content]

forestofglory posting in

ladybusiness

After years of struggling to read new-to-me fiction, I’ve recently entered a phase of reading graphic novels and comics and I’ve been reading so much! (It helps that I accidentally got into a comics-based fandom via stress-reading fic late last year.) It’s only April yet I have already read more books this year than I have in any year since 2020, it's truly wild. I haven’t had this much fun reading in ages!

I wanted to share some of the things I’ve been enjoying, so I thought I’d write a rec list. I find graphic novels easier to focus on when I’m stressed than prose novels, and I also love getting to see so much art. I’ve been mostly reading MG and YA works – it feels like there is a lot going on in that space right now! Plus it’s a space where there tend to be many stories focused on friendship, which I really enjoy. I’ve also been choosing more lighthearted things to read. The world is stressful and I can’t deal with stressful reading at the moment.

( Read more... )

flareonfury posting in

fandom_icons

Since a little obsessed with the series, the following icons were made for various challenges:

"Some secrets cannot be contained...." for

tvmovie20in20

"I'm Keiko Miura. And you may call me Doctor Miura...." for

characters20in20

"If we can’t put the greater good before our own desires, we risk losing everything....." for

ships20in20

sasheneskywalker posting in

fancake

Fandom: Naruto
Pairings/Characters: Senju Tobirama/Uchiha Madara
Rating: Mature
Length: 6,014 words
Creator Links:

Askerian
Theme: forced marriage, arranged marriage, asexual & demisexual characters

Summary: "Oh," Izuna said -- delicately, while studiously reading his folder, "I'm afraid we need someone with a ... strong personality for Naohime."

"Why's that?" Hashirama replied, just as painfully polite.

The daimyo's mediator kept watching them and scratching little pointy words in his notebook.

"Because if your man doesn't prove that he's dangerous and has the personality to use it on her if she pushes him, it's going to turn abusive," Madara drawled.

Hashirama stared at him for a blank second. The daimyo's envoy stopped writing; even his stone-faced Aburame bodyguard arched her eyebrows over her darkened spectacles.

Tobirama stretched out across the table without another word to take back one of the folders Izuna had spread around him.

--

The daimyo is over the whole Uchiha/Senju war. They're going to become one people if they know what's good for them.

Madara hates it enough without having to marry a woman too.

Reccer's Notes: Fun oneshot! Hot, with a really interesting relationship dynamic, and I also love how it touches on gray asexuality <3

Fanwork Links: What Brings Us Together

xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/3230/

I think I accidentally installed an Overton window in my bedroom. A few months ago, the sun wasn't in my face in the morning, but now it is.

https://xkcd.com/3230/

beatrice_otter posting in

fancake

Fandom: Bridgerton
Pairings/Characters: Anthony/Kate
Rating: teen
Length: 46k
Creator Links:

ronandhermy
Theme: Arranged marriage, AU, fork in the road, marriage of convenience, happy endings, marriage

Summary: At the age of eighteen Kate Sharma, after sending a desperate letter to her father's homeland, receives aid in the form of a letter from Lady Danbury who has arranged a match for the young woman. With only a letter, a promise and hope, Kate takes her mother and sister and sails to England where she is to marry Lord Anthony Bridgerton.

Reccer's Notes: I really enjoyed this take on how Kate and Anthony might have met when they were younger, and all the changes it would have brought.

Fanwork Links: A Red Thread of Convenience

helloladies posting in

ladybusiness

Please welcome our anonymous reviewer!

The Poet Empress by Shen Tao is a debut Chinese-inspired fantasy centered on a poor village girl who rises from a concubine to the empress-in-waiting to an abusive prince heir. In a bid to save the kingdom from the tyranny of his reign, Wei decides to kill him in the only way she can, by writing a magic poem. Only deathly poems have to be love poetry, and only by knowing him well enough to love him can she kill him.

( Read more... )

fauxklore

The official blog post (written by me) wrapping up the Women’s Storytelling Festival is available now on the Better Said Than Done website blog. Here are a few additional comments.

First of all, you can still get a festival pass until April 8th, which will give you access to the recordings through April 28th. It’s definitely worth it for the amazing mix of stories by some incredibly talented tellers.
In addition to writing blog posts (the one linked here, as well as earlier ones about the tellers and the emcees), I also coordinated volunteers. This was a little stressful, but everybody who volunteered showed up on time and worked cheerfully. On Friday night, I learned how useless I was in figuring out how the support framework for the banner worked, but, fortunately, there were other people who were able to figure it out better than I could. I also did a shift at the ticket desk (on Saturday night), but there weren’t any last minute arrivals to deal with.
The other thing I did was emceeing the story swap. I felt a bit less organized about that than I usually do. What you can’t tell from the video is that I got my steps in by walking up and down the steps to the stage. That enabled me to sit in the front row of the audience, so the tellers could see my time cues, but it did slow things down a little. Despite which, we finished pretty much exactly on time. Everyone who wanted to tell was able to do, and other than not being able to decipher the handwriting of someone I know well, I didn’t badly manage people’s names. (But, really, Jane needs to learn how to write the letter “n”!) I also really appreciated Nina for including a pronunciation guide on her index card.
While I was familiar with many of the tellers, there were some I had never heard before. I knew I was going to be blown away by Megan Wells and Jennifer Munro, for example, but I hadn’t heard the extraordinarily funny Regina Stoops before. I was also reminded that I never mind hearing a good story more than once.
I want to blow my own horn just a tiny bit, since I had suggested we try to get an official government proclamation (at one of our committee meetings). Bonnie did a lot of the heavy lifting in facilitating that, however.
I really shouldn’t have to say this, but if you haven’t noticed, I love everything about this festival, which I’ve been involved with since it started. The first year was rough - 2020, need I say more? But we’ve worked well together and it’s something I’ve been proud to be a part of. I can’t express how grateful I am to Jessica for starting this and pulling together one of the best groups of people I’ve ever met to make it reality.

xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/3229/

Communication is one of the most popular ways to transmit information, ahead of rivals such as

https://xkcd.com/3229/

fauxklore

I'm sorry for not having written in a few weeks, but I was fairly swamped with the Women's Storytelling Festival, after which I took a trip up to New York City for a theatre binge. I have managed to get through about a quarter of my to-do list, so should be able to do some catching up here.

I've written a blog post about the festival for the Better Said Than Done website and will post a slightly edited version of that here in a little while. Other things I need to write about are:

the theatre binge
my quarterly run-down on books, movies, and goals
Stafford Challenge update
various articles I've clipped (and some other news items, e.g. the ever popular celebrity death watch)
general kvetching

See you soon!

nerdsorrow posting in

addme

NAME: just call me nerdsorrow for now <3.

AGE: I am thirty or forty years old! I don't mind being followed or messaged by the legally minor, the gen zees/gen alphas are doing a lot of good web art/retro revival stuff right now. my journal is gen atm, I will likely make a private community for writing if I start posting fic or other nsfw.

I MOSTLY POST ABOUT: Art (other people's) (especially smallweb and multimedia stuff), writing (other people's), music, movies, etc. There will be the inevitable diaryposting and a bit of personal art, but I want to share cool stuff I've found.

I AM LOOKING FOR: Do you post about art, music, movies, etc? If you ever do even a little bit at all of recs or reviews, comment here. If you share your own art of any kind, comment here! It's so hard to find good new things on this evil internet.

SUBSCRIPTION/ACCESS POLICY: Currently all my stuff is public, if I use this more intensively, I may make personal/diary posts private

Profile

mellicious

January 2026

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Page Summary

trailer_spot - The Invite, In the Grey, Backrooms, The Hunger Games Sunrise on the Reaping, The Devil Wears Prada 2
fauxklore - Stafford Challenge Update - Weeks 9 through 12
xkcd_feed - Countdown Standard
myrmidon in fandom_icons - Resident Evil Requiem [2026]
mific in fancake - Hockey RPF: You're the One That I Want by thehoyden
denise in dw_maintenance - The case of the missing notifications
xkcd_feed - Lightning
shehiemal in addme - (no subject)
fauxklore - First Quarter 2026 - Books, Movies, Goals
sarajayechan in fandom_icons - Hazbin Hotel ship icons
forestofglory in ladybusiness - Graphic Novel Favorites From My Recent Reading
flareonfury in fandom_icons - Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Icons
sasheneskywalker in fancake - Naruto: What Brings Us Together
xkcd_feed - Overton
beatrice_otter in fancake - Bridgerton: A Red Thread of Convenience by ronandhermy
helloladies in ladybusiness - Guest Review: Empathizing with the Abuser: The Poet Empress by Shen Tao
fauxklore - The 2026 Women's Storytelling Festival
xkcd_feed - Grammar
fauxklore - A Bit of a Placeholder
nerdsorrow in addme - Talk to me about interesting stuff you found

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Page generated Apr. 14th, 2026 06:07 pm

Catchy Name Needed

Looking for a name since 2003

Reading

The Invite, In the Grey, Backrooms, The Hunger Games Sunrise on the Reaping, The Devil Wears Prada 2

Stafford Challenge Update - Weeks 9 through 12

Countdown Standard

Resident Evil Requiem [2026]

Hockey RPF: You're the One That I Want by thehoyden

The case of the missing notifications

Lightning

(no subject)

First Quarter 2026 - Books, Movies, Goals

Hazbin Hotel ship icons

Graphic Novel Favorites From My Recent Reading

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Icons

Naruto: What Brings Us Together

Overton

Bridgerton: A Red Thread of Convenience by ronandhermy

Guest Review: Empathizing with the Abuser: The Poet Empress by Shen Tao

The 2026 Women's Storytelling Festival

Grammar

A Bit of a Placeholder

Talk to me about interesting stuff you found

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January 2026

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