Here’s my March music playlist:

I read just two books in March:

• Nobody’s Perfect by Donald E. Westlake
• Billy Bathgate by E.L. Doctorow

I read 32 short stories in March, missing just a couple of days. These were my favorites:

• “An Honour to be Nominated…” by Jacob Seinemeier in Escape Pod
• “Warren’s Tentacle” by Susan Palwick in Lightspeed
• “What We Mean When We Talk About the Hole in the Bathroom” by Angela Liu in Uncanny
• “Eat, Prey, Love: A Modest Proposal for Ensuring Gender Equality Through Selective Dietary Practices; or, a Geriatric Millennial’s Guide to #GirlDinner” by Jilly Dreadful in Lightspeed
• “I Wish You Died Laughing” by Lio Abendan in Strange Horizons
• “Walking Tour of Scarborough in Nuclear Winter” by Stewart C Baker in Pseudopod
• “The Bridge” by Rory Say in The Drabblecast
• “The Tide Folk” by Jennifer Hudak in Lightspeed
• “Espie Droger Dreams of War” by Matthew Kressel in Lightspeed
• “The Sea Child” by Justin Wesley Ferguson in Beneath Ceaseless Skies
• “I Once Fell in Love With a Jackalope” by Chase Anderson in Small Wonders
• “Ananconfabulation” by Mar Vincent in PodCastle
• “Meet the Mets” by ace tilton ratcliff in Escape Pod
• “All the Good You Did Not Do” by Jolie Toomajan in Pseudopod
• “I Will Bring You Tokyo” by P.S.C. Willis in Tales & Feathers

I watched 6 movies last week:

• Tokyo Gore Police does exactly what it says on the tin. Never mind that the tin is more than a little dented, or that its contents have started to go rancid, that seems like it’s maybe kind of the point. The movie is ridiculously over-the-top, certainly delivering on the violence and gore—sometimes in silly or inventive ways, though mostly just to shock and disgust—but it doesn’t offer a lot except for that, even when it finally gets around to having some kind of story. Some cheap but creative glimmers and an in-your-face attitude aside, the whole thing quickly grows tedious.
• The Hunted is…fine. It’s best when it’s a game of cat and mouse between its two leads, though mostly only because those leads are Tommy Lee Jones and Benicio Del Toro, who invest more in their characters than the script does. The movie never really goes anywhere, beyond a stab at a lukewarm First Blood remake. And while William Friedkin certainly knows his way around a chase scene, this was not one of his better efforts.
• The new Anaconda doesn’t work just as a love letter to the 1997 original. Which is good, because I don’t have much if any love for that movie. This one is goofy and amiable, and if it doesn’t go anywhere even remotely surprising, at least the ride itself is good-natured fun.

• Roger Ebert said that Runaway Train was “a reminder that the great adventures are great because they happen to people we care about.” In this case, that’s Jon Voight and Eric Roberts, who really do manage to make you care about their characters and keep the tension high from start to finish.
• Imagine a cheap Canadian answer to Mad Max with a little Smokey and the Bandit tossed for some reason, and you probably have a pretty good idea of how Firebird 2015 AD ever got made. Of course, what you’re imagining is almost certainly a better movie than this lazy and tedious shamble. Some of the actors do their best with the absolute nothing they’re given, while some just do a lot, but none of it is worth watching even a little.
• I often didn’t like Marty Supreme the character, but Marty Supreme the movie takes so many weird and audacious swings, it’s hard not to largely enjoy it.

I also rewatched Coherence, which I think is a little less clever upon rewatching, and a little dated by its shot-on-video aesthetic and some of its cast—RIP to the troubled Nicholas Brendon—but still holds up as a clever explorations of science-fictional ideas.

I watched just 4 movies last week:

• If Little Caesar feels a little dated, to the point almost of parody, that’s largely because Edward G. Robinson so strongly created the template for future gangster movies.
• Jamie Lee Curtis, who stars in Virus called the movie “the all time piece of shit.” Trust her on this.
• Technically a television miniseries, split into two parts, World on a Wire is every inch a 1970s German television production, and if it’s science fictional ideas seem a little familiar now, it’s only because so many later movies have lifted them, or borrowed from the same influences.
• First Men in the Moon is very silly, but also surprisingly delightful and fun.

Finally, I rewatched The Bat, with #HorrorWatch on Bluesky. I thought the same thing as I did back in November when I watched it for the first time: it’s a little silly, a little oddly convoluted, but the cast, including Vincent Price, are a lot of fun.

Last week, there were zero guesses!

Let’s see if we can’t more than double that this week! 😉 If you know the song and artist, guess in the comments below, it’s just that simple. Good luck!

1. “Sail on, silver girl”
   “Bridge Over Troubled Water” by Simon & Garfunkel, guessed by Frodis
2. “Tore my shirt to stop you bleedin'”
3. “And the sky was made of amethyst”
4. “Flambeau dancers light the walkway to Jean Pierre’s”
5. “I wonder how the old folks are tonight”
6. “Figures that my courage would choose to sell out now”
   “Crucify” by Tori Amos, guessed by Chris McLaren
7. “Thoughts meander like a restless wind inside a letterbox”
   “Across the Universe” by Fiona Apple (orig. the Beatles), guessed by Glen
8. “You are cruel and you are constant”
9. “They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom”
   “First We Take Manhattan” by Leonard Cohen, guessed by Chris McLaren
10. “I really think I better get a hold of myself”