They Tried To Make Us See

I will admit that this is a dark way to follow my earlier post saying that we should look for light in dark days, but this one demands our attention -- on the same morning that there's a really fucking upsetting article in the NYT about how our not-esteemed President's healthcare cuts are mucking up the imminent cure for HIV I stumbled upon this video of Russell Tovey doing a reading of a famous letter by John Waters' star and downtown goddess Cookie Mueller. In it she talks about the devastation of AIDS, which would later claim her life as well. If you need a more succinct rundown on the background of Cookie than the many I've given over the years, read this wonderful piece. I think this is really the only note we can end Pride on in 2025. Be furious. We need to be furious. We need to summon the rage of those we lost, and those we will lose. They're coming for every one of us and throwing trans people under the bus isn't going to stop them from shipping a white homosexual like me to a gulag. We're in this together y'all. Make art, make violence, just scream. Scream in the motherfuckers face. Make them uncomfortable. Fucking fight y'all. Things are not okay. So dark days, yes, but we can be the light. Bright violent light if need be -- the sort of light that snuffs out the darkness in a explosion of itself. 

All the Bloodshed Money Can Buy To Die For

Happy Criterion Announcement Day! As goes every 15th of the month (or sometimes therebaouts) we have gotten the new slate of Criterion blu-rays and 4Ks for an upcoming month, which in today's case means March of 2024. And what a slate it is! Starting with the happiest shock of the bunch -- on March 26th they're dropping Gus Van Sant's satical masterpiece To Die For onto 4K! Definitely my favoritew movie of Van Sant's (with all due apologies to the very close runner-up My own Private Idaho) and possibly still my favorite Nicole Kidman performance -- all that's a long list and it would depend on the day and my mood. Anyway there weirdly aren't a ton of special features on this -- some commentary tracks, deleted scenes, and an essay -- but when the movie itself is this good and it's been newly restored I don't really care. Next up...

... we have Iranian director Amir Naderi's 1984 film The Runner, which is based on his own childhood in that post-revolutionary country and stars child actor Madjid Niroumand as an orphan determined to rise above his circumstances, and we have Senegalese director Alice Diop's 2022 masterful Saint Omer, a courtroom drama about a novelist following the trial in France of an immigrant accused of murdering her own daughter. 

And then we have William Dieterle's 1941 classic retelling of The Daniel and Devil Webster called All That Money Can Buy, which memorably stars Walter Huston as the devil himself and has a grand score from Bernard Herrmann. And to top it all off we've got my #8 favorite film of last year, Laura Poitras' documentary All the Beauty and the Bloodshed about photographer and activist Nan Goldin, which is a goddamned masterpiece and one of the most important documents of our age. This is not a light bunch of movies, y'all! Great great stuff coming from Criterion in March -- pre-order everything at the links provided. 

All the Beautiful Santa Booty

The end of the year is the absolute worst time to have any idea what is coming out when -- movies are hitting streaming, movies are hitting New York and Los Angeles, movies are going wide, and keeping track of that is herculean nonsense that even I, with my face pressed to the fishbowl, can't come anywhere near sussing straight. But I'm going to try to steer you toward a few things that are coming out today anyway, because there are several titles of note dropping somewhere, and you can do the work to figure out how you, in the place you live, can see them, whether today or not today. I can't be everywhere! Unfortunately! Cuz if I could I'd really like to be hiding in Jack O'Connell's shower right now. (That photo above is from the new issue of Wonderland magazine and I have been impatiently awaiting more photos to show up for a week but still nothing, sigh. I will surely post them when they do arrive though because my god, look at him.) 

Speaking of Jack though he is on topic here because the new Lady Chatterly's Lover, starring him and The Crown's Emma Corrin, is on Netflix today! Directed by the phenomenally talented Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre (who gifted us with Matthias Schoenaerts in The Mustang previously) this is an absolutely solid and sexy adaptation of D.H. Lawrence's classic provocation -- it's a shame most people will see it on the small screen because it's a movie rich with texture; flesh and fabrics, mud and sweat. Jack and Emma are very fine (in all senses of that word), the costumes are fabulous (Jack looks so good in all those wools and suspenders, swoon) and I recommend checking it out if you're in the mood for a lush period piece with a thrumming pulse.   



Another movie that I recommend that is out today in several cities (and hitting streaming next Friday) is called Nr. 10 and it's another wild eccentricity from Borgman director Alex van Warmerdam -- in fact I have no idea how to write about it since it's a movie populated with so many sudden turns that I'd hate to spoil anyone's ride with it. I don't think you should even watch that trailer I posted above honestly -- if the incredible Borgman didn't convince you to see everything that van Warmerdam puts out for the rest of time I know I can't do a better job than that. Let me just add though that this movie has the best, funniest, most delightful ending of any movie I have seen in years -- if you're watching it and thinking to yourself, "Where the hell is this thing going?" believe me you will never ever in a million years answer that question correctly. My god, I giggled for a full hour.

Also opening in theaters today -- although I have no idea to what extent -- is 2nd Chance, an absolutely fascinating documentary that's as funny as it is terrifying from Ramin Bahrani (director of 99 Homes and The White Tiger) that tells the only-in-America story of Richard Davis, the inventor of the bulletproof vest. The man shot himself in the chest over and over again to prove his invention's worth, built an empire and changed the world for the worse, and... well you really just need to watch this doc. It is, and I don't say this lightly, unmissable. it is bonkers! And I do say that lightly. What a story.

Then there are a couple of movies I have properly reviewed that are hitting theaters today -- I directed you earlier to my review of the gay tearjerker Spoiler Alert but if you missed that click here. I went into this one with pretty low expectations but was happily surprised to have them surpassed, and not just because it made me cry a bunch since I am the world's easiest crier. It's actually an interestingly structured film that takes a few risks with the formula that I appreciated! And the other movie out today that I have also reviewed is Joanna Hogg's haunted history piece The Eternal Daughter, starring Tilda Swinton twice over as mother and daughter. Here is my NYFF review. I absolutely loved it.

But wait wait wait! There is even more. Can you handle it? I don't think you can! There are also two movies I also saw at NYFF but never got around to reviewing that are hitting limited theaters this weekend, and they're among the very finest films of the year. Only unlike the movies I briefly reviewed up top I won't be briefly reviewing these two because if I do write about them they deserve real, proper, lengthy reviews. I just don't have that brainpower in me today, so I'm just giving you the heads-up that they're out and that they are one hundred thousand percent worth seeing. And those would be Sarah Polley's Women Talking (watch the trailer here) and Laura Poitras' devastating and invigorating doc on photographer Nan Goldin called All the Beauty and the Bloodshed. I have seen both of these films twice now and I haven't had a lot of time for re-watching things -- these are just both so excellent I made the damn time. And so should you.

And finally, one more damned thing. If all of that sounds serious and depressing, with the suicides and overdoses and serial rapes and cancer and such -- sounds like a party to me but what do I know -- there's also the terrifically dumb and silly and fun Santa Claus action-comedy Violent Night out too. Starring (Jack Twist side-piece) David Harbour as the real Kris Kringle pulling the "Danny Glover in Lethal Weapon" routine (aka the "I'm too old for this shit.") there isn't a single Christmas movie this thing doesn't rip off -- from Die Hard to Home Alone to Rare Exports to The Ref to Christmas Vacation and on and on and on every note will feel familiar, but you kinda won't care. Mostly because Harbour's having a blast, and there is some really funny and way over-the-top violence ladled over top. The movie is definitely too long (although its last act is its best) and it very much could've used a stronger cast outside of Harbour (most everybody feels like the D-list version of another more interesting actor) but I also had a lot of fun with it, and nobody needs too much seriousness weighing them down this holiday season. So spike some eggnog and skip a family festivity or two for it, I say. 

Cookie Fever Forever

Personal icon and international should-be legend Cookie Mueller is best known for her roles in several John Waters films, but she was so much more than Concetta with a knife in her pocketbook in Female Trouble -- after working with Waters she went on to have an estimable writing career, being a proto-hipster (that term would probably make her skin crawl) and writing superb and funny Downtown NYC scenester essays for the East Village Eye and art criticism for early Details magazine all through the 1980s. Her work was collected into a couple of books that have since been out-of-print and hard-as-fuck to find, but the fine people at Semiotext(e) have today rectified that situation, at least when it comes to her best known work, and reprinted the fabulous posthumous 1990 collection Walking Through Clear Water in a Pool Painted Black -- you can buy a copy today right at this link! 

I recommend you read that and you also pick up a copy of the Cookie biography called Edgewise from a few years back if you haven't read that (see my previous posts about that one here) -- of course, as with the earlier books, Edgewise appears to be out of print right now and is already super-expensive. Oh, the price of being hip! Just go steal a copy from some asshole -- that's what Cookie would have recommended. Anyway in related news -- and how wonderful to have more Cookie info to share than just one thing! -- the Metrograph movie theater here in NYC is doing a Cookie film series! She wasn't only a Dreamlander for John Waters -- she was in several other movies as well, and they're screening a bunch! I don't have a direct link for tickets yet or a full schedule, but the series begins on May 6th and here's their press release:

Stumbling Onto Wildness: Cookie Mueller On Film

Dorothy “Cookie” Mueller was born in Baltimore in 1949, and she died 40 years later in New York City; in the short time that she spent on this planet, she unfailingly sniffed out where the action was, and got herself involved with whatever was worth being involved with. A founding member of fellow Charm City native John Waters’s Dreamlanders ensemble, once Cookie made it to New York she became a muse and key collaborator to artists including Nan Goldin, Gary Indiana, and Bette Gordon—and she also became an extraordinary writer, developing a jocular, unsentimental, and hilariously brazen voice. You can encounter that voice in Semiotext(e)’s reprinting of Cookie’s posthumously published 1990 memoir, the riotous Walking Through Clear Water in a Pool Painted Black, which we’ll be celebrating the reappearance of at the Metrograph Bookstore, and in this series of films featuring Mueller, which just happens to include some of the wildest stuff American independent cinema had to offer over the course of two decades.

Titles include A Coupla White Faggots Sitting Around Talking, Subway Riders, Desperate Living, Multiple Maniacs, Polyester, Variety, and more.

Pink Flamingos is 50 & Hitting Criterion!

Big day for John Waters fanatics -- a sordid crew amongst which your host most assuredly counts his sordid ass -- as today marks the 50th anniversary of Pink Flamingos! Waters made movies before Flamingos and he made movies after but this one's the one that will be in the RIP headlines alongside his name (if he even needs that at this point), so legendary was its shit-grinning impact. It's the film that John made right after this one, Female Trouble, that's my personal favorite and his actual masterpiece if you ask me (you didn't), but Flamingos deserves every ounce of its notoriety -- I am one jaded motherfucker and I still have to cover my eyes several times while watching this movie today! But it's not just revulsion -- what keeps us coming back is John Waters' amazing way with dialogue and his motley crew of outcasts who spit out every morsel as if their lives depend upon it. But wait, I have more to say -- lots more it turns out, over at Pajiba, where I have properly marked the occasion with a retrospective glance back at Flamingos here at 50. Click on over and check it out! 

I'm not the only person marking the moment by making a fresh stain on the carpet though -- the fine folks over at Criterion put off their monthly blu-ray announcement for two full days just so they could announce that they're finally putting Pink Flamingos onto blu-ray in June! Pride Month indeed! June 28th, to be exact -- we knew this was coming because it was mentioned in an interview Waters gave last month (see that here) so I have spent the past few weeks trying to picture what Criterion would do for their cover and I absolutely fucking adore what they did come up with, even if it didn't occur to me in the slightest -- they made it look like the wrapped package of poop that the Marble send to Babs in the mail! It also gives the movie that "pass that thing under the video-store counter" dirty quality that it so demands. The set is loaded with special features, too:

DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

New 4K digital restoration, supervised and approved by director John Waters, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
Two audio commentaries featuring Waters, from the 1997 Criterion laserdisc and the 2001 DVD release
New conversation between Waters and filmmaker Jim Jarmusch
Tour of the film’s Baltimore locations, led by Waters
Deleted scenes, alternate takes, and on-set footage
And more!
PLUS: An essay by critic Howard Hampton and a piece by actor and author Cookie Mueller about the making of the film, from her 1990 book Walking Through Clear Water in a Pool Painted Black

Love that they've included some of Cookie's writing -- if you've never read any of her books (which are admittedly tough to find these days) you're in for a treat. She was an amazing woman. But my favorite special feature here already is the video walking tour of the movie's locations that Waters will give -- when I met him a couple of years back at a reading of his last book the only thing my star-struck brain could think to say was that I'd been to Baltimore recently and I couldn't find the exact location of where Divine ate that dog shit, and I was so out of it, being in JW's presence, that I retained exactly 0% of what he said. So basically yes I am telling you he included this location tour because of me. I am calling dibs on this one.

Good lord that photo still makes all the hairs on my body stand on end. Anyway since I brought up the Criterion news I should mention the rest of the line-up for the month of June 2022 -- it's one hell of an amazing line-up even besides. Second and second-most they are dropping Joachim Trier's most recent masterpiece The Worst Person in the World, which was one of my favorite movies of 2021 -- read about that one here. And they're upgrading their out-of-print DVD of Powell & Pressburger's gloriously bizarre technicolor anthology movie The Tales of Hoffmann to blu-ray, a 4K restoration -- read about that one here. But there's even more -- three more actually! Click on over to Criterion to see the word on Shaft, on Stanley Kwan's 1987 ghost melodrama Rouge (which sounds utterly fabulous), and on Ekwa Msangi's 2020 film Farewell Amor, which I have only heard amazing things about. What a month.

10 Off My Head: Deep in the Dreamlanders

Tis a high holy -- or if you prefer, a down and dirty -- holiday today, as it marks the 75th birthday of his fetid holiness, his princely puke, the polluted Sultan of Sleaze himself, Mr. John Waters. We are fans, in case that wasn't clear already! I consider JW part of my Unholy Trinity, alongside Vincent Price and Paul Reubens -- the be-all end-alls on who I hope to be -- and it's only right we take a big ol' bite out of this Thursday in celebration of my Mother Mary. I'm not even Catholic but John makes me wish I was an ex-one! 

First things first The Film Experience is doing a week-long-ish John Waters retrospective, and last night my piece on my favorite JW flick of them all, 1974's Female Trouble, went live -- grab some chips, lady, and read it here! It's also John's favorite of his films! And he is correct, per usual. Thing is, the piece I wrote came out more serious than I expected -- it's a lot about the film's debts and indignities with regards to Andy Warhol. 

And I think every word I say there is true! But I also just sorta wanna have some fun with Female Trouble, as long as we're here. It's the single most quoted-by-me movie of all-time -- there isn't a week that passes without one of this script's many outrageous bon-mots passing my lips. Back in 2009 I already did a list of five favorite exchanges from the movie, but I feel as if I can continue on in that vein, given I don't think there's a single unfunny line in the entire movie. But I'll broaden the scope a little, and give you...

10 Favorite Supporting Characters in Female Trouble

Margie Skidmore as School Snitch

"Now they're threatening me, these awful cheap girls. 

My mother told me to report this kind of thing. 

I'm trying to get an education."

Susan Walsh as Chicklette

"It's just a skirt and sweater."

Roland Hertz as Mr. Davenport

"Is it a fishing rod???"

Bob Adams as Ernie

"I'm sure, Miss Thing, I'm sure.

 Pretzels give you plaque."

George Figgs and Sally Albaugh as Dribbles and Sally 

Dribbles : How's your little girl? 

Why don't you bring her in here more often?

Sally : Why? So you can undress her with your eyes? 

For Christ's sake she's only six years old. 

Dribbles : I know, but I just like to play with her. 

I wish I was a little girl. 

Sally: Well throw a goddamn penny in a fountain and 

make a goddamn wish and maybe it'll come true.

Cookie Mueller as Concetta

"Just cuz we're pretty everybody's jealous."

Michael Potter as Gater

"She has a face of an old woman."

Divine as Earl Peterson

"Just cuz you got them big udders 

don't mean you're somethin' special."

Ed Peranio as Wink

Wink: I'm getting a hard-on! Beauty always gives me a hard-on! 

Donna Dasher : Aim it the other way then, Wink. You know how I detest organs. Beauty has absolutely nothing to do with that word, that thing you have hanging there like an 

obscene pickle. Spare me your anatomy.

------------------------------------

As made patently clear by that last exchange, not including quotes from the characters I consider more than "Supporting" in Female Trouble -- Divine as Dawn Davenport obviously, along with her daughter Taffy (Mink Stole), her neighbor Aunt Ida (Edith Massey), and her benefactors Donald and Donna Dasher (David Lochary and Mary Vivien Pierce) -- proved a challenge! But one this movie proved more than up to. That said when it comes to the Major Characters I could do a list of ten favorite lines from each and every single one of them, individually. 

"Krishna is love, Mother."

But I won't, because I want y'all to scream your faves at me in the comments! There's nothing I like better than being told to come suck your daddy's dick, hearing one extol the horrors of the heterosexual lifestyle, or rarely eating any form of noodle. So please have at it in the comments, and Happy 75, John Waters!

Today's Mood

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Free Cookie

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Dan got me a VINCENT PRICE signed Gas Company check from 1973 for Christmas -- literally the BEST CHRISTMAS GIFT EVER!!!!! #vincentprice

A photo posted by Jason Adams (@jasonaadams) on Dec 25, 2016 at 10:41am PST

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My boyfriend deserves a shout-out for giving me some fine Xmas presents this year - that Vincent Price signed check seen above would be enough to buy my love for maybe even several months even (I ain't cheap) but he went above and beyond and also got me a book by Miss Cookie Mueller that I have been clamoring for for ages and ages. It's a collection of her writings called Ask Dr. Meuller that was published in 1996, seven years after she had died of AIDS.

Mueller, if you don't know - and you should know! - was an actress and bon vivant; I know her from several of John Waters movies, but her life was A LIFE beyond that. A fantastic biography of her called Edgewise from the people who knew her best was recently released that I pushed on you people at the time - it is highly recommended.

Anyway after I read that I wanted to read some of her writing - she did columns for a bunch of downtown papers and magazines in the 80s while living her nutty life - but a lot of it is hard to come by. Ask Dr. Mueller collects the best of it, but the book is out of print and goes for upwards of 90 bucks on Amazon. So I probably never would have spent that on myself, but as a gift I will gobble it right up.

I do have a point here besides rubbing in how good I have it, though - this morning I was reading the book on the train on my way to work and there was a chapter titled "A Last Letter" that moved me to tears (especially knowing that AIDS would take her several years after she wrote down this piece) and I thought to myself that the internet needs to have this, and with the book being so prohibitively expensive it's a shame not a lot of people will get to read it. So I have it for you! It's only three pages but I'm too lazy to transcribe the whole damn thing so I took pictures, click 'em to embiggen.

"A Last Letter" by Cookie Mueller

I Am Link

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--- Silvestre's Sense of Smell - Towleroad talked to our longstanding Spanish boyfriend Miguel Angel Silvestre (click his name to fall down a rabbit hole of great gratuity) about hie role on the Wachowskis Netflix series Sense8 (maybe you've heard us mention it), you can read the whole interview here. Choice bit about his love-scenes with also-hottie Alfonso Herrera:

"It wasn’t a big challenge, to be honest. Me and the guy playing Hernando, we spoke from the beginning, and we knew that was going to be one of the things that we really needed to portray. An issue that is happening in Mexico, every two days, [a person is murdered in a homophobic crime], even though it was one of the first Latin American countries to get marriage for homosexuals … We had to treat this with the care and the love and as sincere as possible. So we have to be very relaxed with each other. I don’t like when you see the actors, they play a character, and they say “Hey, hey, I’m not really like this.” We became good friends, and we enjoyed all those moments. I really admire the guy playing Hernando. I believe admiration is love, and from the first minute, I admired this guy. Also, he smelled super good. That helped a lot ..."

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--- Cookie Crumbs - I wrote about the biography of John Waters' actress and downtown NYC icon Cookie Mueller a bunch when I was reading it and told y'all how good it is - well now Richard Hell (of the band Television) has done the same, and he knew Cookie personally so you should believe him. Such a fun book.
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--- Sex Sells - The teaser trailer and a poster for the third season of Masters of Sex dropped yesterday and it looks like they've plunged head-long into the '60s (which I vaguely remember from last year's finale - these seasons are happening too far apart) and hey oh there's a make-out between Lizzy Caplan & Caitlin Fitzgerald. Where's my make-out session between Nicholas D'Agosto & Teddy Sears dammit?
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--- Gone In A Flash - I'm beginning to get a little bit impatient with Michael Haneke - it's been almost three years since Amour came out and I'm feeling the need in my insides for his patented brand of miserablism. Supposedly he'd been waiting around for an "unnamed actress" to make his cyber-drama Flashmob (it was probably Binoche or Huppert, I'm guessing) but The Playlist is reporting he's now moved on from that project, and he'll be making something elsee. Per usual, no word on what the something else is, since he keeps shit close to his vest. But at least he's working.
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--- Boomerang Babe - It's good to know that Jai Courtney also groaned when he read that his Aussie character in Suicide Squad is named "Captain Boomerang" because good grief. But he says we need to get over that because director David Ayer has got a great angle on it, and he won't be embarrassing his homeland this time around. Although Jai does use the words "dark and gritty" and god DC needs to learn to loosen up a bit.
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--- Missed Mark - Sigh, so apparently the word leaking out that Jason Statham was in talks with Marvel to play the villain Bullseye for the second season of Daredevil was enough to ruin everything, and now Statham will not be doing it. Damn damn damn, that sucks, I was very very much into the thought of him and Charlie Cox rasslin' with each other a bunch.
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--- Tastes Like Burning - My pal Jarett's been on fire the past week at Buzzfeed - last week he did an amazing oral history of cult 80s comedy Don't Tell Mom The Babysitter's Dead on the eve of its 25th anniversary, and then yesterday he gave us quotes from 51 television writers, folks like Bryan Fuller and Rob Thomas and Chris Carter oh my, on the favorite thing they've written for their shows. Weirdly my favorite thing was the line from The Simpsons that Andrew Kreisberg wrote for Ralphie that git cut. (Ralphie is so much win.)
 .
.--- Girl Power - Some of these stories are several days old, sorry, I haven't gotten around to one of these link round-ups in a bit, but maybe you missed the word on director Jennifer Kent's follow-up to The Babadook? It will be an adaptation of the non-fiction book Alice + Freda Forever, which tells the story of two girls in 1892 Tennessee who fell in love and yadda yadda murder leads to yadda yadda a great big sensational trial. I can imagine, it being 1892 Tennessee. Anyway Jennifer Kent making her own Heavenly Creatures? Sign me the fuck up! Has anybody read the book? It sounds interesting.
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Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Female Trouble (1974)

Concetta: Just get your hair done. 

That's what I always do when I get depressed. 

It's strange that IMDb has Cookie Mueller's birthday as August 1st while Wikipedia has it as today (they both say 1949 is the year) but I'm gonna believe it's today, March 2nd, since the Facebook page for Edgewise, the book about Cookie's life is celebrating today and I feel like they're the experts. Did I mention the book about Cookie? Once again I repeat for the 50th time, you should read the book about Cookie Mueller. It's a fabulous and engrossing read about a fabulous and engrossing person.

In Remembrance of Cookie

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It took me ages because my reading habits have gone to hell ever since I got an iPad (why read a book when you can flip through Instagram that hour before you fall asleep instead?) but I finally finished Edgewise, the biography of Cookie Mueller I told y'all about awhile back, and I just wanna say - READ THIS BOOK, you guys. Have any of you read it yet? It's wonderful, absolutely wonderful - I don't think I expected, after all the funny weird stories that it tells about this funny weird woman, for the end to pack such an emotional whallop, but man does it - the weight of those years, which were before my time but not enough before not to haunt all the same, is there in full force; this is hardly "an AIDS book" (my scare quotes) but in showing us the singularity of this bright lady, the sense of all we lost, all the creative minds that AIDS tore away from us, sneaks up and smacks you something hard.

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All About Cookie

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I'm only about a third of the way through Edgewise: A Picture of Cookie Mueller, the just-released biography of the actress best known for her work with John Waters, and I know I've pushed it on you a couple of times already, but man you guys this book is awesome. If you're at all interested in the back-story of the Dreamlanders so far this is reading like an oral history of the scene from an angle on it that hasn't been told before, and Cookie couldn't be more fascinating a character. Read it!

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A Gorgeous Haul

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Now this is the sort of two-fer you want to greet you when the mail-man shows up! I've known for awhile (and posted thus) that the remastered blu-ray of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was coming out today, but the Cookie Mueller biography was a surprise - I didn't think it was out until the end of this month. What a pair these two make! Leatherface and Concetta, together forever! She does have a knife in her pocky-book...

And to top it off I've got a copy of Charles Burns' new book, the third in his X'd Out trilogy called Sugar Skull, waiting for me in my mailbox at home. It's like Christmas! (I better get them cha-cha heels.)