"The D'Ampton Worm" is performed in the film by Emilio Perez Machado and Stephen Powys, with Louise Newman on the violin. You can hear it, and see this scene, which is a good one, here.
A love of animals is a classic device to promote sympathy for otherwise questionable characters, and it's strange the filmmakers went that route here with Zodiac. Especially since many real serial killers, in a kind of cosmic indictment of their moral character, get their start by torturing animals.
My Bantam paperback of this book includes black and white illustrations by Sheilah Beckett. They're nothing special (although the one on the cover is evocative), but they are a nice addition. Wouldn't it be great if all books came with illustrations?
Context is a funny thing. In a movie like Taken, where we have young girls being auctioned off, we naturally hate the buyers. Here, where we have a 12-year-old's virginity being auctioned, we almost root for the price to go higher.
It's been years since I've flown a kite, but this book makes me want to do it again. And try something. When I think of it, I've heard of this before, but I've never done it myself. That is, sending runners up the string. The goofy character in this book is always doing it, starting with paper then testing progressively heavier objects. Sounds like fun.
Wikipedia, helpful as it is, isn't always accurate. According to that site, this movie is about a "mysterious woman who turns out to be a ghost possessed by a witch." I can tell you that without spoiling anything because it's completely wrong. It's wrong even given the filmmakers' contradictory attitude toward the woman in the story. It's an apologist's description, an attempt to reconcile the irreconcilable. On the other hand, this stuck out to me because, for the most part, Wikipedia is pretty good about this sort of thing.
I know of only two artistic works titled, simply, "She." Both are good. The other is this terrific song, by the Monkees.
I'll bet there's something out there on the dark web that I would like to see. I can't say what it might be, but I figure there's got to be something. And I tried, once, to access it. The trouble is, you have to know what you're looking for and you have to know where to find it. Failing both prerequisites, I don't suppose I ever had a chance.
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December 2016
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