EAP's birthday, again

In honor of Poe's birthday, I have looked at the internet for evidence of Poe in the news. 

I should like to go to there: The Chamber Music Society of Mississauga is putting on an evening of "dramatic music" interspersed with various readings of Poe in honor of his birthday.  How nice. 

Secondly, a reader of the Baltimore Sun only somewhat testily reminds the paper that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle did not invent crime fiction.  "Perhaps you have heard of Edgar Allan Poe?"  Thank you, reader. Isn't everyone so stupid? 

I would point out again how cute the Poe Museum's website is.  Here is their schedule for Poe's 204th birthday party:

Noon: Guided Tour of Poe Museum
12:30: Performance of “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Jamie Ebersole
1:00: Lecture on the 170th Anniversary of ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ by Poe Museum’s Curator
2:00: Guided Walking tour of neighborhood Poe sites by author of Edgar Allan Poe’s Richmond
3:00: Poe’s Loves Face-Off (Sarah Helen Whitman, Virginia Poe, and Elmira Royster)
4:00: Guided Tour of the Poe Museum
4:30: Birthday Cake with Poe’s Cousin, Dr. Harry Lee Poe
5:00: Multilingual Reading of “The Raven”
5:30: Performance direct from London by English actor Tony Parkin
6:00: Guided Tour of Poe Museum
7:00: Poe Trivia Showdown
8:00: Guided Walking Tour of Neighborhood Poe Sites with Sarah Helen Whitman
9:00: Live Music by The Blue and the Grey
10:00: Guided Tour of the Poe Museum
11:00: Victorian Seance with Poe’s Fiancee Sarah Helen Whitman
Midnight: Champagne Toast to Poe

It seems like a pretty good event aside from the face-off of actresses portraying his exes.  Yuck.  I hate living history performances, but if they must do it, why don't they have a Fanny Osgood?  She was the most famous lady in his stable.  The seance turns me a little green as well.  Can't please everyone, meaning me.

John Evangelist Walsh wrote a couple of books about Poe which I think are worth reading if you care.  Midnight Dreary is an account of the last months of Poe's life which includes a very convincing hypothesis of the circumstances that resulted in his mysterious death.  Because Poe had a reputation for terrible binge drinking, his sudden death was shrugged off as the result of an impulsive bender, however there are many details that would indicate that this is either not the case or not the whole case.  Plumes in the Dust is an account of Poe's affair with famous lady writer Fanny Osgood, who allegedly bore his child.  Both are recommendable.

By the door of a legended tomb

Happy birthday to a special guy!

Unfortunately, it sounds like the Poe Toaster has died or retired and not named a successor, as this is the third year without an appearance. This is disappointing, as the world is in need of charming mysteries.

Image by me. Did you know I was such an artist?

Stupid movies encourage literacy?

No, I'm asking. Do they?

The Raven, with John Cusak as E. A. Poe.

The plot is super fucked up ridic. I think it's about a serial killer who starts using Poe stories as inspiration. The authorities become suspicious that it is Poe, who then becomes...a gun-waving vigilante on the trail of the killer? Normally, I frown on movies using this much license with history, especially with someone like Poe who is already very misunderstood to begin with (ilu eap). I frown because people are very stupid, and they believe what they see actually happened. People really believe that Pocahontas looked like a sexy Filipino Bratz doll and sang like Vanessa Williams, you know?

But then I thought, welllllll...Maybe some idiots people will go to the bookstore after this (Amazon) and pick up a collected works of EAP instead of watching another round of 16 and Pregnant. It could happen. In this case I am going to side with "all attention is good attention" within reason.

Next! Anonymous, a fiction about the ~intrigue~ behind who really penned the works of Shakespeare.



I just found out about this. Again, maybe people will be interested and will want to research and read for themselves about the mystery of Wilhelm Von Shakespeare.

This strangely optimistic pragmatic approach to awful media is the result of my toilings with museum education, and from trying to figure out how to make people care about things they aren't aware of. It's kind of fascinating. It seems to be making me less of a dick! Interesting.

Because normally this blog post would just go like

FUCK THIS MOVIE
FUCK THAT MOVIE
LEAVE IT ALONE
THE TRUTH IS INTERESTING ENOUGHH
ILU EAPPPPP

etc.