2023-09-29 11:08
I’ve been neglectful; as I get to the end of the seemingly endless to-do list for the summer — derailed by illness and other unexpected things — I am catching up on things… Read More
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Blog Tour | K. A. Laity Blog
kalaity.com/blog
In an attempt to beef up my poor PR skills, I have joined a group that helps you develop a blog tour to promote your book. Of course, I want to promote Unikirja, but I'm a little uncertain about ways to do that well.What's a blog tour? Instead of going out to various book stores…
2023-08-11 07:00
I am delighted to tell you the Claverack Giant site is now live! You may recall that I received a grant from CREATE to create a digital collage project about the strange cryptozoological pas… Read More
2023-08-06 09:55
Friday Ginjer Buchanan posted on FB that her partner of over 50 years had died. You don’t really think of ‘power couples’ in the SF world, but they have both been so omnipr… Read More
2023-08-03 10:36
I believe the exhibit is ending soonish, so I ought to get around to sharing some photos which I neglected to do back when I was in London. There’s always too much going on. The illusi… Read More
2023-07-27 13:16
Because I have to wait on some things — always irksome — I will quickly (very quickly) mention a few things I’ve been reading so you will not think I am simply lazing aroun… Read More
2023-07-10 09:41
I will spare you most of my photos taken as notes but the campus itself was gorgeous and full of oystercatchers who nest between the buildings which are then closed to keep them safe. So lov… Read More
2023-06-21 15:49
Hope your day is magnificent: Broughty Ferry brought the breezes and blue skies Read More
2023-06-20 09:35
It’s a big week in Dundee art-wise: Saturday brings the big Art Night with events all over town, including Tai Shani whom Amy Hale as praised highly, especially in this essential read… Read More
2023-06-19 08:56
London is full of unexpected little corners and green spaces. You turn a corner and there’s something unexpected. Here’s a great little garden space that also was one of the firs… Read More
2023-06-14 10:09
I bestirred myself to actually leave the house and have a wander in town despite the fact that it was hot and there is a bus driver strike on (also fire fighters). As always the Howff proved… Read More
2023-06-09 14:20
In between times: writing up a review and gathering more photo spreads of art, but here’s some of the photos that don’t fit into bigger topics. I always enjoy a wander along the… Read More
2023-06-08 10:07
Quarry Jane White (Boiler House Press: Recovered Books 2023) I was fortunate to be pointed toward this 1967 novel by Anne Billson, who wrote the introduction to this new edition. It’s… Read More
2023-06-07 12:17
I have already posted the photos to the ‘book — vainly it appears, as only one or two of them appear in people’s feeds so they keep liking the same two photos over and over… Read More
2023-06-03 09:57
In a rather adventurous turn for me, I took out my passport and headed to suburbia in order to see an exhibit of Berthe Morisot at the Dulwich Picture Gallery, which was on the edges of my c… Read More
2023-05-25 14:12
The embarrassment of riches continues: I have been eagerly anticipating this since Mary started dropping hints last year. I am hoping to arrange an interview with the two of them, but anon … Read More
2023-05-23 09:44
I said an embarrassment of riches around Leonora Carrington, didn’t I? Well here’s glory for you: the catalogue from the exhibit this year that brought to public view many parts… Read More
2023-05-22 13:44
DMs on Instagram are mostly scammers, but I check them occasionally anyway because sometimes something great is there — like a message from Thames & Hudson asking if I’d be i… Read More
2023-05-08 15:20
I ran up to Boston with the Queen of Everything AKA the fabulous Stephanie to catch the Betye Saar exhibit at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. I think I first saw her work when I was liv… Read More
2023-04-13 13:54
Who is the Claverack Giant? I am happy to reveal that I have received a CREATE Artist Grant for 2023 for a digital media art project ‘The Claverack Giant’ which is inspired by lo… Read More
2023-04-03 09:00
CREATE Council On The Arts is honoring and celebrating women’s artists in tribute to International Women’s History Month with an incredible constellation of featured work. These… Read More
2023-03-28 14:14
This Saturday the Albany Film Festival runs most of the day with a big variety of screenings, speakers, and events. My film ‘Pomegranate’ will be screened during the Experimental… Read More
2023-03-10 15:40
John Laity 9 Oct 1935-6 Mar 2023 John Wesley Laity died Monday March 6th 2023 from the myriad complications of Alzheimer’s disease. Born in Lansing, he was the son of Edith Sippola Lai… Read More
2023-03-02 18:58
Wow, my first fest film! My experimental short Pomegranate will be part of the NYS Writers Institute Albany Film Festival on April 1st (yes, really — despite that date). This is exciti… Read More
2023-02-28 13:14
The new exhibition at CREATE Gallery opens this weekend celebrating Women’s History Month and including a broad variety of women and women-identifying artists and work in every format… Read More
2023-02-26 16:04
Fabulous jaunt to the city with art partner in crime, Stephanie, to see the Fini works at the Kasmin Gallery and enjoy a nice long chat over a fab lunch at the Mermaid Café and a litt… Read More
2023-02-17 16:33
Crime Fiction Studies v4n1 Cornell Woolrich and Transmedia Noir Thanks Rob King for editing the collection which puts together a variety of topics, My essay: Transforming Black Alibi&ls&hell…Read More
2023-01-27 12:43
TAROT NOIR: WILLIAM LINDSAY GRESHAM’S NIGHTMARE ALLEY (This time for sure!) It’s no surprise that Guillermo del Toro sought for years to make his own neo-noir version of Gresham… Read More
2023-01-25 01:42
TAROT NOIR: WILLIAM LINDSAY GRESHAM’S NIGHTMARE ALLEY — to be rescheduled!! It’s no surprise that Guillermo del Toro sought for years to make his own neo-noir version of Gr… Read More
2023-01-14 11:40
A nice wander yesterday as I had to return my library books anyway. Some dramatic skies, a mooch through the V&A — which reminds me, I don’t think I ever posted the pictures… Read More
2023-01-11 10:48
Also at the McManus but a bit different from the art upstairs; though some new ones here, too: Read More
2023-01-06 11:58
One of the new additions to the city by the Tay while I was away is the beautiful installation The Tay Whale by Lee Simmons, who not only created a beautiful sculpture but chronicled its jou… Read More
2023-01-02 11:46
Always Different, Always the Same Critical Essays on The Fall EDITED BY EOIN DEVEREUX AND MARTIN J. POWER – FOREWORD BY GAVIN FRIDAY With many incarnations, The Fall (19… Read More
2022-12-24 10:44
2022-12-16 10:21
In an email that looked surprisingly like a phishing attempt, I got the link to my proofs for the forthcoming collection on Cornell Woolrich. I get to jazz enthusiastically about Black Alibi… Read More
2022-12-14 16:13
Tonight at 2030 UK/1330 NY it’s another episode of SURREAL NOIR! Drop over to the NoBounds Radio mix cloud page to listen live. Ending the calendar year with new music from across the… Read More
2022-11-29 15:22
TAROT NOIR: WILLIAM LINDSAY GRESHAM’S NIGHTMARE ALLEY It’s no surprise that Guillermo del Toro sought for years to make his own neo-noir version of Gresham’s novel. The hea… Read More
2022-11-23 18:27
I ran off to watch this on an afternoon when I was feeling poorly and annoyed and irritated. I didn’t know it was three hours long. When my ass in the chair told me it had really been… Read More
2022-11-22 16:30
The OLLI Distinguished Speakers Series presents
Professor Kathryn Laity on:
Enchanted: Why Magic Persists Across Millennia Read More
2022-11-14 10:00
ART OPENING! Saturday November 19th 4-6pm Create Gallery, 398 Main Street, Catskill NY CREATE recently had a call for art that embodied the theme JOY, and I am happy to say my mask entitled… Read More
2022-11-10 14:32
As a part of the Year of Deep Listening in honour of Pauline Oliveros, the Center for Deep Listening is giving daily meditations on the practice and this is my turn on the stage. Try it and… Read More
2022-11-09 15:16
Tonight at 2100 UK/1600 NY it’s another episode of SURREAL NOIR! Drop over to the NoBounds Radio mix cloud page to listen live. This month you get a sneak peek at my MAPACA presentatio… Read More
2022-11-06 14:36
DEEP LISTENING: THE STORY OF PAULINE OLIVEROS I will not even pretend to any objectivity about this film: I contributed to the fundraising and to my considerable surprise, I am ever-so-brief… Read More
2022-10-20 19:38
WHAT: Art/Performance/Film/Zines — including art by me and the fabulous QoE! WHEN: Saturday October 22, 2022 from 7-10pm WHERE: 165 State Street, New London, Connecticut WHO: Hosted by… Read More
2022-10-12 04:50
Tonight’s episode was inspired by the chaos of life, returning to international travel in a way I’ve not done for some time, other than a too brief visit home to Dundee (back soo… Read More
2022-10-04 13:23
October 13th: Apocalypse with Leonora Carrington's The Hearing Trumpet: A Talk with K A Laity Read More
2022-09-24 17:51
Always Different, Always the Same Critical Essays on The Fall EDITED BY EOIN DEVEREUX AND MARTIN J. POWER – FOREWORD BY GAVIN FRIDAY With many incarnations, The Fall (19… Read More
2022-09-20 14:29
Thanks to Peg for wrangling the tickets and my students for relinquishing me a few minutes early so I could fly from Albany to Catskill for the screening at the Community Theatre, which is a… Read More
2022-09-14 12:49
Tonight’s episode was inspired by seeing Loving Highsmith, so I chose to read at random from Patricia Highsmith’s diaries and journals. Her cahiers (as she always called them) ca… Read More
2022-09-05 17:46
I meant to go to Film Forum on Saturday to see a screening of this with a Q&A after with the director Eva Vitija and Megan Abbott, but alas something I ate on Friday made it inadvisable… Read More
2022-08-23 19:27
As I found myself in Connecticut this weekend, I stopped off at the Hill-Stead Museum to visit the exhibit Radical Spirits: Tarot, Automatism, and Feminist Histories put together by the coll… Read More
2022-08-17 10:00
Back from our summer break it’s SURREAL NOIR crossing your airwaves once more at No Bounds Radio. Another jam-packed episode airs tonight, this time skewing more noir than surreal as m… Read More
2022-08-13 17:16
I feel perpetually late to the party on just about everything these days; mirroring real life I suppose as I am always late to any party (because who wants to be first? Unless it’s a g… Read More
2022-08-11 15:35
A loose adaptation of Chandler’s Farewell My Lovely with George Sanders as the Falcon instead of Marlowe, which more or less means the same plot but instead of Marlowe muttering we hav… Read More
2022-08-03 16:59
Stumbling across this yesterday I wondered why I hadn’t seen this film. Apart from the stellar cast, it’s directed by Ernest Lubisch and scripted by Donald Ogden Stewart (from th… Read More
2022-08-01 13:27
By the by: if you’re on Letterboxd, let’s connect: I’m here. Sometimes you just need a nudge to get something done. Andy Miller tweeted that he wrote about the challenge of… Read More
2022-07-28 15:13
I am so glad pal Stephanie urged me to go out and see this when I was feeling tired and dispirited and short on time between returning from Scotland and heading to Michigan. Apparently write… Read More
2022-07-27 14:15
I’m not sure why I never got around to seeing this until now — I blame No Context Noir for posting screenshots. I have had the Frederic Brown novel in a glorious paperback that I… Read More
2022-07-26 20:49
Hares or rabbits? You tell me. I’m guessing from the white tail, rabbits. Seagulls a plenty, starlings, a magpie I couldn’t quite capture with the phone. I was struck by their pr… Read More
2022-07-13 09:35
THE BIG CLOCK (1948) is another John Farrow-directed noir(ish) and quite a bit snappier overall than NIGHT HAS A THOUSAND EYES, though less interesting beyond that slick surface — but… Read More
2022-07-11 11:00
On holiday so I am reading novels and watching fun things and yes, I was curious about the novel which (allegedly) inspired the film since they seemed a bit different — also there was… Read More
2022-07-09 10:47
The Night Has a Thousand Eyes Francis William Bourdillon (b. 1852) THE NIGHT has a thousand eyes, And the day but one; Yet the light of the bright world dies With the dying sun. The mind has… Read More
2022-07-07 11:16
LETTY LYNTON (1932) I am on something of a Marie Belloc-Lowndes kick somewhat unexpectedly, though I didn’t write up The Lodger (1944) which I watched recently because I thought I had… Read More
2022-06-24 14:13
LAURA (1955) Two words appear absolutely nowhere in this made-for-tv boiled down version of the story: Vera Caspary. Instead we get a ‘Screenplay by Mel Dinelli’ so I convenientl… Read More
2022-06-23 20:32
On a short break (thanks Louise) I hied myself over to MSU to see the (relatively new) Broad Art Museum as it was featuring an exhibit on Frida Kahlo. The exhibit included photos and letters… Read More
2022-06-22 20:08
Catching up on my viewing as it seems to be one of the few things my exhausted brains can comprehend. Art — especially art by my trimulierate Carrington, Varo & Fini — is sus… Read More
2022-06-21 13:22
I am still catching up on things amidst a mad week (hopefully the last for a while) but I wanted to be sure to post this video from the Biennale mostly so I can find it easily to watch again… Read More
2022-06-17 13:37
THE BRASHER DOUBLOON (1947) There’s a reason this film is not remembered as fondly as other Chandler adaptations: it’s not as good. With lacklustre leads and very little style or… Read More
2022-06-16 13:34
Random watch of the week: The Breakhrough (1975) — I believe a rec strewn in my path from Stones perhaps. I nearly scrolled past when I saw Daphne Du Maurier’s name and thought o… Read More
2022-06-13 19:41
I am woefully behind on everything and making so little progress. What better time to watch some of the videos from the Biennale! This one of course I was very much anticipating. I know I ha… Read More
2022-06-11 13:08
Before I was laid low with fever and dreams, I watched a couple of folk horror classics that I had often heard about but never watched. Being well-versed in 70s American television horror I… Read More
2022-06-08 14:03
Oddly enough in the seemingly endless line of grifters and con artists in and around the spook racket, I had not read this volume. I first ran across the BBC radio series on it — part… Read More
2022-06-06 12:33
I looked up the other day: the air was full of bees! I tried to see where they were coming from but found instead where they were going to: this bush on the other side of the fence. It was a… Read More
2022-06-04 10:52
Apropos for Derby Day (no, the other one, my American friends) I can recommend the early Gainsborough film starring Claude Rains, Fay Wray and Jane Baxter. Rains and Baxter are music hall pe… Read More
2022-06-03 12:33
FALLEN ANGEL (1945) Dir Otto Preminger Attempting to capture the magic of Laura the year before, Preminger got Dana Andrews back into a fedora and Joseph LaShelle lensing but no Gene Tierney… Read More
2022-05-29 19:02
THE PRIVATE AFFAIRS OF BEL AMI (1947) I’m a bit mystified how I never got around to this film until recently. I adore George Sanders and no one plays a better scoundrel than he does. A… Read More
2022-05-26 09:00
Belatedly catching up on episodes of Pam Grossman’s Witch Wave podcast, I heard the always fascinating Lilith Dorsey mention this film, available streaming on Az. Award-winning actor D… Read More
2022-05-23 14:47
Farran Nehme (@selfstyledsiren) started a wonderful thread of golden recommendations on Twitter the other day, so I bookmarked a few things for when I had a spare moment. This came up first… Read More
2022-05-17 12:17
Tonight, it’s SURREAL NOIR at NoBounds Radio. Episode Ten: Last episode was so talky I decided to double the listening pleasure this time around. Deep Listening from the 21st century b… Read More
2022-05-06 15:36
Taking the day off is a good time to catch up on some fiction reading as I have almost no time for reading lately except work which is mostly non-fiction. I can forget what it’s like t… Read More
2022-04-21 15:07
BLITHE SPIRIT (2020) An impulse purchase this week: I suspect it was the subliminal effect of the tarot spread in the cover image. And I like Judi Dench. And Dan Stevens. And I love Coward… Read More
2022-04-19 12:19
Tonight, it’s SURREAL NOIR at NoBounds Radio. Episode Nine: My text for this episode is Leonora Carrington’s ‘My Mother is a Cow’ which you can find in the collected… Read More
2022-04-15 16:02
I am delighted to say I will be part of the third Magickal Women Conference this October with a superb bunch of other speakers, practitioners and performers. My presentation: OPEN YOUR LUNAR… Read More
2022-04-11 14:36
My essay ‘Stalking the Stalker: Jamie Thraves adapting Patricia Highsmith’s The Cry of the Owl‘ is out now in Film International. You can get the essay via your library or… Read More
2022-04-10 14:15
Another early morning movie with a noir tinge and an art scam — I’m staying on brand for once! I watched another neo-noir last night but am mulling over whether I want to write a… Read More
2022-04-02 16:11
The Dell paper back edition: ‘Black magic — and a modern sorceress!’ That ghastly green: I love it. Last week’s film Back from the Dead was based on this mid-century… Read More
2022-03-26 17:26
BACK FROM THE DEAD (1957) You know I can’t help but wonder whether Hitchcock saw this before he made Vertigo the next year, but of course I am too lazy at present to do any research on… Read More
2022-03-23 09:00
The Easter Bunny usually brings a good egg: the PCAACA conference. Virtual again this year for safety’s sake, many of the usual crowd are gathering to bring you great discussions about… Read More
2022-03-22 16:09
Tonight, it’s SURREAL NOIR at NoBounds Radio. Episode Eight: It’s Women’s History Month, so a variety of things including adaptations of Patricia Highsmith’s Deep Wat… Read More
2022-03-12 15:16
Is it weird that one of my comfort watches is a series about cannibalism? Considering how sad most of my other televisions choices are (Bleak House, Sense & Sensibility [2008], Jane Eyre… Read More
2022-03-07 14:43
We all have our ways of coping with despair: one of mine is learning something new. You may not be too surprised to learnt that my lovely theremins have led me to the ‘rabbit hole&rsqu&hell…Read More
2022-02-22 08:00
Returning for 2022, it’s SURREAL NOIR at NoBounds Radio. Episode Seven: In the States it’s Black History Month so this episode shares a variety of Black women and centres on Pari… Read More
2022-02-21 19:30
Out Now: the 2021 collection of stories from All Due Respect, which includes my tale ‘Squid Lord’ which — wait for it — was inspired by a song from The Fall. Of cours… Read More
2022-02-15 18:59
I have been thinking a lot about failure recently because life seems full of it. I have had a disastrous start to the calendar year, bowing out of a couple things I quite wanted to do and lo… Read More
2022-01-18 15:54
Out February 18th: the 2021 collection of stories from All Due Respect, which includes my tale ‘Squid Lord’ which — wait for it — was inspired by a song from The Fall… Read More
2021-12-31 17:42
Guess who’s back? Staggering up to the finish line just before 2021 ends is another episode of the languishing series Is It Funny? This time we turn to the Scots style icon Muriel Spar… Read More
2021-12-30 15:22
It would have been a crime to waste this beautiful misty morning late in the year, and after all I was dropping off the recycling at the transfer station nearby, so a little jaunt through Hu… Read More
2021-12-24 14:38
As I haunt my home town in the mauve misty snow, I have no new ghost story for Fox Spirit which has been a tradition of recent years. Things are just too… 2021, I guess. What excuse w… Read More
2021-12-22 14:26
In a contemplative yuletide vein, it’s SURREAL NOIR at NoBounds Radio. This episode gets me belatedly into seasonal mode: an exploration of fictional accounts of the Parker-Hulme murde… Read More
2021-12-19 18:51
[N.B. Written when I first heard that GDT was remaking it] When I showed Nightmare Alley to the students in my noir film course, one came up at the end to complain that the tarot r… Read More
2021-12-09 21:33
Somehow I managed not to post about the fantastic exhibit at the Met, Surrealism Beyond Borders, even though now I have seen it twice and could go back again in a heart beat. I did upload so… Read More
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