"They steal all the voices, so no one can scream"

Giles: {written, not spoken} “Who are the Gentlemen? They are fairy tale monsters. What do they want?”
Willow: {points to her chest}
Xander: {cups himself, and you can read his lips} “Boobies?”
-Buffy the Vampire Slayer, “Hush”

Widely acknowledged as one of the utmost creepy Buffy episodes ever, “Hush” has only something like five minutes of speaking in the whole forty five minutes or so of the episode.

This episode has particular bearing on my life today, barring the horrific mimes, of course. Last night I went to work at the bar and spent five hours talking over the jukebox in my scratchy voice to ask people what kind of alcohol they wanted. This morning the best I can manage is something that makes me think of what it might be like to be a pubescent boy with a bad case of the voice change. Sometimes I can croak out words, sometimes I can only get half way through a word before it disappears. Great fun.

Speaking of horror, I watched Mary Reilly this morning. Good creepy fun. There were a few moments, though when I wanted to shake Julia Roberts because she was doing the “I’m scared out of my mind, I better go check out the freaky noise” thing. John Malkovich as Jekyll/Hyde was a great casting call, that man can be very scary when he wants to. It’s the way he smiles, I think.