We're this close (place thumb and index finger about half an inch apart) to springing the much-vaunted (okay, vaunted a couple of times by the staff) redesigned Bright Lights on an unsuspecting public. However, because we somehow feel you readers have nothing better to do than sit waiting (perhaps drumming your fingers and checking your watch) for a new issue, and you're expecting one on November 1, we decided to go ahead and whip one up as scheduled (#66), while continuing to revamp the site in the background. If the alleged Mayan Calendar chaos of 2012 doesn't arrive early, and Goldman Sachs also decides not to destroy civilization as we know it, you can expect to see the new design on or before February 2010. We've even put a hint of the new look in the editorial heading above; Peter Cushing is our muse in a knockout rendering by our wildly talented artist buddy Jim McDermott. Check out the book reviews for another example of Jim's artistry: Jack Kerouac.

Like most issues of Bright Lights, this one doesn't have a particular theme, though we wish you readers would start referring to our approach as "serendipity" (perhaps "charming serendipity"?) rather than the usual cries of "chaos!" "bite me!" and "WTF?!?" Let's hope you'll be so distracted by this issue's variety of offerings (and by your exciting new life in gutter, refrigerator box, or insane asylum) that you'll forget to complain.

Alan Vanneman continues his comprehensive history of Chaplin with a typically bouncy look at Modern Times. Two other BL regulars lay their lorgnettes on film noir: Imogen Smith thoughtfully surveys the genre's less heralded appearances outside the urban maelstrom, and Robert Castle handily excavates Kubrick's The Killing. No issue of BL is complete without rampaging horror, and Jesse Stommel provides it with a striking analysis of the body-snatching motif in cinema. On a sexier note we have Jack Stevenson's colorful tour of Danish porn and how it helped liberate America's dainty sensibilities — at least till the vapors returned.

Newbies Rob Faunce, Joan McGettigan, Suzanne del Fizzo, Barry Wurst, and Devan Goldstein contributed solid readings of, respectively, "contagious queerness" and gay gazes in Friendkin's Cruising and Proust's Sodom and Gomorrah; the co-optations and limitations of Public Enemies; the relevance of The Great Gatsby (and Baz Luhrmann's coming version) to the present nightmare; Wilder's Sunset as a vitriolic valentine to Hollywood; and what Knowing "knows" about 9/11. Another new BL-er, Jay Rothermel, expertly mixes politics and history with pieces on Larry Cohen's The Private Life of J. Edgar Hoover, Race to Witch Mountain, and Anthony Mann's Strategic Air Command. Wilkommen, y'all!

Inglourious Basterds tickled the fancy of two writers: Lee Weston Sabo finds the id running amok in "Tarantino's finest film to date," while newcomer Vlad Dima shows why there's reason to agree with the character Aldo's statement that "this just might be my masterpiece."

When our staff aren't watching movies at home or in the theatre, they're off to the festivals. You'll think you're there (or wonder why you weren't) when you read bracing overviews by Lesley Chow (on the Melbourne International); Megan Ratner (the New York Film Festival); Ben Cho (Vancouver International), and yours truly (Portland Lesbian and Gay Film Festival). (Your editor also contributes a short take on Deborah Chasnoff's important doc about gender pressures on teens, Straightlaced.) Gordon Thomas' authoritative "Bright Sights" column covers art-house DVD releases of everything from the "Bill Douglas Trilogy" to silent Gaumont Treasures to Maximillian Schell's long-awaited doc Marlene, about you-know-who. From the vaults we pulled an amusing sketch of New York's movie rep scene by our buddy (and indefatigable photo supplier) Howard Mandelbaum. (Go to Howard's massive archive Photofest for all your pressing celebrity image needs.)

Speaking of stars, we can't resist a good celebrity drubbing, or mythologizing. So this issue showcases Karin Luisa Badt's exhaustive hearing on "poor" Roman Polanski and his self-imposed travails; Christopher Sandford's witty profile of the enduring Sean Connery; and Dan Callahan's suitably awestruck analysis of the goddess known to us earthlings as Delphine Seyrig. Different kinds of cultural luminaries appear in interview: experimental-film guru Jonas Mekas, waxing poetic with Jon Lanthier about Walden and other topics; and infamous culture-jammers The Yes Men, jamming sweetly with Damon Smith. As is so often the case, BL regular Dave Saunders stands alone with a dazzling piece riffing on James Lever's spoof autobiography of Tarzan's little helper Cheeta.

Books: remember them? We're doing our part to keep them in the clogged cultural consciousness. Noted critic Joseph McBride sheds new light on Orson Welles in his review of Welles' daughter's new book In My Father's Shadow. BL veterans Jon Lanthier and Matt Kennedy take on, respectively, America's Film Vault and the massive new Manny Farber collection, with happy results. And BL first-timer Deborah Allison took time from her film programming duties to review Performing Illusions.

That's all for now. Keep watching the lights (the bright ones).