the lonesome lows don't quite go away overnight

Movies (9/15)
The Night House. Knew it starred Rebecca Hall early on but then forgot and suggested it for our movie night blind. What a nice surprise! She does grief SO well. The architecture of this, and empty-house-in-empty-woods horror generally worked well for me, and I wanted to like the narrative shifts more than I did. I suppose the movie I ultimately wanted would have been a very different film. The end is a bit bonkers, but didn't lose me. Just didn't really grab me either. 

Podcasts Worth Sharing (5/10)
This Is Love, episode "Seeing and Being Seen" (linked) beautiful love story featuring one of my favorite romantic things - the desire to capture and recapture a lover in art. Had an RP where we touched on this briefly, but the root for me really is "Transatlantacism" the Skins fic by sivi from oh, 15 years ago. Do I still have my book-printed copy? Maybe I mailed it to a friend. Effy as a lovestricken photographer just works, and this trope is seared into my heart. 

New Recipes (9/12)
Not a full recipe here, since the pasta was all store bought and frozen, but I've made things that required less work that counted, so I'm counting it! Garlic Butter Sauce for Tortellini. My first time making a sauce with corn starch! I think it mostly worked, even though I misread the directions and combined two steps. No one has died. 

I don't know if I've mentioned it here, but I LOVE limited edition flavors. Mountain Dew and sodas are the worst offenders that I can't resist. Oreos are a 50-50 shot if I want to try, baking mixes and cereals don't tempt me. But SODA. The new Flamin' Hot Mountain Dew surprised me in the store today and reviews are SO mixed that I had to try. Do you care about soda reviews? Probably not! But: more straight lime cirtrus and apparently the level of heat fluctuates between cans because we have had two so far in otherwise identical conditions where one was MUCH more tingly. It is good. 

TV Seasons (3/10)
Our Flag Means Death, season 1. I loved like 95.555% of this show. 

Movies (8/15)
Everything, Everywhere, All at Once. The emotional core of this film is my everything. The rest made it such a great "first movie in theaters in two years" night. I laughed, I sobbed, I shouted "OH NO." 

Books (4/10)
*ahem* The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive by Andrew Lencioni. I guess this like, needed to be a fable for people to understand? I could have done with just a list of the four things. It's not that hard. 

Sales (8/5)
Still way under where total $ needs to be, but if there's an award for FUCKING GOING FOR IT, I need to be given it.

New Recipes (7/12)
Grape Tomato Spaghetti. Super simple but SO GOOD. I had about four servings. All the kids ate it?!

Puzzles (2/8)
Finally finished the 2k piece ice cream puzzle. Really like the bright colors, but ended with three areas of slightly different pinks that were a struggle. We're moving the puzzle table to the middle of the office, so we will see how that affects future puzz time. 

Non-Fiction (3/12)
Wrote about data privacy and MoviePass for our blog. I'm torn between their new model being the literal worst stage of capitalism and marketing and possibly seeing movies for cheap. Not that we have regular babysitters anyway. 

Podcast Recs (3/10)
I know I've recommended them before, they're a perennial favorite, but Oh No Ross and Carrie's coverage of the Conscious Life Expo has been incredible this year. It is absolutely wild how much of this formerly VERY fringe population has spread into everyday people. 

Been Watching
About 15 episodes into the Clone Wars, and couldn't care less about Obi-Wan or Anakin (and, in broad strokes, just about any other main familiar face, sorry Padme, I don't care about you missing clues about Palpatine or sneaking around with Ani. BUT. I absolutely adore all of the side characters! I just want 24/7 female Jedis, interacting with one another. 

Okay, I need help. 

Not like I have any time to watch or read things, like, at all, but my brain keeps obsessing and I'm more inclined to feed it than try and divert interest. 

I need, need, need pretty much ANY good historical thing with canon f/f romance and/or strong implications thereof. Please give me reasons to research old fashioned underpants.

Not willing to sit through, for example, five main dude characters for two seconds of femslash - though if it is quality enough I might be swayed. Aggressive heterosexuality is less offensive if women are the main characters. My examples below skew really white and western, but I'm definitely open to things that are NOT that as long as I can access the material. Era is flexible, but ideally pre-70s. Pretty much any genre also welcome, bonus for horror, thriller or psychodrama, but definitely not required.

( Some examples )

Phoebe Judge shared the story of Pearl and Olga, strangers who met when one intentionally shot the other, on a recent episode of My Favorite Murder. The story would have made a better Criminal episode, but I'm glad I got to hear it either way. 

Listen here: https://myfavoritemurder.com/313-this-is-criminal/ 

Read the New Yorker piece here: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1953/08/08/the-perils-of-pearl-and-olga 

Where is the Pearl/Olga fandom? OTP h/c queens. 

*

Broods has a new album, Space Island. It is moody and sad and isolated and a real bop. I recommend "Days are Passing" and "Heartbreak."

Last night I finished my 2nd book of the year, The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue. It is about the 1918 flu epidemic in Dublin, so CLEAR content warnings apply, but I didn't know the premise when I started and then I figured I'd give it a go, and then I really adored the main character, Julia Power and just kept going.

I generally like Donoghue, though the last of her's that I read, The Wonder didn't blow me away. She's best when she writes queer characters, to be honest. But - here are some things that the two novels have in common:

- main character is a nurse
- patient(s) include children
- plot discusses abuse
- anti-Catholic discussions
- main character SPOILERs a SPOILER

The other spoiler-free thing to discuss is how in Stars Donoghue chooses not to use quotation marks! This was very close to fully turning me off of the novel, and I respect anyone for whom it does. My understanding of quirks like that is that... they need to be for something, they need to accomplish something, and for the life of me I absolutely cannot see any reason why it was done in this case.

Now, a bit of spoilery discussion, with lots of white space around.

( Read more... )
Okay, that's basically to say, I will likely be asking for fic for Stars, and The Wonder which really doesn't need a movie is getting one, and also - can you imagine being Emma Donoghue, and you've worked for two years on a pandemic novel about contagion and masks and hospitals and then when you turn it in to your publisher, COVID hits. I CANNOT.

This post is truly nonsensical, but I've been thinking and chatting about this all day, and I imagined this would come out much more organized.

- Movies: 18/15 - Watched Christine over two nights. Looking forward to the counter-conversation of Kate Plays Christine, because I was left mostly cold, though Rebecca Hall's (and Michael C. Hall's) performance was quite good. E wanted a dance movie so we watched Feel the Beat which was... mostly harmless and hit very traditional sports movie beats with some fun dancing. I don't think I actually rec either.
- TV Seasons: 15/10 - None new. 
- Crafts: 8/1 - None new. 
- Writing: 6/3-5 - None new.
- Albums: 6/? - Gracie Abrams - This is What it Feels Like. Very poppy, but dark/deep enough to maintain interest beyond my standard sad-girl log line. Several new favorites. 
- Books: 3/2 - Finished Emma Donoghue's The Wonder. It was mostly... competent? The last chapter was gripping, but only because of the comparatively action-less first five or six. Triggers for not eating, abuse, religious abuse, and a major spoiler that I'd assume would be the biggest trigger. If you'd like to know, I'll tell you. 

- Movies: 15/15 - None new. Can now reveal that one of my 15 was Shirley. SO DAMN GOOD. 
- TV Seasons: 15/10 - None new. Started season 2 of The Great, not The Crown. Good lord. That could have been very confusing.
- Puzzles: 13/12 - None new.
- Crafts: 8/1 - E and I made an apple buddy, which she promptly declared "funny looking" and suggested that her brothers should destroy it. I'm not mad. It was funny looking. 
- Writing: 6/3-5 - None new.
- Albums: 5/? - Took a nice album listen to Soccer Mommy - Color Theory and Rosie Tucker - Sucker Supreme. Found new favorites in both. Color Theory is the stronger album if we're comparing, but they both have some serious bangers. 
- Books: 2/2 - Finished Hangsaman. Feeling curiously about the ending. The story is uneven and jumpy. I'd like to read it again, but I'd like to read different stories more. I do feel like Shirley did an excellent job of adapting much of it. Started The Wonder by Emma Donoghue. It seems to be a fairly straightforward piece of historical fiction, which is a nice breather amidst the Shirley Jackson-a-thon.
- Podcast Episodes: 7/? - Thinking about how best to measure podcast listening in 2022. Not sure episodes is it, but 7 across two days isn't un-remarkable, I suppose. 

Two podcast recommendations today.

Nice Try! from 99% Invisible "grad" Avery Truffleman. Season One looks at failed utopian communities. Season Two, which recently started, looks at the idea of the home as a utopian ideal. Apple Podcasts link, since it doesn't look like they have a website anywhere.

Oh No Ross and Carrie has been a favorite for years. As part of the Max Fun Block Party, they re-released their coverage of laughter yoga, which is delightful and silly. If you already know about a topic in-depth, it is likely they will make some mistakes, but if you are entering into a topic, they provide a great experiential primer. They have a website. Oh - the show is about cults, fringe beliefs, quackery... anything that essentially makes a claim. Ross and Carrie attend meetings, try products, and conduct interviews. Episodes are one-off all the way to 14+-parters. 

I'm enjoying back-listening to the Pretend Radio catalog. It has crossover with a lot of my other interests, but tends to be a little less brutal than most true crime shows. It is well produced, features interviews and sample clips. 

The episode Give It to Gilli! of Comedy Bang Bang is just hilarious and features Gillian Jacobs making cat noises, and reciting lines from A Midsommar Night's Dream. The first improv guest is great (the second starts about an hour in, and is abrasive, but you can stop listening at that point).