My Week in Media: April 16
Everything I read, listened to, and watched
Hello, and how goes?
As usual, there are a few pieces of media I engaged with this week that I’d like to write about in more detail, but in case I don’t get around to it:
If you are at all interested in Shakespeare and/or revisiting classics through a feminist lens, make a point of picking up Joy McCullough’s verse novel Enter the Body, which had me SOBBING by the end. (Yes, in a good way.) It’s gorgeous, thoughtful, so smart, and an absolute treasure; the rhythm and wordplay made my heart sing.
Reading
Adult
The Wishing Pool and Other Stories, by Tananarive Due
Middle Grade
Peril at Price Manor, by Laura Parnum
Far Out!, by Anne Bustard
Young Adult
Enter the Body, by Joy McCullough
Comics, Graphic Novels, and Manga
Batter Royale, by Leisl Adams
Spy x Family, Volume 4, by Tatsuya Endo
Watching
Movies
Face/Off
John Woo, 1997
I hadn’t seen this since it came out, and I’d entirely forgotten how BIG it is. The performances, the plot—if you don’t know, John Travolta is an FBI agent and Nic Cage is a Bad Bad Man, and they SWAP FACES AND PLACES, because reasons—the music, the explosions, the doves. Watching Travolta pretend to be Cage pretending to be Travolta and vice-versa, oh my god how did this movie get greenlit and who can I thank??? As usual, I hope National Treasure CCH Pounder got a huge check.
Also, whoever is responsible—John Woo, Nic Cage, the costumer, the people who ran the 87 wind machines—for the amazing bit here where Cage gets out of the car should get FOURTEEN OSCARS:
Television
Rain Dogs and Am I Being Unreasonable?
(covered earlier this week)
Regular watches: Abbott Elementary, Bob’s Burgers, South Side
Listening
Art, Culture, and History
How to Be Fine
All Songs Considered
ICYMI
Podcast Playlist
Books & Language
TV/Movies
Short Stories, Storytelling, Audiodramas, and Audiobooks
The Incident at Ong’s Hat (BBC Limelight)
Audiodrama miniseries that, on the surface, is about the disappearance of a female meditation influencer who believed she could meditate her way into another world… but also very much about our tendency to build up ideas of people without considering them as, you know, actual human beings.
The Lord of the Witch Doctors (Suspense, CBS Radio, 1942)
The Devil in the Summer House (Suspense, CBS Radio, 1942)
The scripts of these radio plays were written by John Dickson Carr, so obviously I was all in. The first one was a Brits vs Germans espionage story, and was just about as racist as you’d imagine from the title. The second one was a more straightforward murder mystery & was much more like the Carr books that I’ve been reading. He wrote a bunch of scripts for this show over the course of its run, and I’m planning on eventually working my way through all of them.
The Case of the Missing Will, by Agatha Christie (Classic Tales Podcast, ep. 819)
Improvised Comedy & Gentle British Banter
TV/Movies
This one is new to me, and hoo boy, I’ll be listening to it going forward—the host and I clearly have a lot of taste/crossover interests, as evidenced by the episode about The Eyes of Laura Mars (i love that movie so much i can’t even), which involved a whole digression about how adorable baby Brad Dourif is in it (bless Tumblr for this gif round-up, my heart), as well as specifically highlighting two of our most favorite household quotes.
(While being questioned by the police, Brad Dourif’s answer for why he carries a knife is: “For cuttin’ rope and shit.” Which never fails to make me laugh. / During a back-and-forth with the also-fabulous René Auberjonois, Auberjonois says, “We’ll save you a piece of cake,” to which Dourif disgustedly replies, “You’re a piece of cake.” Truly one of our most-used insults.)
How Did This Get Made
Again with This
Hope y’all have a lovely day & enjoy the holiday tomorrow if you have one? (Patriots’ Day is only recognized by a few states, but Maine is one of them.)
Talk soon,
Leila
I must see this movie! He's got a special box for his Chiclets!!
Definitely at LEAST fourteen wind machines.🤣