My Week in Media: April 9
Everything I read, listened to, and watched
Hello, friends,
Regardless of whether or not you’re currently celebrating one of the springtime holidays, I hope you’re having a lovely day. I just got back from a morning walk—on the way out, I noticed that all of the wetlands areas that I passed by were slightly iced over; on the way back, the sun had hit them and they’d all melted again.
I noticed, too, that the hydrangeas that we—well, Josh—put in last fall are starting to bud, as are the lilacs and the forsythias. I’m looking forward to watching a riot of color appear as everything continues to warm up and wake up.
I guess you could say it's extremely vulgar, I like it a lot.
—Nick, in Metropolitan
Reading
Young Adult
Holly Horror, by Michelle Jabès Corpora
I about fell over laughing when I saw that the newest IP to get turned into a book—post-Clue, post-Murder She Wrote—was Holly Hobbie, of all things. But I really enjoyed it! Some great imagery, and I do love books from the perspective of someone who’s being affected/possessed by ghosty stuff—when it’s done well, you can see it happening even though the narrator can’t. And this was done well—the reasons that the ghost is able to get a toehold into her psyche are clear and understandable, and there’s some decently spooky stuff in there.
The family dynamics are TOUGH; I’ll be interested to see what people think on that front—from my perspective, the heroine’s mother makes some choices that felt pretty unforgivable, which made the resolution a little hard to swallow. That said, there’s going to be a sequel, so we’ll see what happens there.
Comics, Graphic Novels, and Manga
The Ojja-Wojja, by Magdalene Visaggio & Jenn St-Onge
Upper MG/lower YA—the school dynamics felt more YA to me, but there’s certainly appeal in either direction—about a couple of girls who accidentally unleash a powerful entity in an attempt to deal with a bully. Tons of wonderfully geeky meta-commentary about genre and tropes and whatnot, as well as great depiction of a loving, solid friendship between two distinctly different personalities. Loved it.
Audrey: One thing I like about him is he doesn't say all the expected things. He doesn't just agree with everything everyone else is saying.
Jane: That's true. He disagrees with everything everyone else says.
—Metropolitan
Watching
Movies
Sister, Sister
Bill Condon, 1987
ERIC STOLTZ AND JENNIFER JASON LEIGH IN A SOUTHERN GOTHIC EROTIC THRILLER WHAT
Metropolitan
Whit Stillman, 1990
Be still my heart, why did I wait so long to watch this?
Dream Lover
Nicholas Kazan, 1993
Bad Influence
Curtis Hanson, 1990
I talked about both of these earlier this week.
The Bedroom Window
Curtis Hanson, 1987
STEVE GUTTENBERG STARRED IN AN EROTIC THRILLER??????? WITH ISABELLE HUPPERT AND LADY CORA GRANTHAM???? ALSO CARL LUMBLY AND WALLACE SHAWN???? AND ONE OF THE WORST WIGS I’VE EVER SEEN???
Assorted thoughts on that one at Letterboxd.
Murder on the Blackpool Express
Simon Delaney, 2017
Words cannot express how disappointing this was. Oh, wait, yes they can.
Television
Bob’s Burgers, Father Brown, South Side, The Cleaner
Nick: The titled aristocracy are the scum of the earth.
Sally: You always say "titled" aristocrats. What about "untitled" aristocrats?
Nick: Well, I could hardly despise them, could I? That would be self-hatred.
—Metropolitan
Listening
Art, Culture, and History
Scam Goddess
ICYMI
Vibe Check
You’re Wrong About
Unreformed
TV/Movies
I Saw What You Did
Criticism is Dead
This Had Oscar Buzz
Office Ladies
How Did This Get Made?
Screen Drafts
Books & Language
Short Stories, Storytelling, and Audiobooks
2 B R 0 2 B, by Kurt Vonnegut (Classic Tales Podcast, ep. 832)
Love to you all. I’ll talk to you next week,
Leila
I had a full-out chortlefest over Holly Hobbie horror. I was on the periphery of that particular bit of pop culture; I was really little when HH was a cross-stitch/American Greetings icon, though I was the recipient of rag dolls with bonnets (Did you ever get the sort that had dresses that went over their heads and then they switched between being awake or asleep?? Our pastor's wife made us Black dolls and, weirdly, one that switched between Black and white whilst waking/sleeping [?]), but I never got an official HH coloring book, storybook, or doll or knew if there was a TV series attached. I think I just had a binder or something.
Holly Hobby as horror icon is a MUCH better use of her silhouette.