Reading: I’m just about to crack open Joy McCullough’s Enter the Body, a verse novel about a bunch of the women from Shakespeare. I loved her verse novel about Artemisia Gentileschi, so I’m really looking forward to it—I did smile when I saw the Extremely Long content warning, which could have been edited down to: Content Warning for LITERALLY EVERYTHING, bc Shakespeare’s gonna Shakespeare, or, Titus Andronicus is a scene.
Watching: The two shows I wrote about earlier this week. ALSO I snagged Sex, Lies, and Videotape from the library, because I’ve (shockingly?) never seen it, despite A) Spader, B) Soderbergh, and C) Peter Gallagher’s Eyebrows.
Thinking: I’ve been having a lot of fun with the Substack Notes thing & have very much been enjoying finding other folks to chat with about books & movies & so on—despite the flaws even in the beforetimes, I do miss what Twitter WAS—though I do think we might be in for the usual issues around moderation/annoying hatefulness. We’ll see how it goes.
What about you? Where are you at in any or all of these departments?
I have also never seen Sex, Lies, and Videotape, but then I am very bad at movies.
We finished Lockwood and Co. and it was still great. I'm reading Motl, the Cantor's Son by Sholem Aleichem and loving it, and Red Famine by Anne Applebaum (about the Ukrainian famine of '32/33) and it's heavy-duty stuff. I'm just through the historical background, much of which is about how Ukraine spent the years immediately after WWI being beaten up by at least five different armies, not to mention the warlords and robbers that popped up. Just finished Carrie's War by Nina Bawden, which was very good indeed.
Thinking: it's SPRING!!! around here, after a massively wet winter so it's all pretty fantastic. I'm going hiking and wildflower-spotting while I can (because soon it will be hot and dry and gross and I will turn into a sad puddle) and daydreaming about hiking the RIdgeway in the UK. I only just discovered what it is and I WANT TO GO.
I just got home from walking & because spring in Maine is spring in Maine, I alternated between overheating because I wore my raincoat & then being REALLY GLAD I wore my raincoat because RANDOM!! DOWNPOURS!! So much so that my feet were squishing around in my sneakers (but at least my torso and head stayed dry, heyyyy).
Had to google the Ridgeway and now I want to go TOO. Similarly, I dream of doing this: https://theislandwalk.ca/
*gasp* you can do that?? I'm going to start a list of long walking trips I need to take. I'll be in good shape when I'm old that way, so it won't matter that I spent all my money on walking trips...
RIGHT?? I dream of somehow pulling the time and money together to take a chunk of time and do the whole thing, how amazing would that be?? ...I guess a good first step would be to renew my passport?
I'm too stressed to read anything new until this Weekend of People-ing is over (I'm interviewing Angie Thomas; I'm sure she'll be lovely, it's just... PEOPLE-ING, have I mentioned disliking it???) but that means it's a perfect weekend to reread THE HANDS OF THE EMPEROR by Victoria Goddard... please tell me you've ever heard of her. Probably one of my favorite bookish rants during lockdown was someone I read going on endlessly about the book, which is why I picked it up, and she was rights.
...which brings me to the other book I can't believe you've never read, The Goblin Emperor. I'm sorry, but you must also read The Angel of the Crows and The Witness for the Dead and The Grief of Stones and just bask in the brilliance that is this author. You NEEED to do this. You will THANK us. (Eventually. They're kind of thick, and addicting to the point where, if you've read one, you really *need* to read the next ones... And cancel any plans for the weekend, etc.) They're so good for comfort re-reads, too. Maybe I'll pick that up next...
I have high hopes for Substack Notes, but yeah -- I'm realizing that freely observing/having conversations with all of these new, cool people and that it feels almost too... nice? Inevitably the Other Elements are going to show up because cool is being represented so well. I hope it takes a long, long time, though...
I've only interviewed people a few times—but never anyone as high-profile as Angie Thomas, holy cow—and I *also* found it incredibly stressful? (The stress was only ever due to my own brain, but that was enough. I wish you all the luck with your PEOPLE-ING, I totally understand how the lead-up to it in particular can be all-consuming and exhausting.)
I have NOT read The Hands of the Emperor, but I will TOTALLY look it up, and I already pulled The Goblin Emperor off of the shelf to add to my GENUINELY ABSURD pile. (And based on what I know about it, I do think it'll be a good fit for me, I'm just an incorrigible procrastinator.)
Unfortunately, I think some of the Other Elements already live on Substack, because the internet. We shall see, though, and I really have been enjoying poking around other newsletters—it feels like the olden days of blogging in a lot of ways.
Oh, good one! I tried to interlibrary loan that one earlier this year, but it never showed up—I'm going to re-request it right now, thanks for the reminder! How did you like the newer Thing adaptation? I've only seen the John Carpenter/Kurt Russell one & absolutely adored it.
Confession. The first The Thing adaptation I saw was the 2011 version with Mary Elizabeth Winstead. I like it. I just saw the Kurt Russell one this past year and it rocks.
Oh, so you're watching them in reverse-chronological order? That's extremely fun.
I've actually only seen the Kurt Russell one, and only just for the very first time this year, actually—I'd seen some Carpenter in the past (Halloween, The Fog), but have bombed through a bunch more this year & realized that he is Extremely My Jam. (I am a firm believer in not feeling guilty about when I get to things; there is basically an infinite amount of media and a finite amount of time, and everyone's idea of what is Required/Canonworthy is absolutely different.)
True. No need to feel bad about getting to things on your own timeline. And yes, I am unintentionally watching them backwards. I haven't seen a ton of Carpenter classics but I like some of his work. I want to watch The Fog. I don't think I've seen the original.
In that one, I particularly love that he's able to create atmosphere and tell a scaaaaary story with, like, some fog machines and bright lights. (Also, the cast is bonkers—Adrienne Barbeau! Tom Atkins! Janet Leigh! Hal Holbrook?!? My one main ding is that IMO Jamie Lee Curtis' role is entirely unnecessary (she has basically nothing to do), but the radness of Adrienne Barbeau's lighthouse radio station more than makes up for that. I want to live there (minus the murderous ghosts.)
Omg, you've never seen Sex, Lies and Videotape?! My college roommates and I were obsessed with dissecting that movie as only English majors can. 😆
RIGHT?? I have *such* weird holes in my movie knowledge, lololol. I'm VERY much looking forward to finally watching it!
Currently reading The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison, it absolutely rules.
Oh, nice! I haven't read that one, but Josh absolutely loves it—he read it years and years ago, and his eyes STILL light up when he talks about it.
*earnestly presses copy into your hands like some kind of wild-eyed evangelist, trembling*
LEILA, READ IT NOWWWWWWWWWW.
oh no, tanita and josh have finally teamed up, i'm doomed
It was bound to happen eventually. ☺
Unsurprisingly, the dude has good taste.
I have also never seen Sex, Lies, and Videotape, but then I am very bad at movies.
We finished Lockwood and Co. and it was still great. I'm reading Motl, the Cantor's Son by Sholem Aleichem and loving it, and Red Famine by Anne Applebaum (about the Ukrainian famine of '32/33) and it's heavy-duty stuff. I'm just through the historical background, much of which is about how Ukraine spent the years immediately after WWI being beaten up by at least five different armies, not to mention the warlords and robbers that popped up. Just finished Carrie's War by Nina Bawden, which was very good indeed.
Thinking: it's SPRING!!! around here, after a massively wet winter so it's all pretty fantastic. I'm going hiking and wildflower-spotting while I can (because soon it will be hot and dry and gross and I will turn into a sad puddle) and daydreaming about hiking the RIdgeway in the UK. I only just discovered what it is and I WANT TO GO.
I just got home from walking & because spring in Maine is spring in Maine, I alternated between overheating because I wore my raincoat & then being REALLY GLAD I wore my raincoat because RANDOM!! DOWNPOURS!! So much so that my feet were squishing around in my sneakers (but at least my torso and head stayed dry, heyyyy).
Had to google the Ridgeway and now I want to go TOO. Similarly, I dream of doing this: https://theislandwalk.ca/
*gasp* you can do that?? I'm going to start a list of long walking trips I need to take. I'll be in good shape when I'm old that way, so it won't matter that I spent all my money on walking trips...
RIGHT?? I dream of somehow pulling the time and money together to take a chunk of time and do the whole thing, how amazing would that be?? ...I guess a good first step would be to renew my passport?
I'm too stressed to read anything new until this Weekend of People-ing is over (I'm interviewing Angie Thomas; I'm sure she'll be lovely, it's just... PEOPLE-ING, have I mentioned disliking it???) but that means it's a perfect weekend to reread THE HANDS OF THE EMPEROR by Victoria Goddard... please tell me you've ever heard of her. Probably one of my favorite bookish rants during lockdown was someone I read going on endlessly about the book, which is why I picked it up, and she was rights.
...which brings me to the other book I can't believe you've never read, The Goblin Emperor. I'm sorry, but you must also read The Angel of the Crows and The Witness for the Dead and The Grief of Stones and just bask in the brilliance that is this author. You NEEED to do this. You will THANK us. (Eventually. They're kind of thick, and addicting to the point where, if you've read one, you really *need* to read the next ones... And cancel any plans for the weekend, etc.) They're so good for comfort re-reads, too. Maybe I'll pick that up next...
I have high hopes for Substack Notes, but yeah -- I'm realizing that freely observing/having conversations with all of these new, cool people and that it feels almost too... nice? Inevitably the Other Elements are going to show up because cool is being represented so well. I hope it takes a long, long time, though...
I've only interviewed people a few times—but never anyone as high-profile as Angie Thomas, holy cow—and I *also* found it incredibly stressful? (The stress was only ever due to my own brain, but that was enough. I wish you all the luck with your PEOPLE-ING, I totally understand how the lead-up to it in particular can be all-consuming and exhausting.)
I have NOT read The Hands of the Emperor, but I will TOTALLY look it up, and I already pulled The Goblin Emperor off of the shelf to add to my GENUINELY ABSURD pile. (And based on what I know about it, I do think it'll be a good fit for me, I'm just an incorrigible procrastinator.)
Unfortunately, I think some of the Other Elements already live on Substack, because the internet. We shall see, though, and I really have been enjoying poking around other newsletters—it feels like the olden days of blogging in a lot of ways.
Who Goes There / The Thing by John W. Campbell. Have always wanted to read the source material for the various The Thing movie adaptions.
Oh, good one! I tried to interlibrary loan that one earlier this year, but it never showed up—I'm going to re-request it right now, thanks for the reminder! How did you like the newer Thing adaptation? I've only seen the John Carpenter/Kurt Russell one & absolutely adored it.
Confession. The first The Thing adaptation I saw was the 2011 version with Mary Elizabeth Winstead. I like it. I just saw the Kurt Russell one this past year and it rocks.
I just need to watch the original 1951 version now.
Oh, so you're watching them in reverse-chronological order? That's extremely fun.
I've actually only seen the Kurt Russell one, and only just for the very first time this year, actually—I'd seen some Carpenter in the past (Halloween, The Fog), but have bombed through a bunch more this year & realized that he is Extremely My Jam. (I am a firm believer in not feeling guilty about when I get to things; there is basically an infinite amount of media and a finite amount of time, and everyone's idea of what is Required/Canonworthy is absolutely different.)
True. No need to feel bad about getting to things on your own timeline. And yes, I am unintentionally watching them backwards. I haven't seen a ton of Carpenter classics but I like some of his work. I want to watch The Fog. I don't think I've seen the original.
In that one, I particularly love that he's able to create atmosphere and tell a scaaaaary story with, like, some fog machines and bright lights. (Also, the cast is bonkers—Adrienne Barbeau! Tom Atkins! Janet Leigh! Hal Holbrook?!? My one main ding is that IMO Jamie Lee Curtis' role is entirely unnecessary (she has basically nothing to do), but the radness of Adrienne Barbeau's lighthouse radio station more than makes up for that. I want to live there (minus the murderous ghosts.)