Rec. #522: The First Female President

What: "The First Female President" is a piece for McSweeney's Internet Tendency from Cara Michelle Smith, author of "I Don't Mean to Be Difficult, But I Really, Really Don't Want to Get Shot."

The piece begins simply, but over its brief length, it quickly ratchets up to a crescendo of righteous indignation (one of my top ten favorite emotions) before a wearily cynical denouement.

Representative quote: "The first female president will insist upon keeping a crocodile in the Lincoln Bathroom’s vintage clawfoot bathtub."

How to get it: "The First Female President" was published in McSweeney's on April 18.

Connections to previous Wreckage: Another recent great piece from McSweeney's is "If Literature's 'Complicated Men' Were on Tinder" (Rec. #461).

Rec. #521: Revisiting Quote from a Fictional Character #15

[Originally posted January 13, 2014.]

"Anything anyone tells you becomes absorbed into you, becomes part of your consciousness, even if you don't believe it or know that it never happened and that it's pure invention, like novels and films."

--- Maria Dolz,

The Infatuations, Javier Marías, translated by Margaret Jull Costa, 2013
(Rec. #384)

Rec. #520: Revisiting Quote from a Fictional Character #10

[Originally posted November 11, 2013.]

"You cannot hide in minimalist furniture!"

--- Felix Dawkins,

when Sarah yells at him to hide,

Orphan Black, 2013
(Rec. #340)

Rec. #519: Sarah Kendzior on Late Night

What: Sarah Kendzior, a public intellectual (area of research: dictatorships) and journalist (vocal critic of the current administration) who is always right, was a guest on Late Night with Seth Meyers this week. She knocked it out of the park.

Representative quotes: "This is like when I had one of those surreal 2016 moments where I'm like, 'Did I die and literally every horrible thing I've ever studied has collided?"

"When my areas of expertise are in demand, then you know America's in bad shape."

Connections to previous Wreckage: Kendzior was on List #66: Public Voices to Pay Attention To.

How to get it: Her time is divided into two clips on YouTube --- "Sarah Kendzior on the Problem with Journalists" and "Sarah Kendzior on the Systemic Issues That Will Outlast Trump."

Rec. #518: JustWatch

What: Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, etc., make it very difficult to keep track of their inventory -- user lists don't save consistently, things come and go at staggered times, and the "what's coming/going" pieces published by the likes of A.V. Club and Vulture aren't actually comprehensive.

One coping mechanism is JustWatch.com, which makes it easy to search for specific movies and TV shows across various streaming options.

Of course, they're not offering this service out of the goodness of their hearts. They also collect data from user profiles to run trailer campaigns. My suggestion? Don't create an account unless you really want to --- there's really no need to.

[I also favor searching (which gives you control) over browsing (which makes you reactive). But that's a rant for another time.]

How to get it: JustWatch is available for more than 30 countries. It's free, and there's no need to create an account.

Rec. #517: Infamous

What: Here's how much I enjoy Basia Bulat singing "Infamous" -- I have the song set as an alarm and I still don't hate it.

Representative lyrics:
Come back or not, but call it off
Come back or don't, but turn me down
Don't waste my time pretending
Love is somewhere else

Connections to previous Wreckage: In my usual "before-I-recommend-this-I-will-check-that-this-person-isn't-an-obvious-monster" quick Google search*, I discovered Bulat talking up the great Kate Beaton. We love Kate Beaton! (See List #60.)

How to get it: "Infamous" is from Bulat's 2016 album Good Advice.





* Hey, The Atlantic (and other media outlets)! You should try doing this.

Rec. #516: Pantone Project

 

What: The Pantone swatch book has 1,114 colors. Australian photographer Matthew Henry is working to capture all of them.

How to get it: See a great spread in The Guardian and also Henry's Instagram.

Rec. #515: The Trash Heap Has Spoken

What: The kicker for this essay functions as a good and accurate summary - "The power and danger of women who take up space."

Author Carmen Maria Machado touches on The Little Mermaid's Ursula, Fraggle Rock's Marjory the Trash Heap, Venus figurines, and her own grandmother to talk about what it means for a woman to take up space in this world.

Representative quote: "Unapologetic fat women embrace the philosophy of displacement. They manifest the audacity of space-taking. They cleave the very air."

How to get it: "The Trash Heap Has Spoken" was published in Guernica in February of last year.

Rec. #514: Revisiting Quote from a Fictional Character #7

[Originally posted October 21, 2013]

"The only difference between us is I am a man and you are a woman, and we don't have to let that interfere if we are reasonably careful."

--- Henry Graham,

A New Leaf, 1971

(Rec. #56)

(Revisited in honor of Elaine May's upcoming return to Broadway.)
 

Rec. #513: Revisiting Quote from a Fictional Character #6

[Originally posted October 14, 2013.]

"I need not have been afraid for aunt Dot; once again she had revealed her quality of resilient and invulnerable immortality, which had enabled her in the past to surmount a thousand hazards, escaping from perils of brigands, cannibals, mercy-killings, harems, crocodiles, lions, camels, and now Russia."

--- Laurie,

The Towers of Trebizond, by Rose Macaulay, 1956
(Rec. #346)

Also by Rose Macaulay: Crewe Train (Rec. #84) and Told by an Idiot (Rec. #181)

Rec. #512: Quote from a Fictional Character #97

"I don't want to fit in; I just don't want to stand out."

--- George Lass,

Dead Like Me, 2003

(Rec. #375)

Rec. #511: Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened

What: In 1981, the new Sondheim-Prince musical premiered on Broadway. With the creators fresh off Sweeney Todd, everyone expected Merrily We Roll Along to be a smash hit.

It bombed.

Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened is the story behind the story. The documentary is directed by one of the original cast members and it's a talking heads bonanza of interviews. Yes, yes, it's all about the power of theater, but what really struck me was how everyone involved actually had to live the story of the show before they really got it, thirty years later.

How to get it: It's currently streaming on Netflix.

Rec. #510: The Little Victories File

What: Once a week, the staff of Full Frontal with Samantha Bee sends out a selection of "hey, sometimes good things do happen in this garbage world!" stories.

Featured in the most recent message: Puerto Rico is the one place in American where women make more than men, Elaine May is returning to Broadway, and Trinidad and Tobago is decriminalizing homosexuality. Plus, fun gifs!

How to get it: Learn more and subscribe here.

Connections to previous Wreckage: See more Full Frontal content in Rec. #417 and Rec. #494.

Rec. #509: Try

What: The music video of Michael Penn's "Try" was directed by Paul Thomas Anderson and features blink-and-you-miss-it Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Penn and his wife, Aimee Mann, have each worked with PTA several times (Mann notably on Magnolia), and connections like this make me wonder things like, "Did the Mann-Penn household send congrats to the Anderson-Rudolphs every time they had a child?"


Representative lyrics:
That is why I kept away so
I'd look strange at your door
In my way, in a nutshell
I don't try
I won't try
I don't want to try you anymore

Connection to previous Wreckage: A music video from Aimee Mann was Rec. #414.

P.S. I really hope that at some point Aimee Mann writes a song about how her brother-in-law is such a wanker.

Rec. #508: Mark McKinney and Jennifer Irwin Reunite on Superstore

 

What: Jennifer Irwin has a new recurring role on Superstore (which is an excellent show; you should watch it). 

I now just want to rewatch all of Slings and Arrows (featuring these two Canadian treasures), please and thank you.

How to get it: All episodes of Superstore are streaming on Hulu and NBC.com. All episodes of Slings and Arrows are on YouTube, courtesy of Encore +.

Connections to previous Wreckage: I've recommended Slings and Arrows season 1 (Rec. #127), season 2 (Rec. #191), and season 3 (Rec. #287). Also Superstore (List #65).

Rec. #507: Revisiting Quote from a Fictional Character #17

[Originally posted January 29, 2014]

"I'm against murder on principle. I think it's unethical and ungentlemanly and also unkind."

--- Albert Campion,

The Fashion in Shrouds, Margery Allingham, 1938

Rec. #506: Revisiting Quote from a Fictional Character #46

[Originally posted September 15, 2014]

"This is the fight. This is the same fight we always have. You can surround yourself with every doting jackass you've ever met, but I'm the only one you like more the less I like you."

--- Daphne,

"The Dumpling King," Here Beneath Low-Flying Planes,

Merrill Feitell, 2004

(Rec. #151)

(Personal Wreck #2)

(List #12)

Rec. #505: Women Don't Owe Men a Debate About Feminism

What: The article "Women Don't Owe Men a Debate About Feminism" is not unrelated to:

• the Let Me Google That for You eye roll urge
• the danger of Rebecca Traister's "finger trap" (as described in "How Jokes Won the Election")
• the galling offense of the whole Kevin Williamson thing (see Jessica Valenti on it)
• our media's endemic false balance (or "both sides-ism"), which might actually have doomed us

Representative quote: "Let me assure you, men who sit down and issue these glib challenges in the name of debate do not actually want their minds changed. They want to argue with someone, because they think that arguing is fun."

How to get it: "Women Don't Owe Men a Debate About Feminism," by Jennifer Wright, was published in Harper's Bazaar last month.

Connections to previous Wreckage: Rebecca Traister and Jessica Valenti were both part of List #66: Public Voices to Pay Attention To.

Rec. #504: Quote for These Times #11

 

"History /

makes /

many bad movies."

--- Ripple Effect: New and Selected Poems,

Elaine Equi, 2007

(Rec. #118)

Rec. #503: 'The Simpsons' to 'The Problem With Apu': Drop Dead

What: This past weekend, I tweeted this about Linda Holmes, host of NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour:

"I know that @pchh isn't meant to be a contest, but I've been listening to episode after episode where @lindaholmes is SO RIGHT that she just keeps winning."

On Monday, Holmes published the article "The Simpsons to The Problem With Apu: Drop Dead," thereby providing additional evidence that she is on a streak of being SO RIGHT.

Representative quote: "The entire focus of the story of Marge is what a reader with nothing at stake should do about the social obligation they feel to look like they're not racist."

How to get it: Holmes posted the review to Monkey See, her NPR blog for pop culture news and analysis.

Connection to previous Wreckage: Linda Holmes was part of List #66: Public Voices to Pay Attention To.

Rec. #502: Does Claudia Winkleman Label Every Person She Meets as an Animal?

What: In this clip from the addictive British panel show Would I Lie to You, charm factory Claudia Winkelman asserts that she matches every person she meets with the animal she thinks they resemble. Hilarity ensues.

Representative quotes:
"That's it. Finished. I mean, you might have another name, well done. But in my mind: Ferret."

"I think we might have started when we were young and we had a teacher who was a little bit human, but mainly cow."

Connection to previous Wreckage: Claudia Winkleman previously featured in Rec. #434: MasterChef at No10, wherein she almost kills several people.

Rec. #501: Chess (the musical)

 

What: For a rock musical about international Cold War chess competitions, Chess is remarkably resilient. I've seen it work brilliantly under all sorts of conditions: fully staged; in a cabaret where the actors doubled as the waitstaff; as a posh minimal concert-style production; and even with the first and second acts flipped. 

After all, there's plenty to work with -- gorgeous, hooky music (from half of ABBA); Russian subterfuge; the threat of imminent nuclear war -- you know, the sort of stuff that never goes out of style. (Ahem.)

How to get it: I strongly suggest rolling around in all two hours of the original cast recording. 

And join me in hoping that the recent Kennedy Center revival of Chess gets its planned Broadway transfer. The last time I was so hyped after seeing a preview show was Hamilton in 2015.

Connection to previous Wreckage: I mentioned Chess as part of List #54: Some Comfort When You're Sick.

Rec. #500: Revisiting Quote from a Fictional Character #64

[Originally posted April 14, 2015]
 

 

"Me? I think a bellwether's the same as any other sheep, only more so. A little hungrier, a little faster, a little greedier. It wants to get to the feed first, to shelter, to a mate, so it's always out there in front.

"Not a lot ... Just a little bit, so they don't even know they're being led. And the bellwether doesn't know it's leading."

-Shirl,

Bellwether, Connie Willis, 1996

(Rec. #218)

Rec. #499: Revisiting Quote from a Fictional Character #20

[Originally posted February 17, 2014]

"What does he do? Oh, he's just in business, you know, the way men are."

--- Emma Newton,

Shadow of a Doubt, 1943

(Rec. #78)

See also: Nine Hitchcock Films Starring Non-Blondes (List #30)

Rec. #498: The Elephant in the Room

 

What: "The Elephant in the Room" is a poem by Kay Ryan. It goes like this:

The room is

almost all

elephant.

Almost none 

of it isn't.

Pretty much

solid elephant.

So there's no 

room to talk 

about it. 

How to get it: The poem appears as part of the 2017 collection Resistance, Rebellion, Life: 50 Poems Now.

Connection to previous Wreckage: Another excellent collection of poems is The Best of It (Rec. #50), which is all Kay Ryan.

Rec. #497: Oil Slick

What: Frightened Rabbit's "Oil Slick" effectively showcases the band's distinctive Scottish growl. (The sort of growl that, when spoken to a crowd at a music festival several years ago, made me lift my head up [from where I wasn't paying attention at all] and go, "Oooh.")

Also: those lyrics, dude.

Representative lyrics:
There is light but there’s a tunnel to crawl through
There is love but its misery loves you
We’ve still got hope so I think we’ll be fine
In these disastrous times, disastrous times.

How to get it: "Oil Slick" is off the 2013 album Pedestrian Verse. It wasn't released as a single and doesn't have its own video --- go ahead and get the song wherever you usually get your music.

Rec. #496: The Female Price of Male Pleasure

What: Looking for something to get you fired up and righteously angry at the world? You have a lot of options, and this is one of them!

Representative quotes:
"The real problem isn't that we — as a culture — don't sufficiently consider men's biological reality. The problem is rather that theirs is literally the only biological reality we ever bother to consider."

"PubMed has almost five times as many clinical trials on male sexual pleasure as it has on female sexual pain. And why? Because we live in a culture that sees female pain as normal and male pleasure as a right."

How to get it: "The Female Price of Male Pleasure," by Lili Loofbourow, was published in The Week in January. 

Rec. #495: Amazing Mini Animals -- in pictures

What: Want to see a tree frog on a jug, a dwarf goat in a purse, or a kestrel on an egg? Here you go.

Representative quote: "The most bizarre experience was hearing the frustrated hedgehog make a noise as if he was clearing his nose."

How to get it: This gallery was published by The Guardian last fall.

Connections to previous Wreckage: The Guardian has some fantastic photography features, like "Holi 2018" (Rec. #467) and "Gun Violence Protests Around the World" (Rec. #486).

Rec. #494: The Great American Puerto Rico

 

What: Last week, Samantha Bee's Full Frontal did a one-hour special on Puerto Rico. Specific topics covered include guerilla reforestation, FEMA, solar power, dream sequences, blockchain, and hipster chore wheels.

Representative quote: "In New York, if we didn't have power for a week, people would be eating each other."

How to get it: See the 16-video playlist on YouTube.

Rec. #493: Revisiting List #12 (Things That Are Good for Wallowing -- Part 2)

[originally posted November 17, 2011]


[Start with Part 1 here.]

Still wallowing? Yes?

"Yes" is the correct answer. Here's more stuff for wallowing:

6. The Trouble with Harry (Rec. #145): Let Hitchcock soothe you with a nice, inconvenient dead body. Plus some beautiful autumnal cinematography.

7. Here Beneath Low-Flying Planes, Merrill Feitell (Rec. #151): These stories are quite short, which is nice, and they are neither too chirpy nor too gloomy, which is nicer.

8. Trust (Rec. #165): Hal Hartley practically does all of the wallowing for you. All you have to do is sit there and enjoy. You might have to smile wryly from time to time.

9. The Half, Simon Annand (Rec. #178): It's so easy to get lost in these gorgeous, eccentric, fascinating black and white photos. Spend ages flipping dreamily through the collection and then practice your Dramatic Wallowing face in the mirror.

10. Metropolitan Life, Fran Lebowitz (Rec. #188): You think you're bitter and out of sorts? Fran Lebowitz will show you bitter and out of sorts ... with a jaded, world-weary smirk.