A Short Break

I'm taking a little time off. See you in a week!


In the meantime, please enjoy clicking around the Index of Names and Titles. You can:

• review all the times I've said something nice about Preston Sturges, 
• or count the number of titles that start with the word "Death," 
• or find out who Zuleika Dobson is, 
• or investigate why on earth Randy Quaid got mentioned somewhere. 

[Image taken from the "1,000 Frames of Hitchcock" section of the Alfred Hitchcock Wiki. It is fantastic; do check it out. Any guesses on which film this images is from? Hint: It's been a Rec.]

Friday Flashback: List #6: A Few Seasonally Inappropriate Options for the Northern Hemisphere

I decided to start doing Friday Flashbacks in case you missed some earlier posts the first time around. You're busy; I understand. 

The weather has been very, very hot here. Disgustingly hot. If you're having the same problem, here are some things to cool you off. (Click on the Rec. # links for more info.)


1. Last Night at the Lobster (Rec. #8), book by Stewart O'Nan: It's late December, and employees at a Connecticut Red Lobster are working their last shift.

2. A Midwinter's Tale (Rec. #11), movie: An out-of-work actor stages a holiday production of Hamlet in a small village.

3. Northern Exposure (Rec. #35 and Rec. #161), TV series: In Cicely, Alaska, reluctant town doctor Joel Fleischman rails against rampant eccentricity.

4. Paris to the Moon (Rec. #39), book by Adam Gopnik: Read about the Winter Circus, French Christmas trees, and the Palais Royal in December.

5. Moominvalley in November (Rec. #109), book by Tove Jansson: Mymble, Toft, Fillyjonk, Snufkin, and others settle down to wait for the return of the Moomin family.

6. Death of an Englishman (Rec. #144), book by Magdalen Nabb: Marshal Guarnaccia can't join his family in Sicily for the holidays because there's been a murder, and everyone in his police department has the flu. Including him.

7. The Trouble with Harry (Rec. #145), movie: Nothing screams "autumn" quite like this deadpan Hitchcock comedy.

8. Smilla's Sense of Snow (Rec. #150), book by Peter Høeg: Copenhagen, snow, young boy's death, snow, amateur investigation, snow, conspiracy, snow, snow, snow.



[Originally posted 7/31/11.]

Rec. #249: Beginners

What: Beginners is not a European movie, but it kinds of feels like one. Maybe it's because it stars a Scot, a Canadian (which sort of counts as half-European), a Parisienne, and a Croatian? Or because the movie deals with the burden of grief wistfully and wryly? Or because the dialogue is beautiful, in a this-sort-of-sounds-like-it-was-translated-from-a-different-language way?

Or maybe it's just because Christopher Plummer sometimes wears a scarf tied around his neck and has a dog that follows him everywhere.

[almost] Opening lines: "Six months later, my father told me he was gay. He had just turned 75. I always remember him wearing a purple sweater when he told me this but actually he wore a robe. "

Representative quote: "Our good fortune allows us to feel a sadness our parents never had time for."

You might not like it if: I mentioned grief up there, so you've already guessed that it's sad. Rest assured, though --- nothing bad happens to the dog.

How to get it: Rent it or borrow it.

Connection to previous Wreckage: The top-billed U.S-born actor in the film is Kai Lennox. Hi, Eddie Alvarez from The Unusuals (Rec. #173)!

Rec. #248: Lincoln's Dreams

What: A historical reasearcher meets a woman who seems to be having (despite the title) Robert E. Lee's nightmares. This early novel from multiple-award-winner Connie Willis shows that the author came right out of the gate ready to wrestle with big life/death questions while armed with fiercely detailed historical research.

Comparable to: Lincoln's Dreams pivots around the Civil War and dreams, while the two-volume Blackout/All Clear centers on World War II and time travel. Both, however, demonstrate Willis's skill at turning our history into a shared, visceral, adventurous experience.

Opening lines: "Traveller died of lockjaw two years after Robert E. Lee died. I looked that up one day in February, the day I went out to see where Abraham Lincoln's son Willie had been buried. I had been looking for the grave for over a year, and when I finally found it in a biography of Mary Todd Lincoln, I ran out of the library still carrying the book. It set off an alarm, and one of the librarians came out on the steps and shouted after me, 'Jeff, are you all right? Jeff!'"

You might not like it if: It is very likely that this book will break your heart. Sorry.

How to get it: Buyable, borrowable, Kindle-able

Connections to previous Wreckage: Connie Willis can break your heart, yes, but she can also do satirical social comedy (Bellwether, Rec. #218) and mindbogglingly intricate sci-fi realism (Blackout/All Clear, Gift Idea #1). Or she can do all three at once (To Say Nothing of the Dog, Rec. #100). Connie Willis can do whatever the heck she wants to, basically.

Friday Flashback: Rec. #155: Garfunkel and Oates

I decided to start doing Friday Flashbacks in case you missed some earlier posts the first time around. You're busy; I understand.

What: Garfunkel and Oates are Riki Lindhome and Kate Micucci. You might also know them as "the bulimic dandelion from Pushing Daisies" and "the babysitter/ petsitter/ eldersitter from Raising Hope." Together as a musical act, their songs include "Pregnant Women Are Smug," "I Don't Understand Job," and "Running With Chicken." Warning: After you listen to "Pregnant Women Are Smug," you will likely have the chorus stuck in your head for the rest of your life and will be in danger of actually singing it when you see a pregnant woman.

Comparable to: Flight of the Conchords, but female, not male. And the U.S., not New Zealand.

Representative quote: "He doesn't think I know, but I know, I know, I've always known./ He doesn't think it shows, but it shows, for sure, it's always shown." --- from "Gay Boyfriend"

You might not like it if: The only comedy songs you listen to are those by "Weird Al" Yankovic.

How to get it: Well, writing this rec gave me an excuse to watch all their videos on YouTube (ahem, again). They also have two albums, Music Songs and All Over Your Face. And they're developing a pilot for HBO because of course they are.

[Originally posted 6/30/11.]

Update: They now have a third album, Slippery When Moist.

Rec. #247 (abbrev.): The Witch of Exmoor

What: Gothic soap opera/novel of ideas by Margaret Drabble, missing eccentric matriarch, rundown seaside retreat, three middle-aged children, an enviable estate, at work on memoirs, social justice, dinner-party game, political ideology, satire, privilege, thriller, high comedy, low tragedy

Opening lines: "Begin on a midsummer evening. Let them have everything that is pleasant."

Representative quote: "He bites his nails between grapes, and avoids eye contact. A mother --- but perhaps not his --- would note that he is too thin."

How to get it: Buyable, borrowable, Kindle-able

Connection to previous Wreckage: Part of Personal Wreck #4

Rec. #246: The Real Inspector Hound

What: In this one-act play by Tom Stoppard, two theater critics are watching a murder mystery and inadvertently become main players. True to Stoppard style, we've got thoughts on free will, the nature of criticism, and the role of the audience within a meta satirical framework. So, yes, it's all very meta and very post-whatever, but it's also very funny.

Comparable to: Stoppard also wrote Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. You can tell.

Opening lines: "The first thing is that the audience appear to be confronted by their own reflection in a huge mirror. Impossible." [stage directions]

Representative quote: "Sometimes I dream of revolution, a bloody coup coup d’état by the second rank – troupes of actors slaughtered by their under-studies, magicians sawn in half by indefatigably smiling glamour girls . . . the seconds-in-command, the runners-up, the right-hand men – storming the palace gates wherein the second son has already mounted the throne having committed regicide with a croquet mallet – stand-ins of the world stand up!"

You might not like it if: You actually quite, quite like The Mousetrap and are totally offended by the idea of parodying whodunits just to make some point about Art or Reality or whatever.

How to get it: It is so short! It is very short. You will almost certainly find it in a collection with other Stoppard plays, whether in paper or on your Kindle. And that's just fine.

Friday Flashback: Rec. #147: Better Off Ted

I decided to start doing Friday Flashbacks in case you missed some earlier posts the first time around. You're busy; I understand.

What: Better Off Ted is equal parts sarcastic, surreal, silly, sly, and satirical. You probably judged it by its terrible, terrible title and you didn't watch it and then ABC canceled it and it's all your fault.

This is what you abandoned: Ted Crisp, a single father, is the popular head of a R & D department at the corporate composite Veridian Dynamics. His boss, Veronica, is an adamant supporter of the company line. His love interest, Linda, is not. And then there are Lem and Phil. I dare you not to love Lem and Phil.

Comparable to: The show is often compared to Andy Richter Controls the Universe, another short-lived series from the same creator.

Representative quote: "We can't leave work in the middle of the day. We're not Somali pirates."

You might not like it if: You have a deep-seated prejudice against shows that include a character breaking the fourth wall.

How to get it: You could get it through various temporary means, but it would be best to buy it, as the only way to catch all of the good lines is to watch each episode several times.


[Originally posted 6/19/11.]

Update: Better Off Ted is currently available to watch instantly on Netflix.

List #18: Ten Movies That Pass the Bechdel/Wallace Test

Quick review of the Bechdel/Wallace test:

1. The movie has to have at least two women in it,

2. Who talk to each other,
3. About something other than a man. (Not limited to romantic relationships: two sisters talking about their brother doesn't pass.)


Fewer films pass this test than one might reasonably expect. Here are 10 that do:

1. Away We Go (Rec. #83): Among other things, they talk about Childhood Homes.

2. Cold Comfort Farm (Rec. #158): Among other things, they talk about The Proper Approach to Writing Poetry (don't do it).

3. The Daytrippers (Rec. #232): Among other things, they talk about Their Mother.

4. Heathers (Rec. #160): Among other things, they talk about What Happens When Heathers Start Dropping Like Flies.

5. Junebug (Rec. #139): Among other things, they talk about Life in the Big City.

6. Kamikaze Girls (Rec. #52): Among other things, they talk about Motorcycle Gangs.

7. Me Without You (Rec. #143): Among other things, they talk about Each Other.

8. Monsoon Wedding (Rec. #238): Among other things, they talk about Family, Particularly Aunties.

9. Party Girl (Rec. #141): Among other things, they talk about Libraries and Club Drugs.

10. Pieces of April (Rec. #103): Among other things, they talk about Disappointments and Turkey.

Rec. #245 (abbrev.): You Must Be This Happy to Enter

What: Elizabeth Crane, collection of short stories, things falling apart, personal zombie issues, what would you take to a deserted island, lemon-scented closet, phobias, reality television, fabric store, time-traveling photographer, transparency

Opening lines: "I! Love! My life! My life is awesome and great!"

Representative quote: "Betty the zombie wants to change. How her husband knows this is he asked her, and she said, 'Eeeeeeeehhhh!' which he finally determined to mean yes."

Connection to previous Wreckage: When the Messenger Is Hot (Rec. #73)

Friday Flashback: Rec. #138: Bad Machinery

I decided to start doing Friday Flashbacks in case you missed some earlier posts the first time around. You're busy; I understand.

What: John Allison's Bad Machinery web comics are a series of stories about sleuthing British youths. So far, we've had a haunted football club, an exotic animal collector, and a serial barn arsonist. If you know me at all, you probably know that I'm a sucker for good dialogue, and this Mr. Allison delivers in spades. The fact that the characters behind the dialogue are also robustly and believably written gives Bad Machinery double bonus points, with extra gold stars.

Comparable to: Jason Taylor, David Mitchell's stand-in in Black Swan Green, would fit in quite well with this group.

Representative quote: "Christ on the proverbial flipping bike!"

Bonus representative quote: "Can you do the kiss of life? I've not even tried the kiss of you're pretty good lookin' yet."

You might not like it if: You think that all British schoolchildren do magic (or ought to).

How to get it: Now is a good time to begin Bad Machinery because a fourth story, "The Case of the Lonely One," has just started! This is the main link to the current posts. This is the archive of previous stories. Also, John Allison has a shop, with many delightful shirts and bags and aprons and whatnot. And he posts much art to Flickr. And he is a prolific tweeter (@badmachinery).

Connections to previous Wreckage: Companion in spirit, David Mitchell's Black Swan Green was Rec. #72. Companion in the web comics community, Kate Beaton's Hark! A Vagrant was Rec. #95.

[Originally posted 6/6/11.]

Updates: We're now in the middle of the fifth story, "The Case of the Fire Inside." You can start reading it here.

And! The biggest update of all! Bad Machinery is going to be published as a series of books from Oni Press, starting in 2013. Whoooo wants to pre-order them for me now?

Rec. #244: Death in Berlin

What: M.M. Kaye sets this mystery against the evocative backdrop of Berlin in 1953. Captured exactly between the end of WWII and the construction of the Berlin Wall, the city is all crumbling concrete, battered buildings, and drizzling gray rain.

Of course, this means that the murder on a night train, the refugees on the run, and the story about lost diamonds show up all the more sharply in contrast.

Comparable to: Kaye lived all over the world (including India, Kenya, Zanzibar, Egypt, Cyprus, and Germany), and it shows in her knack for atmosphere. Similarly, Ngaio Marsh's mysteries always have an extra bit of atmospheric pop when she sends Inspector Alleyn to New Zealand, her home country.

Opening lines: "Miranda Brand knelt on the floor of a bedroom in the Families' Hostel at Bad Oeynhausen in the British zone of Germany, searching her suitcase for a cake of soap, and regretting that she had ever accepted her cousin Robert Melville's invitation to spend a month with him and his family in Berlin."

You might not like it if: "Atmosphere?" you say. "Bah!" (Congratulations on your use of "Bah" --- let's bring it back into circulation.)

How to get it: Buy it or borrow it. You might also find it under its original title, Death Walked in Berlin.

Connections to previous Wreckage: M.M. Kaye found death all over the place. Her Death in Zanzibar was Rec. #183. And I just adore Nagio Marsh. You can find all the mentions of her on this blog by looking under "M" in my Index of Names and Titles.

Rec. #243: Innocence

What: Innocence is a Florentine comedy of errors, as told by the impressive Penelope Fitzgerald, who manages to fit a villa, postwar malaise, a farm, a neurologist, English friends, an aging count, the Italian Communist party, and the aptly named Aunt Mad into just over 200 pages.

Comparable to: In her ability to deftly bind up a lot of story into a slim volume, Fitzgerald's closest match is Jeanette Winterson.

Opening lines: "Anyone can tell when they are passing the Ridolfi villa, the Ricordanza, because of the stone statues of what are known as 'the Dwarfs' on the highest part of the surrounding walls . . . Strictly speaking they are not dwarfs, but midgets, that's to say they represent adults of less than 1.3 metres, pathologically small, but quite in proportion."

Representative quote:
"Incidentally, it's struck me recently that in a non-medical sense you understand almost nothing about women."
"I understood enough to marry and produce four children, and I can't remember noticing any particular difficulties."
"That's precisely what I mean."

You might not like it if: You've filled your quota for Florentine comedies of errors for the year, thanks.

How to get it: Buy it or borrow it. Not Kindle-able at this time.

Connections to previous Wreckage: Fitzgerald didn't write very many books, but what she did write was excellent. I've already recommended The Gate of Angels (Rec. #79) and The Blue Flower (Rec. #164).

Rec. #242: Being Elmo

What: Kevin Clash is the puppeteer and voice behind the worldwide phenomenon that is Elmo. This documentary is both a story of how he came to be in this very specific position and also a matter-of-fact demystification of the greater Muppet world.

There are no big conflicts to gasp at and no flashes of unmitigated ego to mock. What makes the film compelling, almost mesmerizing, is that it allows us to witness what happens when a person finds a particular career, a true calling, that is the exact perfect fit. We should all be so lucky.

Opening lines: "I didn't know that this was going to happen with my life."

You might not like it if: Puppets give you nightmares.

How to get it: Buy it, borrow it, or stream it on Netflix.

Rec. #241: The Name of the Rose

What: Umberto Eco's first novel is a medieval whodunnit set in an Italian monastery. With this bestselling doorstopper, you get a monk-murderer, accusations of heresy, casks of pig blood, secret symbols, and some unexpectedly baroque descriptions of illuminated manuscripts.

Comparable to: Like If on a Winter's Night a Traveler, this novel is set up as a postmodernist puzzler. Also like If on a Winter's Night a Traveler, the original language of the book is Italian.

Closing lines [no spoilers; don't worry]: "It is cold in the scriptorium, my thumb aches. I leave this manuscript, I do not know for whom; I no longer know what it is about: stat rosa pristina nomine, nomina nuda tenemus."

You might not like it if: Well, it's a 600+-page novel in which a lost work by Aristotle plays a pivotal role and Latin is strewn about with reckless abandon. It's difficult to pinpoint why exactly this was such a popular success that it inspired a movie adaptation, a board game, a radio drama, and a video game.

How to get it: The Name of the Rose is widely available. Easy to buy, borrow, or download to your Kindle.

Friday Flashback: Rec. #127: Slings and Arrows, season 1

I decided to start doing Friday Flashbacks in case you missed some earlier posts the first time around. You're busy; I understand.

What: The television series Slings and Arrows charts three seasons in the life of a Shakespearean theater festival. The show does not even pretend that it is not really about the Stratford Festival of Canada*. Each season of the series uses one main play as its framework, as well as its locus for certain thematic threads. We begin, of course, with Hamlet.

The new artistic director of the New Burbage Festival, Geoffrey Tennant**, gave a shattering performance as Hamlet there seven years ago . . . which drove him first to a psychiatric facility and then to fringe theater. Now he's returned to the New Burbage Festival in the middle of a season that centers around a production of Hamlet. Darkly comic hijinks ensue.

Comparable to: Similar to Sports Night in that it's a clever look at the backstage lives of very articulate people. But it's more Canadian.

Representative quote: "Darren, everybody cries when they get stabbed. There's no shame in that."

You might not like it if: You get distracted looking for Dave Foley because that is your Pavlovian response to seeing anyone from Kids in the Hall. (Mark McKinney is one of the creators of Slings and Arrows and also has a pivotal role in the series.)

How to get it: You can watch it instantly on Netflix or Amazon. If you'd like to know what you're heading into, in season 2 we get Macbeth and we end with King Lear in season 3. The creators planned ahead for the show to be a three-season series, so there's a very carefully planned story arc.


*If you've been to Canada's Stratford Festival (maybe with me?), you will probably recognize several of the actors in the show.

**Geoffrey Tennant is played by Paul Gross. I actually saw Paul Gross as Hamlet in a production at Stratford. Unlike Geoffrey Tennant, Paul Gross did not jump into Ophelia's grave. Nor, to my knowledge, did he have to be committed after his performance.

[Connections to other Wreckage: Season 2 of Slings and Arrows was Rec. #191. Sports Night was Rec. #236.]

[Originally posted 5/16/11.]