A Brief Time of Necessary Neglect

Sadly, I'll probably be neglecting things around here for the rest of the week.

But remember the Index of Names and Titles! It is a thing that exists.



[Image taken from the "1,000 Frames of Hitchcock" section of the Alfred Hitchcock Wiki. It is fantastic; do check it out.]

Friday Flashback: Rec. #160: Heathers

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

What: Every so often, it's good to remember that Heathers exists. We hold these truths to be eternal: Audiences root for nerds and rebels. We always worry about kids today being "kids today." Winona Ryder is the best. Christian Slater is dedicated to being Nicholson-part-deux. Truly good dialogue retains its bite. Everyone loves the question "How dark is too dark?"

Comparable to: It's the original Mean Girls.

8 representative quotes (because I could not narrow it down any further):

"Greetings and salutations... you a Heather?"

"People will look at the ashes of Westerburg and say, 'Now there's a school that self-destructed, not because society didn't care, but because the school was society.' Now that's deep."

"What is your damage, Heather?"

"I like it. It's got that what-a-cruel-world-let's-toss-ourselves-in-the-abyss type ambiance."

"She's my best friend. God, I hate her."

"Our love is God, let's go get a Slushie."

"Dear Diary, my teen-angst bullshit now has a body count."

"How very."

You might not like it if: One of the potential developments of a sequel/television show/musical version actually comes to fruition and kills the original deader than a Heather.

How to get it: Oh, just buy it. It's not played on TV nearly as often as you might think.

[Originally posted 7/17/11.]

Rec. #254: The Mating Season

What: As per usual in the bright Wodehouse world, Bertie Wooster's genuine, if often befuddled, good nature gets him into trouble. Here, trouble comes in the form of a constable, a dog, young love thwarted, and the fact that almost everyone is pretending to be someone else. And, really, who wouldn't want to answer to a name like Gussie Fink-Nottle or Catsmeat for a while?

Opening lines: "While I would not go so far, perhaps, as to describe the heart as actually leaden, I must confess that on the eve of starting to do my bit of time at Deverill Hall I was definitely short on chirpiness."

Representative quote: "What with one thing and another, singing a bit too much in the bath and so on, I was about five minutes behind scheduled time in reaching the post office, and when I got there I found Gussie already at the tryst."

You might not like it if: You fear that Jeeves the paragon is peering out from the pages of the book and judging you.

How to get it: Not currently Kindle-able, but that's fine, because you wouldn't want to miss out on that great cover by Overlook Press anyway.

Connections to previous Wreckage: P.G. Wodehouse wrote a lot, and I've recommended a fair bit of it. See also Cocktail Time (Rec. #24), Jill the Reckless (Rec. #136), Much Obliged, Jeeves (Rec. #153), and Uncle Dynamite (Rec. #204).

And never forget this:

Rec. #253 (abbrev.): Next Stop, Wonderland

What: Film from Brad Anderson, life in Boston, nurse, aquarium, Ralph Waldo Emerson, the blue line, crowds, incandescent Hope Davis, bossa nova, personals, irrepressible Holland Taylor, airport, plumber, the T, unexpected Philip Seymour Hoffman, marine biology, Brazil

Representative quote: "Brazil . . . That's way past Medford."

Connection to previous Wreckage: This was part of Personal Wreck #2. Writer/director Brad Anderson also wrote/directed Happy Accidents (Rec. #59).

Friday Flashback: List #4: 7 Mysteries from Authors Who Are Still Alive

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

You know that great feeling of finishing a very satisfying book? And you immediately think, "Yes, please, I'd like more of that," so you read other things by the same author, and then before you know it, you've read everything by the author, and you know there won't be any more because the author is dead? Yeah, that happens to me a lot.

So! Here are some enjoyable mystery novels by living authors. There's still the danger you'll catch up with their output, but at least you can hope for more from them.


1. Case Histories, by Kate Atkinson (Rec. #3): Private investigator Jackson Brodie makes a strong debut.

2. The Reaper, by Peter Lovesey (Rec. #21): A parish priest is not all he should be --- and is quite unrepentant about it.

3. Dreaming of the Bones, by Deborah Crombie (Rec. #55): Police inspectors Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James get caught up in a complicated investigation that begins with a cold case.

4. One Good Turn, by Kate Atkinson (Rec. #69): Jackson Brodie returns in a kaleidoscopic story that starts with road rage and ends with a hitman.

5. The Face of a Stranger, by Anne Perry (Rec. #91): A police detective loses his memory in Victorian London.

6. The Good Children, by Kate Wilhelm (Rec. #111): Four children become sudden orphans and try to keep it a secret.

7. Smilla's Sense of Snow, by Peter Høeg (Rec. #150): A young boy falls to his death in Denmark.

[Originally posted 7/19/11.]

Rec. #252: Random Harvest

What: It seems like a good time for some delicious, chewy 1940s melodrama, right? Random Harvest is here to help, with a shellshocked, amnesiac World War I soldier! Who is put into an asylum. But escapes! Then falls in love and marries someone unsuitable! (A showgirl, natch.) Then regains his memory and identity! But forgets his recent past, including his wife. And then several more ups and downs after that.

Representative melodrama, in quote form: "You are from the asylum, aren't you? Aren't you?"

More representative melodrama, in quote form: "1920. Three years gone. Three years. France - I remember distinctly. But after that - what after that? Liverpool - what am I doing here? Where have I been? Better go home. Yes - may clear things up. Better go home - ."

Yet more representative melodrama, in quote form: "He'd resent me. He'd accept me. He'd pity me... And he'd resent me."

How to get it: Buy it, borrow it, or rent it. There's also the source material, a book with the same title by James Hilton.

Rec. #251: Bigfoot Dreams

What: Francine Prose's comedic novel stars Vera Perl, tabloid reporter extraordinaire. Her comfortable life of making up nonsense for supermarket shelves goes off the rails when a story she invents turns out to be true.

Comparable to: Jenny McPhee also tackles the personal life of a tabloid journalist in her novel The Center of Things.

Opening lines: "In the subway going to work, Vera decides to write about Bigfoot."

Representative quote: "One of This Week's unspoken rules is that its stories should address the common hopes and fears. And what are people scared of if not elevators and sex?"

You might not like it if: You really want a detailed, definitive answer on the whole Bigfoot thing.

How to get it: It's out of print, so buy it used or get it from your library.

Connection to previous Wreckage: The Center of Things, mentioned above, was Rec. #214.

Friday Flashback: Rec. #165: Trust

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

What: In Hal Hartley's film Trust, Adrienne Shelly is a pregnant high school dropout who accidentally caused her father's death. Martin Donovan is a perennial job-quitter-on-principle who always carries a grenade. Both of them have terrible parents. Really, really terrible parents. But at least now they also have each other, and dialogue so dry it sticks in your throat.

And, hey, look! It's a brunette Edie Falco playing Adrienne Shelly's sister.

Comparable to: This is squarely in the middle of the deadpan oddball genre, right alongside Harold and Maude and Cherish.

Representative quote:
"Not because you love me or anything like that?"
"I respect and admire you."
"Is that love?"
"No, that's respect and admiration."

You might not like it if: You get jumpy around grenades, and the way they sometimes go boom.

How to get it: Through this weekend, at least, it's available to watch instantly on Netflix. The disc itself can be quite tricky to find. So I guess what I'm saying is, you might want to watch it on Netflix this weekend. (Oh, and don't confuse this with the 2011 film starring Clive Owen. That was directed by David Schwimmer, not Hal Hartley.)

Connections to previous Wreckage: Spend time with more deadpan oddballs in Cherish (Rec. #29) and Harold and Maude (Rec. #45).

[Originally posted 7/28/11.]

Note on availability: Other things called Trust are currently available to watch instantly on Netflix. But, sadly, not this.

List #19: Jay Smooth --- An Appreciation

Don't you just love Jay Smooth and his video blog Ill Doctrine? Me too!

Here are three of my recent favorite Ill Doctrine videos (click on the titles to watch):

1. "Don't Freak Out About the White Babies"

Representative quote: "I promise we are not going to turn into gremlins after midnight once we're in the majority, or when we're able to marry whoever we want to marry."

2. "All These Sexist Gamer Dudes Are Some Shook Ones"

Representative quote: "This kind of abuse and harassment matters, and when it happens in our corner of the internet, we need to treat it like it matters."

3. "Mitt Romney Scares the Crap Out of Me"

Representative quote: "If 'meh' was an option in opinion polls, his approval rating would be like 98% 'meh.'"


And don't forget the classic, the one that's been reblogged a bajillion times:

"How to Tell People They Sound Racist"

Representative quote: "When you say, 'I think he's a racist,' that's not a bad move because you might be wrong. That's a bad move because you might be right."

Connection to previous Wreckage: Last fall, I mentioned Jay Smooth as one of my "4 Internet Crushes" (List #10).

Rec. #250: Gods Behaving Badly

What: In this book by Marie Phillips, the twelve Greek gods of Mt. Olympus are alive and living in modern-day London. They've come down in the world a bit, though --- Artemis is a dog-walker, Aphrodite is a phone sex worker, etc. They all live together in a run-down flat and have spent most of the past several centuries bickering.

Two mortals, Alice and Neil, get caught up in the double-crossing, hero-questing, and world-saving. Much to their dismay.

Comparable to: Neil Gaiman also did the whole deities-walking-around-like-people thing with American Gods. This has a smaller, zippier scope.

Opening lines: "One morning, when Artemis was out walking the dogs, she saw a tree where no tree should be."

Representative dialogue:
"Why would you tell me the truth?" said Hera.
Apollo considered this.
"Mainly I'm trying to drop my siblings in the shit," he said.
Now it was Hera's turn to consider.
"Well, I'll admit that does sound like you," she conceded.

You might not like it if: You fear the gods will get angry about being described so frivolously.

How to get it: Buyable, borrowable, Kindle-able. Also! It's being made into a movie. So start picturing Christopher Walken as Zeus.

Friday (er, Saturday) Flashback: Rec. #162: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

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

What: Douglas Adams is best known as the creator of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, in all its wonderful incarnations, but that is not all he created! He also left us with a private detective named Dirk Gently, who approaches his cases from a belief in the "fundamental interconnectedness of all things."

Comparable to: Remember the husband-and-wife team of existential detectives in the movie I Heart Huckabees? It's a little like that. Except Douglas Adams never got into a screaming match with Lily Tomlin, not even once. And Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency has more murder. And time travel. And joyous farce. And literary allusions. And the pivotal (dis)appearance of a cat. OK, maybe it's actually more like To Say Nothing of the Dog.

Representative quote: "Richard had run into Dirk from time to time and had usually been greeted with that kind of guarded half smile that wants to know if you think it owes you money before it blossoms into one that hopes you will lend it some."

You might not like it if: You get impatient waiting for the introduction of the eponymous detective agency (nearly halfway through the book).

How to get it: The book is in print, and Adams also wrote one and a half sequels: The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul and The Salmon of Doubt (unfinished). I know that there is a new BBC4 adaptation of Dirk Gently, but I have not yet seen it.

Connections to previous Wreckage: I previously recommended two other works by Douglas Adams: The Salmon of Doubt (Rec. #4) and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Rec. #42). In many ways, Dirk Gently is similar to Connie Willis's To Say Nothing of the Dog (Rec. #100). And I should also mention that in the BBC4 adaption mentioned above, Dirk Gently is played by Stephen Mangan, from Green Wing (Rec. #110).