Media News Item of the Day (#2)

From the Village Voice: 

"A Brooklyn Librarian Will Now Make You a Personalized Reading List, and You Don't Even Have to Put on Pants"

Hey, you know who else has done that? Me!

Back in August 2011, I devoted a week of posts to recommendation lists for specific people.

• Read a brief explanation here.
• Personal Wreck List #1: For the Friend Who Needs an Update on a Rec. List That's Now Several Years Old
• Personal Wreck List #2: For the Newlywed Friend Who Needs Something to Take the Post-Wedding Edge Off
• Personal Wreck List #3: For the Friend Who Feels Like a Fake Lit Major, and Who Is Also Nostalgic for Her Time in England
• Personal Wreck List #4: For the Friend Who Really Needed This List Earlier in the Summer, Because She Had Actual Vacation Time
• Personal Wreck List #5: For the Friend Who Finishes Everything, No Matter What
• Plus, List #8: Smart, Non-Blockbuster Crowd Pleasers: The Base for Almost Any Personalized Recommendation List I Make

Hmm, maybe it's time to do this again . . .

Friday Flashback: Rec. #30: Misalliance

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

What: If, when you hear the name George Bernard Shaw, you think of Pygmalion or Major Barbara, you might not realize that Shaw is very, very funny. Misalliance is a joyful, ironic, fast farce. 

It has the requisite "house in the English countryside" setting and, as per usual, plenty of couplings and uncouplings as the younger generation of a family breaks through the older generation's Victorian mindset. 

Plus, we get the incomparable Lina Szczepanowska*, who does her part to shake things up.

Comparable to: If you like Oscar Wilde, you will probably like this. Fewer aphorisms, but more character development.

Representative quote: "Papa, buy the brute for me."

You might not like it if: You don't really like reading plays.

How to get it: In print, it's probably going to show up in a volume with other Shaw plays, in which case I recommend getting the Misalliance/Heartbreak House combo. Or, you can download it to your Kindle. 

[Also, I have yet to see a really great production of this play that I adore, so someone please make that happen. Thank you.]

Connections to previous Wreckage: Misalliance was also part of List #7: Lesser-Known Books from Some Big(gish) Names.

George Bernard Shaw makes an appearance in The Tournament (Rec. #12). An excerpt: "It's hard to know which was more impressive, Shaw's play or the remarks he made about his intentions before he started."


* Fun fact: When I was in high school, I used one of Lina's monologues as an audition piece because I was on a Shaw kick at the time and I liked the character so much. It is possible that I am quite an odd duck.

[Originally posted 1/29/11.]

Rec. #353: Desert Flower

What: A worthy, uplifting/depressing biopic, this one about Waris Dirie. The film covers a lot of ground --- childhood in Somalia, flight from an arranged marriage, move to London, stint working at a McDonald's, unexpected modeling career, and focused social activism.

You might not like it if: You're thrown off balance because it tries to be a few too many things (deadly serious social commentary but also a feel-good story of transcending circumstances, plus occasional and inexplicable forays into broad comedy, etc.). I generally approve of the things it tries to be, though, so I'll allow it.

Also: Sally Hawkins! We love Sally Hawkins.

Connection to previous Wreckage: Desert Flower was part of Personal Wreck Week (List #1).

Rec. #352 (abbrev.): Amphigorey Also

What: Edward Gorey collection, The Utter Zoo, The Blue Aspic, The Epiplectic Bicycle, The Sopping Thursday, The Grand Passion, Les Passementeries Horribles, The Eclectic Abecedarium, L'Heure bleue, The Broken Spoke, The Awdrey-Gore Legacy [the best, best, best], The Glorious Nosebleed, The Loathsome Couple, The Green Beads, Les Urnes Utiles, The Stupid Joke, The Prune People, The Tuning Fork

Representative quote: "Jasper's records got broken as he was escaping from the asylum." --- The Blue Aspic

Also: Amphigorey (Rec. #207); Amphigorey Too (Rec. #273); Happy Birthday, Edward Gorey (List #40); Ascending Peculiarity (Rec. #80)

Quote from a Fictional Character #44

"Sometimes in order to heal, a few people have to get hurt."

--- Mavis Gary,

Young Adult, 2011

(Rec. #311)

Friday Flashback: Rec. #53: White Swan, Black Swan

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

What: If you saw the film Black Swan and now can't get enough ballet, or if (more likely) you didn't see Black Swan because it looks terrifying and kind of ooky but you want to feel like you experienced some of it, you should read Adrienne Sharp's collection of stories about professional ballet dancers.

Sharp mixes stories centered on wholly fictional creations with stories highlighting real ballet legends like Fonteyn, Nureyev, and Farrell. The writing is gritty and honest and beautiful.

Comparable to: Like Natalie Portman in Black Swan, these dancers experience pain, sacrifice, and obsession. Unlike Portman, they don't get really, really stabby.

Representative quote: "I've got a heating pad on my knee, an ice pack on my ankle, and I'm smoking a cigarette, which I shouldn't be doing, but Ridley's making me nervous. He's dancing tonight, not me, but that's not what's on his mind. He wants to talk."

You might not like it if: You didn't think you'd ever care about ballet, but then you saw Black Swan, and now you know you'll never care about ballet.

How to get it: I cannot fathom why the publisher did not capitalize on the success of the movie Black Swan by reprinting and promoting the heck out of this book. Other than the fact that the book is available for your Kindle, a new edition hasn't come out since 2002. Still, libraries!

Connection to previous Wreckage: I suggested another Oscar-bait supplement with Rec. #10: Territory.


[Originally posted 2/21/11.]

Rec. #351: United States of Tara, season 1

What: The television show United States of Tara is high-concept --- the family life of a woman with dissociative identity disorder --- but the concept ends up not really being the point.

The point is that every family has its own rules for operation. The point is that the writing is sharp and different. The point is that the cast (Toni Collette, John Corbett, Rosemarie DeWitt, Brie Larson, Keir Gilchrist, Patton Oswalt) is stonkingly good.

[Really, the point is that each episode is only half an hour, which means you're going to zoom through these first twelve episodes like whoa.]

Comparable to: United States of Tara is more domestic and less high-octane than Orphan Black, but Toni Collette and Tatiana Maslany perform similar miracles of nuanced camouflage.

Representative dialogue:
"Looks like someone forgot their pants."
"I like to think of it as remembering my ass."

How to get it: Available for streaming on Amazon Prime and Netflix.

Connection to previous Wreckage: United States of Tara was part of Personal Wreck Week (List #4). Orphan Black was Rec. #340.

List #42: In Praise of the American Screwball Comedy, Part 3

7 Actors of Note

[see also Part 1: 5 Tropes of Note and Part 2: 6 Directors of Note]


1. Jean Arthur

Such as: Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), Easy Living (1937), You Can't Take It With You (1938) [Rec. #327], The More the Merrier (1943) [Rec. #339]

Easy Living

2. Claudette Colbert

Such as: It Happened One Night (1934), Midnight (1939) [Rec. #194], It's a Wonderful World (1939), The Palm Beach Story (1942) [Rec. #17]

The Palm Beach Story

3. Cary Grant

Such as: Topper (1937), The Awful Truth (1937) [Rec. #219], Bringing Up Baby (1938), Holiday (1938) [Rec. #288], His Girl Friday (1940) [QfFC #34], My Favorite Wife (1940), The Philadelphia Story (1940), Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947)

Arsenic and Old Lace

4. Katharine Hepburn

Such as: Bringing Up Baby (1938), Holiday (1938) [Rec. #288], The Philadelphia Story (1940)

Holiday

5. Carole Lombard

Such as: Twentieth Century (1932), Hands Across the Table (1935), My Man Godfrey (1936) [QfFC #26], Nothing Sacred (1937), Mr. and Mrs. Smith (1941), To Be or Not to Be (1942)

My Man Godfrey

6. William Powell

Such as: My Man Godfrey (1936) [QfFC #26], Libeled Lady (19360 [Rec. #229], I Love You Again (1940), Love Crazy (1941)

Love Crazy

7. Jimmy Stewart

Such as: You Can't Take It With You (1938) [Rec. #327], Vivacious Lady (1938), It's a Wonderful World (1939), The Philadelphia Story (1940)

It's a Wonderful World

Quote from a Fictional Character #43

"I do not know why young men who selflessly devote their time and energy, and in many cases their means, to that very noble task of organizing and helping boys less happily placed than themselves, should almost invariably be conceited bores."

--- Charles Fanshawe,

August Folly, Angela Thirkell, 1936

Also:

Cheerfulness Breaks In (Rec. #240)

Summer Half (Rec. #40)

Quote from a Fictional Character #12

Quote from a Fictional Character #31

Friday Flashback: Rec. #31: Don't Point That Thing at Me

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

[Timely re-blog is timely! A movie adaptation of the Mortdecai books is coming out in 2015. 

Worryingly, it does not star Dylan Moran.]

What: Charlie Mortdecai is an art dealer without conscience who finds himself in some, er, . . . challenging situations. 

[Sidebar: Why is the amoral art dealer such a popular character? I'm facing one of my bookcases now, and I can spot three or four examples of this without moving my head. Hmm, something to contemplate.] 

Anyway, please enjoy Kyril Bonfiglioli's book, which is full of immoral, very sarcastically funny, international hijinks.

Comparable to: Like someone let Dylan Moran loose in a P.G. Wodehouse novel. But with more torture scenes. Oh, do you like the show Archer? You will like this.

Representative quote: "'Idle, intelligent, devious; a survivor,' read the summary of my character on my last school report, and I have not changed."

You might not like it if: Charlie Mortdecai's posh, insider-y references bug you.

How to get it: Expect reprints once the film hits theaters. Also, look for the sequels: Something Nasty in the Woodshed and After You with the Pistol. Or, you can get all three in one volume (The Mortdecai Trilogy). Someone else also finished a fourth Mortdecai book (The Great Mortdecai Moustache Mystery) after Bonfiglioli died.

[Originally posted 1/30/11.]

Quote from a Fictional Character #42

"You see, you don't know very much about girls. The best ones aren't as good as you probably think they are and the bad ones aren't as bad. Not nearly as bad."

--- Jean Harrington,

The Lady Eve, 1941

(Rec. #129)

Friday Flashback: Rec. #6: Happy Trails to You

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

What: For a book about a woman who's been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, Julie Hecht's collection of stories is surprisingly . . . pleasant. 

The unnamed narrator's anxieties are the concerns of an affluent, and very earnest, life: trying to find food that won't kill you, worrying about the effects of household radiation, reconciling the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal with political beliefs. 

The main character, a successful photographer, also appears in Do the Windows Open? and The Unprofessionals.

Comparable to: Fiction in The New Yorker. In fact, some of Hecht's stories were originally published there.

Representative quote: "I owed my neighbor a visit. She'd left a message on my answering machine just before Christmas. It started with the words 'All right, I'll leave a message . . .' People over eighty don't like answering machines, and I don't blame them. I'm like the Unabomber in that respect --- hatred of technology. And also, as I heard him described on the news, 'a follower of Thoreau.'"

You might not like it if: You find the narrator irksome. I personally like her, but I can see how it could go either way.

How to get it: It's worth noting that although Do the Windows Open? and The Unprofessionals came before this book, you don't really need to read them in order.

Connection to previous Wreckage: Do the Windows Open? was Rec. #321.

[Originally posted 1/5/11.]

Rec. #350: Cardboard Box Office

What: Two adults and their baby recreate famous movie scenes out of cardboard boxes and various household objects. They've been updating their website Cardboard Box Office weekly --- weekly! --- since September 2013.

A few highlights

The Life Domestic

Bubbalien

Homemade Alone

Parents of the Caribbean

Quote from [well, about] a Fictional Character #41

"It is true she liked him most when he wasn't there, but then she usually liked everybody most when they weren't there."

--- Lady Caroline Dester,

The Enchanted April, Elizabeth von Arnim, 1922

(Rec. #113)

List #42: In Praise of the American Screwball Comedy, Part 2

6 Directors of Note

[see also Part 1: 5 Tropes of Note]


1. Frank Capra

Such as: It Happened One Night (1934), You Can't Take It With You (1938) [Rec. #327], Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)

You Can't Take It with You

2. George Cukor

Such as: Holiday (1938) [Rec. #288], The Philadelphia Story (1940)

The Philadelphia Story

3. Howard Hawks

Such as: Bringing Up Baby (1938), His Girl Friday (1940) [QfFC #34], Ball of Fire (1941)

Ball of Fire

4. Ernst Lubitsch

Such as: Trouble in Paradise (1932) [List #20], Design for Living (1933) [List #20], Ninotchka (1939), To Be or Not to Be (1942)

Design for Living

5. Preston Sturges

Such as: The Lady Eve (1941) [Rec. #129], Sullivan's Travels (1941), The Palm Beach Story (1942) [Rec. #17], The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1944) [Rec. #65]

The Miracle of Morgan's Creek

6. George Stevens

Such as: Vivacious Lady (1938), The More the Merrier (1943) [Rec. #339]

The More the Merrier

Continue with Part 3 here.