Friday Flashback: Rec. #22: Camp

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

What: In this 2003 movie, a floundering Broadway songwriter goes to work at a musical theater retreat for young performers, but --- and you'll just have to trust me on this --- it is not "Fame goes to summer camp." 

Although some of the characters are recognizable types (the wallflower, the closet case, the diva, the schemer, the one straight dude), they are all interesting to watch, and the young cast does an amazing job with both the acting and the performance numbers. 

Oh, and did you think Up in the Air had Anna Kendrick's breakout role? Just watch. She's so good in this, she'll scare you. (Seriously. She's quite scary.)

Comparable to: Well, this is what I wish Glee were, if that helps at all.

Representative quote: "The foundation that's laid here is not going to help you in the real world. It's going to lead to waitressing jobs and bitterness and the obsessive, pointless collecting of out-of-print original cast albums."

You might not like it if: You don't like musicals because you can't stand all that singing.

How to get it: Buy or borrow. It's also available to stream on Netflix. 

Plus, I should mention that the movie includes a cameo from a very beloved figure in contemporary musical theater. Very beloved.

[Originally posted 1/21/11.]

Streaming Suggestion of the Week #5: The Graham Norton Show

Stream what: It's a British chat show.

It's particularly good when it's not too focused on plastic U.S. celebs. And all the audience interactions are basically gold.

Stream why: Late night talk shows in the U.S. are overrun with cisgender straight white dudes who, frankly, all blend together. At least Graham Norton is gay. And Irish.

Stream where: Hulu has season one of Norton's current show (he's had several).

Stream whuh?: Where else are you going to see Dennis Hopper sharing a sofa with Joss Stone? Or be able to watch Alice Cooper laugh helplessly at Sandi Toksvig's sarcasm?


Note: The first season of the show is from 2007, so the opening monologues are not exactly timely. They only last a few minutes, though, and then it's right in with the guests.


Also:
Graham Norton's radio show was part of List #38: A Couple of the Best Things I Listened to in 2013

Quote from a Fictional Character #55

"Your sister's not a cold-blooded murderer. She's never been a planner."

--- Karen Tyler,
Wonderfalls, 2004
(Rec. #2)

Also:

List #8: Smart, Non-Blockbuster Crowd Pleasers

List #24: A List of Lists So Far

List #29: So You Love the Cast of Hannibal, but Wish Watching the Show Itself Weren't So Psychologically Damaging 

Quote from a Fictional Character #14

Friday Flashback: Rec. #87: Thank You for Smoking

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

What: In the novel Thank You for Smoking, author Christopher Buckley sends up the tobacco industry. Big Tobacco comes personified in the form of Nick Naylor, our smarmy antihero. The book was published in 1994, but it was ten years before it became a movie. 

It's a bit alarming that they didn't have to change much to keep it relevant. Luckily, the satire is funny enough to keep you from succumbing to despair over the fact that we need a satire for this sort of thing in the first place.

Comparable to: A handsome, smooth-talking, sell-anything-to-anyone antihero with questionable motives and morals? It might ring some Mad Men bells for you.

Representative quote: "Nick Naylor had been called many things since becoming chief spokesman for the Academy of Tobacco Studies, but until now no one had actually compared him to Satan."

You might not like it if: It comes across as trite and/or glib to you.

How to get it: It is in print and also Kindle-able. Also, after you read the book, I recommend seeing the 2005 movie adaptation, if for no other reason than Rob Lowe's brief but memorable performance (which, in retrospect, really seems like an audition piece for his role on Parks and Recreation).

[Originally posted 3/27/11.]

Streaming Suggestion of the Week #4: Much Ado About Nothing (2012 version)

Stream what: Joss Whedon's take on the Shakespeare comedy spins out like one extended, very drunk, grown-up house party.

Stream why: You can play a name-the-Whedonverse-connections drinking game and maybe get almost as sloshed as the characters. Almost.

Stream where: Netflix, Amazon Instant

Stream whuh?: Claudio continues to be the worst, even as portrayed by the huggable Fran Kranz.


For more info: Rec. #331

Rec. #363: Random Harvest

What: James Hilton's Random Harvest curls itself around flashbacks and name changes and lost time and shellshock. It bounces between two world wars and keeps some characters just out of the line of sight, in preparation for a sucker-punch twist at the end.

(In case you're wondering, the very successful movie adaptation flattens out the flashbacks and twists, but ratchets the melodrama factor way up.)

Comparable to: Two of Hilton's similarly acclaimed books, Lost Horizon and Goodbye Mr. Chips, were also made into movies.

Representative quote: "For the first time in human history, a sophisticated society faced its own extinction, not theoretically in the future, but by physical death, perhaps tomorrow."

You might not like it if: The movie ruined the ending for you.

How to get it: Buyable, borrowable, Kindle-able. And, seriously, read the book before you watch the movie.

Connections to previous Wreckage: Random Harvest was on List #22: A Few of the Best Books I Read in 2012. The film adaptation was Rec. #252.

Quote from a Fictional Character #54

"You can't threaten an atheist with hell, okay? It doesn't make any sense. It's like a hippie threatening to punch you in your aura."

--- Josh,

Please Like Me, 2013

(Rec. #307)

Friday Flashback: Rec. #102: Night at the Vulcan

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

What: Ngaio Marsh was not just one of the best authors during the Golden Age of detective fiction --- she was also an artist and an actor. In her native New Zealand, she was mostly known as a theatrical producer and director. All that theater and art inevitably seeps through into her books, and Night at the Vulcan (original, non-U.S. title: Opening Night) is a prime example. 

The first half follows young Martyn Tarne (an inadvertent and benign Eve Harrington) through the weeks leading up to the opening of a new play. Her stage debut is so surreal for her that it takes a bit before she truly realizes someone she knows has been killed. That's where Inspector Alleyn comes in.

Representative quote: "At six o'clock the persons in the play began to move towards the theatre. In their lodgings and flats they bestirred themselves after their several fashions: to drink tea or black coffee, choke down pieces of bread and butter that tasted like sawdust, or swallow aspirin and alcohol."

You might not like it if: You're annoyed because Marsh accurately portrays actors as being unappealingly self-absorbed.

How to get it: A library or used bookseller is probably your best bet. The audio version is available on Amazon, but I can't vouch for it since I haven't heard it.

Connection to previous Wreckage: I previously recommended Marsh's Death and the Dancing Footman (Rec. #37), and I noted that it wasn't even one of my top-three books by Marsh. In case you're wondering, Night at the Vulcan isn't one of my top-three, either, although I do heartily enjoy it. We will get to my tops, I promise.

It's also worthwhile to point out that Night at the Vulcan has wonderfully subtle callbacks to earlier Marsh works. One point of reference is the short story "I Can Find My Way Out." Another is Death of a Peer (the original title might give you a clue to the connection: A Surfeit of Lampreys).

[Originally posted 4/12/11.]

See also:

FSoM #1

FSoM #17 

List #5

List #27

Quote from a Fictional Character #25

Rec. #190: Colour Scheme

Rec. #361 and Rec. #362: The High Concept of Concept Albums --- Two Case Studies

Case #1 (Rec. #361): God Help the Girl

The album after the concept album:
God Help the Girl, 2014 film soundtrack

Lifecycle:
Single (Come Monday Night) May 2009
Main concept album (God Help the Girl) June 2009
Single (Funny Little Frog) July 2009
EP (Stills) November 2009
Single (Baby, You're Blind) May 2010
Film (God Help the Girl) January 2014

What the concept album did: Under the leadership of Stuart Murdoch, indie pop group Belle and Sebastian acts as the backing band to fictional character Eve.

What the concept album couldn't do: Adding a mannered two-step dance by Emily Browning and Olly Alexander takes the last minute of the song "The Psychiatrist Is In" to the next level of sublime. The film also features assorted snarky visual gags and some inspired hair/wardrobe combos.

Case #2 (Rec. #362): Here Lies Love

See also Rec. #187

The album after the concept album:
Here Lies Love, 2014 cast recording

Lifecycle:
Song cycle performances, Adelaide Festival of Arts, March 2006
Live performance, Carnegie Hall, February 2007
Concept album, April 2010
Off-Broadway musical, 2013-2014

What the concept album did: David Byrne and Fatboy Slim tell the story of Imelda Marcos in 22 songs, featuring a wide range of vocalists, including Santigold, Martha Wainwright, Florence Welch, Cyndi Lauper, Nellie McKay, Sia, and Steve Earle.

(I know that's a lot to take in. See Rec. #187 for further information.)

What the concept album couldn't do: The off-Broadway disco musical is an immersive theatrical experience. There are rolling platform stages and a DJ and screens everywhere and audience dance breaks and a news camera on walkabout and some very helpful people in bright pink jumpsuits. It's nonstop, but not overwhelming.

Friday Flashback: Rec. #79: The Gate of Angels

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

What: Penelope Fitzgerald's slim novel The Gate of Angels is set in Cambridge University in 1912. It involves: the coming prominence of physics, a cycling accident, London nurses, Daisy and Fred, debating societies, women's suffrage, theories of chaos, and eccentric dons. 

Not bad for a book that's fewer than 200 pages long.

Comparable to: Jeanette Winterson also has a tendency to pack a lot into a small space, but Fitzgerald's style is much more along the lines of Muriel Spark.

Representative quote: "Professor Flowerdew, with his melancholy smile, had told him that he could not hold out any great hopes for the future of the material universe. On the other hand, he had spoken very highly of Fred."

You might not like it if: You don't like reading about the coming prominence of physics, cycling accidents, London nurses, Daisy-and-Freds, debating societies, women's suffrage, theories of chaos, or eccentric dons.

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

Connections to previous Wreckage: Jeanette Winterson's The Passion (Rec. #66) is similarly brief. Muriel Spark's novels (of which Loitering with Intent, Rec. #13, is one) have certain tonal similarities.

[Originally posted 3/21/11.]

Streaming Suggestion of the Week #3: Stories We Tell

Stream what: Stories We Tell is Sarah Polley's documentary about a family mystery, told through interviews and home movies.

Stream why: All of the people/characters involved are born storytellers, and it's fascinating to watch them subtly battle over who gets to tell this particular story.

Stream where: Netflix, Amazon Instant


For more info: Rec. #343

Quote from a Fictional Character #53

"Me, I want to bloody kick this moronic bloody world in the bloody teeth over and over till it bloody understands that not hurting people is ten bloody thousand times more bloody important than being right."

--- Jason Taylor,

Black Swan Green, David Mitchell, 2006

(Rec. #72)

See also:

Cloud Atlas (Rec. #140)

Ghostwritten (Rec. #180)