List #26: Content That Has Actually Caused Me to Throw Something Across a Room

Some of these I love and some of them I loathe. Feel free to guess which is which!

1. Angels and Ages [book], Adam Gopnik (see also Rec. #39)

Trigger: The prologue.

What I yelled: * "'He' is a not a gender-neutral pronoun! Using the word 'man' to mean 'people' makes you sound like a dick!"

Who's to blame: Adam Gopnik. He should know better.

2. Berkeley Square [miniseries] (see also Personal Wreck Week, List #1)

Trigger: The final scene.

What I yelled: * "That's it?! You put us through all that for this?!"

Who's to blame: The living conditions in the early 1900s; they weren't great.

3. All Jane Eyre adaptations before the 2006 version with Ruth Wilson [movies, miniseries] (see also List #16)

Trigger: Usually the first time Jane speaks as an adult.

What I yelled: * "You're ruining it!!!"

Who's to blame: William Christy Cabanne, Robert Stevenson, Delbert Mann, Franco Zeffirelli, among others.

4. Light in August [book], William Faulkner

Trigger: The cumulative effect.

What I yelled: * "The dust, the dust! Dear gods, the dust!"

Who's to blame: The dust.

5. My Mad Fat Diary [television series]

Trigger: The party at Rae's house.

What I yelled: * "How can I be expected to deal with this?! I can't, I can't."

Who's to blame: Me. I should be emotionally stable enough to handle watching events in the life of a 16-year-old in the mid-'90s.

  

6. Started Early, Took My Dog [book], Kate Atkinson (see also Rec. #270)

Trigger: Reaching the last page.

What I yelled: * "And?!?!?!"

Who's to blame: Me, for being greedy.

7. State of Play [miniseries] (see also Rec. #104)

Trigger: Twist number . . . I lost count.

What I yelled: * "Damn you, Paul Abbott!"

Who's to blame: Paul Abbott, for being so clever.




* While throwing; minus the expletives

List #25: Happy Birthday, Douglas Adams

 

The Salmon of Doubt (Rec. #4)

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Rec. #42)

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (Rec. #162)

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (Rec. #198)

Life, the Universe and Everything (Rec. #230)

The Deeper Meaning of Liff (Rec. #239)

So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish (Rec. #279)

Friday Flashback: Rec. #74: Micmacs

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

What: The French film Micmacs contains some of my favorite things: A group of misfits banding together, a caper in the name of a progressive cause, and gorgeous shots by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. The director of Amelie gives us the story of Bazil, whose life has been all but ruined by two big companies that manufacture weapons. He and his aforementioned band of misfits concoct a complicated revenge scheme against their little corner of the military-industrial complex. Or, as Amelie would say, they have a stratagem.

Comparable to: Like Buster Keaton had a bunch of eccentric friends who liked to tinker with junk. But very beautiful.

Representative quote: 

"I'm Bazil." 

"I know. You have a slug in your brain box. I know a family who'll adopt you."

You might not like it if: Too much whimsy makes your brain box ache.

How to get it: Watch instantly on Amazon, or watch on disc in most other ways.



[Originally posted 4/14/11.]

Rec. #279: So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

What: Arthur Dent makes his way back to Earth, which is quite an accomplishment since the planet was destroyed three books previously to make way for a hyperspace bypass.

Opening lines: "Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-eight million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue-green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea."

Representative quote: "His name was simply John Watson, though he preferred to be called --- and some of his friends had now reluctantly agreed to do this --- Wonko the Sane."

Bonus representative quote: "She was most immensely relieved to think that virtually everything that anybody had ever told her was wrong."

You might not like it if: This was the first story in The Hitchhiker's Guide series that Douglas Adams wrote specifically as a book instead of adapting it from something else. You might object to a result that's slightly more straightforward than usual.

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

Connections to previous Wreckage: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Rec. #42); The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (Rec. #198); Life, the Universe and Everything (Rec. #230)

Friday Flashback: Rec. #45: Harold and Maude

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

What: Harold Chasen is a privileged young man obsessed with death. He stages fake suicides, drives a hearse, and attends strangers' funerals. At one of these funerals, he meets Maude, who is equally driven by a love for life. She dances and sings, rescues trees, and steals cars, and Harold quickly falls in love her. Harold's mother, priest, and psychiatrist all object to the relationship, though, mainly because Maude is 79 years old. Ah, l'amour.

Comparable to: A major influence on many writers/directors. In my opinion, Wes Anderson has spent most of his career trying to recapture the quirky, happy/morbid vibe of this film.

Representative quote: "You know, at one time I used to break into pet shops to liberate the canaries. But I decided that was an idea way before its time. Zoos are full, prisons are overflowing . . . oh my, how the world still dearly loves a cage."

You might not like it if: You have a very low threshold for quirk.

How to get it: Buy it, don't borrow. You have to buy a movie that has someone named Vivan Pickles in it. That's just a fact.

[Originally posted 2/13/11.]

Rec. #278: Personal Velocity

What: Did you watch the Oscars this past weekend? If so, when Daniel Day-Lewis won his award, you might have found yourself wondering, "Who is this woman he's married to, this woman he calls 'the versatile one in the family'?" She's Rebecca Miller, she's extremely talented, and this is a book of short stories that she wrote.

The book was praised by the New York Times and was a Washington Post Best Book of 2001. She later adapted three of the stories into a movie, which she also directed. The film went on to win stuff at Sundance and the Independent Spirit Awards. (Try not to feel too depressed about having done comparatively little with your life. We can't all be Rebecca Miller.)

Opening lines: "Greta Herskovitz looked down at her husband's shoes one morning and saw with shocking clarity that she was going to leave him."

How to get it: Buy or borrow. (Not currently Kindle-able.)

Connections to previous Wreckage: I mentioned the Personal Velocity book/movie combo during Personal Wreck Week (List #2).

Rec. #277: The Business

What: A production company previously committed to smut-peddling unexpectedly acquires an indie hit and decides to change its direction to Quality Films. The only problem is that most of the people who work there have terrible taste and absolutely no idea what they're doing.

Representative quote:
"What do you want, chicks, fame, money?"
"Those things sound nice, yeah."

How to get it: There's good news and bad news. The bad news is that the television show's vague title can make it kind of difficult to find. Try adding keywords like "IFC" (channel it aired on) or "Kathleen Robertson" (star). Or limit your search by year (2006-2007).

The good news is that once you do find it, it will probably be pretty cheap.

Rec. #276: The Heir

What: Peregrine Chase manages an insurance company, and he really, really seems like someone who would manage an insurance company. Then he inherits a Tudor house with a moat and some peacocks, and everything changes. (Except his name, which was already pretty great.)

Comparable to: Cold Comfort Farm without the smirking bite.

Opening lines: "Miss Chase lay on her immense red silk four-poster that reached as high as the ceiling. Her face was covered over by a sheet, but as she had a high, aristocratic nose, it raised the sheet into a ridge, ending in a point. Her hands also could be distinguished beneath the sheet, folded across her chest like the hands of an effigy; and her feet, tight together like the feet of an effigy, raised the sheet into two further points at the bottom of the bed. She was eighty-four years old, and she had been dead for twenty-four hours."

Representative quote: "What on earth were panage hogs, to which apparently he was entitled?"

How to get it: Buy it or borrow it.

Connections to previous Wreckage: I previously mentioned Vita Sackville-West's The Heir during Personal Wreck Week (List #5). And all the smirking bite of Cold Comfort Farm was Rec. #34.

Friday Flashback: Rec. #40: Summer Half

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

What: Over the course of three decades (1930s, '40s, and '50s), the characters under Angela Thirkell's purview grow up, grow older, fall in love, get political, stay provincial, mostly survive one war, and try to recover from the resulting peace. Summer Half is a golden period for the characters. It's summer; teachers, students, and headmasters (and their relations) are enjoying the holiday; and the second world war is not yet on the horizon.

Comparable to: Same vein as Austen, Dickens, Gaskell, and Thackeray. But one hundred years later.

Representative quote: "To his unhappy situation he saw no outlet which honor could allow, and hoped vaguely that on his Russian visit he might somehow turn into someone else, or even get sent to Siberia by mistake."

You might not like it if: It's too quiet. You want the war!

How to get it: Thirkell's books tend to go in and out of print. It looks like Summer Half is out of print now, but try your library.

[Originally posted 2/8/11.]

Rec. #275: Moonstruck

What: Moonstruck is one of the most quotable movies ever. After you watch it, I dare you to stop yourself from doing an impression of Nicholas Cage's baker-with-eyes-like-a-gypsy-who-lost-his-hand-and-his-bride.

Or maybe you'd like to attempt an impression of Cher's bookkeeper-whose-first-husband-got-hit-by-a-bus-and-she's-pretty-sure-it's-because-they-got-married-at-City-Hall.

You could also try Olympia Dukakis, John Mahoney, or Danny Aiello. Or --- ooh!--- you could do Cosmo's speech on the three kinds of pipe ("there's what you have, which is garbage"). So many delicious choices.

Representative quote: "A man understands one day that his life is built on nothing, and that's a bad, crazy day."

Bonus representative quote: "I looked the wrong way and I lost my hand. He could make you look the wrong way and you could lose your whole head!"

Representative dialogue:

"You're gonna marry my brother? Why you wanna sell your life short? Playing it safe is just about the most dangerous thing a woman like you could do. You waited for the right man the first time, why didn't you wait for the right man again?"

"He didn't come!"

"I'm here!"

"You're late!"

How to get it: Buy it, borrow it, stream it, or catch it on cable sometime.

Friday Flashback: Rec. #58: Him Her Him Again the End of Him

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

What: The unnamed heroine of Patricia Marx's novel is working on her graduate thesis in Cambridge when she falls for a boring, miserable, selfish narcissist named Eugene Obello. Things do not go very well. Marx, a former writer for Saturday Night Live and the first woman elected to the Harvard Lampoon, has written a very funny tragedy/very tragic comedy.

Comparable to: Same type of sense of humor as David Rakoff, Sloane Crosley, David Sedaris, etc. But this is a novel, not a collection of essays or stories.

Representative quote: "I'd never been to Europe and now here I was, in a country where everyone sounded like Winston Churchill or Mary Poppins; where all the women had flawless skin and all the men looked as if they'd been wandering around in the Underground since World War II, never having seen the light of day or another change of clothes."

You might not like it if: The deliberately inexplicable nature of the Eugene obsession is a persistent bother that doesn't go away.

How to get it: The paperback is super-cheap on Amazon right now. If you're interested.



[Originally posted 2/26/11.]

Rec. #274: The Forsyte Saga

What: Before Damian Lewis ever crossed paths with Claire Danes, he starred in this 2002 miniseries. Adapted from the novels by John Galsworthy, The Forsyte Saga follows a British family over the course of five adulterous, scheming, artistic, wrenching, scandalous, tragic, well-funded decades.

Comparable to: Before Downton Abbey chomped its way through early twentieth century domestic drama, The Forsyte Saga made its own mark, with people running off with governesses, getting engaged to penniless architects, supporting spendthrift husbands, being killed while running around in the fog, disinheriting people (and then reinheriting them), and making grand gestures with jewelry.

A few key phrases from the Wikipedia plot summary:
"ends up vulgarly kissing her arm in public"
"June returns from a holiday in Switzerland and discovers the lawsuit"
"when he pulls the trigger he finds it was not loaded"

Representative quote: "There is something ironic, isn't there, that all the people I love, really love, all gravitate to her in the end. And they always love Irene more."

How to get it: It's available for streaming on Netflix and Amazon. All seven hours of it.

Rec. #273 (abbrev.): Amphigorey Too

What: Edward Gorey story collection, The Beastly Baby, The Nursery Frieze, The Pious Infant, The Evil Garden, The Inanimate Tragedy, The Gilded Bat, The Iron Tonic, The Osbick Bird, The Chinese Obelisks, The Deranged Cousins, The Eleventh Episode, [The Untitled Book], The Lavender Leotard, The Disrespectful Summons, The Abandoned Sock, The Lost Lions, Story for Sara, The Salt Herring, Leaves from a Mislaid Album, A Limerick

Representative quote: "One summer morning a sock on the line decided that life with its mate was tedious and unpleasant."

Also: Ascending Peculiarity (Rec. #80) and Amphigorey (the first) (Rec. #207)

Friday Flashback: Rec. #33: The Up Series

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

What: You know what's really quite scary? Driving in an actual blizzard. I did that today. You know what else is scary, in a very different way? Looking at a seven-year-old boy and thinking, "Ah, yes. You will grow up to be a Bond villain." I did not do that today, but I did it the first time I saw Seven Up, the initial entry in the Up documentary series. 

In the mid-'60s, the filmmakers interviewed fourteen British children from different socioeconomic backgrounds, and director Michael Apted* films follow-up interviews every seven years. The results are sometimes heartbreaking, occasionally scary, and consistently fascinating. You'll form very strong opinions about these people you've never met. (See if you can spot who I pegged as the Bond villain.)

Representative quote: "Give me a child until he is seven and I will give you the man." (This should tip you off that there's more emphasis on the ten boys than the four girls.)

You might not like it if: You get completely lost in the accents. No closed captioning, either, so it's sink or swim here.

How to get it: Quickly! Catch up before 56 Up comes out (due in 2012). So far, we've had Seven Up, Seven Plus 7, 21 Up, 28 Up, 35 Up, 42 Up, and 49 Up.

*Michael Apted was a researcher on the original film and has directed all subsequent films in the series.

[Originally posted 2/1/11.]

Also: Hey! 56 Up is out right now! Maybe in a theater near you! Might be a good idea to see it this weekend.

Rec. #272: Weight

What: Author Jeanette Winterson retells the myth of Atlas and Heracles. A tale of traps and bargains and freedom and trickery! The book is not very long, but it is smart, smart, depressing, and smart.

Comparable to: Weight is part of the The Myths --- a multi-country project of myths retold by critically fawned-over authors, including David Grossman, Margaret Atwood, Ali Smith, and Michel Faber.

Opening lines: "The free man never thinks of escape."

Representative quote: "I am good at walking away. Rejection teaches you how to reject."

Bonus representative quote: "What can I tell you about the choices we make? Fate reads like the polar opposite of decision, and so much of life reads like fate."

How to get it: You'll probably need to buy it used or get it from the library.

Connections to previous Wreckage: The Penelopiad, by Margaret Atwood, is also part of The Myths project. I recommended it during Personal Wreck Week (List #3). Also check out Jeanette Winterson's other (non-myth) books, including The Passion (Rec. #66).

Friday Flashback: Rec. #5: Rope

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 Rope, Jimmy Stewart plays an of-the-moment character who realizes too late what cool, clinical cynicism can lead to. This Alfred Hitchcock film gives everyone involved a chance to show off. The story was a stage play first, and the single-room set reflects that, allowing the actors to showcase their Craft. Meanwhile, Hitchcock demonstrates his innovation and technical skill by shooting the entire film in just 10 takes. (Fun party game! Spot the cuts!)

Representative quote: "Good and evil, right and wrong were invented for the ordinary, average man, the inferior man, because he needs them."

You might not like it if: You're in a "been there, done that" place with Hitchcock. Alternately, you might believe this can't possibly be a Hitchcock movie because you don't see any blondes.

How to get it: Rent it or buy it --- after being unavailable for decades, the film is now pretty easy to find. You also have a good-ish chance of catching it on TCM sometime. When you're done watching the movie, check out the IMDb and Wikipedia entries on it. Trivia galore for film geeks!


[Originally posted 1/4/11.]

Also: Check out the Hitchcock entry in my blog index. There's a lot there.

Rec. #271: Tamara Drewe

What: Tamara Drewe is Posy Simmonds's modernized, satirical take on Thomas Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd --- she gets her characters into a rural setting via a writer's retreat. Her story started as a weekly comic serial in The Guardian before becoming an award-winning a graphic novel.

Opening lines:
"Assholes!"
"Oh come on, Glen, they're just bored . . . holidays've gone on too long . . . just mindless."
"But that's what I object to! I mean if they threw stuff with a purpose . . . like they see us and think: hey, writers! Let's egg the self-regarding sacks of shit."
"Maybe they did."

You might not like it if: Satire! Struggling writers! The British countryside! Adultery! Rock star ex-fiances! Mid-life ennui! Stalkers! Plotting! Sheep! What's not to like?

How to get it: Buy it or borrow it. The paperback edition is a super good deal right now on Amazon.

Connections to previous Wreckage: The graphic novel was made into a movie in 2010. I haven't seen it, but Tamsin Greig is in it, so how bad could it be? We love Tamsin Greig! See Black Books (Rec. #68), Green Wing (Rec. #110), and The Half (Rec. #178) for evidence of why she's great.

Friday Flashback: Rec. #9: No Ordinary Matter

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

What: Author Jenny McPhee excels at combining disparate themes and topics in delightful ways. The novel No Ordinary Matter brings together soap operas, musicals, private detection, and neurology. It sounds frenetic, but somehow it's not. McPhee's tone is playful, yet grounded.

Comparable to: Some of the farce of Shakespearean comedy, a pinch of Shannon Olson's tone, with a dash of Tom Robbins-type flights of fancy.

Representative quote: "Veronica began to put her clothes back on. She sensed impending doom and wanted to be dressed for it."

You might not like it if: You have absolutely no interest in, or curiosity about, the writing of soap operas, the creation of musicals, the practice of private detection, or the theories of neurology.

How to get it: It's probably available in your library system, it's possibly in stock at your local bookstore, and it's definitely downloadable to your Kindle.

[Originally posted 1/8/11.]

See also: McPhee's first novel, The Center of Things, was Rec. #214.

List #24: A List of Lists So Far --- Part 5 of 5

Part 1!

Part 2!

Part 3!

Part 4!

List #20: (Some of) The Best of Edward Everett Horton.
Featuring this guy. And Cary Grant.

List #21: If I Had the Sort of Job Where I Could Spend Time Doing Things on the Internet, Here Are Some of the Things I Would Spend Time Doing.
Featuring Exactitudes.

List #22: A Few of the Best Books I Read in 2012.
Featuring The Beginning of Spring.

List #23: A Few of the Best Movies I Watched in 2012.
Featuring Beginners (Rec. #249).

List #24: A List of Lists So Far --- Part 4 of 5

See Part 1 here!

See Part 2 here!

See Part 3 here!

List #16: Some Dishy British Male Actors and Where to Find Them. Phwoar.
Featuring North and South.

List #17: French Films to Watch Instantly on Netflix.
Featuring L'Argent de Poche.

List #18: Ten Movies That Pass the Bechdel/Wallace Test.
Featuring Junebug (Rec. #139).

List #19: Jay Smooth --- An Appreciation.
Featuring Jay Smooth!


More in Part 5 here.