Recently: 13 June
3 June 2023
It’s been a minute since my last round-up, so some of these links and recommendations are of a minor vintage. Still bubbly though.
Links
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Megan Abbott on answering the question: “You’ve never had an abortion, have you?”
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The last gamble of Tokyo Joe. An absolute knockout of a story.
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An oral history of MTV News, on the sad occasion of its official passing. An older generation might remember Peter Jennings delivering the important news of the day; I remember Kurt Loder.
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In the wake of Twitter, what is the new new reading environment?
Reading/Watching/Listening
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I’m on record calling Hatching the horror version of Turning Red. Mothers teaching daughters how to handle their monsters. It’s my sort of territory. (Note: We’ll be covering this on an upcoming episode of Quiet Little Horrors, if you want to hear more about it.)
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I don’t think the new Shudder film Influencer is a great film, but it is an interesting film that rarely took the turns I expected. I appreciated its refusal to explain itself.
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I dug the second season of Perry Mason. Shame there won’t be any more. It would be cool if streaming television would get over their “cancel solid shows after only two seasons” thing.
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Yellowjackets wrapped up an uneven season two but kept the 90s needle drops coming, so I’m okay with it. I think this show is a little more melodrama than we originally clocked it to be, but I also think that doesn’t have to be a bad thing.
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Speaking of the podcast, soon we’re talking about one of my all-time favorite films, Picnic at Hanging Rock, so I took the opportunity to read the original novel by Joan Lindsay for the first time. Recommended.
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In the same thematic vein, I read The Virgin Suicidesby Jeffrey Eugenides. I have yet to watch the film adaption but that’s next.
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In the past, I recommended Lewis Hyde’s book Trickster Makes This World: Mischief, Myth and Art. I just finished reading his The Gift: How the Creative Spirit Transforms the World and it seems essential for anyone figuring out how to make making art a sustainable part of their life.
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Speaking of Yellowjackets, a treat for us forty-somethings: