Books on the Fourth of July

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Happy Independence Day! Celebrate with me, a person who thinks the First Amendment still has a chance.
 

046) Final Cut by Charles Burns, finished May 28

The primary recollection I have of reviews when this came out (which I did not read closely intending to read the book first) is that it is darker and more horrifying than Burns's Black Hole. To which all I can say is

What?

Black Hole is a work of extended body horror (the only comparison that seems fitting is Junji Ito). Final Cut is about people who watch horror movies and hope to make one of their own. That alone seems to reject the comparison. Perhaps the reviewers were suggesting they found Final Cut the more devastating work to which, okay, that's subjective.

Final Cut is the story of two character: one finding herself, the other losing himself. Black Hole was about teenagers and much of their character change happens out in the woods. Final Cut is about twenty-somethings and much of their character change happens out in the woods. Plus, I think they're Burns's best two books. No wonder everyone wants to compare them.

I think I personally like Final Cut more. Granted, it has been a long, long time since I read Black Hole (which was finished in 2005, after all), but while it was excellent the greater restraint of Final Cut made its characters' growth more happy and falls more tragic. But at least they live and breathe which, frankly, doesn't always happen in a Burns book. It's great to see him on the top of his form no matter which of the two you end up preferring. 

about a week

047) Fever Beach by Carol Hiassen, finished June 12

I've never read a Hiassen novel. Nonfiction, sure, but not a novel. Even though my oldest son was a huge fan of Hoot when he was a kid.

But the covers of his books are always eyecatching and he has a good reputation and I'm interested in what funny wirters are up to. Then The Atlatntic pushed me over. 

I did enjoy myself. Some of the satire is pretty broad and even mean-spirited. I do agree that America's would-be nazis deserve mockery, but, on the other hand, these people are fools, sad and lost, and the purpose of satire is to punch up. So I appreciated the Matt Gaetz standin more than the little loser standins. It was a strange position to be in, as a reader.

I was also startled (spoiler warning) that Hiassen decided to give his audience a series of deaths at the end. Most of the major bad-guy characters die in the last chapter and a half. Which comes off like some sort of perverse wish-fulfillment.

I liked the good guys and I did find stuff amusing, but I'm realizing as I write this that the book feels more like twitteresque in-crowd mockery than "literature." I get why people like it, but it won't make you feel any better once your laughter dies down. It provides about as much longterm comfort as a couple Advil.

Still. There's not a lot of broad comedy reaching a broad audience. So that has to provide some benefit to the national psyche. I mean, right?

maybe a couple weeks 

048) How to Talk to Your Succulent by Zoe Persico, finished June 17

I found a lot to like about this book. It's a charming little thing about grief and growth with popping colors and a mildly confusing nature mythology.

But there were also a lot of things I didn't like. The characters have largely the same face and the dialogue tends to resolve into the just-so words of a roleplay following some emotional-intelligence training.

Which perhaps is a little cynical of me. I suspect, when I give it to my 8yrold (as I will tomorrow), she will share none of these complaints.

Sometimes just let a middle-grade book be a middle grade book 

(The publisher sent me a gratis copy.) 

perhaps a week 

049) Poetry Comics from the Book of Hours by Bianca Stone, June 24

I like Bianca Stone's work. I've read one of her poetry collections through and I've been working on another for over a year at a lleeiissuurreellyy pace. This one, however, is different. Poetry and Comics all at once.

These poems are more abstract than most of her stuff I've read. The comics are not always very comicky. You can see a one-pager that reappeared in this collection here. Her visual style is line-heavy with a good, loose sense of anatomy. Reminds me of Dave McKean, actually. 

I liked the book quite a lot and it made me want to engage in similar artistic pursuits (I have a plan for one!), but I don't feel that I much understood it. It was more like a strange painting than it was like either poetry or comics. I would more expect to see it on the walls of SFMOMA than, you know, in a book.

But that's a fun experience art can, sometimes, give: it can give you pleasure without making any sense at all. 

i think three days but they were not sequential 

050) Night of Camp David by Fletcher Knebel, finished June 25

This is a novel about a president of the United States who goes insane and the politicos who try to do something about it. The ending is a bit too convenient (though suitably patriotic) and the writing has a very midcentury feel (like this book, not this one). It mixes high ideas with sex and paranoia in a way someone of my generation might know from John Grisham or Dan Brown. It is, in other words, custom built to be a bestseller.

You might ask how I came to pick up this 1965 novel and I would answer . . . that's a very good question. I didn't expect it to show up at the library with my name on it. Obviously I'd put it on hold some time in the past and scheduled it to arrive just as school ended, but I didn't remember doing it. Since it was about madness adjacent to nukes, I assumed it was the novel both Dr Strangelove (which I think is overrated) and Fail Safe (which I talked the library into buying and have checked out about five times and still never managed to watch) are based on, but, um, no. Although Kubrick did start a copyright violation suit against the Fail Safe people, in fact, neither movie is based on Night of Camp David. Instead, they are, respectively, based on Red Alert and Fail-Safe. And so, whatever reason I put this on hold, that wasn't it.

Anyway, Knebel's also the author of Five Days in May which, like Fail Safe, is a serious and well-regarded movie about nuclear war that I have never watched. I won't read the novel (this was a fine read, but . . . not my style) but perhaps someday I'll watch it.

Just to stir my future memory, this is the book where the man's wife and mistress both love to kiss his cleft chin, where proposing a national wiretap law is proof positive of insanity, where the president goes mad while president as opposed to being elected while mad, where suggesting a president is crazy makes people think you are crazy, where a drummer's album can be the hottest thing among the youths, and other unlikely/"unlikely" things.

a couple weeks

  

051) The Serial Killer's Son Takes a Wife by Michael Libling, finished July 3

Thanks to the title and cover design, I assumed this would be about the titular son meeting a woman, their courtship, and the problems that ensue on the way to the altar. But no. Not at all. They get married pretty quickly, right near the beginning of the novel. And then more happens.

This is a pretty bold book, structurally speaking. Although some violence occurs near the beginning of the book (and throughout), it's hardly preparation for the grand guignol–level horrors at the end. And introducing a (potentially) supernatural element three quarters of the way through is wild. Wild.

The comic elements of the book are strikingly similar to those I described above in relation to Hiassen's novel. I have some of the same complaints, but balanced differently.

But, also like Hiassen, the primary characters are actually pretty great. Son and especially wife are terrific company. And our p-o-v allows for uncertainty in some surprising places.

In short, it's grotesque and at times inconsistent in quality, but I didn't stop reading it.

The strongest element, in the end, as promised by the title, is the marriage. It takes a couple stumbles, but the way Rob and Cori navigate their peculiar backgrounds and complicating relationship feels honest and true even when some of the stuff that happens is Grade A Bizarre.

(Note for people who collect such things: a pair of LDS missionaries are murdered for a two-paragraph bit. Plus, William Shunn is thanked in the acknowledgment, if you want need two vaguely relevant data points.) 

a couple weeks 

 

 

earlier this year..........

 

Bro! Tell me we still know how to speak of kings!

001) Beowulf translated by Maria Dahvana Headley, finished January 1
002) Cthulhu Is Hard to Spell: Volume Three, finished January 1
003) Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin (translated by Megan McDowell), finished January 8
004) My Favorite Thing Is Monsters by Emil Ferris, finished January 11
005) You're a Good Sport, Charlie Brown, finished January 12
005) Into the Headwinds: Why Belief Has Always Been Hard—and Still Is by Terryl Givens and Nathaniel Givens, finished January 24
006) My Favorite Thing Is Monsters: Book Two by Emil Ferris, finished January 25

Maybe we should just pretend this set begins and ends with Wednesday Addams

007) Chas. Addams Half-Baked Cookbook, finished January 29
008) Monica by Daniel Clowes, finished February 3
009) The Unexpurgated French Edition of Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure by John Cleland, finished February 19
010) Peach and the Isle of Monsters by Franco Aureliani and Agnes Garbowska, finished February 20
011) Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro, finished February 28
012) Comic Poems edited by Peter Washington, finished March 7

Love, Beauty, and a complete lack of sasquatch 

013) Love that Dog by Sharon Creech, finished March 11
014) Beauty by Sheri S. Tepper, finished March 21
015) Antelope Spring by John Bennion, finished March 24
016) Shelley Frankenstein by Colleen Madden, finished March 28
017) Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew #21: Double Take, finished April 5
018) The Wood at Midwinter by Susanna Clark, finshed April 8
019) Rave by Jessica Campbell, finished April 13
020) The Creeps: A Deep Dark Fears Collection by Fran Krause, finished April 14

Do not ask what she does with the babies.

027) Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito, finished April 21
028) Somna: A Bedtime Story by Becky Cloonan and Tula Lotay, finished April 23
029) Shadow Life by Hiromi Goto and Ann Xu, finished April 24
030&031) The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, finished April 25
032) Raised by Ghosts by Briana Loewinsohn, finished April 26
033) Ephemera by Briana Loewinsohn, finished April 26

Brighter and brighter until we all get our heads lopped off 

034) Brighter and Brighter until the Perfect Day by Sharlee Mullins Glenn, finished April 27
035) Lords and Ladies by Terry Pratchett, finished May 3
036) The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, finished May 5
037) Equus by Peter Shaffer
038) Travesties by Tom Stoppard, finished May 8
039) The Art of Intimacy: The Space Between by Stacey D'Erasmo, finished May 10
040) A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt, finished May 16

Criticism & Comics

041) Arts and Inspiration: Mormon Perspectives, edited by Steven P. Sondrup, finished May 18
042) The Waiting by Keum Suk Gendry-Kim, finished May 19
043) Odessa by Jonathan Hill, finished May 22
044) Barnstormers: A Ballad of Love and Murder by Tula Lotay and Scott Snyder, finished May 22
045) Bingo Baby, finished May 26
 

PREVIOUS OTHER YEARS IN BOOKS

2007 = 2008 = 2009 = 2010 = 2011 = 2012 = 2013 = 2014 = 2015
2016 = 2017 = 2018 = 2019 = 2020 = 2021 = 2022 = 2023 = 2024

 

 

J is for Cinema, U is for Fun

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We'll start with the end of the film class then move on to the beginning of summer.

There is some overlap.

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ELSEWHERE
our dvd

Jaws (1975)

Huh.

First time showing this one to stundents. It did okay, it got tense at points, but they were underwhelmed.

This is the same class that was underwhelmed by Casablanca and I think part of it is when you watch a film that everything you have ever seen was deeply influenced by it can be hard to see it for itself on first watch.

Anway, I'm excited for Soderbergh's book. You?

ELSEWHERE
our dvd

Napoleon Dynamite (2004)

I've never made Napoleon Dynamite a film option because I figured too many students had already seen it. I don't mind studnets having seen the movies before, but too many calcified opinions makes it hard to judge the film fresh. And, as it ends up, more than half of them have seen it before. Often more than once. Often because a teacher is killing a day. So while some loved it and some hated it, most of them were trapped in previously held thoughts.

So it's back off the list.

HOME
library dvd

Lost in America (1985)

Coupla yuppies drop out and learn a valuable lesson?

I did like it but after one viewing I'm kind of confused how it counts as one of the great American comedies.

Also, I'm very distressed that we never learn about her FIRST time gambling. I feel we deserve to know!

All that said, I can see how this is the sort of movie that might play better after you already know the shape of it.

ELSEWHERE
Link+ dvd

The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996)

I've been aware of this movie for a long time but even though I liked Geena Davis and have since come to like Samuel L. Jackson, I never considered watching it. Seemed like a dumb action movie that would fritter away time and braincells.

But then I watched this video and felt obliged to give it a shot.

And it's good. It's funny, it has impressive action sequences, the character work works.

I wouldn't really say I've missed all that much by waiting thirty years to watch it, but I would say that it was two hours of solid entertainment and I was left satisfied. And with my braincells reasonably intact.

Also: the mid90s soundtrack.

Also: like Arlington Road three years later, this movie plays with terrorism in a very pre-9/11 way that hits so different now, especially with its giddy/evil pleasure in the the possibility of conspiracy. They'd make an interesting pairing.

ELSEWHERE
our dvd

Singin’ in the Rain (1952)
Who knows how many times I've seen this movie and yet each time it still gives me a new experience.

This time I was struck by how funny the "Beautiful Girls" sequence is. I'm not sure I've ever noticed that before.

And it's remarkable even when you know how much crying Debbie Reynolds had been doing or that she has blood in her shoes or that Gene Kelly's running a massive fever or that Donald O'Connor starts a sequence already exhausted that you just can't tell. That's acting, baby.

ELSEWHERE
our dvd

Psycho (1960)

Still one of the best films to strike up conversation. And I love how students have wildly different opinions about things like how Anthony Perkins comes off or whether the psychiatrist is a good addition or whether they saw X or Y coming, etc etc. Every movie I show is a great movie but only some of them engage practically everyone every time—yet not in the same way.

Call it what you will but I call that art.

HOME
library dvd

Past Lives (2023)

What a lovely movie. Those stairs at the beginning, those lateral moves at the end, the long two-shot in-bed marital scene as real a snapshot of any marriage I've ever seen. The depths of emotions that are ambiguous even to—especially to?—those experiencing them.

Really, an amazing first films. Obviously from the mind of a playwright yet entirely filmic and terrifically so.

ELSEWHERE
Hoopla

Heathers (1988)

Everytime I watch this I wonder why the heck am I watching this?????!?!?!!!?!!?!? but by the end, I mean, it's so great. I'm so glad I did.

HOME
our dvd

Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

Never gets old.

Among the most quoted lines are: "Excuse me. Excuse me."

"You wrote a bad song, Petey."

and

"'Cause I'm little."

ELSEWHERE/HOME
Public Domain Movies

Sita Sings the Blues (2008)

Caveat upfront. I haven't seen anything about how other Hindus feel about it, but apparently right wing–Hindus hate hate hate this movie. I take it they don't disagree so much with the details of this story from the Ramayana so much as the presentation and the attitude. I suppose one could dismiss this story as some orientalist Western froufra but, I mean, I liked it.

For one thing, I loved the varied styles of animation and how they fit together. I loved the music by Annette Hanshaw, a voice I did not know. It's a bummer that issues with the music trapped the movie in copyright jail (apparently it was out of copyright in the U.S. but not all the individual S.s?; this is an issue since repaired by Congress, remarkably). When I first heard this I wondered why she didn't just swap out the music but having seen the movie this is obviously impossible. The music is core to the storytelling.

Among the interesting credits at the end are demon wrangler, beloved cult leader, duck wrangler, genetic engineer, chameleon handler, and moon wrangler. I'm not certain what any of these people did, credit notwithstanding.

Loved the soundtrack which was not only Hanshaw but also Indian music, Europrean classics put to witty use, and more. Hope I can figure out how to get it.... (Ah ha!)

Anyway, Nina Paley killed with this. And predicted a lot of YouTube's animation aesthetic. I recommend.

HOME
Internet Archive

Gwen, le livre de sable (1985)

I don't know if having subtitles would have helped me understand what was going on here. This seems to be a work of surrealism and so the value of language is questionable. Direct influences clearly are the paintings of Salvadore Dali and 2001: A Space Odyssey, but might also include Kafka, Canticle of Leibowitz and Dune. It also reminded me of the trash planet of Thor: Ragnarok and the Borrowers.

It's apparently a post-apocalyptic world of some sort, filled with stand and massive human artifacts. By which I mean you can use a fork as a bridge here. A girl has sex with an idiot prophet who then gets sucked up to some upper-level world where the sacred texts are old catalogues.

The movie is wild and strange but beautiful. The opening sequence of them chasing an ostrich and then harvesting and eating its tail feathers before letting it go is enough to let you know you're in for something wondrous and strange.

THEATER
Cinemark Century Hilltop 16

Materialists (2025)

Lady Steed heard Celine Song say that she wanted to dig into romantic comedies next and I'm glad she did. I'll admit my core image of a romcom is a 90s Nora Ephron number starring Meg Ryan possibly opposite Tom Hanks and this is very different from that. Less silly, for one thing. (Which isn't a knock on 90s Nora Ephron numbers starring Meg Ryan possibly opposite Tom Hanks—I love those movies.) But it's easy to forget it's a comedy for long stretches.

Speaking of Lady Steed, she did say the only thing that keeps me from being a ten is not working in finance. But then she thought about it some more and said certainly I'm over a five. So that was nice.

She also said, before pulling me in, that the kissing in this movie is good—that it makes you want to kiss. Until you remember you don't like kissing.

So I would say the joke is on us but I have to say we left this movie happy to be in love with each other.

Also, special props for the excellent closing-titles sequence. It's perfect.

And I also want to point out something I didn't notice until Celine Song pointed it out: Materialists is very much structured like a noir. To which all I can say is: cool.

Also, happy to be introduced to Zoë Winters who kills in a supporting role.

Here's to hoping Song gets another writing nod, at minimum.

HOME
Plex

The NeverEnding Story (1984)

I haven't seen this since the '80s, although I saw it many times as a kid. My memories are a bit scrambled. I combined appearances of the Nothing into one single horrific sequence, for instance. And the empress, always a deeply uncanny character? I had a much different reaction to her. This time she seems like not the worst actor but in fact the best actor. It's why she didn't fit in. And what a shame that she didn't act in another movie for twenty-four years. Then ten years until another. Then six more years, in 2024, she made her fourth and (so far) final film. Wild.

Anyway, it's part of that dark, terrifying, imagination-celebrating movie family that created my generation. This and Dark Crystal and Don Bluth prepped us all for Sandman and shaped us into the weirdos we are.

So even though I was correct about never needing to see this again, I am satisfied. And will probably never watch it again. Now that Lady Steed has shown it to our progeny once, I think we're done.

ps: doesn't atreyu look like anna kendrick

pps: i would be amiss not to mention the great creature design at that ivory-tower scene and to ask outloud about the sphinxes' breasts

THEATER
Rialto Cinemas Elmwood

The Phoenician Scheme (2025)

Having watched Fantastic Mr. Fox since my last viewing, I have to say that I think these two films share the most DNA. Yes, it looks like Asteroid City with some hints of Grand Budapest, but the rhythm of the dialogue and the blocking seems more like Fox. Benicio del Toro's performance is much like Clooney's. And the shrugs Liesl and Hilda give are straight out of Fox.

Anyway, I have answers to some of the questions I was left with last time. For one, it's too soon to know whether the scheme succeeds. But that it was even attempted suggests a sort of holy sacrifice on the part of the family. (Spoilers, by the way.) Instead of profiteering over endless violence, the scheme, especially following Liesl's changes, is a plan to bring peace and prosperity to the Middle East. The Korda's have bet everything on the scheme. And if it succeeds they will be wealthy and Phoenecia will be so much better off than ever before. If it fails? Well, just as now, they will have each other. And, as we see, that is enough.

A beautiful movie.

THEATER
Cinemark Century Hilltop 16

Elio (2025)

I have mixed feelings about this.

On the one hand, a lot of the beats it took seemed pretty obvious and lesson-oriented in the true Kid-Movie Way.

On the other hand, it did make me cry twice, laugh a lot, and I loved all the alien designs.

The 8yrold liked it a lot.

I'm above-average curious how my opinion might evolve on further watches. But I can definitely recommend checking it out and making up your own mind.

HOME
our bluray

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971)

I think I might love this movie? I didn't as a kid, but . . . it's really good. I think Gene Wilder was the main reason Dahl didn't like the movie, but he's a marvel. Such casual menace. I love the stream of quotations. But he's also a source of originality. And when he is filled with joy or love, I believe it. And while Charlie Bucket's line deliveries are only okay, the kid gives us excellent face acting. And one of the Oompa Loompas looks like Hugh Grant.

That about covers it, don't you think?

Unless you want me to rank the songs from sublime to erm but I think I'd rather not.

HOME
Kanopy

The Lost City of Cecil B. DeMille (2016)

I just watched Cecil B. DeMille's original Ten Commandments so coming across this felt like a spot of kismet.

Who does not seem to have kismet is the poor folks who tried to do archaeology on the movie's set, buried in the Central Coast dunes. Nothing will make you more enraged about California's byzantine permitting processes this week than this movie. Guaranteed.

I've been down to Oceano twice the last couple years but I haven't tried to make it over to what there is to see. Having seen this movie I realize there's probably still a lot under the stand, but good luck finding it.

But I need to get myself to the proper museum and check out what they have found.

Anyway, the rest of the movie is sort of a hagiography for DeMille and it kinda persuaded me that maybe he deserved one. And so let me apologize real quick for occasionally getting him mixed up with D. W Griffith. DIFFERENT PEOPLE.

And I think I'd like to watch him movie on the Crusades next. Which, let me assure you, was NOT true two hours ago. But watch this movie and tell me if you don't feel a slight obligation yourself.

HOME
our dvd

The Adventures of Bullwhip Griffin (1967)

Not a lot of movies take these kinds of chances anymore. We can disagree about how successful each choice is, but Ward Kimball's titles are wonderful, Bruns and the Sherman Brothers nailed the music, the cast is great, and, dang it, more movies should take these kinds of chances.

ELSEWHERE
Friday Night
Movies in the Parks

The Wild Robot (2024)

Watching movies in the park is . . . suboptimal. But this was still a pretty darn good movie. Perhaps under other circumstances, even as good as everyone says? My main uncertainty is whether that third act was necessary. Your thoughts welcome.

I haven't seen the trailer in over a year but I was surprised how many plot points it covered. But I don't think it told us its when and where and so that was a surprised.

Also, props for the dark jokes. It might get a little too cozy at the end, but perhaps it earns it by going dark early. Also, those jokes have to be a big part of the reason parents dug the movie, n'est ce pas?

Perhaps California

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[I wrote this poem in 2023 in response to this news story. I suppose it's too late to sell it anywhere as the moment has passed. But I like parts of it enough I don't want it to go to waste.]

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Perhaps California has already fallen into the sea
sliced off by our recent hurricane
then sucked clear around to the other side by Florida’s.

Columbus didn’t sail from San Francisco to prove the world is round
as we all heard in second grade
but because he thought New York was closer than the eggheads said.

I don’t know how else to explain Bay Area schools
joining the Atlantic Coast athletic conference.
Well, I do have one more theory, speaking of eggheads.

The price of jet fuel has dropped to record lows
and science shows that air travel is the best way to prevent hurricanes
so let’s move our boys crosscountry

as often as we can we can as we
think we can think we can think we can,
and when they touch down to touchdown we’ll all know:

This is the world the Jetsons promised us.
This is our utopia where Snoop and Fat Joe are neighbors
and distance has no meaning.

A world where Atlantic is Pacific
and we all believe each other
rather than our own eyes. 

Unfinished Library

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Ah, books.

Ah, libraries.

Ah, eyes too big for one’s calendar.

I’m what librarians call a superuser. Though checking lots of things out doesn’t necessarily mean reading all of them. To be frank, that’s impossible. Unless I chuck this laptop (and probably my family) out a ferry window, it will remain impossible.

But I’ve long been writing about Unfinished Books (and sometimes Rejected Books) and today I have a library’s worth of such books to gab about. Here we go.

✤ ✤ ✤

Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir by Eddie Muller

Loved this book. Read the beginning. Read the ending. Read much of the middle. Looked at maybe all the pictures. Added lots of movies to my to-watch list. Or should have, rather, because I’ve already forgotten most of them and I didn’t write them down. The original version of this book was prior to our current era of broad availability and many of the movies he wrote about were essentially impossible for most people to access. Today, we can access most of them We should do so.

✤ ✤ ✤

Moo by Sharon Creech

I’m a big fan of Creech’s Love That Dog—I’ve done it with both sophomores and AP Lit. I don’t much like its unnecessary sequel Hate That Cat. Moo is sold with those two because, not, as it ends up, because it is a sequel, but because it too is poetry. But with Moo the poetry isn’t part of the this-is-for-school conceit but because it’s just told in poetry. The thing is—I don’t much like the poetry. It works in Love That Dog because this kid is experimenting with not hating poetry. But in Moo that’s not a question. And so the poetry should be . . . better? Anyway. I could have finished it. Lots of white space in this book. But I just couldn’t.

✤ ✤ ✤

The Boys of Riverside: A Deaf Football Team and a Quest for Glory by Thomas Fuller

A book club I recently joined was to read this book next but they forgot to invite me which was okay because I had a hard time with the narrative voice which made reading it a real slog. Fuller’s a journalist and I’m sure a great story in five thousand words would be fine. I wasn’t thrilled about an entire book.

✤ ✤ ✤

The Maniac by Benjamin Labatut

A previous novel the group had read and that my friend recommended was this one. I read maybe the first fifty pages and it was excellent but I had too many library books out at the time and a busy month ahead of me and so I, sad, returned it unread. It’s about a weird genius working on the a-bomb. And it features a topnotch narrative voice, so there.

✤ ✤ ✤

Of All Places! and No Place Like Home by Patience, Richard, and Johnny Abbe.

I was reading a series of articles about humor in the Relief Society Magazine and that’s where I came across the Abbe children. Three kids who wrote massively popular books about their lives back in the Thirties. Of course I had to see this for myself. I read fifty or so pages and enjoyed them but it’s remarkable from the vantage point we call 2025 that these books were as massive as they were. They are charmingly written (allegedly, Patience was the main architect; check out this anecdote of her at 21 with Bette Davis) and a marvelous snapshot and clearly observed, but still. Their tour through Nazi Germany write before everything goes to hell is enlightening. But the little observations about trains and winter and hobos and hotel rooms and the mails are even better. If I owned these, I would certainly finish them. Eventually. I think NYRB or Dover or someone should republish them and aim them at today’s kids.

✤ ✤ ✤

Too Much College; or, Education Eating Up Life, with Kindred Essays in Education and Humour by Stephen Leacock

This was another book I found on the recommendation of the Relief Society. I appreciated this most as proof that people make the same complaints today that they always have about kids and their inferior-to-ours education. It could have been more tightly written. I think I would enjoy Leacock much more if someone would put together a collection of his work that still works well today. But I should mention that I had similar feelings about Benchley when I got him from the library. Now that I have my own copy of his work that I’m working through at a more leisurely pace, I like him all the more. Perhaps the same would be true of Leacock. Though, to be honest, I’m unsure simply because his essays are so much longer. When Benchley has a dud, at least it’ll be over in a hundred-fifty words.

✤ ✤ ✤

Movies Are Prayers: How Films Voice Our Deepest Longings by Josh Larsen

I was unable to renew this one after a mere three weeks which is a bummer because I was into it. I made it through the first couple kinds of prayers and fully intended to finish the book when I discovered it was a day late and unrenewable. And since it was sent over from another library system, the fines accumulate much too quickly to hold onto. I discovered Josh Larsen through his podcast which was recently recommended to me by a KQED friend. Although I sure note that in their last two episodes they’ve fallen short on their understanding of both The Phoenician Scheme and Materialists.

✤ ✤ ✤

Shakespeare's Tragic Art by Rhodri Lewis

As with many of the books here, it was foolish of me to pick it up during May 2025, one of the busiest months of my life. I was being pulled so many directions. With this one, I read a bit of the introduction, most of the first chapter, and then read analysis of some of the more recent plays I’ve read—Julius Caesar, Titus Andronicus, I forget whatall. Anyway, deep waters here. I enjoyed his analysis of the plays very much and would love to own the book so I could finish it sometime solely for those bits. His overall argument? No idea. Didn’t manage to fit that in during the brief moment I possessed the book.

✤ ✤ ✤

Tales of Glass Town, Angria, and Gondal by The Brontës

I’ve always wanted to dig into the Brontës’ childhood fantasy writings but like I dope I decided to pick it up at the absolute worst time. I barely even skimmed this. But that was enough to know I’m unlikely to ever really read this book. It’s fine stuff and interesting considering who wrote it and impressive considering their youth but, in the end, who cares? I don’t have a dissertation to write!

✤ ✤ ✤

Everything Must Go: The Stories We Tell About the End of the World by Dorian Lynskey

This is a bit different from the Shakespeare book above in that, while again I enjoyed the bits I did read, I’m not sure Lynskey has an overall point. Unless it’s that we’ve always told world’s-ending stories and that’s it. Still. I read the entire pandemic section (zombies inclusive) and chunks of the rest. If the topic interests you, you’ll have a fun time.

✤ ✤ ✤

Dangerous Fictions: The Fear of Fantasy and the Invention of Reality by Lyta Gold

I’ve already written an entire essay about what’s wrong with this book, but I wrote it when I was still convinced I’d read the entire thing. But I read maybe two or three more pages and that was it. I’m intrigued by the topic and by Gold’s argument, but her rhetoric is a mess. To give just one example, she talks about how people try to cancel authors but they only try to cancel women authors or authors belonging to a minority group. But you can’t cancel authors because good work will rise to the top. But books by canceled women and minorities never get seen so they are canceled. But the famous and powerful cannot be canceled no matter what people say online. But we’re totally going to cancel J.K. Rowling because she has it coming. And so on. I really wanted to like this book and I largely agree with everything she says. But there’s so much, for lack of a better term, performative wokeness, that it eventually becomes unreadable. Unless you’re the sort of person who likes to give your friends a high-five every time you hear a liberal catchphrase. It was maddening. Anyway, if anyone wants to read that unpublished essay, let me know and I’ll post it.

✤ ✤ ✤

Happily: A Personal History, with Fairy Tales by Sabrina Orah Mark

Happily is excellent. A white Jewish American mother raising two black Jewish American boys. A memoir filtered through the language and emotion of fairy tales. It’s terrific. The sort of book I would keep on my nightstand and work my way through over three years. But, alas, that is not how libraries work. This is the only library book on this list I’m still holding on to but I know perfectly well I’ll not be finishing it.

✤ ✤ ✤

The Cat Who Saved Books by Sosuke Natsukawa (translated by Louise Heal Kawai)

This had a really cool cover and a fun magical-realism premise and . . . is terrible. This is the only book today that I own and that makes no difference. I am not finishing it. It’s possible some of the fault is Kawai’s but the novel itself just makes me feel stupider as I read it. It’s like someone fed a bunch of American YA fiction and the summaries of Miyazaki movies into an LLM and voila. Perhaps if you’re still under the age of fourteen it might work for you.

It’s ironic to end on a book in which a boy and a talking cat go on missions to rescue disrespected books but hey. That’s the reading life.

This is a bad use of tithing

 

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Right now, if you make an event on a calnedar hosted by churchofjesuschrist.org, and you click the "public event" box (meaning people can see the event without logging in as a church member), and then you start typing a description, a troubling thing pops up on your screen:

I have so many issues with AI and each of them is amplified when placed in a church setting.

First, no matter where you stand on AI, except for people who imagine they can make money from it, the average person fumbles along in this direction:

(Incidentally, I found that observation via Anne Lutz Fernandez's solid three-parter on why AI should keep out of schools to which I amen loudly and with enthusiasm.)

But hey, you ask a large-language model something and it gives you what sounds like a reasonable answer and that's really neat! But if you stick with them long enough, one of two things will happen. You will either grow skeptical of AI's ability to give you anything worth having. Or you will lose the ability to recognize when such skepticism is warranted. Which makes sense. A"I"-generated writing has only two uses that I can see: To do things that shouldn't be bothered with anyway. To embrace laziness.

I have a friend who works for OpenAI and he was suggesting that AI would be terrific for teachers, a huge time saver. To which I can only answer, how? I suppose I could make it do things for me but to what end? I honestly cannot think of a single use case that wouldn't damage my credibility, my relationship with my students, the quality of the work i assign, the quality of work I receive back, and/or the quality of the grading. The only way AI could do any of those things as well as I can do them is if I'm already not doing them well. Yes, LLMs can do rote crap fine if you don't care much about the outputs, but if a teacher is teaching students to provide rote crap that does not require much attention to grade, I would propose that that sounds like a crappy education.

Anyway, AI companies are desperately looking for ways to make money and school districts are suckers who delight in wasting money on magical fixes, so I'm sure I'll be getting access to free crap soon enough. People who don't teach always know how to make our jobs better. (My district went over $40,000,000 overbudget on consultants last year. That's fun. And exactly why they'll be excited to pay for AI. Why not pay less for crappy work that never needed to be done?)

Speaking of, it's worth mentioning that these companies are far from profitable as of today. For instnace, OpenAI, which is doing better than most, loses $2.50 for every $1 it makes. That's overall, but they're even losing money on their highest-priced corporate accounts. The new version of their question-answering bot? The one they say that is a huge leap forward and will blow our minds and that they haven't let any reporters check out yet? The cost in computing and energy for every single answer it produces is $10,000.

$10,000.

No matter how good those answers are, I don't see anyone paying OpenAI $10,001 per answer so they can turn a profit. Do you?

Anyway, I was borderline rude in my outrage a couple months ago during stake council. I'd volunteered to choose some pullquotes from the recent stake conference for use in the stake's social media. Somebody said I could just have an AI do this and I was shocked at the suggestion. How hard is it to read some talks and pull out some choice quotes? How could an LLM do that better than I can? And once it gave me quotes, unless I'm grossly irresponsible, I would have to check they were even in the talk! And if I'm the least bit concerned with doing a good job, I would either have to get it to give me multiple options to choose from (each of which I'd have to check) or compare it against the talk myself. How does an LLM save me any time here? How?

It only saves me time if I don't care about doing a good job. What I said at the time was something like, "If it's worth doing, it's worth doing," and I stand my that. (Although my tone of voice should probably be rescinded.) Even granting that this kind of task is very much in my, Theric's, wordsmith roundhouse, it's not a hard task. So if it's worth doing, I should do it. Even if I let an AI take a crack, if it's worth doing, I'll still have to do it.

And that gets to why I'm so distressed that the Church is apparently paying for AI services. This is church. How can we rely on the Spirit if we're relying on an artificial intelligence?

The best argument I can come up with here is some people are intimidated by writing; it's hard for them. And an AI-written calendar item lets them succeed at their calling.

It's an argument. But is it a good one?

Besides, giving tithing money to companies that plagiarize and pollute while we believe in honesty and environmental stewardship is troubling.

(Incidentally, if you want something in-depth about the waste and nonsense that is the modern AI business, check out this newsletter.)

I appreciate that the Church isn't trapped in a moribund past, but while this always upsets me—

—in a living faith, it also depresses me.

Are we shoving God into the machine?

Get Educated

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I started off the month right, slipping those two movies into a narrow window of time I had available to me. Sadly, it meant I had to leave during the credits of both (I wanted to honor the craftmen of Ochi and enjoy more Sinners music, but regardless: I like credits.)

UPDATE: I apparently missed a post-credits scene in Sinners. Boo.

Also worth mentioning: this is the month I begin my Writing About Film class. So some curated goodies in here. That probably I'll say nothing about because I'm all talked out.

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THEATER
Cinemark Century Hilltop 16

The Legend of Ochi (2025)

I really liked this movie even though it has a bunch of flaws of the type I associate with "family" movies. But the creatures are so cool and the actors are good and the scenery is incredible and the beats are so familiar that who even cares about the flaws? We're having a freaking blast. So who cares if Finn Wolfhard's character is an afterthought and Emily Watson looks like a hobbit?

This is the sort of movie that would have terrified me as a kid while all the other kids loved it and couldn't believed I hadn't seen it yet. Related, I wanted to take the 8yrold but I had a chance now, it was the only showing all day, and I was the only one in the theater. I'll betcha this was my only chance.

Plus, she's like me. I'm not sure I'm a good dad if I make her sit through the scary/gross parts.

Incidentally, some of the aesthetics are less 80s-kid-movie and more Willy Wonka vs Wes Anderson. But my favorite stuff is the outdoors stuff.

THEATER
Cinemark Century Hilltop 16

Sinners (2025)

I loved this movie. It's so well written and beautifully paced. It takes its time to build out the place and the people so when the vampires finally show up, the stakes are real. I suppose there are a couple possible inconsistencies in terms of how the vampires work, but the innovative aspects are terrific. These are new and interesting vampires, yall.

But more than that, the twins are terrific creations, the epilogues definitely add to the story. Hailee Steinberg is great in her first true adult role (that I've seen). The music is awesome. The details are consistently evocative and true. Everything about this movie feels honest. Even though it's a vampire movie, a pure piece of popular entertainment.

I haven't enjoyed a movie this much in a while. If you still have a chance, try and see it with a packed house. I'll wish I was with you.

And don't walk out during the closing credits. The music's too good.

ELSEWHERE
our dvd

Mean Girls (2004)

The parallels to Julius Caesar are more and more the more you look (here's someone to start you off). I'm trying to turn it into a writing assignment this time.

What I'm thinking about now though it how so much the movie is told through Cady's point of view. The animals, the hit-by-bus moments. Much of what occurs in the film is entirely filtered through her memory, as emphasized by the occasional narration. Which raises questions about how much of the film is in her p-o-v. When the camera suddenly tilts as she confesses to Aaron, is that Cady? When we see moments where she is not present, is that her recreations or are the some additional source of narrative besides her own mind?

It'll probably be years before I watch it again, but I hope I think of these questions before hitting play.

HOME
friend's dvd

Jiro Dreams of Sushi (2011)

I remember when this movie came out. It appeared at the Albany Twin (rip) and played forever, like a Woody Allen movie. (Ah, those were the days.)

Anyway, only finally getting around to seeing it now. It's everything I assumed: the tale of a great craftsman, excellently staged visuals of food. But it's hard to watch without thinking about all the unintended consequences. Luckily we decided to watch it on our friend's dvd rather than Kanopy because there's about as much footage in the film once again, including expansive discussions filling in some of the gaps about training and overfishing and the various masters (tuna, rice) Jiro works with. I've watched about half that extra footage and intend to watch the other half.

As someone who has never been impressed by sushi (admittedly, I've never had Jiro-level sushi) I'm not persuaded to spend real money to see if I can come around, but I did enjoy seeing someone with true passion excel at a true craft.

We need more stories like that. I'm not sure we remember excellence is possible

ELSEWHERE
our dvd

Do the Right Thing (1989)

It's that wonderful time of the year where I teach film. This is the first feature for the earlier class. And it's a terrific way to start because it is provocative thematically and aesthetically. And, darn it, provocation is exactly what we need.

(And yes, I do skip a certain 90 seconds.)

ELSEWHERE
our dvd

It's a Wonderful Life (1946)

It's always great to introduce students to the new favorite thing. Whether it's a book or a movie, to see someone actively take something into their heart and make it their own—it's just beautiful.

It's also great to watch someone dismiss something as an old thing they suffered through as a kid only to discover a new version of themselves through a revisitation.

I like both those.

THEATER
Cinemark Century Hilltop 16

Thunderbolts* (2025)

I liked this movie more than any Marvel movie since at least Captain Marvel six years ago. Spoilers, many irritatingly vague, from here on out.

I'm so glad that they didn't kill the supervillain. And although it wasn't that deep, I'm glad they explored the issues with him that they did. And I like where it seems to be headed.

Geraldine Viswanathan looked so different than she did in Drive-Away Dolls, but her facial expressions are unmistakable.

I hadn't read a lot about the movie before going in, but I did hear that most of the cast was great and Julia Louis-Dreyfus was lazy and bad. I'm not sure was people mean. The cast did range from good to great, but Julia Louis-Dreyfus got almost nothing to work with. I wonder if people just wanted something amazing from her. I'm not sure we can blame this on her.

I'm intrigued by competing Avengers teams. I have low expectations, but the ceiling's high here.

I really want to know if Bucky's still in Congress. It doesn't see like it but I think it's strange if he is not. I mean—Congree and Avenger are both big jobs and I don't know how you do both, but these are the movies, man.

I wish Marvel luck at maintaining their mojo.

ELSEWHERE
our dvd

Rushmore (1995)

Gen Z strikes again! Our conversation about this movie ended up being almost half about Max trying to kiss Miss Cross and thus the need to cancel him and doubt any personal growth he may yet experience in life. When I called this out they denied that's what they were doing, but I wonder.

I've always done Rushmore because I think it's maybe the best Wes Anderson movie to see first. But I wonder. It's been almost thirty years since it drops which means we've had two generations of filmmakers who have been, to a greater or lesser extent, whether delightedly or through deliberate rejection, Wesified.

In other words, I wonder if I would be better off picking one of his later films. Moonrise Kingdom is still accessible but much more stylized. Asteroid City is superweird but something I would show in school. But . . . the more stylized they get, the harder they are to get (especially for a rookie audience) on just one viewing.

ELSEWHERE
Hoopla

Clueless (1995)

I think I'm taking this off the list. The problem is that it's playing with same set of tools that students are used to movies using. It's an older and nicer Mean Girls. My accompanying readings are more conceptual thanfilmmakery which doesn't help. That was intentional because even young women tend to assume things about young women are de facto less important. But if I want movies about high-school girls it's easier to talk about them AS A FILM if I'm choosing Heathers or Lady Bird because the filmmaking itself is less obviously pure–pop culture and sometimes even flashy. So that's the way to go.

THEATER
our dvd
littlehill theater

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2001)

We have a state-of-the-art theater at the high school; professional ballet troupes have used it, for instance. But the movie screen, given the setting, is comically small. Still way bigger than anything I can do in my classroom but it feels smaller than it is. Anyway, I could only get the theater for two days and so one class is doing this film and another 2001. (The top choice was very clear in both votes.

But if I get the theater back, Crouching Tiger will not be back. Apparently the fire code doesn't allow all the lights to be off during the school day with students inside and so . . . it was not as dark as one might like. And, therefore, the night scenes, expecially the fight scenes, were nearly impossible to read. Which was upsetting, to be sure.

THEATER
our dvd
littlehill theater

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Always nervous showing this to students and even thought there are (and will be) some who hate it, overall everyone had a real experience and for many that experience was excellent.

The nature of the school day forced us to split the viewing in half but it sounds like that might be a net positive. Day one they're bored and confused but day two they come in knowing what to expect.

Even though I don't embrase all of Kubrick's catalogue, I do love this movie.

HOME
Wikipedia

The Ten Commandments (1923)

This is a really cool and pretty dumb and very silly movie. Although it dragged, I loved the Mosaic prologue. (Yes! In DeMille's first version, Moses is only the prologue!) The sets and effects were very cool. The use of color was fun. It was great.

Then it transitions to the modern melodrama that took up the bulk of the runtime. It's, um, very obvious. The bad guys say things like

Clearly, this man is a sinner.

Anyway, can we talk about those cool letterforms? This has all my favorites except capital W, but just imagine that lower-case w could be even cooler and you'll get the idea.

Anyway, this is the sort of movie that allows you to tut-tut the wicked while simultaneously getting to see the wicked's beautiful flesh. Isn't that just how the wicked are, showing off their beautiful flesh. How horrible that we get to see it in all its sexy glory. Tut tut.

I also learned from this movie that most lepers are beautiful women with excellent hair and that it's easy to get psychosomatic leprosy if you develop a conscience.

Also, using crappy cement when building nineteen-story cathedrals will bring the wrath of God upon in the form of your mom dying.

Oh, that's another thing. It's bad to be a sinner but it's also bad to have sourpuss piety. Don't do that either.

In short, this is a ridiculous movie and more often dumb than not. But hugely entertaining. No wonder it was a huge hit.

ELSEWHERE
our dvd

Bambi (1942)

Who knows how many times I've seen this movie now. That I adore showing it to high-school seniors means I'm piling on the views, but the film is so strange and beautiful there is always more to discover.

This time I discovered something not new to me per se, but I discovered how large an elements of the film it actually is. I didn't start thinking about it on minute one so perhaps I missed something, but there is zero foley work in this movie. Or, rather, all the foley is performed by the orchestra. Besides vocalizations, the only other sounds are made my instruments. And it's so truthful to this film that it took me this long to realize that it is exclusively so. Amazing.

ELSEWHERE
our dvd

Duck Soup (1933)

Is there any greater pleasure than listening to teenagers laughing at (with) something older than their grandparents?

THEATER
Cinemark Century Hilltop 16

Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning (2025)

Just checked and I basically made this joke at the last one, but I have to wonder if this film set a new record for number of macguffins.

Lady Steed and I disagree as to which of these films has the worst technobabble (I say the previous one) and Luther is essentially a Marvel-movie genius and almost any piece of these story falls apart if you look at it too long, etc etc, but I loved it. It's exciting and fun and it let us know what happened to a fellow we've been worried about for thirty years.

I know they advertized this like it's the last one but I'm curious what the betting markets have to say about that.

HOME
Disney+

Anastasia (1997)

It's pretty clear that my memories of watching Anastasia in the theater and confused with my memories of watching Ferngully in the theater. Although the memory still has inaccuracies built into it as I remember watching it three years before either of them arrived. So much for my credibility on the witness stand.

From a visual perspective, it's interesting how it's employing some digital techniques much as Beauty and the Beast or Aladdin did, but it's also quite obviously rotoscoped. It's a mix of animation styles from perhaps a fifty-year period.

My memory is that Rasputin was scarier than he needed to me and that was about it. I did not remember that we knew Anastasia was Anastasia all along, for instance. I am happy, however, that this revisiting led to me liking the movie much more, as opposed to my recent viewing of The Secret of NIMH, which didn't really lead to a happier experience. Which isn't a claim that Anastasia is some kind of masterwork—I have my complaints—just that it was much better than my memories (lousy as they are) suggested.

HOME
library dvd

Instant Family (2018)

Because of the film unit, a student who watched this film got excited about a scene transition and recommended the movie to me based on that cut. It was certainly the most interesting cut in the movie but of itself, perhaps not enough to watch the movie.

Luckily, the movie was good. This sort of family drama isn't a usual part of my film diet and it was nice to watch one for a change. It's good to see people be good, to grow together, to earn a happy ending.

ELSEWHERE
our dvd

It's Such a Beautiful Day (2012)

Almost no laughs this time.

Concluding in stunned silence.

All reactions appropriate, thank you.

ELSEWHERE
YouTube

Sherlock, Jr. (1924)

Do to me being dumb, I failed to play the ragtimey soundtrack and we had absolute silence. It won them over eventually but we had more complaining upfront.

THEATER
Premier Theater at One Letterman

The Phoenician Scheme (2025)

Our neighbor invited us to this early showing which was followed by her interviewing Roman Coppola, Wes Anderson's longtime writing partner. Obviously we were planning to see this in theaters when it arrived (and will again regardless), but pretty fun to see it early and get some dirt on the side. But in some ways the real thrill was being inside Lucasfilm's theater. When people spoke without a microphone it was almost as if they weren't speaking at all. Their voice was perfectly clear but with zero echo which made it feel disappearingly small. I touched the walls on the way out and whatever that funky fabric they carpeted them in really works.

This was the biggest screen I've ever seen Wes Anderson on and that was lovely as well. I did feel slightly stressed, trying to read all the text I feared i would never get to read again.

The sound thing makes me hopeful that one element of my experience was simply wrong: It felt like, once again, Lady Steed and i were the only people laughing in the theater. Gosh I hope that was not so. Surely this crowd gets it!

Anyway, I don't want to spoil anything. I will say the structure is straightforward compared to the delicious madness of French Dispatch or Asteroid City. Michael Cera fits in well. Benedict Cumberbatch's hair (by which I mean beard and brow) is insane. The production design is perfect as always. Those are the actual paintings you see on the walls. And while I already cannot remember whether the scheme worked or not, the film has a happy ending. Not one I saw coming but one I was glad to experience.

I'll see you in a lesser theater two weeks from now.

ELSEWHERE
our dvd

Casablanca (1942)

I was really locked in on Ilsa this time. Totally changed when I cried and how I cried.

ELSEWHERE
SOURCERY

Get Out (2017)

I have to make this an option every year. Not just because everyone loves it and because it's a blast to watch in a rool full of friends, but because once you start looking, the film is PACKED with new stuff to see. Everytime there's something new. Did you know the gazebo Rose walkes Chris to is black with a white cupola? I didn't until a student noticed and pointed it out.