The Bold Squirrel Gets the Whole Donut

[kikiteka]

And just for complete transparency, I’m 100% #teamcharles.  Not hating on Josh, but I mean...those eyes...

Plus he’s like, a giant.  Like NBA level tall.

[kikiteka]

TV recommendation: Younger

This summer I discovered the tv land show Younger, and I’m so glad I did. 

The premise: Forty year old housewife Liza Miller has a daughter in college and an unfaithful ex-husband with a gambling problem. Needing to return to work after a fifteen year absence is not easy, particularly in her former field of publishing. She is willing to start at entry level, but her age causes potential employers to balk. One night out with her friend, she is mistaken for being in her twenties. Her friend suggests she use her youthful appearance to her advantage, and pretend to be a twenty-something millennial rather than a forty year old gen x'er to get a job. She does, it works, hi jinks ensue as she tries to evade getting caught. 

 It’s perfect summer tv. It hits the crazy addictive sweet spot of say, a kdrama, with the buzzy, racy humor of Sex and the City (same producer). It has fun with generation gap humor, literary jokes about publishing, and a ton of parodies of famous authors.

I’m known for never rewatching anything, even my favorite tv shows. This show has been the exception. I just enjoy it so much that I watch each episode at least twice. Much has been made of this season (their fourth) being their highest rated. I think in uncertain, anxious times, people respond to escapism in entertainment, and this show is the perfect escape.

Seasons 1-3 available on Hulu.  

Season 4 currently airing and available on demand if you have TV Land, or through Amazon or iTunes.

[kikiteka]

Now I have to go see IT

I just found out Chung-hoo Chung was the Director of Photography for IT.  You know Chung-hoo Chung.  He’s why everyone things Park Chan-wook is a genius.

[kikiteka]

I Stand Corrected

A couple of months ago I said the Beast in Beauty and the Beast had to be somewhat attractive because if he came crawling out from under the bed like Gregor Samsa Belle would never fall for him no matter how charming he is. Well. Based on this trailer it would seem Guillermo del Toro thinks I'm talking out of my ass. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFYWazblaUA&feature=share I stand corrected Guillermo!

[humansofnewyork]

“There are always two little beautiful humans looking at me like I’m the most important thing in the world. They copy everything I do, especially my son. I’m very careful how I treat my wife because I know that’s how he’ll learn to treat women. I call my wife pet names, and my son started calling his sister those same names. Recently I picked flowers for my wife. And the next day he picked flowers for his sister.” (Moscow, Russia)

[kikiteka]

This is very sweet. Even though, my father was always respectful of my mother, and it didn't stop my brother from practicing WWF moves on me

[kikiteka]

Movies about Books

In honor of book lovers day I give you a top ten list of movies about books, because I have to be contradictory.

Movies about Readers

84 Charing Cross Road (This movie captures the charming feeling of the book, which was a collection of letters over the years between a New York tv writer and London bookseller.  You can’t go wrong with Anne Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins.)

Julie and Julia (part biopic, part romcom, part food movie)

Dead Poet’s Society (Drama with a capital D.  Oh Captain, My Captain)

The Never-ending Story (Atreyu!  Activating childhood dreams of owning a big fluffy dragon)

Misery (Making “I’m your number one fan” something no one can ever say.)

Movies about Writers

Deconstructing Harry (When your fictional characters attack)

Stranger Than Fiction (My favorite.  Quirky, odd, funny, thoughtful.  Probably inspired by the next movie on the list.)

Adaptation (A Charlie Kaufman classic.  Who does Meta better than him?  No one.)

Capote (A movie about the writing of a genre defining book.  With special appearance by Harper Lee!)

Wonder Boys (Not actually my favorite on this list, but definitely about books, writers, writers block)

[kikiteka]

One of my favorite parts in the series I Love Dick, is when one male character accuses another of leading a woman on by dressing provocatively. It's suggested he must somehow want the attention, otherwise why else would he dress like a sexy cowboy. He objects strongly to this rationale.  Clever.

 I'm really enjoying this show and its very interesting take on art, desire, marriage, fantasy, consent and the female gaze. I'm really surprised it hasn't made a bigger splash on Tumblr. It's pretty racy, and very artsy, but I'd think Tumblr people would find it relatable in regard to fandom (and the ethics of fan fiction about real people.) Then again, it's really awkward to search the tag.

[kikiteka]

Viewing recommendations for Legion fans

I haven’t posted anything Legion related in awhile, but if you like Legion you might like:

The works of Wes Anderson

My faves are The Royal Tenenbaums and Moonrise Kingdom.

The works of David Lynch

My fave of his is the film Blue Velvet and the series Twin Peaks (original, I haven’t seen the newest yet).

The works of Chan Wook Park (or Park Chan Wook)

Warning: Chan Wook Park’s films can be EXTREMELY disturbing, but the cinematography is incredibly sumptuous.

The works of the Coen Brothers

My faves: Oh Brother Where Art Thou, Fargo 

[kikiteka]

I started watching the new Amazon show "I Love Dick", and it's funky and weird and artsy so I came to Tumblr to see if anyone was discussing it. I searched the name of the show. 

Don't do that.

[kikiteka]

This is happening right now

Mild cheddar if you’re wondering (and yes I was singing the song).

[kikiteka]

Shouldn't have watched and posted about The Handmaid's Tale so late last night. Ended up having nightmares that I was somehow trapped in Pyongyang and couldn't get out . 😕

[this-is-sar]

I made a rule for myself: I would not include anything that human beings had not already done in some other place or time, or for which the technology did not already exist. I did not wish to be accused of dark, twisted inventions, or of misrepresenting the human potential for deplorable behaviour. The group-activated hangings, the tearing apart of human beings, the clothing specific to castes and classes, the forced childbearing and the appropriation of the results, the children stolen by regimes and placed for upbringing with high-ranking officials, the forbidding of literacy, the denial of property rights: all had precedents, and many were to be found not in other cultures and religions, but within western society.“

Margaret Atwood on The Handmaid’s Tale in a 2012 interview  (via this-is-sar)

This is what makes the story so terrifying. There's nothing in it that hasn't actually happened before.

[kikiteka]

The Handmaid’s Tale and Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis

Much has been made about the current relevance of Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale, but as I was watching it I also couldn’t help but see similarities to scenes from Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. Persepolis is a graphic novel memoir about Satrapi’s family experience during the Iranian Revolution.  If you haven’t read it, you should.  

One of the reasons The Handmaid’s Tale is being praised is the way they show through flashbacks an entirely believable progression of events leading up to Gilead. I don’t recall Margaret Atwood giving a great deal of background to how Gilead came about in the novel, but a quick Google search turned up an interview with Atwood in the NYTimes at the time of the novel’s release, where she discussed being influenced by the rise of the Christian Right and...the Iranian revolution. I wonder if the writers of the show, knowing this, used books like Persepolis as a reference. Or if not Persepolis specifically, the Islamic revolution in general.  Here are a few sample pages from Persepolis where Marjane describes the very sudden switch to state mandated fundamentalism.  

Side Note: I don’t think it’s incongruous to support a woman who wants to wear the hijab, but feel a sense of injustice for the women in Satrapi’s family who didn’t wear it and were suddenly told they must.  It’s all about choice and respect.  Wear it if you want, don’t wear it if you want, but don’t tell other people what they can and cannot wear.  

[kikiteka]

Hey! Paul Ryan and I finally agree on something!

[sale-aholic-deactivated20190809]

Republicans are Hypocrites.

Republicans are corrupt.

Republicans are complicit.

[kikiteka]

Both amusing and painful.

[kikiteka]

Just saying