Category Archives: Recommending

Netflix: Rumble Fish

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Wow, I think it’s been 20 years since I’ve seen this movie. Sometimes you just need a little Matt Dillon in your day.

It’s beautifully filmed in B&W with lots of cool shots of clouds and reflections and the coloring-in effect of the fish is really before its time, isn’t it. Although technically an 80s flick, it feels like a 50s/70s combination given the sock-hop feel of the stylin’ combined with the general 70s vibe, particularly Laurence Fishburne’s look. The fight scenes are very coolly choreographed. Diane Lane was just as gorgeous then, was she not? Same year, same director, same author, and some of the same co-stars (Lane, Tom Waits) as “The Outsiders” but totally different feel. As with many movies from back in the day, lots and lots of people you don’t realize are in this just popping out of the woodwork.

Other Matt Dillon recommendations: “Mr. Wonderful” (so cheesy but one of my favorite movies EVER!), “Singles” (!!), “Drugstore Cowboy,” “In & Out.” (And he is quite powerful in “Crash” but I’m hesitant to recommend it as people are always yelling at me about how wrong I am and much they hate that movie.)

Not recommended: “You, Me and Dupree,” which I randomly caught on cable last night while pin-basteing (and then BREAKING my quilt frame, but that’s a-whole-nother story). One of those “wow, I can’t believe these actors are in this horrific movie” experiences.

Fiction: “Pippa Passes” by Rumer Godden

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Un petit roman about a young ballerina who goes to Venice and blossoms. Sweet and light. But pretty inconsequential.

If you are interested in reading Rumer Godden, an author of some renown although you don’t hear much about her these days, I highly (HIGHLY!!) recommend instead both “In This House of Brede” and “China Court” both of which are easy to obtain, in my experience, at any decent-sized used bookstore.

I’ve told you this before, but FYI the author is the namesake of Bruce & Demi’s child.

Fiction: “The Yiddish Policemen’s Union” by Michael Chabon

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One of those detective stories where the detective is such a slack-ass drunken messed-up dude that you spend half the time worrying about him rather than the mystery (think John Rebus/Ian Rankin).

Takes place in an alternate US where the Jewish refugees from WWII were all settled in Alaska but the district is about to revert to Alaskan control and they will be homeless.

There’s rabbi-led Jewish mobsters, chess games, long-standing friendships and broken-up relationships, and bad fathers, and unhappy sons. It’s a detective novel with a philosophical treatise buried in the heart of it. Once I got past the first chapter, I really couldn’t put it down.

If you loved The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (and how could you not? That’s a GREAT book!), you will surely find this book wonderful as well.

Music/Memoir: “Love Is a Mix Tape” by Rob Sheffield

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This book sounded so much up my alley that I was wary of it at first. Then I read this review and I KNEW I didn’t have to worry about being disappointed.

An elegy to his dead wife. An elegy to the music they discovered and loved together. A tribute to so many bands, some disbanded, some moved on. A foundation for his future. A hopeful look ahead.

The writing is lovely, the music discussions are wonderful. I’m now obsessed with checking out bands I never listened to at the time (Big Star, Pavement), and revisiting ones I did listen to but haven’t in ages. I’m replaying mix tapes from high school and college and thinking about old friends and breakup songs and drinking songs and roadtrip songs….

I loved it. LOVED it.

This joins “High Fidelity” by Nick Hornby and “The Wishbones” by Tom Perrotta as my favorite music books.

In Concert: The Decemberists

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Fifth concert in seven days, I was super tired by the time this one rolled around, so made sure we got there early enough to get seats. But then the Decemberists started and I forgot all about my tiredness, and the sonic assault I’d just been through, and the travails of the week. They were Tony the Tiger great. Great! SO GREAT!!!

Amazing stage presence, every song sounded gorgeous, some better than what’s on the albums. Consummate musicians, clearly good friends. The right amount of serious versus goofy. Great lyrics, great atmosphere. I am officially in love with Colin Meloy if I wasn’t already.

One of the best shows of the year. And they’re playing a free show in Chicago July 18 if you’d like to crash at my place.

RIP Kurt Vonnegut.

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His appearance on Jon Stewart last year was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen and fortunately for us, you can watch it on the web. In addition, here’s the list they refer to in that interview.

He never lost his edge. He never stopped saying the same simple message over and over: War = Wrong.

Can you claim to be well-read if you skipped “Slaughterhouse Five”? I think not!

Who knows if this is accurate, but on Wikkipedia, they cite his own grading of his books, and here are the four he graded highest: “The Sirens of Titan”; “Mother Night”; “God Bless You, Mr Rosewater”; and “Jailbird”.

Stories: “Black Juice” by Margo Lanagan.

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Short stories by an Aussie but sent to me by Marrije since I couldn’t find it when I went to Oz.

Some of the most unusual stories I’ve ever read; one is first-person narrative from the viewpoint of an elephant! All take place in one of those “kinda middle ages/or medieval” fantasy worlds but seem more real than sci fi/fantasy. Reminded me a little of Aimee Bender and how her stories can seem perfectly normal with one random fantastical element (the dude’s head is an iron! or, her potatoes grow into babies!).

Really loved these.