culture consumed (August & September, 2021)

[hermionesviolin]

August

books

• 5 picturebooks
• Pole Dancing To Gospel Hymns by Andrea Gibson [(spoken word) poetry]
• [Newton SFF book club] Babel-17/Empire Star by Samuel R. Delany

live theatre

• [Youthquake] The Tempest -- outdoors, only a little over an hour long but I didn't feel like anything was missing

movies

• [fannish movie night] F9 -- "F9 (Fast and Furious 9)! Cars... in space?" <-- That's how D. billed it to the movie night crew, and it's kind of a misnomer, since it takes like 3/4 of the movie until we get to space and it's not even the most interesting thing that happens?  But it does maybe stand in for just how Extra the movie is.  Secret Family Members! Faked Their Own Death! Magnets!  I'm not kidding -- this movie leans in hard with the magnets, and the ridiculousness is really delightful.
  There's some lampshading, but there's also technobabble and plot-physics.The movie starts out slow, but there's an extended section that is super-delightful.  And Charlize Theron is gr9 (her haircut is unfortunate, but she still manages to look amazing).  Also, Helen Mirren is back -- and learning that she's in this franchise is maybe what got my partner to wanna watch it? 😂

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September

books

• [work book club] Sharks in the Time of Saviors by Kawai Strong Washburn
  
  The author recommends this review.  Excerpt:

  In this way, Sharks blooms into a tale about colonialism’s rippling effects and the pains of diaspora. When Washburn’s characters return to the beaches and valleys they left behind, they encounter reminders of a time when Native Hawaiians lived cooperatively and self-sufficiently on their land—before white settlers stole everything, before the plantations closed, before there were any plantations at all. In a vision, Nainoa sees “Waipi’o Valley, its rivers, then lo’i paddies of kalo stalks growing plump and green, swarming the valley bottom, and there my family is among it all, with many families…” Washburn contrasts this history of collectivism with the Western mandate of individualism that infects Americans today, many islanders included. As the kids’ mother, Malia, describes, that mandate was a catastrophic development. “[Ships] from far ports carried a new god in their bellies,” she reflects, “a god who blew a breath of weeping blisters and fevers that torched whole generations, a god whose fingers were shaped like rifles and voice sounded like treaties waiting to be broken.”

  Nimbly rotating between Nainoa’s, Kaui’s, Dean’s, and Malia’s stories, Washburn intertwines their perspectives like the strands of an intricate lei. In this way, he wraps us up in their personal struggles to figure out if they have what it takes to set themselves apart—from their family, from their underprivileged home, from their widely misunderstood ancestry. But right when you find yourself rooting for them the hardest, Washburn unravels what they’ve built, reminding us that setting oneself apart is inherently a selfish pursuit. At the end of Sharks, Washburn leaves readers to wonder if the Western values we bring to the reading experience—for example, an investment in personal growth and achievement, which the bildungsroman has taught us to expect—lead us to misunderstand who the protagonist has been the whole time. Through a subtle bait and switch and a fantastical portrayal of Native Hawaiian culture’s communal spirit, Washburn gracefully pushes us to rethink our understanding of what makes a character meaningful to a story. In doing so, he rethinks storytelling altogether. Ultimately, you may also ask yourself if you’ve misunderstood your own narrative all along—and if you’ve had the audacity to think you’re the savior when really you’re one small part of a much larger and longer story.

• [Bi+ book club] Outlawed by Anna North -- though our protagonist is a cis het woman (she spends much of the book in a community of folks of various genders and sexualities)
• [novella] Remote Control by Nnedi Okorafor (apparently in the same universe as all her other SFF)
• 4 picturebooks about kids with incarcerated parents
• 3 additional picturebooks (and one more that was read to me on a virtual reading/Q&A)
• The Joy of Being Selfish: Why You Need Boundaries and How to Set Them by Michelle Elman -- recommended by my friend Holly
• Trans-Forming Proclamation: A Transgender Theology of Daring Existence by Liam M. Hooper -- Thom likened this book's writing style to Untie the Strong Woman: Blessed Mother's Immaculate Love for the Wild Soul by Clarissa Pinkola Estés (author of the 1996 classic Women Who Run With the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype), which makes me not want to read anything by that author
  

live music

• Hornography at Belmont Porchfest

movies

• [fannish movie night] The LEGO Batman Movie

tv

• Ted Lasso S2E9 "Beard After Hours"

  Thom live-blogged her experience of first watching this:

OMG, this episode of Ted Lasso is painful. I have no idea how this is going to shake out, but I'm super uncomfortable. sigh

~

God, this so weird. But also…

Beard: “I mean, there’s someone in my life now and I just want to be with her all the time. Is that love? Or do I just have a problem?”

Mystery Woman He Met at a Swank Club: “Why can’t it be both?”

~

I’m finishing my episode of Ted Lasso and it’s really fucking weird.

~

Beard, in a church at the end of a really weird night: “Are you there, God? It’s Margo’s little boy. Long time listener, first time caller. And you’re probably not even listening, because you’ve got bigger fish to multiply…and then fry.”

~

Okay, going to brush my teeth and head to bed. It feels wrong to say this is my favorite episode of Ted Lasso because it’s not even an episode of Ted Lasso. It’s like a random romp through weird shit in London feature a handful of bit characters from the series. And the feel of the episode is completely different. And I kind of loved it.

I’m mildly tempted to show it to you, because it is an almost stand-alone piece of artistry. Like, I could give you all the background you need to understand it in like 2 minutes. And it’s just very wow.

Hence, us watching it on a date night.