Prosaic Paradise

Between the snow, and the health issues, and just winter doldrums from hades, I have been doing a whole lot of consuming of media of late. I’ve been digging down into the Netflix sad, somewhat limited instant queue, I’ve been eschewing music for podcasts and audiobooks on my long commutes, and I’ve been ignoring the book club book for something more lighthearted.

First, Books.

Our assignment for February for Peril Book Club was to read Cuisines of the Axis of Evil. I decided to try for the first time to read a book on the Kindle app for the iPhone. While it wasn’t – bad exactly – a few things about it helped me not read the book. The obvious one is a lack of page number. It has some kind of numbering system but didn’t give me a clear idea of how far I was in the book. The other thing was the fact that it is simply too small a screen to be reading a damn book on. Other folks in book club complained about the right-hand margin justification and word spacing, but that didn’t bother me a bit. It just felt constrained.

That wasn’t the only reason I didn’t finish the book; I made several notes and bookmarks (one of the good features of the Kindle app) and one of them says “This is going to be one of those books that should have been a blog post or a series of blog posts, isn’t it?” Of course in order to account for that statement, I’d have to say exactly why I think there is a difference between something worth printing “on paper” or publishing as a book and something that you publish serially to the ether. Well, I don’t know if I can properly address that. I just felt the tone took informality further than I wanted for the subject matter. That’s actually a matter of taste, so let’s just say this wasn’t the book for me.

What I really felt like reading was something that would make me laugh out loud, something reliable and familiar… someone who’d never failed me. So I picked up Bill Bryson’s In a Sunburned Country. I never looked back, and have chortled and had to read sections to Jack aloud multiple times. I will be sad when the book is over. It helps that I already have a mild fascination with Australia, but it’s not absolutely necessary. Unfortunate side effects: every time I look at the cover, I get “In God’s Country” by U2 stuck in my head. I don’t even like U2.

In addition to this, on Audible I’ve been indulging in my interest in health care narrative with King of Hearts by G. Wayne Miller. This book is awesome, if you can stand that the story includes a lot of graphic descriptions and the many failures that led up to successful open heart surgery. I have to take it in chunks because there really is a good sense of drama conveyed by the author (and well, the events are pretty dramatic) and it’s intense. And I’m only about a third of the way through!

You might notice a lack of fiction in this list; I just haven’t found something fictional that seems good enough. I’m going to try The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo from Audible next and see if it’s as good as everyone says. I welcome recommendations.

Second, Magazines.

Yes, you read that right. Magazines!! I know they are a dying institution and all, though my friends’ collections of EW betray that concept. (I used to get them to give me those precious paper candies after they were done with them, but really, it sucks up to much of my time because I find every page interesting.) But I subscribed to one in self-defense. Jack’s kind sister gets us a subscription to a magazine called Believer for Christmas every year, which Jack enjoys. Unfortunately I don’t feel the same way about it. I hate its pretentious artiness and annoying cover art and articles about fans of Bret Easton Ellis (may he die in a fire). (Though I admit they had an article about the band Gentle Giant once and well, that was fine and good.)

So it was in self-defense that I signed up for a subscription to the Oxford American, which is a lit mag I used to pick up at Borders a decade ago based on the strength of my love for southern writers like Michael Malone. It has already paid off in that I discovered this author Barb Johnson, a former carpenter with a turn of phrase that sets my arm hairs on end. There’s something about the defensive posture that seems to pervade the construction of it. Like, the issue I am still working through right now proclaims on the cover, “Southern Literature is Never Dead” So: magazines and southern literature, not yet dead, still very much alive in my bathroom magazine rack.

Third, Podcasts.

I mentioned this on Twitter but it bears repeating: the Life Well Wasted podcast is a gem and worth listening to for anyone whose life was ever touched by video games. By the end of episode 3, “Why Game?” I was lamenting a little the lack of female voices, but he acknowledges it in that ep and makes up for it in the next. I was listening to the second ep while walking around downtown and it actually made me chuckle audibly several times, causing passers-by to give me strange looks. That’s entertainment!

Fourth, Movies.

Keeping with the nonfic theme, I had the documentary Bigger, Stronger, Faster in my queue for reasons I cannot recall or even imagine. I have never been a huge sports fan, never really cared about steroids controversies. I know about as much as anyone who grew up in the 80s. For some reason the trailer caught my eye, and I am glad it did. What a great film. The stories of the filmmaker and his brothers are told with wit and care. The way the science is presented, it’s sort of referred to in a “actually no studies support this” or “one study says that” kind of way. For instance, he posits that “roid rage” is just a myth – and believably. I had no idea. And yes, I spent the entire time waiting for the “All Steroid Olympics” skit to hit. But really, if you think you might be even a little interested in the topic, watch this. I loved it from beginning to end – the juxtaposition of performance-enhancing drugs for other endeavors vs. steroids in sports was particularly compelling.

On a whim, I also watched Chris Rock’s film Good Hair. Definitely an interesting film, though I had also read some compelling critiques of the movie. (EW, Feministing, WM) Yes, it has a 94% positive rating on rottentomatoes.com, but just how many reviewers captured there are black women? Whenever you leverage a criticism of a film that it doesn’t “go deep enough” it’s hard for me to envision just what “enough” means, but when you make a whole segment of your film implying that women are economic liabilities because of their hair expenditures, it’s kind of grossly obvious.

Finally, TV.

Stephen Fry on Craig Ferguson – the whole show, just them, talking, no audience – was sublime.

Grey’s Anatomy has been kind of having a renaissance. The flashback episode rocked my socks.

And that’s about enough for one girl. Maybe I should think about cleaning the house instead or something this weekend. Or going for walks. Of course, I can listen to stuff while walking…

Tags: books, movies

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