Culture consumed (etc)
Dec. 13th, 2018 01:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lizbeeWith the influx of new people, I'm seeing a lot of introductory posts on my reading page. Here's me:
The Night Manager
Recent-ish adaptation of the John le Carre novel, starring Tom Hiddleston, Hugh Laurie and Olivia Coleman. Among others.
This was a mixed bag for me -- the acting was good, the sets and locations were absolutely remarkable, but it didn't quite come together. Mostly because it all depended on the idea that Tom Hiddleston has this tremendous personal and sexual charisma that no one can resist. And, well, *footage not found*
Not that he's a bad actor -- he's really not -- but his character was a complete cipher (intentionally), and he just ... couldn't quite make it work. I wish we had six episodes of Olivia Coleman and Hugh Laurie facing off instead.
It felt like a very old fashioned story -- the women (save for Coleman, playing a genderflipped and pregnant character originally written as male) are sidelined, objectified, abused and fridged; the one queer character is promiscuous, jealous and petulant. It professed to be critical of English establishment figures who think they should control the world, but also glamorised them intensely, with an an unpleasant dash of nostalgia. It wasn't bad, but it could have been better.
Of particular note: Elizabeth Debicki as Laurie's girlfriend. She was radiant and magnificent, and I love her. Which is handy, because she was also in...
Widows
Billed as a heist movie, despite the heist itself taking up a very small amount of time in a very long movie. Despite that, I really enjoyed it: after the death of her career criminal husband, middle class Viola Davis teams up with the other widows of her husband's late gang to repay his debt to a local criminal turned aspiring politician.
Like I said, it was really much longer than it needed to be, with a handful of supporting characters whose scenes could easily have been cut. But I was there for Davis, her grief and rage, and her reluctant bond with her compatriots, played by Michelle Rodrigues and Elizabeth Debicki. (Who is, once again, fragile, angry and stronger than she seems.)
My flatmate and I are now watching season 2 of The Marvellous Mrs Maisel. Which...
I enjoy this show, and I was home alone the other night and found myself thinking, "But how do you even watch TV that's not Mrs Maisel?" Yet ... I see reviews from Jewish fans saying that its depiction of Judaism is off in subtle ways, and I don't have the context to recognise that for myself, so I'm constantly second guessing it. I do know that it's deeply frustrating as a period piece -- even in New York, I think characters would face more consequences and ostracism for all the F-bombs they drop in public. And at one point, Joel uses the phrase "just FYI". Like. Come on.
I've also read a ton of books in the last few months ... but most of them, I cannot talk about. I'm on the jury for the Aurealis Awards (children's fiction) this year, and one of the rules is that we not blog about entries. Suffice to say, I have a lot of thoughts and opinions about the current state of middle grade speculative fiction in Australia, and if there's a young reader in your life who needs a gift, I can probably make some suggestions (but not in any official capacity as a judge, I just have some feelings about what types of books would match up to what types of personalities).
But I've taken a break from Aurealis entries this week to read the new Benjamin January mystery. Or maybe it's the newest-but-one? Anyway, it's a nice change to read about revolution, murder and disease, even though I feel like the series has gotten a bit formulaic.
I've also been listening to some new podcasts!
I mean, they're new to me.
This Podcast Will Kill You combines a bunch of things I love: gnarly facts about diseases, the history of various diseases, and the cultural impacts of outbreaks and epidemics. It's just been picked up by the new podcasting network run by the women behind My Favorite Murder, and it's a good fit -- two women, talking about a subject they find interesting, and disease stuff is like true crime for your immune system. The Erins do far more research, though, which is fitting, since they're grad students aiming to work in the field.
(I am proud to say that, so far -- I just finished the second episode covering bubonic plague -- I've read nearly every single book they recommended as a good source for disease history. The only exception is the one they suggest about smallpox, on account of how dying of smallpox was one of my childhood fears.)
And The Greatest Generation is just two guys watching an episode of Star Trek, then chatting about it. They've covered all of TNG and are well into DS9, but I'm only partway through season one of TNG so far.
I don't listen to many podcasts with no women, but this one makes me laugh. Even though, a lot of the time, part of me is clutching my pearls and going, "That is problematic!" They have a lot of love for the franchise, but they haven't been in the fandom, so they sort of take episodes as they come, without (much) fannish hive mind influence.
(I just found out that they have a spin-off podcast about Discovery, and I was like, "But what if they hate it?" Then I saw a Reddit bro complaining that they're much too positive and affectionate towards it, while also giving it the mocking it frequently deserves. So I'm sold.)
- Liz
- Thirty-six years old
- Apparently that makes me part of the "Oregon Trail generation", except I had never heard of that game before the 2000s
- Active in online fandom since age 17
- Oh God, that's nearly 20 years
- I got an invite to my 20 year high school reunion last month
- I'm so old
- I used to have so much mercy
- Me thinking about other people: "Thirty-six is really young!"
- Thinking about myself: "SO OLD."
The Night Manager
Recent-ish adaptation of the John le Carre novel, starring Tom Hiddleston, Hugh Laurie and Olivia Coleman. Among others.
This was a mixed bag for me -- the acting was good, the sets and locations were absolutely remarkable, but it didn't quite come together. Mostly because it all depended on the idea that Tom Hiddleston has this tremendous personal and sexual charisma that no one can resist. And, well, *footage not found*
Not that he's a bad actor -- he's really not -- but his character was a complete cipher (intentionally), and he just ... couldn't quite make it work. I wish we had six episodes of Olivia Coleman and Hugh Laurie facing off instead.
It felt like a very old fashioned story -- the women (save for Coleman, playing a genderflipped and pregnant character originally written as male) are sidelined, objectified, abused and fridged; the one queer character is promiscuous, jealous and petulant. It professed to be critical of English establishment figures who think they should control the world, but also glamorised them intensely, with an an unpleasant dash of nostalgia. It wasn't bad, but it could have been better.
Of particular note: Elizabeth Debicki as Laurie's girlfriend. She was radiant and magnificent, and I love her. Which is handy, because she was also in...
Widows
Billed as a heist movie, despite the heist itself taking up a very small amount of time in a very long movie. Despite that, I really enjoyed it: after the death of her career criminal husband, middle class Viola Davis teams up with the other widows of her husband's late gang to repay his debt to a local criminal turned aspiring politician.
Like I said, it was really much longer than it needed to be, with a handful of supporting characters whose scenes could easily have been cut. But I was there for Davis, her grief and rage, and her reluctant bond with her compatriots, played by Michelle Rodrigues and Elizabeth Debicki. (Who is, once again, fragile, angry and stronger than she seems.)
My flatmate and I are now watching season 2 of The Marvellous Mrs Maisel. Which...
I enjoy this show, and I was home alone the other night and found myself thinking, "But how do you even watch TV that's not Mrs Maisel?" Yet ... I see reviews from Jewish fans saying that its depiction of Judaism is off in subtle ways, and I don't have the context to recognise that for myself, so I'm constantly second guessing it. I do know that it's deeply frustrating as a period piece -- even in New York, I think characters would face more consequences and ostracism for all the F-bombs they drop in public. And at one point, Joel uses the phrase "just FYI". Like. Come on.
I've also read a ton of books in the last few months ... but most of them, I cannot talk about. I'm on the jury for the Aurealis Awards (children's fiction) this year, and one of the rules is that we not blog about entries. Suffice to say, I have a lot of thoughts and opinions about the current state of middle grade speculative fiction in Australia, and if there's a young reader in your life who needs a gift, I can probably make some suggestions (but not in any official capacity as a judge, I just have some feelings about what types of books would match up to what types of personalities).
But I've taken a break from Aurealis entries this week to read the new Benjamin January mystery. Or maybe it's the newest-but-one? Anyway, it's a nice change to read about revolution, murder and disease, even though I feel like the series has gotten a bit formulaic.
I've also been listening to some new podcasts!
I mean, they're new to me.
This Podcast Will Kill You combines a bunch of things I love: gnarly facts about diseases, the history of various diseases, and the cultural impacts of outbreaks and epidemics. It's just been picked up by the new podcasting network run by the women behind My Favorite Murder, and it's a good fit -- two women, talking about a subject they find interesting, and disease stuff is like true crime for your immune system. The Erins do far more research, though, which is fitting, since they're grad students aiming to work in the field.
(I am proud to say that, so far -- I just finished the second episode covering bubonic plague -- I've read nearly every single book they recommended as a good source for disease history. The only exception is the one they suggest about smallpox, on account of how dying of smallpox was one of my childhood fears.)
And The Greatest Generation is just two guys watching an episode of Star Trek, then chatting about it. They've covered all of TNG and are well into DS9, but I'm only partway through season one of TNG so far.
I don't listen to many podcasts with no women, but this one makes me laugh. Even though, a lot of the time, part of me is clutching my pearls and going, "That is problematic!" They have a lot of love for the franchise, but they haven't been in the fandom, so they sort of take episodes as they come, without (much) fannish hive mind influence.
(I just found out that they have a spin-off podcast about Discovery, and I was like, "But what if they hate it?" Then I saw a Reddit bro complaining that they're much too positive and affectionate towards it, while also giving it the mocking it frequently deserves. So I'm sold.)
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Date: 2018-12-13 06:12 am (UTC)And apparently there is only one lesbian in the village. That bit amused me.
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Date: 2018-12-13 06:15 am (UTC)(She is very, very butch, but I very much doubt she's ever had a girlfriend. Which is clearly something the show needs to rectify, but I find it interesting and also very plausible, given the era and her background.)
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Date: 2018-12-13 06:43 am (UTC)Ah! Quick Google found it.
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Date: 2018-12-13 07:44 am (UTC)The first game I really remember is Zork, which I adored, and the Hitchhiker's Game, which I still loathe as being just too damn hard.
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Date: 2018-12-13 07:55 am (UTC)We also had an outdated Apple at home that my father got through a friend, as he needed it when he returned to study. We had a Robin Hood game that no one could ever finish because we were missing a disk or it was a dodgy pirate, I think.
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Date: 2018-12-13 07:35 am (UTC)I used to have so much mercy
<333
I am pretty excited for Widows!
....I feel bad saying this re Hiddles because he seems like a sweetie, but the only things I've really loved him in were Crimson Peak, where he was perfect, and he was great in Only Lovers Left Alive too. Otherwise we are tragically mismatched I guess. (apologies to any Tom fans)
I PREDATE OREGON TRAIL, hang me up on the wall in a bag. Actually I think most people are remembering the 1985 version? and by then I had already dropped out of high school and the only computer my parents had for ages was my dad's towering awful IBM, which was as user friendly as a rabid dog.
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Date: 2018-12-13 10:48 am (UTC)Also I resemble that mercy comment. At some point I had some fucks left to hand out, but now I am hoarding the few I have for a rainy day.
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Date: 2018-12-13 11:36 am (UTC)That sounds like a podcast that's right up my street :-D
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Date: 2018-12-13 01:26 pm (UTC)I used to have so much mercy
<3
Thanks for mentioning Widows, I think I want to check it out.
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Date: 2018-12-13 02:23 pm (UTC)This makes me wish I could listen to podcasts without falling asleep five minutes in, because terrible diseases and epidemics are my jam!
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Date: 2018-12-13 09:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-12-13 02:40 pm (UTC)Me thinking about other people: "Thirty-six is really young!"
Thinking about myself: "SO OLD."
I'm still in my twenties and I do this! I blame it on being an undergraduate - it's hard not to feel ancient when everyone around you is nineteen...
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Date: 2018-12-14 02:43 pm (UTC)I wish medical things didn't freak me out so much. I couldn't even listen to the episode sample My Favorite Murder put up for This Podcast Will Kill You.
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Date: 2018-12-14 05:53 pm (UTC)I giggled enormously at this. I mean, I made my peace with Hiddleston after Thor: Ragnarok, but the assumption of his universal appeal just leaves me scratching my head.
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Date: 2018-12-14 10:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-12-15 02:12 pm (UTC)I laughed aloud. Thank you.