Short Takes

Some culture I've been consuming lately...

Lionel Shriver is Looking for Trouble

Ariel Levy profiles Shriver who is gleefully, incoherently contrarian and, well, I sure did learn alot about Shriver. I also learned that We Need to Talk About Kevin has sold more than two million copies. It’s a great book but WOW. Anyway, I hope I never meet Shriver. She would, based on this profile, hate everything about me and I’m pleased about that.

The Old Man

The Old Man is about a former CIA agent who disappeared with his wife and was gone for thirty years but now an Afghan war lord wants to know where he is for reasons so spies are trying to find him and/or kill him. I love anything CIA or other secret government agency-related. I enjoy Jeff Bridges and John Lithgow and Amy Brenneman and intrigue. The show is beautifully shot and incredibly well written and every week when a new episode dropped, I was right there. I love spy shit. Inject that stuff directly into my veins.

The Bear

In The Bear, Carmy is a fine dining chef who returns home to Chicago to run the family restaurant when his brother Mikey commits suicide. The show moves at a frantic pace and really highlights the controlled (mostly) chaos of a professional kitchen. The first season is very satisfying in its narrative arc and the supporting cast is really interesting. Ayo Edibiri as Sydney, a new sous chef with big talent and big ambition, is a real highlight. For a lot of reasons, I felt this show deep in my bones. And for real, Carmy would get it morning noon and night. The weird tattoos, the beleaguered slump of his shoulders, the way he holds a sauté pan? Yes, chef. Yes.

Good Luck to You, Leo Grande

Emma Thompson plays an older woman who has never had a moment of sexual satisfaction in her life and decides to seek out a sex worker, Leo Grande, to have the experiences she has always wanted but never had in her marriage. Over the course of four meetings, we learn a lot about both her character and Leo Grande and it’s a little heavy-handed at times. BUT. There are some particularly powerful parts about desire and the fear of surrendering to it and self-loathing in an aging body.

Chicken Thighs with Sour Cherries and Cucumber Yogurt

Made this Melissa Clark recipe for dinner and man, it was so good. Pretty easy to make though there are a few steps. Debbie loved it. Max liked it, too so that is that on that!

A League of Their Own

The show is good but it is also two shows in one. There is a show about the white women during the women’s baseball league’s first season and a show about the black women trying to thrive in a racist world. That second show is incredible while the first show is very good. Every time the story shifted from the black women, I was counting the minutes until the black women returned.

Il Coro

New restaurant in the old Del Posto space. Sublime. Tasting menus are pricy but as a very picky eater, I kind of enjoy not having much choice in what I’m served, where I am forced to step out of my very narrow culinary comfort zone. Also, despite that they are very good about accommodating allergies and peccadilloes.

The US Open

I love professional tennis and I’ve always wanted to go to a grand slam match. For our anniversary, Debbie got us tickets to the women’s final between Swiatek and Jabeur. It was a much better match than the score implied but it was also awesome to be in Arthur Ashe stadium. We went with my mom and my aunt and I get my love of tennis from my mother so it was pretty great. I also got one of those giant tennis balls people try to get autographed. It comes with a Sharpie! I didn’t try to get an autograph but I have been bouncing the ball an awful lot. I am so excited about my big yellow ball.

If I Survive You

This collection of interlinked short stories came out recently and it’s about a Jamaican American family in Miami trying to survive emigration and a sinking city constantly threatened by hurricanes in the ‘80s and ‘90s. Once I started this book, I could not stop. I kept wanting these characters to catch a break, to make better decisions, to overcome their circumstances. Time and again they couldn’t but the stories of how their lives unfolded were impeccably written. Lots of confidence in this debut and I am curious to see what the author, Jonathan Escoffery, does next.

American Buffalo

We went to see this play before it closed on Sunday, starring Laurence Fishburne, Sam Rockwell, and Darren Criss. I had never seen it and new nothing about it. Really great performances from all three actors. Amazing set and because the show was staged at Circle on the Square, the show felt almost cinematic. I kept thinking about what the show would look and feel like with an all-woman cast. Maybe an intrepid director will take that on when the show is revived again.

The Terminal List

This macho military show on Amazon was B O R I N G which is pretty hard to do in a show that has a lot of shooting and explosions and shallow intrigue. That’s all there is to say about it. Constance Wu is great as a tenacious reporter working to uncover a military conspiracy that resulted in the murder of a unit but she wasn’t given enough to do. Write women better roles! Come on! Also that one guy was also in it, the Chris everyone hates. I have no feelings one way or another about him. He reminds me of Cheerios without milk. Dry and bland but popular nonetheless.

Loot

I love Maya Rudolph and this show has a fun premise—a billionaire divorces her husband, gets half his fortune and remembers she has a charitable foundation. As she tries to figure out what’s next for her, she starts working with her foundation to do some good in the world and hijinks ensue. The show is certainly good enough. There is some smart writing, funny jokes. But it doesn’t feel like mandatory viewing, by any stretch of the imagination. That is to say, I did not feel compelled to finish the season.

The South of France

I recently spent a few days in the South of France during the early summer (for work, rough gig I know) and it was just sublime. Beautiful weather, beautiful landscapes, a sparkling sea. I cannot adequately express how much I love France. There were also an alarming number of yachts. One evening we went to Monaco to gamble and casinos there are… different. First of all, I forgot my passport which the website said I did not need, had to go back to France and get it but we were determined. Then we got in and had a drink. Where Vegas is glitzy and loud, the Monaco casino was… mannered. There weren’t many games or machines, but I played fake poker and Debbie played roulette. And after we gambled (and won!), we had a really excellent dinner at the Italian restaurant on the property. Sadly, there was no James Bond sighting. Also, Monaco is tiny, vertical, and mountainous. The world is endlessly interesting.

Fire Island

I love seeing movies that are super super gay. Fire Island was, among other things, super super gay. A group of friends, a last hurrah on Fire Island before their friend’s home is sold, a retelling of Pride and Prejudice. Good acting, hot guys, Margaret Cho, humor. It was just enjoyable. I wish there had been more chemistry between the leads and, like, more sexiness? But whatever. It was fun.

Renaissance

Listen. The transitions between the songs are flawless. Beyoncé gave us an ALBUM, a sonic experience to be listened to in totality. Release your job! YES QUEEN!

Stranger Things

There we were, visiting my parents and my niece was also there and she was babbling about Stranger Things, which we had never seen so we started watching it. I don’t really like shows about children. I love children but like, I don’t find them entertaining in fictional worlds. Still, this show was really captivating and fucking weird. I don’t really understand the under world versus the real world but it’s lovely to see Winona Ryder looking great and doing so well creatively. But, like so many shows on TV these days, you can’t see much. This show worships at the altar of dim lighting. I’m furious about it. Please, someone, help the cinematographers.

Everything’s Trash

Phoebe Robinson is smart and funny and her new show on Freeform is a delight. I wish it was getting more attention because it is as enjoyable to me as the delightful and intelligent and funny Abbot Elementary. I especially love how part of the show focuses on Robinson’s character, also named Phoebe’s relationship with her politician brother.

Strange New Worlds

I’ve always enjoyed Star Trek and this origin story series about the original Enterprise crew was incredibly satisfying and paid nice homage to the Shatner/Nimoy Star Trek universe.

Kenobi

As I said before, I don’t love film/tv about children so I wasn’t eager to watch this but it was good. Ewan McGregor really held the show together and yes, yes, young Leia was adorable and precocious and all the things you would expect from the woman who would go on to become the leader of the rebel alliance.

Morbius

This wasn’t as bad as the critics said but it was quite unremarkable. Like, A few weeks after seeing this movie, I couldn’t much tell you why it is considered a superhero movie. It’s an origin story and it has all the elements to become interesting but then Morbius doesn’t really do much with his abilities. Also, I am guessing disability activists and scholars probably have some thoughts about what the story says about disability as something to overcome or endure

What have you all been up to and enjoying lately?