What I Watched: April 2019

Who watches the watchman watching the watchers?

Ramped up my TV/Movie watching in April! Whooooohoooo! Sort of.  A little vacation time and my son returning home helped out considerably.

1. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Episodes 9 and 10

Loved this show so much I'd watch it again. Such an interesting period of American history captured so well (I think, I wasn't alive). I loved the scenes in the Catskills and the scenes in the clubs; Alex Borstein's portrayal of Susie Myerson is delightful, and I'm apparently at the right age to completely identify with Tony Shalhoub's Abe Weissman despite having many, many differences (wish I had been a college professor, though). Luke Kirby's Lenny Bruce appearances amp the show up several notches. Sunny and bright (yet with threads of darkness lurking) and socially sharp, I can't recommend the show enough. I can't decide which season I enjoy more so I'll just consider them both necessary pieces of a unified whole.

2. Mystery Science Theater 3000, The Day Time Ended (Season Twelve)
3. Mystery Science Theater 3000, Killer Fish (Season Twelve)
4. Mystery Science Theater 3000, The Final Conflict (Season Nine)

Cormac was home from college and we had a bit of a marathon. I think I watched most of Killer Fish (Not to be confused with Season Nine's Devil Fish) by myself, which instantly put me in the groove to watch more. I've seen almost all of MST3Ks run but hadn't yet gotten around to watching the newest Netflix season. I was not disappointed. Killer Fish is a as pure a document of seventies entertainment as you will find, starring Lee Majors, Karen Black, and poor doomed Margaux Hemingway in an adventure with a sunken treasure in a reservoir filled with piranha. Brilliant. The Day Time Ended is a 1980 sf laff riot set on an Arizona horse farm with lots of reptilian stop-motion action and lasers. Cormac watched maybe half of that one, and then I encouraged him to watch one of my favorite MST3Ks of all time, The Final Conflict. He fell in love with the hilarious "heroism" of Zap Rowsdower as deeply as I did, I think, which gives me hope for humanity.

5. Long Lost

Tickets to this show at the wonderful Garde Arts Center, a birthday present from my brother. Interesting indie film shot and produced here in Connecticut by a very youthful team of creators. There was an insightful Q&A after the show, I asked a question: "Did the shooting script change much during the filming and production?"

6. A Star Is Born

I saw this with Kim on vacation in Florida via pay-per-view. Cooper and Gaga were both great and I love them in just about everything I've seen them in and I suppose this film deserved everything it achieved.

By the way, the greatest heavy metal cover of a pop song of all time? Arthemis's cover of Lady Gaga's Paparazzi, narrowly edging out Anthrax's cover of Joe Jackson's Got the Time. You can download it for free off the band's website.

7. Aquaman

Kim didn't make it through this one despite all the Momoa. It sure looked pretty (the movie, and yeah, Momoa) especially when the action went underwater. But maybe super hero movies have jumped the shark? Don't forget to tip your waitress!

8. The Romanoffs Season 1 Episodes 1-3

After Maisel, Kim and I wanted to dive into this one as we're relentless Mad Men fans. This one is quite different tonally from Mad Men and...just about anything else I've ever watched. Will reserve judgement and more detailed commentary until we've watched it through. Nice, though, to see Mad Men alumni.

Wow! That's a lot of viewing for me, and one of the entertainments listed above required me to leave the house.

My books can be found HERE for pennies a page.

None of these is a television show. Yet.

What I Watched: March 2019

I didn't watch this movie or read this book (now available in French!!) !in March. But I sure look great and sound brilliant in the bonus feature interview.

 Not a gigantic list, but nearly as much viewing as January and February combined.

1. Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat
Kim is an avid listener to NPR. She listens on her commutes, while cooking, while working out--if Kim was as obsessive as I was about listing and categorizing all of the media she consumes, it would likely be an extensive list of NPR podcasts and programming. And I'm very thankful for this, because she has clued me in to a number of life-enhancing books, programs, and recordings. She became interested in this Netflix show after hearing an interview with Samin Nosrat, the host and author of a book of the same name. Ms. Nosrat's enthusiasm for food and cooking, and her delight in the people that share similar passions, is certainly infectious, and we watched the first three shows on successive Sunday mornings with coffee and crepes. The crepe pan is one of the best gifts I ever bought me I mean Kim.  Maybe we will watch Heat  in April.

2.The VVitch--Director's commentary.
I loved The VVitch when I first saw it and like to watch the director commentaries of movies I love (and sometimes movies I hate), usually finding the experience enlightening and inspiring, especially if the director goes into the particulars of creative choices they made.

3. Won't You Be My Neighbor?
Like many Xers I grew up watching Mr. Rogers and a great deal of Public Television. The Electric Company, Zoom, Sesame Street, New Zoo Review--and my somewhat obscure favorite, Thinkabout. I was fortunate as a fourth or fifth grader to have been selected to participate in the Montville School District's Enrichment program, and once a week would pile on a bus with the other so-called "gifted and talented" kids to go to another school crosstown (the one where all the tough kids went). Those sessions ran until around dinnertime, and despite (ok, because of) the extra schooling, those classes were some of the happiest moments of my grade 4-8 years. I recall in the first year of the program we would gather around a television to watch Thinkabout and then discuss the moral and educational implications of the topics presented. I didn't remember much of Thinkabout's content when I got older (not even after buying some bootleg copies of the show off eBay--I am really, really weird), but I could remember every pixel and note of the show's opening, which I would visualize and hum during the many stressful moments of the rest of my schooling:

Looking back, it is clear Thinkabout's Liquid Len-ish opening spurred my pervasive and enduring love of Hawkwind.

I watched Won't You Be My Neighbor with Kim and learned a few things--I had no idea Fred tried to do a show aimed at adults, for example. Spoiler: this isn't an exposé, so those hoping Mr. Rogers turns out to be a child-hating fiend will be sorely disappointed. And the clip of him appearing before the Senate Subcommittee on Communications should be watched by anyone who...well, anyone who communicates, really. If only political/economic/ point of view disagreements today could be solved with such grace and aplomb. I think the clip in the movie is truncated; you can watch the whole testimony here:

4. Colette
I watched this on the plane to Seattle and really enjoyed it; I love Paris and the Paris period scenes (I am writing this now to distract myself from the heartbreaking news coverage of Notre Dame in flames) as well as those set in the French countryside. I also like Keira Knightly and Dominic West, and found many things interesting about the film, most especially the idea that Colette was writing for Willy's syndicate under his name when she started her professional career. I wasn't aware of the history prior to starting the film (woefully ignorant on French literature, sadly), but it seemed as though some synchronicity was involved, as I started the film to take a break from reading Girl Sleuth, Nancy Drew and the Women that Created Her. 


The universe has spoken; I now shall create a writing syndicate. Applications welcome, no prior experience necessary.

5. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Season Two: Episodes 1-8 
I looooove this show. We didn't watch the final two episodes until April, so I will reserve my comments attempting to articulate why I love this show and this season until next month.

And as always, I will encourage you to buy one or several of my books, you can find them HERE

Only one of these is a movie. So far.

What I Watched, Heard, and Read in February

Nothing to do with today's post, but I love this portrait. It hangs in a restaurant in Boston.

A short but productive month writing, running, and reading. February has never been my favorite month and once again there was a family health scare (these tend to happen most often when I am away) but am thankful to report the scare is now in the rearview.

Flying High Again

WHAT I WATCHED:

1. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Season 1--This was something Kim heard about and suggested we watch; I was maybe fifteen minutes into the first episode before I fell completely in love with the show and nearly everything about it. I never realized how weak my film literacy was until I was able to visit the set of I Still See You, how much I just never noticed before when it came to the actual mechanics and construction of film and since that wonderful experience have found myself noticing all sorts of things I wouldn't have noticed prior--fabrics and textures of the wardrobe jump out at me watching Maisel as much as the wonderful soundtrack.

One of the things I appreciate the most about this show is that it manages to be dramatic and socially conscious while at the same time being very positive and winsome--it somehow combines the plucky/can-do/let's-put-on-a-show spirit of fifties sit-coms with adult humor, themes, and insight. Most of my favorite television is very, very dark and/or laden with death--The Wire, The Sopranos, Black Sails--even Mad Men contains a great deal of darkness, so to fall so utterly in love with the world of Maisel was a wonderful surprise, especially in February, the darkest month of all.

2. Straight-Jacket--Another nice February surprise was being able to catch this nutty old Joan Crawford movie--hosted by Svengoolie!--when I was on the road. I grew up on Channel 56's Creature Double Features and have written extensively of my MST3K love and have often been curious to see other movies "curated" by horror hosts, and eating a large pile of Chinese food while watching Svengoolie's goofy skits and trivia lessons was a delight I should treat myself to more often. Sadly, MeTV is not available in my neck of the woods.

With the exception of a few quarters of basketball watched with my son, that is the sum total of my television watching for the month...no wonder my film literacy is so weak!

WHAT I HEARD:
1. Encore--The Specials. Spectacular. Their first album with Terry Hall in something like twenty years; don't wait so long for the next!

Special Indeed

2. Feral Roots--Rival Sons
3. Good Old Broadway--Coleman Hawkins. My first Coleman Hawkins record. Love at first listen.
4. Complete Performances with the Lighthouse All-stars--Chet Baker & Miles Davis
5. SYR 8--Sonic Youth
6. Goodbye 20th Century SYR 4--Sonic Youth
7. Olive's Horn SYR 7--Kim Gordon
8. The Evening Redness in the West--Nim Vind. Great horrorpunk-ish artist
Items 3-8 were through eMusic and now I have all of the SYR releases because I'm a completist.
9-14. 6 Elvis Presley double discs from the Time-Life series. These are great, but the collection I acquired was missing the volume I really wanted, which was the Gospel one. Oh well.

WHAT I READ:
1. The End of the End of the Earth--Jonathan Franzen. Essays, many about birds. Includes his very short and very controversial "Rules for Writing" essay.
2. Once Upon a Time--Larkin, ed. Essentially a fantasy art book, not much reading involved.
3. Time & Overdrive--Vol 3 of Cadillacs and Dinosaurs by Mark Schultz. You'll notice a lot of art and comics in my Feb. reading. I read things like this all year, but just this very moment I might amp it up in February as a primitive form of self-care to endure that hated month.
4. The Authority--Warren Ellis. I'm a fan of Mr. Ellis's, and have bought many a book based on his newsletter recommendations. One will show up in March. I couldn't help but notice that The Authority's spaceship looks quite like my very own Oumuamua.
5. Amberstar--Bruce Jones. What a weird and fun book featuring mostly purple-palette-ed photos altered by arcane pre-Photoshop techniques to tell a science fictional story. Mr. Jones wrote many of my favorite comics, including the Twisted Tales and Alien Worlds series' from Pacific Comics and then Eclipse Comics. Those titles definitely put a few warps in my record.
6. The Braindead Megaphone--Charles Saunders
7. The Song is You--Megan Abbott A great noir, I didn't realize it until after I finished the book that she is set to be a Guest of Honor at NECon this year.

I judge books by covers. Both cover and content are great.

8. Doo Wop--"Cousin Brucie" Morrow
9. Futuropolis-- Robert Sheckley
10. I Am Providence--Nick Mamatas
11.Safe in Place--Brendan Halpin. A YA, one of the best novels I've read this year, full of heart, humor, and insight. I've enjoyed everything I've read of Mr. Halpin's work but this is one of my favorites. Brendan also offer services as a writing coach; check him and his bibliography out HERE
12. Brown's Requiem--James Ellroy. My Ellroy odyssey begins! I may save commentary until I'm complete with his oeuvre, at which point I'll write a separate post. Probably.
13. Clandestine--James Ellroy
14. World's End--Neil Gaiman and a host of brilliant artists. I'd read this one before--and owned it-- before buying this second copy at the Book Barn. Despite my vast library of books, comics, and music, I never accidently bought stuff I already owned until a few years ago. I am nearly half a century though, and should probably be kind to myself. And this one had a different cover! Anyway, I'm glad I reread it because it is great and beautiful and has one of my favorite ever panels from a lifetime of reading comics. And now I'm inspired to go back and reread the whole run of Sandman.
15. Hotels of North America--Rick Moody. I liked Moody and I liked this book a great deal, reading it as I did poolside at a Hampton Inn. A nice companion book to the Cheap Hotels book from LAST MONTH
16.Mister Miracle--Tom King and Mitch Gerads. Loved it. It inspired me to go read all of the Kirby Fourth World stuff, which shockingly I have only read a few random pieces of, and I'll probably revisit that run of Justice League where Scott Free was part of the roster.

17. Demons By Daylight--Ramsey Campbell. I've met Mr. Campbell a couple times although I doubt he would remember me (although he was in the audience during a panel I was on at Stokercon last year; somewhat intimidating to have one of the greats of horror literature present when I'm running my mouth!). He's written some of my favorite horror novels, among them The Grin of the Dark, The Hungry Moon, and Ancient Images. Many of the covers of his books were painted by my friend Jill Bauman, who I look forward to playing cards with every year. I find it fascinating that creators I admired when I was younger and before I began writing professionally have ended up friends and acquaintances. When they prove to be as wonderful in person as they do in print or on the canvas, as Jill certainly does, it is nothing short of remarkable. As is her work, which you can see HERE

And finally, if my content moves you in any way and you wish to support the creation of more of it (or if you just admire my exquisite taste), please check out my books HERE. The pretty covers of most are below:

One of these is not like the others

Passions Just Like Mine--Raymond Chandler

My love for the work of Raymond Chandler happened in the reverse of my usual progression in that I saw it dramatized on television before I read any of it. The item in the center is the DVD collection of Philip Marlowe, Private Eye starring Powers Boothe which ran on HBO from 1983-1986. I think the show was one of the first episodic series that ran there, long before HBO became the original programming juggernaut with shows like The Sopranos, The Wire, and Deadwood (which Boothe also starred in). There were only eleven episodes, but I must have caught the first one after school in 1983 (my prime television watching years were my early teens; hours and hours of MTV, HBO, The Movie Channel, and Creature Double Feature. Once I was in college I watched almost no television at all other than Carson's The Tonight Show with my mother when I was on break).

I was fourteen in 1983, and a heavily committed horror, science fiction, and fantasy fan and reader (and war and role playing game addict--you know, one of the cool kids), but I was instantly taken in by Boothe's deadpan delivery and tough guy demeanor, the snappy dialogue, the classy costuming and sets, and especially the opening theme song.  I think the one I like is "Marlowe's Theme" by Moe Koffman, but I'm not certain because there was a much inferior second opening theme song in the later episodes and that's the only credit I can find. I've never found a legitimate recording of it but you can catch it in YouTube clips if you don't want to spring for the DVDs.

Smoking is bad, kids. So's murder.

On my next trip to the Paperback Booksmith I was on a mission to find some of this Raymond Chandler guy's stuff, and I came home with the copy of Trouble Is My Business in the photo above and was hooked for life. Not only did the show (a couple of the episodes are kind of clunkers, but the majority are stellar) and that book open up the world of Raymond Chandler for me, it opened up a lifelong love of noir and detective fiction, especially series detective fiction. Over the years I'd read Ross MacDonald, John MacDonald, James Lee Burke, James Crumley, Robert Crais, Robert Parker, George Pelecanos, Walter Mosley, Stephen Greenleaf, Ed McBain, Elmore Leonard, Harlan Coben, Dashiell Hammett, and many others.

Just looking at that short list of authors I realize I've read at least two or three hundred crime and noir novels over the years. No wonder I have to write about my passions! I never leave my house to talk to anybody, whut with all the writin' an' readin' I been doin'!

Up next is James Ellroy as I mentioned HERE, and, having been sucker-punched by the mastery of The Song Is You by Megan Abbott last week I'm going to read all of her by the end of the year, too--anything to keep the neurons firing.

I already had a copy of The High Window, but as I may have mentioned elsewhere I'm fetishistic about covers and books in general and just look at this:

A confession: it was only a dollar at the Book Barn

That one and Trouble are my favorite covers of the ones above; my least favorite is the Eliot Gould/rubber chicken of The Long Goodbye, which is weird, because that might be my favorite book as far as the writing goes. I've seen the Gould movie and many of the other Marlowe movie adaptations, but Boothe is the guy I always see in my head when I'm reading the books (yes, Boothe and not Bogart, sorry). I also love the radio show starring Gerald Mohr, but I can somehow still see Boothe in my head when listening.

I loved the way the language in crime novels could be alternately playful and then stark and harrowing, sometimes within the same paragraph. As a reader with a burgeoning desire to write I also loved the concision and brevity in most crime fiction, an interesting stylistic counterpoint to the often florid and purple dark fantasy I'd been reading, not to mention the technical and pedantic prose in much of the science fiction I grew up on. I love the idea of being able to follow a character (or characters) through a novel every year and I don't even mind when the plots sometimes seem recycled if the character and the way they perceive and intersect with the world around them is unique. I don't commonly suffer from writer's block, but if I'm feeling like I'm swimming through mud and the work is starting to feel like something other than fun, my #1 recovery strategy is to take a break and read a couple series' detective novels--or Trouble Is My Business.

If anyone has any recommendations for other authors or series detectives I should check out, I welcome your comments. Anything set in Hollywood--especially 1930-1960--goes to the top of the stack.

Generation Dead Optioned for Television

I'm happy to report that the paperwork is done and that the Generation Dead series has been optioned for television. Apparently there is some other zombie-related show on tv now that is sort of popular or something--so I'm certain there is a huge audience that will accept Phoebe and her undead pals into their homes on a regular basis. You would, wouldn't you? Let's play casting director! Who would you have as Phoebe if you called the shots? As Adam? Karen? Tommy? As that kid who threw a corn cob at Tommy? Who does that? January Jones would be excellent as Angela Hunter; I wonder if she's busy?

Separated at Birth?

Takayuki:




Richard Harrow (Boardwalk Empire):



Dan:



There is a downloadable Richard Harrow mask I found somewhere on the web--you can also get the mark that he wears, so your mask can have a mask, get it> If I wasn't obviously scary enough, I think that I would enjoy being Richard or Takayuki for Halloween.

I'm actually watching a lot of television lately; there's a lot of good story-based entertainment on at the moment, and Boardwalk Empire may be the best of the bunch. Jack Huston is spectacular as sensitive and scarred killer Richard Harrow.

Sick of Easy Fashion

Spent the last week sick and/or taking care of my sick children. Which is to say, I watched a lot of television. I don't normally watch a ton of television at the moment, which isn't to say I'm one of those TV is the end of civilization as we know it folks, either. My TV watching waxes and wanes. I'll overdose for awhile--years, sometimes--and then walk away with barely any TV at all. Right now there aren't any shows other than the Simpsons that I watch even close to faithfully. Except maybe Ghost Hunters, but I fast forward to the reveal so I can see and hear all the EVPs, MVPs, LEDs and full-body apparitions in approximately 37 seconds. Yes, I'm aware how lame this is, and in fact have been told by a close friend how lame this is, and I don't disagree with him. But I have to tell you, for those 37 seconds I'm absolutely terrified!

So I started watching one of my daughter's favorite shows with her to pass the time, a show called What Not To Wear. For those who are unfamiliar, What Not To Wear is a show hosted by two super snarky fashion gurus, Clinton and Stacy. The idea is that there are many non-fashionable people in the world who must be corrected on their non-fashion, so what will happen is a "friend" will set an intervention of sorts in motion by narcing on the "fashion victim" to the fashion police. Clinton and Stacy will send out spies who actually go film the fashion victim, with the victim being completely unaware they are being filmed! Once enough evidence of sartorial wrongdoing has been amassed, Clinton and Stacy will swoop in like two impeccably groomed and coiffed hawks to confront the offender, usually in their place of work. In the 27 episodes (or so it seemed) I watched with my daughter, I was able to see the public humiliation of teachers, lawyers, hairdressers, actors. It was great!

One thing that I noticed was that Clinton and Stacy, both of whom are filled with a wonderful, Wildean sense of humor, with their quippery as sharp as the creases in their clothing, had a tendency to reserve their most venomous comments with those that fought back against their advice. Those who went with it, or were clearly lost sheep left dazed in the aftermath of their trip to the pillory, were granted hugs, kind comments, encouragement. Those who claimed to have a good fashion sense (and to be fair, they were sadly mistaken--all the participants I saw were either formless frumps or showoffs confused "provocative" with "ridiculous") or worse, actually questioned the fashion choices made by Clinton and Stacy, were all but eviscerated by their sharp tongues and pointy shoes.

After being mocked for awhile by their hosts (all of their clothes are thrown in a big bin, my daughter says, and then are then given to charity) the guests are sent out onto the streets of New York with a $5000 credit card. This gave me pause to reflect, because I think that, except maybe the two suits I've bought over the years, I think it is actually possible that I haven't spent 5 grand on myself for clothes in my entire lifetime. I actually started adding this up, starting with all of the basketball sneakers I've owned over the years. I have one pair of Air Jordans, from his second year with the Wizards, but I got those on clearance for something like sixty bucks. I had a nice leather jacket but that was a Christmas gift. I paid a hundred bucks for a pair of sunglasses once--do sunglasses count?

I started writing all of this stuff out (meanwhile onscreen a hairdresser was buying a two thousand dollar Prada dress, and an earlier episode had a man whose first outfit, a nice casual affair, something you'd wear out to a movie or party with friends--was said to cost $550) and then my daughter tells me that I should be on the show.

"What?" I said, instantly suspicious, wondering if she and my wife have been having me filmed. What would What Not To Wear's producers uncovered something with their P.I. work? A murder, or a conspiracy? A mother of two who spends her evenings knocking over headstones at the local cemetery?

"You should be on this show. Look at that shirt."

I did. It was my Charlotte Hornets t-shirt, the one that I bought when they drafted Larry Johnson.

When they drafted Larry Johnson twenty years ago. My God.

"It has holes in it, Daddy," she said. And she's right. Three of them, two completely irreparable. But twenty years of hard use has warn the threads down to that perfect grain of comfort and...

Who am I kidding? The shirt is almost twice as old as my daughter, is twice as old as my son.

"You have to go out in public now, Daddy."

By public, she meant more than just being a fixture at hers and my sons' basketball games, where I can conceal the holes in my shirt with a heavy coat because the gym where they play is actually pretty cold.

"Couldn't...couldn't you and Mommy just get me stuff? I'll pay!" The only decent clothes I own are those that she and her mother have bought for me, usually just before we go on a family trip where they can't bear to see me in the same stuff that I wore in college.

"See how they talk about proper fit?" she says to me. I bought the Hornets shirt when I was considerably heavier than I am today. What actually happened was I left college pretty heavy, lost a ton of weight immediately after, gained a little of it back, then had kids, messed up my back in a car wreck and took a job with a lot of travel, three factors that helped me balloon up again. I was heavy throughout most of my kids' lives until last year, when I dropped a big chunk of weight and got in shape again. And yet somehow managed to keep basically the same wardrobe throughout all of these changes, from endomorph to ectomporph to endomorph again, and now I'm fairly mesomorphic. With the same clothes, only older and shabbier (the clothes--but yes, me, to a lesser extent).

"Proper fit, right," I said. "Got it."

"I could help you." My daughter loves to shop. This might be one of my greatest failings as a parent, I don't know.

They could be deadly sarcastic, in a very Mean Girls way, but at the end of the marathon I decided that I liked Clinton and Stacy. Maybe it was because they gave the teacher an extra grand to spend and then donated 2G's to her school, or maybe because when they spoke with conviction about how appearance can contribute to a positive self image (which they said was achieved through proper fit and use of color, rather that a specific designer label, although they didn't exactly look down on the designer labels), but they won me over to their 'cause'. I've always had a pretty cynical outlook towards the whole "live better through conspicuous consumption" school of thought, but somehow I got the sense that they believed in their work. That they weren't just removing blights from our collective landscape; they really seemed to believe they were improving people's lives.
Some of the people they had on really were transformed in a way that seemed to precursor important beneficial changes in their lives--they were on the cusp of getting the job, the promotion, the more meaningful relationship.

So I believe in their sincerity, anyhow. That isn't the same as not believing that their entire enterprise is a sham, though, or that people should be able to derive self-esteem from something other than personal appearance. Inner beauty is what counts and all that. But, in the two or three times I actually looked good out in public, I have to admit that I felt good as well. Maybe they have a point.

I just hope I can do it for less than 5 grand...

"I think Clinton could really help you," she says. Giggle, giggle.

She might be right.

NEWS FLASH: I just received copies of the paperback edition of Generation Dead and they look sweeeeeeet. Tell all of your friends who were too cheap I mean too impecunious to buy the hardcover. In fact, you may wish to buy a couple copies for yourself, just in case. Just in case what I'm not sure, but I'd really appreciate it.