"Instaured"

 

OK, that's not the way it's the spelled, but just "stick" around...

I currently subscribe to a number of newsletters. I saw "instaured" used not once, not twice, but thrice by three different people. Hey, maybe "instaured" was exactly right. Or maybe there's an unspoken Substack style -- in which case quit it!

Write your newsletter in longhand, maybe, and read the post aloud -- it's what I do even though I sound like I have a mouth full of tissues (just ask around here). But stop reading Substack just before you hit "send." And stop using "instaured" -- please. 

"Inconceivable!"

I have read a lot of Don DeLillo (including Libra (A);  I recommend Mao II (A, wp)) and seen The Princess Bride multiple times, including way back when.

"'Way back when'? Why that's... !"

So this blogpost by Alan Jacobs is a balm. 

"Why, it's a major award!"

Donald Fagen did the best protest song, with Todd Rundgren here. And "Century's End" (most sinister musical fade-out ever?) by Donald Fagen is here. 

But the YouTube winner is Star Wars SC 38 Reimagined by FXtinPost. In fact, I wish it was canon. Given how I'm part of the "Han Shot First" crowd (wiki) I believe my opinion matters. 

STAR WARS: ANDOR

I got "Andor" just now. It's not as great a name as "Saul Goodman" (wiki) but for Star Wars it's pretty good. 

"Where's the best place for a sniper?"

It's like Star Wars was directed by Stanley Kubrick. "Mikey likes it!" in other words (YouTube). 

Recommended: A Clockwork Orange -- unless you don't like violence. Hey, even Malcolm McDowell got tired of it. But George Lucas must have seen the movie. THX 1138 is full of Stanley Kubrick. THX 1138 -- Wiki A Clockwork Orange -- Wiki

DR. STRANGE AND THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS, dir. Sam Raimi

I suspect Marvel sat down on director Sam Raimi, really hard, because the movie is an incredible mess. I understand it's a Comedy-Horror. But I wished for more Horror. Which is weird because Raimi does Horror; what Raimi doesn't do is Comedy.

It's also weird because prior to Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse (wp) Dr. Strange (wp) was the best Marvel movie out. 

"Now I will make you cry!"

If you want Horror then I recommend Hereditary. If you want Comedy you still can't do better than Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. As for Comedy-Horror you're on your own (ParaNorman maybe?).

Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness is streaming on Disney+.

Beach reads

Makes sense (LARB) -- I read A Naked Singularity (Amazon) by De La Pava at Wells Beach, Maine (blog). I also read Tree of Smoke (A) and The Diviners (wp). Not the same year, of course! 

Today I would consult Daniela Blei's nifty survey of beach reads. 

It even looks like a beach read!

"Now, more than ever, America needed a hero. Was he Norman Mailer?"

"There is,at least on the surface, an insistent buffoonery to [Norman Mailer's] self-projected public image that can be difficult to take seriously."

Norman Mailer has fallen out of favour, for good reason, as has Commentary (at least with my bunch) but I have been thinking about this essay by James Toback. I blog about Mailer here. 

"

"No, I will make you cry"

INSIDE MAN, dir. Paul McGuigan on Netflix

The central tension could have and should have been disbanded by an early disclosure of the Truth. Those who have been around me know this is a deal-breaker with me. But I agreed with the show's writer (the incomparable Steven Moffat) and I like Stanley Tucci. 

Inside Man is a 4-hour miniseries on Netflix. 

HIGH FLYING BIRD dir. Steven Soderbergh on Netflix

Hey -- I was in the hospital in a coma! Don't miss it!  

"I will make you cry!"

91 minutes, on Netflix. 

Be sure your sins will find you out...

... or just read digg here. 

They all look so good!

STAR WARS: REBELS — Four reasons why I got hooked!

Full disclosure: I have seen this series and am watching it again. 

First of all, I'm a sucker for the animation. 

Secondly, Rex and Ahsoka. 

"Now we'll make you cry!"

Thirdly, there's a strong "Be careful what you wish for" ethic. 

Fourthly, it's the only Star Wars to make me cry. 

Remembrance Day, Manitoba, 1980

A person could buy milk and gasoline, but that was all. Remembrance Day in Manitoba, 1980, was incredibly quiet. The bustle of Ontario was a revelation.

Leonard Cohen reads In Flanders Fields here. Tony Hillerman was in Europe and remembers. 

CREATIVE WRITING!

I mention John Gardner the most. I blog about him here. I recommend The Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers (Amazon here) and On Becoming A Novelist (Amazon here). I've read and recommend The Sunlight Dialogues (Amazon here).

I also recommend On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King (Amazon here — "The adverb is not your friend." The Marginalian here). After that you are on your own with Mr. King and his many books. (I generally don't like him, but here I give him some good press). 

But the best creative writing book of the last 25 years is (drumroll, please) Booklife by Jeff VanderMeer — (Amazon) here. He subsequently wrote and had published a little something called Annihilation (Amazon) here and (The Atlantic) here. 

I've got all three! Image from here. 

Proof that Alan Jacobs is living my best life

Dostoevsky, Foucault, Pynchon -- and the QAnon Shaman. Oh my!

*yaaawn*

Brian Eno

Brian Eno is something of a hero because of his wreck. The latest Eno is this YouTube interview. 

SEX!

I think about it -- I'm slowly recovering from a hemorrhagic stroke, I'm not dead. We used to have sex at least once a month. I would get quite grumpy when this wasn't the case. Then I woke up in a hospital. 

Something has changed.

Would you have sex with this bunch? 

I remember Nelson Mandela being released from prison and saying, "Sex is no big deal." More recently Canadian former stadium rockers Trooper, now relegated to bars, opened up to Toronto's National Newspaper. They weren't at all concerned with the local beauty who was concerned with them. They WERE concerned about the paycheck. 

I associate sex with agency.  I can't even go to the bathroom by myself. So sex is not so much as a thought. 

I'm back to Nelson Mandela... 

What are we no longer in the "Golden Age" of?

 I expected a lot of avocado toast. But no... 

Looks yummy! But then I'm no judge -- EVERYTHING looks yummy!