"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"