Entertainment Update – 2019

Unless we’re maintaining some major equipment, like the head, life on Aleta is mostly beer and skittles (or gin and olives as Carol points out). Last year we delved into and made short reviews of some of our pop culture favs. It’s time for an update. Here is a series of short reviews, by category, of stuff we’ve read, watched, or listened to recently. Just like last time, we capriciously rated each item on a scale of 1 to 3 sheets to the wind, with 3 as the highest accolade.

BOOKS

I Am Radar, by Reif Larsen: A sweeping story of physics, metaphysics, war, love, and falling elephants, Larsen has wrought one of the most entertaining books I’ve read in a very long time. It’s the book you wish Saul Bellow had written and thus spared you 90% of Henderson the Rain King in high school. Nerdy, geeky, and thoroughly engaging, I bought my copy in a bookstore on Long Island. It’s still on our shelf. Come aboard and borrow it. – MN/CK [3]

The Plover: Brian Doyle’s new-age nautical epic combines northwest American spiritualism with Irish practicality. I read a chapter aloud every evening during our crossing from St. Martin to Faial. Unfortunately, Aleta sailed so fast we arrived a week ahead of the book. It is a story of second chances, of shedding oneself of the skin that constrains us, and once shed, freely moving forward. It is a love story a story of long lists of great fear triumph redemption and joy. Just go feckin’ read it, will you? – CK/MN [3]

The Good Lord Bird: Okay, so I’m behind the rest of the universe, but I’m doing my best to catch up. Carol read this book years ago and I finally picked it up. Once I did, I couldn’t put it down. Weaving together fact and fiction, James McBride spins a dolefully humorous yarn set in the heat of the American Civil War. With echoes of Brer Rabbit and Tall Tales, this rattling good yarn centers on an unlikely narrator with unlikely alliances. Whoever said one man’s terrorist is another man’s liberator must have been speaking of John Brown. – MN/CK [3]*

TELLY

Godless, Netflix: Netflix likes to believe it knows what I want to watch. When I clicked on and read the description of this award-winning western it said it was only a 63% match. In Netflix terms that’s as close as Kalgoorlie is to Bundaberg – if you’re traveling by foot. Godless, refreshingly, has a beginning, a middle and an end, covered in a span of seven episodes. With a strong, linear, feminine narrative, the series is wonderfully filmed and well-acted. Jeff Daniels is superb as the bad guy. While there are plenty of beautiful horses, there is also a good deal of graphic violence. It is not for the faint of heart. – MN/CK [3]

Preacher, AMC: Speaking of graphic violence, dark, dark humor and Irish practicality, AMC’s adaptation of the Preacher graphic novels is something to experience. Without giving too much away, God goes missing and a preacher, his gunslinger girlfriend, and a vampire head out on the ultimate road trip to try and find Him. – CK/MN [3]

Derry Girls, Netflix: Derry Girls chronicles the (mis)adventures of a group of young (read teenaged), Catholic women growing up in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, during the troubles. This is broad comedy to the point of farce. The writing settles into a groove after a couple of episodes making it bingeworthy. Note: if you haven’t tuned your ear for the Derry accent, you may want to turn on subtitles. – MN [3]

Ride with Norman Reedus, AMC: I don’t watch The Walking Dead. I never have and probably never will. So, I had no idea who Norman Reedus was when I first started watching his program. As a rider I love shows about riding (motorcycles). The Long Way Round was the seminal motorbike adventuring series and it kicked off an entire industry. But Ride with Norman Reedus is more accessible. It’s about adventures that regular folks can take over a weekend. These are fun shows with interesting people finding cool places to ride. Plus, Norman has good taste: like me he rides a Triumph Tiger. – MN [3]

FILM

The Fifth Element, Luc Besson writer/director: If you’re a fan of French sci-fi comics and American action-comedy movies, then this 1997 classic has everything you could want. Something of a Gallic showcase, the incomparable Jean ‘Moebius’ Giraud led the production design and Jean-Paul Gaultier supplied the costumes. Twenty-two years on even the special effects hold up. The plot? Bruce Willis (as a deconstructed special forces officer) and Milla Jovovich (as a reconstructed alien) fall in love to save the world. – MN [3]

AUDIOCASTS

NPR News vs. BBC News: NPR wins hands down. What used to be entertaining, the BBC Today program now sounds a bit tedious. Too often it’s announcers with pucker accents arguing pointlessly with their interlocuters. NPR’s Morning Edition by comparison is a monument of concision and pacing. Our challenge on Aleta is reprogramming our internal clocks and listening to yesterday’s All Things Considered at breakfast and today’s Morning Edition at lunchtime. – MN/CK [3 for NPR, 1 for the BBC]

Revisionist History, by Malcolm Gladwell: Now in its fourth season Gladwell continues to do his thing. – MN/CK [3]

*Gender (pro)noun police notice: man in this case is short for human.