Lapvona by Otessa Moshfegh

I will not deny that Otessa Moshfegh is a talented stylist capable of keen insight into a character's motivation.  But Lapvona is proof that alone is not enough to sustain a novel. 

In a fictional Medevial village Marek is the deformed son of incestuous rape, raised by an abusive stepfather to believe his mother has died.  The teenager commits a crime that, incredibly, elevates him to royal status, and in the aftermath the difficult life of the village begins to sour all the more. 

It sounds almost like a story when I summarize it. It is not.  It is a meandering, pointless snippet from the life of a thinly developed protagonist who, in turn, is surrounded by equally ill developed characters. These people exist in print only to allow the author to showcase rape, cannibalism, sexual abuse, and degradation.

It's not literary horror. What it WAS is a waste of my time. 

Pass.

Stuart Woods

Bestselling author Stuart Woods has passed away.  RIP

Memories

Lisa and Smiley visited an antiques store today and she found many items from her childhood . . .

I had this!!!! I bought it from the oriental store across from Southgate mall...the newest 1987 technology in fiber optics!!! 

This is midnight Barbie's horse that came w a stamper, years before you could just go to the dollar store and buy one. If they had the stamper and saddle with this one I might have been more tempted to buy it lol

And Grandma Pickett had a set of these!

Bernard Cribbins

Bernard Cribbins, best known here as Donna's Grandfather on Doctor Who but a star in the UK for seven decades, has died at 93. RIP.

Tony Dow

Actor, director, and carpenter Tony Dow - forever known as Wally on Leave it to Beaver and its '80's sequel, Still the Beaver- has lost his battle with cancer.  He was 77. RIP. 

note: this was originally posted yesterday, 7/26, then retracted when the news reported that his wife's statement on his death was inaccurate and that he remained in hospice. He passed today. 

Me and Huck

Just a man and his doggo :)

Paul Sorvino

Actor Paul Sorvino (Goodfellas. Law & Order) has passed away at 83. RIP.

David Warner

British actor David Warner (Titanic, Tron, Star Trek, Doctor Who), has passed away of cancer at age 80. RIP

The Gray Man

Everyone I've heard speak about this movie trashes it,  but I think I'm the first person I know to actually WATCH it.  It isn't as bad as advertised.  Heck, I'll go so far as to say it was good by the standards of generic action movies.  

Was the CGI bad? In the case of the setting chosen for the climax, you betcha. That looked like they created it on my old Compaq All-in- One from 1996. But do you really care,  given all the action on screen at that moment? Nah.

And the action in Gray Man is impressive.  The Prague sequence alone was worth the proverbial cost of admission. 

Chris Evans was devilishly good in his turn as the field level bad guy,  even with his goofy mustache.  To my great chagrin, Ryan Gosling played a convincing operative, and unlike with most action heroes, his humor seemed genuine and actually,  you know … funny.

Now this is based on the book of the same name by Mark Greaney, and while significant details were added and subtracted to the story,  it retains the recognizable skeleton of the source material. Honestly,  it's better than the book, which I found tedious and which treated the character as an indestructible Superman. 

Don't get me wrong.  This isn't Shakespeare or even Die Hard. You can see the plot points coming from across town.  But it is entertaining, and the last time I checked,  that's the reason for movies in the first place.

Watch it. 

Alanis Morissette: The Jagged Little Pill 25th Anniversary Tour

Last night Lisa and I saw Alanis Morissette in concert at the American Family Insurance Amphitheater here in Milwaukee. It was my second time seeing her, and Lisa's fourth (at least). 

 Honestly, we thought the concert would be postponed. Heck, we thought it SHOULD be postponed. There was a severe thunderstorm warning in effect, with a storm on the way that was advertising up to 40mph winds.

But we called -several times - and the show was going ahead, and the thousands of cheap, open air seats? They were being upgraded under the roof, free of charge, making Lisa a little angry that she had spend good money on a seat that in retrospect she could have had for $30 bucks. 

Socialism sucks. 

We still weren't convinced the concert would go on, and despite a 7pm start we knew Alanis wasn't taking the stage until 8:30, so we went to dinner at Sabor Tropical in Bay View. 

Lisa had a pineapple margarita

and we split a delicious Cuban sandwich 

We also split a huge bowl of soup. I forget the name of the dish, sadly, but it had hominy and fresh cilantro and onion. 

The storm arrived as we ate, knocking over a table on the patio and sending the patio umbrella flying down the street as the rain came down in sheets.

We still went to the show. 

It was a long walk from the parking lot to the amphitheater, and that would come and bite us in the butt on the way out. But inbound, the rain had stopped.  The building was crowded, much more so than when I saw her co-headlining with Barenaked Ladies; this was is an anniversary tour to celebrate Jagged Little Pill, and nothing revives interest like nostalgia. 

We arrived in our seats (after I kicked out two squatters) at 8:35pm. (ignore the empty seats; they promptly filled in once the lights went down)

Alanis took the stage at 8:37. 

Perfect timing. 

Here's the setlist from the show. As you can see, it was the entirety of Jagged, although out of order, and a light mix of her other work. Lisa was ecstatic to hear Ablaze, Alanis's ode to her children, but the song inspired the (intoxicated) young woman in front of us to turn and ask if we knew the song, then react with distaste. 

All I Really Want

Hand in My Pocket

Right Through You

You Learn

Hands Clean (Snippet)

Forgiven

Everything (Snippet)

Mary Jane

Diagnosis (Snippet)

Reasons I Drink

Head Over Feet

So Unsexy (Snippet)

Ablaze

Nemesis (Snippet)

Perfect

Losing the Plot (Snippet)

Wake Up

Not the Doctor

Ironic

Sympathetic Character (Snippet)

Smiling

I Remain (Snippet)

You Oughta Know

Encore:

Your House

Uninvited

Thank U

Alanis's voice was INCREDIBLE, holding notes and using her vocal cords as the best instrument on the stage. At 48, she made no pretense of divadom, wearing sneakers, messy blond hair,  and a loose t-shirt that looked to have  a homemade design. 

It was a great show. 

Unfornately, the long walk in, the wet surroundings, and a poor choice of footwear gave Lisa a bad blister so I walked back for the car alone after the concert, No big deal, except with traffic, police blocking off routes, etc, it took forever to link up. 

On the way home we stopped at the Gordo Burger - now rechristened as "Gordo BubbleWaffle Cafe" and got a cookies and cream waffle desert and a peanut butter cup milkshake. So much for the calories that were burned on the walk LOL

It was a great night. And you don't have to take my word for it. Here's Lisa's post:

Having the fucking time of my life with Dan .25 years since Jagged little pill....tonight we got to revisit it

Will love Alanis forever....never missed a Milwaukee show yet, but this one might have been the best.

Fun fact: we were "this close" to naming one of our daughters Alanis..all 3 daughters actually.

Reviver by Seth Patrick

 

Junie finished reading this book earlier this year, after taking it off Lulu's bookshelf, and I picked up after getting hooked on the first few chapters.  So that means 3 of us have read it.

Unfortunately, those first chapters were a bait and switch. It began as a unique and terrifying premise - forensic artists can resurrect dead victims just long enough to coax the name of their killer, only now, something far darker wants to cross the divide into our world.  Aaaaand then it devolved into a run of the mill thriller novel, complete with unnecessary romance, hokey cliffhangers, yada yada. 

When I asked Junie her opinion of it, to see if it matched mine, she merely shrugged and said "It was a book."

I grade it a C.

A big day for Junie

Everything Everywhere All at Once

 

We rented this movie after YaYa and Smiley independently recommended it, with one of them (I do not remember which) declaring it one of the most moving and powerful films they had seen. 

I enjoyed it, but I don't feel nearly as strongly about it. 

EEAAO is the story of Evelyn, a Chinese-American immigrant who lives in a cluttered apartment above the laundromat she owns with her husband, a man she secretly blames for the mundane life she lives. The business is under threat by the IRS, her daughter is barely on speaking terms with her, and her estranged father lives with them and does little beyond ratchet up her anxiety.  

So it is a bit surprising when Evelyn is told that she is but one of an infinite number of Evelyn's across the multiverse, and as it happens, the one Evelyn destined to stop an all-powerful entity threatening creation. 

The movie, if you can't tell, is part drama, part sci-fi, part action/kung-fu film, and part comedy. It's an unusual and  awkward mix of genres that works most of the time. When it clicks, you're delighted and left smiling at the screen. The few times it doesn't - well, it plops down with a thud. 

I think Michelle Yeoh and Stephanie Hsu were magnificent as the mother/daughter pair, and deserve award consideration. Beyond that, I don't think the movie lives up to the praise it's received. It's very good, but it isn't Citizen Kane. 

Perhaps, and I am quite serious here, the divide is purely generation. A large chunk of the film devotes itself to a nihilistic view of life, and the search to find a sliver of existence that by itself is enough to make you forget how small we are in the universe. 

That's a  subject that speaks far more to those just finding their footing in adulthood than it does someone who has seen the meaning of life reflected back in their children's eyes. 

Grade: B

Honey Buns

I had a honey bun phase when I was like 9 and I stg I just can’t eat them any more it’s sickening. YaYa

Another classmate lost

losing childhood classmates can be difficult and it seems to be happening a lot lately. gun violence is especially difficult for me to hear about and i hope everyone is taking the time they need. peace to the families, sincerely YaYa

A Walk in the Park

Does your park have yarn covered benches?

Voyage on the Great Titanic

One of YaYa's self-described favorite books of her childhood. 

The 2022 MLB Draft

Tonight I watched the 1st Round of the 2022 MLB Draft.

For Father's Day Junie bought me Baseball America's annual draft issue.  I have fond memories of dissecting those issues in years past,  highlighting the bio of prospects I thought were future big leaguers. On the day of the draft I would track the event in notes scribbled on the pages,  identifying where reality differed from the predictions of the writers.

Today I did much the same thing,  this time with Junie watching most of it with me - not by intention, she just wandered in - and asking some good questions.  She even offered to watch the next rounds with me,  although that might have been just a polite social lie. 

The Brewers, with the 28th pick, chose Eric Brown, a shortstop out of Coastal Carolina. BA ranked him the 53rd best prospect in the draft. 

Here's hoping he succeeds.

A Gift

These are the Polish headrest covers YaYa gave me last month.