Pop Culture Diet: Late Night

The goddess Emma Thompson is starring in a new movie written by the goddess Mindy Kaling and it came out last week, so we’re a bit behind, but here’s you’re pop culture diet to complement the movie Late Night.

What to read:

Sense and Sensibility: The Screenplay and Diaries by Emma Thompson

Did you know that the goddess Emma Thompson wrote the screenplay for the Ang Lee directed Sense and Sensibility? Did you know that Ang Lee directed Sense and Sensibility? She’s so fucking brilliant and he’s so fucking brilliant but they’re brilliant in very (artistically, culturally, personally) different ways that, you know, hilarity ensues.

Bridget Jones Diary by Helen Fielding

Fuck you if you think you’re too good for this book, it’s delightful. It’s about a definitely hapless and maybe brilliant woman being underappreciated at work and, huh, also related to Austen, like the pick above. Does Mindy Kaling’s whole oeuvre tie in with the work of Jane Austen? Did I just stumble into that realization? Stay tuned for my think piece.

What to watch:

There are two types of people in the world. Those who recognize the fritatta sequence in Morning Glory as belonging in the Louvre and those who haven’t seen Morning Glory. Which type do you want to be?

What to listen to:

Now that Kanye West is problematic I have to expand the scope of my music recommendations. Please bear with me during this difficult time.

Consolation Prize

What did RedBrick read this month? A series of tweets by the best human to ever write using that art form, Mr. Kanye West. For context, West is releasing a long-anticipated new album soon, and he tweeted to announce that the album’s title, previously Swish, was now Waves.

 

#Waves pic.twitter.com/Azig7aNYOu

— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) January 27, 2016

Wiz Khalifa, for reasons I’m not going to go into here, objected to the title change, and West objected to Khalifa’s objection.

Things I learned from watching television: The Last Girlfriend on Earth

Here’s a post about a book that came out two years ago because a girl can’t always be on the cutting edge, you know? But how did I discover this? While laying around like a zombie watching television on a Sunday morning instead of contributing to society. The way I discover most great things.* Man Seeking Woman is a show on FXX starring Jay Baruchel based on the book The Last Girlfriend on Earth by Simon Rich. It’s one of those frustrating shows that critics love but no one watches. Luckily, it’s on FXX instead of one of the sucky major networks so it has been picked up for a second season. The show, which is run and written by Rich, is filmed in Toronto so as a Canadian I’m obligated to watch it if I want to continue receiving health care.

Choosing a horse for the Amazon First Novel Award

In partnership with The Walrus, Amazon has announced the shortlist for the prestigious First Novel Award. The award has a history of predicting literary superstars so you’ll want to pay attention here. The shortlist is:

All True not a Lie in it by Alix Hawley

Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hooper

Us Conductors by Sean Michaels

New Tab by Guillaume Morissette

Pedal by Chelsea Rooney

Us Conductors is probably the bookie’s favourite as it was the winner of this year’s Scotiabank Giller Prize but my money is on Emma Hooper’s excellent Etta and Otto and Russell and James. It stands the trope of ladies wandering for miles in order to find themselves on its head. To read more, check out my recent review of the book in the Fiction Advocate.

Elliot Ackerman’s ‘Green on Blue’ is a remedy for the “glory” of war

If you don’t like war stories but know that they must be told – in fiction as well as in fact – then perhaps Green on Blue is for you.

If you know that stories are an effective way to understand conflict but are worried that Clint Eastwood is the only one willing to tell conflict stories then perhaps Green on Blue is for you.

If you understand that to “the enemy” you are “the enemy” then perhaps Green on Blue is for you.

Kazuo Ishiguro calls out our buried giants

Last night at the Toronto Public Library’s Appel Salon, Kazuo Ishiguro stopped by to speak about his new novel The Buried Giant. To a sold out crowd, Ishiguro talked about his inspiration, the flack he’s getting for including pixies and ogres, and his long history of plagiarizing Charlotte Bronte.

Searching the globe for the real James Bond

New York Magazine’s The Vulture has a piece today about Ian Fleming’s post-war life in Jamaica. Fleming built a house called Goldeneye and it is believed that Fleming’s Jamaican life is the source of the James Bond character. At his Jamaican home Fleming wrote all of the Bond novels and rubbed elbows with artists who began to seek refuge on the island, including Noel Coward, Graham Greene and Truman Capote. But the James Bond character began to germinate before Fleming’s time in Jamaica, while he was serving as a British Naval Intelligence Officer for MI5 and was sent to stay at a luxurious hotel in Portugal.

‘Welcome to Braggsville’ was a welcome punch in the face

There is not much I can tell you about T. Geronimo Johnson’s Welcome to Braggsville without getting into what I consider spoiler territory. Other reviews and even the book jacket will tell you more than I will here, but I beg you to just go read the book with out seeking out any further information.

New Patrick DeWitt novel! New Patrick DeWitt novel!

 

If you haven’t yet read Patrick DeWitt’s marvelous The Sisters Brothers, you have until September to get on that, because the Oregon based writer has a new novel, and some exciting new cover art, coming our way.

What to do with ‘The Coldest Winter Ever’

 

This is something of a wayback playback, but I want to talk about Sister Souljah’s The Coldest Winter Ever. The 1999 novel by the Brooklyn MC is about the daughter of a New York City drug lord. The daughter, Winter, loses her wealth and status when her father is arrested and their assets are seized by the FBI. Winter survives by moving in with another drug dealer, exchanging her body for the lifestyle to which she’s become accustomed. When that arrangement ends she lives briefly with family, flees child services, greases up her face and takes off her fake nails before a  girl-fight, and in a key scene, shaves her pubic hair into a cute shape to try and woo a famous rapper into sleeping with her. If this sounds crazy please keep in mind this was the nineties, so women still had pubic hair.