Day 2,013, Quasi-Quarantine: Kino Loy Has The Words We're All Trying To Find

Thank the maker for "Andor," for lo so many reasons.

Locate your inner rebel.

Find your alliance.

Limerick Friday #639: Once-Proud Franchise Continues Wandering In The Wilderness -- Day 2,009

Been listening to this same song

For entirely too goddam long

Another tank job from the 'Fins

I see it before it happens

But just once I'd like to be fucking wrong

A country in need of a vacation

Embracing fascism without hesitation

Every truth is a lie

That will make another person die

Welcome to Gaslight Nation

Often play lazy and dumb

The Mets make me crazy and numb

So rely on every rook

And let the phenoms cook

And hope it's enough to overcome

Keep running into buzzsaws

Now injuries without pause

A third of the roster hurt

Now pick ourselves up from the dirt

And break all the fantasy football laws

Find good where you can

Then get up and do it again

Overwhelming it can feel

That's part of the deal

Happy is possible now and then

Last time ...

Day 2,007, Quasi-Quarantine: Underdogs Try To Topple Rigged Entertainment Game In "Everybody Knows"

 

“This feeling washes over her, this soul-deep wish to just go back to when she could walk through this burning world without noticing it’s on fire.”

This entertaining tale is powered by rapid pacing and clipped sentences, as the seedy underbelly of Los Angeles is exposed block by block. "Everybody Knows" proceeds breakneck through the LA streets as every Hollywood sin joins the never-ending car chase.

“Everything is a sequel or a reboot or an adaptation. Everything is an echo of something else. It’s like her friend Sarah says about the Industry: Somebody somewhere catches lightning in a bottle – and all over town people run out and they buy bottles.”

Jordan Harper has created a noir feel that tries almost too hard to be noir. At times, Aaron Sorkin-level dialogue also serves to undercut the story arc. 

“No one asks if those things are true. No one cares. The only job is to disconnect power from responsibility.”

“‘I know who he is.’

‘You’ve got it wrong already. At a certain point people stop being a who and start being a why.’”

The result is an oppressively dark exploration of the unstoppable force of the bad and powerful, making this one truly a story for its time.

“Who doesn’t know their lives are built on top of bones? Who doesn’t carry inside them that it’s only brutal violence keeping this world afloat? Child slaves making our clothes, factory farms turning animals to slurry, nations of plastic floating in the ocean. Is she supposed to yank all that down too? Just her?”

Day 2,000, Quasi-Quarantine: "A Day In The Life Of Abed Salama" Is A Devastating Depiction Of Palestinian-Jewish Relations

“We do not see our hand in what happens, so we call certain events melancholy accidents when they are the inevitabilities of our projects, and we call other events necessities merely because we will not change our minds.”

~Stanley Cavell

At times heart-breaking and heart-warming, devastating and tender, "A Day in the Life of Abed Salama" bends all emotions to its will. Nathan Thrall's work is powered by meticulous research, well-rounded perspectives, and graceful storytelling.

The author manages to weave regional history and geopolitical discussion into a narrative about a horrific bus accident, the students who were lost, and the families who were reduced to rubble in the search to learn their fates. 

“‘You’ve turned our autonomy into a prison for us,’ the lead Palestinian negotiator, Abu Ala, said.”

The timely book is aided by a series of extremely useful maps as it seeks to create context for the fraught interactions and the whirlwind nature of life in contested territory.

"A Day in the Life of Abed Salama" unsparingly details the horrors of occupation, the casual cruelty of overt racism -- and the love it takes to manifest the determination needed to persist and exist in their faces.

Limerick Friday #638: Belicheat Embarrasses Every Chapel Shill -- Day 1,995

The bandwagon couldn't wait to applaud

And pretended to be suitably awed

The local media cupped his balls

Ignoring his cheating and falls

'Til they recognized a fellow fraud

Bobby Kennedy was a hero of mine

The most promising of his line

Now his son is killing kids

And selling out to the highest bids

Of American destruction, just the latest sign

Par for the course at UNC

Hoping to skip steps 1, 2, and 3

Tried to buy a culture and team

They've always been more "to seem"

Rather than "to be"

In football's return we bask

But so many questions to ask

Can the Wolfpack compete?

Can the Scooters repeat?

And how many issues can the 'Fins mask?

A heartless, creepy old man

Lies and deceives each spineless fan

On the young he preys

While every sycophant obeys

Trump or Belicheat -- decide if you can

Last time ...

Day 1,993, Quasi-Quarantine: "Never Flinch" Marks Yet Another Return Of Holly Gibney, The Character Stephen King Can't Quit

 

“She understands that extreme horror is, in its own way, merciful. It doesn’t allow you to look ahead to the end.”

Detective Holly Gibney is back yet again in Stephen King's "Never Flinch," as are the coincidences and cloud of trouble that perpetually surround her.

In this installment, the journeys of a serial killer and a stalker converge in Ohio, and Holly and her cast of familiars are squarely in the crosshairs. King makes use of contemporary storylines, his customary sublime character-building, and his trademark frantic pacing to make up for some required suspension of disbelief.

“Most days I’m like a one-legged woman in an ass-kicking contest.”

The Finders Keepers universe is at its best when Holly and her surrogate family -- Jerome, Barbara, and Pete -- align to solve otherworldly mysteries, but this one lacks the fantastical and the foursome spend most of their time on their own paths. The result is a fun read that lacks the depth and existential questions of previous efforts.

“He stepped over the line, and guess what? The other side of the line is no different. The idea is both terrible and comforting.”