The Hobbit
Description via The StoryGraph:
Venture “there and back again” with this special enhanced edition of the enchanting prelude to The Lord of the Rings, illustrated throughout with over 50 sketches, drawings, paintings and maps by J.R.R. Tolkien himself, and the complete text printed in two colors.
Bilbo Baggins is a hobbit who enjoys a comfortable, unambitious life, rarely travelling further than the pantry of his hobbit-hole in Bag End. But his contentment is disturbed when the wizard, Gandalf, and a company of thirteen dwarves arrive on his doorstep one day to whisk him away on an unexpected journey ‘there and back again.’ They have a plot to raid the treasure hoard of Smaug the Magnificent, a large and very dangerous dragon . . .
Written for J.R.R. Tolkien’s own children, The Hobbit was published on 21 September 1937. With a beautiful cover design, a handful of black & white drawings and two maps by the author himself, the book became an instant success and was reprinted shortly afterwards with five color plates.
Tolkien’s own selection of finished paintings and drawings have become inseparable from his text, adorning editions of The Hobbit for more than 85 years. But the published art has afforded only a glimpse of Tolkien’s creative process, and many additional sketches, colored drawings and maps – although exhibited and published elsewhere – have never appeared within the pages of The Hobbit.
In this unique enhanced edition of Tolkien’s enchanting classic tale, the full panoply of his art is reproduced for the first time, presenting more than 50 illustrations to accompany Bilbo Baggins on his adventure ‘there and back again.’
Robots and Empire
Description via The StoryGraph:
Long after his humiliating defeat at the hands of Earthman Elijah Baley, Keldon Amadiro embarked on a plan to destroy planet Earth. But even after his death, Baley's vision continued to guide his robot partner, R. Daneel Olivaw, who had the wisdom of a great man behind him and an indestructible will to win....
Mr. Crocket
This one caught me completely off guard. I’d never heard of this film. I saw the thumbnail, hit play, and went in completely blind. Less than two minutes later and I was clutching a first class ticket for the gore train straight to hell.
And what a fantastically wild and nasty ride, it was too.
Ghost Ship
When this movie came out I was working in a Hollywood Video. See kids, back in the day we used to have these stores…
Poltergeist (2015)
This is a tough watch for me. I’ve been putting it off for nearly a decade at this point. The original film came out the year I was born and was my first ever horror movie. I adore it and firmly believe that it still holds up really well against modern cinema. Toby Hooper was a legend.
This movie’s ineptitude is no one’s fault, except maybe whoever greenlit it. All the ingredients are in their own right fantastic...
V/H/S/Beyond
I know folks have strong opinions about the V/H/S series but I absolutely adore them. These movies proudly and openly wear their over-the-top madness on their sleeves. Love letters to grotesque splattering of ridiculous camp and humor worn like badges of honor.
The Haunting in Connecticut
I saw this years ago when it first came out. That was the year my youngest high schooler was born, if that says anything. I remember hating it at the time, but I think my critical brain is much less rigid than it was then. All ties to the Warren’s bullshit aside...
The Autopsy of Jane Doe
So when I say I’ve slept on this movie, I mean… a dead sleep. I’ll forever consider it one of the great tragedies of my life that I’ve looked at this flick for years and thought, I’ll get to it.
Skinamarink
You know what? I liked it. There's a great deal to be said for new experiences and this is definitely out there. Very Lynchian. Usually not being able to tell what's happening or being able to see anything in a movie is a negative thing, but this movie uses all of it's visual space in a way that works at your imagination.
The Empty Man
"We can't indict the cosmos."
Intersectionality: Origins, Contestations, Horizons
Description via The StoryGraph:
A 2017 Choice Outstanding Academic Title
Intersectionality intervenes in the field of intersectionality studies: the integrative examination of the effects of racial, gendered, and class power on people's lives. While "intersectionality" tends to circulate merely as a buzzword, Anna Carastathis joins other critical voices in urging a more careful reading. Challenging the narratives of arrival that surround it, Carastathis argues that intersectionality is a horizon, illuminating ways of thinking that have yet to be realized; consequently, calls to "go beyond" intersectionality are premature. A provisional interpretation of intersectionality can disorient habits of essentialism, categorical purity, and prototypicality and overcome dynamics of segregation and subordination in political movements.
Through a close reading of critical race theorist Kimberl Williams Crenshaw's germinal texts, published more than twenty-five years ago, Carastathis urges analytic clarity, contextual rigor, and a politicized, historicized understanding of this pervasive concept. Intersectionality's roots in social justice movements and critical intellectual projects--specifically black feminism--must be retraced and synthesized with a decolonial analysis so that its potential to actualize coalitions can be enacted.
We the Animals by Justin Torres
Description via The StoryGraph:
An exquisite, blistering debut novel.
Three brothers tear their way through childhood — smashing tomatoes all over each other, building kites from trash, hiding out when their parents do battle, tiptoeing around the house as their mother sleeps off her graveyard shift. Paps and Ma are from Brooklyn — he’s Puerto Rican, she’s white — and their love is a serious, dangerous thing that makes and unmakes a family many times.
Life in this family is fierce and absorbing, full of chaos and heartbreak and the euphoria of belonging completely to one another. From the intense familial unity felt by a child to the profound alienation he endures as he begins to see the world, this beautiful novel reinvents the coming-of-age story in a way that is sly and punch-in-the-stomach powerful.
Written in magical language with unforgettable images, this is a stunning exploration of the viscerally charged landscape of growing up, how deeply we are formed by our earliest bonds, and how we are ultimately propelled at escape velocity toward our futures.
There There
Description via The StoryGraph:
ONE OF THE 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR--THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
WINNER OF THE CENTER FOR FICTION FIRST NOVEL PRIZE
One of the Best Books of the Year: The Washington Post, NPR, Time, O, The Oprah Magazine, San Francisco Chronicle, Entertainment Weekly, The Boston Globe, GQ, The Dallas Morning News, Buzzfeed, BookPage, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews
NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLER
Tommy Orange's "groundbreaking, extraordinary" (The New York Times) There There is the "brilliant, propulsive" (People Magazine) story of twelve unforgettable characters, Urban Indians living in Oakland, California, who converge and collide on one fateful day. It's "the year's most galvanizing debut novel" (Entertainment Weekly).
As we learn the reasons that each person is attending the Big Oakland Powwow--some generous, some fearful, some joyful, some violent--momentum builds toward a shocking yet inevitable conclusion that changes everything. Jacquie Red Feather is newly sober and trying to make it back to the family she left behind in shame. Dene Oxendene is pulling his life back together after his uncle's death and has come to work at the powwow to honor his uncle's memory. Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield has come to watch her nephew Orvil, who has taught himself traditional Indian dance through YouTube videos and will to perform in public for the very first time. There will be glorious communion, and a spectacle of sacred tradition and pageantry. And there will be sacrifice, and heroism, and loss.
There There is a wondrous and shattering portrait of an America few of us have ever seen. It's "masterful . . . white-hot . . . devastating" (The Washington Post) at the same time as it is fierce, funny, suspenseful, thoroughly modern, and impossible to put down. Here is a voice we have never heard--a voice full of poetry and rage, exploding onto the page with urgency and force. Tommy Orange has written a stunning novel that grapples with a complex and painful history, with an inheritance of beauty and profound spirituality, and with a plague of addiction, abuse, and suicide. This is the book that everyone is talking about right now, and it's destined to be a classic.
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Synopsis via The StoryGraph:
On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne's fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick's clever and beautiful wife disappears. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn't doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife's head, but passages from Amy's diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media--as well as Amy's fiercely doting parents--the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he's definitely bitter--but is he really a killer?
Top 25 Albums of 2023
Top 25 of 2023.
This was a difficult year. I had 111 albums on my playlist that I really liked throughout the year and choosing 25 was a nightmare. These are not ranked in order of favorites as I could work figuring that out for decades and die without reaching a solution. Instead I have listed them in alphabetical order.
Each album art thumbnail links to a related Youtube video.
Cormac McCarthy | 1933-2023
Not since Faulkner has there been such a singularly unique and original voice in literature.
Shazam!
So, this is my first post since a) starting the Podcast and b) switching to substack. I’m going to start off with the usual nonsense…
On my new rating system
No Cool Shit…
Nothing for this week at this point other than making some good writing progress so I’m just sticking with that for now.
Cocaine Bear
POSSIBLE SPOILERS!!!
It’s been a bit since I’ve posted but these drafts have been hanging about so I’m trying to get them out.
”I honestly can’t think of anything to compare it with.”