Posts for category ‘pop culture’

(“Occasional” is one of those words I never spell correctly on the first try. And often not on the second try, neitha.)

A tiny break from the deep thoughts! Gotta save ‘em up for some other writing today and tomorrow. It’s Friday, after all, and people in publishing are only working half the day, Matt de la Pena is writing shirtless, and there’s a good chance an ice cream truck will drive by your house any second now. So let’s lighten things up a bit.

1. I was very pleased with the outcomes of MasterChef and So You Think You Can Dance. Yeah, I bet you thought that the Sara who wrote those last three posts wasn’t the type to spend six hours a week watching reality shows. Think again! As for MC, I know it’s popular to hate on Christian, but of all the contestants I found Suzy most odious. And: what do professional, working dancers think of SYTYCD? This NYT piece reveals all. (Or at least a few opinions.)

2. A German YA video blogger reviewed Zicke–the German version of Story of a Girl. Although I can’t understand what she’s saying (though I learned by commenting that she likes it!) this is one of my favorite videos of all time, because it makes real the amazing fact that PEOPLE IN OTHER COUNTRIES ARE READING MY BOOKS. IN THEIR OWN LANGUAGE. That is just cool, and I hope I’m never jaded enough to think otherwise.

3. If you missed it: a couple of weeks ago the NYT had a great piece by Tom Gilbert, on Madelyn Pugh Davis, one of the few female TV writers of ’50s. If you’re an I Love Lucy fan, especially, you must read it.

4. Speaking of inspiring female writers, my Aunt Betty Lou has always been an inspiration to me. It was at her farmhouse in rural North Carolina where I first sat at a typewriter and felt a strange restlessness I’d never felt before. Like, “I don’t just want to type something. I want to write something.” I knew that she did something mysterious at that typewriter. She wrote a number of children’s books, but dedicated her life to supporting my Uncle Ed and the work of the farm, raising a bunch of Rhodes Scholars, and being a wonderful aunt and grandmother. Now, a few of those books are available through Amazon’s Kindle publishing program. Congratulations, Aunt Betty Lou!

5. Randomly: I saw three popcorn movies this summer: Super 8, Cowboys & Aliens, and Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Though there were things I liked about all of them, APES WIN. One of the most satisfying H-wood movies I’ve seen in awhile. What was your favorite summer flick (big or small)?

As a bit of a follow-up to my post about the five years since selling my first book, here are some things from the weekend that made me go, yeah, that’s what it is. Two from the Sunday Times, one from right here in Salt Lake:

- There’s a profile of and interview with James Franco, who has been busy doing visual art and writing fiction and enrolling in like three graduate programs at different schools (and making movies, including adapting the wonderful Paul Mariani’s biography of Hart Crane). He says he used to hate talking about himself and promoting his movies until he realized he’s doing what he loves. Once he figured that out -

“It …feels less like I’m just selling a studio’s product and more like I can just have discussions about things that I enjoy.”

Also, I love the spirit behind him being pleased with a rough review of his art:

He is open about still developing his ideas, even if they sometimes appear before a skeptical public. “All I can do,” he said, “is put the work in.”

- A piece on Kings of Leon is subtitled: “Kings of Leon Are About to Reach the Top. That’s What Worries Them.” I like hearing the other side of it, how success can be its own kind of scary and stressful. Near the end of the interview, lead singer Caleb Followill says:

“…sometimes I do reminisce about the days when we were on a bus. We’d play a gig, and then we’d go outside and drink in the parking lot with all our fans and just hang out. You feel different when you’re in a big cold arena, and you walk offstage and fly to the next gig.” Then again, he added, “once the people start to appreciate what it is that you’re doing, it should be the best thing in the world.” Eventually “I had a long look in the mirror and thought, ‘What are you scared of?’”

- On Sunday night we snagged tickets to see Brandi Carlile here in town. She’s scheduled to play Tuesday—it sold out before I even heard about it. Then a couple of her shows elsewhere got canceled and instead of hanging around doing nothing and feeling bummed out about a big casino gig with Sheryl Crow not happening, the band decided to do two more shows here in Salt Lake, risking small last-minute crowds. They took the unexpected opportunity to do something they’ve never done before—on each of the three nights, the first set would be one of each of her three albums, played straight through, album performed live. The second set would be a bunch of other stuff.

So, since we were there the first night we heard her debut album. “I even got out my wrinkly old Boy Scout shirt,” Brandi said, referring to the shirt she wears on the cover of that CD and had on Sunday night for the first set. They’d had to re-learn the five-year-old album basically in the time it took to ride the bus to SLC; there were several songs that they’d never performed live before, songs that made them nervous. During “In My Own Eyes” there was a little goof, and Brandi, not wanting to deprive the crowd of the song’s big climax, had the band restart from the middle.

Throughout the night she kept remarking how much fun they were having, how new and different this was. This made it so great for the audience, too. The whole show was, simply, awesome and joyful. (And I’m pretty sure that the soul of Johnny Cash literally inhabited Brandi’s body for her cover of “Folsom Prison Blues.” Goosebumps.)

Once you hit on a theme for your current life season, it kind of shows up everywhere.

Here’s the deal. I can’t talk about all the wild and wonderful books I’m reading, because that’s against National Book Awards policy and practice. I don’t want to talk about my next book, because I’m not ready. But I really haven’t been doing much but read those books and work on that manuscript. Yet, much to my surprise, there is still a little gray matter left to ponder the Rest of the Stuff going on in the world. Like:

War. I wish I could feel more hopeful about the winding down of combat operations in Iraq. I missed the President’s speech (see above), and am not sure what to think right now, but here’s what I do know: the U.S. military is full of people serving our country for all the right reasons, and giving up everything to do the best job they can in a totally complicated situation. For them I am grateful and to them I am thankful.

Speaking of war, the documentary Camp Victory, Afghanistan is really fascinating and moving. Also, Restrepo opens this week here in SLC at the Broadway. I’m both eager and scared to see it. Modern warfare makes it too easy for those of us here at home to tune out, forget, misunderstand, or have no clue about what’s going on overseas. We don’t really have to give anything up, the way people did in WWII, and when we’re not feeling the effect on our daily lives we’re not so compelled to understand it. I guess I should just speak for myself. But based on the conversations my friends and I are not having, I’m thinking I’m not the only one. (If there are books or movies that have helped you understand the war in a new or clearer way, feel free to rec them in the comments.)

Locally, The Deseret News just announced it’s going to fire 43% of its staff. Ay-yai. Personally, I’m a Salt Lake Tribune kind of gal, but I’m of the mind that every metropolitan area is better off with at least two thriving papers. We’ll see what happens.

In much more fun news, I did find time to watch the Emmys. (I’m always thankful for these big pop culture events that happen on Sundays, as I generally arrange my life so as not to have to work on Sundays. I’m pretty sure when God set up the idea of a sabbath, this is exactly the kind of thing he had in mind for us, right?) As much as I would have liked to see Coach and Tammy Taylor do well, I was thrilled for Kyra Sedgwick and thought she looked beaaauuuutiful. Of course, I am a wee bit biased, and hoping this could help mean good things for the Story of a Girl movie.

Lastly: My copy of Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom is already in at the library and the timing COULD NOT BE WORSE. I do not have time for Freedom right now! But if I cancel my hold, I’ll go to the back of the line, which is now like 50 people and I may not get it back until 2012. Dilemma.

Okay everyone, back to your enormous stacks of reading! Or maybe that’s just me.

Despite the relative seriousness of my novels, everyone who knows me knows I love to laugh. Yesss-ah-do! (As Mary Murphy might say.) There’s a lot going on in the world to cry about, that’s for sure. But for me, losing my sense of humor equals death. Laughing has saved my marriage over and over (or at least made it a whole lot more fun), keeps me from going absolutely crazy when it comes to my religion and my health and life in the world, is the key to overcoming childhood/family dysfunction, and makes friendships possible (I simply cannot be friends with people who cannot laugh at themselves, at least occasionally). So, in honor of all that, here’s some stuff that has lately made me LOL:

- Flash Burnout by LK Madigan (October 09)

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Okay, it isn’t a comedy, but the voice of this debut YA is so good, and so funny (without being silly or goofball, not that there’s anything wrong with that), I envy Madigan having written it.

- Stuff Christian Cultures Like: A blog I just discovered, skewering Evangelical Christian culture. Probably most funny to people who have been there, like me. Here is a taste from the “Focusing on ‘that one scene’ that ruined the movie” post:

“Watching a movie rated anything other than G with them has the potential to evoke in you a feature-length anxiety episode over what their reaction could be. When a love scene comes on or a bad word is said, the parental figure will begin to stir malcontentedly before saying “I think we should turn this off” or something to that effect. If the parental figure is in another room and hears something questionable from the TV they’ll either say “What are you kids watching in there?” or make some disgruntled harumphs before coming in and evaluating for themselves. If you feel that old sensation of fear shooting through your chest and into your legs as you imagine this, then you may have been raised in Christian culture.”

And imagine this in the days before there was a TV remote with a “back” button that you could handily set to the nature channel.

- Emily Wing Smith. She is a friend, and an extraordinary writer, and also she cracks. me. up. Whether she’s talking about making herself over to be an extra on “Greek” or detailing her summer camp accidents, or accidentally posting the wrong pictures because she doesn’t know how to make thumbnails big enough to see what the pictures are actually of, her blog always makes me laugh. Even though her wonderful book made me cry.

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- Smart and Important communication that also employs humor. Among the things the Daily Show has done for culture, it’s reminded us that humor is politically and socially powerful, and it’s communicatively powerful. It’s the spoonful of sugar that not only helps the medicine goes down, but helps us acknowledge and understand the disease.  This article from Alice Sebold in The Atlantic about literary awards and the publishing business, for example, made me laugh, and then go, oh yeah, totally. Given my aforementioned ADD affliction, I probably wouldn’t have read it if it didn’t make me laugh within the first paragraph. (Yes, I am that lazy.) Sarah Haskins’ “Target Women” pieces crack me up and make me get mad about the way my insecurities are used against me in efforts to get me to buy stuff. George Saunders makes me laugh and also recognize the absurdities of life and politics that could perhaps be changed. David Sedaris makes me laugh while thinking how we are all just trying to love each other and be known. Et cetera.

What makes you laugh?

1. Another gift idea. For me. I love biographies and memoirs about and by people who were mostly famous in the 1940s-1960s. For example, Patty Duke’s Call Me Anna, or one my all-time favorites, Saroyan: A Biography, by Lawrence Lee and Barry Gifford. That one was great because it’s about a literary life but also Hollywood, gambling, drinking, estranged fathers, and the American immigrant experience. Anyway, is Christopher Plummer going to go on tour? Pretty please?

 2. Personally, I’d be happy find $20 or a slice of bacon in a book around my house. Most often the unusual objects in books here are socks and olive pits, both of which my darling husband will resort to when he can’t find a book mark.

3. What it looks like here right now for the brave and outdoorsy types. Sometimes G. and I are made to feel like freaks for not engaging in outdoor winter sports when we live in the perfect place for them. But winter sports involve several of the things I’m most afraid of: driving in the snow, losing control, my feet hurting, finding myself in a situation that forces me to live on the frozen flesh of others and my own urine, falling off of mountains, and, most of all: looking like an uncoordinated idiot.