may 2024
hi pals! i had carpal tunnel surgery on my dominant hand at the beginning of the month, so i spent a lot of time sitting on my sofa with my hand elevated on a stack of pillows next to me and watching old murder mysteries while both my dog and my cat were so mad at me for blocking off the prime cuddling space. here are some things i saw and read and liked.
telly: Inspector Morse (1987-2000). Morse aired during my growing-up years but it was never one of my mom’s favs, so while i knew about it i never watched it. i did watch both its follow-up (lewis) and prequel (endeavour), however. having now seen all of it i can say that it is good, and although i can’t quite understand the cult status it came to hold, i did very much enjoy it. it was good writing, there were lots of extremely baby iconic british actors, and revisiting the tech of the late 80s and 90s was a treat for me specifically.
read: Lavender House* (2023) & The Bell in the Fog* (2023) by Lev AC Rosen. i don’t recall how lavender house found its way onto my radar, but i enjoyed Rosen’s queer 1950s take on noir, and the sequel to it even more. wrote about them both in more depth here.
read: Amaza Lee Meredith Imagines Herself Modern: Architecture and the Black American Middle Class* (2023) by Jacqueline Taylor. as soon as i learned about the existence of meredith’s “Azurest South,” the only international style home in virginia, i had to know more. my timing was perfect, as the first book about her had just come out. it’s a fascinating look at the state of education and opportunities available to black americans in the early 20th century. more here.
telly: Gyeongseong Creature (2023). i don’t know if i would call this show “good” as much as “very fun” “very pretty (except when it was gross)” and “compelling.” it’s set in 1945 in Gyeongseong (now called Seoul), during the Japanese occupation of Korea. it’s about the brutal treatment of Koreans at the hands of the occupiers but also, crucially, there’s a creature there. i had a blast.
read: Fire Island Modernist: Horace Gifford and the Architecture of Seduction (2013) by Christopher Bascom Rawlins. a beautiful monograph about gifford’s life and career, which primarily took place on Fire Island, and was nearly forgotten after he died of AIDS in 1992. it’s a history of a man, a place, and an architectural vernacular. loved it. more here.
read: The Girl from the Sea* (2021) by Molly Knox Ostertag. i’ve had this book on my shelf for a while now, and i’m so glad i finally sat down with it. it’s a young adult graphic novel about a girl with a whole plan for her life, until she meets someone who throws everything into chaos. ostertag writes characters and conflict which are so recognizable and real. and the art is gorgeous.
read: The Shabti* (2024) by Megaera C. Lorenz. the older i get, the tetchier i am when i see a book described as a “middle-aged romance” and then the characters are like. mid-30s, tops. well, friends, i am pleased to report that this book IS a middle-aged romance, and it’s great. it follows a former “medium” who travels the country debunking his erstwhile colleagues, and what happens when he stops in a small town in Illinois and discovers a place that might be really haunted. it’s got Egyptology, a washed up mess trying to do better, some genuinely scary scenes, and a fat cat called Horatio.
watch: I Saw the TV Glow (2024). didn’t know a thing about this going in and wow. WOW! this movie is not for everyone. it’s weird and full of winking acknowledgment of the tv i was watching in the late 90s, the person i was and was surrounded by. it’s also a devastating trans allegory made by a trans person, the sort of story that hits close to the bone, but in a loving way. and hot damn but the soundtrack fucks.
dog/cat:
Until next month!
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