She put the Miss in misdemeanor when she stole the beans from Lima
oh, hello
I didn’t see you there.
I should have written this newsletter earlier but I didn’t and now we’re all paying the price. Anyway, let’s go!
You’ve all watched the new Ghostbusters trailer, yes? I am VERY excited about it, but not so much that I’m ignoring the very important, valid criticism of it.
Aside from Ghostbustin,’ the other most exciting thing I did recently was check out the Wonder exhibit at the Renwick Gallery. The Renwick, which was Washington, D.C.’s first American art museum and has long been part of the Smithsonian, was undergoing renovations until late last year, and reopened with this showstopper of an exhibition.
The Renwick isn’t a large gallery, but they’ve given over each room to a single installation piece, and the use of space is astounding. Above is Gabriel Dawe’s Plexus A1.
This is Maya Lin’s Folding the Chesapeake.
And my favourite, Jennifer Angus’ In the Midnight Garden. Everything on that wall is an actual insect. Even the paint color was derived from insects.
If you’re in the D.C. area, I highly recommend it.
Notable Breakfast
Oatmeal, apple sauce, cinnamon swirl toast
Dog Thing
Leilani says: vote in your primary, Americans! (Leilani is well over the voting age in dog years, so it’s totally legal.)
Mixed Media
Sometime in the middle of December, I kind of stopped watching television. I realized that keeping up with the shows I watched was feeling more like a chore and less like an enjoyable thing, so I set my DVR to keep recording everything, and stopped watching. You may have noticed the insane amount of books I read in January: that was why. I’m slowly catching up on things now, but as an exercise it was interesting to learn which shows I still wanted to watch, even when I was feeling weary of the rest of them. Those were Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Sleepy Hollow, and Elementary.
Elementary perfectly combines some things I love best in tv shows:
mysteries
a mixed gender pair with a strong platonic relationship
fantastic production design
a cast that is not 100% white dudes
a tortoise
I love this show so much? So, so much. I love how genuine and believable Joan and Sherlock’s relationship is, I love that they own not one, but two red velvet couches (and a womb chair!), I love that Johnny Lee Miller’s Sherlock Holmes is impassive without being cruel, and that Joan Watson is never anyone’s fool. It gets to something I realized after seeing The Martian: I really enjoy stories involving competent people being really good at their jobs, and Elementary absolutely is that.
The cast of supporting characters is also excellent, and my main complaint is that we don’t see more of them. Jon Michael Hill’s Detective Bell is a regular delight, but Ato Essandoh plays Alfredo, Sherlock’s erstwhile sponsor (the fact that Sherlock is an addict is a major part of his character), and we’ve seen less of him as he’s moved from sponsorship to simply being Sherlock’s friend. Likewise Candis Cayne’s Ms. Hudson has been absent all season, and I miss both her character, and having more trans representation on my tv screen.
I find Elementary to be such a delight that I actually put off watching new episodes for as long as I can manage, knowing that once I’ve watched them I’ll be sad that there aren’t more. It airs on Thursday nights and I usually make it to Friday afternoon at the latest, but I try.
Also: I saw Disney’s new movie, Zootopia, and cannot speak highly enough of it. I loved it. I also saw Only Yesterday, a Studio Ghibli film made in 1991 that never received an American release. Its pacing feels a little dated, but otherwise it is a fresh delight (the film takes place in 1982, so it was looking backwards even when it was new). The story follows Taeko, a woman who takes a vacation from her office job in the city to work on a farm and finds herself dwelling on the year she was 10 years old. She’s in her late 20s, single, a little odd, and spends a lot of time in her own head, mining her past for revelations to apply to her future. I found myself identifying a lot with her, as a child and an adult, and the experience was lovely. We saw the dubbed version, like heathens, because we wanted to hear Daisy Ridley and Dev Patel. I also watched John Wick, which is a crazy action ride, but honestly the most entertaining part of it was that the criminal underworld in it operated like the wizarding world in Harry Potter. A small warning. I listened to Santigold’s new album, 99 Cents, a lot because I LOVE it. (Fave track) I read Daniel Clowes’ new book, Patience, which was a little meandering but otherwise excellent.
Anxiety Pyjamas
Fics I Shouted About
Assistant to the Consulting Detectives by idyll Teen Wolf, Sterek, Elementary fushion. An old favourite, in honor of today’s topic. Stiles goes to college in New York and ends up working for Sherlock & Joan. I’ve read this 100 times, probably.
Imagine Being a Tadpole Though by petals42 Check Please!, Zimbits. A cute drabble from the POV of a freshman on the Samwell hockey team the year after Jack graduated.
tell me about the big bang by thebrotherswinchester Star Wars TFA, Finn/Poe. This is part romance, part Finn character study, and is pretty much the greatest thing? I read the second half at work with the Mad Max Fury Road sountrack playing, which I recommend if you like crying.
derek hale’s bird collection by kirayaykimura Teen Wolf, Sterek. After an incident at the animal clinic, Derek has a house full of birds.
Put on a Mask (and Fight!) by writeonclara Star Wars TFA, Finn/Poe, superhero AU. Finn & Rey are superheroes, Poe is Lois Lane. This was so fresh and fun.
The Stars Are Set Alight by the_dala Star Wars TFA, Finn/Poe. Poe gradually goes blind. I thought this was going to be pretty emotionally upsetting, and it was a little bit, but mostly it was incredibly sweet.
Lastly
Sorry I skipped comics this week! If you’re interested, here were my fave books the last three weeks.
If you, like me, loved the 90s tv show “Ghostwriter” (it was my first favourite show!), you should read this interview with Miranda Barry, its producer.
Full disclosure: I paused in the writing of this to buy those pyjama pants.
