Kath

Just finished watching What Maisie Knew, which my dad and I figured would be a fine way to kill a few hours. It just had that look of a movie that you wait for it to be on TV when you have nothing else to do. You know, nothing much.

I was so wrong. This film will stay with me. It was so beautiful, and haunting and just... unsettling in a very real way. Highly recommend. Like, I went looking for gen fic afterwards, because there is so much to unpack here, about childhood and what kids absorb and understand, and the effects of both indifference and kindness. And I found four! I'll be savouring these slowly.

Anyway! Top five meme time! ellel asked me to name my top 5 songs that you must always have on your 'favorite songs' playlist. I thought about it all day! Even though I actually had a really busy day at work where I had to give an hour-long presentation to a dozen people about to go work abroad, and then had one-on-one meetings with a bunch of them, too. In the back of my head the whole time, I was going "Oooh, can't forget Le Tigre!"

Because I am an epic multitasker, and I'll defend that until the day I die. So there. (We had a debate about this at work, so I am really serious about my multi-abilities now. I must not be doubted.)


Top 5 songs that must be on every playlist I make:

1. Neko Case - Christmas Card From a Hooker in Minneapolis (Tom Waits cover)
This song hasn't been in rotation for nearly as long as some of my others (about 3 years, I'd say) but I don't think I have ever skipped it, not even once. It is fantastic to sing along to, and just so damn tragic and theatrical.

2. Le Tigre - My My Metrocard
This one's been on my playlist for AGES. I almost included a different Le Tigre song but I figured it wouldn't be fair to this one, since this was my first Le Tigre song ever. I still have to fight the urge to stat running down the sidewalk when it comes on my headphones.

3. Betty Wright - Shoorah Shoorah
Someone included this on a mixtape I downloaded like 10 years ago. I knew nothing about Betty Wright - in fact this is the first time I've ever looked up a video of her. She looks better than I could have imagined, OMG. And I love her little dance she does during the instrumental bit - so goofy and endearing. Another song I have never once skipped! It is soooo much fun to sing, because you can get really bluesy and throaty with it, but it still has a lot of drive. And I feel like such a badass when I'm listening to it.

4. TV On The Radio - Family Tree
This was an album I downloaded because it was declared Time's Album of the Year for whatever year it was and then didn't pay much attention to. Then one day this song just came on and I started paying attention in the middle of it, sort of gradually focusing on this building, slow, driving sound. It really hooked me.

5. Yo La Tengo - Sugarcube
There are other, better (I guess) Yo La Tengo songs, but this is the single song I have put on my more playlists, mixtapes and mix CDs than any other song, *period*. It just so perfectly represents what I found when I got into Yo La Tengo, a kind of music that exists completely separately from the alt-folk I'd been listening to up to that point. Yo La Tengo layer so many sounds on top of each other that the songs become opaque and SOLID to me. But I think I've included it in more mixes than any other song in my history because it's so versatile. It's kind of a happy pop song. It's kind of aggressive. It's also kind of vulnerable, that blood and sugar imagery... I can fit that into a lot of themes.

I always thought I'd write thousands and thousands of words during downtime at work, but that doesn't ever happen. Pretty much the only slacking activity I can perform is reading. Scripts are easiest, because when I print and staple them, they look like they belong here. I have two sitting around the office that I haven't gotten around to reading yet: one I'm affectionately calling Bradley Cooper Gets Eaten By Wolves (although I bet he doesn't), and a zombie film that Shane Black wrote for John Carpenter in the seventies.

Um, zombres? I just realized that second one is probably your dream movie. I have actually been reluctant to read it, because WHAT IF IT'S NOT AWESOME??? D: D: D: But I may pick it up today just for your sake.

I also have a certain somebody's Big Bang to read! I am SO EXCITED to find out how the rest of the story goes, but kind of dreading the last page at the same time. I'm also printing that, because there is nothing more fun than writing in margins!

From my Better Than It Sounds meme earlier this week, here are the summaries nobody guessed:

13. Two people meet on a train. They do not plan a murder. They are both exactly who they claim. There are no series of humorous misunderstandings. They just talk for a bit and then have sex.
- Before Sunrise (<3)

15. A former actress is threatened by metafiction.
- Wes Craven's New Nightmare (I expect scorn here from people who dislike the Nightmare sequels and never made it as far as this one. I assure you it's AWESOME.)

16. Boy meets girl. Girl wants him to write script for her. Boy writes script with other girl instead. Boy dies.
- Sunset Boulevard (Would someone have guessed it if I'd added "So does the monkey." after the quotation?)

18. Homeless man wearing Cool Shades fights alien economists, who, presumably, are responsible for world bubblegum shortage.
- They Live (AKA THE BEST JOHN CARPENTER MOVIE EVER MADE ABOUT WRESTLERS WITH MAGICAL SUNGLASSES BATTLING BRAINWASHING ALIENS. If you haven't seen this movie, then you are TOO SANE.)

I filled in all the answers at the original post, if you're curious.

From those answers, a can't-miss rec: The Host (Gwoemul) is a Korean movie about an extremely dysfunctional family trying to rescue their youngest member from a mutant river monster. It is flawlessly brilliant and genre-defying. And it contains my favourite monster rampage sequence of all time (ALL TIME!). I highly recommend it.