I just finished The Martian last night. I have no idea why I hadn’t already read it, actually. Before that I continued my “read all the Faulkner” project with Intruder in the Dust. It seemed more plot-y than a lot of his earlier work. Not sure whether to laugh or cry at his thesis that southerners need to end racism…

Cool.

Alan is Adora’s first husband and the father of both Marian and Amma. Adora got pregnant with Camille when she was 17, she wasn’t married to Camille’s father and basically refused to ever tell her anything about him other than that he wasn’t from Wind Gap.

*shrug* ‘kay, we’ll have to agree to disagree. She’s performing the character (you misunderstand me about “southern gothic”, I’m saying that’s definitely the tone Adora is going for) as it’s written, although that may not be obvious to people going in for the first time. Someone else said the series might warrant a…

Sorry if this constitutes a spoiler, but that’s the point. Adora is a fucking monster who lies constantly, about everything. Every breath she takes is part of a carefully curated persona (and it’s southern gothic, not high camp) designed to make her look like a flower of southern womanhood, at the expense of everyone…

I’m enjoying the show. I don’t think it’s an invalid complaint to say it’s moving slowly; but maybe because I’ve read the book, I’m content to let it wander through the great performances (just give Patricia Clarkson all the Emmys now) and lush photography and sound design—I live in the south, and the constant din of…

My oldest brother, who is very into genealogy, is convinced we’re related to Parker Posey somehow—our father’s family is from Mississippi (very near the Louisiana border) and there are some Poseys in our family tree. I’ve told him she was actually born in Baltimore, but he loves her like gay men love beautiful,…

Shut up and take my money.

I forget the name of the franchise and I suspect it’s no longer around, but I loved those soft pretzels you could get with different sauces (cheese, marinara, fudge, etc.). Those didn’t really become a thing until I was in my late teens, so it’s not really a heavy childhood association, but they were sooo good.

I thought it had a pretty good intro scene too, where the worker is taken to the mainland hospital and the doctor wonders what the hell bit him. He tries to say “velociraptor”, but all he can get out is “raptor”, which means bird of prey, and dinosaurs evolved into birds. I see what you did there, Crichton!

I tried reading this book maybe 20 years ago and found it to be just awful. Maybe if the movie had never been made I’d have found it more enjoyable, or at least readable--although probably not, for all the gross racist and sexist junk Ryan points out--but the movie is so perfect that I didn’t even feel bad about not…

*Peter Gabriel song plays*

Something about Kevin Smith instantly turns me into a cranky old woman, I just want to yell at him to stop being a slob and dress like a grown-up. Like, you’re a grown-ass adult, stop wearing hockey jerseys 24/7 and ball caps every damn day!

Has anyone read The Familiar? I liked HoL enough to have re-read it a couple of times, but the descriptions I’ve read of The Familiar make it sound so aggressively alienating to the reader that it’s put me off. But maybe that’s just marketing blather.

I’ve re-read HoL a couple of times and I’ve always skipped Johnny’s sections (except the introductory one). I get what Danielewski was going for (showing how the house ruins lives even from a distance), but it came off like a tedious juvenile exercise in writing naughty sex bits.

I always assumed it was gold too, because of the light and also because Pumpkin says something like “Is that what I think it is?” and I don’t know why he’d recognize some random crime lord’s soul.

John Waters immediately after he fell into a giant tub of Vaseline, apparently.

I don’t read GQ so I don’t really understand what that means. “Closeted homosexual from the Reagan era” is what the phrase makes me think, though.

Why does every red carpet photo of Renner look like he’s channeling his inner Derek Zoolander while trying desperately not to fart? You’re a handsome guy, if you stop making that weird pouty/squinchy face.

My maternal grandfather was Native American. Hence my lack of extreme rah-rah feelings around patriotic holidays.