Friday 5: “Random topic generator”

Questions inspired by a random topic generator I found via Google.

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How much experience do you have with tobacco?
None, personally. It’s hard to get past the smell.

What have you made with wood?
Around fifth or sixth grade I remember using scissors to pare the goldenrod paint off of No. 2 pencils, then whittling little X-crosses along their sides.

What do you think of farmers markets in your area?
The nearest one is more like a food fair. OB and Hillcrest had good selections when I visited, but I haven’t checked them out since before the pandemic.

What’s a good movie, novel, or TV show containing a shipwreck?
I’ve always had a dorky attachment to the dreamy, wistful, silly adventure that is Joe Versus the Volcano (1990).

What’s a good song with the word magic in its title or lyrics?
“Black Magic” by Little Mix is another cheesy pick I’ll sheepishly bop to. Plus I’m pretty sure that’s the song a friend used in her vlog of my time with her in Orlando, where she’d relocated for her first nursing job.

Thanks for participating, and have a pleasant, lovely, warm, safe weekend!

Friday 5: “Stolen 5”

I was going to write 5 questions inspired by the songs of Barry Manilow, but then I did this 40-question thing on FB this evening and rather enjoyed it, so I’m stealing the better questions, with some editing to suit my purposes. I’ll put the whole list in the comments in case you want to do them, but don’t get any ideas. These 5 are the official (stolen) 5. We are not becoming the Friday 40, despite the appealing alliteration.

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What do you drink in the morning?
These days I like regular black coffee, plain tea, lemon water, kombucha. But it took me years to stop drinking calories for breakfast.

What was the last song you heard?
♪ m-flo, melody., Ryohei Yamamoto – miss you

(From Earl’s playlist, since he drove us home earlier.)

What are your feelings about ghosts?
Everyone’s haunted. We all make choices to spread kindness or pain. Those choices ripple beyond the people we love and hurt in our own time. Those choices write futures we don’t get to see. That’s why the stuff we do and say to each other matters.

How do you feel about camping?
Camping is fun when I’m invited and there is a toilet.

What are your thoughts on showers vs. baths?
It’s not that I’m opposed to baths, just that they’re usually better in my head than when I’m finally sitting in one.

Thank you for participating, and have a wonderful, dry, warm, safe weekend!

Talk to Me (2022) review

I can see how this would be a shoo-in among horror fans with sensibilities similar to mine. There’s a decent balance of drama and scares, etched around emotional pain that lures our main character in the direction of really bad choices. More like the worst choices possible, even for a grieving teenager.

The young partiers behave plausibly, I assume, though I don’t sympathize with them as much as the story suggests I should. Maybe my own adolescent experiences weren’t “Skins-phoria” enough for me to relate. Maybe I grew up with thin patience for certain folktale heroes and their fatalistic lack of impulse control: Why does he turn to look back? Why does she open the box? Why do they touch the forbidden treasure? Why do we keep wishing on the obviously cursed monkey’s paw? Always, always after being warned not to do these things.

You can tell I’m great at parties.

Miranda Otto as Sue and Marcus Johnson as Max are the literal adults in the room, and they’re the ones for whom I’m filled with dread while the kids play not-your-grandma’s-Ouija-board. Watching them, I really believe they are loving parents who are helpless to protect against a seductive and inevitable darkness.

Review on Letterboxd →

Friday 5: “Touch that dial”

Please feel free to define TV anyway you wish.

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What’s the most boring thing on TV?
I’ll cheat a little for this first one. Parks and Rec is still the default background show in our house. We quote it all the time and don’t have to focus on every detail, so I’d say it’s boring in the way of worn-in shoes.

What’s the most enlightening thing on TV?
The answer is probably something I’ve scrolled past despite good reviews. I just haven’t felt like…thinking very hard? I dunno. (Then again, I do have a season and a half left of The Good Place, which I enjoy a lot and actually seems hopeful about its characters finding some in-universe enlightenment.)

What’s the most comforting thing on TV?
The Great British Bake Off is so cozy and lovely.

What’s the tawdriest thing on TV?
From what I’ve read, The Idol did its best to win this particular title.

What’s the most thrilling thing on TV?
Beef, The Fall of the House of Usher, and Leave the World Behind all seriously stressed me out last year.

Thanks for participating, and have a MASHy, safe weekend!