"All of the world is my school and all of humanity is my teacher."
SERIAL PODCAST FROM PRODUCERS OF THIS AMERICAN LIFE
WARNING! WARNING!
This disturbing, well-told true-crime story by Richard Lloyd Parry will keep you up at night - either because you are reading the book and cannot put it down, or you are having nightmares. The book details the story of 21-year-old Lucie Blackman who in 2001 moves to Japan to work as a drinking companion for wealthy men in a Tokyo nightclub, a job requiring plenty of submissive behavior. Parry delves into Lucie's pre-Japan life and meticulously pieces together her last days; he also, over many years, gathers and analyzes information from Lucie's family and friends, other hostesses and their customers, and, of course, the police. Copiously detailed, Parry's book tells the truth not just about the violent end to one young life but about the ways gender and culture affect us all. |
It's 5:30 a.m. on a Thursday morning and I'm staring at the clock on the microwave - counting down the minutes until the next episode of the new podcast from the producers of This American Life (another storytelling podcast that I highly recommend) that is sweeping the nation and many countries around the world is released online. For the past few weeks, I've been engrossed in the story of story of Adnan Syed, a high school student convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend.in 1999 just a few miles outside of Baltimore, Maryland. Did he do it? Or has he been wrongly jailed for a crime he didn't commit? Each episode is an installment in an ongoing attempt to figure that out.. There is so much I find fascinating about this podcast. I love the narrator - her "join me on my journey in solving this case" approach to storytelling makes me feel like I am in the car with her as she retraces the route Adnan apparently took the day of the murder or in her living room as she shuffles through and organizes police reports and court affidavits. I am so obsessed that I've even resorted to listening to a podcast about the podcast. I've also developed my intensive around Serial entitled "Take My Word For It." I can't make you enroll in my intensive, but take my word for it - this podcast is worth your time. At least listen to the first episode (serialpodcast.org).
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I saw Richard Linklater's powerful new film Boyhood weeks ago by myself (yes I see movies by myself and frankly I enjoy it) and loved it! I think it is currently only playing at two theaters in the city (See Fandango for current viewing options). I checked on Amazon however and it seems that the DVD will be released in January. I will most certainly be adding this remarkable film to my collection. Below the trailer is a quote from a review of the film that I think does a nice job encapsulating why I found the film so profound and difficult to forget.
This quote comes from an except of a film review of Richard Linklater's Boyhood. I thought it was extremely insightful and inspiring.
"What is the most shocking is how fast time goes, how quickly our lives go, how so many things can go really wrong on the road to adulthood but that most of us — the lucky ones – scramble ahead anyway, make something of ourselves anyway, find love and happiness and maybe a family anyway. Does it turn out the way we all thought it would? Probably surpasses expectations for 1% of us. The rest of us are like George Baileys, our dreams of a life that might have been long since tucked between the pages of a memory book while our real lives, extraordinary in their ordinariness, bloom before our eyes."
"What is the most shocking is how fast time goes, how quickly our lives go, how so many things can go really wrong on the road to adulthood but that most of us — the lucky ones – scramble ahead anyway, make something of ourselves anyway, find love and happiness and maybe a family anyway. Does it turn out the way we all thought it would? Probably surpasses expectations for 1% of us. The rest of us are like George Baileys, our dreams of a life that might have been long since tucked between the pages of a memory book while our real lives, extraordinary in their ordinariness, bloom before our eyes."
Greg recommends...
"rEFERENTIAL" BY LOORIE MORE
I love this short story by acclaimed author Lorrie Moore. "Referential" is about a woman who visits her mentally ill son at an institution. This story first appeared in the New Yorker in 2012 and later in the "Best American Short Story Anthology of 2013."
Opening line: “For the third time in three years, they talked about what would be a suitable birthday present for her deranged son.”
Opening line: “For the third time in three years, they talked about what would be a suitable birthday present for her deranged son.”
referential_by_lorrie_moore_.pdf | |
File Size: | 990 kb |
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