TV & Movies

🍿 Watched The Craft with the teenager tonight. Her observation: “Everyone looks so normal in the nineties. Look at their teeth!”

I watched “Obsession” with my teenager last night, and dare I say, I liked it as a little genre story, a morality play about romance, relationships and consent. I also enjoyed the practical horror effects.🍿

🍿Watched: Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am

This PBS doc recently came to Netflix, and I tucked in expecting a nice but predictably boring documentary about one of my favorite authors. To the contrary, it really plumbs Morrison’s writing craft, not only as an author but as an editor who brought a generation of incredible thinkers into the limelight. She talks in depth about her writing process, her approach to authorship and editing, and how she kept these roles separate at the peak of her midcentury literary career in NYC’s publishing industry.

There’s something so powerful about hearing her discuss the craft, her deliberate choices, the refusal to center whiteness, and the insistence that Black readers were her intended audience. She saw her critics and wrote around their critiques with authority and confidence. This was a breath of fresh air since I’m so immersed in the AI era, which threatens to change our perceptions around value of writing, the choices and experiences behind the author, and how we consider the influence and responsibility of authorship.

Very much enjoying the Netflix series “Dark Winds,” based on the series of novels by Tony Hillerman. Not only does the storytelling slap, but it’s visually beautiful, with sweeping Southwest vistas and a fleet of classic vehicles that look so good in widescreen.