July Listopia

What I read, watched, and listened to

I like to look at photos of beautiful homes and gardens on Instagram. I imagine the people who live there doing beautiful things, embracing other people, animals, nature. I imagine them as good-hearted, generous. After all, how can you live somewhere so beautiful and be small and mean?

As we know, beauty can disguise rot in people and places and, yes, appearances can be deceiving. But I don’t think of that when I’m looking at the beautiful photos. I look at them to forget the rot of the world. And it usually works. For a few minutes.

July is a month that feels like a long walk in the neighborhood. The neighborhood is normal with beautiful lawns fronting neat homes and the walk moves along at a steady pace. July days are waning, though, and I’m ready for the walk to end so I can hunker down in my sheltering house to wait out August, a month that feels like flailing in the deep end of a pool. August is my least favorite month for many reasons. August 29 this year will be the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. I’m contemplating posting some of my (scarce) Katrina-related writing, both published and not. Some days it feels like what I should do but other days I don’t want to review those memories. I’m a little sick of thinking about it still after all these years, to be honest. But sometimes a mood will hit and I’ll write about that time again. Anyway, we’ll see what August brings. I’m not sure anyone is interested in reading about all that now, anyway.

My July Listopia begins with three stellar pieces I read in litmags this month - a prose poem, a microfiction, and a nonfiction. After assembling the links and quotes, I realized they’re all about parents and how they affected the lives of the characters/writers.

I Watch a Movie Starring My Dad - Prose Poetry by Chrissy Stegman in Gargoyl Online - I was struck by the visuals in this piece and how Chrissy expressed her feelings by joining together unrelated elements, making me think, oh, yes, that makes perfect sense, as evidenced in this segment.

I carry his coffin in my mind and I’m ALL SIX pallbearers. The Moon is the only guest. She whispers, count the hours since he left. I count past stars and across galaxies until I find a convenience store on Mars. It’s called Stop. His orange Volkswagen Beetle is parked out front, bright as a pumpkin, as real as absence.

House Rules - Microfiction by Jeff Harvey in Flash the Court - This piece is exactly why I love microfiction. Jeff uses white space brilliantly here, allowing the reader to be a part of the story. But the words he does use paint a unforgettable picture we won’t soon forget. I won’t excerpt this tiny gem because it’s so tiny but here’s what the editor had to say

Some of the best flash fiction is haunted flash fiction. “House Rules” by Jeff Harvey is shadowed by the twin spectres of childhood abandonment and abuse. The piece is driven by a coolly deceptive voice that descends from the darkness; the tone hits as supernaturally chilling, but the horrifying situation itself: all too devastatingly real. —Court Harler

Roar - Nonfiction by Dan Crawley in Pithead Chapel - I love the honesty and vulnerability Dan reveals in this poignant piece. He is one of my favorite flash witers and I highly recommend his book, Blur. I interviewed him about his book here.

I stare at my parents’ wedding picture on one of the walls of my dad’s home. My teeth are clenched again, and I wonder how much pressure enamel can take before pulverizing. I go back into his bedroom and lift him to a sitting position in his hospital bed.

Series: I kinda hit the jackpot on streaming series this month. All three of these productions were amazing to watch.

The Survivors on Netflix - This is a murder mystery set and filmed in Australia. The basic premise is the deaths of three young people and how it is solved fifteen years later. The acting is fantastic and the story is a twisted tale with an ending I couldn’t predict. A winner!

Untamed on Netflix - The opening sequence of this series is a phenomenal slow burn leading to a shocking conclusion. If this sequence doesn’t make you want to watch more, I’d have to ask, do you have a pulse? The cinematography is beyond gorgeous and lends an other-wordly element to the story. It was filmed in Yosemite National Park. The storyline is also a twisty tale of death with an ending that I totally didn’t see coming. Really good multi-layered writing and totally believable acting. I just loved this series and hope for a equally good season 2.

Outrageous on Britbox tells the story of the real-life Mitford sisters in 1930s England, their lives and loves amid the political upheaval at the time. Again, good writing, good acting. I hear rumors there is another season coming and I hope we learn more about sister Pamela who seemed to be the most herself of all these unique women. If that makes any sense. After watching, I want to read the book it’s based on.

Books:

Hot Milk by Deborah Levy - a really unique story told in a unique way. Deborah’s prose is lush and poetic, the storyline is captivating, the characters multi-layered and sometimes frustrating - in a good way. Loved this book, a finalist for the Man Booker Prize.

I want to get away from the kinship structures that are supposed to hold me together. To mess up the story I have been told about myself. To hold the story upside down by its tail.

Another line from the book inspired my microfiction, Plundered, that I posted the other week.

Amy and Isabelle by Elizabeth Strout - and now I have read all her books. If you like mother-daughter intrigue, this is the book for you. Strout does a really deep dive into the psyches of this pair, their relationship, what it’s based on, and how they come to realize it was all a construct. Fascinating stuff. A finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award.

But what could you do? Only keep going. People kept going; they had been doing it for thousands of years. You took the kindness offered, letting it seep as far in as it could go, and the remaining dark crevices you carried around with you, knowing that over time they might change into something almost bearable.

Music:

After reading Megan Stielstra’s heart-rending essay “Girl You Better Try To Have Fun” in Oldster, about the interconnection of her father’s dying days and Sinead O’Connor’s own death and her music, I was prompted to listen to Sinead’s music which I hadn’t done in quite some time. I found this video of her singing this gorgeous song that I’m sharing with you. Listen to the lyrics and see if you can keep a dry eye.

Read, Watch, Listen, Enjoy!

Sinead photo in header via Variety