March 2025 Listopia

The best of what I read, watched, heard

Wow, March has almost come to an end as I write this. I love the month of March in New Orleans because it’s almost always cool, balmy, and sunny with an occasional thunderstorm to shake things up. It’s the month of daffodils, fresh air, and baby birds peeping from the nest next to my kitchen window. It’s also my birthday month and, year to year, I’m grateful I survived another trip around the sun.

Here is what I enjoyed this month:

TV

Adolescence on Netflix - so there’s been lots of chat on SM about this series. All I knew going in was that it was about a kid who commits a crime. I can’t tell you how intense it is - you have to watch it. The acting is so good that you forget it’s a tv show as it leads you through the story and the emotions of everyone involved. Even the detectives investigating the crime are affected and I appreciate that the writers and directors allowed us to peek behind the professional facade to see their human feelings. But it’s the dad and the kid that carry the show and will get to you the most. This is an excellent, if hard to watch, series.

Until I Kill You on BritBox - I’m a fan of Shaun Evans from the long-running series Endeavor on PBS and I’ve seen him in other things but nothing like this series. I must say, it was quite a shock. Who knew he could portray such a malevolent, manipulative psychopath? Wow. This kept me on edge, almost afraid to watch what would happen next. It reminds me of Baby Reindeer in its intensity and ability to scare the shit out of you. And, like Reindeer, it really happened. Both of these series makes me thankful I’ve never been the target of such evil.

Douglas is Cancelled on BritBox - this isn’t, to my knowledge, a true story except it is a depiction of what happens to some people who are targeted by the mob rule known as cancel culture. It’s a story of manipulation and revenge but also a story of cluelessness. It’s very well done and did not end up at all as I imagined. Like I say in a litmag selection below, it reminds me of how prevalent it has become for people to dehumanize each other.

I’m currently in the midst of watching Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light (!! On PBS), Dark Winds (on AMC), Happy Face (on Paramount+), and Derry Girls (on Netflix, with thanks to Alyson!) I suspect all may end up on future Listopias.

BOOKS

The Safekeep by Yael Van Der Wouden - I was glued to this extraordinary novel that pulled me into the secretive world of Isabel, her brothers, and her lover in the postwar Netherlands of the sixties. The story slowly and tantalizingly unfolds family secrets and reveals the ill treatment of the Dutch-Jewish diaspora by Dutch society and government after the liberation of the camps. It is truly an exceptional book which was shortlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize.

Outstanding reading in online litmags:

Slow Bones by Sacha Bissonnette in Boudin - I’m always happy to read a new Sacha story. He’s a natural storyteller whose prose flows like a river, deep and layered, ending in a place you never saw coming.

Ma didn’t make it to my Grade 6 graduation. Daddy did. He got dressed up all nice, but he missed a spot. A tiny red speck on his pants. I pointed at it as we entered the school lobby, but I didn’t say anything. We didn’t talk about these things. He saw me and looked down but didn’t wipe it off. Like he was proud of what he had done and become.

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Nothing Personal by Jeff Chon in Short Story, Long. I could write a whole essay about this fictional piece. In fact, I have written it in my imagination because it’s one of those provocative stories that pop into your head while you’re cleaning house or waiting to go to sleep. Maybe one day I’ll write it but, for now, I’ll share this comment I left on the story: “Really hits home how, more and more, people are dehumanizing each other.”

Sometimes I think about how they dragged their feet, that last insurance company we had through your mom’s work, and I wonder if you might’ve lived if they moved their asses instead of trying to cost-benefit the life of a fifteen-year-old girl. It makes me feel nothing for Tom O’Brien, or whatever his name was, even though he was a human being with a loving family like you were.

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Undark by Lori Sambol Brody in Fractured Lit. I’ve been a fan of Lori’s work for a good many years because her writing is wildly creative yet grounded in real human relatable situations. I love that it’s often speculative but not so much so that you don’t know what the hell she’s talking about. I love how she weaves the story of the radium girls into this lyrical, sexy piece.

I come to you like those sea creatures I saw once on the shore at night, bioluminescence limning each wave. I bare my shining teeth, how I growl for you. My body moves against yours until the Undark fades away, absorbed into you. The girls at the Radium Factory whisper to me, Watch out for him, he’ll throw you out soon enough.

And I never pass up a chance to recommend her piece I Want to Believe the Truth is Out There, which may be my favorite flash fiction ever. Actually, it is.

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Dancers by Kerfe Roig in Collaborature is a lovely, lyric Eckphrastic piece inspired by Edward Degas’ “Blue Dancers”. And don’t miss Kerfe’s amazing dancer drawings (example above) on her blog here.

How to compress breath. How to assimilate the adjacent and the opposed. How to revolve, repeat, replenish, return, resonate. How to render the projection of weightlessness into air.

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Whole Fish/Whole Self by Susan Isla Tepper in The Galway Review. Susan traveled the world as an airline attendant and tour guide. This poem, set in Japan, is one of many pieces and books based on her experiences. I love the details she shares.

Kamakura, at last—
dreamy, surreal,
nocturnal even in daylight
streaming
The Great Buddha
sitting meditation
since 13 A.D.

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Buying a Half-Bushel by Roey Leonardi in Swwim Every Day. I love this poem so much! It has all the soul and grit of the South I know and love.

Here where cousin Dewey killed a man in a bar fight
with a single punch.

Here where Mama’s junior prom date died at age sixteen
beneath a tractor wheel.

Here where grandmama divided the serpent’s head from its spine
with the blade of her gardening hoe.

I highly recommend following Swwim Everyday for beautiful, human, real, relatable poetry.

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MUSIC

Lainey Wilson - I’ve been listening to Whirlwind and I’d be hard pressed to pick a favorite song. From the rocking “Hang Tight Honey” to the soulful “Heart Like a Truck”, there’s not a song on this album that won’t take you away.

Devon Allman’s Miami Moon - In Blues Rock Review, album producer Tom Hambridge says about the album, “But this is a bit different, a little deeper, kind of jazz, soul, rock, – not Miles Davis jazz, but more like like Steely Dan meets Curtis Mayfield.” I agree - it’s a jazzy, soulful, awesome listen.

Until next month I’ll leave you with my favorite track on Miami Moon. If this was an LP I’d wear it out. Back in the day I did wear out The Allman Brothers’ Eat a Peach album. 😉