May Listopia 2025 & Feral Rearranging

The best of what I read, watched, & heard

This is where I ask myself, what the hell did I do this month? If I didn’t keep a journal I wouldn’t be able to say. All the things are a blur in my head like snot you can’t blow out of your nose. Just sitting in there, an unmovable blob. My journal is nose spray, clearing the blob, making itself indespensible. It’s kind of scary, you know? The way time passes so fast you aren’t even sure what day it is. Thank God for calendars!

In May I had 3 new pages in my journal for 3 ailing pets to keep up daily with when & what they ate, when meds were given, and, yes, even in the case of the old dog, when he pooped. I am an expert in documenting bodily functions - a plus for the CV, right?

However, in between the activities of daily living, I listened to music, watched escapist TV, and read a little. Here is my best-of list for May.

BOOKS:

1. Too Much and Not the Mood by Durga Chew-Bose

Groping through the dark is, in large part, what writing consists of anyway. Working through and feeling around the shadows of an idea. Getting pricked. Cursing purity. Threshing out. Scuffing up and peeling away. Feral rearranging. —- Durga Chew-Bose, Too Much and Not the Mood

“Heart Museum”, the first essay in Too Much and Not the Mood, is a fucking brilliant essay and I don’t fling the F-bomb often so you know I’m serious. “Feral rearranging” is the single best description of the act of writing I’ve ever heard. Feral rearranging. I love that it testifies a personal, primal instinct that raises its hackles at formulaic writing.

How did I discover Chew-Bose, you ask? I remember reading a restacked Note about how her remake of the film Bonjour Tristesse is the perfect summer movie. (Yes, yes, I’m dying to see it!) I’m late to the Chew-Bose party but that’s nothing new. I’m often late to pop culture parties and sometimes never show up at all. I have always lived in my own personal timeline. I did a medium dive online and it appears she’s having a moment. I googled the film and read this glowing piece in Salon which mentioned her book. I googled the book, read a couple of reviews, then bought it and started reading. By page 51 I had made 19 annotations. That’s amazing because I’m historically stingy (picky) with annotations. I haven’t finished the book yet because I’ve been “in a dark patch” (her exactly-right words.) Eh. I’ll let you know how I liked it but my early guess is it’s a no-brainer winner.

2. Wild Plums by Patricia Q. Bidar

Well, I just loved spending an afternoon with this novella. I have read Patricia’s flash Fiction in litmags for years with great enjoyment and this novella did not disappoint. Patricia is an expert in weaving pop culture into her pieces, particularly 70s & 80s culture. She has often reminded me of things I’ve forgotten - what a gift! In Wild Plums she explores the complexities of a relationship, its intimacies and flaws, with wonderful insight and detail. Read one of her excellent flash fictions here.

TV:

1. Your Friends and Neighbors on Apple+

So, yeah, I’d watch John Hamm eat oatmeal. But watching him steal from his rich friends was more fun. I’ve been a fan since his Mad Men days so I will almost always give a show he’s in a chance. This was pure escapism and exactly what I wanted in the month of May. There ‘s nothing to figure out here - just mindless fun. Try it!

2. Sirens on Netflix

Escapism to the nth degree. I knew exactly how it would end but, like a car crash, I couldn’t look away. It has lots of pretty scenery and pretty people in pretty clothes doing horrible things and you just. don’t. care. No brain cells were utilized in the watching of this series.

3. I Am Woman on Netflix

This was a biographical film about Helen Reddy from her first steps in New York to her total withdrawal from the music industry. I remember when “I Am Woman” hit the airwaves very well and how much we all loved it. The film is an Australian production that was interesting and well done. Tilda Cobham-Hervey did a great job portraying Helen. It brought back memories of a real sense of a shared purpose for women. Yes, even in rural Mississippi I knew we were all in the struggle together and it was done without the internet but by word of mouth and a media that was more honest and objective than it is now. I felt a profound sadness when the film was over. Sad that the energy, solidarity, and camaraderie of the early feminist movement has been lost.

4. To Catch a Killer on Netflix

I watched this film on the last day of May. I do believe I’ve scratched my mindless TV itch for a while and I’m back to the gritty, dark crime dramas I love. This film was so freaking good! It’s full of scarred people - a scarred serial killer, scarred families, scarred detectives, scarred politicians. All of the psychological entanglements in this story are fascinating. The acting is top notch (Ben Mendelsohn and Shailene Woodley are excellent!) and the story is so believable it’s scary. You won’t be able to stop watching this excellent film. Do not miss it!

MUSIC

Honestly, I didn’t listen to much music during this blurry month until the very end when I got into a Heart mood. You know, Ann and Nancy Wilson were/are phenomenal artists and the older I get the more I realize it. Of all the women musicians of the era I think they are my favorite go-to for real, raw, rock music. Here is probably my favorite of theirs, “Crazy On Me”, whose lyrics tell us to forget all the problems in the world for one night. I read that Ann Wilson said in an interview that the song was written in response to the stress caused by the Vietnam War and social unrest in the United States in the early 70s.

The more things change…..