Books and Films

It was nice to see "Fake Melania" (Laura Benanti) on Stephen Colbert again. She started doing Melania Trump (noting the two looked alike) as a joke, but in time the "innocent victim" theme started to fall away.

Salman Rushdie was on the show recently promoting his new book (based on events that are also the subject of a pending documentary). I had not read any of his books, but support his right to freely do his art. The book discusses an attack from a few years ago in upstate New York. The book is around two hundred pages and is an approachable and honest accounting. 

I have enjoyed various writings by Kristen Ghodsee, whose expertise is Eastern European communism. I wrote a book summary of Red Valkyries: Feminist Lessons from Five Revolutionary Women. Her new book on utopias is somewhat longer than her usual books and it was harder for me to get into it. Following my "reading is not to be forced" sentiment, I put it aside. 

Galaxy Quest was on television and I finally got around to watching it. I did fast forward a few parts, including part of the serious portion where things are not going well for our heroes. It is an amusing and well-made satire of a Star Trek-like crew of actors who get involved in a real-life space adventure. Multiple Star Trek actors were tickled by the whole thing. 

I also watched Housecalls, which was a pre-Hopscotch pairing of Walter Matthau and Glenda Jackson, down to the Matthau character liking to sing classical music. Art Carney (who seems to be playing someone a bit older than he was at the time; he was around 60) played an old goat. 

[Matthau also was the presenter when Glenda Jackson won an award for her role years earlier in Women in Love.]

I believe I saw the film a long time ago -- one or two scenes seem vaguely familiar. Glenda Jackson is very cute and they make a good pair. Art Carney is also very good. Films often turn on supporting characters. 

The film starts off fun but sort of peters out after they start dating. There are over twenty minutes left and you basically just wait for the expected conclusion. Overall, it was enjoyable.   

The latest Showtime at Night entry is Sex and a Double Date (see here). A bestie has to find a date for a wedding. The bride finds a guy for her (a familiar face in these films) while she herself chooses a woman. 

Hilarity, or at least some softcore sex [these films somewhat annoyingly only show so much, even though it looks like the full scenes are more hardcore] ensues. Apropos of the lesbian content, the first episodes of the "L" Word television show (Happy Pride Month) were also on last night on Showtime. I generally enjoyed that show, liking some characters over others, but did not see all of the episodes. 

The bride sounds familiar and looks like a totally toned/fake looking (nude at least) porn actress. Her fiance looks a bit like a dweeb and plays that sort of character in other films. The bestie/maid of honor is also standard though she has pretty nice breasts. Her girlfriend has nice if smaller breasts and really long hair (if that is your thing).  

The sex scenes are pretty long (something like ten minutes?) though are not that exciting overall, again since we only see parts of them. The rules are: a lot of sexy talk (if hard to understand without subtitles, which often are amusing), shots of breasts, some ass, very little crotch, and no penis at all. 

It's an Adam and Eve film, so overall, it's respectfully done. Decent overall as far as these things go.