September 2, 2010
Title: How to Survive a Natural Disaster
Author: Margaret Hawkins
ISBN: 978-1579622046
Hardcover: 198 pages
Publisher: Permanent Press (September 1, 2010)
Category: contemporary fiction
Review source: publisher
Rating: 5/5
Thoughts on being the second, the younger, the youngest: it makes you watchful. It makes you calculate. It makes you compare.
Margaret Hawkins exquisitely details the unraveling of a disharmonious family in her second novel How to Survive a Natural Disaster. The story revolves around May, an adopted Peruvian girl, who doesn’t speak and is considered rather odd. She’s babied by her mother Roxanne and she idolizes her older sister April who excels at everything and wants nothing to do with her bizarre adopted sister. Roxanne has moved on to her second marriage with the troubled artist Craig who cheats and dabbles in various piece-meal jobs. Roxanne never had the successful art career she wanted so she married into wealth the first time around and had April. Now she clings to May in an effort to keep her family intact. April is the perfect child whose wealthy father gives her anything and everything she wants. April is also a little girl with a secret eating disorder. Hawkins tells the story from the viewpoints of May, April, Roxanne, Craig, Mr. Cosmo (the pet Weimaraner) and Phoebe, their agoraphobic neighbor. Hawkins presents this riveting story with astute observations, dark humor and honesty. Using different narrators to reveal memories makes for a stimulating and insightful read. How to Survive a Natural Disaster is an astute family drama filled with betrayal, envy, lies, discord, tragedy and forgiveness. It packs a real punch and will stay with you for days after you finish its last page.
buy at Amazon: How to Survive a Natural Disaster
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Posted by Amy Steele
September 1, 2010
in theatre:
Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work: A
The Kids Are All Right [Julianne Moore, Annette Bening]: A-
Salt [Angelina Jolie]: C+
The Switch [Jason Bateman, Jennifer Aniston]: B+
The Expendables [Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham]: B-
DVD:
A Walk to Remember [Mandy Moore]: C+
Ballerina: A
Creation [Paul Bettany, Jennifer Connelly]: B
Happy Tears [Parker Posey, Demi Moore]: B+
Ghosts of Girlfriends Past [Jen Garner, Matthew McConnaughey]: C-
Hostel: B-
Adam & Steve [Parker Posey]: B+
The Wackness: B
Lorna’s Silence: A-
The Eye [Jessica Alba, Parker Posey]: C
The Lost Room [Peter Krause, Julianna Marguiles]: B+
2 or 3 Things I Know About Her: A-
Cold Souls [Paul Giamatti]: A-
Enduring Love [Daniel Craig, Samantha Morton]: B
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Posted by Amy Steele
August 31, 2010
Abner: You even walk like it.
Alonzo: What?
Abner: White trash. It amuses me.
In That Evening Sun, Abner Meecham (Hal Holbrook) takes off from an assisted-living facility and returns to his Tennessee farm. Once there, he finds that his son has leased it to a man he has never liked, Alonzo Choat (Ray McKinnon). Abner sets up in the caretaker’s cottage out back and schemes how to get Alonzo and his family to move out. Meanwhile, convinced the farm now belongs to him, Alonzo seethes with resentment at Abner’s return. An ominous air fills each scene as two generations battle it out over land rights. Verbal threats soon escalate to more violent, bitter acts. Directed by Scott Teems, That Evening Sun focuses on an elderly man who has no intention to become a pushover. He is that stereotypical grumpy old man. He’s a widower and seems very bitter except when we see him dreaming about his wife [played in warm, artful dream sequences by the late Dixie Carter]. Choat is an awful, drunk red neck loser who cannot pay the rent. But in reality, this could be just the result of the economy and be a very real and painful situation. Does the audience emphasize with him? Not easily when he beats his daughter and treats his wife like dirt. That Evening Sun reflects today’s economic time: the strains to find work; to keep a family together and to stay sane. The film unfolds like an evening in the South: slow and sprawling.
Grade: B
That Evening Sun is out on DVD September 7.
buy at Amazon:
That Evening Sun
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Posted by Amy Steele
August 30, 2010
** recipe modified from the October 2009 issue of Vegetarian Times
1 cup green lentils, rinsed
1/2 cup frozen peas, thawed
1/2 cup frozen corn, thawed
1 can chick peas
1 cup peeled and diced cucumber
1 tsp dried dill
salad dressing: I used Brianna’s The New American vinaigrette
Bring 3c. water and lentils to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook until lentils are tender [about 20 min.]
Stir lentils, peas, corn, chick peas, diced cucumber and dried dill together.
Stir in salad dressing.
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Posted by Amy Steele
August 30, 2010
Opening scene: Zoe is freaking out because she hadn’t gotten a pedi to go to her OB/GYN.
Doctor says: “I’m not looking at your toes. I’m looking at your cervix.”
Of course as there are few original films out, The Back-Up Plan is a remake of 1995′s A Modern Affair with Stanley Tucci and Lisa Eichhorn. Zoe [Jennifer Lopez] has always wanted a baby although she thought she’d do so the “traditional” way with a husband. The day that she is artificially inseminated– and her artificial insemination takes the FIRST go-around. I’d like to know how often that happens– she and Stan [Alex O’Loughlin], an organic farmer, meet-cute in a cab. The pair are smitten but of course the pregnancy *may* complicate things.
It’s that Hollywood Rom-Com theory –once you give up on guys and make your own plan to have a child without a guy involved– you get involved with a guy. But it’s also that fairytale world where everything falls together in the end. All your dreams magically come true.
Mona, her friend with four children, tells her her boobs will look like tube socks and then says she doesn’t even want to tell what it will do to bladder. So supportive. When Zoe shops for baby supplies she’s totally overwhelmed by everything. Zoe skeptically attends a class called Single Mothers. She laments: “Thought I’d have kids by now. Guess it’s time from my back-up plan.” There’s a water birth in the film– great to show it– however it turns into a cliched joke with women beating drums and tons of screaming when I think it’s supposed to be much more peaceful. It’s chaotic and psychotic.
The Back-Up Plan contains plenty of slapstick moments and even a few bathroom humor jokes. Stan goes to kiss Zoe on their first date and spills red wine on her new dress. The table is set on fire. She grabs a hose and gets him soaked and then they have a water fight. Zoe goes to tell her nana that she’s pregnant and of course the lady can’t hear her and then those she’s walking with yell: “She’s pregnant, turn up your hearing aid!” On date two, Stan invites Zoe away for the weekend to see his farm. She drives in and sees him shirtless on tractor and crashes her car. Ugh ugh. Sexist/ body image alert: Zoe struggle to get dressed for a fancy event and can barely squeeze herself into dress and Stan says “Do you have a jacket?” Once at the event, she stands in the mirror looking at herself while sucking in her stomach.
The Back-Up Plan is not surprising at all but very predictable. I also think it’s so unrealistic that they have two dates and are starting to envision a life together. Does that really happen because in all my dating, it has never happened to me. Another sexist moment: When admitting to her friend she’s falling for this guy, she thinks about being a “barefoot” stay-at-home mom. The script is written by Kate Angelo [What About Brian] which appalls me. How can a woman write such a banal script? But then I think about Tina Fey’s insidious Baby Mama.
Jennifer Lopez is charming, laid back and naturally glowing. Lopez and O’Loughlin have a low-key, effortless chemistry. Lopez needs better material like Out of Sight.
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Posted by Amy Steele
August 28, 2010
Bee vs. Moth is a funky instrumental outfit. The latest release, Acronyms, provides the perfect music for a party, dancing, a quiet dinner. The band’s range is majestic, invigorating and hip. There’s surf instrumental ["Peter Benko"], alt-jazz ["Pennies from Hell"], circus tinged ["ICP on Parade"], country twang ["Now More Than Ever"] and old film noir ["The Sky and The Dirt Earth"]. Acronyms is a party album to be played in its entirety. It’s fabulous.
Bassist Philip Moody and drummer Sarah Norris started Bee vs. Moth and began performing around Austin six years ago. The band has since grown into a five-piece ensemble.
Acronyms will be released September 6 on Aggraveire Music
Bee vs. Moth website
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Posted by Amy Steele
