Last week:

This week:

1. “Handy” by Weird Al Yankovic
   “First things first, I’m a craftsman”
2. “The Space Race Is Over” by Billy Bragg
   “I’m going to walk on the Moon someday”
3. “Georgia Lee” by Tom Waits
   “They found her in a small grove of trees”
4. “Things You Think” by Ben Folds and Nick Hornby (feat. Pomplamoose)
   “A new book comes out every 30 seconds”
5. “Jersey Girl” by Bruce Springsteen (orig. Tom Waits)
   “I got no time for the corner boys”
6. “Marduk T-Shirt Men’s Room Incident” by the Mountain Goats
   “Refugee from a disco in old east Berlin”
7. “Care Bear repping in harder this year”
   “Feel Good Inc.” by Gorillaz, guessed by Glen
8. “Freddie’s Dead” by Curtis Mayfield
   “Another junkie plan”
9. “If Only You” by Basia Bulat
   “So now I know I’ve said hello to Jekyll and to Hyde”
10. “Yester-Me, Yester-You, Yesterday” by Stevie Wonder
    “When we would dream and scheme and while the time away”

Can you guess the song and artist to any of these ten lyrics? Good luck!

It’s been three weeks since I last posted a roundup of the movies I’ve seen, mostly because I’ve been traveling, but also because in that time I’ve only seen 6 movies:

• 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple picks up the theme of human kindness from the first film, amplifying it by contrast against a more frightening, because human, villain, one offering cruelty masquerading as kindness. There are some frighteningly brutal moments, but also real, often surprisingly audacious, beauty, and another strong performance from Ralph Fiennes.
• There’s a compelling story in The Monuments Men—or maybe, and this is the movie’s problem, there are a dozen different compelling stories in it, an entire war’s worth of disparate stories compressed into a single narrative that can’t really contain them all while still propelling the movie forward. It’s well acted and amiable—and you know, fuck Nazis—but it’s also a collection of scenes stitched together more than an exciting story.
• Is This Thing On? is well made and well acted, and I liked it lot more than I expected to, but it never rises high enough above the cliches from which it’s built.

• No Other Choice is—and I mean this in the best possible way—batshit insane, making weird but compelling choices at every turn.
• There are a lot of very good performances in Stark Fear, and not just from star Beverly Garland and the other leads, but also from many of the non-professional locals the movie cast. It’s a pity they’re not given a particularly understandable story or script from which to work, making those performances feel less like part of a cohesive whole than a handful of interesting moments.
• Was the world crying out for a mashup of Shaun of the Dead and High School Musical? Much less a Christmas-themed one? (Much less a Christmas-themed one I watched in April?) I don’t know, but Anna and the Apocalypse is mostly good fun. Catchy, if not at all memorable, songs and a lot of playful characters and camerawork. I didn’t necessarily love it, but I enjoyed my short time with it.

I also re-watched 3 movies:

• Miller’s Crossing, which isn’t necessarily the Coen Brothers’ best collaboration, but there’s a lot to love about its style and humor.
• The Princess Bride, which is just a sheer delight every time.
• The Graduate, which I was almost surprised to discover is still really good, despite being very much of its time, and despite every beat of it having entered into the public consciousness.

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve done this.

But sure, why not. Let’s try it again. As always, the rules are simple. Know any of the ten song lyrics below? Post the artist and song title in the comments.

1. “Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometime” by Beck
   “Change your heart, it will astound you”
2. “No Surprises” by Radiohead
   “A heart that’s full up like a landfill”
3. “Coming for You” by Amelia Curran
   “I’m a wild abandoned ray of heat”
4. “Just Like Heaven” by the Cure
   “Why won’t you ever know that I’m in love with you?”
5. “Tell me, are you locked in the punch?”
   “Man on the Moon” by R.E.M., guessed by Glen
6. “The most tender place in my heart is for strangers”
   “Hold On, Hold On” by Neko Case, guessed by Thudfactor
7. “Chicago” by Sufijan Stevens
   “I made a lot of mistakes”
8. “Spicks and Specks” by Bee Gees
   “Where is the sun that shone on my head?”
9. “She can ruin your faith with her casual lies”
   “She’s Always a Woman” by Billy Joel, guessed by Simon
10. “My only comfort is the night gone black”
    “Only Happy When it Rains” by Garbage, guessed by Glen

Good luck!

Here’s my March music playlist:

I read just two books in March:

• Nobody’s Perfect by Donald E. Westlake
• Billy Bathgate by E.L. Doctorow

I read 32 short stories in March, missing just a couple of days. These were my favorites:

• “An Honour to be Nominated…” by Jacob Seinemeier in Escape Pod
• “Warren’s Tentacle” by Susan Palwick in Lightspeed
• “What We Mean When We Talk About the Hole in the Bathroom” by Angela Liu in Uncanny
• “Eat, Prey, Love: A Modest Proposal for Ensuring Gender Equality Through Selective Dietary Practices; or, a Geriatric Millennial’s Guide to #GirlDinner” by Jilly Dreadful in Lightspeed
• “I Wish You Died Laughing” by Lio Abendan in Strange Horizons
• “Walking Tour of Scarborough in Nuclear Winter” by Stewart C Baker in Pseudopod
• “The Bridge” by Rory Say in The Drabblecast
• “The Tide Folk” by Jennifer Hudak in Lightspeed
• “Espie Droger Dreams of War” by Matthew Kressel in Lightspeed
• “The Sea Child” by Justin Wesley Ferguson in Beneath Ceaseless Skies
• “I Once Fell in Love With a Jackalope” by Chase Anderson in Small Wonders
• “Ananconfabulation” by Mar Vincent in PodCastle
• “Meet the Mets” by ace tilton ratcliff in Escape Pod
• “All the Good You Did Not Do” by Jolie Toomajan in Pseudopod
• “I Will Bring You Tokyo” by P.S.C. Willis in Tales & Feathers