Murder Mermaids, Marvel, and Mouse Problems
What I'm Reading, Watching, & Listening To This Week
This week has been not the best.
Ben had a sports injury involving [let me not gross you out, but] a lot of blood. Then we had a mouse sighting, which led to a live mouse being caught in a sticky trap under the bar cart, which led to us having to kill the mouse so it wouldn’t slowly die in agony, which led to [let me not gross you out, but] a lot of blood. And I’m reading a book about murder mermaids which [obviously] involves a lot of blood.
Despite the apocalyptic setting, I still had time to deep dive on some good stuff this week. Here’s what I’ve been diving into:
Watching — Loki on Disney+
Loki is the best thing on TV right now, and probably the best thing Marvel has done since Black Panther, GO AHEAD AND PROVE ME WRONG.
It’s funny, smart, fast-paced [I’m looking at you, first four episodes of WandaVision], original, beautifully filmed, and has just enough time travel to be entertaining while not scientifically excruciating [I’m looking at you, The Tomorrow War with Chris Pratt]. Tom Hiddleston is doing a splendid job reminding us why Taylor Swift spent a whole summer in Italy with him.
He and Owen Wilson create this zany, jumpy chemistry, and matching them stroke for stroke is Sophia Di Martino as Sylvie, who is serving real Trinity-as-a-Manic-Pixie-Dreamgirl vibes and we LOVE TO SEE HER CHAOTIC ENERGY.
On a scale from Captain America [snoooooozefest!] to Thor Ragnarok [Jeff Goldblum blue eyeliner perfection!!!!], Loki is a solid 9.89.
Reading — “Into the Drowning Deep”
All you need to know is it’s about a boat full of scientists going to the deepest darkest part of the Pacific Ocean to find out if alien killer mermaids exist. [trust me this is not a spoiler: THEY DO.] The diverse cast of characters includes scientist twins who are both deaf, a lesbian ComicCon celebrity journalist, and a Hawaiian “sirenologist.”
It’s amazing and gory and I woke up last night and legitimately thought a murder-mermaid (“mer-der-maid”?) was in my bedroom.
Listening — “Winds of Change” Podcast on Spotify
Dax Shepherd said on Armchair Expert that this was good and he was right.
This eight-part podcast series pursues a rumor that the 1990 chart-topper “Winds of Change” by the Scorpions was actually written by the CIA in order to help bring down the Soviet Union—which happened to end only months after the song’s release. Along the way, we meet undercover agents, are introduced to espionage technology, find out all kinds of insane CIA secrets, and connect the music industry to drug lords in Colombia.
If you’ve ever suspected the moon landing might have been faked, LISTEN TO THIS. [It’s not that I think it was faked but I’m just gonna say I wouldn’t be like super shocked. I’m not a conspiracy theorist!!!!!]
It’s great. It’s like “Alias” but real life. Fun side effect? Now I suspect every pop song to be a hidden CIA ploy to take down North Korea. I mean, “Levitating,” really!?? What do YOU think it means??
This Week I’m Confused By — Ed Sheeran
I don’t get why he looks like the Joker in the music video for Bad Habits and I hate it. Ed, you are supposed to make shit that backs me up for liking your music all these years even though it makes my cool friends think I’m a loser.
This Week I’m Mad About — The Olympics
Rules that fail athletes’ humanity. [True of the Osaka stuff, too.]
The fact that we’re even having the Olympics in 2021. [It’s my favorite thing in the WHOLE WORLD but we should not be doing this to Tokyo.]