Engineer's Daughter

input september 2020

Books

People of the City - Cyprian Ekwensi

The Fifth Season - N.K. Jemisin

One Long River of Song: Notes on Wonder - Brian Doyle

The Yellow House: A Memoir - Sarah M. Broom

 

Movies

Holes - Andrew Davis

20 Feet From Stardom - Morgan Neville

If Beale Street Could Talk - Barry Jenkins

Inception - Christopher Nolan

The Bling Ring - Sofia Coppola

The Host - Bong Joon Ho

Inside Llewyn Davis - Joel and Ethan Coen

Gregory Go Boom - Janicza Bravo

Pauline Alone - Janicza Bravo

Woman in Deep - Janicza Bravo

Man Rots from the Head - Janicza Bravo

The Shawshank Redemption - Frank Darabont

La Ciénaga - Lucrecia Martel

The Headless Woman - Lucrecia Martel

Zama - Lucrecia Martel

13TH - Ava DuVernay

Meek's Cutoff - Kelly Reichardt

The One and Only Ivan - Thea Sharrock

Thank You and Good Night - Jan Oxenberg

 

Streaming

Better Call Saul

Muppets Now

Cobra Kai

Kim Possible

Seven Seconds

Schoolhouse Rock

 

Virtual Theater

Caesar Maximus at We Players

Black Voices Past and Present podcast by Steven Anthony Jones

biosphere 2 round-up

Biosphere 2 remains a fascinating experiment in sustainability, and there have been a number of worthy examinations of the project in the media recently:

• Matt Wolf's documentary Spaceship Earth details the history of how Biosphere 2 came to be.
• Michael Fox reviewed the doc for KQED Arts
• Avery Trufelman covered Biosphere 2 on her excellent podcast series about failed utopias, Nice Try! As with anything Trufelman produces the entire series is well worth your time too.
• Rebecca Reider was featured prominently on Trufelman's podcast; check out her book Dreaming the Biosphere: The Theater of All Possibilities
• And last but not least, the official Biosphere 2 website.

input august 2020

Books

Genius & Anxiety: How Jews Changed the World, 1847 -1947 - Norman Lebrecht

Don't Believe a Word: The Surprising Truth About Language - David Shariatmadari

1919: Poems - Eve L. Ewing

Recollections of My Nonexistence - Rebecca Solnit

 

Movies

Da 5 Bloods - Spike Lee

Parasite - Bong Joon Ho

Fast Color - Julia Hart

My Twentieth Century - Ildikó Enyedi

Iron Man - Jon Favreau

The Witches - Nicolas Roeg

Palm Springs - Max Barbakow

The Farewell - Lulu Wang

Starstruck - Gillian Armstrong

Moana - Ron Clements, John Musker, Don Hall, Chris Williams

Roma - Alfonso Cuarón

Father of My Children - Mia Hansen-Løve

Goodbye First Love - Mia Hansen-Løve

Things to Come - Mia Hansen-Løve

Booksmart - Olivia Wilde

First Reformed - Paul Schrader

Ratatouille - Brad Bird, Jan Pinkava

Nightcrawler - Dan Gilroy

The Salesman - Asghar Farhadi

Rifiki - Wanuri Kahiu

Black Is King - Beyoncé, Jenn Nkiru, Blitz the Ambassador, Jake Nava

Pan's Labyrinth - Guillermo Del Toro

The Dead Zone - David Cronenberg

Sun Don't Shine - Amy Seimetz

 

Streaming

The Baby-Sitters Club

The Last Dance

Hannibal

One Day at a Time

Atlanta

Bob's Burgers

Fauda

 

Virtual Theater

One Room at Weston Playhouse

The Keep Going Song at Actors Theatre of Louisville

The Jacksonian at The New Group

the journeys of trees

 

I'm very happy to report that fave local mag Bay Nature has started their own series of online talks, and the first one earlier this week featured a wonderful conversation between editor-in-chief Victoria Schlesinger and science writer Zach St. George about his new book The Journeys of Trees. Watch the recording above, then follow the links below to buy the book and/or subscribe to Bay Nature. And next up: tidepools!

See also:

• The Journeys of Trees
• Bay Nature
• Bay Nature Talks: Tidepools

 

the science and soul of nature writing

 

The Bay Area Book Festival has gone online this year, and I was fully inspired by the above conversation with some of my fave local nature writers and illustrators. Watch the video, and then buy their beautiful books, all available from the amazing Heyday!

See more:

• Heyday Books
• How to Teach Nature Journaling by John Muir Laws and Emilie Lygren
• The Curious World of Seaweed by Josie Iselin
• The State of Water by Obi Kaufmann

input july 2020

Books

The Three-Body Problem - Cixin Liu

I Don't Want to Die Poor - Michael Arceneaux

A Black Women's History of the United States - Daina Ramey Berry and Kali Nicole Gross

Feed - Tommy Pico

Tiny Love: The Complete Stories - Larry Brown

 

Movies

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs - Joel and Ethan Coen

Tangerine - Sean Baker

The Vast of Night - Andrew Patterson

Between the Lines - Joan Micklin Silver

Hamilton - Thomas Kail

Frida - Julie Taymor

You Are Not I - Sara Driver

Sleepwalk - Sara Driver

When Pigs Fly - Sara Driver

The Bowery - Sara Driver

Zodiac - David Fincher

The Social Network - David Fincher

The American President - Rob Reiner

Me and You and Everyone We Know - Miranda July

The Future - Miranda July

Chi-Raq - Spike Lee

WALL-E - Andrew Stanton

The Old Guard - Gina Prince-Bythewood

The Report - Scott Z. Burns

Born in Flames - Lizzie Borden

Inside Out - Pete Docter

 

Streaming

Never Have I Ever

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

Fargo

Phineas and Ferb

Russian Doll

She's Gotta Have It

Veronica Mars

 

Virtual Theater

Lungs at the Old Vic

Les Blancs at the National Theatre

The Line at the Public Theater

Richard II at the Public Theater

The 7th Voyage of Egon Tichy at Theater in Quarantine

input june 2020

Books

I Used to Be Charming: The Rest of Eve Babitz - Eve Babitz

The Peanuts Papers: Writers and Cartoonists on Charlie Brown, Snoopy & the Gang, and the Meaning of Life - Andrew Blauner, editor

Out of My Head: On the Trail of Consciousness - Tim Parks

Margery Kempe - Robert Glück

Marrow and Bone - Walter Kempowski

 

Movies

Dolemite - D'Urville Martin

The Watermelon Woman - Cheryl Dunye

The Owls - Cheryl Dunye

Pan's Labyrinth - Guillermo del Toro

Minding the Gap - Bing Liu

The Handmaiden - Park Chan-wook

But I'm a Cheerleader - Jamie Babbit

Return to Oz - Walter Murch

Mudbound - Dee Rees

Empty Suitcases - Bette Gordon

Variety - Bette Gordon

Luminous Motion - Bette Gordon

Apollo 11 - Todd Douglas Miller

Embrace of the Serpent - Ciro Guerra

Fantastic Mr. Fox - Wes Anderson

20th Century Women - Mike Mills

Beach Rats - Eliza Hittman

The Central Park Five - Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, and David McMahon

Olivia - Jacqueline Audry

 

Streaming

Gentefied

The Midnight Gospel

Dark

 

Virtual Theater

Anno Domino at Stephen Joseph Theatre

State vs Natasha Banina at Arlekin Players Theater

Tartuffe at Moliere in the Park

input may 2020

Books

Stalingrad - Vasily Grossman

The Criminal Child: Selected Essays - Jean Genet

 

Movies

Booksmart - Olivia Wilde

Wadjda - Haifaa al-Mansour

Amazing Grace - Sydney Pollack, Alan Elliott

Down in the Delta - Maya Angelou

Avengers: Endgame - Joe Russo, Anthony Russo

It Felt Like Love - Eliza Hittman

Burning - Lee Chang-dong

Peppermint Soda - Diane Kurys

Entre nous - Diane Kurys

Children of the Century - Diane Kurys

John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum - Chad Stahelski

Lovely & Amazing - Nicole Holofcener

Friends with Money - Nicole Holofcener

Please Give - Nicole Holofcener

 

Streaming

Hollywood

Upload

The Eddy

Spaceship Earth

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

Homecoming

input april 2020

Books

The Corner That Held Them - Sylvia Townsend Warner

The Art of War - Sun Tzu, translated by Michael Nylan

 

Movies

The Last Black Man in San Francisco - Joe Talbot

Europa Europa - Agnieszka Holland

Meeting Gorbachev - Werner Herzog & André Singer

I Am Not a Witch - Rungano Nyoni

Rocketman - Dexter Fletcher

The Fits - Anna Rose Holmer

The Other Side - Roberto Minervini

Mikey and Nicky - Elaine May

 

Streaming

Risky Business

Tales from the Loop

Les Misérables

Brews Brothers

Run

The Innocence Files

Too Hot to Handle

We're Here

Defending Jacob

Never Have I Ever

input march 2020

Art

No More I Love Yous at Creative Growth

Feminizing Permanence at St. Mary's College Museum of Art

No Part Left Out at Interface Gallery

CTRL+SHFT Members Pop-Up Show at CTRL+SHFT Collective

 

Books

Cane - Jean Toomer

The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne - Brian Moore

In a Lonely Place - Dorothy B. Hughes

Machines in the Head: Selected Stories - Anna Kavan

 

Food and Drink

De Afghanan Kabob House

 

Hikes

George Miller Regional Trail at Carquinez Strait Regional Shoreline

Point Pinole/Cooks Point/Marsh/Owl Alley/China Cove/Pinole Point/Bay View Trails at Point Pinole Regional Shoreline

 

Movies

Charlie Says - Mary Harron

Holy Smoke - Jane Campion

In the Cut - Jane Campion

Fat Girl - Catherine Breillat

Daughters of the Dust - Julie Dash

The Hole in the Ground - Lee Cronin

Mustang - Deniz Gamze Ergüven

Border Radio - Allison Anders, Dean Lent, and Kurt Voss

The Biggest Little Farm - John Chester

Gas Food Lodging - Allison Anders

5 short films by Mati Diop - Atlantiques, Snow Canon, Big in Vietnam, A Thousand Suns, Liberian Boy

Too Late to Die Young - Dominga Sotomayor

Pokémon Detective Pikachu - Rob Letterman

Orlando - Sally Potter

The Cruz Brothers and Miss Malloy - Kathleen Collins

Losing Ground - Kathleen Collins

Robin and Marian - Richard Lester

Women of the Resistance - Liliana Cavani

The Night Porter - Liliana Cavani

The Skin - Liliana Cavani

 

Performance

Ethan Philbrick: 10 Meditations in an Emergency at BAMPFA

 

Theater

Gloria at A.C.T.'s Strand