Engineer's Daughter

input february 2021

Books

Long Bright River - Liz Moore

10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World - Elif Shafak

Catfishing on CatNet - Naomi Kritzer

Parakeet - Marie-Helene Bertino

 

Movies

Cool Hand Luke - Stuart Rosenberg

Young Adult - Jason Reitman

Integration Report 1 - Madeline Anderson

A Tribute to Malcolm X - Madeline Anderson

I Am Somebody - Madeline Anderson

Wonderstruck - Todd Haynes

Isle of Dogs - Wes Anderson

Eve's Bayou - Kasi Lemmons

Witness - Peter Weir

Stories We Tell - Sarah Polley

The Sound of Music - Robert Wise

One Night in Miami... - Regina King

Mary Poppins - Robert Stevenson

Ajube Kete - Akosua Adoma Owusu

Tea 4 Two - Akosua Adoma Owusu

Intermittent Delight - Akosua Adoma Owusu

Boyant - Akosua Adoma Owusu

Me broni ba - Akosua Adoma Owusu

Drexciya - Akosua Adoma Owusu

Split Ends, I Feel Wonderful - Akosua Adoma Owusu

Kwaku Ananse - Akosua Adoma Owusu

Bus Nut - Akosua Adoma Owusu

Reluctantly Queer - Akosua Adoma Owusu

Mahogany Too - Akosua Adoma Owusu

On Monday of Last Week - Akosua Adoma Owusu

Pelourinho: They Don’t Really Care About Us - Akosua Adoma Owusu

Goodfellas - Martin Scorsese

The Great Sadness of Zohara - Nina Menkes

Queen of Diamonds - Nina Menkes

Phantom Love - Nina Menkes

 

Streaming

Brooklyn Nine-Nine

The Crown

Jane the Virgin

matokie mix 01.31.21

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matokie mix 01.17.21

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soundhouse: intimacy and distance

Looking at visual art online has proved a thoroughly unsatisfying pandemic experience for me, but thankfully the same is not true for my experience of music and sound. London's Barbican has prepared an engaging online iteration of their Soundhouse series that specifically addresses how the isolation and social distancing of the past year has affected our listening habits. Curators Arlie Adlington, Ariana Martinez, and Axel Kacoutié have selected podcasts and other audio works that play on continuous loops in three online "rooms" that the virtual visitor can move among almost as if they were in the Barbican galleries themselves. The site also includes extensive notes and links out to the audio sources, so you might just discover a new favorite podcast or sound artist.

• Soundhouse: Intimacy and Distance

input january 2021

Books

The Gimmicks - Chris McCormick

Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America - Marcia Chatelain

Why We Can't Sleep: Women's New Midlife Crisis - Ada Calhoun

Valentino and Sagittarius - Natalia Ginzburg

 

Movies

Time - Garrett Bradley

The Greatest Showman - Michael Gracey

Finding Christa - Camille Billops and James Hatch

Suzanne, Suzanne - Camille Billops and James Hatch

Older Women and Love - Camille Billops and James Hatch

Take Your Bags - Camille Billops and James Hatch

The KKK Boutique Ain't Just Rednecks - Camille Billops and James Hatch

A String of Pearls - Camille Billops and James Hatch

Boyz n the Hood - John Singleton

Soul - Pete Docter

A Clockwork Orange - Stanley Kubrick

Ernest & Celestine - Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar, and Benjamin Renner

Monsoon Wedding - Mira Nair

The Florida Project - Sean Baker

Sunset Boulevard - Billy Wilder

Always Shine - Sophia Takal

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom - George C. Wolfe

A Powerful Thang - Zeinabu irene Davis

Compensation - Zeinabu irene Davis

The Trials of Muhammad Ali - Bill Siegel

Sky High - Mike Mitchell

Seven Songs About Thunder - Jennifer Reeder

Tears Cannot Restore Her: Therefore, I Weep - Jennifer Reeder

And I Will Rise If Only to Hold You Down - Jennifer Reeder

A Million Miles Away - Jennifer Reeder

Blood Below the Skin - Jennifer Reeder

Crystal Lake - Jennifer Reeder

LOLA, 15 - Jennifer Reeder

Shuvit - Jennifer Reeder

All Small Bodies - Jennifer Reeder

 

Streaming

Avatar: The Last Airbender

Community

Jeopardy!

Pose

The Great British Baking Show

The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story

 

Virtual Theater

Apologies To Lorraine Hansberry (You Too, August Wilson) at Magic Theatre

Lizzie at Ray Of Light Theatre

The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey at Cinnabar Theater

The Snow Walk of the Empress Matilda at Exit Theatre

a grassy noël

The radio play as a form has had quite a resurgence this year (for obvious reasons), and this week I've been very much enjoying listening to a play a day by Noel Grassy Macken online at London's Resonance FM. A poet and a playwright, Macken has been creating radio plays for the last 15 years, and the ones I've heard so far are farcical, clever, and subtly surreal. They're also timely as hell.

See also:

• A Grassy Noël
• A Grassy Noël archive
• Resonance FM
• Noel Grassy Macken on Mixcloud

12 streams of serious

Another excellent way to pass the time this week, promotion company Serious has selected 12 standout performances from their 2020 productions for your streaming pleasure. Highlights include composer and percussionist Sarathy Korwar leading his new band in a gig at London's Total Refreshment Centre, and an online ensemble led by Orphy Robinson where people joined in from their homes to perform and record in a sort of virtual jazz club situation. But really all the streams are fantastic. Also keep an eye on the Serious site for their 2021 shows, much to look forward to on the horizon.

See also:

• 12 Streams of Serious
• Serious

bang on a can marathons on demand

Bang on a Can has given us a wonderful present to help get us through this dreadful limbo time in between Christmas and New Year's, the gift of 24 hours of music and conversations recorded live during their online marathons this past year and available to watch for this week only. The list of musicians and composers who participated in the 2020 pandemic marathons is simply mind-boggling and includes Meredith Monk, George Lewis, Alvin Curran, Iva Bittová, Nicole Mitchell, Annie Gosfield, Rhiannon Giddens, to name just a few. You can skip directly to your favorites or proceed through the roster in the order provided (as I have been doing) for maximum surprise and delight. And don't forget to donate to Bang on a Can, so that they continue to pay artists and commission new work!

See also:

• Bang on a Can Marathon 2020
• Bang on a Can

an ill considered christmas

How I like my holiday music: either utterly traditional, or blasted in from another dimension. This recent session from UK out-jazz trio Ill Considered falls decisively into the latter category, and as they reinterpret classics like "Ding Dong Merrily On High" and "Auld Lang Syne" the energy is undeniable. UnEvensong indeed. Ill Considered is Idris Rahman on sax, Emre Ramazanoglu on drums, and Liran Donin on electric bass, and you can find them on the New Soil record label.

See also:

• Ill Considered on Bandcamp
• New Soil

matokie mix 12.20.20

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