What Else Is On My Mind Grapes #13
MOVIES
2023 is my year of story. Part of that has been becoming an AMC A-List Insider, the most worthwhile subscription service I know of. If you’re interested in following what I’m watching and review, follow me on Letterboxd. Particularly of interest are the films reflecting on America’s behavior in the shadow on 9/11 and the War on Terror: Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant, The Report, The Mauritanian, and Shock and Awe.
Not all of these films are good, but it is revelatory that story-tellers are now exploring what America did right and wrong after the devastation of 9/11. Perspective is good. The one thing perspective often lacks is context and immediacy. In fact, that’s one of the gifts of perspective. Too often we are too emotion and fearful in the moment, which leads to poor outcomes.
Either way, these films are great places to spark your own thinking…and maybe, for some of us, spark our own repentance.
READING
I recently finished Brad Metzler’s The Nazi Conspiracy, and I lived it so much, I immediate jumped into his The First Conspiracy. I also finished Erik Larson’s In The Garden of Beast, as well as Jennifer Egan’s Pulitzer Prize winner A Visit From the Good Squad. I’ve just started reading Jean Hanff Korelitz’s addictive novel, The Plot.
Feel free to follow my reading journey and create your own over at GoodReads.
Soap-Box: News
I want to encourage each of you to pay for a subscription to a news source you trust. Why?
When we don’t pay for news, we get less good reporting. Newspapers can’t afford to pay writers, which means information we need stays hidden. Plus, it gives more and more influence to large corporate news. I may $39 for one of the most well respected newspapers in the country and it’s worth every dollar. You don’t need to subscribe to everything, but maybe one or two.
Stealing is stealing. Writers have commitments and need to earn a living. Using website that leap over paywalls is stealing the authors work. You might think it’s cool, but the intellectual property belongs to them and they need to be paid. If you wouldn't walk into a grocery or department store and take something without paying for it, don’t do that to writers and content creators either. You are stealing. Full Stop. You are who you are when no one is looking.