by Hello Twigs
stirring dull roots with spring rain – T.S. Eliot
New Web Series: ‘Baker Street’ Based on Sherlock Holmes
Baker Street is a new web series based on Sherlock Holmes. It’s genderbent, with both leads female, which is perfectly fine with me – as I’ve said on Twitter, I don’t care what juxtaposition of gender you make Holmes and Watson, as long as under no circumstances do you make it a romantic relationship. That would be to go entirely against the fundamental spirit of the relationship as Conan Doyle wrote it.
In Baker Street, Jane Watson has dropped out of medical school in Britain and returned to Canada to help out her family in a time of crisis. Unfortunately, they have rejected her, and her mysterious roommate is driving her mad. This feels a little lower-budget than some others, but is also much more dynamic and willing to shift physical settings and scenes. The pacing and camerawork are uneven and the character of Sherlock is both underwritten and underwhelmingly acted. Not a fan of this so far, though I do love the concept and would love to see this done well. (PSA: For web series I really do love and which are incredibly sharply written and acted, see my list of 8 Favorite Literary Web Series)
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Far from the Madding Crowd Trailer Starring Carey Mulligan, Tom Sturridge
How did I miss this trailer when it first came out? This is my favorite Hardy novel and one of my favorite love stories.
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TV Love: Hindsight
VH1’s Hindsight , which aired its first episode this week, is funny, romantic, and an absolute blast of fresh air in a TV year heavily dominated by legal dramas, procedurals, and comic-book adaptations. Forty-something Becca (the effortlessly charismatic/adorable Laura Ramsey – what else has she been in??) has a slightly successful, very ordinary life, but she can’t escape the feeling that she’s let herself down, and on the eve of her second wedding, finds herself questioning all her life choices. When an elevator malfunctions, she finds herself cast back in time to 1995, to the day of her first wedding. Instead of working a low-level management position and marrying a kind but stodgy lawyer, she’s a 20-something who still wears motorcycle jackets and is about to marry first love Sean (Craig Horner), a free-spirited Australian artist. Female characters take central stage – Becca’s best friend Lolly delivers a quirk a minute, quotes Sixteen Candles, and knows her inside and out. It’s fast-paced, refreshing, and lovable.
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Morning: Everything is Illuminated
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Poetry: The Quadrant
(Climb in, climb out of the little black square) The village rises into form amidst the pines. Cows and goats stand unstunned in the forest. The Muslim and Christian quarters are made of flimsy wood and storage containers. Assemble, disassemble. There is a military technology fair in Orlando where you can purchase a village in a box. Then populate it: live inside it for a time. At the beginning of the exercise, the soldier students are told half-truths. They must stabilize who and why. While playing market, Nafeesa and Ralia cry out leblabi leblabi, to the soldiers. It is that roasted chickpea soup they sell in paper cones in the Middle East. “Win a- leblabi, u ashgid?” (Where is the leblabi and how much?), I ask. They are so shocked that they give me a Coke.
So in love with this gorgeous looping spiral of a poem from Nomi Stone.
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The Flag
On the roof of the old barracks
a row of air vents burr,
breathless as nuns praying.
A string of bird calls—
light starts trickling,
sleepers fret behind the gauze.
A string of katydid songs
stark in the foothills
of Tennessee,
maybe it was Morgantown.
There, the library in July was cool
like a nave. Tell no one. Desire
is the flag I open and fold.
My room alights in doubt.
-Pui Ying Wong, Up the Staircase
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Coffee Love: Dressed-Up Irish Coffee
via A Beautiful Mess
and check out this recipe for dressed-up Irish coffee from Food Network!
Coffee and Irony 