RaeAnna Rekemeyer – Page 36

I Like to Watch by Emily Nussbaum

August 1, 2019 RaeAnna

Worth A Read Absolutely
Length 384
Quick Review Emily Nussbaum is a Pulitzer Prize winning critic. I’ve heard of her in passing, but I fell in love with her in I Like to Watch, a collection of new and published essays.

Reading *I Like to Watch* by Emily Nussbaum on Top Sail in North Carolina. | Bikini Bottoms | Bikini Top | Beach Towel |

I don’t read a lot of critiques because I don’t like to be influenced one way or the other, but maybe I should start reading Emily Nussbaum’s critiques because, damn, she’s spot on. After reading I Like to Watch, I am officially an Emily Nussbaum fan.

TV is seen, by many, as a waste of time. As the work-from-home, freelancer, hermit, stay-at-home dog mom type, I’m a huge fan of TV. Other than Beau, television is my constant companion. I don’t always broadcast my love of TV, but I have always defended shows I find smart and compelling, which others tend to throw away as “girly.” Idiots. I might like Nussbaum because she bolstered my opinions, but she’s very smart and has been published in a lot of the best publications. I have watched to completion almost every show reviewed and mentioned in I Like to Watch, so maybe I need to be more productive, or maybe I should go into TV criticism… But she has a Pulitzer, and I have a blog.

Nussbaum was on her way to a doctorate when her future changed during an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer turned her into a TV critic.

Nussbaum is an amazing writer with deep insights, a sense of humor, and a complete lack of herd mentality. Her opening and closing sentences to her essays are amazing. I aspire to those kinds of clinchers. Though I Like to Watch focuses on TV, Nussbaum dives into more like the Me Too movement, Weinstein, and the fall out. Television is more than just mindless entertainment. It is a way to show people other ways of life, open minds, sway opinions, and dive into the nitty gritty. There has been a decent amount of uproar about rape depictions on TV, but representing dark and gruesome is not a bad thing, “Well drawn characters …. may be rape survivors, but that’s not where their stories stop. They’re more than their worst days.”

I live in this world as a woman. There are some great parts about being a lady, but there are a ton of downsides. I am not represented in the media to my fullest complexity, and it is far worse for people and women of color. I have known this for awhile, but there are shows I couldn’t totally pinpoint why I didn’t like them until I read I Like to Watch. In several highly underrated shows, Nussbaum agreed with the things I’ve been saying for, well, since I saw the shows. Shows like True Detective and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel were fun but lacking in my opinion because, as Nussbaum explains, they completely lack female characters of any depth or humor or qualities making women complex entities. I liked them, but they weren’t great. I guess I like my shows to have men and women with personalities. Shows poo-pooed by friends, critics, and randos like Jane the Virgin and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend are great. They are smart and funny but belittled because they’re shows for women. Fuck the patriarchy. I binged Sex and the City last year because I’d never had access to HBO, and all I’d ever heard was how girly it was. I was hooked because it showed flawed, complex women working at friendship, relationships, and their goals with really great clothes and shoes, “High-feminine instead of fetishistically masculine, glittery rather than gritty, and daring in its conception of character, Sex and the City was a brilliant, and, in certain ways, radical show.”

By the way, I fucking loved Nanette. I watched it the day it came out. Hannah Gadsby is a delight. It is a special I keep thinking about and recommending to anyone who has an interest in comedy, art history, feminism, LGBTQIA rights, or existing on this planet.

This is not a collection of glowing critiques, but it is an honest collection. There are good, pans, and some in between. I Like to Watch is an array of previously published and new essays from Nussbaum’s career as a critic. I seriously enjoyed this one, and I keep recommending it to people.

Memorable Quotes
“It was elitist screed, nostalgic for an America that never really existed…”
“Criticism isn’t memoir, but it’s certainly personal, so you dan consider these essays to be a portrait of me struggling to change my mind.”
“Jokes were a superior way to tell the truth – and that meant freedom for everyone.”
“…there’s a risk to Schumer’s rise: When you’re put on a pedestal, the whole world gets to upskirt you.”
“Bigotry is resilient, because rejecting it often means rejecting your own family.”

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Man interrupting my photo shoot on a public beach. How dare he!!!

Title: I Like to Watch; Arguing My Way Through the TV Revolution
Author: Emily Nussbaum
Publisher: Random House
Copyright: 2019
ISBN: 9780525508960

Books, Fiction

Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes

July 25, 2019July 23, 2019 RaeAnna

Worth A Read Yes and No
Length 304
Quick Review A predictable love story about a widow and a pro baseball player beginning again.

Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes | Swimsuit | Sunglasses

Evvie Drake has lived in small town Maine all her life. She’s married to the beloved doctor. Her porch is the prettiest in town. As she packs her bags to leave him and her life behind, he dies. There are pages one through four. Evvie is forced to figure out what to do next because it’s impossible to leave a dead husband. Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes is a sad and funny look into the after.

The plot is subpar and not interesting in any way. It’s about as trite and saccharine as a love story can be. Every single character and interaction is overdone and predictable. Nothing is a surprise. The sad girl who’s only ever been seen by one man and is the pity of the town even though the dead husband was *gasp* abusive is finally seen as sexy and alluring in her sweaters by a famous ex-baseball player who is going through his own struggle because he can’t pitch anymore *oh no!!!*. They flirt, boink, go their separate ways because misunderstanding, throw in a dog and some great scenery, cut to the last ten pages, and you know the ending.

The only redeeming factor to the Evvie Drake Starts Over is Holmes’ dialogue. Though the plot is crap, the dialogue and humor pulled me through. As much as the characters are a bore, I do like them. They’re funny and witty and completely flawed. Evvie resonates with me because I too existential crisis “”lie on the floor in the middle of the night and contemplate my existence.”” Holmes paints the characters as if they are much older than their early thirties. I’m not even in my thirties and I love sweaters, but leading with those factoids makes Evvie seem old and matronly. Add in the widowhood, and I had to keep reminding myself she was basically my age. The conversations between characters is funny in the way I like to think I am with my friends:
Evvie: “”Everything okay?””
Dean: “”Yeah, yeah, sorry about the noise. Knocked a box off the counter. It’s never the box with the sheets in it, you know? It’s always whatever will make it sound the most like you tried to murder a robot by throwing it down a couple of flights of stairs.””

It’s super baseball themed because the love interest is a sports dude, ugh. The book is split into parts: Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer to Opening Day.

Honestly, the plot in Evvie Drake Starts Over makes me sad. The dialogue is funny and engaging. I was hoping this would be something more… I can’t tell you what, but I was hoping it would be a better version of a rom-com. Although, it is a great read for vacation. I powered through it in one day on the beach. Tough life, I know.

Memorable Quotes
“Evvie’s Scandinavian grandmother had claimed that young women dream about the husbands they want, old women dream about the husbands they wanted, and only the luckiest women, for a moment in the middle, dream about the husbands they’ve got.”
“She stretched out on the sofa, trying to ignore the do something, do something voice…”
“”Climate-change denial is flat-earth idiocy for people who want us all to drown.””

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Title: Evvie Drake Starts Over
Author: Linda Holmes
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Copyright: 2019
ISBN: 9780525619246

In My Own Words, Lifestyle

Homecoming

July 21, 2019July 20, 2019 RaeAnna

Welcoming Alex home with my sign. | Dress | Shoes | Watch | Sunglasses | Earrings |

Happy hugs in front of his helicopter du jour. | Dress |

Marines lining up ready to see their families.

No, I’m not in high school or college. I did celebrate Homecoming a week ago. By this point in your life, you’ve probably seen a movie or a YouTube video showing a military person (probably man because patriarchy) come home from deployment or war – technically deployment just less cushy and more PTSD inducing. There are lots of flags, running, hugs, kisses, and happy tears. It’s all very realistic.

This deployment was never actually supposed to happen because he was supposed to get out of the military last October. Oh the military. You never know what’s going to happen until it’s already happened. Alex extended another year to go on this one. His two previous were to Japan and a bit of time on a boat floating around Asian countries. This one took him on a boat around the Mediterranean and an unplanned adventure in the Iranian neighborhood. With Flaming Hot Cheeto in office, it’s not exactly a time you want your loved one deployed in a less than friendly neighborhood. Six years. Three deployments. This was my first homecoming. Due to poverty, scheduling, and a lack of communication on not my part, I’d never been able to welcome Alex home with a cliché sign and a hug.

Yes that is a dinosaur behind us. | Dress | Shoes | Earrings | Watch |

Alex came home from his last deployment a week ago. I was waiting with a very me sign and a very big hug. It was not his longest deployment [upon Alex reading this: it was the longest. I guess I missed him less this time or I’m used to him being gone or it didn’t seem as long because we were able to talk more than any of the other deployments], but it was the most stressful, for me. Although, they are all stressful if I’m being honest.

As in everything military related, there is a lot of hurry up and wait, which is the military’s unofficial motto, by the way; I should figure out what that is in Latin. Hurry up and wait all the way up until you hold them.

Alex’s helicopter as we wait and wait and wait to actually see them.

Homecoming is an emotional thing for families. I can’t explain to you what having someone deployed is like except it feels like your heart is torn in two, and one piece is somewhere in the world. You wait on phone calls and emails. You wait and wait and wait. Then the day comes when they come home. Make a sign (please make it original, I will judge you). Dress up. Pop a mint in your mouth because it has been seven months. Huddle with hundreds of other people in a hanger in 97 degree weather waiting to watch the helicopters come over the horizon. The room vibrates with anticipation and love and anxiety. The Marines corralling the families dictate where the boundaries are and say, “If you step over this line, you could die.” Terrifying to children and some adults, while also being completely overdramatic. You wait and laugh and chat and don’t step over the line. The glint on the horizon… just a bug. A glint on the horizon… a helicopter. Just kidding, not the helicopter. Is there time for a bathroom break? If you run fast. Don’t run! Wait. Jostle. A roar goes up. Helicopters are on the horizon. People scream and cry and wait. The helicopters fly over in a V formation. Look for the one your Marine is on. They land. You can see your Marine. Wait. They gather on the flightline and “march” towards us with as little panache as very tired Marines can muster. The loud speaker says an unknowable something. People rush forward over the line separating alive and possible death. No one dies. Some find each other immediately; others take awhile. After hugs and kisses and I missed yous and I love yous, Marines play a rousing game of where the fuck is my stuff? Because it is all piled into neat lines, but it’s government issued, so it all looks the same. Stuff is located. Buy a tshirt. Everyone carries something making your way to the car. Wait some more in the parking garage. Freedom. They’re home.

Three minutes in and I’m already goofing off. | Dress | Shoes | Earrings | Watch | Sunglasses |

I want this to be more emotionally charged than it is. But it’s not going to be. I can’t get sad or weepy or nitty-gritty honest about homecoming or this deployment because I’m not in that headspace. I don’t foresee myself being in that headspace in the near future. If you want something real and emotionally charged click here and read my post about military movies and my lack of composure watching them.

I’m happy Alex is home. I’m happy he’s not dead. The likelihood he would die on the deployment was low, but you never really breathe easily when they’re away. I can breathe easily again. I’m sleeping better, which is to say as shitty as usual when Alex isn’t deployed. Deployments are hard. They suck. It’s emotional to have them deploy and emotional to have them come home. The interim is equally emotional. I think I’m tapped out on emotion right now, so this post is lackluster. I told Alex I had nothing interesting to write because he was lackluster, which is obviously not the case. No one spends six years loving a person in the military at a distance through deployments, deaths and illnesses, graduations and birthdays, anniversaries and holidays, normal days and hard days, when the one person you want by your side can’t be there.

This is not a life I would have chosen, but I did choose to love him. I loved him before the military. I loved him through the military. I will love him after the military.

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Books, NonFiction

Wild and Crazy Guys by Nick de Semlyen

July 20, 2019July 20, 2019 RaeAnna

Worth A Read Most Definitely
Length 336
Quick Review The 80s saw a comedic revolution, and there were several men at the center of that revolution.

Reading Wild and Crazy Guys by Nick de Semlyen on a gravel road in Old Town Spring, Texas| Skirt Set | Purse | Fringe | Shoes | Watch

I grew up on 80s comedies. Steve Martin’s SNL skits were performed by a twelve year old me in the hallways of my church for a captive audience of my peers who were less educated on comedy of years past. I was introduced to Caddyshack, Ghostbusters, The Jerk, Coming to America, National Lampoon’s Family Vacation, and a plethora of other classic comedies long before I understood most of the jokes. None-the-less, I grew up laughing to the humor of Steve Martin, Eddie Murphy, Bill Murray, Dan Akroyd, John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Martin Short, and the other comics gracing the pages of Nick de Semlyen’s Wild and Crazy Guys.

If you don’t know anything about the comedy scene or the people inhabiting it during the 80s, look no further than Wild and Crazy Guys. Nick de Semlyen peeks into the revolutionarily funny period that gave the world movies, like Stripes and Animal House.

I was literally laughing out loud reading this. It’s such a great look into the backstory of some of the most influential movies in my life. I don’t know if I should be proud how much these men and movies influenced me, but they did. Thanks, Dad.

Wild and Crazy Guys by Nick de Semlyen | Skirt Set | Purse | Fringe | Shoes | Watch

Wild and Crazy Guys starts with an iconic but not for laughs fight in the SNL dressing room between Murray and Chase. It sets the tone of how funny these men were while also reminding people how serious, driven, and a little crazy they were about comedy and their careers. de Semlyen goes into great detail about the things going on in the comics personal lives and the behind the scenes of the movies and shows. I appreciate how well researched the book was and included anecdotes, quotes, experiences, reviews, and more from contemporaries and historians.

For as funny as these men and their movies are, there is a dark side to fame and comedy. de Semlyen does not shy away from talking about drugs, alcohol, partying, and fame, including John Belushi’s overdose and Doug Kenney’s controversial death.

I can’t suggest Wild and Crazy Guys by Nick de Semlyen more. It is definitely not for everyone. If comedy is your jam, pick this one up. You won’t regret it. I promise.

Memorable Quotes
“…Candy argue passionately that it should be cut entirely, believing it was sexist and designed to make him look like a pig in a sty.” About the wrestling with topless women scene in Stripes.
“…since Murray believed all good things came from difficult conditions.”

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Title: Wild and Crazy Guys
Author: Nick de Semlyen
Publisher: Crown Archetype
Copyright: 2019
ISBN: 9781984826640

Books, Fiction

Passing by Nella Larsen

July 10, 2019July 9, 2019 RaeAnna

Worth A Read YES
Length 301
Quick Review Irene Redfield is a proud black woman living in the 1920s. She runs into a childhood friend, who no longer identifies as black.

201907061493772958901412110 — Passing by Nella Larsen | Dress | Belt | Watch | Shoes

Some books stay with you long after you read them; Passing by Nella Larsen is one of those books. There’s really nothing I dislike about this book. Small and powerful, this 1920s novel holds up ninety years later.

Irene Redfield and Clare Bellew grew up in the same neighborhood in Chicago before losing touch. They are both black women living in the 1920s with families when they meet again in a whites only establishment. The difference is: Irene is living her life as a black woman, but Clare is passing in the world as a white woman. The novel continues filled with familial, women’s, cultural, racial issues and more. There is never a dull moment in Irene’s life or mental state.

Passing is told in three parts from Irene’s perspective. Irene is smart, independent, and empathetic but also a product of her time and culture. There is so much emotional variance and abundance throughout the work. Irene is a black woman living in a white world but far more happy in her oppressed circumstances than Clare, who is living as a white woman in a white world with the constant fear of being exposed and a hunger for a community with a shared background. Larsen has so much insight into the human psyche surpassing yet encompassing race.

Nella Larsen is a beloved author of the Harlem Renaissance. Passing is one of her most well-known works published in 1929. A lot of things have changed in ninety years, but we definitely do not live in a post racial world. So many things ring true in this novel. The conversations held in white living rooms feel like something my racist/bigoted family members might say. Questions along the lines of “Oh! And your husband, is he – is he – er – dark, too?” are still uttered by people trying to be tactful but falling absolutely short.

Larsen’s use of language and punctuation is incredible. It’s one of those books you want to sit with letting the words roll through your mind reveling in the meaning and feeling of it all. Authors often use punctuation without thinking about it or having fun with it, but Passing has fun with punctuation using it to make points “And the eyes were magnificent! dark, sometimes absolutely black lashes.” I love her usage of commas; they help bring the reader into the angry, confused psyche of Irene

I have so many things to say about Passing. The ending is incredible. The entire book is an incredible piece of literature. I can see why Modern Library included it in its inaugural Torchbearers series.

Memorable Quotes
“Nevertheless, Irene felt, in turn, anger, scorn, and fear slide over her.”
“Why, simply because of Clare Kendry, who had exposed her to such torment, had she failed to take up the defence of the race to which she belonged?”
“”It’s easy for a Negro to ‘pass’ for white. But I don’t think it would be so simple for a white person to ‘pass’ for coloured.””

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Title: Passing
Author: Nella Larsen
Publisher: Modern Library (Penguin Random House)
Copyright: 2019
ISBN: 9780375758133

In My Own Words, Lifestyle

Swimsuit Season… Uncomfortable

July 9, 2019July 9, 2019 RaeAnna

I’m smiling so hard because I’m sucking in a lot.

Tiptoes makes my legs look good. Posing so hard.

Playing in Galveston! | Bikini Bottoms | Bikini Top

It’s swimsuit season. Although, I live in Houston, so swimsuit season lasts ten and a half months. This summer is a little, lottle, less comfortable for me.

I’m self conscious. I didn’t wear bikinis much or at all until the summer before I went to college when I was 19. I was always a one piece girl. Partially because of my mom, and partially because that’s what is easiest to dive and jump and slide in.

I was a late bloomer. I didn’t really hit puberty until I was 17. I was also very active and genetically super thin. For a very long time, I was a ballerina and built like it. The majority of my life, I was teeny-weeny. Then, I hit puberty, grew boobs and a butt, and gained weight. The things that happen when a girl becomes a woman. From the time I was 18 to 25, my weight fluctuated a lot. I’ve never been heavy, but when you were a size zero for a decade, anything resembling curvy was rough to wrap my head around. Right before I turned 25, I went through a huge health crisis and almost died. It’s a long story. I ended up losing a decent amount of weight and stayed there for the last three years.

Over the last two months, I have been dealing with a lot of stress. I’m also in the midst of an anxiety induced existential crisis perpetuated by OCD. Kidding, kind of. When I’m stressed, I gain weight. A lot. And quickly. In the span of twelve days, I gained 18 pounds. Believe me, it’s possible. I’ve lost eight of those pounds, but I’m hovering ten pounds over where I’m comfortable. No matter what I do, I’m not dropping them. Ugh.

So it’s swimsuit season. I’m in the midst of an ongoing emotional roller coaster. I know I don’t look bad. I’m still on the thin side of normal for my giantess height status. I’m just not as comfortable with where I’m at in comparison to where I’ve been the last few years. I’m still going to wear swimsuits and bikinis because I’m not going to let ten pounds keep me from the cute suits I’ve spent good money on.

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Raise your arm. Suck in. Point your toes. Your waist looks thin!