Notes from the Kraken: March

In All, Notes by David

Welcome again to We Have Always Live the Kraken, a pop culture blog transmitted directly to you from the belly of the beast. Here in the Notes we’ll show you this month’s posting schedule, but first here are some thoughts.

Image result for oscars

This has nothing to do with my post, but I have written so much about the Oscars that it just feels wrong not to have it pictured here.

It’s March, which means 2018 has really begun. I know what you are thinking: “Umm, 2018 started two months ago…” and you would technically be correct, but let’s all be honest, the first two months of the year are mostly dealing with the fallout of the previous year. This starts with the simple fact that the Christmas season causes a lot of people to start behind the eight-ball whether they celebrate Christmas or not, which means much of January is barely even recognized. Then you look as pop culture unleashes a deluge of awards shows honoring the previous year’s work, whether that be the Golden Globes, the Grammys, or, you know, the Oscars. Plus people are busy getting the paperwork finalized for their taxes from the previous year. It takes time for everyone to fully adjust to being in a new year, and March is when most people seem to get on the same page and truly step forward. As dumb as Daylight Savings is, when it causes all of us to spring forward our clocks an hour (much to everyone’s chagrin), it represents a shift toward the future, much like March as a whole does. This makes March the perfect month for spring to begin, as we can finally move away from the winter started in the previous year to a new season that exclusively belongs to the new year. So what does all this mean? Meh, not much. Other than, now is the time to look toward the future and be ready to make changes as you run head on into the new year. It is not always pleasant, and you may lose something precious, like, say, an hour of sleep (seriously, why Daylight Savings, just why), but it is a time for new beginnings, so go forth and face the new day. Or, you know, just be excited that March Madness is almost back and you get a chance to derive enjoyment from an event that makes millions for everyone except the players involved with the actual product. Hey, no one said you had to face the new day any differently than you faced the old.

David

From the depths of the Kraken, here is what we are bringing you this month.

Oscarathon 2018 heads towards its conclusion, so look for the final burst here at the end..

Catch of the Week:

Each and every week the residents here in the Kraken will offer one recommendation for the week that we think you all would enjoy. It might be a movie. It might be a book. Who knows? This is your… Catch of the Week Month.

David: With the Oscars wrapping up finally, after the Olympics pushed it back later than normal, let’s go with one last Oscar-related movie recommendation in the form of The Insult. The Lebanon entry for Best Foreign Film is a bit of a sleeper compared to the rest of the nominated films. It doesn’t have the Palm d’Or cache of The Square, the Oscar pedigree of Loveless, the timeliness of A Fantastic Woman, or even the power of Netflix behind it like On Body and Soul, but what it does have is a story that is both unique to Lebanon, but also universal. Examining how a small dispute could escalate to having national implications in a country that is a powder keg of differing groups forced to live together, this film builds to an unexpectedly powerful conclusion. So if you get a chance to watch this film, take advantage of it, as The Insult is a film that should not be missed.

Kyu: There are a number of good movies already this year (Black Panther and Annihilation are the stand outs so far), but after a mad dash to watch the 2018 Oscar nominated films, it’s time to go back to some old classics. In this case, I watched 1978’s coming of age dramedy Breaking Away. Set in Bloomington, Indiana, the film follows Dave, a 19-year-old who isn’t sure what he wants to do with his life, but is sure he wants to be a cyclist. An Italian cyclist. Much to the chagrin of his loutish father, as Dave spends his days talking with an Italian accent, listening to Italian music, eating Italian food… He even renames the cat Fellini. What begins as a funny comedic performance deepens as the film goes on to demonstrate the identity crisis that Dave and his friends are going through. Jobless, mostly prospect-less, not necessarily bound for college in a college town, the so-called “Cutters” (a derisive nickname for the lower class townies in a place where stonecutting was a major industry a generation ago–and now is evidenced mostly in the old quarries, currently swimming holes) seem poised to spend the rest of their lives in the lazy, haphazard patterns of their post-high-school year. A chance emerges, however, for Dave and his friends to enter the big bike race, competing against the college snobs for the first time ever. The way the film aligns the friendships, Dave’s struggle toward identity, and the class issues at play into one very exciting bike race is a real triumph. Justly nominated for multiple Academy awards including Best Director and Best Picture (it won for Screenplay), Breaking Away is seldom discussed and no doubt underseen, but deserves to be rediscovered. Stories like this never really go out of date, because new people are always growing up.

That’s it for this month. Let’s reflect on surviving another February March with few issues–well, except for the Portugal incident, but remember everyone, let’s not talk about the Portugal incident…