IT’S A DAY of rest, and you may be in the mood for a quiet corner and a comfy chair. We’ve hand-picked the week’s best reads for you to savour.
Before Angela Lansbury died – 10 years before, in fact – she sat down with the New York Times for a video interview only to be broadcast after her death.
An interesting, in-depth look at what the film Amsterdam’s performance at the box office in the US tells us about cinema at the moment.
(Deadline Hollywood, approx 7 mins reading time)
Russell was trying to replicate the success of his starry, 10-time Oscar-nominated American Hustle, which minted a $19.1M domestic wide opening over Christmas 2013, a $150M+ stateside gross and $251.1M worldwide off a $40M production cost. Amsterdam, fully financed by New Regency per its deal with Disney/20th Century Studios, was twice as much at a reported $80M, that being the pic’s most piercing nail in its coffin. What should have been an awards-season play with its originality quickly was sandbagged by critics at 34% on Rotten Tomatoes. So much, critics, for celebrating that which is original on the big screen.
3. The car crash that inspired a masterpiece
A Kansas family picked up a hitchhiker – what happened next inspired a great short story.
(The New Yorker, approx 15 mins reading time)
Craig told the hitchhiker that he could get him as far as the interstate, but that, because of the weather, he’d be taking it slow. Janice brought Lori up to the front seat, and the new passenger threw his bag in the car and hopped in the back. He told Craig that he’d hitched from Arizona, where his parents lived. The two chatted for a bit before the hitchhiker rested his head on the window and dozed off. Baby Cindy, wrapped in a blanket, slept on the seat beside him.
Millennials are no longer the young people online – so how do they feel about that?
(Wired, approx 15 mins reading time)
People have been old online before, and young people online get older online every day. But millennials are, arguably, the first generation to have been young on social media and to then get older there. Those of us in our mid- to late thirties may have been extremely online for more than two decades, going through more stages of a life cycle here than anyone else yet has. Other people have been old on here before, but they weren’t here when they were young.
Julie Metz writes about what getting older means for what she thinks about her appearance.
(Oldster, approx 7 mins reading time)
My denial started after the sudden death of my husband, and no, I’m not going to tell you how long ago that was, but those of you who don’t stink at math will figure it out. Six months after his death, a sordid small-town tale of infidelity unfolded—daytime soap plotline, minus a long-lost evil twin, set to maudlin soundtrack. One of my husband’s lovers lived in my town. She and I had been friends, or so I’d thought on the many afternoons when I’d supervised playdates for our two young children while she and my husband were screwing on her couch. In the aftermath of this discovery I was humiliated, devastated, and mired in a dark and bottomless rage.
6. What happened to Rod McKuen?
Rod McKuen was a bestselling poet in the US – but he disappeared from the public eye and isn’t really talked about now. Here’s his fascinating story.
(Slate, approx 29 mins reading time)
Every year on his birthday, he sold out Carnegie Hall. But by the time I was a teenager, he had completely vanished from the cultural landscape. I only know of him because I spent the entire 1990s in thrift stores and used bookshops, and everywhere I went, I saw Rod McKuen’s name. His chiseled face stared out at me from abandoned hardcovers, torn paperbacks, and dusty record albums, all adorned with the most ’70s fonts you ever saw. He wore a turtleneck and luxurious blond hair on the cover of Come to Me in Silence. He reclined on a sandy beach on the front of Seasons in the Sun. On one paperback he stared out to sea and the title of the book told me just how he felt: Alone…
…AND A CLASSIC FROM THE ARCHIVES…
Last year, people who changed their career after burnout explained to Emine Saner what they did.
(The Guardian, approx 11 mins reading time)
“Burnout is the cumulative result of unresolved and chronic stress,” says the clinical psychologist Dr Roberta Babb. Generally, there are three main types, she says. You can be burned out by being overworked and overloaded (“frenetic” burnout), but also by its opposite, “boreout”, where you may feel “consistently underchallenged or underworked”. “It may seem counterintuitive but we need a certain amount of stimulation in our daily work and lives in order to perform and feel satisfied,” says Babb.
Note: The Journal generally selects stories that are not paywalled, but some might not be accessible if you have exceeded your free article limit on the site in question.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say