Day By Day

WWII Stories, Widow's Bay, and Martin Short Doc Season

Hello again!

I know it’s been a while, but I’ve been suffering from a debilitating case of “who cares.” It’s not fully out of my system yet, but I wanted to try to tell everyone about some things that I’ve enjoyed lately.

Reading

Book and Dagger: How Scholars and Librarians Became the Unlikely Spies of World War II by Elyse Graham - A fascinating book about the development of the United States’ intelligence agency at the start of World War II and its unexpected recruitment class. The program didn’t need James Bonds and femme fatales; it needed people who knew multiple languages, how to research discreetly, and where to find information. Enter college professors and librarians. Even though they weren’t on the front lines, these intelligence operatives were not safely cocooned in libraries either. They traveled to Europe with newly acquired cover identities, weapons training, and cyanide pills (in case they got caught). These unlikely officers put themselves in grave danger to ask questions and seek out any information that might help the Allies. I found myself taking multiple screenshots throughout of passages that felt particularly relevant to this day. Like the section on how the Nazis used paperwork throughout the Holocaust to methodically invalidate the citizenship of Jews to make them “illegal.” Or how many excellent Jewish scholars fled Europe at the start of the war, coming to America and enriching our operations with their diverse perspectives and expertise. Or the line, “Authoritarianism is a catastrophic intellectual handicap.” Just some things to think about.

Dear Miss Lake by AJ Pearce - For a fictional take on World War II, I read the final installment in AJ Pearce’s Emmy Lake Chronicles. This four book series follows plucky Londoner Emmy Lake as she begins working at a publishing company, in hopes of eventually becoming a war correspondent, only to wind up working on the advice page at the company’s ladies magazine. Throughout the series, though, Emmy realizes just how many women she can help navigate new challenges, like joining the workforce or relationships strained by the realities of war. The entire magazine staff becomes like a family, so much so that this installment begins with them relocating the office to a family friend’s estate for the summer of 1944 to get a short reprieve from bombings in London. While the books are full of this kind of relentless optimism and “can do” attitude, they also always touch on some real complexities that I may not have thought of before. This time it’s the plight of families of prisoners of war and how little information they were given and how they could often feel forgotten. There’s also a lot of discussion about social mores still being strict, especially for women, even though most relationships and gender roles were being transformed by the war. This has been a cozy, reliable series, and I will miss the whole gang at Woman’s Friend magazine.

Watching

Widow’s Bay (Apple TV) - I had seen a few advertisements for what I assumed was a straightforward mystery/thriller series starring Matthew Rhys and didn’t think much of it. But then I found out the show was created by Katie Dippold, a writer known for her work on Parks and Recreation, The Heat, and one of the greatest tweets of all time, and I got way more interested. Turns out Widow’s Bay is a very compelling horror series with a touch of workplace sitcom. It’s like if the mayor from Jaws was trying to generate tourism in the midst of paranormal activity instead of shark attacks, and his incompetent staff of jaded locals only made his job harder. Rhys plays the beleaguered mayor of a small, New England island town, trying desperately to modernize and draw in business, but the town’s spooky history AND present has made it a hard sell. Of course, there’s a seasoned sailor, Robert Shaw-type who gives warnings about “a haunt in the fog,” and imagine my delight to find out that character is played by Stephen Root! Kate O’Flynn is another standout as Rhys’s eccentric colleague who gets an excellent showcase in episode 4. We’re only midway through the season, and I’m really looking forward to the rest of the ride. I mean, wouldn’t you trust this person with horror and comedy?!

Marty: Life is Short (Netflix) and You Had to Be There: How the Toronto Godspell Ignited the Comedy Revolution, Spread Love & Overalls, and Created a Community That Changed the World (In a Canadian Kind of Way) - How many people reach their career peak in their 70s? Not just a resurgence or continued success, but actually doing their best work and getting the most acclaim for it in their 70s? Martin Short might be the first, and luckily there are a couple of wonderful documentaries coming out that trace this unusual arc. Marty: Life is Short is a pretty typical biographical documentary on Short’s life and career, enhanced by the personal touch of Short’s own home video footage, capturing his family life over decades, particularly his beautiful relationship with his late wife Nancy. The star-studded talking head interviews don’t feel like shallow showbiz relations because they’re juxtaposed with home video of the same celebrities vacationing and celebrating holidays with The Shorts. Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg, and Catherine O’Hara aren’t just talking about a colleague or a comedian whose work they admire. They’re talking about their friend Marty whose cottage they visit in the summers. These personal relationships are clearly what have kept Short afloat all these years, through bombs and moderate successes, and following some early family tragedies, the film makes the solid case that he’s able to let go and fully enjoy his work because none of it matters as much as those relationships.

I got to see the second Short-centric documentary, You Had to Be There, as part of the Chicago Critics Film Festival, and I highly recommend checking it out if you can when it hits theaters in September. If you couldn’t tell by the full title above, this is a charming, playful account of the 1972 Toronto production of the musical Godspell that probably had the strongest line-up of future stars that has ever been assembled: Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Gilda Radner, Victor Garber, Andrea Martin, Dave Thomas, and led by young musical director, Paul Shaffer. Their memories from auditioning to bonding as a cast to performing the show for over a year are funny and undramatic (very Canadian) and provide a clear blueprint of how these young, inventive performers mingled (including with non-cast member friends like John Candy and Dan Aykroyd, who hung out at cast afterparties) and influenced one another to become the soon-to-be stars of Second City Toronto, Saturday Night Live, and SCTV. Just a delightful crew to watch and be a part of for a few hours.

Listening

Kacey Musgraves, Middle of Nowhere - A great return to country form for Musgraves. She’s great at crafting a clever turn of phrase that feels modern but still touches on classic country heartache, particularly in songs like “Dry Spell,” “I Believe in Ghosts,” and “Hell on Me.” I can’t comment on the track “Loneliest Girl” because I’m currently taking Kacey to court for stealing my life story. My most played song is probably the charming, “Neon Moon”-esque "Rhinestoned.”

Robyn, Sexistential - Once again, Robyn excels at portraying raw vulnerability within tightly constructed dance pop. I mean, the title track is basically spoken word about undergoing IVF and still trying to date, all layered on top of a house beat. “Talk to Me” is an excellent classically pleading and sexy Robyn hit. I also really love the honesty spelled out “Sucker for Love.”