Liquidate With Extreme Prejudice

If you're looking for something to watch, I have a few recommendations. Looper for scifi action movie fare, the Ai Weiwei documentary Never Sorry, and if you're feeling really adventurous, The Master. Actually the latter I couldn't rightly recommend to anyone. It's not that it's bad, it's just hard to pinpoint who I would tell to watch it. I guess if you like breathtaking cinematography, Joaquin Phoenix, and general confusion, get thee to The Master. I haven't been so anxious to hear a post-movie podcast in quite awhile. Of course, the spoiler podcast didn't really clear stuff up either. Which is okay I guess. Some movies are supposed to be impenetrable.

Everyone should see Never Sorry though, if they can. We were impressed with first time filmmaker Alison Klayman's sure handed direction and editing. She's quite young and sort of stumbled into the project, but her timing could not have been better as Ai Weiwei blew up over the time she was filming him. To think that Klayman, an American who learned Mandarin during her time in China, produced this great documentary is mind boggling. If I went to China, I can't imagine how I could undertake such a project. She must be fearless.

• Q&A with director Alison Klayman
• ReThink Interview: Alison Klayman
• Chance Encounters Interview

We convened our first book club meeting tonight, after talking about it for most of the summer. It's taken awhile because I read half of the wrong Murakami -- the three-in-one monster that is 1Q84 -- before realizing it. So I had to skitter through Kafka on the Shore as fast as I could. (I hadn't known about it previously but the highlight text feature on the Kindle is fabulous. Even better than bending down the corners of pages.) Murakami is known for passive protagonists and this book is no exception. His main characters lack agency, and they basically don't choose to do anything.

Generally, Kafka on the Shore is about memories and dreams, but that's just a tiny slice. There's also a cat killing scene that will stick with you forever if you let it. Never mind the incest. Even though we spent three hours talking about it, complete with going over specific quotes, I still feel the need to gain perspective on Kafka on the Shore from Murakami lovers. I feel like maybe I missed something(s). It's the kind of book that sucks you in but then frustrates.

We began book club with a warm up discussion about Fifty Shades of Grey, while downing a giant ball of mozzarella-like cheese that I forgot the name of. The ball was seriously the size of my fist. And really, two people can only eat so much cheese, however delicious. My food ignorance is reaching embarrassing levels as menus nowadays hold many mysteries to me. Tonight's WTFs: escarole, polpettine, orecchiette, bucatini, polpettone.

"In ancient times people weren't just male or female, but one of three types: male/male, male/female, or female/female. In other words, each person was made out of the components of two people. Everyone was happy with this arrangement and never really gave it much thought. But then God took a knife and cut everybody in half, right down the middle. So after that the world was divided just into male and female, the upshot being that people spend their time running around trying to locate their missing other half."
-Kafka on the Shore-