What Lies Beneath
The Empress, Kleo, Yearbook, The Mermaid of Black Conch, and deep-sea creatures.
Hello there,
Lately I’ve been getting a lot of upsetting election campaign materials in the mail, but nothing could have prepared for me for this card that arrived this week.
Things are truly bleak out there.
Watch
I recently came across two excellent German-language shows on Netflix: The Empress and Kleo.
I’d like to imagine that The Empress came about because an Austrian filmmaker watched The Crown and thought, “We have the Habsburgs! They’re way crazier than the British monarchs. We can totally outdo them.” And honestly, it’s right up there. I give it a 10/10 in storytelling, characters, jaw-dropping costumes, insane hairstyles, and drama. I’m obsessed with history, and AP European History was the most boring class I took in high school, so this really would have been nice to spice things up, had it been around then.
(This trailer is dubbed by I recommend watching it with subtitles.)
Kleo is a comedy/drama about an East German assassin at the end of the Cold War who is somehow simultaneously terrifying and hilarious. Jella Haase, who plays the protagonist, is just an absolute joy to watch, in spite of some of the gore.
Read
I recently read Seth Rogen’s memoir Yearbook in about 24 hours, since it’s a fast, laugh-out-loud read. I’m also going to try the audio book since Goodreads reviewers say it’s great, too. I don’t think you need to be a fan to enjoy it, but you’ll probably appreciate it more if you’re Jewish, to be honest.
If you’re in the mood for fiction, I recently finished The Mermaid of Black Conch, a reimagining of Caribbean mermaid myths in a story taking place in the 1970s in Trinidad and Tobago. It was wonderfully imaginative, but if you plan on seeing the live-action Little Mermaid coming out next year, the details of this book will be pretty hard to get out of your head.
See the full list of recommendations here.
Follow
Robert Stansfield is a blackwater photographer who takes incredibly cool, eerie photos of sea life at night. The creatures are, simply put, otherworldly.
Do
It’s likely there’s another winter COVID surge coming to the US but less than 4% of those eligible to get the updated vaccine have had the booster. If you haven’t had your updated booster, find out where you can get yours.
Until next time,
Rachel