Alan & Jono's Watching/Reading List: September 2023

Alan:

Hello Heroes!

September! It’s still warm, the trees up in the mountains are starting to change color (don’t come to Utah, it’s ugly here), there were books read and movies watched, and schemes hatched!

What I’m reading!

• Yumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon Sanderson. I bought the books from Brandon Sanderson’s record-breaking Kickstarter campaign. This one was a very strange world split in two, a cautionary tale about AI and technological development, and a charming romance very much inspired by Your Name. I desperately want to adapt it to film. Add it to the list.
• You’ve Got Red On You by Clark Collis. A deeply reported book about the making of one of my favorite films of all time (though oddly, maybe my least favorite of the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy). TONS of detail that I didn’t know before. This will likely be a re-read for me, maybe many times. I devoured this whole book in three evenings while we were at Dragon Con in Atlanta, which is why I was so tired and out of it in Atlanta (apologies, Atlanteans).
• Jurassic Park The Ultimate Visual History by James Mottram. Some information I didn’t already know about the movie that started it all for me! Also, TONS of images/sketches/pre-vis/storyboards I’d never seen before. Plus tons of little collectibles and art pieces. I am building an entire library of these big, well-researched behind the scenes books. Including…
• Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan The Making of the Classic Film by John Tenuto and Maria Jose Tenuto. Aside from having a title that screams “I’m an academic who has spent my career researching and lecturing about Star Trek (true story) this is a pretty well-written making-of book for one of my favorite films of all time. Also a hilarious anecdote where the authors added a detail that the writer/director of the film, Nicholas Meyer, missed in his own book, and he then acknowledged, “Oh yeah, thanks for reminding me!” We all mythologize ourselves, and forget details.

What I’m watching!

• Still haven’t gotten out to see Gran Turismo or TMNT Mutant Mayhem. In fact, I haven’t been to a movie theater in more than a month. I hate this about myself. Will remedy soon! (Edit: see Jono's note below!)
• Re-watched Who Framed Roger Rabbit with my kids. It’s a perfect film. The technical mastery on display, with a crackerjack script, great musical score, and superb animation is just… Wow. Also, it reinvigorated appreciation of the Golden Age of animation and was directly responsible for the Disney Renaissance period of animation (seriously!) So everyone say 10 Hail Zemeckis’s before you go to bed tonight.
• The Afterparty S2 wrapped up in high style. What a great show. I’m curious to see if they’ll get another season or two. I really hope they do, it’s so much fun.

What I’m playing!

• House of Da Vinci on iPad. It’s a knock-off of the The Room games, which are great puzzle-games that are super gothic and atmospheric. But they’re a pretty good knock-off. So, you know… having fun.
• Also discovered Connections which is a NYTimes daily game (kinda like Wordle or the Crossword) and I really enjoy it. I actually kinda hate Wordle, and I love/hate the Crossword. But I highly recommend Connections, if you like to make words go squishy in your brain.

And…

Watch Movies! (And television, and read books, and play video games)

Jono:

I just caught A Haunting in Venice with Alan, Corinne, David, and Emily. It was fabulous! Probably my favorite of Kenneth Branagh's Poirot movies. Spooky and perfect for Halloween. I'm getting very into Ahsoka on Disney+; I love Star Wars shows as much as (more than?) I love the movies! Right now I'm reading Good Morning, I Love You by Dr. Shauna Shapiro, which offers mindfulness exercises and practices for self-compassion. It's helping me on my continued journey of self-love and self-acceptance.

What have you been watching and reading this month?