Podcast
DEBORAH PRUM
Hosted by DEBORAH PRUM · EN
Welcome to First Kiss and Other Cautionary Tales, a podcast where you can listen to observations on the quirkiness of life, hear short fiction read by a short person, and listen to book and movie reviews.
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PODCAST-MONKEY BUSINESS
Dec 2200:06:43Tap to summarizePODCAST-MONKEY BUSINESS Photo Courtesy of Jamie Haughton 0:00 / 0:00 Monkey Business (First appeared in Brevity.) I am not a monkey, but sometimes I act like one. Over the past couple years, I’ve had to put my writing and teaching career on hold as I’ve dealt with non-negotiable demands on my life. Those events knocked the stuffing out of me and trashed my self-esteem. I wondered if I still possessed the confidence, organizational skills, and knowledge I needed to continue in my profession. Despite being filled with self-doubt, I pitched a creative writing retreat idea to a group I’d worked with in the past. They’d always responded to my proposals with enthusiasm. Within a day, I received a warm email from the director saying she liked the concept but wanted me to expand the description section. I realized she was right. My proposal lacked substance. Normally, I welcome revision suggestions. I’d calmly flesh out the ideas and hit send. However, this reasonable feedback sent my fragile psyche into a death spiral. Had I lost my mojo? Why did I email such an ill-prepared document? I paused to relive many of my past failures, including losing the citywide spelling bee in third grade by misspelling “rhythm.” Once the self-flagellation petered out, I decided to scour the nether regions of my home. I stooped so far as to clean under the bathroom sink in the basement, a space that still contained hygiene artifacts from twenty-five years ago. After my zeal for scrubbing waned, I vowed to craft the perfect revision. But the pursuit of perfection paralyzed me. I stared at a blinking cursor for hours as I wrote and deleted many imperfect drafts. I knew what the director wanted but my self-doubt was messing with my ability to articulate it. While I am not a monkey, the embarrassing truth is that my unhinged behavior bore a striking resemblance to a group of lab monkeys that once flipped out over a banana in a basket. Years ago, researchers had taught these monkeys how to open a straw basket by pulling a latch and lifting the lid. All the monkeys became expert lid-lifters. Next, they divided the monkeys into two groups. Monkeys in one room observed someone putting a banana in each of their baskets. The other group was asked to unlatch and lift the lid but without the bananas—which they did, no problem. However, the banana-in-the-basket monkeys forgot how to open the lids. They jumped on baskets, chewed on baskets, and smashed baskets against the wall. Overwhelmed by their desire for those bananas, not one of them remembered a simple task they’d already mastered. Researchers found that the prospect of an enticing reward had interfered with the brain signals that enabled the monkeys to complete a simple task. Much like those lab monkeys, I felt so desperate for the director’s blessing that I couldn’t form a few simple, descriptive sentences. My fixation on receiving her affirmation made me forget how to unlatch my lid. Disgusted by my lack of progress, I decided to procrastinate in a non-housecleaning way. I took out my trumpet, an instrument I’d stared playing at nine, and practiced the St. Louis Blues, a syncopated tune with grace notes, slurs, and the nemesis of my musical existence, dotted eighth notes. I’ve been butchering this song for years. But this time, I focused on counting beats, remembering the sharps, and making the slurs work, despite my shot lip. I didn’t experience performance anxiety because I didn’t care about anyone’s opinion. I played for the joy of it. As my performance improved, I loosened up and lightened up—and gained the courage needed to go back to revising. St. Louis Blues had distracted me from anxiety and the drive for perfection. I added a little verve to the tone of the proposal and wrote one hundred words of what I hoped approximated a persuasive description. The upshot? A nightclub owner invited me to perform St. Louis Blues on stage in NYC. Just kidding. However, the director did like the revision and accepted the proposal, which ended my existential crisis. In retrospect, I wish I could have skipped the drama queen stage. After receiving the revision suggestion, I wish I had poured myself a cup of Good Earth tea, watched the sunset, then calmly written the requisite words. However, my bruised soul didn’t possess the bandwidth for rational thinking and a little self-care. I didn’t realize I had all I needed to complete the task. Like my simian counterparts, my overwhelming desire to achieve a specific outcome interfered with the brain signals that, without fanfare, would have enabled me to complete the simple task. What reassured me that my brain still worked was picking up an old friend, my trumpet, and mastering St. Louis Blues—a low-stakes, complex task that led to a small success. Music worked for me; maybe painting, solving a puzzle, or practicing a tennis serve would work for you. The lesson I learned: Find a way to stop obsessing about the banana! ### Interested in other writing tips? Check out: Surviving Rejection All About That Bass Celestial Vault Don’t Arrive Before You Get There (Photo by Jen Fariello)Deborah Prum’s fiction has appeared in The Virginia Quarterly Review, Across the Margin, Streetlight and other outlets. Her essays air on NPR member stations and have appeared in The Washington Post, Ladies Home Journal and Southern Living, as well as many other places. Check out her WEBSITE. Check out her DEVELOPMENTAL EDITING SERVICES. Check out her PAINTINGS. APPLE PODCAST SPOTIFY PODCAST
Transcribe →PODCAST-TASK-TV SERIES
Oct 2400:05:48Tap to summarizePODCAST-TASK-TV SERIES If you’ve read very many of my movie reviews, you’ll know that I love dark movies with redemptive underpinnings. The seven-episode TV series, Task, fits the bill. This crime procedural was written by Brad Inglesby, who also penned Mare of Eastown. Both series do a brilliant job of capturing gritty blue-collar life. Mare of Eastown is a mystery that keeps viewers in suspense, eager to discover the big reveal at season’s finale. The plot of Task is character driven; there’s no mystery to be solved. Instead, Inglesby creates narrative tension by exploration of the inner workings of his characters via back story and dialogue. For me, this worked. By episode one, I felt great empathy for several individuals and cared about what happened to them. The plot: unknown men commit a string of violent robberies that target drug houses of a fierce and powerful gang. As the violence escalates, police and FBI officials worry that an all-out gang war will ensue, endangering the public. The FBI chief, played by Martha Plimpton, insists that Tom Brandis (Mark Ruffalo) head up a task force comprised of three newbies to find the perps. In the middle of trying to deal with his own unspeakable tragedy, Tom begs the chief to find someone else. He’d rather be spending his time day drinking and bird watching, his current methods of coping. But the chief prevails. Tom is stuck with organizing a ragtag team of newbies: Grasso (Fabien Frankel), is a brash guy with mobster vibes, not anybody I’d let babysit my goldfish. Alison Oliver plays Stover, a young state trooper who hasn’t gotten over the trauma of a past incident. Her own colleagues ridicule her on a regular basis. The third is Aleah Clinton, played by Thuso Mbedu. This investigator knows what she is doing and is good at it, but is underestimated and unappreciated by just about everyone, including her law enforcement associates and the criminals. Tom Pelphrey, delivers a powerful performance as Robbie, a man with a good heart who can’t help himself from making awful, terrible, forehead-slappingly bad choices. I found myself yelling, “DON’T DO THAT!” at the screen quite a few times. I am a fan of Mark Ruffalo and have watched most of his movies. His nuanced and multi-faceted rendering of Tom Brandis is his best performance to date. Brandis is an ex-priest who went into law enforcement. In addition to fighting his own demons, he’s walked alongside his parishioners and members of the community as they struggle with grief and loss. Brandis is a wounded healer who approaches the world with enormous compassion. The chemistry among the actors in this ensemble cast is among the best I’ve seen. They portray both intense love and soul-scorching hatred in an understated way. No overacting was allowed on this set. Despite being nuanced, some scenes just plain sizzle. I wish the movie had spent more time unpacking the character of Maeve (played by Emilia Jones). She is Robbie’s niece, a twenty-something woman who is saddled with the care of Robbie’s small children. All she ever wants to do is live a quiet life. But Robbie’s erratic behavior de-stabilizes and endangers her every day. Albeit damaged, Maeve is the moral compass of the story. She resists Robbie’s pressure to engage in criminal activities, faces down the bad guys who are after Robbie, and puts herself at great risk while trying to protect Robbie’s kids. Her uncle’s chaos lands Maeve in the crosshairs of the FBI investigators, who don’t offer her support or protection, but instead threaten to put her behind bars. Just a warning, there’s lots of violence in this film. I walked out of the room on several scenes. And, as you might expect, there’s enough profanity to set your hair on fire. Even though I have difficulty engaging with slower paced movies, one situation captured my heart so completely that I looked forward to each episode to dropping. The pace does pick up at the end. There are several plot twists and more gun fights. The tragic beauty of one of the last scenes made me weep. Despite leaving a few issues unresolved, the end felt satisfying. I wonder if there will be a season two. I hope so. I’d love to spend more time with the amazing cast and watch whatever else Brad Inglesby comes up with for them to portray. ### Interested in other movie and TV reviews? Check out: SMOKE, THE PERFECT COUPLE, or HIGH POTENTIAL. 0:00 / 0:00 TASK (Photo by Jen Fariello)Deborah Prum’s fiction has appeared in The Virginia Quarterly Review, Across the Margin, Streetlight and other outlets. Her essays air on NPR member stations and have appeared in The Washington Post, Ladies Home Journal and Southern Living, as well as many other places. Check out her WEBSITE. Check out her DEVELOPMENTAL EDITING SERVICES. Check out her PAINTINGS. APPLE PODCAST SPOTIFY PODCAST
Transcribe →PODCAST-JOYRIDE-MOVIE REVIEW
Sep 2500:04:10Tap to summarizePODCAST-JOYRIDE-MOVIE REVIEW I saw a snippet of Joyride on a long airplane flight. I found the film intriguing and always wanted to watch the whole movie, which I did last night with my fellow members of The Quirky Movie Club. The plot: Twelve-year-old Mully (played by Charlie Reid) is singing in a pub to raise money for a charity that benefits cancer patients, the disease that recently has taken his mother. While singing, Mully notices his reprobate father making off with the collected cash. He chases his father, grabs the money, and hops into the driver’s seat of a cab idling outside of the pub. As Mully peels off, he notices Joy, (played by Oliva Colman) and a newborn in the backseat. Clearly inebriated, Joy tells Mully to keep driving. She confesses that she’s going to give her baby to a friend. Mully is horrified. But Joy tells him, “People give babies away all the time! To Romanian orphanages, to child traffickers, to Chinese gymnastic academies.” The two are already familiar with each other. It’s a small town and everyone gathers at the pub. Mully refers to Joy as “Vodka and Tonic” because of her drinking proclivities. Joy knows him as the boy who lost his sweet mother (a schoolmate of hers) to cancer. They start off on a road trip that involves busting through police barriers, stealing two vehicles, and hitching a ride with an offbeat farmer. At times, the screenplay feels contrived and predictable. To enjoy this movie, you need to suspend your disbelief and relax into the improbable storyline. I encourage you to do so, even if it’s just to see the sparkly chemistry between Colman and Reid. Colman has won an Academy Award, an Emmy, a Golden Globe award and has stayed happily married to the same man for twenty-four years, all admirable achievements. Her acting range is impressive—the queen of England, an intrepid detective, and in this movie, an alcoholic woman who is about to give up her baby. She fully embodies the role of Joy, which made for a great viewing experience. Charlie Reid is mesmerizing on screen. In the opening scene, he sings a very silly song with such conviction and style, I wanted to pause and replay it. His acting is both nuanced and robust, providing a balanced counterpoint for Colman’s portrayal of Joy’s forceful character. The soundtrack complemented the film well. I especially enjoyed some of the upbeat tunes. Shots of the Kerry countryside made me want to hop on a plane and spend a few weeks exploring. I’d love to see Charlie Reid in another movie, but I couldn’t find much about him online, other than his appearing in a few plays. If you want to get to know Olivia Colman better, check Amy Poehler’s interview of her on the podcast, A Good Hang. Near the end of the movie, a street person refers to Mully and Joy as “Reckless Joy and the Half-Orphan,” which is an apt summation of the story. Is the movie worth seeing? My fellow members of The Quirky Movie Club couldn’t quite get past the farfetched plot. However, I loved the acting and the overall spirit of the movie so much I could easily watch it a second time. ### Interested in other movie reviews? Check out: NINE DAYS, DADDIO, or GHOSTLIGHT. 0:00 / 0:00 Joyride (Photo by Jen Fariello)Deborah Prum’s fiction has appeared in The Virginia Quarterly Review, Across the Margin, Streetlight and other outlets. Her essays air on NPR member stations and have appeared in The Washington Post, Ladies Home Journal and Southern Living, as well as many other places. Check out her WEBSITE. Check out her DEVELOPMENTAL EDITING SERVICES. Check out her PAINTINGS. APPLE PODCAST SPOTIFY PODCAST
Transcribe →PODCAST-SMOKE-TV SERIES
Aug 2600:04:32Tap to summarizePODCAST-SMOKE-TV SERIES Smoke is a nine-episode Apple TV series based on Dennis Lehane’s book, Firebug. This thriller is dark and gritty, with its main theme being no one can escape the negative effects of a traumatic childhood. All the primary characters have backstories that have left them flawed. The writing is good and is often laced with a cynical and biting humor. As the story opens, we viewers learn that a serial arsonist has set more than twenty fires in the city. The investigators are under great pressure to find the perpetrator. The plot is comprised of a series of twists and turns, so many, that you can predict another is just about to happen, which is not optimal. That being said, the story kept my interest. The acting is terrific and that alone makes the show worth watching. Jurnee Smollett does an amazing job capturing the complexity of her character, a detective who’s survived terrible abuse. Taron Eagerton delivers an stellar performance as an arson specialist who seems charismatic and charming in a twitchy and almost maniacal way. I felt a special affection for the character, Ezra Esposito, played convincingly by John Leguizamo. Ezra is a fired cop, despised by everyone because of his past failures. Yet, this guy, whose behavior can be described as amoral at best, is the one person who wants to find the truth, whatever the cost. This skilled ensemble has great chemistry. In fact, I might call it phenomenal negative chemistry, in that many of the characters have contempt for one another or histories that entangle them in unhealthy ways. Their interactions felt genuine, and the dialogue felt authentic. This thought-provoking series would be great to discuss with others. Writers included a subplot that I found riveting—true to life and thoroughly moving. Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine’s performance as Freddy is amazing. I don’t want to say any more about this, except that the segment is worthy of your close attention. The pacing felt slow at times. I think the narrative tension would have been higher if they’d condensed the series into six episodes. My husband lost interest at episode three, but I hung in through episode nine. I found the last episode annoying. Lehane decided that he wanted to “go big or go home.” Up until that point, I appreciated the nuance of the material. The choices the main character made at the end strained credulity and did not fit with her street-smart way of handling crisises. At the very end, they portrayed an unrelated fire, maybe to entice viewers to show up for a possible season two? I found this confusing and thought that it diluted the intensity of emotion viewers might have felt at the conclusion of the series. If you like watching flames, little fires and big conflagrations, this movie is for you. The ethereal shots of collapsing buildings and blazing forests are mesmerizing. All these gorgeous scenes are complemented by a topnotch soundtrack. What I liked most about this series is the complex portrayal of each of the main characters, how we can’t escape our pasts and how no one is completely good nor completely evil. This show may be too grim for some viewers. However, I feel it’s worth watching based on the superb acting, engaging soundtrack, and beautiful (but terrifying) cinematography. ### Interested in watching other TV series? Check out: THE PERFECT COUPLE and HIGH POTENTIAL . 0:00 / 0:00 SMOKE (Photo by Jen Fariello)Deborah Prum’s fiction has appeared in The Virginia Quarterly Review, Across the Margin, Streetlight and other outlets. Her essays air on NPR member stations and have appeared in The Washington Post, Ladies Home Journal and Southern Living, as well as many other places. Check out her WEBSITE. Check out her DEVELOPMENTAL EDITING SERVICES. Check out her PAINTINGS. APPLE PODCAST SPOTIFY PODCAST
Transcribe →PODCAST-NINE DAYS-MOVIE REVIEW
Jul 23, 202500:06:32Tap to summarizePODCAST-NINE DAYS MOVIE REVIEW I watched Nine Days a week ago. I’ve been thinking about it ever since. Written and directed by Edson Oda, this surreal film is set in a clapboard house in the middle of a bleak desert. In this house, over the span of nine days, Will (Winston Duke) decides if a soul will be given the gift of life. If the answer is yes, that soul will be born on Earth with all the attributes they already possess. If they are not chosen, they cease to exist. The souls traverse the desert in batches of five, arriving one after the other. Will interviews the individuals separately, sometimes with the aid of Kyo (Benedict Wong). Will’s questions differ for each candidate; his interrogation style ranges from tender to shockingly aggressive. All along, Will insists there are no right or wrong answers. But it’s clear that some answers will lead to the gift of life and others to permanent extinction. Once souls are born on Earth, Will observes each of their lives on a 1950’s style TV, a separate screen for each person. A small room contains a bank of televisions running concurrently. The entirety of each life is recorded on a VCR tape(!) and stored in file cabinet (!)—all of which adds to the quirkiness of the film. As the story opens, Will is dressed in a bow tie and suit jacket. He and Kyo are looking forward to watching one of their charges experience a celebratory milestone in her life. Instead, something shocking happens to this person whom they deeply value. This shakes Will to the core and makes him second guess his ability to accurately choose a soul who can thrive on earth. Soon after the unsettling event, one by one, members from a new cohort arrive. They are a diverse group, differing in appearance, responses to the questions, and attitudes about the selection process and their prospects. The actors include Tony Hale, Bill Skarsgard, Ariana Ortiz, David Rhysdal and Zazie Beetz. Beetz plays Emma, a vibrant soul who doesn’t play by the rules. She answers Will’s questions with her own questions and surreptitiously observes what happens to the other candidates. Emma’s behavior challenges Will’s rigid perspective on life. Nine Days is a visual treat. I loved the grim desert shots, which were filmed at Bonneville Flats in Utah. I also like the stuffy, claustrophobic interview scenes that take place in a house that my grandma might have furnished. Both spaces contrasted with the grainy, yet gloriously sensual scenes on earth that are portrayed on the televisions. The cinematographer’s use of color creates a dreamy, intense tone evocative of the tone Edward Hopper achieves with his painting, Nighthawks, a depiction of late-night clientele at a city diner. The film moves in a non-linear fashion. Oda builds his story slowly, with every detail laden with significance. The structure is much like a hawk circling over its prey, at each turn swooping closer, until a final dive toward its target. Narrative tension builds as the viewer becomes emotionally invested in each character and at the same time realizes only one of them will receive the gift of life. Will offers a consolation prize to those souls who are not chosen. He creates a simulation of an experience they would have liked to have had on earth. Of course, it is an imperfect facsimile. Oda’s superb storytelling and directing led me to feel deep empathy for each character, even the ones I didn’t like that much. Viewing these consolation scenes just about eviscerated me emotionally. The film leaves many questions unanswered. Will describes himself as “only a cog in the machine.” We never find out who operates the machine or why they put Will in charge, a man who is so damaged by his own past life on earth. Oda intentionally leaves the questions unanswered, which he says reflects “the gaps” we experience in our lives. Oda is a Japanese Brazilian man who grew up in Sao Paulo, Brazil and later received a master’s degree film in California. In an interview he says that he wrote the script himself, despite English not being his first language. I found his writing to be nuanced and poetic. The story is autobiographical. When Oda was twelve, his fifty-year-old uncle died by suicide. As a young adult, Oda identified with his uncle’s depression. He says that this film rose out of his fear of following his uncle’s path. Drawing on his experience with his uncle, Oda explores these themes: To ensure survival on Earth, must you become a self-protective and cynical person? Given that life is inevitably filled with pain and suffering, is it worth living? Oda slowly and skillfully builds toward an end that is both tragic and redemptive. The last scene puts Winston Duke’s prodigious acting skills on full display. Will’s riveting speech brought me to tears. Although, I wanted this movie to resolve differently, the ending Oda wrote helped me change my perspective on how to survive the hard patches in my life. ### Interested in other movie and series reviews? Check out: DADDIO, GHOSTLIGHT, or HIS THREE DAUGHTERS. 0:00 / 0:00 NINE DAYS (Photo by Jen Fariello)Deborah Prum’s fiction has appeared in The Virginia Quarterly Review, Across the Margin, Streetlight and other outlets. Her essays air on NPR member stations and have appeared in The Washington Post, Ladies Home Journal and Southern Living, as well as many other places. Check out her WEBSITE. Check out her DEVELOPMENTAL EDITING SERVICES. Check out her PAINTINGS. APPLE PODCAST SPOTIFY PODCAST
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