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August 20, 2004 > Arts & Entertainment > How I spent my summer vacation

How I spent my summer vacation

By Jonathan Schumann | Thresher Editorial Staff

What did you do this summer? I’m sure there were a few of you lounging around the pool, perfecting your tan and reading thought-provoking material like FHM, Cosmopolitan and Maxim. And then I’m sure there were a few who wasted away in front of a computer screen at some thankless job, reading memos but not much else. For those of you both under- and over-worked, we here at Thresher A&E have compiled a guide to help you regain your pop culture sophistication. Here are the best books, movies and albums the summer had to offer.

Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, David Sedaris

This new collection from essayist Sedaris is sure to please both his fanatical fans and new readers alike. Though not as sharp or consistent as the author’s previous collections (Me Talk Pretty One Day and Naked, my personal favorite), this work is a breezy and often hilarious foray into Sedaris’ bizarre existence. The collection’s high point, “Blood Work,” chronicles his brief stint as an apartment cleaner. After reading this tale, I think all of us will reconsider a career in the service industry. Sedaris also proves to have a sensitive side in his send-up to his longtime partner Hugh in “The End of the Affair.” With his distinctive mix of cynical exaggeration and bittersweet sincerity, Sedaris again proves to be one of literature’s most fascinating and engaging voices.

Made to Love Magic, Nick Drake

This collection of newly discovered and remastered recordings from Bob Dylan-contemporary Nick Drake is a sublime mix of lovelorn musings and melancholy ramblings. This is mood music at its most substantial. “Joey” evokes a longing that few artists can achieve and Drake shows off his versatility with the more upbeat “Mayfair” and “Thoughts of Mary Jane.” This is a great introductory course for those who like Drake’s “Fly,” which appeared on The Royal Tenenbaums soundtrack.

Uh Huh Her, P.J. Harvey

Though fans of Harvey’s harsh, angry debut album Rid of Me may be disappointed with the singer/songwriter’s slightly toned-down angst here, newcomers will surely be hooked. The album’s opening track, “Life and Death of Mr. Badmouth” recounts the terrors of dating a liar with heart-wrenching accuracy. Here and throughout the album, Harvey proves to be a master lyricist with potent lines like: “‘Cause everything is poison/You’ll be the unhappy one/Your lips taste of poison/You’ll be in the corner crying.” To say that Harvey strikes a raw nerve with this song and others like “Shame” and “Letter” may be an understatement – she seems to be one of the only emotionally uninhibited rockers around.

The Manchurian Candidate

I was as skeptical as any classic film lover when I heard director Jonathan Demme was set to remake John Frankenheimer’s 60s tale of Cold War anxiety. How could such a time-specific story work today? With the action shifted to post-9/11 America and the subjects as Gulf War rather than Korean War veterans, this saga of blind political ambition and conspiracy works eerily well in these uncertain times. In fact, this new Candidate is as good as mainstream cinema gets – thrilling, taut, evocative, with Oscar-worthy turns from its stars. As a paranoid army veteran, Denzel Washington does his best work. The film’s villain is the drunk-on-power Eleanor Shaw (Meryl Streep), a senator who is willing to push her son’s political pursuits no matter what the costs. Streep is, of course, flawless in the scenery-chewing role. It’s a small role, but she milks it to its full potential. As her Vice Presidential nominee son, Liev Schreiber makes perhaps the strongest impression. Known primarily for his theater work, who knew Schreiber could hold the screen with such powerhouses?

Fahrenheit 9/11

A seemingly unlikely companion piece to the political thriller, The Manchurian Candidate, this documentary from uber-liberal Michael Moore is just about as important as film gets. Rarely can a film transcend its medium to be considered an integral political tool, and that’s just what this one does. Laying out the facts about the Bush family’s connections to Saudi royalty, election fraud and the price of war, this documentary, while admittedly not objective, is an important look at our current political dilemma.

The Door in the Floor

This eloquent rendering of the first third of John Irving’s sprawling novel, A Widow for One Year, deconstructs the hopeless marriage of Ted and Marion Cole (Jeff Bridges and Kim Basinger). Ever since the death of their two oldest sons, their relationship has been strained. Marion is frozen with grief, while Ted channels his emotion into the children’s books he writes and the women he seduces. Bridges turns in an expertly rendered performance as a man hindered as much by his own arrogance as by grief. Also excellent is Basinger, who has not shown this much subtlety and nuance since her Oscar-winning turn in L.A. Confidential.

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