Weekly Roundup! February 25th, 2024

Welcome to Weekly Roundup!, where we dive into the captivating world of films, books, and stories that caught our attention over the past week. 

A two-week hiatus —refreshed, tanned (okay sunburnt hoping to turn tan), full of lucidity— a nagging wistful pang as my body adjusts back to temperatures 60 degrees Fahrenheit (ca. 16 °C) colder. Is that the ocean I hear? No — just the sound of below-freezing air squeezing through a crack in the window seal.

To start:

The whistle of wellness…

not quite a starting gun,

more a subtle hum…

A loving embrace,

that sends a smile across the face of whatever you are facing.

You can do hard things.

Courtesy of A Message from the Universe on Substack

Watches of the week

• The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad (1988) by David Zucker - 4/5
• The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear (1991) by David Zucker - 3.5/5
• The Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994) by Peter Segal - 3.5/5

The Naked Gun series

In early January I watched Airplane! (1980) for the first time. Consequently, that was my first introduction to actor Leslie Nielsen and writers/directors David and Jerry Zucker¹. Safe to say that left a good impression because a few weeks later, and I’ve crossed three more of their collaborations off my list. 

Comedies have never been my favorite type of movie, even long before I met V and was thrust headfirst into the land of the cinephile. It seems they were always hit or miss. At times too crass or vulgar, others just too obvious in their delivery and intention, it was rare to find one that I really liked. 

The Naked Gun trilogy stars Leslie Nielsen as Detective Frank Drebin — originally introduced in a TV series Police Squad that is frequently referenced throughout. Lt. Drebin —blundering, incompetent, and oblivious— somehow manages to thwart multiple criminal plots while causing chaos and hilarity in the process. 

I found the humor to be clever and fast-paced, aided by Leslie Nielsen’s deadpan delivery. The series are spoof films, and reference many classic movies (Psycho, Ghost, etc.), pop-culture, and current events. We actually had to google quite a bit while watching, as some references to the current events of the times went over our head. To me that’s a good sign, as it seems we are losing the ability to laugh and make fun at the absurdity of our current lives, save maybe SNL and Sacha Baron Cohen. 

Reads of the week

• Navalny’s Letters from the Gulag - by/via The Free Press

Navalny’s Letters from the Gulag

I think it’s worthwhile to preface this with a little history about the two correspondents in the letters:

Alexei Navalny, was a prominent Russian opposition leader and anti-corruption activist, who faced persecution for organizing protests against the government and advocating reforms. He was poisoned with a nerve agent in August 2020, accused Putin of involvement, and returned to Russia in 2021, leading to mass protests. Subsequently, he received multiple prison sentences —widely recognized as politically motivated by the Putin administration— including a nine-year term in 2022 and a 19-year term in 2023 on extremism charges. Navalny went missing in December 2023 and reappeared in an Arctic Circle prison. He died in prison on February 16, 2024, sparking protests globally. Western governments and international organizations have since raised accusations against Russian authorities regarding his death. This has included, and not limited to, increased sanctions on Russia by the United States in response to Navalny’s death and the second anniversary of the invasion. 

Natan Sharansky, like Navalny, is a former Soviet dissident and human rights activist. Arrested in 1977 (one year after Navalny was born) on charges of espionage and treason and sentenced to forced labor prison in the modern-day Gulag, he was released in a 1986 U.S.-Soviet prisoner exchange. After immigrating to Israel, Sharansky became a prominent politician, serving as a government minister and deputy prime minister. His life story is chronicled in his memoir "Fear No Evil," which is referenced by Navalny in his letters to Sharansky. 

The brief letters offer a rare insight into the disposition and spirit of two symbols of the struggle for change and human rights in the face of repression of the Soviet Union and Putin’s Russia. 

One of my favorite quotes from the letters; a comment on the fault of the populace themselves in the regression back to near Soviet-era Russia:

The most important thing is to arrive at the correct conclusions, so that this state of lies and hypocrisy does not enter a new cycle. In the preface of the 1991 edition you write that dissidents in prisons have kept the “virus of freedom” and it is important to prevent the KGB from inventing a vaccine against it. Alas, they have invented it. But in the current situation, it is not them who are to blame, but us, who naively thought that there was no going back to the old ways. And for the sake of good, it’s okay to rig elections a little bit here, or influence the courts a little bit there, and stifle the press a bit over here. 

These little things, and the belief that it is possible to modernize authoritarianism, are the ingredients of this vaccine.

I will never cease to be amazed by the character people are capable of maintaining when faced with the seemingly hopeless and impossible. 

Reader Recommendations

Now, I want to hear from you! What movies, books, or articles captured your attention this week? Share your top picks in the comments below; your insights might just lead someone to their next favorite film or book. 

Stay tuned until next week!

1. I actually have seen Jerry Zucker’s Ghost (1990) with Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore but Jerry was unknown to me at the time.  ↩︎