Introducing a Regular Friday Feature…

And one solely for your benefit! 

In this space, we will recommend a nugget to treasure in one of the following categories: literary, musical, and visual arts. I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, Where do we even begin? There are so many books, albums and movies worth recommending, and so many more that are not. So, for starters, we’ll give you one in each category. The first, a film, where the Vores as we know them began; the second, a book, that both Vores have recently read; and the third, a musical that Jon G. and the Squish (my parents) treated us to for my (Erin) graduation.

1.  Film: I Am Trying to Break Your Heart.  A documentary about Wilco by Sam Jones. 

Before Ben and I knew each other, there was Wilco. And it was good. Before Ben and I were an item, there was Ben’s Nalgene bottle, decorated with Wilco’s Sumerteeth sticker. From the moment I saw that bottle under the bug lights of SB2W’s mess hall, I knew I’d befriend its owner. By that point in my time at camp, I’d had enough Amy Grant to beef up the spiritual quotient of any pagan nation. I Am Trying to Break Your Heart is what Ben calls our first date, and what I call our first outing. Before there was us, there was them, and they filled our heads with glorious images of Jeff Tweedy trying to play nice with an increasingly hostile and be-dreaded Jay Bennet. What strikes me most about the film is the final scene played out to Gene Wilder’s exit comments in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  The same mystical eeriness that struck me as a kid while watching Charlie exists in the Wilco film — the sense that something has changed and that something can’t be recovered, but perhaps it’s for the best. I don’t like to overanalyze who Wilco is or is not, or what their music means. I more than like their music, I heart their music. Or so the diary entry says…

2.  Novel: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz.  Diaz just won the Pulitzer for this novel, which took him a decade to write. I’m wary of recommending this book to more than half the people we know because it’s loaded with spanglish and many, many a crude and profane image or word, but it was really, really good. It’s part truth, part fiction, and it’s about Oscar Wao: son of Dominican immigrants, morbidly obese, lover of ladies (who, sadly, are looking for someone less fat, less pock-marked, and less into Star Trek). The story is told through several perspectives: his roommmate, his mother, his grandmother and his sister. It traces back to Trujillo and his reign of terror from 1930 to 1960. Some parts are funny, others are gut-wrenchingly sad. Thank you Hecks for loaning us your book.

3.  Music: Jersey Boys: The Musical.  As a rule, Ben hates musicals. Except this one! It helps to sit next to The Squish, who clapped during most of the songs. Jersey Boys was essentially the greatest VH1 Behind-The-Music ever with cool sets to boot. And Joe Pesci is a character too. But he doesn’t sing. Which is probably for the best.

“It came with the frame.”

There’s a scene from The Burbs when the neighborhood visits the shadowy Klopek residence to find out who exactly they are and what exactly they are doing in suburbia. (Spoiler alert: They are crazy people who are incinerating bodies in their basement.) As Tom Hanks and crew prowl around the Klopek living room making awkward small talk, Bruce Dern’s character takes a picture frame off the mantle and says to Hans Klopek, “Pretty girl. Friend of yours?” “No,” Hans responds, “it came with the frame.” This gets a guaranteed laugh out of Ben’s mom Donna every time. 

Astute readers of this blog will notice that our banner photograph of a cityscape “came with the frame,” as it were. This may lead you to several different conclusions:

• The Vores really don’t know what they’re doing when it comes to this blog thing.
• The Vores are distant relatives of the Klopeks and serve sardines to their guests.
• The Vores kill people and incinerate their bodies in the basement.

None of these conclusions could be further from the truth. The truth is that we currently lack the capability to post our own photos because our Macbook and digital camera are in possession of the Deer Park police department. They ended up there after they were stolen two months ago but subsequently recovered. Because of ongoing legal proceedings, we cannot have them back yet. When we do, you will see pictures.

It’s hard now to recall exactly what it felt like to have our house broken into. We always thought it was the kind of thing that happened to other people, until we became the other people. There’s something about seeing your drawers and clothes and boxes thrown all over the floor, knowing that some faceless stranger has been standing in your bedroom going through your stuff, that’s very violating, to say the least. We were lucky: neither one of us was home, and our brave cat was unharmed because he hid under the bed. Aside from a rare coin collection and jewelry, nothing was taken that was irreplaceable, and most of those items have now been recovered.

After this happened, we figured we should introduce ourselves to the neighbors, who may have jumped to certain conclusions after they saw a police car sitting outside our house for three hours. Erin made them cookies and assured them that our friends aren’t the kind of people who try to kick in our deadbolted front door at noon on a Friday. Stories were exchanged, hands were shaken. We regained a little foothold in trust. What if the Klopeks had done a similar goodwill tour? They just might’ve gotten away with it.