Sold, Viewed, Playful, New

Summer is here, and with it a (hopefully) fun-filled season stuffed with sunshine and good times. Shouldn't your entertainment have the same spirit? This month, we're focusing on guilty pleasures with our reading, viewing, and playing choices. Not that we want you to feel guilt. You could be like writer Fran Lebowitz and say: "No. I have no guilty pleasures, because pleasure never makes me feel guilty. I think it's unbelievable that there's such a phrase as guilty pleasure." Or you could believe that the guilt part makes it more enjoyable. Either way, it's the pleasure part that makes it interesting, so throw away your inhibitions and drink deep our "guilty" summer picks!

Sold

Recently, we noticed that Hollywood Wives by Jackie Collins had made a few best seller charts. We're heartened by this, because when it comes to guilty pleasures, Jackie Collins reigned supreme in the creation of it for decades. Never one for tiresome, neurotic contemplation, Jackie believed in bold, brazen action in all its forms. She could describe a fist fight better than Mickey Spillane, and when it came to, eh, other forms of action, well, she delivered on that, too. We recommend her Lucky Santangelo series, about several generations of a mafia family (but beware, they kick like a mule. The "entertainment" featured at a party in the last novel The Santangelos would make Quentin Tarantino balk).

Viewed

Ok, now that we're on a roll, let's dive straight into the trash heap with our first selection for DVDs/Blu-rays, Melrose Place! What happens when you have a bunch of (mostly) amoral twenty-to-thirtysomethings living in an apartment complex in West Hollywood, their brains bubbling with bad ideas and nasty ambitions? Why, the recipe for summer fun, that's what! But if you're less soap-opera-ish in your tastes and tend more towards bare-knuckled bravado, then why on earth are you not watching the tooth-bustin' classic Roadhouse right now?! Pain don't hurt as Patrick Swayze's character "Dalton" (a professional "cooler"—or bar bouncer) said in it (while getting a gaping wound stapled shut, no less), meaning: he can take whatever physical pain is thrown at him, it's only the searing wounds of the soul that give him pause. In this way, Dalton is like a lone troubadour, only, instead of composing poetic songs on a mandolin or lute, his instrument is other men's faces, and his pick, well, his fists. Ok, that was a clumsy metaphor, but you get the gist (and oh, what sweet music he makes. What sweet, bloody, furniture-crushing music!).

Playful

And speaking of punching men in the face and other forms of massive violence as a profession, our video game choice for this month is Hitman 2 Gold Edition. Why, you ask? Summer! Look, the Hitman franchise has received its share of criticism for gratuitous mayhem and even the occasional saucy content (anyone remember the assassin nuns?). And under normal circumstances, we might take such things to heart. But this is our first real summer after a pandemic, so we're tossing shame through a window (like Dalton would a rowdy bar patron) and embracing our Ids. Now understand, this is actually the seventh installment in the Hitman series—it's only called Hitman 2 because the series was rebooted after Hitman 5 (i.e., Hitman: Absolution)—so no antiquated gameplay, here. Its outrageous scenarios and intriguing weapons are, well, up-to-snuff, so to speak. So if you like sneaking around and taking out even worse people than your own weird, bald, monotoned, barcode-tattooed character, then this is the game for you!

New

Some say the turgid fiction of the here and now can't hold a sordid candle to the purplish fiction of old, to which we reply: Bridgerton, anyone? Or how about an elder lurid auteur who's still in the business, pumping out multiple titles a year, like Danielle Steel? Is her old work better than her new? Rather than get into a generational conflict, let's explore guilty pleasure from a different angle. Let's move away from fiction and into the realm of confessional memoir.

What better genre to reveal that which in all honesty shouldn't be revealed? And what better person to begin with than Mary Karr? Her three memoirs The Liars' Club, Cherry, and Lit are a master class in letting it all hang out, describing her early childhood in Texas, her teen years, and then her experience as a mother.

And while we're letting it all hang out, David Lynch, as a filmmaker, has never been accused of holding back. With films like Blue Velvet, Wild At Heart, and Lost Highway, you could hardly say that Lynch has a problem with representing his obsessions. But did you know that he started as a painter? Expect the same uncompromised vision of demonic brutality from his paintings with Someone Is in My House.

Now go enjoy the sun without guilt!

Read more by Terry Fleming