Last Book I Read: “Africa is Not a Country” by Dipo Faloyin

Kevin Smokler on August 10, 2026

Red Lamp Reading: “Africa is Not a Country: Notes from a Bright Continent” by Dipo Faloyin.

(Note: The Red Lamp is the light source on my bedside table)

TLDR: Get this book immediately. Its the most fun you’ll have learning a lot in a long time.

Review: “Africa is not a Country: Notes from a Bright Continent” by Nigerian/British Journalist Dipo Faroylan is among the best starter kits to a big, complex subject I’ve ever read. It’s covers pretty much everything you need to know about the world’s second largest, containing the largest number of nations, you might think you need to know and then a ton you never thought to look into, like what kind of image does the song “Do They Know its Christmas” leave in the mind of the listener of the kind of place Africa is? And the writing, is brilliant, wise, funny and kind. It’s one of those rare books you don’t know whether to underline or gulp or squeal about to someone because you feel like doing all three at once.Our knowledge of the African continent, is not what it should be. I feel pretty comfortable saying that. I also feel comfortable saying its not fun, usually, to address a “should” even if we…ya know.

In this case, I’ve got the solution to the “should.” And its no much fun to read, you’ll only should yourself after. And feel lucky you did.

Available at a fine independent bookstore near you.

Listening to Every Song I Own (Songs #3831 – #4081 out of 14161)

Kevin Smokler on May 1, 2026

The latest update to my mystic project to listen to all 14, 161 songs in my iTunes library straight through, no skipping (called Abba Zappa Zoo, thank you to Mike Gluck for the name) takes us from…

“High Horse” by Kacey Musgraves (Song #3831) To “Hot Thing” by Prince (Song #4081)

The Math:

Songs: 250
Completion Percentage: 28.8%

Cold Facts:

The most common words in this block are “Hold”, “Home” and “Hot”

Strange Bedfellows: (Same name, different songs)

Did you know Wilson Philips, En Vogue, Santana and the Alabama Shakes all have songs called “Hold on?”

Buried Treasure (i.e. a song you haven’t heard of by an artist you have heard of):

“Honey Bob” by Wanda Jackson.

The “Queen of Rockability” is a tragically overlooked pioneer of early rock n’ roll. You probably know her best from her biggest hit “Let’s Have a Party” (which has a great cameo in the movie Dead Poets Society)  If her growling, hurricane inflected two minute masterpieces are your bag of bananas, try “Honey Bop.”

Your new favorite song:

The lead off track from the second album of legendary Chicago punk band Naked Raygun (name is an homage to “Sex Pistols” ) “Home of the Brave” reminds of both how punkand how different this group was. Note the absolutely precise lead guitar on the melody, the almost prog rock speed on the drums, the singalong doo-woppy backing vocals.

All in less that 3 minutes!

 

 

A Few Thoughts on “One Battle After Another”

Kevin Smokler on March 20, 2026

One Battle After Another movie cover

A few thoughts on ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER which we watched last night and enjoyed very much despite being a flawed movie that probably should not have won the Best Picture Oscar last week…

  1. This is Paul Thomas Anderson‘s third best movie behind BOOGIE NIGHTS and MAGNOLIA which for a director of his level of ambition is saying quite a bit.
  2. Liberal activism in ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER is portrayed as (i say this as a committed liberal).

    3. a. Viewed as a state of perpetual war similar to how Nanisca in THE WOMAN KING advises Dahomey to not be in the war captives business (i.e. signing up for perpetual battle always means losing eventually)

    b. All passion and no strategy. The movie having the equivalent of 90 minute chase scene in the middle comes from the characters unwillingness to be strategic and their addiction to being loud and performative.

  3. As such, PT Anderson is very into self-destructive characters (See BOOGIE NIGHTS). We are supposed to pity not sympathize w/ characters in this movie, who mistakenly think activism = glamorous battlefield activity instead of occasional victories and many loses.
  4. Its flaws are the same that haunt this filmmaker perennially. Namely…

    5. a.He does not know how to do villainy without it seeming outrageous and cartoony. See Daniel Day Lewis in THERE WILL BE BLOOD and whatever the hell Sean Penn thinks he’s doing in this movie.

    b. Too long by 40 minutes

    c. Shamelessly wastes resources. The list of great actors in this movie who have too little to do includes Benicio Del Toro, Regina Hall, Paul Grimstad, Teyana Taylor.
    Very glad I watched it, would watch it again. Would have given BEST PICTURE to a good three of the other contenders though.

Prodigal Summer: The Workhorse of Barbara Kingsolver’s novels…

Kevin Smokler on November 14, 2025

So PRODIGAL SUMMER is Barbara Kingsolver’s 5th novel, published in 2000 which I just finished reading. Kingsolver’s currently 9 novels into her career with 2022’s DEMON COPPERHEAD being the most recent.

PRODIGAL SUMMER is not as well known as BK’s first book THE BEAN TREES (1988) i.e. the debut that made her famous or THE POISONWOOD BIBLE, her 4th novel that was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, sold eleventy quintuplion copies and was on every book club’s roster for a solid decade.

But ya know what? SUMMER, which is three interlocking stories of people living in the mountains of Western Virginia over one summer, is damn fine reading. It may have not been epic and sprawling, a 3 hour movie of a novel directed by Sydney Pollack or something like that. It may have not been the debut album that made us fall in love with the band. It’s a workhorse, that shows us what the artist can do on a typical day, instead when they are brand new with nothing to lose or giving us their career’s biggest flex.

AFTER HOURS is Martin Scorsese’s workhorse movie. LITTLE WOMEN is Greta Gerwigs. I think history will show that THE AGE OF PLEASURE is Janelle Monae’s workhorse album. The very good movie CRAZY STUPID LOVE is a workhorse role for Emma Stone, Ryan Gosling and Steve Carell.

What is your favorite workhorse movie/books/album/tv show? And whose workhorse is it?

Thank you from the end of my book tour.

Kevin Smokler on October 27, 2025

Boy, was this special. I got to complete my tour for BREAK THE FRAME: CONVERSATIONS WITH WOMEN FILMMAKERS in Chicago at the incredible neighborhood bookshop Jarvis Square Books run by the equally incredible Kate Harding alongside the legendary Mo Ryan , author of BURN IT DOWN, a huge source of inspiration for my book.

A dozen events in seven state over one summer. I am not as young or as unstoppable (if I ever was) when I first went on tour 20 years ago. But my work and I are still welcomed in, we still have friends from far away to visit (in attendance were among many, my old friend Andrew Huff who took this photo) and meet, and I can still go places all over this country and spend time with people who believe art and equality and dialogue still matter.

Grateful for it all.

Home now.

American Psycho at 25: My Interview with Director Mary Harron in Salon

Kevin Smokler on July 7, 2025

“We both got fired off the movie, and I put a lot on the line for casting him, and I remember thinking before we started shooting, “God, I hope I’m right about this.” It was a big leap, but really from the moment we first talked about it I could see that, as with Guinevere, that we had the same sense of humor about it, that he thought it was funny.

I had met with a number of young actors who thought Bateman was cool. No, no, no, he’s dorky. He’s absurd. I wanted an actor who could see the ridiculousness of it and could have a distance from it.” 

— Director Mary Harron on her enduring faith that Christian Bale was the right actor for the protagonist Patrick Bateman. The role launched Bale’s career as an adult performer. He would win an Oscar 5 years later.

Full Interview