Hangover Cure: Get Hit with That Rhythm Stick

An essential memoir we can all learn from (and love), brilliant gore by way of Finland, and this week's must-dance goodie.

Hey, hi, hello, Happy Friday. If you’re getting this in your inbox, you’re a paid subscriber of Hugging the Bar, and let me just say, I appreciate you so much! And one of the ways I’m saying “thank you” is with this little weekly round-up of fun, non-beer recs. So, without further ado…!

READ: “Strong Female Character” by Fern Brady

It’s going to be a challenge to write succinctly about this book. Whew. Let’s do this.

Fern Brady is a Scottish comedian, writer, and podcaster I came to love via “Taskmaster” (I’m sorry, look, it’s going to come up a lot) and YouTube clips of her stand-up because sometimes that evil hell site actually really gets my exact comedy-and-cute-animal brand. To be honest, I just got “Strong Female Character” because I like her, I like celebrity memoirs, and I knew I’d enjoy reading anything she writes because it’d be in her voice. Turns out, this book is a little bomb, ready to rip you open and then, hopefully, replace your guts with new and improved guts because you’ve felt seen and heard in some ways and in others, you’ve come to understand things you barely knew about before.

Fern was diagnosed with Autism spectrum disorder as an adult, and just when you think you can no longer be surprised by the way society and its norms set especially girls and women up to be misdiagnosed or ignored, another blow will come. Chapter after chapter will change the way you see the world, and that’s not an overstatement. And—as a heads up—there’s a lot of difficult stuff in these pages, like tense familial dynamics and abusive relationships, but Fern writes about all of it with this incredible balance of vulnerability, candidness, humor (you know, where it’s appropriate/in the way we must rely on laughter), and care. You absolutely do not have to already follow Fern or her comedy to read this book and get so much from it; in fact, I truly believe everyone should read this and would be grateful they did.

WATCH: “Sisu”

“Sisu” asks, “What if a western but with Nazis? And Tarantino-style gore?” To be honest, this Finnish film is not the sort that’s my cup of tea normally, as it unfurls over a landscape of endless, flat wilderness (it’s gorgeous, though, and is apparently the Lapland region of Finland, if you’re curious) and without a ton of dialogue. I won’t give too much away, but essentially, we follow actor Jorma Tommila as a gold prospector who ends up having to defend himself, and his gold, from Nazis who are in the midst of their scorched-earth exit from Finland. (There’s a whole, fascinating historical tangent to go on here, one I didn’t know much about despite having studied WWII to death when I was younger. TL;DR, Finland had been fighting alongside Germany against the Soviet Union while also attempting peace negotiations with the Allies, and in 1944, the Moscow Armistice decreed Finland once and for all sever ties with Germany and expel their forces. The Nazis did not go quietly, burning bridges, railways, roads and even entire villages and murdering anyone who got in their way.)

Let’s be real. I don’t think it’s too complex that it is pure fucking fun to watch your film’s hero obliterate Nazis one by one for an hour and a half, in the most creative and diabolical ways. But this is also beautifully shot, with a compelling story, and a third-act banding together against the baddies that will make you cheer. Oh, and because it looks like it will several times and I know that always stresses me out in movies: don’t worry, the dog does not die.

LISTEN: “Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick” by Ian Drury & The Blockheads

(And watch episode six of the latest “Black Mirror” series, “Demon 79,” which reminded me how great this song was and was also a fucking blast.)