Music: Run Your Mouth

I caught a fun performance by The Marías this weekend.  Miami Beach provided perhaps the perfect crowd for an indie-pop/rock band that performs both English and Spanish songs, and the place was hopping. The highlight of the set for me was "Run Your Mouth," a catchy number off The Marías's latest album, Submarine:

Books: Two from Meb Keflezighi

With the Summer Olympics right around the corner and me training for a marathon, I thought it'd be fun to look at two books written by Meb Keflezighi, perhaps America's greatest living marathoner, and co-writer Scott Douglas:

Meb for Mortals: How to Run, Think, and Eat like a Champion Marathoner

If there was ever a book that does "what it says on the tin," Meb for Mortals is it.  This is a plain English guide for intermediate and advanced runners that does indeed tell you how to run and train like Meb. It's a full spectrum look behind the scenes in a world-class athlete's life; in addition to the usual training guides and running plans, there are chapters on form drills, diet advice, cross-training, and most importantly, mindset. Yes, there are times when even an incredible athlete like Meb doesn't feel like getting out the door, and the book has some good concrete suggestions for setting goals and overcoming adversity.

26 Marathons: What I Learned About Faith, Identity, Running, and Life from My Marathon Career

Runner's memoirs are a dime a dozen, but Meb's 2021 memoir stands out for what it does not contain. It's centered almost exclusively around the 26 marathons Meb ran in his competitive career, without too much information about his childhood and college years. In some ways, that's a shame (Meb and his family immigrated as refugees from Eritrea by way of Italy in 1987, and their story is a compelling rebuke of anti-immigration rhetoric), but the focus on the 26 races does give the book structure and purpose, much like a marathon does to running in general. While Meb is famous for winning a silver Olympic medal and the 2009 New York and 2014 Boston Marathons, it turns out the other races in between taught him plenty of lessons.

Tech: Drainus

"Drainus" is a mélange of old school shoot-em-ups - the bullet-vacuum mechanics of Ikaruga, the configurable armament of Gradius, the claustrophobic levels of R-Type. Developed by Team Ladybug and WSS Playground, the game puts you into the cockpit of the Drainus, an energy-absorbing, time-travelling fighter ship:

Drainus nails the fundamentals of a good shmup - the controls are snappy and the pixelated graphics are legible (particularly non-absorbable bullets, which are highlighted in red). The configurable upgrade system also allows more flexibility than most shooters, without drowning the player in complexity. But while this is a fun game, it's a bit short and easy for shooter diehards, and the enemy and level designs don't stand out from the crowd.

Rating: 84/100

Movies: Longlegs

Longlegs, a horror thriller directed by Osgood Perkins, pits a rookie female FBI agent against an enigmatic serial killer:

Yes, the movie is a supernatural Silence of the Lambs, and it's not at all shy about referencing Jonathan Demme's all-time classic.  Like Clarice, preternaturally intuitive agent Lee Harker (played by Maika Monroe of It Follows) pieces together clues, interrogates a mysterious serial killer, and clears dark rooms with a drawn gun in a panic, except that Harker uses a SIG instead of a S&W 13.

The movie is well-crafted and well-acted (Nicholas Cage is in full flamboyant villain mode as the titular character), but disappointingly incoherent.  Longlegs gets by more on mood than logic, and its final twists rely on convenient amnesia and eyebrow-raising coincidences. The lesson? If you're going to mix horror with a police procedural, the procedural part must be up to snuff.

Rating: 6/10