Field Recordings

Richard Peabody's newest short story collection, Blue Suburban Skies , is tight collection of satire, masculine existential crises, and strong females popping with sexual energy. Not a bad way to spend an afternoon, eh?  Peabody whisks up winks amid sometimes violent acts uncovered among suburbanites, who for better or for worse, represent most of what's left of the middle class portrayed and skewered in Peabody's breezy read. Blue Suburban Skies is entertaining as it is serious, and kept reminding me of movies from the 1970s and 1980s.  Keep in mind, friends, my boys are eight and five and movies in my life tend to be of the Disney and Big Budget Family variety, and the imagery Peabody uses, and the tragic and comic circumstances the characters find themselves meandering through, reminded me of those days when studio pictures reflected real life rather than pallets for CGI and big concepts. Entertainment can reflect our innermost selves, and when it does we tend to c...