Happy Sunday, everyone! Allow me to first answer a question / clarify something that came up in the last newsletter: I very much still live in New Orleans. Each of my puzzles is named after a song, so last week’s puzzle—“I Wish I Was in New Orleans”—is a Tom Waits song. This week we’ve got Belle and Sebastian. After I make a new puzzle, I check out my 4700+ song playlist on Spotify and find the most applicable title. Consider each of my puzzle titles an additional recommendation, alongside whatever I talk about at the end of each newsletter.
This week, the puzzle follows five students: Cody (he/him), Hannah (she/her), Lizzie (she/her), Phil (he/him), and Zack (he/him). To solve, either print out this PDF or use this online solving service. If you encounter any issues or have any feedback, please leave that here. This puzzle’s answers will be included next week, and please find last puzzle’s answers and some art I’ve been loving recently at the bottom of this newsletter.
I hope you enjoy!
Things I’ve loved lately:
In the Mood for Love (2000) - dir. Wong Kar-wai. Not a day goes by that I do not think about this film—every second, every inch, every outfit, every glance. That era has passed. Nothing that belonged to it exists anymore.
Good One (2024) - dir. India Donaldson. A remarkable debut film, one I’m glad I got to witness in theaters. Focusing on a hiking trip of a high school girl, her father, and her father’s friend, this film simmers in tenderness “until it can’t,” as a friend put it. A film for lovers of Kelly Reichardt and Jim Jarmusch and the topics of forgiveness, mercy, girlhood, and parent/child relationships.
“Shake, Rattle, and Roll” by Bill Haley and his Comets. I heard this song at a jazz bar with a friend recently, and it was one of those moments when all your hairs stand up and they tell you: we know this song. I know this song, but I have no clue from where. Perhaps a film, perhaps a high school theater production, perhaps none of the above, but I have been entirely unable to place this for days. At any rate, song still whips.
Could you know the song from 1985’s Clue?