Un-Depress (Yourself) #19

This is installment #19 of an ongoing list I've been keeping for several years, and now I feel the need to share. I am only including things like movies, books, TV shows, and songs on here-- if I included actual events and phenomena from reality, this list would never end and I'd never stop thinking about depressing shit. Unavoidably, some of the items on this list touch on depressing stuff from reality, and that's part of what makes them so depressing. I am also not devaluing the quality of any of these artifacts; many of them are quite good, even great: touching, well-made, intelligent, and so on; but nonetheless, they bum me out. I'm sure it's at least partly because of the high quality that they depress me so.
   And these choices are all subjective, of course. If any of these things happen to not depress you, maybe you're just having a less depressing life than I (wink, wink). Lucky you! Also, some of the items on this list were suggested by friends (Thanks, Larry & Bobby!).
   I've alphabetized the items in each sub-list. If I tried to rank them some other way, that would depress me further.
   Maybe this list will help you avoid some things that could depress you, too. Or maybe not. Enjoy.


More Movies to avoid

The Comedy - A creepily realistic portrait (starring Tim and Eric of Tim & Eric) of a spoiled hipster who may also be a sociopath. Very well done, but bleak as shit. You may know this person. He definitely exists.

The Time Machine (1960 version) -- In the future, the people you know will be dead. And other terrible things.

Zardoz -- I remember it as having one (another!) of those the-passage-of-time, you-will-die kind of things in it. And some other bleakness.

TV shows

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, "a beautiful and very depressing depiction of the massacre of hundreds of Lakota people by the U.S. government in 1890" (from "Native Actors Deserve to Be Seen" by Julia Jones, in Lenny Letter)

Flaked - I don't know why contemporary AA-heads in Venice (L.A.) should be a bummer, it just is. Also, they make it look like Will Arnett is the most attractive man around for miles.


More depressing stuff: Read Part 2 here.
And here's Part 3.
And Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
Part 11
Part 12 
Part 13
Part 14 
Part 15 
Part 16 
Part 17
Part 18


As always, I welcome your suggestions for More Depressing Shit. Please comment, and I'll include any good suggestions in a future update.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Civil War Two, Part 1

by Randall Collins

Giveaway ends May 24, 2018.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

Depress 15

I recommend you see part 1 of my Depressing Shit series and read my original disclaimer here; now here's installment 15.

I'm only telling you about these things for your own good. Unless you have the problem of too much happiness and too little awareness of bad things, AVOID!
 

Movies

We Need To Talk About Kevin- My man called it depressing, I didn't. We both thought it was an excellent piece of filmmaking. Its main effect on me was to make me ever so glad I don't have a pathological kid.

Welcome To Sarajevo- Hmm, no thanks. Or tanks.

Music

From Wikipedia:

"[David] Bowie also recorded the song "Bring Me the Disco King," which Bowie described as "a depressing song summing up the sad late Seventies with a Philip Glass refrain running through it."^[1] This track would not end up on the album, however, and would remained buried in Bowie's vault until its release on Bowie's 2003 album, Reality."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Tie_White_Noise

Comedy 

(aka standup, comics)

Paul Mooney - ahh, white guilt. Maybe just I should avoid this. You? Go for it.

...and I know some other comics personally who happen to depress me, but I don't want to recommend you avoid them, 'cause they could use the publicity. Hey, I have conflicting interests!

So just beware all comics.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Civil War Two, Part 1

by Randall Collins

Giveaway ends May 24, 2018.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

More depressing stuff: Read Part 2 here.
And here's Part 3.
And Part 4! Are you depressed yet?!
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
Part 11
Part 12 
Part 13
Part 14 


As always, I welcome your suggestions for More Depressing Shit. Please comment, and I'll include any good suggestions in a future update.

Depress 14 (Depressing Shit to Avoid series)

I recommend you see part 1 of my Depressing Shit series and read my original disclaimer here; now here's installment 14.

I'm only telling you about these things for your own good. Unless you have the problem of too much happiness and too little awareness of bad things, AVOID! AVOID!
 

Movies

The Good Lie
(Sudanese war orphans)
 
J. Edgar
(no likable characters; makes me think about how much I would have hated to be him; unpleasant overall)
 
Miss Evers' Boys
(Tuskegee syphilis experiment, racism. Could be under TV category, too, 'cause it was made for TV)

My Zinc Bed
(alcoholism, AA. Also a book!)

Sometimes In April
(Rwandan genocide)

Things We Lost In The Fire
(a "touching look at loss, addiction and recovery." Blech.)

This Is Where I Leave You
(Is this depressing? I have a feeling it might be. HBO calls it a comedy. I suspect otherwise.)

Yesterday
(AIDS in Africa. Did I already mention this 1? Still a bummer.)

Music

Neil Young, ‘On the Beach’
Read Dangerous Minds' post on "Neil Young’s ultra-depressing 1974 album ‘On the Beach’" here:
http://dangerousminds.net/comments/dance_troupe_interprets_neil_youngs_ultra_depressing_1974_album_on_the_beac?utm_source=Dangerous+Minds+newsletter&utm_campaign=f693fb8aa8-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ecada8d328-f693fb8aa8-65858297

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Civil War Two, Part 1

by Randall Collins

Giveaway ends May 24, 2018.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

More depressing stuff: Read Part 2 here.
And here's Part 3.
And Part 4! Are you depressed yet?!
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
Part 11
Part 12 
Part 13


As always, I welcome your suggestions for More Depressing Shit. Please comment, and I'll include any good suggestions in a future update.

Depressing Shit To Avoid, Part 13

I recommend you see part 1 of my Depressing Shit series and read my original disclaimer here; now here's installment 13.

I'm only telling you about these things for your own good. Unless you have the problem of too much happiness and too little awareness of bad things, AVOID! AVOID!
 

Movies:

About Schmidt
(my man G says it's depressing; I haven't seen)

Ararat
(haven't seen, don't wanna)

Maybe:
Beasts of No Nation
(think I might actually break my own rules and watch this one, 'cause, you know, Idris Elba. Has he ever been in anything bad?)

Blackfish (have I said that one already?)

Bunny Game (Thanks to Bobby Wilks for tipping me off to this.)

Maybe?:
Harry and Tonto (mixed  reports from Netflix reviewers)

The Road
from http://www.slashfilm.com/films-leaving-netflix-november-2015:
"John Hillcoat‘s adaptation of Cormac McCarthy‘s pitch-dark novel is one of the most miserable movies ever made, but it’s wholly intentional. By stripping the inherent romance, adventure and excitement out of the post-apocalypse, this film showcases a world dying with a whimper. The whole thing is essentially plotless, following Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee as an unnamed father and son duo on a episodic quest through a dead world, which means it can drag. Some sequences are better than others. But when The Road connects, it really connects. This is the best movie to watch if you’re ever having too good of a day."
[sounds like the book's no fun, neither]

Another Maybe, for some people:
Snowtown Murders (Definitely disturbing and would probably depress a lot of people, though, surprisingly, it didn't really depress me. I guess I'm too fascinated by the dead-on filmmaking and the eery crime-y-ness of it all.)

Una Noche (didn't watch, as I was warned that it was depressing by reviews on Netflix)

Books:

The Tears of Olive Trees (autobiographical, about Palestine. Yeesh.) 


More depressing stuff: Read Part 2 here.
And here's Part 3.
And Part 4! Are you depressed yet?!
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
Part 11
Part 12 


As always, I welcome your suggestions for More Depressing Shit. Please comment, and I'll include any good suggestions in a future update.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Civil War Two, Part 1

by Randall Collins

Giveaway ends May 24, 2018.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway