Transcript / LoLT: Accidentally Wes Anderson and Two New Books — 18 October 2024

This is a transcription of LoLT: Accidentally Wes Anderson and Two New Books — 18 October 2024

[cheerful music]

Melissa: Coming up, an offbeat travel guide that’s the definition of delightful.

David: A Russian spy learns her craft in the 1930s.

Melissa: Plus, our distraction of the week. I’m Mel.

David: I’m Dave. This is the library of lost time.

Melissa: We have special guests today, and I’m very excited about it. [DAVE] Wally and Amanda Koval from Accidentally Wes Anderson are sharing a Distraction of the Week later. But first, I need to tell you about their new book ‘Accidentally Wes Anderson: Adventures.’

Melissa: And to do that, we need to talk about the man himself, Wes Anderson. I’m a big fan of Wes Anderson’s movies. I know some people think his movies are more style than substance, and to those people I say, ‘You’re not paying attention.’

Melissa: Underneath the whimsical candy-colored images, there’s a sense of poignancy and longing that really works on me. I fell pretty hard for ‘Moonrise Kingdom,’ mostly because of the heroine Suzy. She’s 12 and running away with her little boyfriend, and she fills her suitcase with six books that she stole from the library.

Melissa: My all-time favorite is ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel.’ It’s a mashup of crime caper, murder mystery, war story, and romance — all set at the most perfect mountaintop hotel in Eastern Europe. The hotel — The Grand Budapest — looks like a pink layer cake, and the story is like a layer cake, too.

Melissa: If you also love the aesthetic and stories of Wes Anderson’s films, then Wally and Amanda’s project Accidentally Wes Anderson is for you. It started as an Instagram, now there’s a gorgeous website and books and puzzles and postcards. They all showcase images and stories from around the world that are inspire by Wes Anderson’s style.

Melissa: In 2020, they released their first book — which I loved — and now we’ve got the new one: ‘Accidentally Wes Anderson: Adventures.’

Melissa: The book itself is a gorgeous physical object. It’s 350 pages, so it has a very satisfactory heft. Inside, it’s one daydreamy photo after another. There are funiculars and cable cars, hotel facades and swimming pools, cozy libraries and lush gardens, and vintage train cars. Every photo has a story, and the writing is so good. The descriptions tell you what you’re looking at and are sprinkled with a little magic dust.

Melissa: The book is arranged by region of the globe, so you COULD use it as a travel guide. This book just informed me that there’s a 1930s train that runs between Prague and Bratislava. It’s called the Slovenská Strela, which means Red Arrow, and it’s been restored to its art deco glory. It’s cherry red and definitely looks like it could be a time machine.

Melissa: We’ve told the story before about how we ended up visiting Ljubljana, Slovenia. We saw a photo of a green dragon statue on a bridge, and I said, Wherever that is, I want to go.’ And we did.

Melissa: This book is perfect for that. Find something that makes your heart sing, then plan a trip around it.

Melissa: But, this is also the perfect book for armchair travel. The kind of book you pore over on a Sunday afternoon with a cup of tea and, best case scenario, with a companion so you can be, like, ‘Whoa, look at this one!’ then show them the photo and read them the story.

Melissa: We say that we like to traffic in delight. This book is 100% that. Also, when we were talking to Wally and Amanda, they told us something amazing. There’s an audiobook version, and a big chunk of it is narrated by Jeff Goldblum. I mean…

Melissa: Treat yourself to this book, give it as a gift to someone you really like. It’s a way to immediately spread joy in the world. It’s ‘Accidentally Wes Anderson: Adventures’ by Wally and Amanda Koval.

David: I like Neal Stephenson. I think, like me, he’s an old geek who’s interested in just about everything. He writes a lot about history, science, and technology — old and new. He also writes some ripping action. His books marry together nerdy and thrilling. He’ll tell you about, maybe, the history of fountain pens and then have 20 pages of people running across exploding rooves and through warehouses, guns blazing because of some detail about a particular fountain pen. He’s great with setting a scene and telling a rich story.

David: I’ve read a number of his books. I started with ‘Snow Crash’ back in the 90s. That was a very fun book set in the then near future. That book features skateboarding, pizza delivery, and a computer virus that affects human brains. I am curious to know if it holds up. I’ve been meaning to give it a try for a while now.

David: Mel and I pair-red ‘Reamde.’ That is a novel about a wealthy tech entrepreneur and his niece. A virus shuts down his online gaming world, and they get into trouble hunting down the hacker behind it. There are enormous action sequences in that book. Over 100 pages long. Somehow, it’s still clear as to what’s happening. I’ve never read anything like them.

David: Stephenson’s latest is out. It’s called ‘Polostan.’ It’s a historical fiction with a heavy thwack of international espionage. The book starts under the Golden Gate Bridge in 1933. The story follows a woman, Dawn Rae Bjornberg. She was born in the States but ultimately becomes an agent for a Russian organization, the precursor to the KGB. It’s a ‘spy in training’ story that takes us through San Francisco, Chicago, and Moscow in the 1930s. We get Stephenson writing about the Great Depression, the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair, and the early days of the Soviet Union. He seemingly follows the one character: this agent, Dawn. Which is unusual for him. There’s usually a team.

David: This is the first book in a trilogy. The trilogy is called ‘Bomb Light.’ This is ‘Bomb Light, Book One.’ With that title, and the timing, I feel like we’re on our way to the Manhattan Project, but that’s just speculation.

David: I’m very excited to read this book. Neal Stephenson authors a 1930s soviet spy story. Yes. I’m in. Maybe you are too. It just came out this week. It’s ‘Polostan’ by Neal Stephenson.

David: And now, our Distraction of the Week.

David: We’re here with Wally and Amanda Koval of accidentally Wes Anderson. Mel just told you all about their great book that just came out. How are you guys doing?

Wally: We are doing good. Pretty good. Yeah. Yeah. Doing pretty well. Excited.

David: Thanks for being here. I understand you’ve got a Distraction of the Week for us.

_Wally:__ We do. I’m not sure — are you guys familiar with a band called Hall and Oates?

Melissa: Oh, yes.

David: My jam, Hall and Oates. Am I familiar with them? Is that what you’re saying?

Wally: Well, this is the first time we’re meeting, so you could have been like. Yeah, they’re all right. Are you. Are you familiar that there is a hotline called the Callin’ Oates Hotline?

Melissa: Stop it.

Wally: It is a 1-800 number that I happened upon a long time ago, and it just resurfaced in my brain recently, and I wanted to see if it still existed. You call up, and there’s a robotic British woman that says, ‘Thank you for calling the Hall and Oates hotline.’

Amdanda: That was a good accent.

Wally: Thank you. I’ve been practicing. And so you can press one for Rich Girl, press two for Maneater. And basically it just plays the song, the whole song for you as you’re on the hotline.

Melissa: This is amazing.

Wally: Why? What is the purpose? I’m not sure, but I would use it when I worked in a cubicle a long time ago. I would use it when somebody would come by and start to talk to me and I’d be like, ‘Oh, hold on. I’m on an important call. And then I would just listen to Hall and Oates and I’d be like, Yeah. And I’d be like, This is going to take a while. And then I would be able to lose them. So, you know.

[laughter]

Wally: That’s — I’m glad you know who Hall and Oates is.

Amanda: And I think a lot of our friends who work in corporate America thank us for that. Uh,

Melissa: That is a strong tip right there.

David: Yeah, it’s really good. Now we got to do it.

Melissa: I mean, obviously.

David: Yeah. Gotta make the call.

Robotic woman’s voice: Welcome to Callin’ Oates, your emergency Hall and Oates help line. To hear ‘One on One,’ please press one. To hear ‘Rich Girl,’ please press two. To hear ‘Maneater,’ please press three. To hear ‘Private Eyes,’ please press four.

[singing with music — You’re a rich girl and you’ve gone too far. Cause you know it don’t matter anyway.]

Melissa: Do you have a favorite Hall and Oates song?

Wally: Dude. Come on. How are you supposed to pick just one?

Amanda: They’ve got all the bangers on there.

Wally: They have — yeah. I don’t think I would be able to pick one. I honestly don’t, um, I can’t, I can’t. It’s too difficult. You’re really putting me on the spot here. I can’t, I can’t. Do you have a favorite Hall and Oates song?

Melissa: Well, um. Okay, so I’m older than you guys. So, when I was in high school, things like ‘Maneater’ and ‘Kiss on my List’ were, like, THE songs.

Wally: Oh, they are still very much THE songs.

Melissa: But I would argue that ‘Sara Smile’ from the ’70s might be even better.

[clip of the song ‘Sara Smile’]

Wally: We’re going to have to put up our own playlist now. Make our own Callin’ Oates.

David: My favorite Hall and Oates is their cover of ‘She’s Gone.’

Melissa: Oh, yeah. Good one.

[clip of the song ‘She’s Gone’]

Wally: I don’t know that one.

David and Melissa: OH!!!

Wally: OK! Adding it to my list.

David: I will also cop to: I have sung that in karaoke.

Amanda: Nice.

Wally: Do you have a recording of you singing that karaoke? Because maybe we could —

David: Nobody needs that. So, no, I do not. [laughter]

Wally: All right. Fair. Fair enough. We’ll leave it at that.

Melissa: I’m trying to remember the name of this song that I’m singing in my head. You should edit this part out.

David: No. This is a really good point. This is key.

Wally: This is the good stuff.

Melissa: It’s the one that starts with the weird piano sound. Because I was going to say I taught myself how to do that kind of bouncy piano sound.

[clip of the song ‘You Make My Dreams Come True’]

Amanda: That was one of our wedding songs.

Wally: It was one of our wedding songs. Yeah.

David: Wait, you guys played Hall and Oates at your wedding?

Wally: Yeah.

David: Which which songs did you play at your wedding?

Wally and Amanda: That one! [laughter]

Amanda: Okay, wait. There was probably more, but I remember they were like, What do you want your song to be when you cut the cake? And I was like, uuuuhhh, that one, that one. [laughter]

Melissa: Visit strongsenseofplace.com/library for more on the books we talked about today and for links to how to dial up your favorite Hall and Oates songs.

David: Thanks for joining us on the library of last time. Remember to visit your local library and your independent bookstore to lose some time yourself.

Melissa: Stay curious. We’ll talk to you soon.

[cheerful music]

Top image courtesy of Accidentally Wes Anderson.