Are you feeling 'appy? Find which ones we like and more fun stuff in this week's OnMilwaukee.com Recommends.
"Black Swan" on DVD and Blu-Ray -- I'm a big movie fan, but they have to have something special to get me to pony up the dough to own them. If I don't catch something I want to see in theaters I usually just end up Netflix-ing it. That said, I'm definitely putting "Black Swan" on my "must own" list. The psychological thriller is dark and captivating, and watching Natalie Portman's character spiral into the depths of her maniacal quest for ballet perfection is made even more suspenseful by Darren Aronofsky's trippy, mind-bending style. It's the kind of movie you need to re-watch just to wrap your head around, and it's definitely worth owning it to do so. -- Renee Lorenz
Mike Tyson Main Event App -- If you grew up with the Nintendo NES system like I did, or if the names Glass Joe and King Hippo mean anything to you then chances are you will love this new app for Apple devices. The game's format, game play and character design are all quite similar to the NES classic Mike Tyson's Punch Out with the same objective of taking out Tyson in the end. The app is currently free through the iTunes store. -- Bob Purvis
TWCable TV app for the iPad -- We only have one TV is our home, so Time Warner's new living streaming app is more than welcomed. It's easy to use, download it, log in and scroll the lineup on the left side. There are about 20 national channels, and sadly no sports offerings but it's a cool feature and one that's long overdue for subscribers like me. Bonus, you can program the DVR and use it as a remote too. -- Jeff Sherman
"The Year of Magical Thinking" by Joan Didion -- Until recently, I wasn’t aware the genre "mourning literature" even existed. This winter, I skimmed a few books in this genre, but none of them really grabbed my attention. This memoir, however, is different. Didion beautifully and musically vacillates between narrating her personal losses -- her husband of almost 40 years died while her just-married daughter was in a coma (she died about a year later) -- and sharing her well-researched findings on grief. While reading this book I felt an incredible amount of empathy for a woman who lost both of her family members, and best of all, it’s somehow not a downer. Didion writes from a truthful but detached place, allowing the reader to decide how far into her heart wrenching existence they want to travel. Didion allows herself to reminisce, regret and think magically, but not in a "New Agey" sort of way. Instead, she comforts herself through "magical" thoughts that are only partially rooted in reality, reminding that the grieving need to take care of themselves, whatever that means. -- Molly Snyder
