Friday Thoughts and Things to Share
Happy Friday! I have been feeling unwell lately, getting hit by winter virus bugs (nothing too serious, we’ve dodged norovirus knock on wood); and given that my geographical pocket of the United States is experiencing the coldest winter on record since 2014, I’ve also been a bit mired in winter blues lately. I need this brutally cold and gray situation to let up, but both Phil and the local weather forecast aren’t giving me much short-term hope here. The bad news is that I always find it insanely difficult to write while sick; the good news is that I now have a higher-than-average amount of podcasts and TV to proselytize. So let’s dig in!
Articles to Share:
“How the ‘Subversive Genius’ of Kendrick Lamar Sent Trump Home a Loser” by Dave Zirin, The Nation:
I’m a Dallas Cowboys fan, born and raised, so a Super Bowl game between a team that’s gone MAGA and… the Philadelphia Eagles… is too big an ask for me. So I just ate Seven Layer Dip and enjoyed the halftime show, which was AMAZING!
“The revolution about to be televised
You picked the right time, but the wrong guy”
“Yesterday, Tomorrow, and Banished Forever: The Andersons were kicked out of Disneyland’s most exclusive club. They would not go willingly” by Justine Harman, Vulture
Okay, this read is just fun! And more than a little bonkers, please enjoy, then feel really, smugly good about your life choices
“Do We Aspire to Isolation?” by J.P. Hill, New Means via Substack:
A thought-provoking read on how wealth separates us from community and joy.
“But if we fail to interrogate what sits underneath the desire to strike it rich, we risk pursuing isolation and perpetuating the society that breeds this rampant loneliness that’s always being discussed.”
Shows I’m Watching:
Shrinking:
I binge-watched both seasons while under the weather last week, and what took me so long to tune in, this show is absolutely perfect! I loved it.
The Perfect Couple:
My husband and I set aside every Thursday night for a little date night in, nothing fancy - we basically just mix a cocktail and watch a show together. We are two episodes into Netflix’s low-maintenance, slightly cheesy thriller, so do not leave spoilers in my comment section! It’s fun so far, we’re enjoying it
I also watched the first two episodes of Scamanda on Hulu, please consider me hooked!
Podcasts:
I’m three episodes into “The Old Man is Still Alive” by Karina Longworth on You Must Remember This. Excellent as always, YMRT never misses!
60 Songs That Explain the 90s: The 2000s by Rob Harvilla, “Amber by 311”: I clicked into this particular episode because I’ve always loved this song, which is subjective criteria, I know. But I’m giving it a full-throated recommendation because this episode was funny, like funny, as in hilarious, spit-coffee-on-your-steering-wheel levels of funny. Some lightness in this cold, gray winter!
Books I’m Currently Reading:
First up, I started and finished the newest horror novel offering from Clay McLeod Chapman, Wake Up and Open Your Eyes (January 2025) while I was down for the count. For those unaware, it’s a horror novel about Fox News and internet rabbit holes; PLUS Chapman - a parent himself - manages to incorporate and accurately encapsulate and satirize the real-world horror that is Baby Shark. If you know, you know. I actually wanted to write about the book here, but every time I’ve tried, nothing comes out beyond the writing equivalent of sputtering nonsense syllables followed by a slack-jawed blank stare. So I’ll just tell you what I told my husband when he asked how I was enjoying the novel: “Well, let me put it this way. There’s horror, and then there’s WHATEVER the fuck this is.” The book is fantastic, but honestly pretty brutal. Dive in if you dare…
But anyways, I’ve just picked up two more books, I’m only one chapter into each:
Our Winter Monster by Dennis Mahoney (Fiction)
Girls Interrupted: How Pop Culture Is Failing Women by Lisa Whittington-Hill (Nonfiction)
Book Recommendations:
NONFICTION:
Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America by Ijeoma Oluo
“By defining greatness as a white man’s birthright, we immediately divorce it from real, quantifiable greatness - greatness that benefits, greatness that creates.”
If you’ve been watching the clown show otherwise known as Senate confirmations for Trump’s Cabinet picks - and if you had to turn away, no judgment from me - then you can understand why Oluo’s book is so supremely, disastrously relevant to the here and now.
FICTION:
If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin
A beautiful, gut-wrenching love story about painful realities and the devastation of racism. The movie adaptation follows the book very closely, including a lot of verbatim dialogue. Such vivid prose and talented writing, I loved it
I wish you a warm (if you can get it) and restful weekend!