Live Theater

A friend invited me to join her when Och & Oy! A Considered Cabaret with Alan Cumming and Ari Shapiro recently performed at the Reser Center and it was such a fun evening! I didn’t realize that Ari is from Beaverton, and Alan Cumming always has crazy fun stories. It was a wonderful evening of music and stories and a lot of laughing!

When I was in New York I finally got to see Some Like it Hot and it was even better than I expected, and I expect a LOT from Amber Ruffin! When the show tours and comes near your town, make sure to go. It was such a fun theater experience, the music was fantastic, it was funny and that mid-show/early second act lull never arrived. I loved it!

Reading

I have officially completed my 2023 Reading Challenge which I don’t hit every year. If you are a social media addict like most of us, and even if you aren’t, Extremely Online by Taylor Laurenz was an excellent read (ok listen). She deep dives into the beginnings of social media and how it got to where we are today. It was fascinating. I learned a lot and remembered many things I had shoved way out of my mind.

I also listened to Britney Spears memoir The Woman in Me and I LOVED it. It was an excellent audiobook (Michelle Williams will be winning her Grammy here!) The amount of people who failed this woman from early in her life up until a few years ago is devastating. I’m proud of her for not reading the book, not doing interviews for the book, and not sparing any love for her family and the people in her life who put her through so much pain.

I finally picked up Did You Hear About Kitty Karr? and I loved it! It is a quick read and the story is fascinating. It wasn’t what I was expecting the story to be, and I thought it was excellent.

I’m heading to the coast this weekend with friends and hoping to get some reading in, although we have a lot of games and cult documentaries to get through too…

Listening

This is weird, but if you’re like me, maybe it’s helpful. Last month while reading Real Simple I discovered that I could setup Background Sounds on my iPhone and it’s been a game changer. On the plane or in a waiting room, or even when my husband is watching sports and I want to read on the couch, having the sound of the ocean instead of the sniffling and coughing of people has helped me to tune out and enjoy my book or meal or watching the train roll along the Columbia River.

As far as music, the new Chris Stapleton album has been playing around the office a good deal lately. I’m still working my way into the Christmas music season though.

It wasn’t a crazy month for podcasts however, I did listen to two audiobooks which doesn’t help. I finished listening to The Dream about coaching which was good (not great). The usual podcasts kept me sane: What a Day, Vibe Check, OPB Politics Now, some episodes of The Daily, but the best podcast episode I listened to was from Think Out Loud and it was a day in the life with the Oregon Zoo veterinarian Carlos Sanchez. I’ve been a zoo member for years now (both in Seattle and Oregon) and this was SUCH a fun interview to hear about his relationship with the animals and all the caregivers at the zoo. When the Oregon Zoo announced a few days after this podcast that both a black rhino and one of the elephants were pregnant I was even more excited knowing who’s taking care of them! This could be a fun family road trip podcast listen.

Watching

As a Hillsboro Hops fan we were thrilled to see the Diamondbacks make it to the World Series, and even more fun that 11 players were former Hops. So when the Hops invited us all to watch one of the games live (on TV in a local restaurant), it was a super fun sporting experience with a large group of people who all love the Hops and Diamondbacks!

I finished The Morning Show and Big Mouth earlier this month but it’s been a weird TV month. Some reality TV is back but we’re starting to feel the effects of the strikes from earlier this year. Combine that with travel and Thanksgiving, it’s been a weird TV month.

I enjoyed this season of Upload but feel like it’s a show better binged (I did appreciate 2 episodes a week at least!) We finally started Lessons in Chemistry which I wanted to save up to binge and it’s off to a GREAT start.

What pop culture kept you sane over the holidays? What are you looking forward to as we hurtle towards the end of the year? Next month I’ll be back with some year end top ten lists for you…

Reading

When the weather changes and brings us inside, my reading habits dwindle. Luckily more audiobooks in my life are helping me push towards exceeding my Goodreads goal for 2023. I had really enjoyed Anderson Coopers book Vanderbilt a couple of years ago so was excited when he was going to write a book on the Astor’s. Astor was almost as interesting (Cooper is a Vanderbilt so he had a bit more of himself/family in it) but I still really enjoyed the storytelling style and learning about this fascinating family that had drama up in till very recently. I had no idea.

I finally read Yellowface which I wanted to enjoy more than I did. It was great and deserves all the praise it has received. The incredibly vain and self absorbed main character was a bit abrasive for me. Still a great story even if I might have liked it better in third person than first person.

I just finished We See Each Other: A Black, Trans Journey Through TV and Film on audio and loved it. Tre’vell Anderson is on a podcast I listen to regularly so I know their voice well and was excited to check it out. The book was a great way to learn more about trans visibility, and my favorite part were the recommended viewing list at the end of each chapter (see more notes below!)

I get on an airplane and a train in November which should lead to some good reading time, I promise. And I’m hoping that Britney’s memoir is finally ready for me from the library on audio…

Listening

I am devastated that Into It has wrapped up as a podcast. I talked about the pod a lot in my roundups, I checked out so many books and shows thanks to Sam Sanders. I’ll continue to listen to Vibe Check which he hosts with two friends but I really enjoyed Sam Sanders in my ears three times a week and now I’m down to one.

I plowed right through Grapevine which was a fascinating podcast about what happens when conservative Christians are elected to school boards in Texas. Teachers leave, kids aren’t allowed to be who themselves and communities are torn apart. You know my feelings on getting involved in local politics (do it! I’ll help!) and this podcast is a microcosm of what’s going on in towns all over the country. Read it, be scared, get involved. It’s only 6 episodes.

Multiple friends have sent me Say More with Dr? Sheila and I have it saved but haven’t started it yet. I promise it’s up next, getting through an audiobook first.

The new season of The Dream came out last month and a newsletter I subscribe to reminded me of it. I enjoyed the first season on MLM’s and this season is all about coaching, which I find fascinating (fun fact, a lot of my clients are coaches/consultants) but this… this is different.

Watching

Thanks to We See Each Other, my to watch list is out of control at the moment with shows and movies I missed over the years. A great starting place however, was the Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness episode on the binary. I found it fascinating and helpful.

I really enjoyed the ridiculousness of the latest season of Only Murders in the Building. Paul Rudd can do no wrong in my book and he was all in with his character this season which I loved. We finally binged the final season of The Wonder Years reboot. I loved the reboot concept for this and think it could have played for years in different iterations, I’m bummed that the strike (and BTS drama) caused it to end early.

I took my friend to see Little Shop of Horrors in the theater this weekend, she’d never seen it before and it’s one of my favorite musicals. It was the directors cut which I hadn’t seen before and WOW is it different! The directors cut models the musical ending, which test audiences HATED so they completely changed the ending. The original version is currently on MAX so I came home and had to rewatch those last 20 minutes to remember what happened. If you haven’t seen it in a while, or have never seen it both versions are great.

I really liked the Pete Davidson episode of SNL, especially this. However, the Nate Bargatze episode is one that I will happily rewatch on a regular basis, it was fantastic.

What pop culture is consuming you these days? What are you looking forward to?

Listening

The Michael Jackson podcast Think Twice was a good challenge to think about the artist v. the art. Which is a conversation we’ve been having a lot of over the past few years. I think we can all agree MJ was incredibly talented, but wowza was he a bad person. There were pieces to the story I didn’t remember, or know so it was good to get that recapped.

I finally started listening to Murder in Oregon about the murder of Michael Franke back in 1989. I didn’t realize that the murder has never been solved. I grew up in Salem when this happened and I remember hearing his name a lot. I also forgot until the podcast that the DA’s kids went to my elementary school and I remember a couple of times that our school would go on lock down because of threats to the family. If you grew up in Oregon or just enjoy some good true crime, this is (so far) a great podcast.

Reading

It’s been a long time since I stopped reading (or listening) to a book, but I can not finish Pageboy. I know it’s the “it” memoir of the summer but it’s jarring in its storytelling style. If you’ve read it, you know what I mean. If it’s on your list or you’ve read it I’m curious to know what you thoughts!

I did really enjoy Megan Rapinoe’s memoir One Life which was a great audiobook. It was a quick and interesting story about her life, and although not intentional, it was perfect timing with her final match coming up.

I finally read This is How You Lose the Time War, which is this book that no one will tell you anything about except to say YOU SHOULD READ IT. I agree, you should read it, and I will also say, it’s a perfect weekend quick read – just keep going it pays off I promise.

I really enjoyed Nora Goes Off Script last year and worried her next book wouldn’t stack up, but Same Time Next Summer was a great end of summer rom com that I needed! I also really enjoyed The Celebrants but didn’t love the section v. chapter style (I know, just give me chapters, the shorter the better).

Watching

Last month my husband and I got sucked into a Sister Wives binge and we are finally caught up to live. There’s a lot to be said about reality TV and the choices that people make, but after 18 seasons, it’s still wild that Kody thinks the camera confessionals are therapy and not going to make him sound like a horrible husband and human. I’m glad that some of the wives have found the support to leave.

Speaking of polygamy… I finally watched Under the Banner of Heaven and it was really good, intense, but good. If you like a good Mormon polygamist sect story, this is for you. Then I read this piece from my favorite journalist Leah Sottile about Tim Ballard (of the “popular” film Sound of Freedom) and it all sort of came together that these two stories were connected. WILD.

We’ve binged the final season of Reservation Dogs and just have the finale left. Every episode this season has been fantastic and I have loved the stories of the elders and parents and these amazing three generations (and beyond of course) of people.

What have you been reading/watching/listening to lately? What are you excited about as we head into fall? The final season of Big Mouth? A new Naomi Alderman book? Britney Spears memoir? Yeah, me too.