I’m not going to lie, between politics, the Olympics, and baseball – my pop culture consumption this month is a little off. Did anyone else have a big let down when the Olympics were over and we no longer had a combined FUN thing to talk about? The Olympics are exactly what we needed this summer… Oh, and the Foo Fighters.
Reading
Between The Olympics and Politics this month, I couldn’t get into an audiobook so my reading goal is behind further than I’d like it to be (but also expected for this year with everything going on!) I did finish reading The Cassandra which I really liked! If you watched Oppenheimer and wanted to learn more about the Northwest connection at Hanford, this book is a good historical fiction place to start. My husband is from the Tri-Cities and many family members have worked at Hanford over the years so it was especially interesting for me.
I picked up a rom com book a while back, You, Again and read it over a couple of weekends. It was fine, but about 100 pages too long and the leading characters were not redeemable enough to make it worth while. I have a couple of library books on the end table, we’ll see if I can get into one this holiday weekend before they’re due!
Listening
Two years ago my husband and I had tickets to see the Foo Fighters in Seattle, and then Taylor Hawkins died and the tour was cancelled. We FINALLY had the chance to see this bucket list concert at Providence Park and it was INCREDIBLE. I am mad it took so long to finally see them but Dave Grohl can do no wrong and that show was 3 hours of rock and roll.
I have been mildly obsessed with Wirecutter from the New York Times for years now, and they JUST started a podcast which I am super excited about. The first episode is about laundry, and I may finally read that owners manual from when we got a new washer a few years back.
Of course I’ve been listening to a LOT of political podcasts, from The Daily, to What a Day, to Think Out Loud, to Pod Save America, there’s been a lot going on! However, I am super excited that one of my favorite journalists, Leah Sotille has a new podcast launching in September and the first episode previewed on The Evergreen this week. The podcast is called Hush and it’s about a man who was on death row in Salem, Oregon and then was released from jail for the crime he didn’t commit. I do love some local true crime…
Watching
Liked I mentioned, it was all things Olympics and then it wasn’t. Luckily baseball returned so my evenings have been spent at the ballpark or in campaign meetings/events, so my TV habits have been pretty self soothing – a lot of Veep and Brooklyn Nine-Nine. With Glen Powell doing a bunch of interviews for Twisters (which I still need to see) a few people brought up Everybody Wants Some a movie he was in a few years back. So, one Saturday night we watched it, and it was great! It’s by Richard Linklater who did Dazed and Confused and it is absolutely the 80’s college version of that, but with a baseball team. It’s hard not to like Glen Powell…
I’ve decided to stock pile Bad Monkey and the new season of Bel-Air to binge, and I’m really excited that Only Murders in the Building is back! Hopefully that gets me through September, along with a new season or two of some Housewives (NYC & SLC I think?)
Alright, I hope your summer pop culture was more extensive than mine – what have you been reading, watching and listening to while on vacations and road trips?
