We’ve been pretty lucky this June – the temperatures have settled into a very comfortable “sit outside and read” for a couple of weeks, and then a bit of June-uary returned to remind us that we DO need the rain around here, even in the summer. Good dog walks mean good listening time for me, the very end of May meant the end of a few TV series that we’ll talk about this month as well…
I am ahead of schedule on my reading challenge this year which is making me very happy. I’ve only hit it twice in the 9 years I’ve been tracking with a Goodreads goal…
I listened to two great audiobooks this month which helped. Chasten Buttigieg’s memoir I Have Something to Tell You was wonderful. I was hoping he’d be a good storyteller and he is! His stories about growing up in the midwest and his relationship with Mayor Pete are really great and make me like Chasten even more (even if he pronounces GIF wrong…) I had seen a bunch of comedians I like promote Jena Friedman’s Not Funny and oh my gosh it was SO funny! On multiple dog walks I found myself laughing louder than I should have. Friedman is a comedian and has written on a few late night shows over the years. If you’re a comedy fan, and like some behind the scenes insight, this was great.
I finally got Romantic Comedy from the library which I had on my list for a while and heard great things about. It was very fun. It takes place behind the scenes of an SNL type late night show, and they do more details than I needed as someone who watched all of 30 Rock but that’s my only complaint. I was surprised the book takes place during the pandemic but it works well in the story as a plot device.
We’re heading out of town for our 20th anniversary and I have a few books packed to take with, we’ll see what I get through between vacation and the 4th of July holiday…
Listening
There’s a new Foo Fighters album that is really wonderful, and a new Jonas Brothers album (The Album) that is a BOP at 32 minutes. While I write this today I am listening to Odelay, my favorite Beck album that holds up years later.
I really appreciated Offline‘s Social Media Challenge over the past month. Jon Favreau and Max Fisher did different challenges to reduce their social media intake each week and it helped remind me of how many times in a day I pick up my phone instead of interacting, or finishing a chapter of a book….
Rachel Maddow has a new podcast Deja News and it is really good if you like her storytelling style (which, no big surprise – I do!) There’s also a new season of Slow Burn about Clarence Thomas and it turns out he’s been a bad dude for a very long time. There’s only four episodes and they’re all out. If you are my age-ish and lived through the hearings but don’t really remember it, this was helpful to learn just how long we’ve known he’s a bad dude (and reminder that women who come forward are usually harassed for it.) We’re still in a writers strike, but the Late Night with Seth Meyers Podcast has had some great episodes lately trying to fill that gap.
Watching
I talked about the Succession finale in last months round up but that Ted Lasso finale will stick with me for a while. It wasn’t a great final season, but I think they did a great job of wrapping up the story lines and giving many of our characters a happy ending, or at least the ending they deserve (Willis…)
The latest season of Top Chef wrapped up this month and I am so sad that Padma is leaving the show. I didn’t want the winner to win, but wasn’t surprised. I really didn’t like the flash forward storytelling device in the final season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, was it just me? I am so sad that Never Have I Ever ended, but that final season was so sweet and funny and wonderful. I think this will be on my regular rewatch rotation.
The Shiny Happy People documentary was upsetting and not surprising and exactly what’d I’d expect people (men) in fundamentalist cults to do. If you watched 19 Kids and Counting you need to watch this. And if you didn’t, you may also need to watch this…
I am loving this season of The Other Two and the new season of The Righteous Gemstones arrived just in time for the summer comedy I needed. My “to watch” list is long – White House Plumbers, The Mandalorian, the new season of Perry Mason, what shows are on your “crap I still need to watch that” list?
The summer is young and the book stack is TALL. I’m excited for a few road trips and warm afternoons to sit outside and read or walk a dog with a podcast or audiobook in my ears. I’m also ridiculously excited for the Barbie movie to come out! What pop culture are you enjoying this summer? What are you excited for to still come out this summer?
