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June Pop Culture Round Up

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june pop culture round up

We’ve had a busy June around here from family visiting, to baseball, a couple trips to the zoo to see the cutest baby elephant, and the return of our local Tuesday Night Market. We’ve been out and about and enjoying the weather when it shows up! It’s also been different kinds of pop culture, since this month included a visit from my 8 year old niece, and some live theatre…

Reading

I rarely read a book in a day, even on vacation, but Tilt was such a captivating and quick read, I couldn’t put it down. The book is about a pregnant woman in Portland who is at Ikea (yes the one by the airport) when the big one (earthquake) finally hits the Northwest. It captured a lot of what I think the chaos may be like, and was a good reminder to review my emergency preparedness kit!

I also devoured the new Taylor Jenkins Reid book, Atmosphere which was a fantastic story about the 80’s space shuttle program and the first female astronauts. I highly recommend this one.

I finally finished Lorne the biography of Lorne Michaels. As a life long SNL fan, I had to read it. I’d been told the audiobook narrator makes some choices, and she did… but overall it was still a fascinating book about his life and all that he’s done for comedy and television. It’s a must read/listen if SNL is your thing.

Listening

The Oregonian did a series of podcast episodes about Kyron Horman’s disappearance from 15 years ago, and what’s happened since then. If you were in the Pacific Northwest at the time, you likely remember the story of the 7 year old boy who went missing when he didn’t show up on the bus after school. The podcast did a great job or reliving the case and sharing some new insights.

I really like Donnie O’Sullivan on CNN, he’s a great reporter who has done incredible investigative work into extremist politics. He recently did a few episodes on the CNN podcast channel called Persuadable which I finally finished listening to this month. It was a hard show to listen to but the reporting is excellent. A great show if you still don’t understand how people can be persuaded to believe the lies being sold to them.

I continue to listen to every episode of Good Hang and obviously Seth Meyers was my favorite so far. I also listened to the Sarah Jessica Parker episode of Call Her Daddy after I watched the documentary about Alex Cooper earlier this month. It’s not my thing, but I am glad it’s out there for people who enjoy it!

Live Theatre

This month include not one but TWO live performances! My friend and I got to see The Importance of Being Earnest at Portland Center Stage. It’s a play I’d never seen, or read, before and my friend LOVES the show. We had a great time, the cast was fantastic, and the set designs were fabulous!

Then I had tickets to our local community theatre, HART (Hillsboro Artists’ Regional Theatre) to see their production of Bright Star, a musical by Steve Martin (yes that Steve Martin). The show was great, and the actors were wonderful. It was a very fun show and a wild “based on a true story” series of events!

Watching

We’re in the summer TV slump right now. The longer evenings are meant to be outside reading or playing with your dogs, or going to a baseball game or enjoying the neighborhood businesses and markets. But, on those nights we’re home, I’ve been watching a lot of meh TV with a couple exceptions.

We’re really enjoying Stick on Apple+. Owen Wilson will forever play a great loser/down on his luck character, and this show is no different. It fills that Ted Lasso hole in your heart for sure, and is just the right amount of fun/sweet that’s perfect for summer.

I also loved the latest Atsuko Okatsuka special Father on Hulu. I actually saw her live last year and remembered a few of the jokes – they held up and she was great! I also watched Your Friend, Nate Bargatze with my family last weekend and forgot my brother and sister in law went to that taping which was cool!

With my niece visiting for a few days I finally watched Inside Out 2 which was FABULOUS, and caught a few episodes of Bluey which, woah are those written for adults as well, they are so sweet and fun! We tried to get her to watch Flight of the Navigator, which mostly holds up, but no amount of Sarah Jessica Parker with pink hair could convince her it was better than whatever youtube family she was watching do ninja tricks…

I have a stack of books and a couple trips to the coast coming up next month – what are you looking forward to on your summer pop culture bingo card?

May Pop Culture Round Up

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The weather is finally starting to show some more consistent signs of summer around the Pacific Northwest and after a PERFECT weekend at the coast with the pups for Memorial Day weekend we are back at it for the summer! Here’s a few things I enjoyed in May…

Reading

The new Emily Henry book arrived while I was on vacation and I devoured it one warm weekend. Great Big Beautiful Life is maybe my new favorite of hers. I really enjoyed the flashbacks from the story she was learning. If you enjoyed The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo this is for you. Also that is NOT a spoiler, when I saw that comparison I was mad, but it’s simply in the “main character goes to write a sweeping celebrity memoir” category. Also SUPER excited for Taylor Jenkins Reid’s new book coming in June!

I have read all four of Marissa Pessl’s books and Darkly was (as always) fantastic! I knew that this was a book I needed to read on vacation where I didn’t have distractions and could just binge through it. I was correct. Pessl’s written two adult novels (Special Topics in Calamity Physics is an all time favorite) and now two YA novels. It’s creepy and a great mystery/puzzle. I highly recommend it for your creepy(ish) summer beach read.

Listening

I continue to be obsessed with Good Hang, and the Philly Justice episode is everything I was hoping for. I don’t watch podcasts because that defeats the purpose, but I did listen to the podcast on our trip back from the beach and and my husband and I then watched the trailer when we got home and it did NOT disappoint. If you’re 1/3 of the Parks & Rec fan that I am you need to be listening to this podcast in general, but specifically this episode.

My brother told me about the newest Christianity Today (stay with me…) series – Devil in the Deep Blue Sea. I listened to the Rise and Fall of Mars Hill podcast from the same person a couple years ago and loved it. This one is about the satanic panic of the 80’s and 90’s. If you grew up going to an evangelical church like I did, this is the podcast for you…

Watching

May is the season of finales. From season finales (Hacks!) to series finales (The Handmaids Tale! Righteous Gemstones!) it was a big month to wrap things up.

The series finale of The Handmaids Tale finally happened. I am glad this “dystopian fiction” show has wrapped up. When I saw that as a descriptor for the episode on Hulu I had to laugh as it is no longer dystopian nor fiction… It wrapped up well and set the stage for The Testaments which is coming in 2026. I probably need more time to process this finale, I am currently fine with it but didn’t love it. I sort of expected it to be similar to the book which is her recounting her experiences in Gilead to a governing council. It was not that, although I think she did that a few seasons ago? Anyway, it wrapped up well and June is safe. I hope Hannah is too.

I binged through the final season of The Righteous Gemstones which I have loved but this final season felt off and the last two episodes were… not my favorite? Baby Billy for life. May also brought us a second season of Secret Lives of Mormon Wives that I didn’t need but absolutely binged just so I could read this power ranking (nailed it).

My family wouldn’t shut up about Chef’s Table: Legends with Jamie Oliver, Jose Andres, Thomas Keller, and Alice Waters. Four episodes, one about each chef, and they were all fantastic. If you like to eat at all, these all tell great stories about four incredibly accomplished chefs. Although…I came away with no need to go to French Laundry. Will be curious what you think.

I have created a long list of shows to binge this summer. I keep forgetting I have access to Disney+ so will see if I can get caught up on a few shows there in the coming months. I still need to watch Moana 2! Maybe when my niece visits in a couple weeks…

What have you enjoyed this spring? What are you excited to read/watch/listen to this summer?

April Pop Culture Round Up

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I just got back from 10 days in Spain and it was incredible. Between Barcelona and San Sebastian and then back to Barcelona, it was an incredible trip to a gorgeous country – I can’t wait to go back and explore more! This month my pop culture is light since I was busy walking and eating and walking and eating and eating and…

Reading

I finished The Three Lives of Cate Kay at the end of March and it didn’t make last months round up. It was a really good story told well. I like multiple narrators and jumping around in time to tell a story. Once again Reese’s bookclub was right…

I love the journalist Leah Sottile and her new book Blazing Eye Sees All was fascinating! I had watched the Love Has Won documentary last year so was familiar with Mother God, but this book goes so deep into the history of new age studies and the women who lead them. If you like a cult, like I like a cult, you already know who Leah is then 😉

I started listening to the Lorne Michaels Bio Lorne and the narrator makes some interesting vocal decisions (which I’m glad that I’d been warned about by Whitney Matheson’s blog). Still, it’s a LONG audiobook and while I made a good dent on the trip, I’ll have to wait to finish until it returns to my library account. I didn’t read a single book while in Spain. I packed two and didn’t touch them. I tend not to read on international flights – I don’t know why, but it never really jumps at me. While I was gone the new Emily Henry book was delivered so I’ll get that devoured in the next week or two…

Listening

Everything is terrible and every podcast will tell you that on a daily basis if you let them. What’s saving me from all of that? Amy Poehler’s new podcast, Good Hang. It fills the Parks and Rec void in my life and the Kathryn Hahn episode was so fantastic…her talking about who would play her dog in a movie is amazing. I also really enjoyed the Jack Black episode on the painfully bumpy train ride from San Sebastian to Barcelona. They are so funny together and have a such a great friendship.

Watching

I really liked this season of White Lotus, sure the people are insufferable, that’s the point of the show. Parker Posey AND Walt Goggins AND Carrie Coon? I will always say yes to any of them in a show, a trifecta was quite the bonus!

We’re plugging along on Top Chef and The Amazing Race this season. It’s always fun to see where people travel on The Amazing Race and this season they ended up in Kyoto at a palace my husband visited when he was there last year for work, so that was fun (for him, I was home taking care of the dogs…)

I did a rewatch of Hacks for the new season and the show is so incredibly smart and funny and I hate when they fight but they do it so well. I caught up on the train rides and really loving this season and the story line. I also have been watching this final season of The Handmaids Tale. It’s as dark as ever and feels all too real this days, we’ll see how this one ends up. Also, can we talk about how Jonah from Veep absolutely would be the horrible character he is this season?

My binge on the flight was Étoile, I love anything Amy Sherman Palladino does, I wanted this to be more snark like Bunheads but it was a good show to binge on the flight home. I also finally watched Bottoms on the way to Spain and it was HILARIOUS. I’d heard great things and just needed 90 minutes with no distractions. It’s as funny as everyone said it would be, and Marshawn Lynch nails it.

The sun is shining and that means hopefully more time in my backyard reading and playing with Norm and Cliff are in my future…What are you excited for coming up in Pop Culture?