Party

some tv/shows/books that have stayed with me recently

I have a pretty high threshold for emotions. I am usually hit by what happened later and more often than not will laugh about it by that point. It’s been a strength in my work.

A few weeks ago, I was starting a half marathon and within two minutes, and six months after it happened, I started taking in my birthing experience. Cue the waterworks. Becoming a mother has cracked my heart wide open. From both the love I feel to the responsibility to keep showing my baby that vulnerability is strength. Even if I don’t feel like I am supposed to show them.

Movies, shows, visual art do a good job at opening our hearts just a bit more, giving us a platform to feel things. Here are some pieces of culture that stayed with me since my last post and a few things I learned.

• Edward Dando, a British thief who claimed to not know how restaurants work would eat hundreds of oysters at a time and run out without paying the check. When he got out of jail he just went straight back to the restaurant to eat/steal more oysters. Joie de vivre or gluttony?

• Dog owners are saving on vet fees by taking their dogs to Tijuana and someone is about to make $1K/hour in NYC smelling dog breath.

• This year’s Whitney Biennial star was also its oldest, 92 year old Carmen de Monteflores showed alongside her daughter. And at 87 years old, ceramist Megumi Yuasa is showing in the US for the first time.

• A red horse produced for the lunar new year’s smile was accidentally placed upside down, making the toy of this year the crying horse.

Audio

The Party by Rumble Strip: This tiny (14mn) episode is one of my favorite in a long time . Erica our host, asks fellow guests to tell her what happened at her friend Jesse’s birthday since she spent all of it staring at the wall in his guest bedroom. Their feedback is mixed to sound of whales, which is what they sounded like to her from behind the bedroom door. This is just a super lovely and meaningless audio nugget. h/t to Julia who told me to go back to Rumble Strip after I shared my lack of podcast inspiration.

Murder On Sex Island by Jo Firestone audiobook: Jo Firestone x detective plot x fictionalized reality tv setting is all I want this summer. If you want to cackle please listen (h/t shan).

TV/Movies/Streaming

Your laugh diet of Julio Torres, Chris Fleming and Valerie Cherish: Grateful that we live in a time where the Comeback is back as well as a new special for Julio and Chris. This last season of the Comeback, similarly to Julio’s special, is a bit more somber than what we are accustomed to. Lisa Kudrow ie Valerie Cherish is confronted with having to choose between selling her soul to AI or solidarity with writers while Julio Torres addresses war and the wealth gap through color personalities. If you need something more lighthearted, Chris Fleming’s new special is weird and physically unparalleled, which led me back to his YouTube show Gayle- which is THE best thing to watch if you can’t sleep.

Can’t Float

My old coworker David happens to make films alongside podcast producing and just released his short film, based on his personal story, of facing his fear of swimming because of institutionalized prejudice ahead of the birth of his child. It’s funny, brave and based on this piece he wrote for The Guardian.

The Drama: Sue me I loved The Drama just as I loved Borgli’s previous film, Sick of Myself. Without revealing the twist he has an unforgiving outlook on a societal crisis we are in and how much worse it gets when we stir away from discussing things head on. Alana Haim does an incredible job exposing this moral conundrum, if you have read the twist and have doubts, I still recommend giving it a shot.

Live Shows

Scorched Earth by Luke Murphy at St Ann’s Warehouse: I have never and will never likely never get to see something like Scorched Earth again- a crime dance by the choreographer who previously made an episodic sci fi dance for an audience to catch over a week. In this performance about an Irish man’s compulsion to kill for the land, Murphy uses slides, radio programming, set design and bodies to convey this story. A passionate duet with moss will stay engrained in my brain for a while. Though there is something culturally specific about the show, it’s performance in gentrified Dumbo feels purposeful. Murphy’s level of ambition is rare and worth catching.

Trash by James Caverly and Andrew Morrill at PAC: Deaf roommates, Tim and Jake lay out their personal conflicts as they physically unpack their trash. This comedy in ASL translated via subtitles, audience voting and a jukebox shows what we are missing out on by flattening expression to just spoken word. The show’s unapologetic perspective was new and refreshing to me.

Books

Bright Young Women: If you tend to find thrillers relaxing, I recommend this fiction based on the Ted Bundy murders that reframes the narrative away from the killer being charming and smarter than others to the police department’s inadequacies and is told from the victim and survivors perspective. An empowering read.

That’s all for now- love you.