I’ve put off doing one of these for so long that the previous intro in the draft said it had been three months since my last post.
Here are a few things I’ve been watching/listening to/thinking about recently/over the last six months:
Listening to the new album from The National - granted, it only came out last Friday, but it’s been on repeat since then. I love it all. Anyway, this one’s my current favourite:
Along with the Big 3 (White Lotus, Last of Us, Succession) I’ve been watching the Australian show Class of 07 on Amazon Prime. Per its Google synopsis: A tidal wave hits as a group of women celebrate their ten-year reunion from an all-girls school. The former students must find a way to survive on the island tip of their high school campus. It made me laugh, it made me cry, it made me feel some type of way about the all girls school teen girl experience and the friendships you have during it and those that last after it. I 11/10 recommend it.
I was also recommended the Apple TV+ show Shrinking by a colleague and have enjoyed it. It’s created by Bill Lawrence of Scrubs and Ted Lasso fame, Jason Segel, and Brett Goldstein, also of Ted Lasso fame, so it’s got a real Ted/Apple TV+ sensibility to it, but it was a very good hang.
I’ve been making use of my library cards via the Libby app and listening to a bunch of audiobooks on my walks and drives to work lately. Most popular books always have a long hold time, so I’ve listened to a few that I borrowed purely because I judged them by their fun covers, but I ended up really enjoying all of them: Unnecessary Drama by Nina Kenwood, Everyone in this room will one day be dead by Emily Austin, Kokomo by Victoria Hannan, Clarke by Holly Throsby, and Something Blue by Alex Sarkis.
If I am anything it’s a sentimental bitch who loves to cry, so one of my favourite things is the moment in sports when you know a championship game or a big game has been won, when the final whistle blows or the overtime goal is scored. I love watching the players on the field, the pitch, the ice, the whatever it is run to each other, the fans, those on the bench running out to join them1. I love watching reaction videos of the fans in the stands, at home, at watch parties. People are so happy. I’ve been thinking about it the past couple of days with the Toronto Maple Leafs breaking their 19-year curse to make it past the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, and much of social media telling fans to calm down and act like they’ve been there before. They didn’t win a championship game, but it was a big game - to them - and, actually, controversially, the sentimental me thinks that, in this case, it’s kinda nice to see people that happy (like, 19 years is a long time). Even if they don’t make it out of the second round. I was thinking about this and Liverpool falling short of the Premier League title by a point last year, of the Montreal Canadiens losing the Stanley Cup final a few years ago, and the joy both championship runs brought me, particularly as they came during the pandemic. Even if you don’t make it out of the second round, that moment of joy is worth it. Other moments of hockey-related joy: the Bruins lost.
Anyway, here are two good reads that have been sitting in this draft post for several months.
“New stadium anthems are rare because it takes time for a song to seep into the collective consciousness. It’s even harder to mint a stadium anthem since people’s listening is more fragmented than at any point in the history of popular music. As our listening diverges, fewer songs reach the potential audience needed to make it into the stadium canon.”
A truly beautiful set of quotes:
Green: I remember my girlfriend (now my wife) and I were in Paris together between Christmas and New Year’s of 2006, waiting to hear about the Kings pilot. And, of course, it was passed on by Kevin Reilly.
Kevin Reilly, former president of NBC Entertainment: I have almost no recollection of anything related to Kings and never watched a minute of the show. I do recall reading the script and not liking it and having a pretty spirited debate about it with the staff at the time. They were very enamored with the mythology in the King David lore. I found that world sort of brittle and not particularly engaging.
As this oral history goes into, no one really watched this show, but I did courtesy of a friend at uni way back when, and it was good! It really feels like it was one of those shows that was ahead of its time, and would probably do really well on a streaming service now. It features Chris Egan, around the time of Letters to Juliet (excellent movie) and Sebastian Stan in his pre-Marvel, excellent crying phase. It’s only 13 episodes, so if you can track it down, I highly recommend it.
alright, that’s it, have a good week/next six months!!! @ me or email me with any thoughts, good links, etc!!
I hate to say it but you simply must admit that Man City winning the title in 2012? The epitome of this shit. The drama. The fact it came down to the literal last minute. I’m sorry but it is true.