May

Posted on May 31, 2013 by eliza

Books:

  • You’re Not Doing It Right by Michael Ian Black ~ I liked it. Funny, which was not a surprise, but also sweet and moving at times, which was a surprise, and there’s a passage about marriage and the passage of time at the end of the book that was one of the most romantic things I’ve read in a while.
  • Everything Is Going to Be Great by Rachel Shukert ~ I think I’ve aged out of the backpacker memoir, but I liked her voice enough that I’m excited to read her new YA novel.
  • Carry the One by Carol Anshaw ~ A little too grim for me. I’ve decided I’m not reading any more grim books for the rest of the year.
  • Someday, Someday, Maybe by Lauren Graham ~ I love her but I couldn’t get through this.
  • The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer ~ This started off strong, and I wanted to love it because CAMP, but I lost interest.
  • Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell ~ FINALLY. This is the first book I’ve truly loved this year since Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. I loved it A LOT. I can’t even deal with it. Neither can John Green, who wrote a lovely post (and review) about it. IT IS SPECIAL.

TV:

Live Music:

  • Audra McDonald & Seth Rudetsky put on a wonderful show. I am so glad I have finally seen her live after all these years. Everything about her oozes talent and delight from her head to her toes. She was funny and amazing. She sang “Stars and the Moon” by Jason Robert Brown and “Over the Rainbow.” She did a song called “I’ll Be Here” by Adam Gwon that caused audible weeping throughout the audience. I will never forget it. She is a gift to the world.

Movies:

  • Oslo, August 31 ~ I loved Reprise so much that I was excited to watch another movie by this director with this actor. It’s beautiful, but it gave me basically the heaviest boots of all time. Trailer here. Ebert named it to his Top 10 list for 2012.
  • Meanwhile, the only other movie I care about is Before Midnight, and I have no idea when it will be out here, and my heart is already very tender about the whole thing.

Favorite things on Internet:

  • Humans of New York ~ How I lived this long without knowing about this site is beyond me. It is just one of the best things I’ve ever seen, anywhere.
  • Interesting interview with Josh Malina, who will always be Jeremy to me. (“I told many, many people.”)

Dirtiest Day:

Ran away to Jazz Fest. This happened. But the crawfish monica, the daiquiries, the Gospel tent, and the old friend made it all worthwhile.

Best Food Eaten:

Oysters Irene with a dear friend:

Music:

I listened to “Out on the Town” by Fun five hundred thousand times this month. I don’t even know why. It just does something to me and I cannot wait to see them with my brother and Tegan and Sara in September.

Pets Still Alive:

Both. The cat is lazy and basically just lies around being lazy every minute of her life. And this fool is so crazy and shedding like bananas but he makes me happy.

Flowers, Trees, & Plants:

May was the month of irises, daylilies, and succulents, which means it was a good month for me.

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April

Posted on April 30, 2013 by eliza

Books:

  • The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey ~ Parts of this are beautifully written, but overall, I liked but did not love it.

TV:

  • Veep ~ I enjoyed season 1 well enough, but the first 2 episodes of season 2 are the funniest things I’ve seen on TV in ages.

Movies:

  • Argo ~ Maybe I just came to this one too late in the game, but I thought it was kind of a snoozer.
  • How to Survive a Plague ~ I went into this not knowing much about it, and I recommend that if you watch it, you do the same. It is informative, enlightening, inspiring, and so moving at times that it took my breath away, and I don’t think I will ever forget it.

Favorite things on Internet:

  • 10 years ago my friend Melissa gave me the gift of a show called The Last Five Years, which was one of the things that saved me during a real heard year. Even though nobody could ever replace Norbert Leo Butz or Sherie Rene Scott in my heart, I loved watching these features on the revival.

Pets Still Alive:

Both. They are both very fond of the posturepedic dog pillow.

Best Food Eaten:

Clearly it was this:

Music:

I have waited many years of my life to see Andrew Bird live, and he did not disappoint. I saw him a tiny little bar, and it was intimate and swell. Sometimes people are just as lovely as you imagine them to be.

Flowers, Trees, & Plants:

A walk after work with a friend in April reminded me that for all this place’s faults, we are lucky to live where we do.

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March

Posted on March 31, 2013 by eliza

Books:

  • The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee by Sarah Silverman ~ This made me laugh out loud on an airplane, obnoxiously I’m sure. It honestly surprised me how much I enjoyed this book. The best “celebrity memoir” (gross description) I’ve read in a while.
  • The Name of the Star and The Madness Beneath by Maureen Johnson ~ Good YA airplane reads. Johnson doesn’t get the girl from Louisiana thing exactly right, but she does get many other things right. I enjoyed these.
  • Vampires in the Lemon Grove by Karen Russell ~ She is such a good writer.
  • I honestly didn’t spend much time reading books (or listening to music or watching movies) in March because mostly all I did was (a) work and (b) watch Being Human.

TV:

  • Being Human ~ I was aware of this show’s existence because I knew one of Gavin & Smithy’s friends, Budgie, starred on it but I never checked it out until my friend S. told me it was highly important. And she’s right. It is! I became very attached to these characters, and I don’t even feel prepared to talk about the show yet. My feelings about this show are big and they are real. I loved it very, very, much, and I cried millions of tears, and I will always remember the experience of watching it with my friend via the wonders of technology that made it feel like she was sitting next to me on my couch even though she is literally 7,000 miles away.

In the company of horrors, I learned about friendship and loyalty, sacrifice and courage. Humanity isn’t a species, it’s a state of mind. It can’t be defeated. It moves mountains, it saves souls. We were blessed as much as we were cursed. In this little enclave of the lost, I witnessed the very best of being human.

  • And speaking of Gavin & Stacey, I have mixed feelings about the U.S. remake. I love Jason Ritter and want to see him working no matter what, and I like Alexis Bledel well enough, but I am just not sure pulling this off is possible. Of course, I felt this way about The Office and look what they did there, but this show is so wonderful and so dear to me that I am weirdly nervous.  I haven’t seen any casting news for Smithy, Nessa, or Uncle Bryn yet, and to me, they are key to this show’s success. I am kind of freaking out honestly. To console myself I shall watch this scene for the one million time. Or this one. Or all of them.

Favorite things on Internet:

  • Richard Lawson’s piece on why people should watch Enlightened is probably my favorite things I’ve ever read about the show, and I’ve read many, many things. I’m truly sad that it’s over, but I’m so glad it came into our lives at all.

Enlightened understands the particular loneliness of a sunny day, the melancholy of a pretty place. All the interiors are perfectly realized, homes both comfortable and dangerously thick with the residue of living. The wonderful thing is that White wants you to think in these existential terms. He has crafted opening and closing monologues for most episodes that are achingly gorgeous works of art; introspective and sad, rueful and wise. White dares to have Amy consider truly Big things about the nature of existence, about who we are in these bodies and these minds. I cannot think of another television show, and really only a few scattered movies, that goes so bravely and truthfully to the heart of human matter like Enlightened does. It’s startling when you first connect with it, as if someone finally responded to a signal that you’ve been sending out into space for years and years. I know that probably sounds a bit melodramatic, but Enlightened provokes that depth of feeling.

  • The trailer for Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing.
  • Two good writers being adorable together.

Pets Still Alive:

Both. March was officially Yard & Patio Month. Zuko enjoyed it.

Holidays:

The St. Patrick’s Day Parade weekend is always one of the most fun of the year, and this year was no different. It involved great deals of walking, beer, sun, musical good times at my brother’s post-parade gig, and crawfish with the fam. I also enjoyed the 3+ hour Easter vigil I attended with my parents. Somehow it was both comical and moving.

Travel

I flew to Colorado for under 24 hours for an old friend’s wedding, and even though this seemed kind of crazy & extreme at the time, I’m glad I got to be there.

Flowers, Trees, & Plants:

My Daisy Tree has gone from just a single bloom to leaves all over the place and seeing how it changes and imagining how it will look this spring and summer makes me happier than I can say. As does the appearance of azaleas exploding all over town and my daylilies, as always.

Also, we all have our weaknesses, and mine are tiny succulents shoved into pots. I don’t know what about them makes me so happy, but there you go.


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