So much going on, the world is crazy. One of the benefits of trying to quarantine from the pandemic, and socially distance from most folks, is that I’ve been enjoying a lot of books, music, tv, films and poetry. Anyone else find themselves doing this during the pandemic?

I’ve read more “non-theatre” books in the last 6 months than I have in years. Recently I’m on a kick of reading Anthologies of short stories. Right now I am going back and forth between Jim Harrison’s Just Before Dark and N.K. Jemisin’s excellent collection of stories called How Long ’til Black Future Month? It’s fun, going back and forth between these two, they’re so different at first glance: Harrison – white guy, celebrated the life we have – wrote so much about savoring the world around him, whether it was food, drink, nature, all the pleasures of the flesh, gluttonous grounded and earthy. Jemisin, a black woman who writes (largely) science fiction and fantasy that’s brilliant, she tackles identity and culture, oppression and civilization with wonderful energy and insight into why and how people tick. As I go back and forth between reading a couple of her stories, and then a couple of his stories, I’m loving the juxtaposition of his exploration of what we have now, and her fantastic explorations of the future, or alternate worlds. I keep finding myself thinking “This is the world we have – what are we going to do with it? Because the choice really is ours.”

I’m also watching TV:
Maggie and I are about to finish the entire series of Star Trek: Voyager which we started watching in early quarantine. It’s a rewatch for me, but it’s the first time I’ve gotten one of the kids to watch a Trek show beginning to end with me, and I have to say I’m excited at how much she loves it, and I can’t wait to move on to one of the other series with her!

And since I ran out of seasons of The Good Place, I’ve been watching Broadchurch with Jeanne (ugh, David Tennant and Olivia Coleman are so damned good), but I just started The Boys on Amazon Prime (after having a bunch of people yell at me for not watching it) and WOW I’m so hooked now.

Also, listening to a few things: The new “Super Deluxe” edition of Prince’s Sign o’ The Times was released a couple weeks ago, and I can’t stop listening to it. First off, the remaster of the original double album sounds fantastic (if someone FORCED me to pick my favorite Prince album, Sign o’ The Times would win, but it’s tough to choose). But, because he had SO MUCH material for this album (and in the years surrounding it), they’ve released a ton of new/unreleased stuff along with it, and it’s been amazing to listen to all the stuff I haven’t heard, or the alternate versions of songs he recorded while he was still experimenting with them. Originally he wanted to release the album as a triple album, but Warner Bros. said “Nope, it won’t sell, trim it to two albums” and because of that and other projects he was working on there’s just a ton of material from this era in his life that is so damned good. Here are a couple of reviews of the new release, if you’re interested. Or just run to iTunes and buy it!

And, when I’m not listening to that collection of music, I’ve been enjoying a group new to me, named Haim, and their album called Women In Music, Pt. III. They have a great sound, I love the lyrics, and am really enjoying this group made up of three sisters.

Oh, and I’m still working on my Italian, slowly but surely. Using a couple of the standard apps, like Duolingo and Italiano, as well as a couple useful podcasts like “5 Minute Italian”, which also has a series of YouTube videos from Joy Of Languages. Il mio Italiano non è buono, ma vorrei imparare!

What about you? What have you found yourself listening to, reading or watching? Let me know in the comments, and make suggestions for what I should dive into next!