Sabbath #11

The Sunday Salon, What I'm Listening To, What I'm Reading, What I'm watching

For the last 11 Sundays, I have been taking a break from my phone: calls, texts, and news for my own personal Sabbath. I have had varying degrees of success, but for most of the Sundays, I have kept to my initial intention to unplug for the day.

It all began with putting my cellphone in a desk drawer and has evolved into shutting off all notifications on the phone, only listening to music or audiobooks on it. I switched from a Kindle Fire, on which I still was tempted to look at notifications even though I had them shut off, to an older Kindle with no bells and whistles.

  • His Last Bow by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
  • Every Living Thing by James Herriot
  • Gold of Our Fathers by Kwei Quartey
  • The Rat That Began To Gnaw The Rope by C.W. Grafton (yes, father of Sue Grafton, but an accomplished writer on his own).

I also have watched three Mystery Science Theater 3000 movies, Creed 2, Rocketman (a rewatch), and The Princess Bride (also a rewatch, multiple times). I have listened to a best of 2020 playlist that I created on a free trial of Tidal, Sleepy Hollow on XPN from Philadelphia, and Guido’s Lounge Cafe on Mixcloud.

Today, the plan is to read Smallbone Deceased: A London Mystery by Michael Gilbert, a part of the British Library Crime Classics series. This follows my reading last week of the C.W. Grafton book that is part of the Library of Congress Crime Classics series.

This past week, I also decided to continue my subscription to Audible, even though I am an intermittent audiobook listener. However, I enjoy the free offerings they have too for members. For example, my wife and I both enjoyed listening to a Dr. Katz series, which started as a cartoon. I also have been listening to the Sherlock Holmes short stories and have a few other books already on audio for whenever I get to them. So I might listen to something later, but probably something short.

I’m not sure what I’ll watch yet, but I did purchase a streaming copy of Bowfinger and while this isn’t where I intended to leave off, I will, with one of my favorite scenes from the movie:

Published by Bryan G. Robinson

Blogger formerly known as Unfinished Person. Still an unfinished person...

Published

16 thoughts on “Sabbath #11”

  1. I’ve been a little lonely holed up here at home. My daughter is home but doing that acting intensive so I do not see her from 7am-6:30pm. For that reason, social media is still welcomed by me but not the news. I am trying to screen that out entirely. I mean, there is nothing new to report. If we get completely shut down again I will most likely learn of it in some way. I don’t need to keep looking for it.

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    1. My problem is that I still am reminded me of the news on social media, even on Instagram so that’s why I haven’t been there either. And sadly, it’s true that there is nothing new to report and no, we don’t need to look for it. We’re going to learn somehow, some way even without going out of our way to find it.

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    1. I love it because it pokes fun at a lot of the Hollywood tropes without being so “insider” that you feel like you are missing the joke.

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    1. I think if the stress of this year has done anything it has forced me to identify ways to direct anxiety into useful action, or useful activity. I know that I can’t maintain a level of intense dread until November.

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  4. What a good day to take a media sabbath every week. We attend church by Zoom and Facebook (yes, two different services) so we couldn’t do that. I also like to catch up on my blogging friends like you and Sunday posts seem to do the trick. Hope you are safe and healthy. Are you back to work? My Sunday Salon post where I try to focus on stuff I think is good news

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    1. I still listen to music and check comments on the WordPress app. 🙂 My wife and I are safe and healthy. And I’m back to work at the library, which is open but only by appointment and still continuing to curbside service. I’ll check out your post here later. I have seen that you have tried to focus on the positive with your posts. It’s not easy, I know, but thank you and Deb for trying.

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  5. I just watched Princess Bride with my daughter (her first time) and will watch Rocketman some time this coming week. Have a wonderful unplugged day!

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  6. I like this idea! Now that we sold our house and can stop being constantly on call, this is something I want to start doing too. Somedays, it is all too much, and a break is necessary for mental health.

    Enjoy your Sunday!

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  8. I’ve pulled back from social media (other than my blog) and the news; I’ve decided to (try to) visit social media and the news one time a day, and to focus on any news that might be positive. One thing I’d like to do on Sundays that I haven’t done yet is to explore Christian services that are being streamed. I woke at 5 am a couple of Sundays to join in for a service in France, but that, honestly, is just too early for me. I’m sure there are a lot of wonderful services out there and many are probably available online. I’m open to any sort, though I like best those that have a meditative quality.

    I had no idea that Sue Grafton’s father was a mystery writer, too. Or perhaps his writing is a slightly different genre.

    I’ve spent July listening to a channel on Pandora that is relaxing called French Cooking Music Radio. I don’t know much about music (or anything, really, except maybe a little about books) but Guido’s Lounge Cafe is really nice.

    We are continuing on our Seinfeld kick, with an occasional old movie. My husband loves mysteries, and I plan to request some old mystery movies after July is over.

    Have a good week and take care.

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    1. Very fitting ending to his career, especially the final short story. Unfortunately, Doyle didn’t leave it there and continued with The Case-book of Sherlock Holmes, which I’m finding a struggle to get through.

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