Category: What I’m watching

Three-day weekend at the Beach House…again, sort of

Almost every Sunday since mid-May 2020 with a few exceptions, I have been taking my own personal Sabbath, where I tune out of the news and social media and turn off my ringer and all notifications on my phone. Throughout the day and/or sometimes the next day, I share what I am reading, listening to, or watching during my Sabbath. Sometimes I extend my Sabbath by a day or two, like this weekend since I am off Monday as well, so right now I’m doing the…

At the beginning of the month, I talked about how we were going to our beach house…well, sort of, anyway. Why was the band Beach House was expected to release its latest album Once Twice Melody that Friday. However, I had the release date wrong. It’s today…

…and it fits with another three-day weekend, at least for me. Besides listening to the new album, here’s what else I have planned:

Friday night (with Kim):

  • Burger night.
  • Watch The Afterparty.
  • Watch I Love You, Man, which was produced by Ivan Reitman who died Saturday. We watched Ghostbusters, which he directed, earlier this week.

Saturday:

  • Read Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own by Eddie S. Glaude Jr.
  • Watch I Am Not Your Negro with Kim, who has been wanting me to watch this for awhile.

Sunday:

  • Read Atlas of the Heart: Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience by BrenĂ© Brown.
  • Watch Animal House and Old School, both produced by Reitman, with Kim.

Monday:

  • Continue to read Fortune Favors the Dead by Stephen Spotswood, which I started Wednesday night and am enjoying thus far.
  • Bingewatch as much of The Good Place, that I borrowed from the library, as I can.

What are you up to this weekend? Whatchya got planned on the book, TV, and/or music front?

I’ll leave you with the aforementioned Beach House:

My Own Personal Sabbath #3 of 2022

Almost every Sunday since mid-May 2020 with a few exceptions, I have been taking my own personal Sabbath, where I tune out of the news and social media and turn off my ringer and all notifications on my phone. Throughout the day and/or sometimes the next day, I share what I am reading, listening to, or watching during my Sabbath.

I am extending this weekend’s Sabbath to start today, Friday, and go through Monday. Kim and I still are grieving the death of Seamus, our cat of the last 15 years. And the weather, with lows in the negatives and single digits (Fahrenheit) for this weekend where we live, is good for curling up under a blanket with a book and a hot beverage.

I plan on dipping into more of The Art of Living: The Classical Manual on Virtue, Happiness, and Effectiveness by Epictetus, a new interpretation by Sharon Lebell. I also am planning on starting The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman, which I picked up at the library after hearing how much a few patrons were enjoying the series. And for fun, I might dip into Is This Anything? by Jerry Seinfeld, a collection of his favorite material through the years.

Along with my reading selections, I have set up a playlist on Spotify of podcasts that I saved for this weekend:

I also borrowed The Good Place, The Complete Series, on Blu-Ray from the library, which I might watch some of. My wife already has seen it all and loved it, but it didn’t grab me when I first tried it. I’ll try again, though, and see.

So, that’s what I have planned for this weekend for My Own Personal Sabbath. What do you have planned for this weekend? Reading, watching TV, listening to music, spending time with family? Let me know in the comments.

Celebrating Go to an Art Museum Day

Alternate title: On grief, and listening to Radiohead and R.E.M.

In the summer I realized I had some time left I still needed to take off work so I’ve had a few random days off. At the time I decided to look at a calendar of national holidays to select my day off. My last one was October 28, National Chocolate Day, even though ironically I didn’t have any chocolate that day.

This Tuesday, Nov. 9, according to the website National Today, is Go to an Art Museum Day, and it is one of the days I chose to have off. Initially, I thought about going to the Corning Museum of Glass, which is about an hour away from where I live. But this past week some unforeseen vehicle repair expenses came up, so now I won’t be going. Instead, I’m going on a virtual tour of some museums around the world that I bookmarked yesterday.

That will be in the afternoon. In the morning, I want to catch up on some meditation podcasts with Niall Breslin on Spotify and journaling.

Last Tuesday, my wife Kim took a creative writing workshop so she could do something special on the birthday of both her mother and her best friend from high school, who passed away within four days of each other in April. This Tuesday, I’m doing something similar as with the meditation podcasts and journaling, I’m remembering not only their passing – and the passing of hundreds of thousands in our country and millions around the world in the last year and half from COVID-19 – but also the passing of a few patrons who have died as well in the last couple of months.

Even though I didn’t know those patrons well, I was used to seeing – and hearing – them at the library, a couple for many of the last 11 years I’ve worked at the library. And their deaths have hit me harder than I thought they would. So I want to acknowledge that grief – and the continuing grief that both Kim (moreso, understandably, her) and I are having for Kim’s mom and best friend – on Tuesday.

If I had gone to Corning, I wanted to listen to music on the way. Since I’m not going, while I am on my virtual museum tour, I’m going to listen to a couple of albums that were released last week by Radiohead and R.E.M., remastered editions of earlier albums. The albums are New Adventures in Hi-fi by R. E.M. and Kid A and Amnesiac by Radiohead.

I plan on ending the day by watching a movie with Kim that I’ve wanted to see for a while, but just haven’t gotten to. It also fits with the art theme. It’s called Loving Vincent and is about Vincent Van Gogh. Kim already has seen it, but she said she loved it so I don’t think she’ll mind watching again.

Mid-October Check-in

I write a little bit about this and a little bit about that. Usually it’s related to books, TV/movies, and music – and sometimes about what’s going on in my life otherwise. Today, I thought I’d talk a little more about about the latter with a mid-month check-in while also checking in on y’all.

This past week has been mostly about my health, physical and mental.

Physical

Two Fridays ago, I had a doctor’s appointment for a sore left forearm (no fall or injury, just sore). After determining that it probably is a mild case of tendinitis, she gave me a prescription for a brace, which after making sure I had the right one, I got on Thursday afternoon. I am supposed to use it for a couple of weeks to see if it helps, along with extra Aleve. So I’ll keep you posted.

While at the doctor’s, I also received a flu shot and asked her about getting a covid vaccine booster, and she recommended based on where I work (at a public library) that it might not be a bad idea. So, yesterday afternoon, I received my third dose of the Pfizer vaccine.

My wife Kim got hers this afternoon.

Mental

On Monday, I had my monthly virtual therapist appointment. I started therapy “pre-pandemic”, but it has been a lifesaver throughout the pandemic. In comparison to others, including some of you, I don’t have it that bad or really bad at all. Yes, it’s mostly in my head, especially wrong assumptions and not dealing with muddled thoughts. But as I’m learning, none of us really know what’s going on with other people you meet throughout the day, from coworkers to clients or customers to even family members, whether near or far. Practice compassion toward others as you do for yourself too.

Last Sunday was World Mental Health Day. I did a meditation with Eve from Headspace and tomorrow afternoon (for me), I plan to join her again, if not to clear those muddled thoughts I have, to at least keep them at bay or look at them without judgment. Again, I’m learning it’s okay sometimes/often to see a thought and not latch onto it and let it control you. “Ah, there it is…now moving on.”

She’ll be at Headspace on Instagram Live, if you’d like to join us for your own check-in.

Check-out

Tomorrow, as has been my custom during many Sundays the pandemic, I plan on having my own personal Sabbath. The plan, as always, is to “tune out of the news and social media and turn off my ringer and all notifications on my phone.” Tomorrow, I plan on continuing to read the next book in the Rabbi Small series by Harry Kemelman and probably watching some more Castle, with all seasons now available on Hulu.

So now checking in with you…how are you doing physically and mentally here mid-October? Reading, listening to, or watching anything good lately? Please feel free to share in the comments.