Insert ye standard “oh my God, is it really 2022 already, oh my God is March really over already.”
Here are some Things I Liked this month.
Snacking Cheese
I’m going to be trotting out the “I don’t have guilty pleasures” line several times in this post. For those who are new to the blog, I have kind of a refrain where I say that I don’t like the term “guilty pleasure” because it’s usually used to refer to things that you like but feel you shouldn’t like because they’re, like, not highbrow enough or something when there’s nothing wrong with enjoying something that’s just simple and well done. And then I go on to say that I do sometimes use the term “guilty pleasure” to describe things I like which I worry might actually be harmful in some way (like pro wrestling, see below).
These particular cheese snacks aren’t a guilty pleasure in an ethical way. At least not any more so than any other slightly overpackaged product of modern consumerism. But I am very aware that they will fucking kill me. They’ve got that “baked not fried” thing on the packaging which makes them sound all healthy and shit but it’s fucking cheese. It’s fucking solid cheese. And when you eat it, that part of your brain that evolved to live entirely on rare caches of salt and fat you’d track down between long periods of near-starvation as you roamed the tundra with your band of hunter-gatherers kicks in and says “yes, this is definitely an important and vital nutritional source, you should immediately eat all of it.”
But it’s fucking cheese. It’s far more cheese than any human being would reasonably consider eating if it was packaged in any other way but it is—and I cannot stress this enough—incredibly fucking delicious.
Snacking cheese. It is good. But don’t start eating it or you will die.
Peacemaker
So apparently the MCU is Bad Now and the DCCU is Good Now and all that is old is new again?
I’ve never quite understood why Marvel was the brand that became synonymous with superheroes even though the two characters who are most synonymous with superheroes (including the guy so synonymous with superheroes he has the word Super in his actual name) are DC properties. Although thinking about it, that might be exactly why. Superman and Batman are huge brands but outside of that DC has … what exactly? Batman’s extended rogues gallery of—as one parody musical once put it—guys with things on their heads whose whole deal is making puns about the things on their heads?
And I think that what held the DCCU back originally was that it focused too much on Superman, Batman and Superman vs Batman and failed to realise that, especially in our cynical modern world, a back catalogue consisting entirely of incredibly shit superheroes with incredibly shit gimmicks that it is impossible to take seriously, actually works really well in the right kind of movie.
Those right kinds of movies being Birds of Prey¸ The Suicide Squad (2021) (not the other Suicide Squad that they just seem to have genuinely decided didn’t exist) and its spinoff Peacemaker.
Quick version: Peacemaker is John Cena shooting people, being sad, and doing a silly dance. If that sounds good to you, you will like it. If it doesn’t, you won’t. In fact, let me link you to the title sequence. If that works for you, watch the show. If it doesn’t, then you have no soul.
In retrospect, I don’t know why I liked Peacemaker, because I am so fucking over edgy superheroes and I have been over edgy superheroes since, probably, the 1990s. Although I suppose, thinking about it, what I like about Peacemaker is that it’s kind of over edgy superheroes too.
The Peacemaker was originally just a straight up heroic characters in, like, the sixties but very quickly evolved into a villain whose deal was “I will have peace at any cost”. And in the The Suicide Squad (2021) movie, that’s the version of the character we get. He’s, not to put too fine a point on it, a lolmurderer. The TV spinoff gives the character somewhat more depth in a way that, honestly, only half-engages with the “it’s funny to watch John Cena shooting people in the face” vibe of the film, but which I found weirdly compelling almost against my own instincts.
I should stress here that I chose the word “instincts” carefully in that I could have said “against my better judgement” and that would have been genuinely unfair. Even if this was a straight-down-the-line bro action thing for bros about how sad it is for John Cena that he has to be awesome all the time, that would be a perfectly reasonable thing to like if you like that sort of thing.
Just I personally don’t like that sort of thing, and I think what’s interesting about Peacemaker is it that seems to be that sort of thing but actually isn’t.
Sometimes obnoxious people on the internet will get really angry about the term “manpain” because they either feel, or think they can score internet points by claiming they feel, that it delegitimises men’s’ emotional reactions. And I think what Peacemaker provides is a really interesting counterpoint to that. On paper, this is a manpaintastic show: Chris “Peacemaker” Smith has an abusive father, is kind of sexist and racist, carries a great burden of guilt because of the death of someone close to him, and spends a lot of time being a broody loner. But the thing is, none of that comes across as manpain. It just comes across as regular pain.
And I’m not sure how to clearly articulate what the difference is, and the difference is subjective. But if I had to try to put it into words (because it’s literally my fucking job) I’d say that the basic difference is that manpain is presented as cool and regular pain isn’t.
There is kind of no getting away from the fact that Peacemaker is a worse version of the Punisher in a very 1960s costume. And what the makes the series work is that the showrunners kind of … just lean into that. And, don’t get me wrong, he’s still John fucking Cena so he’s still awesome and he moves like a ballet dancer who could kick your arse and the action sequences are fantastic. But they’re also genuinely willing to let him be properly pathetic. Like manpain ultimately comes from a place of power. It’s “there is a darkness that drives me”. Regular pain just hurts. And leaves you lying on an unmade bed in your crappy trailer howling your eyes out because you feel lonely and worthless.
And that’s a … that’s a genuinely quite subversive for a TV show about a superhuman murderbro to be about.
Honestly, I could say a lot more about Peacemaker because it’s kind of great. It’s genuinely hilarious in a dark, lots of people get shot in the face way. It’s got the prince from Bridgerton in it as a chirpy sociopathic serial killer who can’t read a room. It does have a slightly difficult thing where, from a certain perspective, its alien invasion plot is “refugees came to our country, then tried to take it over” and, while it tries to make it a bit more nuanced, it does wind up a little bit … um … dissonant? But overall, I Liked this a lot. Also, and I can’t stress this highly enough, you get to see John Cena and the cast doing that silly dance at the start of every single episode.
AEW
So on the subject of guilty pleasures (remember the cheese thing, above?) I enjoy pro wrestling. And I’ve written before about why I sometimes feel a bit bad about enjoying pro wrestling (tl;dr it’s dangerous and performers are in no way adequately compensated for the risks they take unless they get extremely lucky). But it turns out that you can at the very least watch pro wrestling in way that doesn’t support the genuinely awful, monopolistic, and anti-worker practices of the WWE by, well, watching other promotions.
In retrospect, I’m kind of embarrassed about how long it took me to work that out. One of the many gross things about the way the WWE works is that it flat out refuses to acknowledge that other promotions exist (unless those promotions have already been destroyed and incorporated into its monopoly) and one of the reason’s that’s gross, is that it fucking works. For the past, shit it must be forty years at least, Vince McMahon has been on a personal crusade to make his personal brand absolutely synonymous with pro wrestling, and it has totally worked. For years after I decided I couldn’t quite be arsed with the WWE any more I’d find myself really wanting to watch some wrestling but also having this strange unsettled feeling like any non-WWE promotion wasn’t “real”.
Branding. It works. And one of the reasons is works is because we all think it doesn’t work on us.
But AEW finally managed to get me over this silly mental block. Admittedly, it did this in large part because it includes a lot of people I recognise from the WWE but hey, it got me back into wrestling. And while the industry still has its issues, AEW does at least allow its performers to keep control of their own gimmicks and work for other promotions.
It’s the penultimate of those points that I think I’m enjoying the most about it. WWE has a very strong house style and that house style is…actually I’ve honestly lost track. Sort of a mix of being stuck in the 80s, having no sense of self-irony about it, and being really, really, really into really, really, really big men.
AEW, though, isn’t afraid to let people just get incredibly silly if they want to. Or not. So you’ve got this fantastic thing where half the roster is just athletic people who are good at wrestling and their gimmicks are “I am good at wrestling” and the other half are completely gonzo. Like “I am a literal dinosaur” gonzo. Like “Count Chocula meets Beetlejuice meets Mr Bean” gonzo. It’s fucking excellent.
Basically it’s people who love what they’re doing, doing what they love doing, for people who love watching them do what they love doing.
The Shrieking Shack Podcast
Okay this is a tricky one. I am very aware that there are people who grew up with Harry Potter who feel genuinely hurt by J. K. Rowling’s sharp turn into TERFery and who would rather just, like, not think about her ever again and I completely get why some people feel that way, so if you want to skip this one do go right ahead. Scroll down and tell me what you liked this month in the comments.
The thing is, I found this (now four-year-old) podcast because I saw it quoted on some gaming-related articles about the new Hogwarts video game to which I’ve paid no attention. And what specifically stood out to me about that coverage was that it was actually confronting the question of “what do we do about the fact that this beloved franchise was created by somebody who is currently using their platform to cause genuine harm” in a direct and interesting way.
The Shrieking Shack is specifically a pocast by two people who consider themselves “lapsed” Harry Potter fans and so it engages more critically with both the material and its creator than you normally get from HP focused media. And in a lot of ways I’ve found listening to it quite cathartic. Because one of the things that I’ve found very difficult about the mainstream media discourse around J. K. Rowling is that so much of it has been of the form “it’s so strange, she wrote these wonderful books about tolerance and forgiveness, but now she’s turned out to be prejudiced, how can this be?” (or, worse “J. K. Rowling wrote these wonderful books about tolerance and forgiveness and now SJWs are trying to cancel her”) And ultimately a lot of what this podcast does is look back and say “did she though?” and I’ve found that weirdly useful.
It is a reread podcast and they do go into the books with an open mind, so if you’re not in the mood to hear anything positive said about HP at all, this probably isn’t for you, but I’ve found them really good at engaging with the wider discourse around the series.
I’m still fairly early in their archives (because there are hundreds of episodes of this and they’re all 1-2 hours long) but the bit I’ve found most strangely moving so far is listening to them talking about—and I appreciate that this gets very meta and quite intense—the mainstream media response to the fact that some of the March for Our Lives protesters had Harry Potter signs. Basically, if you can remember as far back as 2018, you probably remember that there was a fairly major protest movement amongst highschool students who wanted Congress to maybe do something about gun laws? And like most popular movements it prompted a host of bad takes some of which, like this one seemed to weirdly give credit for the actions of a group of teenagers to … umm … J. K. Rowling?
One of the nice things about slightly amateur podcasting (as far as I can tell neither of the hosts are professional journalists) is that you sometimes get a far more sincere emotional reaction than you do from more slickly produced shows. You also get the kind of emotional reactions that you encounter a lot in real life but not so much in, well, non-real-life-media and their discussion of the way in which some news outlets decided that the most important thing to talk about in the wake, let’s not forget, of an actual school shooting, was … how great Harry Potter was, is shot through with a kind of nauseated anger that I found at once jarring and relatable.
Something I often say in interviews is that I’m a huge believer in the death of the author and so I’m also, in a lot of ways, a big believer in separating art from artist. But I think the “How Harry Potter Inspired the Parkland Generation” meme, even if—I suspect—it only really cropped up in a couple of thoughtlessly worded articles written by people who had a professional obligation to come up with a new take on an event that literally everybody was talking about, highlights why this can be so hard in practice. The books we read—the stories we love—are, ultimately, part of how we relate to each other and this gives the people who create those stories a disproportionate, ultimately unearned authority. And that authority can be used to hurt people.
Which, thinking about it, is kind of a bummer of an ending for a things I like post.
I’ve also enjoyed playing a tower defence game about monkeys popping balloons?
Tell me what you’ve been liking in the comments.
I recently had a high cholesterol report, but it has not dampened the urge to slowly kill myself with cheese. Fromager d’Affinois shall line my casket with all its buttery decadence, highly recommend.
And I also wrestle with being a good person, but not wanting to give up things I loved. The whole Morrissey controversy of recent years comes to mind and has been a tough one. That obsession from my youth has been hard to let go, so I too try to separate the art from the artist, at least when it’s self-serving and more convenient for me. Indeed.
If I didn’t have high cholesterol before I started devouring baked cheese snacks, I do now.
And, oh God, Morrissey’s … alleged … behaviours are really disappointing. The complexities of art-from-artist are intense and subjective, and I suspect time is part of the reason why it’s easier to say, oh well, Wagner was basically a Nazi, but not feel so inclined to shrug when people who created work that once meant something to you are causing what is arguably material harm in the real world right now.
Oh god forgive me if this comment posts twice I’m on an underground train and the internet is patchy. Thanks again for a lovely read, really helps with ghastly crowded train commute.
For me, March was all about PIRATES.
Our Flag Means Death (best thing on telly this year. Even better than Ted Lasso). Hope it gets to the UK *soon*.
Black Sails – hadn’t watched it, needed more queer pirates
Revisiting John Thwaites’s Strictly piratical dance routine because too many queer pirates is never enough.
I re-visit vers pirates doing the Paso Double OFTEN.
I really need to do a Black Flag re-watch–it’s been years since I’ve seen it, though incidentally I’ve always found Starz shows (for all their fondness for boobs and neck-stabbing) to be surprisingly sensitive when it comes to queer representation.
Also I can’t wait for Our Flag Means Death to make it over here – I think it’s supposed to be on Sky later this month?
I second Melissa and say Our Flag Means Death was a definite highlight of March for me! I mean, how could a show about pirates starring Taika Waititi and Rhys Darby not be amazing??? The entire cast is great, though of the side pirates Ewan Bremner was probably my favourite. I don’t know if I would say it’s better than Ted Lasso, but definitely on par with.
Ack, I’m so excited to see this – it’s not available in the UK yet, unfortunately.
Also I thought Ted Lasso’s second season lost it’s way tiny bit (it wasn’t quite as focused as the first, for me, and … bizarrely lacked football content?!) but I’m still sincerely interested in where they take S3.
A thing I loved the heck out of last month was Blind Justice by Bruce Alexander. It’s the first of a series of mystery novels where the detective is Sir John Fielding, who is a magistrate, is blind, and co-founded the Bow Street Runners with his brother, Henry Fielding (yes, THAT Henry Fielding) and is an actual person from history! It was published in the 1990s, so I’m late to the party, but as it’s set in the late 18th century, that doesn’t matter so much. It has a sprinkling of other historical figures — Garrick, Boswell, and Johnson among them — and I really like the narrator, a a country mouse teenager who lands in London because Reasons and becomes Sir John’s assistant. There are about a dozen books in the series and I’m really looking forward to seeing the kid grow and change from one book to the next.
Oh! There was a British crime historical drama called City of Vice that was on *ages* ago and didn’t get past the first reason — which was a shame because I really enjoyed it. It was, however, based on this exact premise? So I wonder if it’s an adaption of this series?
March was about Bridgerton for me which I binged over 2 days. It’s even more visually fabulous than S1 and the angsty slow burn was delicious, despite them trying to kill me with pining. The Viscount Who Loved Me is my 2nd favorite Bridgerton book (Colin’s book being my fave) and I think they (mostly) did a good job adapting. It was really close in some parts, and far away in others. Seeing the Pall Mall game brought to life was a highlight. Although episode 6 (the wedding) was brutal and I could have done without all of that. Regardless, #Kanthony forever and god the locations, production design and costumes were off the charts this season. 🙂
Have you watched it?
I’m only halfway through S2 so reserving judgement for now. I do really enjoy the Sharma sisters, though – they’ve got wonderful family chemistry, and I really care about both of them. Maybe more than I care about the Bridgertons?!
Oops sorry! Spoiler Alert: there’s a wedding 😉
I also love the Sharmas. I love Kate & Anthony so much together too. And Edwina (and Daphne) are my MVPs for the season, as you will see. I hope you enjoy watching the rest of it!
Omg, first a chef not really being French, now a wedding spoiler. What are you doing!? 😉
I live in Vermont, and here March means maple syrup time. Everybody, with one sugar maple tree or ten thousand (we have five)taps and hauls sap and boils boils boils and has fresh syrup on pancakes and if you haven’t had it fresh you haven’t had it. It’s the most hopeful time of the year, and boy did I need it this year. How cool is it that the trees do this generous thing for us?
Also, taking long walks and listening to the Arden St Ives trilogy AGAIN and trying to decide whether I love Ardy so much because of Joel Leslie or I love Joel Leslie so much because of Ardy.
My family goes through a lot of maple syrup, but all out of jugs. Are you taking visitors next March? 😉
Sure! Although we do about a gallon in a good year. (This was not a good year.) Our close neighbor’s syrup was rated #2 in the world by Gourmet Magazine, may it rest in peace. Sugaring time, aka Mud Season, is a great time to visit.
Yay for maple syrup!
I’m listening to these again right now too, and I sincerely believe Joel and Arden are one person. 😉
Those cheese snacks would absolutely end me. I have enough trouble with cheesy puffs and cheetos — add in extra crunch and hey-actually-this-really-is-real-cheese goodness? I’d be a goner.
We recently started watching Our Flag Means Death, and… ::lays down:: it is so very good. One of the things I am struck by is how well the show balances genuine goofiness with moments of real vulnerability and intimacy. And it is unambiguously, unabashedly queer — maybe the queerest show I’ve ever seen, though I’m sure ymmv there. If you can find a way to watch it, I’d be very interested to know what you think!
I normally find cheesy snacks so-so … because cheese is my preferred delivery method for the flavour of cheese. But these are just pure cheese delivered cheesily.
Our Flag Means Death is meant to be available here by the end of the month – I’m watching out for it because I’ve heard super interesting things.
Oh my god yess! They can package anything as cheese now and i wouldn’t even blink twice before consuming All. Of. It. It might not even HAVE cheese in it, if they just write “cheese” on the packaging i am sold. I will buy all of it, i will eat all of it. 😭
Also one of the things I just got into are…vtubers? They’re these youtuber/streamer type people who use an animated avatar kinda thing instead of showing their actual face. And that sounds so fcking genius and also cute! My youtube recommendations are now completely filled with anime type looking people talking about a frankly bizarre range of things. I am loving this this is chaotic.
It was wonderful to read the blog post and YES, where did THREE MONTHS go. Eeeep they may have gone by considerable happily since we can’t even feel the time slipping away, but looking at the state of the world that seems rather presumptuous. Still, happy April to you <333
Oh I’ve heard vtubers were sort of a thing, but never really investigated. That sounds super charming.
I also hear you on the cheese front. These, seriously, are the worst/best cheese. Because they are, in a very real sense, literally just cheese.
Happy April to you too!
Happy April! I always enjoy these posts. “Snacking cheese” doesn’t appear to be available where I live, although that might be for the best. (We do however have “snacking chocolate.”)
In March I became slightly obsessed with “dark academia” playlists on YouTube. I like having background ambience sound and classical music on when I work, and I’ve been working remotely for so long that there’s something deeply comforting about imaginatively projecting myself into poorly lit libraries.
I also binge-watched Wellington Paranormal, which was delightful. Cheers for blogging about it! And I’m only four episodes into Our Flag Means Death, but co-sign what Melissa wrote above. It’s gorgeous and laugh-out-loud funny and weird and moving. Taika Waititi and Rhys Darby are perfection.
Oh my God, I share your weakness for dark academia playlists: melancholy classic and library sounds are an ideal writing soundtrack for me. They’re usually called things like “you’ve visited a haunted library with ghosts” – where I appreciate the clarity of knowing exactly what the library is haunted by.
So happy you enjoyed Wellington Paranormal – I haven’t finished S2 or 3, because the subscription service I was using expired, but I’m hoping to go back to it.
Also, the internal snacking cheese is a TRAVESTY.
March saw me another month closer to 30 so I’ve been into anything that holds off my string of existential crisis. I downloaded the entire Abhorsen series on audio from my library and made my way through them all in a week. I’d read them with my eyes but figured it’d be a fun distraction at my rubbish job (in which my colleagues got genuinely excited for ages yesterday about a wood louse in the office, and have long discussions about the new lines in ALDI, just for context). Nix’s work has aged well, which cannot be said for most male fantasy writers of his era, but his audio books are still from the ‘I know it’s about a teen girl but maybe we get a middle aged man to narrate them all?’ days which is less fun, hopefully the publisher will remake them one day. I also stumbled upon, and you may not have heard of it, an audio book called Boyfriend Material which was way better and had me cackling like a weirdo on the bus. Again I’d read it with my eyes but I loved the Uncle Bryn vibes brought to Rhys in audio. The new series of Travel Man with Jo Lycett has been good for a laugh too. I’m not going to go into my review of the final series of Peaky Blinders (faaaaar too many meetings, nowhere near enough gangster antics). And I’ve eaten wayyyyy too many comfort snacks from a new bakery by me, basically need a brioche mortgage now…
(This comment ended up too long, especially as I’m aware questions in blog posts are largely meant to be rhetorical, but I enjoyed this 🤣.)
No, it was a genuine question – I love hearing what people are into!
Although it sounds like, maybe, you work for CRAPP? I can see that lot getting VERY excited about a woodlouse, and I’m pretty sure Rhys shops at Aldi. Alex, of course, hasn’t heard of it – and would assume you were making it up if you tried to explain. “Oh, so it’s like a gentleman’s club, but it’s a shop?”
Also thank you for the kind words about the BM audio – well I suppose, technically thank you on behalf of the narrator who did a phenomenal job.
I can remembering reading Sabriel at around the time boy wizard books and His Dark Materials were getting big – I think I enjoyed it, and I have a gorgeous hardback edition of it, with as sort of transparent dust jacket. But I didn’t continue with the series for whatever reason.
I will never forget where I was when I read Sabriel at maybe 11 years old. The kiss scene was the first time I had a rush of tingles in response to a piece of media. I remember rereading the scene over and over astonished and intrigued that this is a thing we can feel.
It’s such a unique fantasy, I love it (as does my dad hilariously!).
I also jumped on the gay pirate bandwagon in March, and enjoyed the shit out of it. OFMD is an absolute delight: funny, clever, generous, with an emotional richness and resonance that sneaks up on you until it kicks you in the old heart muscle. By far the thing that has brought me the most unmitigated joy in March, if not the whole of 2022 so far. Just wonderful, wonderful, wonderful stuff.
Otherwise March has been unusually life-intensive and stressful, so I’ve mostly had my head stuck in a book as coping mechanism. According to GR I did 18 new reads and reviewed 3 re-reads. Lots of standouts this month: Saint, The Atlas Six, Restored, Only A Monster, American Fairytale (in Adriana Herrera’s Dreamer series), two sport romances (yes I’m trash, judge away), and, of course, Flowers from the Storm (SOB!!!).
Thanks for the Shrieking Shack recommendation. At the risk of being one of those boring a**holes who talk about their youngs all the time, it has been interesting seeing how the 12 yo’s relationship to HP has changed from when I first read the series to her at 8 (a project that took a whole year of bedtimes. Those books are LONG). Now we are tag-teaming a read-aloud for the 8 yo, and M comes with a lot of commentary as she reads, including lots of asides about what doesn’t stand up anymore (mainly to do with racial and gender dynamics, the naming, various racialized and ethnic stereotypes, Dumbledore as hidden gay, fatphobia). I don’t think this is a my-kid thing, more that the youngs these days generally have a more critical and reflexive take on texts, probably facilitated by social media and fandoms. I absolutely understand that many people feel betrayed by JKR and don’t want to have anything to do with the books, but I tend to question those who assume that fans, even young fans, read them uncritically or are unable to separate JKR from HP. So will definitely give this a listen.
Also on the podcast front: listened to The Trojan Horse, which was … really something. Kind of anti-climactic but absorbing and coocoo bananas.
As It Was on perma-jam, love the melancholic dance bop vibes, super exited for the release in May.
Johannes T. Evans’s tweetfics giving me life, the best thing on that hellsite (NSFW).
I had one other thing but I’ve rambled on too much already and I have a meeting now, consider this your lucky escape.
I’m increasingly envious of all the OFMD recs/happiness. I mean, I don’t envy everyone having had a lovely experience. BUT I WANT TO WATCH IT TOO.
And, wow, you have been on a reading tear – I think I’ve read about 18 books since the beginning of the year. Which, I know, it’s not a race or a competition.
I think … I think with the boy wizard books because they *are* more problematic, especially in the later books, than they are good it feels nowadays like an odd choice for an adult to prioritise in sharing with their child when there are so many books out there that about similar themes (action!adventure!magic!) and don’t do all the fucked up stuff. I actually thought about this a lot because in an early draft of Rosaline Palmer,(before JKR decided to … be who she was very publicly) Ros was reading HP with Amelie. In the end, I decided that Ros would probably choose a difference author all things being equal–which I think is less about younguns being unable to read uncritically.
Just JKR as cultural phenomenon seems something that belongs to my generation–something we are likely going to have reckon with somehow. But I kind of like the idea that they’re probably boring books that old people care about to younger generations.
What fantasy series’ do you recommend as alternatives to HP? I was a big HP fan, reading them as the books came out (did the midnight line-up-at-the-store thing and all that), though as I’ve reread them more recently, I’m discomfited by many of the themes already discussed, the worst of it being JKR taking her massive platform and using it to TERF all over everyone.
Also, yes to all the recommendations that you watch Our Flag Means Death. There’s killer fan art out there too. Based on your replies thus far, you are ON IT the second it comes out in the UK. Just wanted to, you know, shore up the argument in favor of.
If you haven’t seen it yet, Sort Of was all the things—brimming with love and compassion and warmth and pain and beauty and family (found and birth). Worth finding it. It’s on HBO in the States.
+1 to jelly beans. Have you ever tried the Nerds ones? Extra crunchy exterior, plus whatever that elusive artificial pink flavor is? Hell yes.
I haven’t really watched anything good in March but I read Only a Monster and The Chosen and the Beautiful and they have both been awesome so I am totally counting them as things I enjoyed in March. I also went on a short business trip to The Hague (my first time being there) and visited Mauritshuis Museum where I saw some original Vermeer and Rubens paintings and a fascinating exhibition of flower paintings and sketches from 17th century. I felt so very cultured and had a fantastic time.
Oh wow, that sounds wonderful. I’ve been out so little for, well, about the same length of time everybody has also failed to go out.
I’m also really jealous you managed to a copy of TCATB – the UK publication date keeps changing. I mean, how complicated can it be? JUST GIVE US THE DARN BOOK, TOR.
Such an enjoyable read, as always. I’ve enjoyed many a thing: a cracking online buddy read (is there anything better??), singing some super close harmonies that feel like a hug with my people, the way Jonathan Bailey nailed the brooding longing romance looks in Bridgerton mk2, and finding another narrator/book combo that pressed ALL my aural and internal buttons. Much to be grateful for. Oh! And the brief spell of spring/summer we had until the snow returned and covered the cherry blossoms.
Jonathan Bailey certainly has a very … very compelling look. We describe it slightly differently in this household.
And a successful buddyread is always delightful 🙂
Oh indeed there are many words to describe it 😀 I went for the polite ones, just in case.
That video of John Cena dancing had me snorting with giggles. Definitely gonna check it out.
In March, I discovered a few old things that feel like I probably should have already known about. I learned who Jules Leotard was and saw him in the original body suit. I gave a Yes album, “Fragile” a thorough listen. It’s an excellent soundtrack for repetitive work. And I listened to the audiobook of Jane Austin’s Persuasion which is very soothing while riding a crowded bus.
My tv recommendation would be Abbot Elementary. It’s sweet, funny and hopeful.
You’re making me feel like I should already know about these things too 😉
Although I also semi-recently listened to the audiobook of Persuasion, partly out of interest, and partly to support to the Austathon by reminding myself of the original.
And thank you for the rec – I shall check it out!
My entire family has decided Vigilante completely made Peacemaker the hit that it was. We consistently scream “BIGOTRY!” At each other when calling each other out for…anything really. He’s very quotable.
Honestly snacking cheese is a vibe. We’re here for a good time not a long time.
I honestly enjoyed the whole team–John Cena is excellent as a kind of profoundly damaged and unglamorous straight man. But Vigilante was a complete stand-out for me too. The hashtag me too line surprised a genuine cackle out of me, it was so … appropriately inappropriate for him.
My March discovery has been the HBO show “Somebody, Somewhere.” There’s a song the protagonist sings in the finale that literally made me cry, and I am not an easy weeper.
I’m also partway through the book “How High We Go in the Dark” by Sequoia Nagamatsu, which I found through your Goodreads review. It’s very hard to read a book that takes place in a pandemic DURING a pandemic, but it is so worth the effort.
Musically, Lizz Wright’s “Dreaming Wide Awake” is the best album I’ve heard in years.
I too loved Somebody Somewhere. Thanks for mentioning it. It really challenged my need to be cool.
Oh, I think I can get Somebody Somewhere on Sky/Now TV. Maybe? It’s such a pain trying to track down US TV over 9278373943 streaming services. Thank you for the rec though – it sounds amazing.
Good luck with How High We Go In the Dark – I found it almost unbearable at times, but I never felt the pain overshadowed the hope. Even in the most harrowing chapter. Also, in the wake of a lot of Twitter discussion about blunt gendercide fiction, I found that the it had a lot of thoughtful things to say about the way the world could change in the wake of a fictionalised pandemic.
Ahh my fave!! I love reading what everyone’s enjoyed. <3
Oof. I still think about J.K. Rowling and Harry Potter often because when she revealed that she's a true garbage human being it genuinely affected so many who identified with and held comfort in the universe and characters she created. I can see what you're saying about the podcast being cathartic & useful. I don't know if I feel ready to check it out, but I'm glad to know it exists out there, and that people are finding comfort in it. I guess, on rather a selfish note, I'm bummed I don't feel comfortable describing myself as a Hufflepuff anymore, because people immediately got that so easily? Now it's like "hello i am an INFJ" or "hi, yes, i'm an enneagram type 2w1" and depending on age, people are like, whaaaatsit? Then you have to just go "dude, i'm an aquarius" and finally they're all "OH, GOTCHA, SO YOU'RE A WEIRDO." And, yeah. I guess so. Pretty much.
I think what I enjoyed most in March was the change in seasons!! I mean this exactly as cheddar as it sounds: the poetry in nature came alive in ways that made my heart so happy and glad! I spent time in the grass with the sky, trekked with a friend to Birdsong Tower (not its real name, but it doesn't have an actual name, so we coined it as such one day because there are never any other people around, only the soft flutter of wings as birds examine human intentions and sing songs to one another across the marshland), and enjoyed the flowers in my gardens coming into bloom. PURE SWEETNESS.
Speaking of guilty pleasures, though, the show that I binged over three days of absolute delight was… Fuckboy Island. Yeah. That's right! I'm sorry. I'm sorry for my poor taste, world! But there it is. I'm also fairly stoked to start watching The Ultimatum: Marry or Move On, which sounds simply dreadful and all kinds of problematic, and yet….here I sit in eager anticipation. Who knows why I love these crap shows so sincerely. Past head injury probably, can't say for sure, but I love me the binge!! It looks like there won't be any queer couples on this new show, either, which adds another level to the reasons a person might feel guilty for watching. Buuuut if there is anyone else at this party who enjoys the soapy absurdity of reality dating shows, there's a show on Netflix called Dating Around which offers a few episodes featuring queer couples on dates that actually feel true to dates I've been on. I'd rec that show with no guilt!
Anyway, my forever love will always be music & here are my top five streamed albums from March:
nilüfer yanya – painless
taylor swift – folklore
hurray for the riff raff – life on earth
& valentine by snail mail got tons of play, but was overtaken for top album last month by beach house's once twice melody, mostly because i nearly exclusively used that album as background music while working at my computer.
Okay, and speaking of background music, there's this background album I listen to sometimes called In Quiet Moments & John Grant features on a track, have you heard it, AJH? I don't know if you still follow him, but the song's called Cordelia, and is super beautiful, and IMO the best track on the album. The video for it is like this gorgeous little stunner of a mini-movie. i watch it sometimes when I just need a moment to unwind and breathe. It's here – https://youtu.be/cEsOI14rYq8
Processing JKR is certainly complicated; I’m certainly not recommending the podcast for people who never want to have to think about either the person or her work ever again. Which is a totally legitimate position to hold.
Also I just had to Google to be convinced Fuckboy Island was a real thing. And, oh my God, I need to see that now – although I’m not sure I have access to in the UK. In terms of the ultimatum, I decided to give a miss. A friend watched a bit of it, and described it as genuinely toxic, and while I’m well-aware that a lot of reality TV is exploitative I get uncomfortable if its too far over the line.
My John Grant obsession has, indeed, continued. I’m pretty loyal. Once I fall in love with an artist I tend to stick by them. Unless, of course, they start using their platform to cause material harm to marginalised people. Not that I was ever particularly in love with JKR but y’know.
My March happiness was due to the arrival of gardening season, Our Flag Means Death, and daytrips to a local campsite on the ocean so I could sit around a fire and eat hotdogs (my “guilty pleasure”) roasted on a stick. And drink hot toddies while doing so.
That all sound absolutely lovely. I would definitely be a fan of the hotdogs and hot toddies if it didn’t sound like entailed going outside 😉
Once upon a time in the US, Ben and Jerry’s came out with a new ice cream flavor called … wait for it … Clusterfluff. Brilliant. They’ve since discontinued it (sob), but at the time, whenever I dug into a pint, I thought (and said aloud to anyone in the vicinity), “This is the food we’re evolved to crave. It is simultaneously sweet, salty, smooth, crunchy, and full of protein.” I still talk about it, even though it was discontinued years ago; I mean, obviously I still talk about it because I’m literally posting about it on the internet right now. It was magic (if you’re into American peanut butter, which I am), and I’m glad you’ve found the savory counterpart in crunchy, dehydrated cheese bits.
Oh wow, that sounds amazing. I’m really jealous we didn’t get it over here, although maybe I should also be relieved, since loving a discontinued thing is the absolute worst.
I recently discovered the show “Speechless” and am loving it. It’s basically a live action “Simpsons,” featuring a family both awful and loveable, and an incredible performance by a disabled actor as a disabled member of the family. It smashes just about every myth about disability to pieces (though not always every myth about the mothers of children with disabilities.) I started out loathing the “special needs mum” (gag) but have appreciated the growth curve she’s been on, as her son becomes an adult and she has to start letting go.
Oh wow that sounds fascinating – I am honestly way behind on most TV shows as usual. Although maybe my quest to watch every Austen extant adaptation might have a wee bit to do with it.
Hint: Americans failing to find snacking cheese in the snack aisle might have more luck looking in the salad toppings department. We like to pretend we enjoy just two or three adorable little disks on our saintly abstemious salad. We would never go through an entire bag in one sitting. Ever.
Ah! Thanks for the clarification, Melanie!
In Wisconsin we have the ultimate snacking cheese, fresh cheese curds. If they are truly fresh (do NOT trust the stuff they sell in airports/roadside mini-marts/etc) they will squeak between your teeth as you eat them.
This of course means you have to eat them up before they stop squeaking 😉
Now I’m hungry.
LOVE squeaky cheese curds on my poutine!
Classifying snacking cheese as a salad ingredient? Actual genius.
I jumped on the OFMD bandwagon too, which everyone has already covered.
An Arden St Ives group re-read (because I did NOT have emotional support the first time around and it is very much needed and appreciated.) So yay for finding my people who know the correct answer.
Also, hitting autumn I got my Nordic Socks. Happy feet!
I have realised that most of adult life is creating things for yourself to look forward to, so I keep ordering stuff, pins, T-shirts, books. And then sit in my office, working from home and watching the post box to see if today is the day. There are worse ways to create excitement for yourself.
Oh, I’m so glad you found some people to read Ardy with: the narrative voice is light, but that series does go to some dark(ish) places and not everyone likes the choices I made in book 3.
I definitely know what you mean about, err, ordering things and waiting for them. I mean, getting things through the post is always fun but my ordering tendencies went through the roof during the pandemic. I’m a bit embarrassed to report that I’m on first name terms with the woman who drives our local Amazon prime van.
At the beginning of that video I was worried I had no soul, but by the end I was cackling and may just have to try that show. I know that professional wresting was especially big when I was a kid, but it wasn’t a thing my family ever watched so it always kind of confused me. I do remember a segment on John Oliver’s show about how awful the WWE is, which kind of reinforced that I hadn’t missed out. This sounds kind of fascinating, though.
In March I was able to visit my brother and his family and meet my new baby niece. I’ve now held two whole babies without incident. It was a trip mainly centered around small children, but when they were asleep, we got into Our Flag Means Death (along with everyone else, apparently). I also got to introduce my family to Derry Girls, which doesn’t seem to ever get less funny, no matter how many times I see it.
I also got to use my newly minted beer judge credentials and judge in my first (amateur) competition. I’m fairly certain I came off as competent and didn’t have too much imposter insecurity.
Book-wise, I got really into Ellen Kushner’s fantasies, starting with Swordspoint. It’s only as old as I am, so just slightly behind the curve. I got through the related short stories available online and it looks like there’s some sort of episodic companion with various authors contributing, like a podcast before podcasts were a thing?
I always feel weird about March because winter is ending and things are blooming and growing and it triggers a sort of instinctive optimism, but at the same time there’s a hint of dread because I know we’re just getting close to gross hot weather where I am and I’m going to miss my sweaters. I’ve almost resolved to revive my garden, though, and not abandon it like I did last year, so something to look forward to.
Phew. Good news on the soul. If you’re interested in some listenable takes on the appeal of professional wrestling, there’s a YouTuber called Super Eyepatch Wolf (who, incidentally) has a mellifluous Irish accent and has done a good series on it:
It starts with Professional Wrestling is Stupid and Beautiful and I love It: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQCPj-bGYro
But he also did a couple of extra episodes, one on longterm storytelling in wrestling (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHVCTOmQNZM) and one on portraying villains (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYKOw8Ao9t8).
But, yes, WWE is fucking awful.
Congratulations your new niece – so glad you got to connect with family, which is still not certain in these supposedly post-pandemic times.
I used to be very into Ellen Kushner: I love the ornate world-building, and they were one of the few examples of queer representation in the fantasy genre. I don’t know how well they’ve aged, though. I seem to recall Alex, in particular, in a kind of … self-destructive, privileged fragile gay stereotype sort of character. But I could be looking back uncharitably and, obviously, I’m grateful for any book that helped paved the way to a more diverse genre.
I get you on mixed feelings about March: I think I much prefer to autumn to spring, because that way the yucky heat is behind you, even though a potentially bleak dark winter lies ahead.
I got around to reading “Something Fabulous” in March and loved it! (How could I not?Gay Regency romp? All the good stuff!) Particularly fond of the “content warning” at the beginning: “Some linguistic choices are intentionally modern. Also, almost everyone in this book is queer.”
Props to our public library system for having a copy!
I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed Something Fabulous. I normally don’t like doing author’s note (unless it’s content guidance) but I know people have very strong ideas about the sort of language/characters you’re “supposed” to use in histrom, and I wanted to at least flag up what I was doing was *deliberate*. Not that I don’t know what an anachronism is.
More things I liked in March:
Planting seeds for our vegetable garden. Although I always go through a bit of an anxiety phase beforehand. I’m not sure why…I guess it seems like such a COMMITMENT to undertake keeping all those little plants alive for the summer. ARGH! Responsibility! Forward planning! ACK!
Now that they are coming up, I am ruthlessly discarding the extras with no remorse whatsoever.
We tried fermenting vegetables for the first time in March. My husband wanted to see if something with live-fermented friendly bacteria would help his gut. (Verdict so far: inconclusive.) We fell in love with the carrots with ginger and decided to start making our own. It is ridiculously easy. I think one of the reasons I like it is that it feels like getting away with something. You leave these vegetables out on your counter for 2 weeks and instead of rotting, they turn into something wonderful! (OK, you do have to put them in brine with roughly the right amount of salt, and weigh them down to keep molds & yeast from forming on top. But still…it’s an amazing trick.)
I think this is why I enjoy making caramel, too. You get to almost-burn the sugar, but instead of a nasty carbonized mess you get this tasty brown stuff. Then you can say, “Hah! I got away with it!”
My husband, on the other hand, says he likes making bread and fermenting veggies because “It’s alive!” He can wax poetic about how bread dough comes alive as the yeast grows and the gluten develops. I pray he never develops gluten sensitivity as it will break his heart.
This is all very virtuous of you. I hate to tell you the state of my garden. Basically my idea of looking after it is “letting it grow until its taller than me and then cutting to down, repeat forever.”
oh my God is right – what happened to March?
That snacking cheese sounds like exactly the type of thing that would send me over into obsession. And “baked not fried” taps into my highly suggestible brain that “this is okay for you” when it is quite obviously not. So my snack obsession in March consisted of jelly beans – and is rolling over into April. In the build up to Easter, there are so many sweets available and I am drawn to the jelly beans so hard. Like they are just highly concentrated doses of sugar in an egg shape with artificial coloring and flavors. And I can’t stop buying them. I buy a bag everytime I go to the supermarket. Luckily they are only available until Easter so that temptation will go away. Likewise, my partner is a Brit, so we also invest in British Easter chocolate so there are chocolate eggs and Terry’s orange chocolate mini eggs in our possession. We are not religious but we are DEDICATED believers in holiday adjacent chocolate.
The other thing I enjoyed last month was the film Three Months. It was available on one of our 400 streaming platforms – not sure if it’s available in the UK yet. Troye Sivan, who I enjoy immensely – stars as a young man who discovers he’s been exposed to HIV. He has to wait three months for his results and during that time explores a new relationship and has some coming-of-age discoveries. It is uplifting and a bit predictable, but I found very charming.
I love jellybeans: I think it might be a texture thing? Crunchy, then soft, then sweet. I especially like the fancy flavoured ones. I also have a weakness for egg-shaped chocolate. I don’t know why. Something about chocolate tasting better when it’s shaped like an egg? Why?
Thanks for the film rec – I’ve no idea where/how it might be available in the UK, although I am definitely here for non-traumatic HIV portrayals. And I adore Troye Sivan, naturally.
This feels like a good exercise for my brain. It took a me some pondering, Things I liked in March:
I started this thing we’re calling “the Adulting Hour” with some friends. Once a week we get on Zoom and do the nagging tasks of life that we’ve been avoiding. So far I’ve done my taxes and looked into a warranty for a pair of boots that were broken before October, at least, that I have just been wearing with a hole in them.
Contra dancing – It’s like square dancing but in a line. Lots of fiddle music. As someone who is not an intuitive dancer but enjoys spinning around, it’s perfect! (A date once tried to romantically teach me to waltz and couldn’t believe how incapable I was!) There is literally someone who tells you what to do as you do it a called a “caller.” The only tricky thing is I will get a case of the “I-don’t-want-to-gos” about 30minutes before I need to leave.
I really enjoyed relaxing into the easy, fun world of Bridgerton. Not sure I’m sold on Kate and Anthony but it was still fun.
The Adulting Hour sounds amazing. And terrifying. So glad it’s working for you. And Contra Dancing sounds super fun. I, too, watched Bridgerton – since it’s practically required reviewing for a romance reader/writer, but I enjoyed it.
Also I think I might have a terminal case of “Idontwanttogoitis” for pretty much any occasion you care to mention.
I never read comments as a general rule for preserving my sanity and faith in humanity but am glad I made an exception here. Everyone has been lovely and I’ve written down a number of things I want to check out now, so thank you Alexis for creating this positive space and everyone who added to it!
I have been enjoying the show ‘Um Actually’ on YouTube where self-proclaimed nerds play a game show in which they have to correct statements about various fandoms. It’s a lot of fun to watch and try to guess as well!
I’ve also started reading the Murderbot Diaries and digging them!
And of course falling in love with Taika Waititi as Blackbeard on OFMD!!
Yes, I have a really aggressive moderation queue for the blog, but, honestly, I hardly ever need it. I think blogging is probably so obsolete a medium that the likelihood of nasty comments is borderline negligible. Also I’m pretty lucky that nearly everyone who interacts with me on various social media platforms is lovely – and even when somebody isn’t quite so lovely, it’s usually accidental rather than cruel.
Thank you for the ‘Um actually’ rec – that looks super fun.