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2020 Wrap Up

12/20/2020

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Despite my good intentions, my blog has been neglected for months. However, I've been reading, listening, and watching just as much as usual. Looking back over the year, these are some of my favorites in each medium. Most are what have brought me comfort or laughs or travel or growth — reality has been tough, so my entertainment has been easy and light. 

Books

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The fifth book in Sherry Thomas' Lady Sherlock Series. She is one of my favorite writers, and this is a fun, feminist, historical reimagining.
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I loved my years of studying Latin and all the etymology I learned. I also loved following Ann Patty's journey learning Latin as a retiree. And I didn't have to translate!
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This is a heartfelt  romance of yearning and young men finally finding each other. Its tone lingered with me for days after finishing it.
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Maybe the most transformative self-help book I've ever read. It gave me a totally new framework of seeing my past.

Podcasts

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Unlocking Us is Brené Brown talking with a WIDE variety of guests: artists, celebrities, neuroscientists, activists. And every episode is worth listening to.
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Art for Your Ear is hosted by Danielle Krysa. She herself is an artist and art teacher, so these interviews with other artists are a great BTS for how artists create.
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Design Perspectives is a recent find, and I've been loving these conversations with interior designers. Listening to creative women in business discuss what they do is my jam.
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In A New Earth podcast,  Eckhart Tolle and Oprah discuss his book of the same name chapter by chapter. It's been a great re-listen during this tumultuous year.

TV

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Most of what I've watched this year can be found on HGTV, but Home Town with Ben and Erin Napier is my total fave. From Ben's dad jokes to Erin's design aesthetic, it's just lovely.
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The Great British Baking Show returning to Netflix during the pandemic was a gift from the universe. The baking might not have been outstanding, but it was serious comfort viewing.
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Long Way Up is the third docuseries that follows Ewan McGregor and Charly Boorman on months-long motorcycle trips. This one starts at the tip of Patagonia and ends in LA. Total vicarious travel with lovely hosts.
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This title sums up my confusion about how I feel about Ted Lasso: "How on Earth is 'Ted Lasso' Actually Good?" But it is — it's sweet and funny and well-written and -acted. It's inexplicably great.

Movies

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For most of college, all I listened to was the Beastie Boys. This doc is a sweet revisit by Adam Horovitz and Mike Diamond of the band's history.
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Palm Springs (my fave vacation spot!) is a romcom (love them!) with a time loop (what??). It's fun and funny and weird. 
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WATCH // Elena Boiardi

9/22/2020

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I'm fascinated by artists and their creative processes. Watching Elena Boiardi place each dot is completely hypnotizing. I also learned that "shagreen" is the skin of a shark or ray, which is really gross, but the pattern is so beautiful.
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READ // Punctuation How-To

7/7/2020

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I get a lot of email newsletters, but the one I received this week from MyFonts.com (the site is typography heaven!) made my nerdy grammar-girl self very happy. I loved the clever use of different fonts to make the graphics for each type of punctuation the newsletter addressed — fun tie-in to the site. I wish EVERYONE could read the section on apostrophe usage! 

Worth noting: My Fonts has a side site called WhattheFont, which is a great resource when you're trying to track down unknown fonts. It's also available as an app (of course!). 
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WATCH // Good Bones

6/9/2020

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Good Bones is an HGTV mother-daughter fixer-upper show filmed in Indianapolis. Mina (daughter) and Karen (mom) are capable, strong, smart, and funny. They buy dilapidated houses, rip them down to the studs, and build them back up into something beautiful. During these last tumultuous weeks, escaping into their world where everything becomes beautiful in less than an hour has been a gift. My only criticisms — and they're real — is that the show is very white, very heteronormative, and on the bougie side. However, that's also a problem with the entire network. That aside, it's solid, constructive, positive-feeling reality TV where people are kind to each other, and I love it. 
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READ // In Defense of the Humanities

6/5/2020

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For many years, I've had a client in the international education industry. These years with Trump in the White House and now with the global pandemic have put the industry in the spin cycle, and who knows where it'll be when the spinning stops. This article in the NYTimes argues for the humanities, which have been in decline as students need to have jobs when they graduate with their very expensive college degrees and their back-breaking student loans. And for that, they migrate towards majors that will get them jobs: practical degrees, not ones like literature, philosophy, history, or anthropology. 

Neither of my parents graduated from college before they had me; and yet — or maybe because of — my education was extremely important to them. And my father in particular believed in a liberal arts education. I am so grateful that he was willing to pay for a stupidly expensive education where I was able to indulge in my love of reading and English literature. It has been a solid foundation for my career, which has always at its root been about communication in some form or another. 

Our society is in the midst of a bucking bronco of a change — so much of it needed — and my hope is that we can hold on to the things that bring meaning to my life when we stumble out of the rodeo: arts of all formats, plus books, books, and even more books. Also, a deeper understanding of who we are, why we're here, and what we owe to each other. None of which we'll get with a degree in finance or business. 

When you're in the tornado of change, the humanities don't feel essential. But afterwards, when the storm is over, art and history and philosophy and critical thinking are exactly the things that help us learn from what we've experienced and allow us to move forward.
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READ // Creative Block

5/19/2020

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I've been attempting to create a daily art practice for the past few months, with a little success and lots of fits and starts. A couple of weeks ago, I got myself in a real anxiety tangle, but so, so happily a friend of mine introduced me to Danielle Krysa (aka The Jealous Curator). After downloading all of her books from the library onto my Kindle — not ideal for art books, but good enough during a pandemic when the libraries have been closed for months — I inhaled Creative Block. Each chapter is an interview with a different artist, and at the end, each gives an exercise to break through a block. I can't cite the artist who came up with the technique that really helped me since my copy is back with the library now, but it's just this: go through your old pieces that don't work, cut them up, and make something new from them. So simple, but it freed me! And now I've started a whole series that I'm in love with. 

BONUS: Danielle's The Jealous Curator podcast is a series of conversations with artists. She's in season 4 now, so there are lots of episodes to catch up on!
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LISTEN // Brené Brown's Unlocking Us podcast

5/11/2020

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One of my favorite humans has a new podcast, and it's awesome! Brené Brown is a research professor, who studies courage, vulnerability, shame, and empathy, at the University of Houston. She is full of sass, grit, and compassion, and there is little I like more than listening to her break down emotions and our relationship with them. Twelve episodes have been released so far, and a standout is this conversation between Brené and Dr. Marc Brackett, who is the founding director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. Emotion nerd heaven!

Bonus: Brené's TED talk about vulnerability from 2010 that has 48 million views.
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READ // Normal People by Sally Rooney

4/23/2020

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I am late to reading Normal People, which is not a shock because I don't generally keep up with modern literature, if that's even the right category for this book. It almost felt like it could be a young adult novel, which is actually more my speed in fiction these days. Having given up on sleeping and perusing the borrowed books on my Kindle in the middle of the night, I was surprised by how quickly I was pulled into the story and how little idea I had of what was going to happen to the main characters, who are both young and Irish, like the author. I finished the book in the morning and was astonished by how I had been so swept away by it. As aptly summed up in one of the two quotes I highlighted while reading, "life offers up these moments of joy despite everything." 

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WATCH // What We Do in the Shadows

4/20/2020

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We recently-ish got a Hulu account, mostly so I could watch FX's What We Do in the Shadows. I am a huge fan of the creator, Taika Waititi, and loved the original movie version. Similar to the film, the series follows a small group of out-of-touch-with-modern-times vampires who live together and deal with modern life, this time set on Staten Island. Its absurdist humor is just my style, and I am completely in love with the opening credits, which are lush and layered but also set up the show in a short 30 seconds. I can't decide which character I like best, but my favorite reaction shots are always whatever face Nadja is making. ALSO, the show has great and unexpected cameos. Season 2 just started on April 16th, so now there's even more to love.

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POSITIVITY // Some good stuff...

3/20/2020

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So many things feel uncertain and frightening right now, but despite the bad news there have been little bits of awesomeness — people being truly kind and generous to each other. Here are some of my favorites from this week:
  • The meditation app Headspace is offering a free collection called Weathering the Storm; also Elizabeth Gilbert has recorded a free meditation called Facing Fear with Compassion on the Insight Timer app
  • Artists on Instagram are doing daily live events: children's book author Mac Barnett started a book club and reads one of his books every day at 12pm PST; and illustrator and graphic journalist Wendy McNaughton is doing daily drawing time at 10am PST M-F
  • Simone Gordon, a woman who acts as a megaphone drawing attention to the needs of others, broadcasts on her Instagram account who needs what, and how and where to donate
  • Stories of people who can give, giving: Basketball players donating to arena staff; Blake Lively & Ryan Reynolds' food bank donation; Ayesha and Steph Curry are helping feeding children; Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos made a large gift to NYC; and Russell Wilson & Ciara donated a million meals in the Puget Sound area
  • Artist and teacher Bonnie Christine is providing free access to talks and classes on her website: Dreaming to Doing and From Focus to Flourish
  • Upworthy on Instagram consistently posts stories of positivity
  • Two international stories from earlier in the week: homebound Italians singing; and in Seville, Spain, a trainer providing a workout for people on lockdown in their apartments
  • Swans and fish in Venice canals 
  • A compassionate teen teen making hygiene kits for the homeless in LA
  • If you want a culture breaks, take virtual tour of historical homes or museums
  • Missing hanging with your pals? Get everyone together for a virtual happy hour or coffee date (and here’s an LA Times article with tech advice on how to make it happen).


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    I'm a omnivorous consumer of media in various forms, and this is a space for me share the fun, inspiring, and interesting things I find.

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