I’m stealing this format from my friend Zach Margolis and will not make any promises about posting it in further quarters.
This quarter was a lot. I went to Chicago for work, and to New York, Rochester, and Boston for fun. I also made a trip to the ER (I’m fine!). I watched most of the movies below on planes.
I love a format, I love to be given a task, and maybe this is one that’ll help me ✌️ reflect on the last couple of months. Here are some of the things that I did!
Movies
Backrooms
Finally watched this on the plane! It was fine. Basically what I expected from the format, and tbh I might have fallen asleep for a little bit. I’ve been a creature of the internet for so long that these kinds of creepypastas (including this one in particular) have lived in the deep recesses of my brain for so long… that the movie kind of was boring?
Tow
I was on a lot of planes this quarter, and this is one of the many movies I watched. Rose Byrne is still so underappreciated in everything that she does. Sometimes I think I want to do a Damages rewatch, but then I think that show freaked me out more than anything horror. Terrible people. Anyway, everyone in this movie was great and it had a stacked cast!
Masters of the Universe
I was on a plane. Again. Galitzine, what are you doing, what is this. No.
I Love Boosters
It might not have been this quarter, but I really, truly loved this. It was so Bay Area. It was so delightful. It’s going on my list of strange, camp, hyper local movies, and I think I’ll be able to rewatch it forever.
Stop! That! Train!
A Rusical that I wasn’t too mad went on for that long.
Toy Story 5
The ability these movies have to still tap into the nostalgia of watching the first one with my aunt (who died this year) is honestly terrorism at this point.
TV
For All Mankind
We have been slowly slowly slowly slowly making our way through this. It’s been rough, but I’m glad that the character who died this season did because I couldn’t handle any more. I don’t really need to watch next season!
Game Changer
It’s been a very good season, but imo the best episode was Count the Rice. I got to meet Oscar Montoya on a cruise earlier this year and really hang out (we became pool reading buddies lol) and so it’s been very cute to see so much of him this season. He had already filmed these, and when I asked him what was coming up, he just said it was crazy, and it was!
Widow’s Bay
We watched this after it was over, and it was soooooooooooo good. I was on a plane and the lady next to me was trying to watch the last episode, and the pilot kept making (important) announcements, and she got so mad she quietly muttered, “Shut the fuck up.”
Museums
Strong National Museum of Play
Museum of PLAY!!! in Rochester. I went to Rochester for a friend’s 40th birthday, and she took us to all of her favorite places from when she went to school there.
Me on Sesame Street (plus a funhouse mirror, and Snoopy):
George Eastman Museum
Also in Rochester! Learned about the man who made Kodak, and they had an entire wing dedicated to their early LGBTQ employee resource group.
And me in front of some of the 300 chemicals they used in early film making. I wanted to eat it all:
Music
Day and Night
I enjoyed it. I have listened a few times. It’s growing on me. I like “Amalfi Coast,” “Versailles,” “Good Fine Alright,” and “Don’t Leave Me on the Dance Floor” the most, but I know that I’ll find pieces I love about each song.
Cavities
I’m going to steal this from Zach along with the format!! I know Jake because he is on bluesky, and I see him in a lot of conversations with people I know, and through that clicked on one of his song links and honestly had a lot of fun.
“Are We California Dreaming Yet?” makes me nostalgic for bands that sounded like this when I was in high school, and the idea that I was gonna escape to California (and kids there are asking is this it). Are the kids listening to this kind of music now?? I have no idea but I really, really enjoyed listening all the way through.
Bangaranga (Flamenco Cover)
If you know me, you know I love Eurovision, and last year I was the only person rooting for Bangaranga to win. I’ve been listening to every cover since then.
Pylon
I don’t know. I don’t know!! I think my favorite song on it is “Nothing to Prove” with Hayley Williams, which just has a different energy. The rest of the album is trying to sound early 2000s pop punk and the song with Hayley just… has the right feeling.
Books
Deep Oakland: How Geology Shaped a City
LOVED reading this! I just got a new e-bike, and being able to hop on it and ride to the places that it’s talking about (I touched a fault line!!!) has been so fun. It’s so highlighted and dog-eared now.
Theater
The Rocky Horror Show
THIS WAS SO GOOD.
Me hanging out backstage afterwards with Harvey Guillén, who showed me the “cocaine vault” on the top floor (this was in Studio 54) that is taped up because children kept getting locked inside.
Titanique
SO GOOD A SECOND TIME. I saw it Off-Broadway, and saw it again with my partner, who really didn’t know anything about it (or Céline!) and was grinning ear to ear the whole time. He loved it, and I loved it a second time.
Ragtime
This is my partner’s favorite show, so it coming up meant we had to figure out a way to see it. We splurged on close seats and it was worth it because Joshua Henry was a force. The entire show, from start to finish, was electric with him on stage.
The Lunchbox
I go to every show at Berkeley Rep, and the thing I really like about them is that they do a great job of creating a sense of scenery. This was a beautiful stage, with moving parts and the smell of food wafting out over the audience. The dancing was, obviously, off the charts.
The Cook
During intermission I watched them come out, clean up, and reset the stage, and they took out all of the food the main actress prepped during the first half of the show. All real food that she cooked. The show itself mostly served as a springboard for me to read a lot about the Cuban Revolution, and actually understand what was going on because I turned to my partner early on and said, “Uh… I don’t think I know anything about this,” which doesn’t happen often!
Games
World of Warcraft: Forever
I don’t know what I think about this. I’ve been a WoW subscriber since the start. Literally. It’s one of my oldest (maybe the??) subscriptions. I’ve moved phone carriers. I’ve switched between iOS and Android multiple times. I’ve moved and bought a house. And I’ve had a WoW subscription (although I have turned it off). I jump in when a new expansion comes out, and I leave a few months later. I guess that is what this game is meant to solve? A more calm experience, the world isn’t ending, it never ended, and you just… play? I’m interested to see how it plays out.
Warcraft III Reforged: Forsaken Kingdom
How did they get me to go back?! To this game?? From 100 years ago!!! Ugh, I downloaded it. I got it in the bundle so I could get early access to World of Warcraft: Forever. Unbelievable.
It’s a good, new expansion for a game that came out a long time ago. Honestly, after the huge problem they created with the re-launch of WC3, I thought they would just move on. The graphic styles and options are a little wonky so they could save face, and they only apply to the expansion’s content, which makes it more weird, but it’s cool they’re releasing new content for a very old property.
Tavern Keeper
I picked this up on a Steam sale, and it’s really cute! Lots of depth in the customization, and they’ve been doing pretty steady updates.
Suzerain
Finally finished a game of Suzerain! I love games like this, but it is just a long slog, and if you lose in the middle… you have to go back pretty far to be able to save yourself from the same defeat. The writing is solid, and I love trying to run the most left leaning little paradise. It does not go well.
Things I 3D printed
I got a 3D printer! I’m going to take more pictures, but for now you just get this Ditto in the semi-translucent purple filament that I think I’ll be using the most. It’s so much fun to just be able to print anything. I’ve been modifying and making models of board game inserts (yes, I’m a nerd).
It was a good quarter. I wrote more on my blog here than I have in a few years, made a few websites, went to an atproto meetup (I’ve been getting more into atproto), and had a lot of fun.
This next quarter is hunker down (politically) time. I’ll be canvassing and calling and hopefully hosting some fundraisers for candidates I care about and who care about the same things that I do. Which means reading more political books (hopefully…) and probably more research papers.