April 2017 Read/Watched/Listened

Read:

Down the Rabbit Hole: Curious Adventures and Cautionary Tales of a Former Playboy Bunny by Holly Madison - I was riveted by the Girls Next Door. If you were, too, I recommend this book.

The Taliban Shuffle (Whiskey Tango Foxtrot) - Good, but kind of sad.

My Voice: A Memoir by Angie Martinez - If you came of age in the 90s and listened to hip-hop, I recommend it.

So, I think something is broken inside of me. I can't get into any fiction books. I even went back to my old standbys John Connolly and Walter Mosley. Nothing took. I don't even know who I am anymore.

Watched:

Life in Pieces - This show is weird and I can't figure out if in a good way or bad way. Some seriously offensive jokes in the show. A couple of good characters, though.

Chewing Gum Season Two. Michaela Coel is a global treasure. May the muses always be by her side.

Lost Girl - Love this show. So upset it's only five seasons long. I love it so much, I've actually been able to parcel it out to make it last.

Life - I liked it when it came out, but I had a feeling it would get canceled, so I stopped watching. Good show to have on in the background.

GirlBoss - Made it about five minutes into episode 1. No gracias.

Frasier - Series Rewatch #726

Netflix removed Buffy. I had a rough couple of days over it.

Joshua v. Klitschko - Damn good fight.

Listened: It was an Al Green, Emmylou Harris  type of month.

March 2017 Reading/Watching

March was absolutely pathetic reading-wise. It's even sadder, because it was my birthday month and reading is my favorite thing. Probably explains my janky-ass mood lately.

Books I finished:

-Difficult Women by Roxane Gay (Love her writing. Love her Twitter. Lover her. She is my Beyonce.)

-Lumberjanes: Beware the Kitten Holy (This is a graphic novel, but it counts, okay?! I put it on my Amazon wish list to remember to get it for my daughter when she's older. Husband purchased a couple of volumes for me for my birthday and I'm glad he did, because it was pretty good. I've started the second volume.)

-I re-read my favorite poem more than usual. (To You by Walt Whitman: http://www.bartleby.com/142/175.html - Get you some!)

Books I started, but didn't finish:

-Queen Sugar: A Novel by Natalie Baszile (Seemed promising, but it fizzled out. I think it's a TV show now, but I don't have cable, so . . .)

-A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf (Look, I really tried. There were some good morsels in there, but wrap it up, sister.)

-The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert (Um, I checked it out from the library. This was supposed to be my non-fiction for the month.)

-The Wangs vs The World by Jade Chang (Too much set up. Maybe the whole book was set up? Made it about a quarter of the way through.)

-I Almost Forgot About You by Terry McMillan (I made it a third of the way through. It didn't grab me.)

-Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right by Arlie Russell Hochschild (I read the first page of the preface and it's too soon and I'm still too pissed off and I don't see a lot of the right trying to understand us, so eat me.)

-I've started re-reading the Godfather. Still great.

Watched/Watching:

-Schitt's Creek (So good, just for Catherine O'Hara's accent alone.)

-One Mississippi (Dark and light and wonderful.)

-Transparent (Bummed I'm so late to this, but glad, because I was able to binge.)

-The Kettering Incident (Couldn't get into it. Kind of a cross between Top of the Lake, which I loved, and The OA, which was decent.)

-Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (Finished the second season.)

-Moonlight (I already posted about this. I still think about this movie on the regular.)

-Logan (Brutal. Dark. Gory. And I cried harder than I've cried at the movies in a long time. I watched the X-Men cartoons as an older kid when I thought I was done with cartoons. I've loved all of the movies, except X-Men: Apocalypse. I'm going to cry just thinking about it.)

-Lost Girl (Just started and it's surprisingly good if you choose to ignore the production value and some plot holes.)

-Rewatching Buffy (I start about halfway through season 3, skip the latter half of season 5, then finish it up. My gajillionth rewatch?)

Looking forward to:

-Getting my reading mojo back. (Pray for me, y'all. Also, any fiction recommendations? Ease me in with some detective novels or beach reads.)

-More Lumberjanes!

-The second season of Chewing Gum.

-Trying to get back into boxing. My multiple Kovalev sightings MUST BE a sign to get back into it.

Summer Want Blues

It's been gray, cold, and quiet in Southern California during the month of May. Maybe one day had a hint of summer. I'm not a huge fan of endless days of 90 degree weather, but when one is used to something and it doesn't come to pass, it can put one out of sorts. That's how I've been feeling, so I wrote some haikus about summer in places I've lived and visited.

         Georgia Summer
Sunshine on my skin
Love and peaches are full ripe
Ice cream tastes better

        California Summer
Swimming delights all
Time stands still and moves quickly
Kissing is more fun

       New Orleans Summer
Holding hands with you
Gin and tonic with a lime
Scent of magnolias

       NYC Summer
Picnics in the park
Come to my rooftop party
We are young and free

       Summer Everywhere
Children laugh loudly
Strangers say hi to others
Most wonderful time