Weekly Roundup 6.30.19
John and I are still going on hikes every Sunday. It’s funny because in our relationship we have clearly defined areas of expertise. Mine are pop culture and 90s rap lyrics, not navigation or spatial awareness in the wilderness. But last week we hiked in a place I knew because my cycling team used to ride there. It made me miss these Monday night ladies rides I used to go on, you know, back in 2014 when you could ride your bike in Nashville without getting clipped or run off the road by a 3-ton pickup truck driven by some California yahoo who moved here to get rich off pricing you out of your neighborhood. Anyway, John couldn’t believe I not only knew where to get on the trail, but how far it was to the end. You can take the girl out of endurance training, but you can’t take the mileage of every paved trail in Nashville out of her memory!
Here are some things that entered my orbit this week.
I started watching Outlander now that it’s on Netflix, and here’s my question. When does the hot, time travel sex start? I’m halfway through the first season.
Numero uno internet friend, Joy the Baker, shared this article on why friendships make you sad in her last Let It Be Sunday post and it broke my brain. I sent it to my therapist with something to the tune of, omg, I’m what’s wrong with all my friendships. She responded, “I can understand why you want to talk about this.” *stares directly at camera
This piece on Alanis Morissette made the rounds earlier this week, but I didn’t have time to read it until this morning. WHOA. It’s primarily about pregnancy and post-partum depression, which isn’t my lane, but I’ve never known this much about Alanis Morrissette and now I need to know everything about Alanis Morissette. And you bet your ass I’m writing this while listening to Jagged Little Pill.
I’ve been trying to learn as much as I can about the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s. I’m realizing I know next to nothing about what happened. My interest got piqued reading Alexander Chee’s How To Write An Autobiographical Novel where he talks about being in ACT UP in San Francisco. Then I watched the first season of Pose and the documentary Paris Is Burning, and I was like, okay, I need to know more. There was a Fresh Air episode this week on the first AIDS ward and the struggle for compassionate care and dignified death. Two things: 1) there’s a documentary called 5B about this ward and I’m hoping it comes to the Belcourt, and 2) everything these men say on Fresh Air is exactly what’s portrayed on Pose, so good job long list of people responsible for Pose.
Did you read Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad? You should. It’s one of my favorite books. Also, Colson came to Parnassus during that book tour and I have an amazing picture of him giving the double bird. He has a new book coming out in July and this write up on his new book and his life in NYC is fascinating.
