March, April, & May 2020

Listening

Playlists: quarantunes, lion/lamb, & maypril

• Less Than More Than – Sawyer (“Emotional Girls” is my favorite of the five great songs on this EP.)
• Maggie Rogers
• BENEE
• Lucky – Chelsea Cutler & Alexander 23
• Know Me – Anthony de la Torre
• LMK – Lil Xxel
• Malibu – Kim Petras
• Back to Me – Lindsay Lohan (Hot take? Yes. Good song? Also yes.)

I was cleaning out my bookmarks and came across an old favorite. I used to check Obscurify to see how horribly basic my music taste is, and apparently, I listen to more interesting music than I thought. ~i’M nOt LiKe OtHeR gIrLs!~ The site also provides metrics on top genres, artists, and songs from your Spotify data. I’ve become a big Maggie Rogers fan these last few weeks, but I didn’t think it was anything serious. Obscurify proved me wrong, as all ten of my top songs were hers! I discovered BENEE from her TikTok hit “Supalonely”, but I soon found out her entire discography slaps.

Reading

• The Summer I Turned Pretty trilogy – Jenny Han
• Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
• Let it Snow – John Green, Maureen Johnson, & Lauren Myracle
• Media Manager’s Beauty Routine – Into the Gloss
• Vintage Trader Who Gardens in Ruby Woo – Into the Gloss
• Social Impact Manager’s Beauty Routine – Into the Gloss
• I Am Caroline Calloway – Caroline Calloway
• I Fit The Description – Steve Locke
• I’ve been sheltering in place my whole life, and I’m over it – Monica Petrucci

I love The Summer I Turned Pretty series so much that I spent 12 hours straight reading it. Jenny Han is one of my favorite authors, so I was hooked before I even cracked the spine of the first book. It’ll give you the feeling of the summer vacation you’re missing out on (thanks, coronavirus!), plus teenage romance! If you know me, the inclusion of Into the Gloss pieces is no surprise. In “I Fit The Description”, a black MassArt professor recounts his experience of being wrongfully detained by police on a crowded street. Monica Petrucci, a Gen Z student, takes to the Boston Globe to reflect on the traumatic events that have shaped our lives as young people. If you don’t know who Caroline Calloway is, check out this post. Get ready to enter the ACC (After Caroline Calloway) Era. Your life will be forever changed.

Watching

• Never Have I Ever
• Music Video: Watermelon Sugar by Harry Styles
• Tiger King
• That 70’s Show
• TikTok (I caved. It’s fun! Follow me here.)
• The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross
• Love Island UK (My Hulu guilty pleasure.)
• Waco
• Documentary Now!
• A Disney binge featuring: Hercules, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, Frozen, and Frozen II

Who hasn’t seen Tiger King? I watched it all the day it was released! My friend and former roommate, Grace, actually went to the infamous zoo and took videos for me. By far, it was the best Snapchat I’ve ever received. Documentary Now! is a series of 20-minute mockumentaries from Bill Hader and friends. I haven’t seen the source material for any episodes, but, rest assured, the comedy does not suffer. The Grey Gardens-inspired “Sandy Passage” is perfection. A new Harry Styles music video dropped on May 18th and took the internet, and me, by storm. The fourth video from his sophomore album is a continuation of the narrative Styles and team have created with the rest of the album’s visual works. With the tagline “This video is dedicated to touching”, British directing duo Bradley & Pablo balance the themes of summery, sweet, and sensual to create a superb visual accompaniment to one of my favorite songs of Styles’ “Watermelon Sugar”.

Never Have I Ever is, unsurprisingly, one of the best shows I’ve seen in years. First-generation Indian-American Devi Vishwakumar decides to reinvent herself following a rough freshman year of high school. She expects her friends to follow in her footsteps, but that’s not always the case. This series deals with typical high school issues like boys, parties, and schoolwork through Devi’s unique lens and tennis great John McEnroe’s narration. It sounds weird, I know. John McEnroe on a Netflix teen show? Just watch it, you’ll thank me. Created by industry powerhouses Mindy Kaling and Lang Fisher, this show is everything I wanted in high school but never saw on screen. In a similar vein as hit indie films Lady Bird and Booksmart, Never Have I Ever chronicles the ups and downs of its female protagonist’s California adolescence with a quick wit and plenty of awkward moments. Relatable!

Waco‘s 8-episode storyline is based on a true event, the FBI’s 1993 siege of a religious group in rural Texas. It’s raw, emotional, and jarring. I wasn’t alive to see the carnage unfold on the news, so I can imagine that for those who did, this might be a show to stay away from. Rory Culkin (Macaulay’s practically-identical brother) shines as survivor David Thibodeau, author of one of the two books that inspired the show. You may recognize the leader of the group, David Koresh, expertly played by Taylor Kitsch (Tim Riggins, Friday Night Lights).

What are you LRW-ing?