It’s gross and rainy here, and it’s been a really tough week for a lot of people I love, but here are a few things I’ve been into lately:
What I’m Hearing: Hozier released a new EP this week, which got me going through his back catalogue and revisiting one of my favorite (criminally underrated) songs of his: “Almost (Sweet Music).” It walks such a perfect tightrope of grief and hope; it’s a story of moving on even as the tides of the past keep tugging you back, a novel’s worth of emotion packed into three and a half minutes. Frankly, it’s the kind of shit I hope to write someday. And somehow I’d never seen the music video for it, which made my pandemic-bruised heart bawl – look, after the last three years, anything that has groups of people in seeming isolation coming together in shared joy is going to wreck me.
What I’m Reading: About a month ago, Vulture published an oral history of Kings, one of the most ambitious, over-the-top primetime epics of the past decade and a half. I’ve got a soft spot for things that go big and fail spectacularly in the process, and damn, that show went big. Of course, it was also a lot easier for me to love it back when a blatantly theocratic United States felt like just another fantasy setting, not a depressing reality… but still, the article’s a great look at a mostly-forgotten TV epic and the weird space it tried to make for itself.
What I’m Watching: I can’t remember what made me click over to Um, Actually one weekend, but by now I’m four seasons deep and it’s become my default background TV while I’m puttering around the house. The premise: host Mike Trapp reads off an incorrect statement about a beloved piece of pop culture, and contestants have to buzz in to correct him – starting, Jeopardy-style, with the statement, “Um, actually….” And yes, I have totally screamed IT’S CALLED THE TWELVE COLONIES OF KOBOL, NOT THE TWELVE COLONIES OF HUMANITY!!!! at my TV in a righteous nerd anger. You probably will too!