Saturday, March 16
(Some media notes leftover from before my Mexico vacation, plus what I've been doing since I got back.)
LISTENING
I'm currently on Apple Music (six months free from my job at the Apple store), so I'm listening to the 25th anniversary deluxe version of Graceland and hearing the demos for the first time. If possible, the demos sound EVEN MORE like Vampire Weekend. Like, they could straight up be Vampire Weekend bonus tracks from self-titled.
WATCHING
Before I left for my vacation, I got to join Alan Alda's monthly Zoom for Patreon. He started off with a couple of stories about MASH, to commemorate the 41st anniversary of "Goodbye, Farewell, Amen," which was February 28th. Man is 88 years old, doing bonus content like an online creator. I hope he writes one more memoir about his evolution as a performer from the vaudeville stage to podcasts and Zoom.
A gifset of Andrew Scott in Vanya crossed my Tumblr dashboard, with a note that it's playing in theatres, so I looked up local showings, and the last day in Vancouver was less than a week away. So I went. (I really should go more often.) It's a one-man show, where he's also doing lighting, sound, and scene changes (I understand he's not the ONLY person doing all that, but he has a lot of control on the stage). He's so good, sucked me in so completely. I had forgotten what it's like to be in a dark crowded theatre, but feel like the show is for you alone.
Last night, also thanks to a Tumblr post, I started watching Leverage from the beginning. I've always known I'd like this show, but it's languished on my "I'll get to it eventually" list. The last time I travelled with my friend the superfan, she got us watching the latest seasons, Leverage: Redemption, which is easy to jump into because it's a soft reboot of the show. But for all the time I've spent adjacent to Leverage fandom, I never knew the broadcast order was mixed-up. So, as someone who just never got around to this show, now I have the chance to do it right.
READING
The front window read “$600.00 OBO” in soap letters and I paid cash in full. That was probably overpriced, but I didn’t care. It was the first (semi-) drivable car I’d owned in nearly a year, and my one shot at rebuilding my life. I treasured it.
This Beater Camry Saved My Life by Victoria Scott. I'm still not allowed to drive by myself, but buying a beater like this and escaping my life remains the dream.
Before there was Substack, and long before the word “creator” was used with any kind of seriousness, there was a small newsletter tool that captured a moment: TinyLetter.
TinyLetter, in memoriam by Kevin Nguyen. TinyLetter was the very first place I wrote my newsletter, all the way back in 2012, when I was publishing fiction and figured it was time to start a mailing list. It was simple, small, just right, and I never should've left.
Learning everything about accessibility is not a realistic goal, but making a consistent effort to make your Websites more inclusive is.
March's topic for the Indieweb blog carnival is accessibility in the small web. There's already a nice list of posts to read, and you still have time to write your own.
Typos are actually beautiful because they generate joy, jostle our neurons in new ways, demonstrate the plasticity of human understanding and language, and provide tiny bits of kindling to your little fire of inside jokes with friends for years to come.
Rose Eveleth, speaking to my soul.
PLAYING
Stealth Crossword by ComputerJames is exactly how it sounds. You have to move the letters around a field and into the correct boxes to complete the crossword, while also being careful not to get caught by the guards and cameras.
While I was on vacation with only my phone, I discovered the Puzzmo crossword isn't great to do on mobile. So I downloaded the NYT Games app and did the Wordle for the first time in like 6 months. (Got it in 2 my first time out!!) I also love playing Connections (here's a site where you can make your own 🤓), but I'm not paying for the crossword. Not in the app yet, but NYT is testing Strands, which is a fun one.