I had fun putting this list together last week, so I’m doing it again. This isn’t everything, but it’s a fair representation of the media that barraged me last week.
Movies
- The Godfather – I watched almost all of this one night after the rest of the house had fallen asleep. Yes, I’ve already seen it countless times. Yes, it’s still good.
- I caught the last thirty minutes of Apollo 13 late one night, even though it’s another film I’ve seen so many times that it’s absurd.
- I watched about twenty minutes of the middle of Something’s Gotta Give one night, which is one of my favorite Nicholson movies, and – for the umpteenth time – the last 20 minutes of Notting Hill.
TV
- My wife and I watched S1E2 of Killing Eve on BBC. It seemed like the DVR missed the first five minutes of the show, but we didn’t have the energy to deal with it. Regardless, the second episode was as good as the first and we’re both digging it.
- I watched both John Mulaney: The Comeback Kid and John Mulaney: New in Town on Netflix after seeing him on SNL last week. He’s a very funny guy and I really loved both of his routines.
- We watched two episodes of the second season of The Good Fight, a spin-off of The Good Wife, which we both loved. The new series is probably the best television show airing right now and I can’t believe it’s not getting more attention. It’s likely because it’s only available on CBS All Access, which we watch on AppleTV via the Amazon Prime Video app. The writing, acting, and directing are just off the charts good, and I’m constantly amazed at the production costs that must be involved in making this show.
- On Thursday night we watched the Rachel Maddow interview with James Comey.
- I managed to catch the latest episode of Billions on Showtime very, very late on Sunday night and … wow. I did not see that coming.
- My wife and I watched another episode of Nate & Jeremiah by Design on TLC. It is definitely be the best reality show on TV.
- I saw Last Week Tonight with John Oliver after everyone else had fallen asleep because I know I’m the one in the house who enjoys it the most. As always: infuriating and hysterical. (I’m a geologist!)
- My 2-yo was feeling a little under the weather so we snuggled together on the couch and watched a 45-min long National Geographic documentary on YouTube (on AppleTV) about the elephants of the Kalahari.
- My 7-yo was feeling more than a little under the weather, so I snuggled with him and watched the series finale of Fraggle Rock for something like the 30th time this month.
Music
- Outrageous – Paul Simon – Surprise is just a great, great song. Every lyric is perfect and, really, the whole album is wonderful. I’m forever debating whether Paul McCartney, John Lennon, or Paul Simon should be considered the all-time best songwriter. The three of them are neck and neck, but Paul Simon may have a slight edge. Two nights this week over dinner I tortured my sons by loudly singing and dancing along with all of the peppy songs on Bridge Over Troubled Water via the kitchen Alexa. (“Everywhere I go, I get slandered, libeled! I hear words I never heard in the Bible!”)
- Country Honk – Rolling Stones – Let It Bleed is one of my favorite songs on what may be the #1 album in my world. Trapped on a deserted island, presumably with solar power and an indestructible pair of headphones and sand-proof CD player, I’d be hard-pressed to choose even anything in the Beatles canon over Let It Bleed.
- All day Wednesday we listened to The Beatles on the office Alexa, which was lovely.
Books
- I read another few chapters of Atlantic: Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms, and a Vast Ocean of a Million Stories, by Simon Winchester.
- My 7-yo and I are slowly working our way through the early 1980s Tom Swift series. We’re on book two right now, Tom Swift: Terror on the Moons of Jupiter, and he is loving it.
Podcasts
- Radiolab
- Sawbones
- Freakonomics
- Episode 4 of Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History: Addendum, Exposing the Hart of The Great War, a fascinating interview with the British Imperial War Museum’s famed First World War historian Peter Hart.
Sports
I didn’t watch any sports this week, but was glad to see that the Red Sox are doing pretty well so far this season. And one of my good friends got hit in the face with a ball that Yasiel Puig threw into the stands at a Dodgers game.
