fun to watch

It’s the in between holiday week — the low stress, all the good food, sleep in, lose track of time, tackle weird projects, and play-yourself-silly week — so I thought I’d share some of the movies and shows I’ve enjoyed recently. If you’ve got some good ones, please share in the comments!

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Last night I finished Maestro, about Leonard Bernstein and his wife Felicia Montealegre.

I watched it in two sittings, but I did not want to stop watching it that first night; it felt like a really, really good book that I just didn’t want to put down. The whole way through, I kept marveling at the acting and wondering how in the heck they got the actors to age 50 years so seamlessly: were they actually a series of actors and my eyes were deceiving me? As soon as I finished, I did some research and was stunned, absolutely stunned, to learn that Bradley Cooper played Bernstein! I had no idea!! According to an article I found, it took him upwards of five hours to get ready — some days he was in the makeup chair at 1 am just so he could be ready for a 7 am shoot. 

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The Robbie Williams documentary is slow-paced but intense, so my husband and I took our time getting through it.

I didn’t even know who Robbie was until I watched the documentary, but I was impressed by his introspection and vulnerability, a vulnerability which was underscored by the fact that he did the whole documentary from his bed and dressed in his undies. I found the part about his emotional breakdown to be fascinating: his description was the closest thing I’ve found to my own theater breakdown. And yes, I realize it’s preposterous to even compare myself to a performer like Robbie, but still: listening to him talk about the terror and self-doubt, I got it. A person can be hobbled in front of an audience of twenty or an audience of fifty thousand. Brains are weird. 

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We finished watching the most recent season of the British Baking show.

It was lovely, as always, and I was particularly smitten by Tasha.

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The other night my husband and I watched Trevor Noah’s latest special, “Where Was I.”

Some friends of ours recently got to see him live and they said it was the best — such good fun — but my favorite Noah creation is still this.

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And a couple weeks ago, my husband and I were both kinda blue and worn out, and as I opened Netflix I said, “I just wanna see something funny, like 20 minutes of stand-up,” and, wouldn’t you know, this popped up.

We watched the whole thing in one go. Mike Birbiglia has such a gift for spinning a story: he appears to jump from one thought to another, but in the end he pulls it all togethes and ties it with a bow. (My favorite Birbiglia production of all time is this one.)

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I gobbled up the most recent (and final) episode of The Crown.

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And finally: the second season of High On The Hog is out now.

I watch it in bits and pieces, slowly making my way through. It’s a history lesson told through the lens of food, which makes for the best sort of history lesson, I think.

This same time, years previous: wedding weekend: the celebration, right now, balsamic-glazed roasted butternut squash and brussel sprouts, 2016 garden stats and notes, dancing mice and other Christmas tales.