Three Good Things

Ross Gay, We're Here, Ariana Grande

I got my book signed. What a delight!

We did our yearly day of yard work yesterday. We’re not yard work people, but once a year, usually around now, we have to go out there and deal with the jungle our yard turned into over the winter. I saw a video on TikTok about not throwing out your dead plants in early March because bugs (?) are hibernating (?) in the dirt. Once you see wasps and bees flying around, it’s safe to throw them out. This week I noticed wasps and bees flying around, so I finally threw my dead plants away.

Before too long, the heat will turn everything brown and the combination of heat and mosquitos will drive me inside, but today - today, everything is green and the mosquitoes aren’t here yet. The yard is full of birds, bugs and bunnies. What a delight!

Hanif and Ross for FAN

Ross Gay

I had a very Ross Gay week, which isn’t to say I had a week filled with delights, I did, but what I mean is, I had a week filled with Ross Gay. It started last week with Delight, an event to celebrate The Porch’s 10th anniversary. Gay was the featured guest.

The event was a blast. I forget how many people I know in the Nashville reading and writing community. It was great seeing so many friends and catching up with folks I haven’t seen in four years.

I’m frequently reevaluating my ‘vert status: extro or intro. About a decade ago, my workplace tested us and I was an extrovert. Then the pandemic happened and my therapist suggested I’m actually an introvert. After seeing so many friends at the event, and talking and socializing for hours, I am once again asking …

While Gay was in town, I took a writing class with him and attended a reading followed by a book signing. It was a delightful 24 hours. Then a few nights later I watched him interview Hanif Abdurraqib on Zoom for FAN, which was so good!! I love watching two authors who are friends in real life talk and/or interview one another. What a delight!

If you’re new to Ross Gay, start here. I’m currently reading this and moving on to this next. You might also like his episode of We Can Do Hard Things (ep. 216) from last summer.

We’re Here, S1

The hill I will die on is that we were a real country when we had TiVo and Google Reader. Bring back TiVo! I cannot keep track of what shows come out when, or what streaming service they’re on. I have every streaming service and I still end up watching reruns of Frasier most nights because it’s too overwhelming to remember what’s out and which app it’s on. I know companies don’t care about consumers or user experience anymore, but hear me Big Tech, this is untenable!

So anyway, I started watching season one of We’re Here on HBO and it’s my new favorite show. Bob the Drag Queen, Shangela and Eureka travel to small towns that are usually not friendly to drag queens, Black people, queer people or trans people, and put on a drag show. But the show isn’t about how terrible all these towns are. It’s about how all these towns have queer community, and how that community deserves to be seen and celebrated.

Each queen finds someone in town to become their drag daughter and they spend a week with them, getting to know their family and friends and rehearsing for the show. At the end of the week, they put on a huge drag show for the town. I have cried during every single episode. If you like the idea of Queer Eye, but cringe during every episode, We’re Here may be a better fit for you.

Ariana Grande: “eternal sunshine”

Keep It with Ira Madison III and Louis Virtel is one of my favorite podcasts. Last week on the pod, Ira kept talking about “ponytail.” He was telling Louis that he couldn’t get into “Cowboy Carter” and kept going back to ponytail. I was like, what in the world is ponytail? Then I realized through one million context clues that ponytail is Ariana Grande.

I have never paid for Apple Music or Spotify. I am an old and thusly still listen to music via what I own and have imported into iTunes. Do I also still have an Ipod? Maybe! But I recently got Apple Music, so I decided to stream (is that what you call it?) “eternal sunshine” by ponytail/Ariana Grande. Maybe it’s because I was influenced by Ira, or Grande’s SNL appearance, but I love this album and can’t stop listening to it. My favorite tracks are “bye,” “the boy is mine” and “imperfect for you.”

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If you have three things you’re into right now, I’d love to hear about them!