The Week of Texts from Tokyo

I dropped my parents off at the airport on Friday morning and off they went to Tokyo. I confess that I miss them! They have been sending some nice updates from Japan, though, and I'm happy to see that they're enjoying exploring the city and the food and have (unsurprisingly, if you know them) already been to a jazz club.

This afternoon I decided to visit the Harn Museum of Art to see the newly-opened exhibit, History, Labor, Life: The Prints of Jacob Lawrence. I was actually unaware of the fact that Lawrence was prolific as a printmaker, since the sixty works in his magnum opus Migration Series are paintings. I also did not know that Lawrence did several series in the 1930s and 1940s, including ones on Toussaint L'Ouverture, Harriet Tubman, and John Brown. I found the final series particularly eye-catching, with sharper lines and brighter colors than the rest of his oeuvre. 

And then, of course, I had to head off for a beer and a snack. 

Here's what captured my attention this week...

I'm reading: I'm still working on Lauren Groff's Fates and Furies and The Third Generation by Chester Himes. I'm enjoying the former so far. I'm still in the first section, seeing the marriage of Lotto and Mathilde from Lotto's perspective. Groff is masterful at moving the story along, giving the reader rich details but never lingering too long on any event or moment, but I also understand  people's critique that it's overwritten. Many, if not most, of the sentences are beautiful... but there are some sticky, saccharine clunkers every now and again. I'm looking forward to the second half of the book, because I've heard that there's a big twist when the book transitions to Mathilde's perspective.

What to say about The Third Generation? It hasn't been my favorite read of the year. It's a thinly-veiled autobiography, a fictionalized retelling of Himes's early life and his love/hate relationship with his parents. Perhaps I will write more about it next week, after I've finished the book. I'm two-thirds of the way through right now, though, and at this point I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. 

I'm listening to: Ray Brown, John Clayton, and Christian McBride's "Poppa Was a Rolling Stone." My dad has Sirius satellite radio in his car, and as I was driving home from the airport on Friday morning this song came on the Classic Jazz station. It was a perfect accompaniment to the sunrise.

I'm watching: Queer Eye on Netflix. Oh my goodness, I've cried during every episode! I started watching it for the design, fashion, and grooming segments, and ended up binge-watching six episodes because the stories that unfurled during the makeovers were touching and profound. I didn't expect to find such an interesting portrayal of contemporary masculinity and identity politics, but they manage to cover a lot of ground by making over men of different backgrounds, ages, and even sexualities. 

What are you reading, listening to, and watching this week? 

The Week of Atlanta

I skipped posting last week because my husband came to visit me in Gainesville for a few days, and this Sunday's post is three days late because we spent the weekend in Atlanta catching up with old friends. The weather was perfect, and for two full days we walked from restaurant to restaurant. It was pure hedonistic pleasure. I ate barbecue, and brunched three times, and drank so much beer.

Before and after this mini-vacation, however, I did manage to get a tiny bit of reading and writing done. On Monday I published an essay on The Metropole about the children's books that inspired my interest in urban history. My mother spared me the embarrassment of leaving a comment, but did express her relief that the thousands of dollars she spent on books for her children seem to have been worth it. 

Here's what captured my attention this week...

I'm reading: I finally finished The Sympathizer, and my (probably unpopular) opinion was that it took too many pages to make the unremarkable argument that revolutionary wars turn revolutionaries into the type of authoritarians they sought to overthrow. And I was underwhelmed by how the confession was used a framing device. I've now moved on to Lauren Groff's Fates and Furies--which so many friends, and Obama, have recommended--and to The Third Generation by Chester Himes (for research purposes). I'm just two chapters into each book, so I'll report further on them in the coming weeks.

I'm listening to: Camilla Cabello's hit song, "Havana." It wormed its way into my head after listening to the most recent episode of my fave podcast, Switched on Pop. 

I'm watching: I saw Black Panther, y'all, and it was great. Check out the Wakanda Syllabus for readings about the comic, afro-futurism, pan-Africanism, black nationalism, and African history.

What are you reading, listening to, and watching this week? 

The Week of Newshour

Over the past seven days, I juggled so many different projects that by the time I sat down for dinner with my parents each evening it felt like two or three days had elapsed. My parents, who never let us eat in front of the television when we were growing up, now regularly dine with Judy and Chris and Lisa and William and Yamiche and Jeffrey and Paul and the guests of the PBS Newshour. Clearly, even though we do not actually know these people IRL, they feel like family. 

Here's what captured my attention this week...

I'm reading: The Sympathizer, still, because I got sidetracked this week by reading an almost-final draft of a forthcoming book for young readers. It should be released later this year, and, because it is so good, I will definitely write more about it.

I'm listening to: Desert Island Discs from the BBC. I've been in a musical rut lately, only wanting to listen to the same familiar albums over and over again. Desert Island Discs is a great way to find new music (Welsh Miner's Choirs), or be reminded of old favorites that you haven't listened to in a while and now finally feel fresh again (Oasis). The concept is simple: each week a guest joins host Kirsty Young to share the eight tracks they would take with them if they were to be stranded on a remote tropical shore. Young is a crafty, experienced interviewer who never asks the same reductive questions--she manages to draw out new information from even the most media-trained celebrities. So you hear interesting stories, learn from accomplished people, and listen to (mostly) great music. And it will make you begin to wonder what eight tracks, book, and a luxury item you would take with you if (god forbid) you were cast away.

I'm watching: The Olympics, duh. For two weeks every other year, I pack away my cynicism and blind my critical eye and become a rabid patriot. It's a holdover from back before I knew better, and I feel like if I kill the enthusiasm I'm also killing a piece of my childhood. 

What are you reading, listening to, and watching this week? 

The Snowbird Manifesto

I want to propose a radical idea: you do not have to wait until you are in your 60s and retired to become a snowbird.

Why should you winter in warmer climes? There is no snow to shovel or slush to slosh through. The skies are brighter and there are fewer grey days. The sunshine is energizing. You do not have to keep track of mittens.

I understand many people have jobs and families that keep them from spreading their wings and flying south as soon as the weather turns cold. But if you hate the winter, find a way to escape it--for a weekend, a week (or several), even month(s).   

If you work for yourself, what's tethering you to home? Can you work remotely from a friend's guest bedroom in Miami? Do a home swap with someone in San Diego? Convince a client in Tucson to fly you down for a week or two of consulting and workshops?

Academics: get a grant! Find an archive in the sunbelt and apply for travel funds. Cancel lectures for a week in February and make your students do fifteen-minute meetings with you on Google Hangouts to discuss papers. Head to the airport and spend seven days replenishing your stores of Vitamin D.

Have a desk job and kids in school? Play hooky. Take off a Friday and a Monday and find a non-stop flight to somewhere warm. It doesn't have to be an expensive destination; you can skip the beach resorts and touristy places. Book an AirBnB in a residential neighborhood and spend your days playing outside in the yard or at local parks. Do what you would do if you were staycationing at home in summer. 

My point is: retirement is wasted on the old. Travel now, while you have your health and resilience. Who knows if our generation will even be able to afford to retire? Might as well invest that money in your mental health--maybe it will prevent you from impulsively quitting your job in a fit of late-February pique. 

The Week of Escaping to Florida

It's overcast today in Gainesville, but you won't hear a peep of complaint from me. I'm wearing a t-shirt and a light sweater instead of a heavy coat and wool hat (and scarf and gloves and snow boots). The greatest frustration I'm currently facing is not how I will navigate from appointment to appointment in the freezing cold and slush--it's that the internet has been out at my parent's house for the past four days, and there is no end in sight. I've been spending a lot more time at Starbucks than I anticipated, but I also found a beautiful co-working space in East Gainesville (MindSpace Collective) that I would highly recommend to anyone needing a friendly, zen place to get stuff done.

Here's what captured my attention this week...

I'm reading: I'm a third of the way through Viet Thanh Nguyen's The Sympathizer, which several different friends recommended to me. It's about a Vietnamese double-agent who, while spying on the American-backed Southern Vietnamese military for the communist Northern freedom fighters, is evacuated to the United States and becomes a refugee in Los Angeles. I was pretty ambivalent about it for the first fifty pages, but now feel invested in the moral struggle of the protagonist. At what point does your loyalty to an ideology--the actions you take to support and maintain it--actually degrade the integrity of the ideology's values? 

I also read and enjoyed Issue #7 of True Story, a mini-magazine put out by Creative Nonfiction. In "Take Your Son to Work Day," author Andrew Maynard describes his father's work as a pro-bono lawyer defending inmates on death row. Without ever being didactic, the story demonstrates why due process is so important to the pursuit of justice--even when a criminal is incontrovertibly guilty of a heinous crime. 

I'm listening to: Alicia Key's album HERE, after enjoying her PBS Great Performances Landmarks Live in Concert special.

I'm watching: Last night I went with my parents to The Hippodrome Theater's production of The Royale and we all loved it. It is a timely and moving drama about the collateral damage that black communities endured as they fought racial discrimination in early-twentieth-century America, and this particular production was brilliantly staged. You can watch an excerpted scene from the play here, and I would encourage you to keep your eyes peeled for a local performance in your area. 

What are you reading, listening to, and watching this week?