Inputs - Jan 2022

For a while I've been thinking about how best to share the stuff I'm reading or watching or listening, without just posting them to Facebook. Substack is the obvious answer, but screw that. I don't need another platform that will eventually disappoint me. So we'll do it right here on the blog with a monthly feature I've named Inputs.

I spent 5 seconds on that name. You can probably tell.

Reading

I apparently finished six books in January. Hiding from Omicron had at least one pleasant side effect. They are all cataloged on the books page, so I won't go into detail here. Lassoing the Sun: A Year in America's National Parks by Mark Woods soothed my camping neglected soul in January. Likewise Only the Ball Was White: A History of Legendary Black Players and All-Black Professional Teams by Robert Peterson gave me a midwinter baseball fix. Due to the owners being billionaire assholes I'm probably going to be looking for a substitute Red Sox fix this Spring as the owners seem willing to forego hundreds of millions in revenue this year in the hopes of getting billions more later. But that is a subject for a different post.

Online, I found a few things that were worth bookmarking.

The Battle to Save Waikiki Beach is a long but very interesting look at how all the various competing interests make it hard to get stuff done, even when everybody accepts the danger of climate change and the need to do something.

100 hard rock and metal albums you need in your life delivers exactly what it advertises. And it's written by a long time internet friend.

An old Virginia plantation, a new owner and a family legacy unveiled is a great story about a family buying the plantation in Virginia where their enslaved ancestors once toiled.

Drivin' N Cryin' got some love in This underdog Southern band is getting a well-deserved victory lap

I also enjoyed this story of non-partisan bird walks led by the Audubon Society for congressional staffers.

Watching

Hitting the treadmill almost every morning means I've upped my screen time quite a bit. Treadmill viewing has included a re-watch of The Dirt, some Olympic Curling, and I'm almost done with Lupin, which is a fabulous crime mystery on Netflix.

Michelle and I blasted through two seasons of For All Mankind, the Ronald D Moore series on Apple TV about an alternate history where the Russians got to the moon first. It's the drama and tension of Battlestar Galactica brought to the Space Race.

We also watched the final season of The Expanse, which wrapped up things nicely while leaving one big unresolved thing that could power a sequel if Bezos is so inclined.

Speaking of final seasons, we also got through the first half of the final season of Ozark, a show filled with completely unlikable characters, except maybe for Ruth. She is a heroin dealer though, so likable maybe only goes so far. The last half of the season is due in June I think.

We also watched Summer of Soul, the Questlove produced flick about the music and culture festival in Harlem the summer of 1969 that got overshadowed by Woodstock and completely forgotten, until the footage was rediscovered in 2019. It's up for a well deserved Oscar and you should watch it.

Listening

The whole Spotify dust-up has me trying to listen to my music more and random streaming less. However, random Internet travels did unearth some fabulous new to me music this month.

Lawrence is a wildly talented brother - sister team from Brooklyn channeling the best of early 70s soul (think Stevie Wonder, think The Jackson Five, etc.) layered with modern pop sensibilities. Not my usual jam, I know, but holy crap are these kids good!

Also, Ghost Hounds is a blues rock / roots rock band from Pittsburgh that I have had on repeat play for the last week.

And that's it. We only left the house for necessary errands in January as we tried to do our part to limit the spread of Omicron. It was probably a futile effort as nobody else seems to give a fuck. However the three folks living in my house have managed to not catch any version of COVID-19, so there is that.