Greetings, dear readers! It’s me, your long lost newsletter writer. I know you’ve been on the edge of your seat. I have been in recovery, after eight very, very, very hard months. I went to Ireland, which is as magical as you think, and came home to a much more peaceful and stress freeish life. Finally, things have settled and I have time to watch TV again. It’s all I really want.
So what has happened since I’ve been gone? Westworld 4 and Only Murders In The Building 2 have come out and I am waiting until the end of the seasons to binge so don’t bring them up. I know Westworld is terrible and I do not care. I will still love it.
I did see Martin Short and Steve Martin at the Hollywood Bowl on July 4th and it was the absolute best way to celebrate my favorite holiday, or really any holiday, or any day at all. If you have a chance to see them live, together or alone, do it.
My friendship quest is going excellently. In case you’ve forgotten, in January I decided to venture out into the world and seek new friends and while it’s been a little slow because my life was a gauntlet of pain and misery for the first six and a half months of the year (and the two preceding that) the quest has picked up significantly this summer. There are so many fun people in LA! If you would like to join two of the fun groups that I am leading, and doing an excellent job if I do say so myself, become a Royal Society of Arts Fellow (it sounds fancier than it is but honestly some of the people in it are SUPER FANCY), I’m the LA ambassador and so far I am extremely excited about all of the cool people who are fellows in the LA area. If you’re outdoorsy, you can join the LA chapter of The Outbound City Project, which I’m leading up, and come on fun hikes and stuff! I recently got a free tent so now I really have to make camping friends so someone can show me how to put it together.
Registrations are still open for jazz night friends and friends who enjoy food.
In health news, I am doing the Clean program cleanse, which is so good that last time I did it I became a vegan for five years. I just cannot recommend it enough. Even if you don’t like cleanses you’ll like this one. You get to eat chicken and lamb! And soup! I will share recipes! And hummus! I mean it’s really just the best. A hummus cleanse! As you can imagine, I was not doing my best eating ever during the Stressful Times and I drank a lot of beer in Ireland so when I came home I wanted to feel clean and healthy again and this program has never let me down. Pro tip: If you have time, make your own smoothies and soups rather than buying the shakes. It’s cheaper and that way you get more fresh veggies!
Also, after a long, long, looooong year I am allowed to work out again and I am obsessed with Yogasculpt at CorePower and highly recommend that you try it if you like hard, hot workouts. Which I do.
On to the recommendations!
Watch:
The Sandman (Netflix): If you are already in love with Neil Gaiman’s excellent graphic novels you’ve already seen The Sandman and don’t need me to tell you about it. If you haven’t… look, this is great and gorgeous and wonderful but also really really dark so just think about if it’s something you’re prepared for because oof. It’s dark.
We Feed People (Disney+): GIVE JOSE ANDRES HIS NOBEL PRIZE ALREADY.
The Anarchists (HBOMax): A bunch of anarchists move to Acapulco. You can pretty much guess what happens next.
Read:
One great thing about having my life back- I have time to read! I’ve read too many books to review here so follow me @katcalvin on Litsy, aka Instagram for books.
Listen:
This very good podcast episode about friendship and why it’s so hard to make friends in your 30s.
This DARK podcast about a cult that recently folded (kind of) and that should have been as well reported as NXVIUM but I’m guessing wasn’t because it has to do with women’s sexuality.
Sia version 1.0’s excellent live album Lady Croissant which I recently remembered and relistened to and reloved.