Watching, listening, reading.

I have a weird relationship with media. I am a proud non-TV owner, yet sometimes I binge-watch Netflix shows (anyone else counting down the days until June 12, when Orange is the New Black's 3rd season comes out?!). I'll go weeks without reading a book for fun (thanks, school) and then devour 6 books in as many days. My introvert mind prefers silence more than background music/radio, but occasionally I find myself listening to ALL THE THIS AMERICAN LIFE.

I've been in a media-consumption phase lately. Here are some of my favorites from the past few months:

WATCHING:
+Lena Dunham's brilliant Girls - I have binged on almost all of Season 1 in the past 24 hours (I'm home sick today, boo). Shoutout to my friend J for sharing his HBO Go password, thus enabling this epic watchfest.
+Amy Schumer's dark, feminist observational comedy. This bit is especially amazing and contains large amounts of Tina Fey. Side note: if you ever question why women (and men) still need feminism, read some of the horrible, scary comments on Schumer's and Dunham's social media sites.


+Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, speaking of Tina Fey...a Netflix series written by Fey and starring Ellie Kemper.
+Grace and Frankie, also a Netflix series starring Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda. The four main characters are all NOT 19 and are ACTUALLY GOOD ACTORS...what a concept for US television!
+The newest seasons of Portlandia (which has grown on me, hated it at first) and Bob's Burgers (one of my favorite shows ever, mostly thanks to Kristen Schaal as Louise)

And a clear theme emerges in my recent TV consumption...feminism/cool women/strong women. Surprise! Next on my to-watch list: The Wire, Broad City, Season 7 of Parks and Rec. Now, moving on to aural media (is that a thing, like print media?)...

LISTENING:
+Still one of my favorite things on the Internet since I first listened to it in Culture, Ethnicity, and Health class.
+This American Life, duh.
+Serial - yes, this is old news, but if you haven't listened to it yet, get on it. Season 2 is coming!

READING:
+Undivided: A Muslim Daughter, Her Christian Mother, their Path to Peace...Very interesting but not as "undivided" as I had hoped. The mom was super annoying and basically whined the whole time about the fact that her daughter doesn't "know Christ," when all the poor daughter does is talk about how she respects Jesus as a prophet in the same way that she loves Mohammed as a prophet. I appreciate their transparency as they begin a difficult interfaith dialogue, but if their actions speak louder than their words about the kind of people their respective faiths produce, the Muslim daughter wins, hands-down.
+Homemakers: A Domestic Handbook for a Digital Generation...I picked this up at the library on a whim and liked it a whole lot more than expected. The author's idea for creating a cool coffee-table tray out of a cardboard box mold, concrete, and drawer-pull "handles" definitely made it onto my "to-make" list.
+Sustainable Happiness...An awesome collection of essays on practical ways to build community and become a producer instead of a consumer.
+Ashley's War: The Untold Story of a Team of Women Soldiers on the Special Ops Battlefield...Why hadn't I heard this incredible story before? I laughed, I cried, and I was thoroughly inspired. A must-read.

Up next: The Best of McSweeney's, Wheat Belly, and Fatal Vision. Man, I love the library!