Erin and James (Crossroads Minute): 5 Recommendations for April 2020
1. mid90s - This is a movie written and directed by Jonah Hill that I watched last night when it was way too late to be watching it. It felt a little like Perks of Being a Wallflower, but with skate culture, but it was way more than that. I found it to be a very nuanced look at what it means to make (and keep friends) when you're a kid. Not just the kinds of friends that you have in elementary school (for the most part) out of necessity or proximity or because your parents are friends or whatever. Finding your people. Learning their strengths and their weaknesses. Putting your trust in them. Deciding what to do when they break that trust. Do you give it to them again? Do you cut your losses? The language is rather shocking, and the characters have some issues with toxic masculinity and misogyny, but none of the things they say or think are portrayed (at least as I saw it) as "good things to do". I really enjoyed this and all of the characters in it, however flawed. (J)
2. Writing Letters - We live in the age of email, of text, of Facebook Messenger, and I don't know about you, but I don't handwrite things longer than a Post-It very often. But we also live in the age of COVID-19 and not leaving the house for days (or weeks) on end, and we need something to occupy us. I got a letter in the mail recently from Tracy, one of my cohosts on Thnks Fr Th Lrcs, and it was so fun to get mail and to respond to her letter than I went ahead and wrote letters to a bunch of other friends too. And I'm going to keep doing it. Here are some suggestions for things to write about, should you feel stuck (and yes, these are just things I wrote about to the friends I wrote letters to):
- Your day (duh, but let's start off easy)
- Lists. Of things you like, things you don't like, things your friend likes, movies or TV shows you want to Netflix-watch with your friend. I wrote Morgan a list of 23 things that have flavor, inspired by the can of Dr. Pepper I was drinking. I wrote Raeanna a list of things that make people (in general) happy.
- Cast your mutual friends (or random celebrities, or neighbors--I'm not your mom, you do what you want!) in a play or movie or TV show.
- Write a story together. I made Daniel roll some dice to choose between some options I gave them, and then I wrote a scene starring Daniel and incorporating all those options. Then I wrote another letter and will write another scene continuing the story. You could also just start the story and then your friend has to write the next piece and then you take a turn, and then they take a turn, until it's done.
- Not much of a writer? Maybe you'd prefer to draw a picture. Tracy sent me a lovely picture she drew to go along with the ballad she wrote me.
- A poem. A ballad. A story written just by you.
- Share a favorite recipe!
Get creative. Use different color pens! I used orange to denote a subject change, which meant that when I got to James's letter and chose orange as the main color I quite possibly broke his brain by having every paragraph be a wildly different topic. (That's not true and we all know it. He loved it. I assume.) (E)
3. Middle Kids - Lost Friends - I listened to this album the other day, having put it on my random number generator list (a list that i put all potential podcasts/albums/radio stations that i might want to partake of at some point) after hearing two songs from it on the Australian radio station Triple J. This album was EXCELLENT. The vocalist can easily go between soft and lovely and positively shredding her vocal chords. The music follows suit. It's the kind of album that, even before it was over, I found myself thinking "Wow. This is good. I should tweet about it." and I did, but aside from a brief conversation with my friend James, didn't elaborate on why I liked it. I just really love a well-written, well-executed rocker. And that's what the songs on this album are. So good. (J)
4. One Of Us Is Lying/One Of Us Is Next by Karen M. McManus - I love thrillers, and I love YA, so it stands to reason that I love YA thrillers. Both of these are Very Good Books, and I was so stoked when One Of Us Is Next came out because McManus's last book was not the sequel I had expected it to be (it was good, but it wasn't what I had been hoping for). These are super quick reads, but in a good way--you don't want to put the book down. (E)
5. Just Crack an Egg - LOL. Okay so Ore-Ida makes these bowls that you can buy that have different ingredients in them and you add an egg, stir it up, and pop it in the microwave and then you eat it. I got the American Breakfast one (I don't remember exactly what the name of it was) which had like bacon and cheese and potatoes (because Ore-Ida isn't just NOT going to pop some 'toes in there (are we abbreviating potatoes to 'toes? No? Ah.)) and it was very good and very filling and very easy! So, like this isn't going to be recipe or anything, but I really enjoyed eating this and I will be purchasing it again! (J)