This is a place to share recommendations for pop culture you’re enjoying in these stressful and socially-distanced times. Please keep any images or direct links you share safe for work and legal to share. Consider content warnings if you’re sharing things that are violent, sexually graphic, etc; bear in mind that many people may be in crowded homes without a lot of privacy! There is absolutely no need to connect your suggestions here with any of the themes of our class; I’d love to hear about the music you’re listening to, shows you’re streaming, games you’re playing etc.
12 thoughts on “Off Topic: Pop Culture Distractions”
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I’ll get things started!
I’m watching:
-Brooklyn 99 (Hulu): the funniest show of all time?
-Sex Education (Netflix): Sweet and funny, albeit very strange. CW: a bit of nudity and a lot of sex, including some plots involving sexual violence.
-Planning to add a lot of these to my various queues: https://www.polygon.com/2020/3/14/21178232/10-best-tv-shows-relaxing-chill-netflix-hulu-amazon-prime-disney-plus-streaming.
I’m reading:
-The Mirror and the Light (Hilary Mantel): the third book in the unbelievably good Cromwell trilogy (starting with Wolf Hall). I’ll admit that it does take place precisely during Rabelais’ lifetime but that’s not what makes it good.
-the Temeraire series (Naomi Novik): basically, the Napoleonic Wars but with dragons.
I’m playing:
-Monster Hunter World: a deeply stupid but addictive game about battling giant monsters. NOT vegetarian friendly.
-Hollow Knight: hard but rewarding metroidvania / 2d platforming rpg. Really beautiful, and weirdly relaxing despite the difficulty.
Definitely in need of pop culture distractions this week! I hope everyone is doing okay
I’m watching:
-Brooklyn 99, seriously it’s so good
I’m listening to:
– “Wasteland, Baby!” an album by Hozier
-The Beauty and the Beast soundtrack for some reason
-Kendrick Lamar
I’m reading:
-Re-reading the Kingkiller Chronicles, a really good but really hefty fantasy series
-A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles, a historical fiction about a man on house-arrest in a hotel in Moscow in the early 1900s
I’m playing:
-Tetris, like seriously I’ve been addicted to Tetris the past few weeks, those squares are just so damn good
-Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, as soon as I pick up my new Nintendo Switch from Best Buy! Ayyyyyy
Also I’m making a bunch of these bead lizards, they’re super fun and relaxing to make:
http://beadiecritters.com/patternpages/beadgecko.htm
Sophia, Breath of the Wild is seriously the greatest game of all time. If that can’t distract you, nothing can! Thanks for all of these suggestions.
I watch a lot of TV/movies with my parents and sometimes younger sisters in the evenings, so:
– Dark on Netflix (CW: nudity, dark themes, violence, but also in German which is fun)
-Alias, from the public library (spy show with Jennifer Garner from a million years ago but is so good)
-Frozen 2 (actually so cute and fun)
I play board games with my family more than video games:
-Pandemic — fitting, I know: team game, so hard 🙁
-Dominion (deck building card game)
-Puzzles!
Reading:
-last finished Jane Eyre (slow at the beginning but then so fantastic!)
-Wuthering Heights (I comfort-read classics!)
-want to re-read Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive series next (incredible fantasy, insane world building abilities)
-also recommend Temeraire!
I’m currently watching:
-My whole family is re-watching the avatar the last Airbender series!
-Also watching Brooklyn 99
I just bought a Nintendo switch and I’m playing :
-Pokemon sword & shield, lots of childhood nostalgia.
-Animal crossing as soon as it comes out
Listening to:
-A lot of Benee
-Goldlink
-Mahalia
I’m going to be playing A LOT of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, so I thought I’d drop my friend code here in case anyone wants to do some fruit/flower trading!! SW-3244-8616-4802. (And yes, I have played over 120 hours of BotW, but I have NOT finished it yet (because the thought of having no more story made me sad), though maybe I’ll get it out of the way soon. Also, Fire Emblem: Three Houses is so deeply corny but so deeply good– highly recommend if you want a time sink, even if you think you don’t like turn-based RPGS (I also think I don’t like turn-based RPGS). The story is sooooo intricate and engrossing (again, despite being as melodramatic as a thing can be). I have played the game three times and there are four possible routes to go down!)
My latest find: live cams from zoos and aquariums around the world. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coronavirus-zoos-aquariums-live-stream-animals-isolation-quarantine/
I particularly recommend the Houston Zoo’s elephant yard, for frequent baby elephant sightings: https://www.houstonzoo.org/explore/webcams/elephant-yard-cam/.
Club Penguin is back in a big way babeyyy! By that, I mean there’s a fan-made server that is an exact replica of our nostalgia-inducing, flipper-wagging childhood favorite. cprewritten.com !
I may or may not have spent far too many hours on this adopting some….a few…….. ten….. puffles. But one of them is named Pantagruel! So there!
Ok just fyi for anyone looking to adopt a digital penguin (? i have no idea what this all is) you want cprewritten.net, not .com. Thanks for the suggestions everybody – keep them coming!
I was actually watching a lot of shows during the semester and haven’t really been watching during break, but those are:
– Atlanta
– Cowboy Bebop
– Curb
– Loosely keeping up with b99.
I’m also thinking that now is probably a good time to start rewatching Avatar the Last Airbender, which is probably my favorite series of all time.
For anyone interested in skiing/mountaineering, I’ve been watching a lot of Cody Townsend’s ongoing YouTube series, The Fifty, where he’s climbing and skiing 50 of the most iconic lines in North America. They’re short, 8-12ish minute episodes of some super cool climbing and skiing! For those who have no interest in watching a long series but want to see how badass Cody is, check out this unbelievable line he skied in 2014 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlXk49Mh7go).
I’ve also been watching and playing a lot of online chess (if you want to play, pls reach out!!), and recommend the channel ChessNetwork for those who love super dry chess humor and 4 hour chess videos (very helpful if you have trouble sleeping as I do).
I’ve been trying to explore a lot of modern and older soul/funk influenced hip hop, with marginal success. I highly recommend Busty and the Bass for this, specifically:
– baggy eyed dopeman (in collab with George Clinton)
– miss judge
– the real
My brother got pokemon sword on his switch, which I’ve been playing a ton of. I could be wrong on this (would love to hear other opinions), but I feel like they’ve made the games soooo much easier. Before, you would go through a tunnel or cave, and there would be people at the end ready to crush your spirits. Now, they heal you before/after everything. I’d also love to see a pokemon game with the free world exploratory nature of breath of the wild…
Also, I just watched swiss army man on netflix last night, which is a very weird movie about a kinda creepy dude, so I’d definitely do a little research on the cw’s before you watch it, but there is a TON of the lower bodily stratum in it. I was thinking about Bakhtin for the whole movie.