BLOG: Experiencing love, life and the after-life through stories

Here are some things across the internet that I found or recently rediscovered that are really freaking cool and interesting.

Music:

“Love Me Like There’s No Tomorrow” by Freddie Mercury – On what would have been his 73rd birthday (Sept. 5), Universal Music re-released this song with a new animated video to call attention to The Mercury Phoenix Trust. The video shows two white blood cells falling in love while one of them is battling AIDS, the diseases that led to Mercury’s death. This video is a stunning 2D animated rendition of one of Mercury’s solo works and hits all of the feels. 

The creators behind “Love Me Like There’s No Tomorrow,” Esteban Bravo and Beth David, are best known for their Oscar-winning, computer-animated short “In a Heartbeat.” This adorable story is of a boy trying to keep his heart (that popped out of his chest) from alerting a fellow student that he has a crush on them.

“Thunder Thighs” by Miss Eaves – The banner of her YouTube Channel says everything you need to about this song and her music – “A Feminist Sound Storm Making Thunder Thighs Shake.” Shantony Exum, aka Miss Eaves, has a lot of high energy and witty tracks on her YouTube Channel by other faves being “TNT” and “Exposure Kills.”  In addition to directing and making merch for her comedy content and music, Eaves runs “The Every Body Project.” The blog is dedicated to expanding the definition of beauty by uploading photos of people in their stylish attire.

Must Watch: 

“What We Do in the Shadows” season one  – A few years ago, I was introduced to the film “What We Do in The Shadows” and became obsessed. Upon hearing it would become a television show, I was ready before the first trailer dropped. The mockumentary structure of the tv series follows the 2014 movie with four vampire roommates plus their familiar (human servant/assistant) as they navigate the present. The show features new faces and is set in America rather than New Zealand. Any fan of Taika Waititi’s work, the director of “Thor Ragnarok,” Jermaine Clement, absurd dark humor or just anything having to do with vampires would love this. This show, currently streaming on Hulu and Fox Now, is slated to return to FXX in 2020. 

“The Good Place” season one through four – This hilarious and thought-provoking show is very complicated to explain, especially without spoiling it, but easy to follow. “The Good Place” is about Eleanor, played by Kirsten Bell, finding herself in a heaven-like place after death because of the net positive effect she had on the world being selfless humanitarian. The only problem is a mix-up occurred and now she has to blend in as a good person, even though she is just an unbelievably vile person.

The show features a fantastic cast of other “Good Place” inhabitants with my personal favorites being Jason, played by Manny Jacinto, and Janet, played by D’Arcy Carden. If you are at all a fan of philosophy, comedy or shows on NBC like “Brooklyn 99” do yourself a favor and watch this. The first three seasons are streaming on Netflix.

Must Reads: 

“The Confessions of Frannie Langton“ by Sara Collins – This gothic follows Frannie as she retells her life leading up to the trial for the murder of her mistress and her mistresses’ husband. Starting in a Jamaican plantation and ending in a prison in England, Langton slows peels back secrets revealing the truth of what happened the night they died and the truth of the racial experiments she was forced to assist in as before arriving in England. The racial experiments,’ that predates 20th century eugenics and the Tuskegee Experiments, purpose was to explain the biological differences of the races at a time when most European countries had outlawed slavery.

The books’ conception and research are almost as interesting as the book. Collins worked as a lawyer and raised a family before pursuing a lifelong passion – writing. She wanted to write historical fiction around the development of race science and hesitated writing about slaves. At the end of the novel she offers the resources she found in court documents and cites specific elements she drew when creating her novel. If you are an audiobook fan, she narrates the novel herself.

 “This is a story of love, not just murder, though I know that’s not the kind of story you’re expecting. In truth, no one expects any kind of story from a woman like me – no doubt you think this will be one of those slave histories, all sugared over with misery and despair. But who’d want to read one of those? No. This is my account of myself and my own life and the happiness that came to it, which was not a thing I thought I’d ever be allowed, the happiness or the account.”

– excerpt from “The Confessions of Frannie Langton” by Sara Collins

“A Woman is No Man” by Etaf Rum – This story follows three Palestinian family members across several decades navigating what it means to become a woman in their culture. The main struggle is succumbing to the pressures of marriage and motherhood or fighting to make choices for yourself. Abuse, family/social pressures, poverty, opportunity and status all influence the decisions these women make. A majority of the story follows Isra’s journey from Palestine to Brooklyn and then later Deya’s, her daughter, the final year of high school.

This book at the surface level may look like something of the past or far away, but the abuse, fear, pressures and trapped nature many of the women face in this book are real and happen everywhere. The oppressive and patriarchy is just concentrated in this book and you feel the fear for them. It also makes it easier to sympathize with those that are trying to make the best of the situation.

“Stop Calling My Daughter ‘Tomboys’” [MSN] – Finding Anam Ahmed on Medium, I read my way across the internet to this blog in which she discusses how people comment on her children when they play with toys considered “boy toys.” Most of us have faced comments about something we have done being “for boys” or “for girls” in our lives. This blog is interesting as it is from a parents’ perspective trying to combat societal gender norms pressured on her kids.

More Ya Know: 

Islamic Tartans – In the early 1900s, people in Scotland began the tradition of associating Tartan patterns with their family. Think of this as a family crest – but in plaid patterns. This expanded over time to include schools, regions in Scotland and groups of people. In 2012, the Islamic communities in Scotland officially got their own recognized. Being obsessively interested in both Scottish history/culture and the culture of people across The Levant it is amazing to see unity and a shared identity in fiber art.

“How ‘Midsommar’ Takes a Bad Trip | Anatomy of a Scene” [The New York Times] – This video by the New York Times features writer and director of “Midsommar,” Ari Aster, explaining the process of translating the effects of psychedelics on the main character over a scene. Watching this in theaters was really unsettling, but instead of shock uncomfortableness, it was built really skillfully.