june 2024
hello! this missive is belated on account of my birthday is at the end of june, after which i need time to recover. naturally, i am not capable of writing a draft ahead of time. anyway, i’m another year older but no wiser, so let’s dig in!
watch: The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934). watched this with friends who had all read the book(s), while i merely had a vague memory of the 1980s movie. WHAT a time. leslie howard is fantastic. the men’s costuming is fantastic. the way leslie SPEAKS. merle oberon is gorgeous but also very young and, i think, a little outclassed. but still. what a time. the full movie is available on youtube and i highly recommend it.
read: The House of the Red Balconies by A.J. Demas. demas has been one of my favourite writers of romance since i first encountered her, and this book has not changed that. red balconies is set in her ancient faux-mediterranean, on an island known for its tea houses, where courtesans entertain. the romance is between the serious engineer who has come to the island to build an aquaduct and a courtesan, both of whom have complex histories. demas is so good at creating characters who feel like they have lived real lives. this is such a joyful book.
read: i’ve read a lot of books by Josh Lanyon recently, initially because my library had so many of hers available to borrow on hoopla, but she’s a solid writer of queer romantic mystery. she’s been writing for a long time, and i enjoy how not-pc a lot of her writing is—not in an offensive way, just in a way less bound by the strict, very-online rules by which queer people are expected to write and be written about these days. this box set of historical novellas was a fave.
telly: Bridgerton Season 3. i got completely sucked into the new season of bridgerton. i watched both of the previous seasons and found them largely fine, but the new one was split in half, a consequence of which was i spent a solid two weeks consumed by thoughts of colin bridgerton and penelope featherington. i watched interviews with the cast. i reread their book*. finally, the second half of s3 dropped and it was—fine! and i moved on with my life. but those 2 weeks of madness were fun.
visit: Beauport (1907). i journeyed to gloucester, massachusetts specifically to visit Beauport, also called the Sleeper-McCann House. it was built beginning in 1907 by henry davis sleeper, a pioneer in the american field of interior design, as both a summer house and a showcase of his abilities. it’s a FANTASTIC house and was well worth the trip. i’d taken the virtual tour, but there’s nothing like moving through a space.
game: Powerwash Simulator (2022). game of the year. i’m not kidding. i first played this back in january, but revisited it this month. my assessment has not changed. this is a game in which all you do is powerwash. you have a powerwashing business, people hire you to clean things, and while you are cleaning them they communicate via text with you, messages which show up on your screen. using that method, the game slowly lets you in on the goings-on in muckingham, where you live, and you become aware of the slowly escalating stakes of the game. the storytelling is SO clever and fun, and if you, like me, enjoy watching powerwashing videos online, then buddy is this ever for you. i love to put on a podcast and let the world slip away.
pod: 5-4. speaking of podcasts! 5-4 is a podcast made by three lawyers about the supreme court. each episode is about a specific case, although they sometimes go outside that format to talk about a concept enshrined by the court (qualified immunity, for example) or current events. the hosts position is that the court sucks and i gotta say that i agree!
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