Hello! Today: decolonising museums, a favourite mediocre rom-com, classic historical novels about Alexander the Great and my one and only attempt to become a fitness influencer. Staying on brand here! Hope you all have a lovely weekend. 

Article: When Museums Have Ugly Pasts by Adam Hochschild, published by the Atlantic in January 2020
The Royal Museum for Central Africa just outside Brussels opened in 1910 to showcase Leopold I.'s "personal colony", the Congo, which had by then become the Belgian Congo. Throughout the 20th century, it continued to express a colonial view of the world, with no mention of the millions of Congolese who died as a result of the brutal slave-labour system. In the 2000s, the museum promised change, and eventually closed for a complete overhaul for several years. In this article, Hochschild reviews the history of the museum (as well as Belgian attitudes towards its colonial past) and the changes and shortcomings after it reopened in 2018. Despite good intentions, it is still "un musée des Autres".

Film: Set It Up (2018), directed by Claire Scanlon
First, a caveat: this film is heterosexual nonsense. This is a Netflix rom-com about two corporate executive assistants who come up with a plan to get their bosses to chill out. Which obviously means that they're trying to set them up. Yes, it's silly, but it has made me laugh every time I've watched it. Zoey Deutch wears great outfits, her character is the right level of unhinged, and her boss is played by LUCY LIU who runs a fictional version of The Athletic (that's a sports journalism website for all you non-sports people out there). Who doesn't secretly want to become a great sports writer? Just me? Anyway, I really miss rom-coms and this is definitely one of the better recent ones. 
Note: Set It Up is streaming on Netflix.

Book: Fire from Heaven by Mary Renault (1969)
Oh to be a person who hasn't discovered Mary Renault yet! If you read and loved Madeline Miller's Song of Achilles (as you should), you will eat up Renault's trilogy about Alexander the Great, of which Fire from Heaven is the first and most cheerful one, focusing on his childhood. Renault combines intimacy with distance, a convincing attempt at accuracy with strangeness. Plus, all her books are incredibly readable in that I'm-in-a-bathing-suit-and-will-read-for-hours way. Is it an accurate portrayal of Alexander? Frankly, who cares. 
Note: If historical fiction about Ancient Greek or Roman emperors is not your thing (what??), check out Renault's The Charioteer (1953), a novel about gay WW2 survivors/conscientious objectors.

Other: The weird and wonderful world of youtube workouts
I'm mostly a yoga and long walks person, but recently I've gone down a rabbit hole of various youtube exercise classes with cheerful American instructors. Every day, the algorithm throws random workout videos my way, but the only one I've gone back to repeatedly is this dance cardio and barre one. Can I do the abs part? No. Are my arms weak? Yes. Do I feel better? Absolutely. This one ticks some important boxes for me: it doesn't have steps that are too complicated for me to follow (I'm uncoordinated), doesn't require me to do any sexy moves (I don't have them), and I'm not stomping on my neighbours' heads while doing it. Plus it burns through all my anxiety in 30 minutes. Thank you, Popsugar (?!). Am I a fitness influencer now?

That's it for now. Tell me what you loved this week. Take care!