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andryuska · 6 years

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talk to me ( or us ,,,, ) about andrei and nature go wild my friend

let me talk / ramble on about andrei

a small preface; i’m just putting this under a read more because it is very long, and i ramble on a lot about things like the war and trauma and what have you. i’ve tried to separate each section ( natural spaces, animals, and the sky ) into two vague parts —- headcanons about what i think andrei likes, and the symbolism and meaning behind certain things. enjoy!

andrei & natural spaces

as much has andrei likes to hole himself up in his study with the blinds drawn, and sit in the almost cozy stuffiness of the room, there’s a sort of peace in quiet natural spaces that he also enjoys. something about landscapes with a few scattered trees, and perhaps a river, and distant hills or mountains makes him feel almost at peace —- and while he still finds it hard to turn off his thoughts and just let nature calm him, while he still has absolutely no chill, there’s still a peaceful quality to that sort of quiet. sounds like the window through the trees, whistling gently, makes good white noise, and he’ll often walk around the quieter places of his estate to escape any potential chaos in the household, and to take in the near-silence. he lives in the country for several years as well, and doesn’t really like the cramped city, instead feeling more at ease far away from large crowds and lots of noise.

something about winter especially resonates with him, and he doesn’t like to look out his window and see thick snow, but he kind of prefers it to the height of summer, when it’s a little too warm and going about is just uncomfortable. maybe good company might mitigate this a little, and distract him, but he prefers the late autumn and the winter, and feels a lot more comfortable in colder weather. it’s a little bit about distance too —- he likes it when the weather gives him a reason to have his fire lit as he’s in his study, reading or writing whatever suits his fancy. cold feels more natural.

( that said, when he’s cold and with someone he’s in love with, he’s all about closeness for warmth —- it’s one of the very few times when he feels comfortable permitting casual touch, when he’s in love or something like it, and a little chilly. )

there’s also some relation to nature that of course we cannot forget about, because really, who would i be to not include the time when he gets pretty emotional thanks to a tree. this tree, which when andrei sees it hasn’t sprouted anything despite the fact that it’s spring, and andrei feels a bit of a connection of it —- it symbolizes the fruitlessness he feels in his own life, and this disillusioned despair that he’s fallen into simply on a account of the experiences his years have given him. it seems to him that the tree scorns spring as well, as stupid and falsely hopeful, which definitely reflects what andrei thinks about life at that point. of course, he meets natasha very soon afterward, and had another moment with this tree when it’s in bloom, at which point he decides that his life is not over and actually, for a sadly short amount of time, actively tries to find purpose in life and seek happiness and love.

the oak, just as well, has scarred bark and broken branches —- similar of course to the trauma andrei himself has suffered at this point, and the fact that it can still bloom is a really hopeful sign. it makes me wonder what sort of the state the oak would be in after the french invasion —- part of me kind of pictures that oak tree dead after 1812.

there’s also a bit of a nature motif with andrei, with barren landscapes —- when pierre comes up to his house in 1806, it’s noted that there isn’t a lot of grass growing on the land, and much of the property it without lush wildlife. similarly, bald hills is not exactly described as a place of great natural beauty. it’s all very telling of the barrenness of andrei’s own life in terms of love and happiness, and reflects how he’s come to see the world as empty of growth and happiness —- the absence growth in andrei’s property is telling of the absence of growth he himself is experiencing, and i think that shows pretty well in the very simple and distant life he leads between austerlitz and meeting natasha. that bald hills is also not a place of much natural beauty plays into the parallels between andrei and his father, and that ever-constant theme that andrei is becoming more and more like his father as he ages.

another thing is the environmental stress that the war puts on the russian countryside being a reflection of the destruction that the war brings unto andrei himself. obviously war is not good for natural spaces, and leaves lots of beautiful places with scarred land that takes a long time to recover, and battles leave huge scars where they take place, due to both the actual process of fire, and the encampments around it that characterized this period in terms of military set up ( very classical, war of attrition style stuff ). just as the environment is worn down, as is andrei —- both mentally and emotionally, as he grapples with the stress of military affairs and the thoughts of his life back at home, and later, the whole deal with natasha —- which is sort of a parallel between him and natural destruction.

so, in summary, andrei likes nature and is symbolically linked to it, with environmental beauty and stress reflecting often what he feels.

andrei & animals

i think i’ve made a post about this already, but the basically this: andrei is not particularly fond of animals or attached to them, but he is very good with them. to him, animals are pretty functional —- horses are for riding and pulling carriages, dogs are for hunting, cats are for catching mice ( though admittedly, andrei does has a greater fondness for cats than others —– they, like him, like being quietly left alone to deal with their own business ) and he can’t really see himself as getting attached to an animal in a very personal way. he cares for them and tends them, of course, he won’t be cruel, but then he’s not going to be getting emotionally involved.

however, andrei has that demeanor that animals tend to be really keen to —- he’s very calm and composed, he doesn’t make loud noises or sudden movements, he won’t stare at them and make them uncomfortable. and so they’re often very calm around him as well, and any place that keeps pets will notice that dogs and cats might settle around him to sleep or try and get affection out of him —- he very rarely gives it, but he’ll get rubbed against to be sure. similarly, he’d a very steady rider and he’s always taken pretty well to being on horseback. if things happen, he won’t get uneasy, but will calmly handle the matter, which can be very settling for an animal that is confused and anxious for whatever reason.

aside from being on horseback for very functional reasons, we really don’t see andrei with an animals throughout war and peace, and i think that most i can say of that is that it speaks of a sort of coldness and detachment. he doesn’t have dogs, and just as well, isn’t a part of any real pack or group, he never really has the emotional dynamic with a number of people ( as opposed to the rostovs, who are featured in a very long section about hunting and family ). horses were common place, so there’s no value in looking into that. he never expresses anything really important about animals if i recall correctly, so really, he’s not the interested in them. he’d rather just be with himself, and no one else.

andrei & the sky

the very best and most beautiful use of both imagery and symbolism and war and peace? the use of the the sky ( and things in the sky ) as symbols of love, hope, and forgiveness. natasha looks up and sees the moon, and is in love with everything, and her hearing her speak of the moon is really when i think andrei falls in love with her, truly and fully despite having never really met her. pierre looks up and sees the comet of 1812 ( which actually happened in 1811 in late december, fight me dave malloy ) and is suddenly filled with the hope for a new and better life. andrei sees the sky at the battle of borodino —- i think austerlitz is a little different, so i’ll work backwards here —- and suddenly realizes the capacity of his forgiveness and love.

seeing the sky, this free and beautiful blue expanse that is just standing above this horrible and incredibly violent battlefield at borodino, is that experience which finally allows himself to be free of this contempt and anger that filled the months before. it’s almost something that teaches him that he can be above it if only he can love, and after seeing the sky at borodino, he suddenly becomes very keen to the importance of his love —- for him, the sky opens him to this thought that all exists because of his ability to love. not all of life is strapped down in violent war, not everything is about bitterness and loathing. there is something greater than him, greater than the forces of history, and because of it, he doesn’t need to hold on to his quarrels any more. he’s able to forgive anatole and love natasha, he’s able to move past a grief that has had a huge and terrible effect on him for a very long time. you could almost say that in seeing the clear sky, he can finally clear the air ( get it? get it?? )

seeing the sky before his death is arguably one of the most important moments in his life emotionally speaking, and it kills me that it has to happen at a point where he can no longer live —- even if, at that point, he has basically accepted his death.

which, speaking of, brings me to one of my favourite shorter quotes in the whole book. “ death is an awakening. ” i know that literally, he’s talking about a dream where he dies, and as he does, he wakes up and has this thought, but i’ve been thinking about it a lot, and i think that revelation, that death is an awakening, comes a little late for him. because the real awakening isn’t the dream, or seeing natasha or anything like that, it’s the moment where his death really begins —- the moment that he’s injured and staring up at the sky he has is awakening, and but this moment is also the beginning of a very long death. the sky, and the forgiveness that it represents, is the awakening that he’s talking about. in seeing the sky, he’s awakened to the fact that all exists because he loves, and that begins the moment he sees the sky, which happens to be the same moment when his death begins.

so what about austerlitz? because he has a bit of a moment with the sky there too —- and instead of filling him with love and forgiveness, it fills him with a sudden understanding of his own insignificance and likewise, the insignificance of all these armies commanded by great men. lying under the sky then, he’s suddenly met with disillusionment and smallness. it’s the very first moment where he understands that he’ll never be glorious, because there is no purpose in glory, and thus that they are all small and have no real way of changing history. so…. what gives?

i think if you look past the difference in effect, you can see the sky having a similar effect at both battles —- both times, it is an awakening, an injury that could be fatal ( that only is the second time ) followed by an immediate understanding of something that he had before been blind to. sadly, the first time his awakening is a very negative one, that leads him into a collection of years that are very miserable and isolated, wherein he feels like he has no purpose. the next time he really feels bright is with natasha and the moon, but that isn’t really his awakening —- he’s just witness to someone else seeing something, and we learn soon enough that it doesn’t go very well for him.

tl;dr —- andrei’s philosophical awakenings are tied to the sky, and his emotional state is tied to the environment. and he likes cats, but not that much.

#notusedtohappy #i honestly would not blame anyone for not reading this it is super long #this is over 2000 words #i literally have essays that are not as long as this #BUT if u get through it all tell me what u think #idk i really like these ideas they're important to me #characters with symbolic ties to the environment have been a recurring theme #in personal writing #and getting that angle out really makes me love my boy more #idk he's just such a good character u know???#there's so much there and ughhhhhh let me explore it #send me all the asks #let me ramble like i do here #headcanon #about #answered #i edited none of this be warned

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monterey-jack · 7 years

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Prologue Characters pre-Great Comet

Okay, so I’m already in the Great Comet part in War and Peace and I can’t concentrate because the words are literally the lyrics and so I sing when I read and I really can’t get into the story, so I decided to describe the characters before the Great Comet story.

Balaga is just for fun He was never mentioned yet. Guess he really is just for fun!

Old Prince Bolkonsky is crazy He really is fucking crazy!! He torments his daughter just because and hates his son for falling in love and wanting to marry again. I want to understand him because I'm living with my grandpa who's also cranky most of the time, but the old prince is just batshit. And now he wants to marry Princess Mary’s companion because he thinks since Andrey can marry anyone so can he. I just can't

Mary is plain It's always mentioned in the book that Princess Mary is plain, but after reading some chapters about her, I rather see Mary as saintlike. She's very simple and always praying and crying and if given the chance she'll renounce her worldly possessions and live like st. Francis. I find her weird.

Dolokhov is fierce Ah yes, the cold-hearted-to-everyone-except-towards-his-mother Dolokhov. He really is not that important before the great comet part. Fun fact: he proposed to Sonya (who is in love with Nikolai) when he was living with the Rostovs because Nikolai’s fond him and wanted him to stay with the fam. When he was turned down, he took 43000 rubles from Nikolai from gambling which caused the downfall of the family fortune. He's a dick.

Helene is a slut Well, she can charm men and women with her beauty, that’s why she was named Queen of Petersburg, while Pierre sees her as a stupid person. Fun fact: her affair with Dolokhov and the duel happened much earlier, I think right after her marriage with Pierre. she also had relations with Boris and other dudes supposedly, including Anatole.

Anatole is hot He is rarely mentioned, but he is generally described as handsome but dumb. And the money part? He flirts with Helene then borrows money from Pierre. And at the Petersburg party (where Natasha and Andrey first talked and danced with each other) he just passed by 16-year-old Natasha as if she's a fucking wall. (I think I'll get more furious when I get to him "falling in love" with her) Also, he was friends with Pierre at the beginning, where they had this huge party where everyone got fucking wasted and there was a bear and Dolokhov chugged a bottle of vodka while sitting on an open window facing outside at the 2nd floor. (There was no anakhov yet)

Marya is old school She was only mentioned once during a dinner party at the Rostovs, and she was described as le terrible dragon. Everyone is afraid of her, but she’s very loving and sweet to Natasha.

Sonya is good Yes she is so good that no one, especially Nikolai deserve her love and devotion.

Natasha is young True! Next to baby Prince Nikolai and Petya, she's the youngest. But I like that she acts beyond her years because shes the source of youth and happiness in the Rostov household and yet she can also act properly among the adults. But her separation with Andrei for a year is already taking its toll on her and she just spontaneously cries a lot instead of singing and dancing. Like, didn't I get enough depression from Pierre and Andrei already? Apparently not.

Andrei isn't here Our main guy here is someone who realized that glory in the war nor high society parties are the correct way of life and to happiness. Aka he became dead inside when he deeply regretted his first wife's death and instead of taking care of his son which is the only thing of what was left from his first wife he ran away and hid in the countryside until he saw Natasha. When he saw her, the old dead oak tree seemed alive to him and brought new hope and he thought that “life is not over at 31″. (And you think Natasha and Pierre have a huge age difference). Oh and why is he not here? His dad doesn't approve of Natasha and he wants him to go away for a year (hoping that within the year he’d die so he won't see the wedding). He extended for a few more months because his wound got opened and some other shit. What about Pierre? Boy, a lot happened to our 2nd main guy before he became a fat depressed sack of shit. Just like any young person at the beginning of the novel, he was searching for meaning in his life (y’know, like happiness and shit). But when he suddenly became Count Bezukhov it all went downhill. He’s a bit of a pushover and most of the time he's absent minded and very impulsive. He blindly married Helene, thought that people like him but they just like him for his money, and screamed and challenged Dolokhov over rumors of Helene’s affair with him in a fit of rage. He joined the Freemasons later on to know how to attain happiness but it's just a group of posh high society douchebags that's no different from Pierre's old life. Fun fact: I want him and Andrei to get married and live happily ever after forever, because only they have the purest relationship out of all of the characters in this goddamned novel. Like, he's the only person who knows about Andrei's engagement before Andrei's own sister. AND Andrei trusts him so much that he told Natasha and Sonya to go to him immediately if anything happens (which proved effective as we all know).

#long post is long #i would like to say thank you to great comet and the bbc adaptation to give me this much feelings before reading the novel #natasha pierre and the great comet of 1812 #great comet of 1812 #npgc1812 #war and peace #gianna posts

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fadingfartconnoisseur · 7 years

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AK Monthly Recap: June 2017

It feels like my first real summer in New York this year. Last year I spent a lot of time away — big trips to South Africa and Colombia, plus I left for the Fourth of July and Labor Day. But this year I’m determined to fully experience the city in the summer.

The verdict?

Summer in New York sucks.

Don’t get me wrong, I still adore this city — but summer is not when it’s at its best. The scent of urine in the air is particularly pungent. Standing on a subway platform is like being in a furnace. Layers upon layers of grime and sweat build up on your face. And the only way to truly cool off is to go somewhere inside with air conditioning.

Still, I’d rather be here than anywhere else.

Destinations Visited

New York, New York

Reading, Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, and Chelsea, Massachusetts

Asheville, North Carolina

Favorite Destination

Asheville is one of my new favorite getaways in the United States!

Highlights

Getting named one of Forbes‘ Top 10 Travel Influencers. A huge honor, a big surprise, and easily the highlight of my month.

Asheville was a fabulous trip. I fell in love with the city, its food scene and the lovely people who call Asheville home. I won’t get too into it because I just wrote the whole post about it, but it was lovely. I’d really like to go back and experience more.

Celebrating my dad’s birthday and Father’s Day on a beer tour of Boston. My sister arranged for the three of us to do a tour with City Brew Tours, which took us to four breweries around the area. It was a lot of fun! If you’re into beer, I would definitely recommend checking them out. They’re in several cities.

We finished with dinner at Myers and Chang, a favorite Boston restaurant of my sister’s and one I shockingly had never been to. They serve fusion Chinese-Thai-Vietnamese-Taiwanese fare and definitely lived up to the hype.

Seeing Allison Janney on Broadway in Six Degrees of Separation. Unfortunately, the play recently closed, but it was SO good! Hilarious and weird in all the right ways. Allison Janney elevates every project she’s in, but she’s almost always in supporting roles, so it was so nice to see her as the lead.

Exploring some new parts of New York. I did a trip to Little Italy in the Bronx and I know I’m going to be making more trips for the outstanding bocconcini (bite-sized mozzarella) at Casa della Mozzarella! I also checked out Coney Island, but it was rainy and a bit depressing.

Lots of visits from British friends. Three sets of blogger and travel industry friends from the UK came to New York this month! I was happy to see them. Sometimes it feels like the European travel bloggers don’t come to the States at all, so I was thrilled to spend time with them here.

I chopped my hair off. Not too too much, but I did lose a good six inches! I also re-colored it. I’ve been wrestling with whether or not to return to my dark natural color — has the blonde run its course?

Getting my first Stitch Fix and Trunk Club boxes. I’ve been wanting to change up my fashion lately and I was curious about the online services that choose clothes for you, so I decided to try out Stitch Fix and Trunk Club.

They’re similar. Stitch Fix sends you five items; Trunk Club sends you ten. Both charge a styling fee ($20 at Stitch Fix, $25 at Trunk Club) which you can put toward your purchase. Also, Stitch Fix gives you a 25% discount if you buy all five items. Stitch Fix sends you styling ideas with the items; Trunk Club pairs you with a personal stylist you use each time.

Between the two services I definitely prefer Trunk Club. The clothes were much higher quality and fit me better. I like building a relationship with one stylist, and the clothes are all from Nordstrom, which I love. If I had a bigger budget, I would have bought more of the items (but I can’t justify spending $147 on a flannel, even if it looks awesome on me).

I did end up with two pieces I love — cool distressed skinny jeans with a fringed hem from Stitch Fix and a fabulous coral lace dress from Trunk Club. I’m definitely going to continue with Trunk Club.

Challenges

I got stuck in delay hell in Charlotte. There were storms in New York when I was due to fly back from Asheville, and my flight kept getting delayed and re-delayed every hour, then cancelled, then I got booked on the last seat on another flight home. I was supposed to be home by 4:00 PM; I didn’t get home until 1:30 AM.

It would have been so much better if the delay had been all at once, not an hour at a time!

Also, my phone has started to fall apart, but I really don’t want to get a new one when the new update is a few months away…it’s running on borrowed time.

There were also a few setbacks this month that I’d rather not go into. Nothing that couldn’t be fixed with a viewing of Dead Man On Campus.

Most Popular Instagram Photo

People love a good door. This shot from Cartagena did well. For more updates from my travels, follow me on Instagram at @adventurouskate. I am soooo close to hitting 100k…

Fitness Update

I had the most unlucky week at the gym this month. On Tuesday, I had to quit a fitness class halfway through for the first time ever. It was Tabata (a series of drills where you do 20 seconds of exercise followed by 10 seconds of rest) and though there isn’t much I can’t do for 20 seconds, it was so exhausting that I was seeing stars and felt like I was going to faint. Leaving the room and sitting down made me feel better, but I didn’t go back.

Also, fuck burpees. I hate them so much.

Then on Wednesday my Zumba instructor was a no-show (first time that’s ever happened), so I decided to attempt running on the treadmill instead, and though I was doing a modest two minutes of running at 6 mph followed by one minute of walking at 4 mph, I felt a twinge in my knee and had to stop. I couldn’t do stairs without pain (not fun in NYC).

Then on Friday I mixed up the times, again for the first time ever, and was late to Zumba. Oh well. At least I had my personal training session right after and I’m lifting more weight than I was last month!

What I Read This Month

We’re officially halfway through the year and I’m 36 books into the 52-book 2017 Popsugar Reading Challenge! I actually read eight books this month, four of them from Book of the Month (where you can get a new book for three months for $9.99 each — US only). Here we go.

Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney (2017) — This is my favorite novel of the year so far. Lillian Boxfish is based on the life of Margaret Fishback, America’s highest paid female copywriter of the 1930s. Lillian takes a walk through gritty Manhattan on New Year’s Eve 1984, meets characters along the way, and reminisces about her life. It was as much of a love letter to a transforming New York as it was a story of an incredible life. I absolutely loved the author’s use of language.

If you are an independent woman, a writer, or a New Yorker, you must read this book. If you like smart books and memorable characters, you’ll adore this book. As the book ended, I felt so sad — I wish I could go for a walk with Lillian in real life! Category: a book set around a holiday other than Christmas.

The Explorer and Other Stories by Jyrki Vainonen (2013) — Did you know that “Finnish weird” is a genre of literature? They don’t use literary agents in Finland, so they’re less commercially minded and thus publish a lot of strange literature. I love Finland, so I was eager to jump in!

These stories are weird. “The Explorer” is about a man who decided to journey into his wife’s thigh. That kind of stuff. I found this collection of Vainonen’s stories similar to Ottessa Moshfegh’s Homesick for Another World, but not as repulsive. At 92 pages, it’s a quick read. If you’re planning a trip to Finland, pick this book up! Category: a book from a genre/subgenre you’ve never heard of.

The Mothers by Brit Bennett (2016) — Three teenagers growing up in an evangelical black church in San Diego make a decision that haunts them for years after and throws them into turmoil. The book centers on motherhood — characters’ mothers, how they mother each other, and the book is narrated by a chorus of mothers in the congregation.

I loved this book — and at the same time, it made me so sad for each of the characters. I wanted to take care of all of them in the end. The book is also a study on how evangelical communities too often blame the woman when anything goes wrong in a family. Category: a book with a family-member term in the title.

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles (2016) — What a magnificent book. Lush, cinematic, and beautiful. Count Rostov, a 30-year-old aristocrat, is sentenced to house arrest for the rest of his life in the grand Metropol hotel in Moscow. Through this predicament he tries to find beauty and meaning however he can as Russia changes exponentially — and the results are deeply moving.

I want this book to become a movie SO badly! It sounds a lot like The Grand Budapest Hotel, but so many of the scenes are described so beautifully, and the dialogue is incredibly witty. I definitely had a crush on the Count at one point. This book will leave you with the biggest smile on your face. Category: a book set in a hotel.

Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin (1825) — This was my book club’s pick of the month — a Russian novel written in verse! Eugene Onegin is a man sent from the city to the country following a relative’s death, and he has a number of adventures in life and love. The entire book is written in verse, and I was very impressed with the translation.

It’s funny, it’s light, it’s delightful, and it’s something different. It did help to go through Wikipedia after reading each chapter and seeing what I missed, though. Between this and A Gentleman in Moscow, I’ve awakened a new interest in Russian literature and culture. My friends and I want to celebrate this book in Russian style at our next meetup — so we might go to Brighton Beach in Brooklyn (a.k.a. Little Odessa) or just hit up a vodka bar with a walk-in freezer! Category: a book with a title that’s a character’s name.

A Million Junes by Emily Henry (2017) — This is the closest I get to a summer read — a bright and fun book best enjoyed if you let go a little bit. Two teenagers in a rural Michigan town are the surviving progeny of two feuding families — and they’re cursed. Of course, they fall in love and try to undo the curse with the help of several ghosts.

At first I was rolling my eyes and thought the teenagers were too witty for their own good, Gilmore Girls-style, but once I let go, I began to enjoy the book a lot more. The book isn’t just an adventure, it’s also about dealing with grief and how you move on and live your life while honoring those you’ve lost. To my surprise, it’s one of the highest rated Book of the Month selections this year. Category: a book with a month or day of the week in the title.

The Gift: Poems by Hafiz, the Great Sufi Master, translated by Daniel Ladinsky (1999) — I’ve been curious about Persian poetry for awhile, so when I found a shelf devoted to Persian poetry at Malaprop’s in Asheville, I decided to pick up this volume. And what a surprising treasure it was.

Hafiz’s poetry is about celebrating the love of God — a funny, compassionate, deeply loving and giving God. The kind of God who is on your side, your best friend, cheering for you and helping you. I actually found out later that this is one of Elizabeth Gilbert’s all-time favorite books; knowing her brand of spirituality, I’m not surprised at all! If you want more poetry in your life, I highly recommend picking up this book or any of Hafiz’s poetry. Category: a book by an author who uses a pseudonym.

Dirty River: A Queer Femme of Color Dreaming Her Way Home by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha (2016) — I was recently putting together a list of my all-time favorite memoirs and was shocked to realize that almost none were written by women of color. I read a lot of books by women of color, but they tend to be fiction, so I’m making an effort to add some more memoirs to my list. If you have any recommendations, I’d love to hear them; Roxane Gay’s Hunger is next.

Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha grew up in Worcester, Mass., and this book is about her emigration to Canada, her discovery and celebration of her queer, brown, working class identity; her difficulties with disability; her struggles through severe poverty; and her coming to terms with her sexual abuse. This book covers so many perspectives that aren’t featured in mainstream literature, and for that reason alone this book is worth a read. She tells her story frankly and apologetically, and the scenes are richly painted (especially the South Asian queer events in Toronto). Category: a book by or about a person with a disability.

What I Watched This Month

It was time for my annual House of Cards binge, and it was awesome. It wasn’t my favorite season (that’s a tie between Season 1 and Season 4), but House of Cards on an off season is still better than most shows on television.

Just one thing — without revealing any spoilers, they mentioned a possibility related to the election that would have been SO cool to see play out, so unusual and dramatic that I was certain they were going to do it — and then they didn’t do it. It felt like Chekhov’s gun to me, and they ultimately did nothing with it.

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt was nice, if a bit off, this season. Of course, I loved the addition of Hamilton‘s Daveed Diggs to the cast! (And the “Boobs of California” song has yet to leave my head.)

Also — I saw Wonder Woman. SO good. It amazed me how remarkable and yet ordinary it felt to watch a feminist superhero movie with the male gaze removed.

Coming Up in July 2017

I’m heading back to the Keys! Florida Keys Tourism invited me to come back and try out some things I didn’t get to experience on my February trip. The Keys are one of my favorite new discoveries in the States lately; I’m glad I get to go back so soon. What am I most excited for? The Hemingway lookalike contest in Key West! I’ll be concentrating on Key Largo and Key West this time around.

And now I’m even more glad that I didn’t end up writing a post on where to find the best key lime pies in the Keys because I have time to do more research! Delicious, delicious research…

Other than that, I’m likely staying put in New York the rest of the month, but I’d love to get in some day trips around the region. There are boats that go direct to Jersey shore towns from Manhattan, and I’d love to get to City Island in the Bronx as well.

What are you up to this summer? Share away!

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