1, 9, and 15 for the identity asks!
1. if someone wanted to really understand you, what would they read, watch, and listen to?
Are y’all sure you’d want to understand me? lol
Read (I had to stop myself with just these): Anything Slavenka Drakulić or Joan Didion has written Nora Ephron in general but particularly Wallflower at the Orgy, Scribble Scribble, and Crazy Salad The Unquiet American: Richard Holbrooke in the World, edited by Derek Chollet and Samantha Power. Also, Holbrooke’s To End A War and Our Man, George Packer’s biography of Holbrooke Dame Rebecca West’s Black Lamb and Grey Falcon A World Restored: Metternich, Castlereagh and the Problems of Peace 1812-1822 by Henry Kissinger Anything by Wendy Wasserstein, but especially Bachelor Girls and Shiksa Goddess. See also Wendy and the Lost Boys by Julie Salamon D.R. Thorpe’s biography of Harold Macmillan Any of Joshua Jennifer Espinoza’s poetry The Star Wars Thrawn Trilogy and Duology by Timothy Zahn Michael Lewis’s Boomerang This House by James Graham Carla Del Ponte’s book about her time as the Chief Prosecutor for ICTY and ICTR Anything Fuchsia Dunlop, Elizabeth David, or Nigella Lawson has written
Watch: Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations, The Layover, and Parts Unknown Succession Schoolhouse Rock Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country Designing Women The 1995 Pride and Prejudice The Dean Martin roasts The Reese Witherspoon Vanity Fair Shakespeare Uncovered Election Mob Wives The TV series High Society starring Mary McDonnell and Jean Smart
Listen to: Generally anything from Marina Diamandis, but The Family Jewels and Electra Heart in particular Billy Joel (particularly Only The Good Die Young, We Didn’t Start The Fire, and River of Dreams) Taylor Swift, but only really from Lover onwards (with various selections going back to older albums) A lot of dadrock or adjacent in general (Depending on how you define dadrock, Queen/Rolling Stones/The Who/Santana/The Eagles/Bon Jovi/The Beatles?/Meat Loaf?) The Chicks, Sara Evans, and similar artists Beastie Boys Showtunes Mozart and Beethoven but particularly the dramatic or moody ones (so Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony’s Allegro con brio and his Ninth Symphony’s fourth movement. For Mozart think Lacrimosa and the Queen of the Night aria) but also Bizet’s Carmen
9. are you an artist?
God I wish I was artistically-inclined or capable.
15. five most influential books over your lifetime.
How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed by Slavenka Drakulić Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman After Henry by Joan Didion The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan Rubicon by Tom Holland
