it appears i cannot shut up about the eras tour
or the Queen Charlotte premiere, a new Mulaney special, oh and i have A LOT of book thoughts
Last night, at the Eras Tour, as one of her surprise songs, Taylor Swift performed I Bet You Think About Me, which was one of my top 15 most listened to songs in 2022. Reader, you can understand that I was, to put it mildly, bummed. At this rate, what will even be left for us attending the shows in August!?
In case you’re unfamiliar, each night on her current tour, Taylor performs two “surprise songs” from her discography. She has said that, with a few exceptions (for example, she WILL repeat songs she performs off of Midnights), if she performs a song, she won’t be performing it again. I explained all of this in unnecessarily great detail to a date I had last night. We were both looking at our phones, and he heard me muttering “no! no! no!” under my breath and was understandably concerned. Post my explanation, I’d imagine he was still concerned for an entirely different reason.
ANYWAY...another week of content consumed. Let’s get right into it!
Watching Lately
Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love (streaming on Peacock)
An absolutely joyful, star-studded special celebrating the illustrious career of the one and only Carol Burnett. I might be biased given my brother, Drew Dockser, is one of the creative producers on the show (and given how incredible the response to the special has been, I don’t think I’m even THAT biased), but you should absolutely carve out an hour to watch. The musical performances, including Bernadette Peters singing Stephen Sondheim, alone are worth it.
Barry
WTF was last night’s episode!? Seriously one of the darkest 30 minutes of television I’ve enjoyed(?) in recent memory. If you have a theory on what that final scene means, leave a comment. I HATE that I have to wait a whole week for more. Much like Noho Hank (and also BECAUSE of Noho Hank) I feel deeply unwell.
Succession
Last night, the Roys took
HollywoodBurbank, and the kids are not alright. Everyone is spiraling. Including myself after watching. Therapy for everyone!
John Mulaney: Baby J
Mulaney is back on Netflix with a new special (one I saw him perform twice on tour). It’s significantly darker than prior material, but still incredibly entertaining and worth a watch IMO.
Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story
I had the honor of attending the world premiere of Shonda Rhime’s newest show last week, and after watching episode one, I’m desperate to binge the rest (dropping on Netflix May 4th).
Bridgerton and I had a (one sided) enemies to lovers romance, where I hate-watched season one and went into season 2 expecting to feel the same way. Spoiler alert: my head was turned. Jonathan Bailey as Anthony Bridgerton is a damn revelation. Men are always saying things like “what are you doing?” or “I had fun!” when then they should really be saying “You are the bane of my existence and the object of all my desires” !! To quote one of my girl Taylor’s surprise Eras Tour songs from last night “THAT’S how you get the girl.”
But I digress. Queen Charlotte has one of the strongest first episodes of the franchise so far, with a meet-cute so well written and acted I was SQUEALING in the theater. All romantic comedies need to have this level of chemistry or else I don’t want them. Or else what is the actual point? Please report back later this week with your thoughts once you’ve watched.
Reading Lately
Not NOT related to the above, for my own emotional well being, I really need to take a break from romance novels that make me cry. Maybe even from romance as a genre entirely. Earlier this week, I went through my copy of Emily Henry’s Happy Place to annotate + tab (I had originally read it on my kindle) and with lines like “if he can be happy, surely I can be fine” like…no…I remain well and truly NOT fine.
I spent the majority of my Saturday on the couch finishing Abby Jimenez’s Yours Truly, such a sweet book. And still I found myself SOBBING during the final chapter. Why was I crying you ask? Oh I don’t know. Maybe because I don’t believe I’ll ever find love like Jacob and Briana’s. Just a guess. A hunch, if you will. Announcing the Prove Me Wrong Challenge.
Just read this quote, please:
“Jacob made me feel safe. He was like a living lullaby. A softly spoken word. The smell of coffee and toast in the morning or a cozy fleece blanket. The rain pattering on the roof on a day where you don’t have to go anywhere or do anything.”
Are you kidding me!!! So simple, so beautiful. With that, a new top tier book boyfriend has emerged in Dr. Jacob Maddox.
That said, I am — at the moment — so over the fake-dating trope and books filled with miscommunication. Give me a book with two self assured people who remain into each other after the three month mark communicating directly and with clarity about how they feel and what they want. THAT is the fantasy I’m dying to live out via romance novel.
This week, I also listened to the audiobooks for Just My Type by Falon Ballard and The Reunion by Kayla Olson. Both LA based second-chance, work place romances. The former having an enemies to lovers element that I found fun. Quick, breezy stories. Neither of which were especially memorable, but nonetheless enjoyable.
See the below post for what I’m hoping to read in May.
Listening Lately
Do you really want to know where I was April 29th? Listening to High Infidelity by Taylor Swift on repeat, that’s where.
Also on April 29th, I saw Taylor Tomlinson perform standup at the Pantages Theater in Hollywood. As expected, it was exceptionally funny. With a large amount of material dedicated to dating apps and dating in general, I felt particularly seen. If you can see her live, definitely do. Otherwise get ready for another fantastic Netflix special.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to scroll through Met Gala looks before I’m off to a Ted Lasso FYC event this evening. More on that later on my IG. As always you can find me on Instagram and TikTok. Come say hi, and thanks for reading, and if you feel so inclined, let your friends know they should subscribe, too!
We got Sad, Beautiful, Tragic and also Ours in Arlington Tx day one!
While I was happy with Ours, I was really hoping for Clean or Back To December! But what a great night of memories with my two Swiftie daughters. LONG LIVE Sam!!! ❤️