10 documentaries that will change your life

Documentaries have always appealed to my nerdiness and love of non-fiction. In recent times they've gained a wider popularity as Netflix pushes them into the mainstream. The following are some of my favorites and really highlight the wide-breadth of topics available in this format.

1.  Chasing Ice 

photo from here

A stunning film that documents global warming in such a way that even the most ardent skeptics can't deny the evidence this film brings forward. What I found most helpful, and what I have missed before, were stop-motion videos and images of the effects of climate change and putting those changes to scale. When you see a piece of ice falling off a glacier into the water it might look huge, but when a map of Manhattan is overlaid on top of it you begin to understand the real changes taking place around the world.

goals for a new year

1. write more - obviously this blog will help with that but I'd like to generally write a great deal more both longhand and on the computer
2. read more - I just compulsively ordered a Kindle Paperwhite when I discovered you can access thousands of literary classics fo FREE and read them in seconds. I mean, I will take months to read them, but I can download them quickly. I also will continue to read the BuzzReads list that everyone ever should sign up for right now.
3. swim more - I got Swimming to Antarctica: Tales of a Long-Distance Swimmer for Christmas in hopes that it encourages my swimming in the coming year
4. save more - I am one of those millennials who thinks savings accounts will populate themselves (not really) and need to get my act together in this new year! I want more adventures but first I need some savings
5. more adventures - traveling, food, experiences, etc. I want them all and I want them this next year.

That's it! I can probably do these things, and I hope I follow through.

shows to binge watch over the holidays

One of my favorite things is to binge watch television on a dreary, lame Saturday. Since I live in a place that receives about 35" of rain annually and is apparently #1 of the Top 101 cities with the lowest average sunshine amount it's easy to justify a lot of vegging.

For Thrills:
Scandal
The Fall
Top of the Lake
Sherlock
Nip/Tuck
Twin Peaks

For Smarts:
David Chang: Mind of a Chef
Mythbusters
The Magic School Bus
How Stuff Works
Dirty Jobs

For Laughs:
Bob's Burgers
Don't Trust the B in Apartment 23
Orange is the New Black
The IT Crowd
Freaks & Geeks
The Munsters
Queer Eye for the Straight Guy

For Feels:
The West Wing
Friday Night Lights
Hit & Miss
The L Word
Rescue Me

For Guilty Pleasures (sorry not sorry!):
Bones
Crossing Jordan
Law & Order SVU
Ugly Betty
Skins
Flying Wild Alaska

things I was obsessed with in 2013

1. Making lists
2. Seeing great films (all star list here)
3. Bob's Burgers
4. Watching crappy tv on Netflix, more on that in a bit
5. Nail polish, all of the nail polish
6. Olive & mushroom pizzas
7. Trying to find out what I would rather be doing in life
8. Very recently, reading long form articles from lists Buzzfeed makes
9. Reading in general
10. Calligraphy and expanding my creative outlets

What were you obsessed with in 2013?

how to be a woman - caitlin moran

photo from here

I discovered Caitlin Moran at the local independent bookstore. I was intrigued by the cover of her book How to be a Woman and the idea that someone in 2011 had published such a guide. I didn’t know anything about Ms. Moran or her columns. I still haven’t read them except when quoted in one of her books.

bob's burgers love

I love the show Bob's Burgers. Love it.

I would watch episodes back to back to back to back all day if I could, but I have to work and buy dish soap and stuff so I cannot.

I love everything about this show: the characters, the humor, the story lines, the amazing gifs they produce:

the best episode of girls

photo from here

My favorite episode of the t.v. show Girls is "Welcome to Bushwick a.k.a. the Crackcident" from season 1 — Shoshanna smoking crack, could it get any funnier? I think not.

The episode that surprised me the most, and continues to make me think about what it is to be a young, independent woman is "One Man's Trash" from season 2. In this episode, as everyone on the internet knows, Hannah goes to confess to a man (Patrick Wilson playing JoshUA) that she's been putting trash in his cans from her work and ends up staying for two nights.

This episode caused all sorts of controversy because Hannah looks like a fairly normal 24 year old woman, and JoshUA looks like a hot actor person. I have a lot of trouble with this sort of backlash for many reasons, most of which revolve around how stupid it is to assume someone like him would not like someone like her physically or otherwise. As someone who is not doing 500 squats a day, partaking in Crossfit, or otherwise going above and beyond to look like someone's idea of ideal I can say this episode made me happy to be watching t.v. and happy they showed this interaction taking place the way it did.

What stuck with me more than their physical relationship was their last interactions. Hannah tearfully admits that she just wants to be happy, and after JoshUA says of course, that's what everyone wants she explains that:

I made a promise, such a long time ago, that I was going to take in experiences, all of them, so that I could tell other people about them and maybe save them. But it gets so tiring, trying to take in all the experiences for everybody, letting anyone say anything to me. Then I came here, and I see you, and you’ve got the fruit in the bowl in the fridge with the stuff. … I realize I’m not different. I want what everyone wants. I want all the things. I just want to be happy.

In part this touches the core of my current existence. While I never made myself a promise to choose experiences over happiness that is the path of least resistance my life has chosen for the past several years. I choose partners, jobs, situations, based on adventures and how interesting they might be, not on how much joy and happiness they might bring me. I choose interactions that challenge me over those that are safe, and from those come exactly what Hannah/Lena Dunham are talking about, "so that I could tell other people about them and maybe save them". 

In college I chose to date men who challenged my views on basically everything and at times that meant my views on my own self-worth. Finding someone who creates that feeling of safety Hannah is talking about, perhaps not physically but tactilely, the "fruit in the bowl in the fridge with the stuff" has been something I myself have avoided for a very long time. I never thought much about marriage, having children, or buying a house until the last year or so; I never wanted to admit I was so stereotypical in my desires for my life, so ordinary. That, I believe, is at the center of this episode — when it's right in front of you, no matter how hip and counter-culture you are, it's hard to decide to choose a life of experiences over a life with a full fridge, a nice partner and some normalcy. 

I don't think Hannah, or I, can give up our love of these experiences any time soon but I do think admitting we want what most people want, happiness, a fairly normal domestic life is the first step towards self-acceptance. It's okay to want these things, it's okay.

Paris through books

On these cold winter days I love to curl up on my couch, covered in the flannel quilt I made in 8th grade and read and read and read (and sometimes watch The Darjeeling Limited like I am right now).

I purchased these two books, Kati Marton's Paris: A Love Story and Julia Child's My Life in France during a period of extreme wanderlust. I haven't traveled much since I started college and my dreams of galavanting through Europe really start to wear on me in the winter.

writin' pretty

I don't claim to be great at calligraphy, in fact, I basically just use fancy cursive to write letters and address envelopes. It is fun, and I do like to see my lettering improve over time. At some point I plan to help friends and family with larger projects like Christmas cards or wedding invites. 

top 10 films of 2013

Here are my picks for the best films of 2013. All but 12 Years a Slave I saw at the local indie theater — I cannot stress enough how awesome it is to have such a wonderful venue playing great films in my town.

1.  12 Years a Slave

Photo from imdb

Can Steve McQueen do no wrong? From Hunger, to Shame and now 12 Years a Slave. Lupita Nyong'o is amazing, Benedict Cumberbatch is amazing, Michael Fassbender is disgusting but amazing. A must see, immediately, but be forewarned it is a typical unflinching Steve McQueen film and will require most of your mental capacity to watch it and time afterwards to process it.

blue is the warmest color

Photo from imdb

I've been waiting to see Blue is the Warmest Color at the local indie theater for a lonnnng time. When I heard there was another NC-17 rated film coming (the last was the incredible Shame by Steve McQueen) I was interested, when I read the New York Times review I knew I had to see it.

brain on fire: my month of madness - susannah cahalan

This summer I read several books, this book, however, will stick with me the rest of my life. Since finishing it in about two nail-bitting days I passed it around to four other people who had similar experiences with it — couldn't put it down, couldn't believe this actually happened, and will not soon forget Susannah Cahalan's story.

wild - cheryl strayed

My fascination with reading memoirs, autobiographies, and essays by strong women began in my second year of college when I attempted to read The Feminine Mystique (more on that later) after doing research on the first three waves of feminism. Since then I’ve become a frequent reader on the topic and enjoy discovering new amazing women to read about.

netflix instant watch top picks

I watch an incredible amount of TV and movies, I should probably be embarrassed about it, but I'm not. And I just made these lists without checking Netflix because I'm using it so much I know these are all still streaming. These are actually ranked in a somewhat order, especially the television list.

what Clueless taught me about life

Photo courtesy of imdb

Cher Horowitz was my hero for about half of my childhood. Clueless came out when I was five years old and I spent hours plotting how I could become the child of a litigator (something I vaguely understood but mostly knew meant I could live in a huge mansion, mechanize my closet and get more plaid skirts in various hues). I thought about approaching sad, unfashionable girls at my elementary school and using cans to curl their hair.