Sharing Happiness – Part 65
My favorite podcast, “Pop Culture Happy Hour” ends their show with each member saying what made them happy the previous week. The rule is that it must be something anyone could enjoy if they chose (i.e., books, movies, twitter feeds, albums).
JB: I’m a big Batman fan and was cautiously optimistic the latest big screen version of the character would be good. I was not disappointed. The Batman is like no other Batman movie that has been done before. It has the grounded realism of the recent Christopher Nolan trilogy, but stylistically and thematically it leans heavily into the realms of film noir, murder mysteries, and thrillers. It is long, clocking in at almost 3 hours, but it kept this Batman fan glued to my seat from beginning to end.
MB: I have two very unrelated items. First is Molly Burke Mattocks’ Instagram account. It’s called “letters_on_living_after_loss.” Her daughter, Izzy, died of cancer last April when she was 13 years old. She writes letters to her about what life means now that she’s gone. They are beautiful reminders that life is inherently limited. The second is Martha Wells’ The Murderbot Diary series. I haven’t read them all, but they are so weird and interesting. They’re very short, which is a nice contrast, as I am currently slogging through Book Five of The Wheel of Time.
EB: I love a public art installation. Kansas City’s Parade of Hearts has a lot going for it. It’s free, accessible and all over town. They’re only here through May, so try to see as many as you can before they’re gone.
CB: We watched the first two episodes of Moon Knight, which is the latest TV show based in the Marvel Universe. It’s about Steven Grant, played by Oscar Isaacs, a museum gift shop employee who’s startled to discover there’s an Egyptian God’s avatar living inside of him. So far, it’s the kind of story where you’re confused during the first episode, but the second episode makes more sense.
Bonus Recommendation: With the warmer weather, we’ve been trying (although not very successfully) to check out new trails in our area. The number of trails has expanded, and connections have been added. We recently walked the Rock Creek Trail, but this link is an excellent resource to discover a new trail near you.
