Euphoria

Let me be clear, this is not a show for everyone.

Sex, drugs, and rock n roll, but 2019 style.

It has stirred controversy, but is also compelling, challeging, and provacative.

From the HBO wesbite:

Everything to Know About Euphoria

Get the latest info about the drama, produced by Drake and starring Zendaya, Jacob Elordi, Algee Smith and more.

 

Following a group of high school students as they navigate love and friendships in a world of drugs, sex, trauma and social media, the series will be executive produced by Drake, along with manager Future the Prince. The ensemble cast includes: actor and singer Zendaya, Maude Apatow (Girls), Angus Cloud, Eric Dane, Alexa Demie, Jacob Elordi, Barbie Ferreira, Nika King, Storm Reid, Hunter Schafer, Algee Smith and Sydney Sweeney (Sharp Objects).

Euphoria is an American adaptation of an Israeli show of the same name, and all episodes are written by Sam Levinson (Assassination Nation), who also serves as executive producer. The series will be produced in partnership with A24 (Lady Bird, Random Acts of Flyness,2 Dope Queens, Pod Save America) and includes executive producers Ravi Nandan, Kevin Turen, Hadas Mozes Lichtenstein, Tmira Yardeni, Mirit Toovi, Yoram Mokadi and Gary Lennon. Ron Leshem and Daphna Levin, who created the Israeli series, are also set to executive produce.

New episodes of Euphoria premiere Sunday at 10 p.m.

 

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Meryl Streep in Big Little Lies

Meryl Streep’s performance as Mary Louise Wright on the second season of HBO’s series Big Little Lies is going to win her an Emmy.

It is the kind of performance that is so compelling and memorable you have to watch it again. What she accomplishes in her scenes is truly remarkable. Only one of the (if not the) finest actors on the planet can pull off.

There are already memes created based on her character and social media is predicting her emmy win.

And this is only after 2 episodes.

Be sure to check it out.

https://mashable.com/article/meryl-streep-big-little-lies-scream-meme/

Rachel Held Evans

Credit to the New York Times for bringing my attention to Rachel Held Evans. Her story is an inspiring and tragic one.

The NYTimes Daily podcast had a featured episode on June 3rd, 2019.

To listen to it is inspiring, thought-provoking, and quite moving. It compelled me enough to want to write a blog post about her.

From Wikipedia:

Rachel Held Evans (née Rachel Grace Held; June 8, 1981 – May 4, 2019) was an American Christian columnist, blogger and author. Her book A Year of Biblical Womanhoodwas on The New York Times‘ e-book non-fiction best-seller list^[1] and Searching for Sunday made The New York Times‘paperback nonfiction best-seller list.^[2]

Evans was placed in a medically-induced coma in April 2019 following an allergic reaction to medication for an infection.^[14][15] By May 2, “severe swelling of the brain” worsened her condition, and she died on May 4.^[16][17]

Here is the link to the podcast from the NYTimes:

In a brief but prolific career, a young writer asked whether evangelical Christianity could change. In doing so, she changed it.

Here is An Evening with Rachel Held Evans

She made the most of her life. She questioned. She has left a legacy.

https://rachelheldevans.com/

 

Daniel Cloud Campos

Daniel Cloud Campos is a dancer and choreographer. One of the most noteable recent works was choreographing “The Other Side” from The Greatest Showman. Turns out he is also the bartender in the scene. Check it out here:

He also has performed with Madonna and Michael Jackson. He continues to choreograph, direct, act, create music, and musicals.

What also caught my attention was a Ted Talk he did back in 2014 titled, ‘Emrace your fears”.

Wanted to post this week to support a working artist, trying to bring new and creative works into the world.

Marco Polo

Marco Polo is a video messaging app. It allows you to take a video and send it to your friends or loved ones. They in turn are able to watch it on their own time. It’s basically recorded video messaging.

What it affords is the chance to stay in touch more than just texting. And it also helps to avoid the challenges of scheduling phone calls.

Because it is video messaging it feels more connected and personal.

You can also change your voice, use emojis, or even write on your screen during the message.

Give it a try, I’m sure there are loved ones out there who want to hear from (and see) you.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=co.happybits.marcopolo&hl=en_US

 

The Daily

The Daily is a daily podcast by the New York Times. Available where podcasts are found. It is an apporximatley 20 minute podcast on the news of the day.

What has been fascinating, and digestible, is the fact that they often focus on one news story and go more in depth. It’s been refreshing to cut out the clutter and just have one podcast which delivers the news.

Pretty ideal for commute listening.

The Gap – Ira Glass

This is one of the clearest expressions I have seen regarding what it is like to create something.

From Ira Glass:

Nobody tells people who are beginners — and I really wish somebody had told this to me — is that all of us who do creative work … we get into it because we have good taste. But it’s like there’s a gap, that for the first couple years that you’re making stuff, what you’re making isn’t so good, OK? It’s not that great. It’s really not that great. It’s trying to be good, it has ambition to be good, but it’s not quite that good. But your taste — the thing that got you into the game — your taste is still killer, and your taste is good enough that you can tell that what you’re making is kind of a disappointment to you, you know what I mean?

A lot of people never get past that phase. A lot of people at that point, they quit. And the thing I would just like say to you with all my heart is that most everybody I know who does interesting creative work, they went through a phase of yearswhere they had really good taste and they could tell what they were making wasn’t as good as they wanted it to be — they knew it fell short, it didn’t have the special thing that we wanted it to have.

And the thing I would say to you is everybody goes through that. And for you to go through it, if you’re going through it right now, if you’re just getting out of that phase — you gotta know it’s totally normal.

And the most important possible thing you can do is do a lot of work — do a huge volume of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week, or every month, you know you’re going to finish one story. Because it’s only by actually going through a volume of work that you are actually going to catch up and close that gap. And the work you’re making will be as good as your ambitions. It takes a while, it’s gonna take you a while — it’s normal to take a while. And you just have to fight your way through that, okay?