I, too, would like my own island

 Aquarium penguins get better retirements than Americans. 

people can be terrible in un-gendered ways!

I already complained about Manifest, but one thing I appreciated about the show was its portrayal of positive masculinity. Men were nonchalantly providing child care and elder care, one was an empath, they fought like hell for their loved ones without losing their humanity. At no time were they misogynistic. This shouldn't be a rare thing in media but it was refreshing enough that I think it is.

except dragons die :(

House of the Dragon: I've been watching all along but had been somewhat disappointed; the production was great but the writing and story left me cold and somehow bored. The first three episodes of the third season however finally got it right, making use of all the backstory to put together something well-paced, exciting, and moving. Here's hoping they keep it up!

man up Louis

Interview With the Vampire TV series: I started watching it because the new season is getting a lot of buzz. The production, acting, and setting choices are terrific. I didn't finish it though because it was uncritically romanticizing a relationship clearly acknowledged to be abusive, and I couldn't take any pleasure in that. I guess this is another kind of story I'm just not interested in? 

unprofessional!

I checked out an Erie Canal Bicentennial event primarily because I wanted to see the drone show, but made sure to arrive on time for the Albany Symphony Orchestra because I've generally enjoyed their concerts. They were generally off their game this time, and a new composition made me ACTUALLY ANGRY. It was supposed to be celebrating Waterford, and if it had been written by a high school student I may have thought, "that's nice that they got to have that learning experience, and they tried." But they brought in a composer from California (couldn't they at least find someone regional?) who put together something called "The Ballad of Mr. Peebles" which came across as low effort and condescending. The piece didn't sound polished at any point or hold together as a whole, and included spoken lines about bald eagles resurgence post-DDT which felt like something an elementary school teacher whipped up during lunch. Whoever was responsible for commissioning this should have had the 'nads to say "no" up preview and not subject the musicians and the audience to it. (I tried to find a video of it to try to get you to share my pain, but luckily for the internet, it's not up.)

(I was curious about the drone show because I love fireworks and would love it even better if we could replace them with something that isn't so bad for wildlife and the environment. I enjoyed it but this one was styled as a chill, trippy thing, rather than something that brings on the awe and excitement that fireworks can. It seems like technically that could be done though, and I hope that becomes more common.)

the fireworks will be behind that tree

Nine of us in an extended polycule took our third annual trip to Vermont over the Fourth of July. It was fun but, as usual when I travel, my insomnia hit me hard. Recovery took much longer than usual and I'm not sure if something else was going on or if my body is giving me an extra "$@#& you for thinking you could have a life!" Here's hoping it does not do the same after my Adirondack trip.

remembering the recommendations I rejected

I have been using Goodreads for years, to track what I read so I don't unintentionally pick up the same book twice or miss a book by an author I love. I also use its reviews in three main ways: I search two-star reviews to see if the things they find annoying about a book are the same things I'm likely to, I look up how people feel about the audio performance so I better know which format to go with, and for some books I try to determine whether there is a romantic subplot which is likely to annoy me. I just figured out how to add an additional feature I had been missing: a "shelf" for "do not want to read." Basically a way to mark that yep, lots of people recommend this one, but I already checked it out and NOPE. Timesaver!