A delight dispatch from Anna Bauman!
A delight dispatch from Anna Bauman!
Hellloooo delightful humans, I am taking over the newsletter today! You may remember my name from the credits of Nerdette, which I produced with Greta. I am now at the NPR show Fresh Air in Philly.
Here are a few things that are making me happy these days:
Somebody Somewhere recently came back for its final season! The semi-autobiographical HBO show follows Bridget Everett’s character Sam, a 40-something year old who has returned to her hometown Manhattan, Kansas after living in Manhattan, New York. It’s a hilarious, tender show with friendship at its center. I had the pleasure of producing this Fresh Air interview with star Bridget Everett where she talks about how her mom inspired her to go braless on stage.
This charred bok choy and cannellini bean salad by Hetty Lui McKinnon in New York Times Cooking is healthy, fresh and delicious! It’s perfect for a rushed weeknight.
I have recently been getting into visible mending! It makes your clothes last longer, it looks cool, and it’s a great thing to do while watching TV or listening to an audiobook. The Repair Shop will often host online workshops on darning. And Sashiko iron on patterns are great for jeans. Give it a try!
This show is perhaps my deepest, nerdiest obsession. The SyFy original show The Magicians recently hit Netflix and I am indeed watching it for the second (maybe third?) time. It’s based on the Lev Grossman books of the same name, which are about a group of friends in magical grad school. No, it’s not prestige, but it’s angsty and so much fun.
I have been listening to the podcast Critics At Large from The New Yorker. They weave together seemingly disparate parts of pop culture into sharp arguments and give great recommendations for what to read and watch. (Let it be known, however, that no one will ever fill the Nerdette sized hole in my heart when it comes to podcasts with good book recs!)
Enjoy and stay in touch!!! You can find me on Instagram @abaumanation.
A quick note from Greta about hanging out together
Book club is coming up! This month, we’re reading Louise Erdrich’s The Mighty Red. We’re meeting on Sunday, Dec. 1 at noon Central Time, which means you still have time to start it if you want!!! Email me for the Zoom link: gretamjohnsen@gmail.com.
If you’d rather get a head start on our December pick, go for it! We’re reading Sally Rooney’s new book Intermezzo, and we’ll meet to discuss that one at noon Central Time on Sunday, Dec. 29.
Also! If book clubs and/or Zoom hangs are not your jam, you might like the GRETAGRAM Corner Discord server!!! More than 200 excellent humans are already there, sharing their latest knitting projects, raving about recipes, and sharing book recommendations. Just like this newsletter, the Discord channel is free and open to everyone. But if you appreciate this community and are able to support my work, I would certainly appreciate it!
Ok, that’s it for this week. Hope y’all are hanging in and taking care!
P.S. Do you like this email?! Spread the delight and forward it to a friend! (Or spam an enemy, lol!)
The Magicians is a great show! I generally enjoyed the books and the show is, in most ways, better.
Eliot was my least favorite character in the books but he is *amazing* in the show. He and Margo just work. Penny is very well cast. Julia's story is different but the actress who plays her and her new story are very good.
The biggest problem the Magicians always had was that the main character is just annoying. The show mitigates that a little, but also gives him great interactions with other, non-annoying, characters that mean it's not Quentin sucks all the time. ;)
(This is getting longer than I meant).
I think about Quentin (a depressed sad boy in the Magicians) as compared to Kaladin (a depressed sad boy in The Stormlight Archives) way more than I should.
So interesting. I somehow did not know about the term visible mending, not my style but cute for others and I am all for mending clothes for longer life.
Magicians was the best. I hope one day we get a tv movie or something like Wynona Earp.