This weekend was a good weekend. On Saturday, we had a harvest meal at the Montessori/co-working space. We brought grapes. They seemed to be a big hit. It was a really rainy day, so we spent the afternoon watching TV: the first 20 minutes or so of Paddington 2 but then it got a bit confusing, so we switched to Curious George. I actually put my head down and stretched out on the couch and drowsed. It was glorious.
I remember the winter of 2014-2015, when Dragon Age: Inquisition had just come out. There were days when we would set up in front of the projector screen and W. would play DA:I for long hours while I napped beside him. It was an immensely pleasant time and I remember it with great fondness. I wouldn’t trade having my kid for all the naps I could imagine, but it’s still nice to squeeze one in. There’s something different about a nap on the couch next to your loved ones while a screen is on, as opposed to in silence alone in bed. I think it feels festive, somehow. It’s that post-holiday-meal vibe. It’s luxurious and drowsy and it was so pleasant that I think I might try to do it more often.
We were going to go out to dinner with my family of origin, but M. fell asleep on the way there so we just turned around and went back home.
Sunday we went to breakfast with them and W.’s mom, then M. and I headed to the Museum of Life and Science to meet a friend of his and her mom. When we were done there, we went home and eventually I got around to watching bits of Bakara Wintner’s live tarot reading on Instagram for the first time ever. I’ve wanted to for a long time, but it’s rare that the timing works out. This time I was able to put it on while I was cooking. I wish I’d been watching from the beginning. I hope I get to do it again, soon. I really like her vibe and would love to just see her more in general. I feel like I’ve read her book a thousand times since I got it a couple years ago. It makes me happy. Maybe happier even than actually pulling cards does? But maybe that’s about getting more practice. I’m really practiced at reading. Less so at tarot.
I fell asleep super early last night but then woke up around midnight and I don’t know what, maybe read about online diarists at the turn of the millennium? That sounds right.
I woke up again around 4 and watched the first episode of The Mandalorian. I’m always trying to figure out how to find the next media thing I want to experience. I can’t keep up, both because we’re past the era of peak TV into the era of too much of everything to have a monocultural conversation (which is fine, more different things is always good, just harder to follow) so last night I decided to work a combo of Tumblr’s fandom statistics, Archive of Our Own’s top fandoms, and NPR’s Pop Culture blog coverage to help me decide.
So The Mandalorian. I just re-watched Star Wars: A New Hope for the first time in years Saturday night. I found that I still love it, that Princess Leia continues to be my hero, that Obi Wan continues to be my favorite Jedi, and that it’s only the first two thirds of the movie that makes me sleepy. I don’t love all of the changes Lucas has made to it over the years, mostly because the aesthetic feels disjointed in scenes where stuff has been digitally added in.
But it was a really interesting thing to do right before starting The Mandalorian, which I gather takes place between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens? I’ve read nothing about it, so I’m not sure.
It has this interesting feel. It doesn’t feel like Star Wars, although it does have all of the visuals and worldbuilding references that clue you in that yes, this is a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. It feels kind of like Firefly and, to a lesser extent, Serenity. To the point where I was like, “Is the Mandalorian played by Nathan Fillion?” (Nope. He’s Pedro Pascal. But they have similar voices.) I’m looking forward to catching more of it, then reading what other people have said about it.
