All posts tagged: Fun

26 Goals for My 26th Year

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For the past couple of years I’ve done a post on my birthday (last year’s was 25 of my favorite things/feelings, and the year before was 24 lessons I’ve learned in 24 years). Although I’m not the type of person who cares too much about birthdays, I’ve enjoyed doing these posts because they provide me with the opportunity to reflect on my life thus far and give some thought to the future. It feels like just yesterday that I wrote that post for my 24th birthday, but it’s been two years! Does anyone else feel like time seems to move faster the older you get? Anyways, this year I decided my birthday list would be 26 things I’d like to do/accomplish in my 26th year. Let me know in the comment section below what some of your hopes for this year are! 1. Run a 5k without stopping (graduate school has made me out-of-shape and lazy) 2. See New York City for the first time 3. Have one of my essays published on an online publication 4. Have one of my essays published …

Fun with Vinyl

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My boyfriend and I, after years of wanting one, finally invested in a record player. Though I’m guilty of romanticizing records, I can’t help but adore them. Albums are fun and beautiful. Rummaging is an adventure. Listening is an experience. Not only do vinyl records produce a spectacular sound, but they require an active listener. The Spotify experience, for example, is wildly different. I can just put on an artist, algorithmically driven radio station, or expertly curated playlist and listen passively for hours. But with records you’re constantly flipping sides, changing speeds, and pulling the disks out of their sleeves and slipping them back in again. You’re picking dust off the stylus, or wiping smudges from the vinyl grooves. This interaction with the physicality of the record itself is also something I appreciate about vinyl: that it’s tangible. I can hold an album in my hands and examine its cover or the dips that circle its surface. I have to move each record from one spot to another with delicate precision. I clean them often. To actually hold onto the medium from which my music comes …

Freedom & Indulgence on the Vegas Strip

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Ah, the Las Vegas Strip. You’d think I hate Las Vegas based on my aversion to greed, mass consumption, and gaudiness – but on the contrary, I sort of love it. While the Strip is built on gambling addictions, cheesy simulacrum, and mass amounts of waste (from water fountains to water bottles), there’s a freeness in the four mile stretch of indulgence and exhibitionism that I appreciate and almost relish in. American culture is so go-go-go, earn-earn-earn, that sometimes we collectively lose sight of ourselves. What I believe to be inherently American is this guilt I feel whenever I have the chance to relax. I may have been over worked and exhausted for weeks, but the moment I get to take a break I think of my desire for rest or fun as a flaw. But everyone else is constantly working hard, so why am I tired? Why do I deserve to go do this cool thing? What’s my issue?  Two weeks ago (just one week before the inauguration) I spent two nights in Las Vegas with my boyfriend, celebrating …

Countdown to ‘Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp’

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I’ll never forget the first time I saw Wet Hot American Summer. It was a wet, hot, Tucson summer, and my friends and I decided to check out this movie we had never heard of that was playing at a cult classics screening at The Loft Cinema, a southern Arizona staple. Earlier in the day I glanced at the film’s IMDb page (what a cast!) and watched the trailer, and in that moment, I knew I had found my newest comedic obsession. Needless to say, I LOVED EVERY SECOND OF IT. Now I try to watch WHAS at least once a year, and I’ve subsequently also fallen in love with David Wain/Michael Showalter’s newest gem, They Came Together. So when I heard WHAS was going to be made into a Netflix Original Series, I was BEYOND ECSTATIC. Anyhoo, Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp premieres on Netflix tomorrow. I’m going to be out-of-town for the weekend, but as soon as I return, I’m diving right in. I don’t want to binge too hard, because I enjoy savoring a show, but we’ll see how my attempts …

10 Facts About Tom Hanks On His Birthday

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Is there anyone out there who doesn’t love Tom Hanks? Who doesn’t think he’s an amazing actor? Who doesn’t believe he seems like a kind, fun, and humble guy? I hope not, because that’s a world I don’t want to live in. In honor of his birthday, here are ten facts about the cool guy we all wish we knew personally, Mr. Tom Hanks: 1. Tom Hanks is known for often playing ordinary characters in extraordinary situations. 2. His favorite films are 2001: A Space Odyssey, Fargo, Elephant, and Boogie Nights. 3. He is the most represented actor on the AFI 100 Most Inspiring Movies Of All Time list with four films including Forrest Gump (#37), Philadelphia (#20), Apollo 13 (#12), and Saving Private Ryan (#10). 4. He is the second actor to win back to back Oscars for Best Actor for Philadelphia in 1993 and Forrest Gump in 1994. 5. He once worked as a hotel bellman at a spot frequented by celebrities. A few of the celebrities whose bags he carried included Sidney Poitier, Bill Withers, and Cher. 6. He has played the love interest of Meg Ryan’s character in three films: Sleepless …

Wet Hot American Summer

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Have you ever heard of Wet Hot American Summer? Like most of the world, your answer is probably no…and that’s a total and complete shame considering it is one of the funniest, most underrated comedies starring everybody and their brother. The all-star cast of funnies includes Janeane Garofalo, David Hyde Pierce, Michael Showater, Paul Rudd, Michael Ian Black, Christopher Meloni, Molly Shannon, Amy Poehler, Bradley Cooper, Elizabeth Banks, Joe Lo Truglio, and Judah Friedlander. Wanna see it now? My “first time” with Wet Hot American Summer was about two summers ago. I was attending a weekly cult classics showing at The Loft Cinema in Tucson. Each Friday/Saturday a new cult movie was shown, and each weekend I was able to add a new goofy movie to my list of favorites (including Troll 2, Labrynth, and The Room). I had never heard of Wet Hot, but decided to go anyways. It. Was. A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. I left the theatre wondering how the hell one of the funniest movies I had ever seen (with a bunch of famous people in it) could fly under the radar …