Is it a corner? A column? I don’t know! Haven’t got a clue! We might never know! Anyway, it’s mine and I get to do with it what I want. I’ve decided to share some things I’ve enjoyed during this corona-cation and rank them on a ten-point scale. There are plenty of things I haven’t enjoyed (Zoom school, slow internet, Joe Biden, the Dua Lipa album), but here in the corner/column, we like to stay positive. [NOTE: Final scores are not necessarily representative of how much I liked or didn’t like any of the things I review! Numbers are a social construct!]
MUSIC
- Oklahoma! (2019 Broadway Cast Recording) by Various Artists: No one since Julie Andrews has done Rodgers and Hammerstein so well. Damon Daumno’s falsetto is so sexy! 10/10 because “People Will Say We’re In Love” will probably be my most listened to song of 2020 on Spotify.
- “Bet She Looks Like You” by Nick Hakim: A slow jam for when you’re awake at 1:00 A.M. again. Special Shoutout to the NPR Music Instagram for bringing me here! 10/10 because I’m always up at 1:00 A.M. these days.
- Color Theory by Soccer Mommy: A sad sad album for those sad sad boi hours when you’re really missing the homies. May I recommend “Yellow Is The Color of Her Eyes,” “Bloodstream” and “Circle The Drain.” Special shoutout to that line in “Bloodstream” that says “barely left my room in the past week.” I relate!! Social distancing is rough!! 10/10.
TELEVISION
- Feel Good on Netflix: Mae Martin is hot. The end. 10/10.
- Special on Netflix: A hidden gem. Perfect for a binge. Will make you laugh. Probably won’t make you cry. Super cute. Super chic. 10/10.
- I Am Not Okay With This on Netflix: Stranger Things meets End Of The F***ing World. A girl I know is an extra on this show. This is also the third show I’ve recommending about gay people. #sorrynotsorry. Ten points for the honest depiction of what it’s like to fall in love with your best friend. Two points taken off because unlike Sydney, my trauma doesn’t come with super powers. So 8/10.
MOVIES
- The Way He Looks on Kanopy: What is Kanopy, you ask? Oh, it’s just this cute little FREE (?) (!) service brought to you by your local public library where you can stream hours and hours and hours of quality content, mostly in the genres of indie film, forgein film and classic film! So anyway. The Way He Looks. bUt gIGi iT hAs SuBTitLeS¡! Shut up. I don’t want to hear it. It’s a damn good movie, and you can watch it with either subtitles or dubbing, and there is clearly a better option here. Or you can watch it in Portuguese, but if you’d rather learn Portuguese than watch a movie with subtitles than you, my friend, need to get your priorities straightened out. Also this is another movie about gay people. 11/10.
- The Last Black Man In San Francisco on Kanopy: What is Kanopy, you ask? Oh, it’s just this cute little—go and read the review above this one, dumbass. Anyway, this is a beautiful film featuring some even more beautiful architecture and EVEN MORE beautiful performances. It probably won’t make you laugh. It will definitely make you cry (or at least feel like crying). It will definitely make you want to eat the rich. 10/10.
FOOD
- Smoothies: Special Shoutout to my sister for reminding me you can stick fruit in a food processor and drink it from a straw and it tastes ten times better! The best smoothies are the ones made without any kind of recipe, just a creative spirit and a blind trust that anything you put into a blender will come out tasting like heaven. The best smoothies are also the ones consumed during your 10 AM Zoom class to make all your Zoom-mates jealous. 6/10 because this morning I followed my creative spirit and put orange juice in my smoothie and it was nasty.
BOOKS
- Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude by Ross Gay: If you’re not really into reading lengthy novels because they remind you of English class, try reading some poems. Ross Gay is a phenomenal place to start. For a good cry see “Burial.” For a good smile see “Patience.” 10/10 for full emotional range.
- The Secret Society by Donna Tartt: Maddie Brown gave this to me for my birthday junior year and I just started it a week ago. I’m seventeen pages in. So far, it’s been great! Mysterious, relatable, easy to read. In the interest of full transparency, I’m publicly reviewing this book in the hopes that doing so will force me to actually finish it! It takes place at a small, financially struggling liberal arts college in New England, so some of you seniors should really connect to the main character!! 0.03041144901/10 because that’s roughly equivalent to 17/559 which is the fraction of the book in pages I’ve read so far.
MISCELLANEOUS
- Going for walks. 10/10, would recommend. Go for a run, even, if you feel so inclined. The weather is beautiful so really you have no fucking excuse. Call it a walk, call it your morning constitutional, call it a promenade in the park, call it your daily government-sanctioned stroll, just get outside.
- Coloring. 10/10. Ugh. So good. In eighth grade, I got a concussion in cross country after I ran head first into Amory Griffin, and the doctor said coloring was the only activity I could do that wouldn’t hurt my brain. So now I own three half-used coloring books, and they’ve really been coming in handy lately! Coloring is so calming! So soothing! I could do it for hours! In fact, I have been doing it for hours!
Gigi Silla ’20