#so i'm currently running a cyberpunk red campaign that uses a lot of music

[cjlinton]

February 2023 Recap: Read, Played, Watched Listened

February absolutely flew by. One of my goals for this year is to more proactively talk about art that I’m engaging with each month, so here’s a recap, as best I can remember.

Read

I haven’t done as much fiction reading—long form or short form—this month as I wanted to.  I used to be someone who read at least one book and dozens of plays (for work) AND a litany of short stories every single week without fail…and I am very much not that person anymore. So I had to push down a little bit of embarrassment posting what is for past me, a short list. I am reminding myself that my priorities are vast and many, and this is fine, actually.

★ = most recommended

Books

Homie: Poems by Danez Smith The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun Manywhere by Morgan Thomas ★

Short Stories

“Who the Final Girl Becomes,” Dominique Dickey in Nightmare Magazine ★ “Unbecoming,” Sadia Bies on itch.io

Around the Web

Notable/subject-specific articles, beyond general news.

Harvard’s Peabody Museum Keeping Native Remains Is Just One Attack on the Rights of Indigenous Children, Samantha Maltais and Victor Anthony Lopez-Carmen for Teen Vogue ★ I Didn’t Know Trans Men Existed Until I Saw Chaz Bono on Dancing With the Stars: Ray Gibson interviewed by Sa'iyda Shabazz for Autostraddle How effective altruists ignored risk, Carla Cremer for Vox Maryland Scientist Explains Just How Realistic “The Last of Us” Zombie Fungus Is, Priscila Chaverri interviewed by Tory Basile for Washingtonian

Played

TTRPGs

Another only campaigns month! Not mad about it—we’re in really fun spots in all of these games, and I'm especially proud of the Google Sheets maps I made for the mission the PCs went on in Cyberpunk, which was for the most complex encounter I've ever run. That said, I'd really like to play a one-shot and/or another game I've never played before in the next month.

Cyberpunk: RED: 4 sessions The Expanse: 1 session Lancer: 1 session

Board Games

Still currently tracking ahead of my unserious goal to play fifty-two different board games this year. And finally got to play Wingspan for the first time! Definitely going to be a long-term favorite.

• Taboo • Wingspan

Watched

I watched exactly two pieces of televisual media, but I saw so many cool live performances, music and theatre!

Televisual

Episodes 15-17, Season 1 of The Unsleeping City Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Music

Samia at 9:30 Club The Beths at Thalia Hall Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2, performed by The National Symphony Orchestra at The Kennedy Center

Theatre

Killing Kylie Jenner by Jasmine Lee-Jones at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company English by Sanaz Toossi at Studio Theatre

Listened

I listen to too much music to do a comprehensive recap, but here were some of my favorites on repeat this month. (It’s still a lot of Jhariah, but here’s the new stuff from this month.)

Albums

Expert in a Dying Field – The Beths

Songs

“TAKE THIS CROWN,” DE’WAYNE feat. Good Charlotte “Gameboy,” hbd “Anthem,” Sweat Shop Boys, Riz Ahmed, Heems “Who Spilled the Sugar” (2022 Remaster) – Sarah and the Safe Word “St. Cecilia’s” – Animal Flag “Gray Duck” – Doomtree

Podcasts

Episode 18 of The QueerXP, "Unconventional Methods - Those of Us Who Know Better [Actual Play, pt. 1]"