Readers!
Assuming my flight isn’t cancelled, I’m about to head out for an extended trip to Italy. I am excited to learn, after three years of lessons, how bad my Italian truly is.
I kid. Sort of. Most Italians are delighted that you even try (unlike the French AHEM).
I was able to make this trip happen by working my tail off and cutting back sharply on my expenses, plus luck in finding a reasonably priced sublet in a city I want to explore. I won’t be taking the entire time off. I’m not THAT good. So I’ll be setting up shop in Italia until the fall.
I don’t know if I’ll be regularly writing the newsletter while I’m gone. I have no idea where my work schedule will settle when I’m six hours ahead of most of my clients, and there’s so much to explore. But I’ll just say ciao for now. I’ll see you when I see you.
If you want to follow along, check out my Instagram.
Recent Bylines
“Bring a little Krypto(dog) into your life,” Philadelphia Inquirer
What I’m Reading
- The View from Lake Como by Adriana Trigiani. This book is just bad. Really bad. I don’t think it’s worth getting deeper than that. The only plus I’ll give it is that the author addressed that an American moving to Italy would need a visa, and that you can’t just show up and stay. So there’s that, I suppose.
- Breaking Point by C.J. Box. In this entry into the Joe Pickett series, our intrepid Wyoming game warden is trying to track down an acquaintance that allegedly murdered two EPA agents who showed up on his property. But it’s more complex than just a guy who hates the government (and based on a real event that went all the way to the Supreme Court). Of course it’s unrealistic that one guy would keep getting into these kinds of life-or-death situations, but it wouldn’t be a series otherwise, would it? This is a good one.
What I’m Watching
- To Catch a Thief. I mean…what can I say about a classic like this. It’s another another one where I’ve seen it before and remembered the twist but not all the twists. Also: this cast is peak dreamy.
- The Art Detectives. In this AcornTV series, Stephen Moyer plays an art detective. Hence the title: Art Detective. The twist is that he’s also the son of a famous art forger. Conflict! It’s perfectly fine, which is about what I expect from AcornTV shows. Also, always nice to see someone from the cast of Coupling pop up on my TV, as Sarah Alexander does in a few episodes.
- The Fantastic Four: First Steps. This was fine as far as Marvel movies go, and certainly not their worst. But coming out so soon after Superman, which bowled me over, didn’t help how I perceived it. Also if you’re a Disney nerd and heard some background music that you thought sounded very familiar, you’re not wrong.
- Galaxy Quest. The ultimate Star Trek spoof. Sort of. A bunch of actors from an aging space adventure show end up in the real thing, with aliens who thought it was real. It’s clever and funny, despite the Tim Allen of it all. I also completely forgot Sam Rockwell was in this, doing his best sleezeball.
- Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing. This documenary mostly focuses on “the Squad,” a kidfluencing group that formed around Piper Rockelle, and how terrible the whole thing was (and some really gross things Piper’s mom seems to be pushing her to do now that she’s been demonetized by Youtube) but it’s also about the business of kids being used to create content. This whole industry makes me ill, and I don’t think legislation looking to reign some of this in is working fast enough. Also I had a bit of whiplash when the commercials around this series starred Lindsey Lohan. I’m glad she seems to be doing well now, but she’s another example of how making kids “famous” for money is very often not a good thing.
- A Deadly American Marriage. A husband is beaten to death by his wife and her father. Was it murder? Self defense? I don’t know. This one was pretty depressing because two kids, who were still teenagers when this was filmed, were traumatized by the whole thing.
Nail Polish of the Week
Knowing I’d be doing a lot of cleaning and possibly chipping of nails before I left, I threw on two coats of Hello Kindness by OPI from their Hello Kitty collection, for my last week in town. This “hint of sparkle” pea green worked better than I expected! And for the trip, I went with ol’ reliable: Sequin Scene by Essie.
Until next time,
Jen A. Miller (she/her)
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Have the best time, Jen!