Rampant Media Consumption #7
Here’s what we’ve been reading, watching, listening to, and playing this week. 
Tim
A friend of mine recently sold off all his records in an attempt to make some cash/lighten his load while moving. His loss is my gain. But of the few I bought, the one that has stuck out is Abner Jay. He was a one man band in his 50s, with a strange six string banjo, harmonica, percussion made with animal bones, and what ever else tickled his fancy. Sound-wise, he’s like the second generation of country blues meets Daniel Johnston, fueled by amphetamines. I usually dread the “this band on this drug” cliche in music writing, but it’s hard to avoid when he’s yelling at you about cocaine.
And if you found your way to this blog, you probably know all about it, but I’m currently on letter “N” of Aaron Cometbus’ A Bestiary of Booksellers. Each letter focuses on a different character in Aaron’s life as a folding-table bookseller on the streets of NYC. A surprisingly interesting underworld of beardo book hunters and curmudgeonly characters.
I also watched the documentary Florida Man. Less a narrative and more a 45 minute portrait of the characters found wandering the streets and beaches of southern Florida. In the end, I actually ended up feeling a little jealous. Warm weather, a clunky bike, and a cold beer sounds pretty good right now…
Erik
This week the Champions League UEFA Champions League – UEFA.com began again, so I’ve been watching some soccer matches. For folks excited about European soccer, the Champions League title is like winning the Super Bowl, World Series, and the Stanley Cup all in one.
I haven’t got much reading done; there were some Hemingway short stories, but I get bored and just wait for the punchlines. Although,
I think I was swallowed by a slew of Hall and Oates videos… I can’t get enough of their use of fog and mesmerizing head-bobbing.
Meggyn
read // Afro Vegan by Bryant Terry, started Yo Miss!, Manspressions, Women by Bukowski
listened to // Giraffage’s “No Reason“, True Widow’s Self Titled, Joey Bada$$’s “1999“, Spazzkid’s “Desire 願う“, MIMM’s compilation of “From China With Love“, and A Tribe Called Quest’s “The Low End Theory”
watched // X-Files season 2 and The Other Woman (one of the best rom-coms in my opinion, though I shamefully watched)
played // not enough basketball or Twister
Taylor
listened to- Jessica Pratt (self titled album)
read- The Art of the Novel by Milan Kundera and Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
Nathan
This week’s Powell book reading was a fictional tale, but still resonated with me in terms of themes and subject matter! Binary Star discusses body image issues like anorexia and the impact of veganarchism all in one terrific coming of age story we could all relate to, but most importantly find subtle references to lots of the issues we attempt to address with most of our titles at Microcosm Publishing!