Fashion illustration of Dolce & Gabbana headphones by Beth Briggs.
I have been the executive editor of Fort Worth, Texas magazine for a little more than six months now. And, for a little more than six months now I’ve been making promises (to myself and everyone around me) of starting an editor’s blog. Today, it happens. Pretty underwhelming, right?
Each week (or that's the plan at least) I'll bring you a little something that I currently love. There are absolutely no parameters. It can be a local store, a national chain, a dish from a restaurant in Chicago, a totally random television show or possibly something new and different that I haven't even thought about yet. It probably won't be the Chicago thing though, because I have never been there.
But first, I must admit that this idea is not my own. I totally and completely stole it from one of my favorite podcasts, Pop Culture Happy Hour, on NPR. Each week they end their show with a segment called “What’s Making Me Happy This Week,” whereabouts they talk about other podcasts and other uppity artsy things that are often times very pretentious, but also often times very valuable.
So, that's where I will start my series. What am I loving this week? Pop Culture Happy Hour. I usually listen to it when I'm getting ready. Because you see, my closet is in a converted attic where there is no TV and there are no overhead lights. Things are probably suddenly becoming very clear to my coworkers.
On Pop Culture Happy Hour, “Monkey See” blogger Linda Holmes hosts a roundtable of other NPR folks as they chat about books, movies, TV and anything else they can consume. Personally, I love it when they talk about movies that have recently come out so I can gauge where or not I was normal for loving and or hating something. They have justified my thoughts on any number of things from Parks & Recreation and The Martian, to Show Me a Hero and Magic Mike. You see, there are no boundaries for what they will discuss. And, things I love really collided last week when the team talked about the return of The Mindy Project to Hulu.
And then yesterday happened. And Prince died. And, I love Prince (namely Purple Reign because I'm a Frog and Little Red Corvette because it's the best song ever). And, I'm so very happy that my mom took me to a Prince concert 10 years ago because now I can say that I did that.
But, I'm also so very happy that Pop Culture Happy Hour produced a 10-minute “small batch” episode within hours of the news coming out, so I could hear how my feelings aligned with theirs. I could hear what other people loved most about him. And, basically, I could have a conversation with a group of people I didn't even know without ever saying a word.
It was lovely.