Suffice to say that things have changed a lot for us and this is not quite the spring or summer we each envisioned. But TFG is still trying to stay observant and entertained. Here’s what the team has been up to while staying home. 

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Morgan: Oh man, I haven’t been watching Netflix like at all…I’ve gotten strangely into YouTube videos of people playing video games together? Like the Polygon Jackbox videos, there’s something about the fact that they’re all quarantined but still streaming these dumb party games and still managing to banter like normal which is very sweet to me.

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Katie: I’ve been listening to the Scrubs rewatch podcast Fake Doctors, Real Friends and the Office Ladies rewatch podcast. They go through each episode of the shows and discuss behind the scenes things. I’ve also been watching Madame Secretary and Community. 

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Kathryn: Among other activities, I’ve been spending this time delving back into one of my academic pursuits and passions from college – transcribing old letters. Wellesley College has a trove of 19th and early 20th century letters, and during my time as a student there, the college digitized many of these documents, hoping to engage the wider community in a crowdsourcing transcription project. The beauty of this type of pursuit is that anyone interested in partaking can access the letters, try their hand at transcribing, and learn a bit about the history of that time. Then, anyone else can backcheck the work, clarify any mysterious words and phrases, and help carry the transcription to a final product. It’s the kind of collaboration that I love to see in the academic world, and one that can be done anywhere you have an internet connection. The Smithsonian also runs such a project – I would recommend checking it out!

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Catherine: I finished season 5 of My Hero Academia, and I just started Westworld season 3. Last night I watched Onward, which was really good.  I highly recommend it (even made me cry a tiny bit). I’ve occasionally been watching/ listening to the Seattle Symphony live streams on facebook (they’re live streams of previously recorded concerts). And I’ve been watching too much Youtube, haha. Though my favorite Youtubers recently did a scattergories live stream that you can play along with them, which is a great idea and it’s fun even if you don’t catch it live. 

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Jess: I’ve been watching America’s Next Top Model, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (for the first time), and 3 Korean Dramas all at the same time.

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Tiffany: Much like the rest of the country (and this team!), I’ve been turning to Netflix to keep myself entertained these days. I’ve found myself gravitating towards “true stories” and documentaries, those that show what would typically be considered the extremes of society. So far, I’ve watched Tiger King, Waco, and Unorthodox. Tiger King is every bit as entertaining as the hype has made it out to be. I found Waco to be incredibly intense and it definitely makes a point to create more nuance and  gray areas in the narrative than people who watched the news might have seen at the time. I found Unorthodox to be a really compelling and interesting story. I actually did not know too much about what Orthodox Jewish/Hasidic lifestyle and culture entailed until watching the limited series. Not only is Unorthodox based on the memoirs of Deborah Feldman, its screenwriters and directors were also female. I have also been playing a lot of Animal Crossing, which actually has some surprising instances of art education. More to come on that soon.