Things I Enjoyed Last Week: 5/4/20-5/11/20

Florian Schneider, 1947-2020

I took last week off mostly because I was having a pretty bad week overall. I am once again ready to enjoy things.

Music Thing I Enjoyed: Hayley Williams - Petals for Armor: The Paramore frontwoman's long-awaited solo debut finally came out last weekend. More accurately, the album fully came out, as Williams has been releasing it in chunks since February. There's been a slow trickle of songs being released. Part one came out in February, and part two came out in March. I largely avoided listening to the singles because I enjoy listening to albums in full. I thought it paid off really well. I've never been the biggest Paramore fan, but I have enjoyed their forays into more straight-up pop music, and Williams' solo album feels like a really natural progression from that, with a bit more of an "artsy" filter. I think the last third of the album where things get a little more straight-up dancy is my favorite, but the entire thing is worth a listen. Here's "Sugar on the Rim."

Alcoholic Thing I Enjoyed: Experimenting With Bloody Marys: Last Tuesday my friend and I did "brunch" from our respective houses as we watched The Bachelor Presents: Listen to Your Heart. Naturally I wanted the ultimate brunch drink, the Bloody Mary. I usually don't make my own mix, which usually isn't a problem. There are plenty of decent mixes available. Unfortunately, the only mix left on store shelves when I ventured out was Mr. & Mrs. T's Original Bloody Mary Mix, which sucks on its own. It's not nearly spicy enough on its own. It's honestly more sweet than spicy, which is an issue. That's not how anybody should be drinking a Bloody Mary. So I had to get creative. Once I got a good blend of additives going - extra celery salt, Worcestershire sauce, chili garlic Cholula sauce, black pepper, cayenne pepper, a little bit of Old Bay - it was very solid. In the long run, I spent too much time dressing this up where it would've been a lot easier to do my own mix. Still, finding the right blend of spices and flavors was fun.

Non-Alcoholic Thing I Enjoyed: Pineapple Orange Mango Mountain Dew Kickstart: I stocked up on these last week. This was my caffeinated beverage of choice to get me through college, and it has been helping me get through *coronavirus advertisement voice* these unprecedented times.

Movie Thing I Enjoyed: Den of Thieves: 50 Cent and his band of thieves grilling his daughter's prom date is the best "action movie dad intimidates teen daughter's date" since Bad Boys II. Also the movie as a whole is very good. It might legitimately be Gerard Butler's best role (though that's honestly not saying much). Really fun heist movie. Predictable as hell, but it hits its notes really well.

Music Thing I Enjoyed: Kraftwerk: Kraftwerk co-founder Florian Schneider's death in late April was made known to press this past week. Kraftwerk is easily one of the most influential musical acts of all time. Their fingerprints are all over electronic, rock, pop, dance, and rap music. I spent a good chunk of this last week revisiting some of their albums for the first time in ages. Here's the title track from Trans Europa Express.