Best Weekend
Best Weekend: ‘Getting On,” Gloria Steinem, Lalah Hathaway + More
What we'll be listening to, watching, and reading to sate our pop culture needs.
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I can see 2016 from my house! How is it that right after Halloween, January feels like it’s a little too close for comfort (despite the unseasonably warm temperatures in cities like New York and Chicago)? Maybe these four new releases will ease you into the last two months of the year. We have certainly been waiting eagerly for their arrivals.
‘My Life on the Road,’ by Gloria Steinem
Not that you were grasping for reasons to devour the memoir of Gloria Steinem—journalist, activist, organizer, founding editor of Ms., and in general one of the fiercest, most important feminists of our lifetimes—but, did you see her powerful dedication in her book? Read it, and then go pick up ‘My Life on the Road‘—stat!
‘Lalah Hathaway Live’
She’s descended from R&B excellence (her father is the late, great Donny Hathaway), but the Grammy-winning classically trained, soulful singer is a goddess in her own right, with five brilliant albums to her name. And with the release of her sixth, Lalah Hathaway Live, a sublime recording of back-to-back sets at the Troubadour in L.A., devotees can enjoy what they’ve been treasuring forever, while new fans can discover what they’ve long been missing.
‘St. Marks Is Dead,’ by Ada Calhoun
East Village native Ada Calhoun—a prolific essayist, critic, and journalist, who has served as a crime reporter for the New York Post and a theater critic for New York magazine—has brought together stories, essays, photos, and personal accounts to recount the rich, wild, fiery 400-year history of St. Mark’s Place in the East Village of Manhattan, tracing its evolution from its origins as a Dutch farm to the birthplace and battleground of many of this country’s most important cultural (and counter-cultural) revolutionaries and political and artistic movements. An absolutely riveting must-read.
‘Getting On’ on HBO
It’s never easy to say good-bye, but on Sunday, we begin to prepare ourselves for the end of one of the most criminally underwatched dark comedies, Getting On, which premieres its third and final season on HBO. The irony is even more bitter when you consider that we’re having to bid adieu to a series about about elder care, where people have to prepare themselves for good-byes all the time. At this particular extended-care ward, the geriatric patients are at the mercy of Laurie Metcalf’s Dr. Jenna James, the incompetent, self-centered director of medicine who is always looking for ways to funnel money into her dubious research projects (e.g., fecal studies), at the expense not only of patients’ care, but the beleaguered nursing staff who try to support her. The cast here is pitch perfect—Alex Bortstein, Niecy Nash (who won an Emmy nom for her role as the moral compass of the show, Didi), and Mel Rodriguez—not to mention the incredible roster of guest stars, most notably, Betty Buckley, Molly Shannon, Ann Guilbert, Mary Kay Place, Jean Smart, Carrie Preston, and oh, we could go on, but we are writing through streams of tears. Just watch it and thank us later.
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