April 20, 2020
We are stuck at home, just like you.
And while it is easy to get stuck in a rut (and watch "The Office," again), we at PhillyVoice are trying to do something new each weekend. And each Monday, well report back to you on how it went — at least until this self-quarantine is over.
Each of our staffers will be making one suggestion each week of some kind of TV show, video game, book, recipe or... well... anything we did over the weekend. Hopefully we inspire you to try something new yourself — or to tell us how wrong we were with our suggestion. Either way, it'll give us all some entertainment as the current pandemic has no end in sight.
Here are our stuck at home staff picks:
Evan Macy, Sports Editor
Jim Carrey playing a Mr. Rogers-type host of a kid's show (with lots of puppets!) in an adult comedy with some heart. That's really the only descriptor needed to explain the plot of Showtime's Kidding, a show I watched the second season of this weekend. It's dark, and heart-breaking but extremely well-written and even better acted. I highly recommend.
Matt Mullin, Sports Writer
On Friday, Netflix dropped a new show called Too Hot To Handle, which is like if The Real World met "The Contest" episode of Seinfeld. Basically, they took 10 of the dumbest*, most attractive young people they could find, locked them in a cage and then told them they weren't allowed to have any sexual contact — and, to top it all off, they had to remain masters of their own domain for the entirety of the trip. Listen, I'm not proud of myself, but what's done is done. It may not be as good as Netflix's other recent two reality offerings — The Circle and Love is Blind — but there are worse ways to kill eight hours in quarantine, especially if you enjoy hate-watching.
*You might think I'm being mean, but one contestant actually asks what the number is for 9-1-1. Seriously.
Kyle Neubeck, Sixers Beat Writer
I’ve been trying to squeeze in a bunch of movies I’ve slacked on now that I have a lot of inside time, so I finally got around to Midsommar, which is a screwed up, violent, and at times disturbingly funny movie that wasn’t quite as shocking as I expected. Maybe that’s because everyone I know had prepped me for it ahead of time. Aside from that, the premiere of The Last Dance on ESPN was the big event of the weekend that I covered for the site, and I dabbled in some Twitch streaming. Hope everybody is holding up okay.
Michael Tanenbaum, Web Curator
What kind of dark clairvoyance did The Strokes possess to write an album so strangely suited to the current world predicament? "The new abnormal," it turns out, was a remark that the band once heard from former California Gov. Jerry Brown, who was talking about the state's wildfires. It rings a bit heavier still in the age of COVID-19 and social distancing. As with 2001's "Is This It" and 9/11, the New York City quintet appear in a moment of upheaval.
Read Mike's full review here!
Pat Ralph, Web Curator
Playing the popular bar trivia game Quizzo has become a weekly tradition now via Zoom with my friends. It's been a really fun way to stay connected while we're all social distancing at home and something to look forward to at a time when there hasn't been much to get excited over.
John Kopp, Chief Health Reporter/Assistant Editor
I recently finished Tyler Kepner's book "K: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches." With baseball games postponed for the foreseeable future, this proved an enjoyable read. The book chronicles the evolution of the sport's most common pitches, explaining how they rose to prominence and why several, like the screwball, essentially have disappeared. Plus, Kepner, a national baseball writer for The New York Times, grew up in the Philly area. So there's plenty of Phillies anecdotes sprinkled throughout.
Virginia Streva, Web Curator
I made a red gravy sauce with short ribs this weekend, which I'd like to call "Quarantine Red Gravy." There's no particular recipe I used. I just followed my grandmother's method for cooking gravy using store-bought marinara. All in all, I'd give it an 8/10. It was pretty good, but I severely underestimated how long it can take for short ribs to cook down — which was somewhere in the ballpark of five "Ally McBeal" episodes. But whatever, we're in quarantine. I'm not sure time exists right now anyway.
Jonathan Tevis, Director of Communication & Content Marketing
If you’re looking for some quality comfort food to get you through quarantine, this beef shepherd’s pie recipe won’t disappoint. It takes a little while to make, but what else do you have to do?
Gone in one sitting.
