October Staff Stacks

Mel

Watching: I find Oprah at her best when she talks about spiritual subjects and am loving her new lifeclass on OWN. I’m getting laughs from Modern Family and Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show. I have several other new shows lined up on the DVR, but haven’t gotten to them yet.

Listening: My husband keeps introducing me to new fun bands. I’m loving Cults (not to be mistaken for The   Cult); and after seeing Dead Sara‘s The Weatherman video, can’t wait for the debut album of (she can rock like nobody’s business!). I’m liking the little bit of We Were Promised Jetpacks I’ve listened to. Sadly, I’m not listening to Adele live (her concert was postponed) and The Dead Milkmen (we had long-standing plans that couldn’t be swapped when we heard they were coming).

Eating: My own cooking for a change :)! A friend has helped me come up with meal plans. And it’s apple season in Georgia, they are crispy, juicy and rival candy in sweet deliciousness.

Browsing: Can’t get enough of Talking Points Memo  as the Republican race heats up.

Heidi

Reading: The Long Song by Andrea Levy, Chatterton Square by E.H. Young (!, more about this soon). Poetry by Wendy Cope and Mary Oliver. Kate Bolick’s piece in November’s Atlantic Magazine.

Watching: The second series of Downton Abbey and Boardwalk Empire (I’m still undecided about whether it is worth it). Storage Wars with my husband.

Listening: Cults , Ryan Adams’ Heartbreaker, Elliott Smith.

Eating: Comfort food — toast with mature cheddar and caramelized red onions. Veg from the commune farm that one of my husband’s students has been working on.

Browsing: Hark! a Vagrant. Also, I’m a little obsessed with this hair.

Ed

Reading: Just finished reading: I, Claudius , by Robert Graves . To cleanse the palette of the Caligula-atrocity-per-page in I, Claudius , I’m now reading the most gentle wit and satire of Jane Austen ‘s Northanger Abbey , causing me to reflect before every decision of the day: What Would Jane ( Austen ) Do? In the que behind Northanger Abbey awaits some as-of-yet-undesignated Dorothy Parker piece to cleanse the palette of Jane Austen ‘s sweet and piquant observations about entangled social engagements and proprieties with a heaping, helping of some of Parker’s savage wit served up with just the right amount of wrong.

Watching: Just saw: Melancholia. It’s Ingmar Bergman meets ET, except there’a no ET, just a big planet that will crash into earth, but by the time it happens you’re so sick of these characters you’re kind of glad it happens. In order to watch this “feel bad” hit of this fall, you’ll need a bucket of Prozac instead of popcorn. The big planet reminded me of a Buddhist mandala, actually, round, beautiful, peaceful, even if, utlimately, earth-crushing. Also, just finished Curb Your Enthusiasm Season One on DVD. Watched the first couple ofepisodes with my wife, but she loathed Larry David so much I had to watch the rest in solitary confinement.

Listening:  Susanna Hoffs and Matthew Sweet cover CDs of 60s/70s tunes. If you haven’t tuned in yet, these two sound fantastic together. Have I already mentioned that Susanna looks great?

Eating: Coconut yogurt.   Prodigious amounts. I’m talkin’ buckets.

Heather

Reading: The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly — wonderful YA novel about a young girl growing up in Texas in the early 1900s. The Happiness Project  by Gretchen Rubin — one of many “yearly challenge” books (do X thing for a year and write about it). My Year With Eleanor by Noelle Hancock — another “challenge” book.   I liked this one much better.   Hancock tries to spend a year doing one thing she fears every day in honor of Eleanor Roosevelt’s suggestion that we do likewise.

Watching: One episode of Homeland on Showtime.

Listening: A new playlist Stuart and Marin are making for me to use while I’m running. They called it “Mom’s Beast Mode.”   It includes treasures from Kesha, Usher, Nicki Minaj, Sara Bareilles, and-oddly-the Oompa Loompa song from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Mormon Matters Episode 52 — Rebirth of The Student Review  — a fun episode. Mormon Matters Episode 53 — Mormonism and Capital Punishment, I’m sort of embarrassed to include this since I was on the panel, but everyone should listen to it to hear Ken Driggs, a Mormon attorney, talk about his experiences working on death penalty cases.

Eating: Kroger number and alphabet shaped animal crackers. This is silly, but I love these so much; it makes me feel happy to eat them (except for their calorie count).

Browsing:  Rookie — I’ve been reading this online magazine for teenage girls a bit over the last month but  haven’t shared it with my own teenage daughter yet. Let’s just say, it’s not the New Era.    The Student Review  – I really admire these BYU students for reviving this student paper and have been reading it online occasionally.

Brent

Reading: The OSPD, 4^th ed (The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary), because I’m still hoping to improve my Scrabble rating; The Art & Craft of Case Writing, 3^rd edition, by William and Margaret J. Naumes, because I’m currently involved in a couple case projects and I just met them at a conference in San Antonio.

Watching: The Ides of March with George Clooney (one of the best movies I’ve seen in the theater in a long time); The Book of Mormon Musical, saw it in New York and spent way too much on the tickets (but it was worth it).

Listening: Mormon Stories Podcasts , because I set up my car so that I can listen to my iPod (there is no auxiliary plug, so I had to find a workaround); The Book of Mormon Musical , I have the soundtrack on my iPod.

Eating: Tony Roma’s (and a few other good restaurants in San Antonio, I was there at a another conference, just like I had been in August when the last Staff Stacks was put together).

Browsing: The Huffington Post

Erin

Reading:Some novels that have been sitting on my shelves for years – I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith (a deservedly beloved classic) and Restoration by Rose Tremain (a tender and funny novel of the 17th century).

Watching: The new sitcom Up All Night, which I hope people will check out because Maya Rudolph is delightful as an Oprah-esque talk show host + Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, especially his Late Night #Hashtags segments. Look ’em up on youtube and prepare to laugh! I also LOVED the BBC’s adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Little Dorrit. The cast was spectacular!

Listening:The Learning Company’s audio course The New Testament, presented by Bart Ehrman; the 10 CD set is a super interesting follow-up to the last audio course I listened to, Erhman’s The Historical Jesus. I’ve also been loving Mumford & Sons’ Sigh No More album – it’s energizing, thoughtful and innovative.

Eating:Cotton candy, funnel cakes and fried Oreos – yes, we hit the county fair this weekend!

Laurie

Reading:Integral Life Practice by Ken Wilbur, Terry Patten, Adam Leanard and Marco Morelli. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali by Sri Swami Satchidananda. Bossypants by Tina Fey (Again — on audiobook this time. This may officially be my personal Bible.)

Watching:  Modern Family, Ted Talks

Listening: To guitarists Agustin Amigo and  Daryl Kellie.

Eating:  Harvesting from our ripe garden and the local Farmer’s Markets: heirloom tomatoes, dry-farmed tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, rainbow colors of fresh peppers, phenomenal apples from the Farmer’s Market with no wax on them (be still my heart), homemade popcorn with olive oil and sea salt, mangos, Coffee sampling (not impressed with Kona beans, loved Café Pajaro beans from Trader Joe’s Fair Trade).

*Had a yummy lunch at Café Gratitude, reigniting my curiosity for how one makes such yummy and creative vegan and raw food. ????

Browsing:  Lord help me now. . . I discovered stumbleupon.com and must set a timer for myself before I enter the site.

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