Find Your Attention in the Cutest Surf Town in B.C.

Issue #37: And the cutest surf town in BC.

Morning Person is a weekly newsletter packed with obsessively-curated recommendations and ideas—let’s get to it!

📺 “I Love That For You” on Showtime: In this smart new comedy, Vanessa Bayer plays a sheltered, awkward protagonist whose dream is to move out of her parents’ house and host a show on a QVC-style network. What starts as a white lie about having cancer (technically, like Bayer herself, she did have leukemia but it’s been in remission for years), snowballs as she exploits the diagnosis for her career gain. Quirky and cute, with behind-the-scenes moments reminiscent of “Hacks.”

🎧 Ted Lucas’s Self-Titled Album: Similar to Jay Robinson, the artist of one of my all-time favorite songs (recommended here), Ted Lucas was a staple in the Detroit music scene in the ‘60s and ‘70s, but received little recognition as a solo artist during his lifetime. His solo album, re-released in 2018, has received a cult-like following and it’s all I want to listen to during the unseasonably rainy Portland spring. I’m collecting my favorite spring discoveries in this playlist!

📚 Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh: One of my funniest friends sent this graphic novel to me so I should have known it would be hilarious. Still, I didn’t expect to be laughing out loud from the first page. A memoir told in twenty-five chapters, Brosh’s stories range from the banality of adulthood to her experience with depression and bizarre childhood escapades (including the time she made a habit of sneaking into her neighbor’s house at three years old), all told with an irreverent voice that bathes even the most mundane activities (learning how to write the letter “R”) in a hilarious light.

Last week, Jonah and I traveled to Vancouver Island to celebrate our wedding anniversary. Emboldened by our relatively lax plans, I packed more books than blouses with every intent of cruising through my to-read list… then made it through approximately fifty pages, total.

Despite my interest in the book, every time I cracked it open, I would barely make it a paragraph before the view from our patio recaptured my attention. I spent most mornings watching waves break against the jagged rocks below our room while my book rested optimistically open in my lap. Occasionally, I was rewarded by the sight of a pair of Harbor Porpoises or a surfer dropping into a wave but after a week of back-to-back deadlines and assignments, it felt amazing to just let my mind wander.