The Return of The Friday + Five

I was recently exploring my contributions to the Wayback Machine searching for From + The + Vault content when I stumbled upon my old Fridays 5’s from over a decade ago. I wrote these while blogging for the SF Gate’s City Brights, and as I skimmed, I thought, what the heck, let’s run it back!

The Friday + Five* is a super brief mishmash of randomocities I have found meaningful, challenging, joyful, soothing, or just plain quirky. Enjoy.

I have been driving a great deal this summer, so we will start with three things in my ears as of late. First, I have been bingeing the Podcast Sherlock and Co [1]. I have not been able to get into these storytelling podcasts, but this modernized telling is really fun. When I am not listening to Sherlock, I am blasing the cast recording from the Alicia Keys Broadway musical Hell’s Kitchen [2]. We saw it this summer, and it was amazing. The last thing for your ears this great (but very long) audiobook, The Poppy Wars Trilogy [3] by R. F. Kuang, who also brought you Babel and Yellowface. If you are looking for something to read, head on over to, [4] as my friend shared about their leaving the priesthood: beautiful and vulnerable writing. And finally, something to make you smile, here is a reel courtesy of Pierce Westbrook [5] that shows how I would have LOVED to have been punished for breaking curfew.

BRC Bonus Click: With Madmimi shutting down, I am having to learn yet ANOTHER marketing platform for my email list and a new texting list. It’s like the old start-up days, except the start-up is me. The Weekly Word text won’t launch until the Fall, butThe Communiqué email list transition has begun.

*The Original Friday Five was a weekly-ish post from my 2010s SF Gate’s City Brights blog. If you stumble across anything that you think would fit, please feel free to drop me a note.