Celebrate. Celebrate? Why not—what else can we do? Wear masks? Maybe. Safely congregate among other vaccinated people? Yes. Curse the universe for the horrible past year and a half? Mmmmmm it’s hard not to. But why waste the energy. The universe doesn’t want to hear it. What it does want to hear is chatting and laughter and music as we enjoy our reemergence. Hopefully, we can manage that.

We are like dazed survivors stumbling out of our houses after a 1.5 year long earthquake. It’s a mess. Some people got hurt and some didn’t make it. Everybody is glad it’s over, and everybody wishes it never happened. There is still the risk of aftershocks. We’re all confused about where we should be or what we should do. When in doubt—you know the drill—party like it’s 2000. Or 1999 if you prefer pre-apocalyptic partying.

So, since for the moment we can, we should get together with our vaccinated kith and kin and go crazy. Below is some fuel for your fun fire.

Watching

Ghosts

BBC/HBO Max

Nobody really knows where we go when we die. It seems though that if one’s death was particularly absurd (or to put it euphemistically, if one has “unfinished business”), one stays where it happened. Forever.

Fun? Fun. It follows that a ridiculous, or at least quirky person is most likely to have an absurd death. Put together six of them, plus the crowd in the plague pit and you have a party. Mix in a young couple who have inherited the old manor house where they all, um, live? and you have an irresistible bash. Wait, no, there are seven. Humphrey just doesn’t have a head (that he can find very often). It’s like that.

Listening

Sunrise

MICHELLE

If we meant “rave” when we said “party,” we would be setting up something stadium-sized and face-shattering, like Odesza on the turntable. But after everything that we’ve all been through, we yearn for a low-key groove. You know, smooth, suave sounds by artists like Lianne La Havas, The Marias, Massive Attack (with Hope Sandoval from Mazzy Star), and the like. Most of us are dear reader, after all, grownups. We know a good party groove gets everybody in the room moving, even if only slightly swaying from the waist up while enjoying a beverage and laughing at life’s abundant absurdity.

Learning

How to talk to anyone

Vanessa Van Edwards

Here’s the setup: It’s a morning talk show, “AM Northwest,” and the presenter introduces a guest. The video quality is only so-so, the sound too, but as soon as they start talking you realize that this is nuts & bolts, straight-up useful info. What is the research-proven best first thing to say to someone at a gathering? How do you gracefully end a conversation? And so on. Now that we’re out and about, these are things we need to know. Learn how or brush up with this short video.

Launching

www.Myriadweb.com

The Myriad Team

‘Bout time. While we agree with the 18th-century moral admonishment, Iactantia refutat seipsam (boasting disproves itself), we also know that true stories, concisely presented, are instructive in demonstrating one’s worth. We’re worthy, so we postponed all non-essential functions (since we were quarantined anyway), worked into the wee hours, and out came a butterfly. Take a look around and please let us know what you think.