May 8: Rachel Bloom

While working on my kitchen cabinet painting project, I listened to NPR's Ask Me Another which happened to be a rerun with guest Rachel Bloom the creator and star of one of my favorite TV shows, "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend". I remember listening to this episode a few months ago and learning about the music video she made called "F*** Me Ray Bradbury" that was released on Bradbury's 90th birthday in 2010.  Of course, my husband and I had immediately looked up said music video and watched it, and it was delightful clever and hilarious. At the time, it got me thinking that maybe I should read some Ray Bradbury, because never in my life had I ever read anything by him, and if I liked Rachel Bloom, and Rachel Bloom liked Ray Bradbury, then maybe I would like Ray Bradbury. I started with "Farenheit 451", which was interesting but definitely not my *favorite* book, but then I read "The Martian Chronicles", which I absolutely fell in love with (it also happens to be Rachel's favorite Bradbury book). It is a collection of short stories, but all on the same overarching theme of humans starting to colonize Mars; the stories feature different people and different Martians during this colonization period. It has inspired me to consider writing my own short stories, continuing on the theme, kind of like Ray Bradbury fan fiction. 

It was delightful to hear this Ask Me Another episode again because it reminded me that it had inspired me to try Ray Bradbury. Rachel Bloom herself is also delightful, she is an amazingly talented and hilarious singer/songwriter and I quite enjoyed "Crazy Ex Girlfriend" because of her goofy spoofy songs (each episode contains two to four original songs, as the main character, Rebecca Bunch, played by Bloom, often breaks out into song to describe her feelings, like in a musical.)

I don't know *too* much about Rachel, so I looked her up. She was born in 1987 in LA, got a BFA in Drama from NYU, and interned for head writer Seth Meyers at Saturday Night Live. She just released a memoir titled "I Want To Be Where The Normal People Are" which I have added to my "To-Read" list. And a fun coincidental fact: Bloom co-wrote the song "Super Friend" performed by Melissa Benoist and Grant Gustin, featured on the musical crossover episode of "Supergirl" and "The Flash" titled "Duet". (In case you forgot, I have been watching "Supergirl" for the first. The song was featured in a Season 2 episode called "City of Lost Children". Another episode from Season 2 was called "The Martian Chronicles". *mind blown*)

With delight,

♥Jamie