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(CNN)Read something good lately?
I’ve been reading more books lately – sometimes just because all the streaming content can be overwhelming. A bit like how the Cheesecake Factory’s multi-page menu can feel like way too much.
Not that I’m complaining. Streaming content is my peaceful place too, and this week my two passions collide on a project.
Three things to see
“The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey”
I’m a big fan of the writer Walter Mosley and have read almost all of his novels.
That’s why I was very excited when I learned that a limited series based on one of my favorites, The Last Days of Ptolemy Gray, would be coming to Apple TV+.
Samuel L. Jackson plays the title character, a man with dementia whose memory has been restored long enough to attempt to solve the mysterious death of a loved one. Dominique Fishback (who was great in Judas and the Black Messiah) plays his caretaker.
It’s streaming now.
“The Adam Project”
Science fiction isn’t normally my thing, but sign me up for anything Ryan Reynolds related.
I’m such a huge admirer of his…acting. In The Adam Project, Reynolds reunites with Free Guy director Shawn Levy to write a story about a boy dealing with loss and meeting his future self, a time-travelling pilot who takes after his wife addiction (played by Zoe Saldana).
The film is now streaming on Netflix.
“The Thing With Pam”
Renée Zellweger is getting a lot of attention for donning a prosthetic leg to play Pam Hupp in this limited series based on a Dateline NBC story about a woman accused of allegedly killing her best friend Betsy Faria . But watch out for the entire cast in this one.
For starters, there’s Glenn Fleshler as Betsy’s husband, Russ Faria, who is of course the first prime suspect, and Josh Duhamel as his attorney, Joel Schwartz.
And the whole thing feels a little over the top.
The best true crime stories usually are, and this one was not only a “Dateline” episode, it was also a podcast. The Thing About Pam airs on NBC.
Two things to listen to
Hey For King & Country fans, “What are you waiting for?”
That’s the title of the duo’s first new album in three years. Grammy-winning brothers Joel and Luke Smallbone fought hard to get here.
“Those early years when we started working together in the late 2000s, those early years where we were just rejected,” Joel told Smallborne American Songwriter. “From every major label in America.”
They kept the faith (literally, as they attribute their success to it) and now Christian pop artists are enjoying the fruits of their labor.
The album was released on Friday.
Lil Durk’s “7220” was originally scheduled to be released the same day as Yes’s “Donda 2” before Lil Durk pushed back the release.
To make it even more interesting, the rapper used his verified Instagram account to challenge every other artist to release his album on the same day.
He didn’t name anyone in particular, but Lil Durk and NBA YoungBoy have been teasing each other lately, in case you didn’t know.
“7220” dropped on Friday.
One thing to talk about
There might have been a lot of talk this week about professional quarterback Russell Wilson being traded, but that’s not all that’s going on in his world.
Wilson and his wife, singer and actress Ciara, have also released a new children’s book.
The parents of three young children have co-written a picture book called Why Not You?
They recently shared on Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show that Wilson’s father said that phrase a lot, and that Ciara’s parents also instilled in her that “no dream is too big.”
“We share the same passion and connection,” she told Kimmel.
love this kind of love
Something to swallow
For those of us who remember, it hardly seems possible that it’s been 25 years since Biggie Smalls, aka Notorious BIG, was gunned down in Los Angeles. The rapper, born Christopher Wallace, was killed when his vehicle came under fire as he and his entourage exited an industrial party.
It feels like yesterday that I wrote about the 20th anniversary of his death on March 9th, 1997.
Wallace’s murder was never solved, but his musical influence remains.
As is often the case with those who die young, his mythology has grown over the years, although many wonder where he and his career would be now had he lived.
Hip-hop has aged well — as demonstrated at this year’s Super Bowl — but count me as someone who wishes both Wallace and Tupac Shakur, who was gunned down six months before Biggie, had lived to see it.
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