DC FORUM: Back from My Spring Break...

A Word from the Editor

BY DC CUEVA 

■ linktr.ee/dc408dxtr

Instagram @dc408dxtr

It's hard to comprehend... but it has been a while since we spoke to you here. We greet you once again during this Easter week at this outset of springtime, one that is always a time of renewal in our world... and one that is certainly needed in this manic world of ours. And for us in the Cueva circle, it's more than needed -- it's one that we've been wanting for some time after a year that has been unprecedented in our lives and in mine.

It has now been more than a year since the news that turned upside down this perfect of mine in our family inner circle when we found out of my father's cancer diagnosis... and it's been three-quarters of a year since that summer day that changed all of our lives. It's with that in mind that I have taken time away from the thing I do best of sitting behind this screen putting together both outstanding blog content and quality YouTube videos that so many of you have turned to for a much-needed escape from everything that has transpired in the thirty-seven months since this world totally lost our minds.

For a life update of sorts, this past month our family drove out to our sister's house out in the Central Valley to spend eight nights babysitting my niece & nephew when my sister & brother-in-law flew down to Mexico to mark wedding day for one of their friends. It marked the first time in a year & a half that I got to go to their house, which is always a nice place to go to when the summer weather heats up... but all of you know that we here in California have had quite a dreary winter & spring weather-wise, and I couldn't go out in the cold and wet weather to enjoy some quality time in their amazing backyard.

This vacation doubled as what I termed "#DCSpringBreak" as I got to do something I didn't get to do in over a year: utilize my secondary Twitter portal to live tweet a bunch of TV shows, sports and music every day during my stay. There, I watched a bunch of figure skating, the Ultra Music Festival in Miami, the iHeartRadio Music Awards, and that standard daily dose of live YouTube streams from that happy place known as Las Vegas... as well as that thing known as the MTV Challenge. This doesn't factor in a couple other movies that kept me entertained in rekindling that life in lockdown we had three years ago.

Perhaps the highlight of Spring Break was getting to do something I haven't done since my last stay in their pad: indulge in daily sessions of Netflix & Chill with the sister's account. By the time I checked out of their hotel, I watched three full seasons of the streamer's reality shows: Hype House (which we did a post on featuring Nikita and her SnapChat show date with MTV alum Corey Brooks), the much-hyped Real World sendoff Twenty Somethings Austin, and most important of all -- Perfect Match.

The ladder had to be added at last minute to take the place of Season 9 of Are You The One? after a season finale coming a week earlier than expected (we will cover all of that on here coming then), and even before that it was of interest to me for that an alum of the last season of that MTV show prior to its pandemic-forced hiatus, Kariselle Snow, was cast onto the streamer's big reality crossover mega-series thanks to extending her 15 minutes of fame as the panda on Sexy Beasts (which we also featured here previously) after being on the LGBTQ+ friendly season of AYTO. Obviously, there was a lot of buzz for Perfect Match... and I plan to do a blog review of that on here coming up this spring. In fact, I loved watching those shows so much that I will soon add a Netflix subscription to the trio of Hulu, Peacock and Paramount+ which I currently subscribe to... with maybe more to come beyond that.

In addition to covering the Challenge World Championship with a series of "Who Are These Newbies?" on the international players and a bunch of other things in our MTV coverage, also forthcoming on this site is something I have never done before: do a movie review. My stay at sister's saw me watch three of those: the Filipino-themed Easter Sunday with Jo Koy, the film version of the play my niece took part at her middle school 13, and a film that also doubled as my very first purchase for a non-fungible token that starred one of the unsung heroes to me of these past three years.

Though I'm getting up there in age, Now United has become a favorite artist to me in that it blends my passion for music with a favorite aspect of mine from the Olympics and World Cup in bringing different nations together. The supergroup from eighteen different countries wrapped up the cycle of their first generation by doing a full-length musical along the lines of 13 and High School Musical... and with how tense the world is right now even as things have gone back to normal, the energy of the stars of that film, the positive message of its soundtrack and the film's underdog story is exactly what this world needs... just as the group burst on the scene when the world needed that pick-me-up. And if it's worth spending that $10 to buy a ticket on OP3N to watch it with your kids this coming Easter weekend, then you'll be entertained by The Musical: Welcome to the Night of Your Life. Perhaps, your young ones may even find your favorite new pop group just as I did.

But above all of that, the most important reason for Spring Break was based in one thing that’s very much still fresh in your memories, even as you try to get away from what we had to put up with in this decade. You do not need to be reminded of what we all had to put up with three years ago, but if there's something I've been able to better appreciate during this time, then it is the importance of family... and after a year things still do not feel normal just over 250 days since my dad left us. Had he beaten that opponent known as brain cancer, our trip would've been a few weeks earlier to watch the niece in her first play... or he & my mom would've added more stamps to their passports. Instead, we continue to press on in this time without him... and the days have pressed on as we continue to grapple with this reality, and my mom hasn’t visited his gravesite for the first time since that funeral weekend.

Family is something that ranks right up there among the things that mean to me the most - and you all have been reminded of how important that has become in the 1100-or-so days of this time in our world. We ourselves are not exempt from heartache and have learned that lesson quite a bit... and our week with those who loved being around has been one we needed the most to remind ourselves of important and precious quality time with those who we love truly is. That is why I took time away from here to better appreciate that very reality... but we are now ready to resume doing what this site does best: cover reality of a different kind and a few other things. See you on here this holiday weekend.

- I AM DC

#DCBLOG