NEW YORK—Good morning. It’s Saturday, in case you’ve lost track. The start of the weekend and time to take a break and relax. Yes, in fact, it might be a good day to get out and ….. oh, wait. We’re not doing that now. If you’re in New York, New Jersey, New Orleans or many other places around the nation, what you need is a distraction—a fun and tranquil diversion—to get you through the weekend. So here are eight things that we believe will carry you through the weekend and take your mind off that other stuff going on out there. At least it’s a start on what to talk about on your next Zoom happy hour.

1. #StayHomeBoxOffice

Did you miss “The Sopranos” or “Veep” on HBO? No worries. HBO has made good on a promise to offer free premium content for the month of April, according to industry publication Variety. 

The free #StayHomeBoxOffice programming—without advertising—began Friday (April 3) morning and includes every episode of nine HBO series: “Veep,” “Succession,” “Six Feet Under,” “The Wire,” “Ballers,” “Barry,” “Silicon Valley,” The Sopranos, and “True Blood,” according to Variety. Also available to watch without an HBO subscription are 20 movies from Warner Bros. and 10 HBO documentaries and docu-series.

2. Nikon's Photography Classes

Nikon has made its entire curriculum of online photography classes free until the end of April, according to The Verge. Now through April 30, all 10 classes at the Nikon School can be streamed for free. The classes are normally priced anywhere between $15 to $50 each.

3. Tom Brady Joins Tampa Bay Buccaneers


Image via Tampa Bay Buccaneers website
If you were worried about where quarterback Tom Brady and his family would live—and who among us wasn’t—now that he’s joining the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, check this off your list. It appears that Tom and Gisele Bundchen are going to rent Derek Jeter’s seven-bedroom mansion on Davis Islands in Tampa, according to The New York Times. With more than 30,000 square feet of heated living space at their disposal in the waterfront home, the couple and their two children should have plenty of space to move around in.


4. Artemis Generation


Image via NASA
More than 12,000 people have applied to join what NASA is calling the “Artemis Generation,” according to a report this week on Space.com. The Artemis Generation is a new class of astronauts to help the agency return humans to the moon and reach outward to Mars. (Sorry, the application period closed March 31.) This is the second highest number of applications the agency's astronaut corps has ever received, NASA officials said.









5. National Theatre of London to Stream Productions


Image via YouTube
For the next two months, every Thursday evening at 7 p.m., the National Theatre of London will stream via YouTube live productions, according to a Good Housekeeping report. 

The series kicked off Thursday (April 2) with Richard Bean’s One Man Two Guvnors featuring a Tony Award-winning performance from James Corden. The performance is available on YouTube here. The free stream has had nearly 1 million views since going live Thursday night, Variety reported. 





6. Novak Djokovic's Twitter Feed


Image via Novak Djokovic Twitter page
What are tennis players doing to keep busy and in shape? You’ll never guess. Roger Federer has been spotted  whacking balls against a wall (through his legs nonetheless) in a light snow squall, while one of his main rivals, Novak Djokovic flies around his large living room in a match against his brother Marko in which Joker is using a frying pan as his racket. We’re not kidding. Check it out on Djokovic’s Twitter feed here. 









7. Watch Documentaries

The New York Times has issued its list “of enlightening, entertaining and even uplifting documentaries” that are available on Netflix. The Times says “watching documentaries is an excellent way to stay informed about what’s really happening in the world: from unsolved murders to political corruption to quietly escalating global crises.” Here’s the newspaper’s rundown, which includes stories of overlooked artists in the music industry, a Hollywood starlet who was also an inventor and more. 

8. Virtual Concerts

A March 12 benefit concert in New York City—featuring Dave Matthews, Jackson Browne, and many others—went on (not quite as planned) and was live streamed in order to comply with recommendations on public gatherings. The show, held at New York's Beacon Theater, benefited the charity God’s Love We Deliver, and included a number of memorable performances. Dave Matthews “delivered a spirited rendition of Peter Gabriel's ‘Sledgehammer,’” according to Billboard. You can watch Matthews perform here. Designer John Varvatos was a co-producer of the event.