Your Creative Calendar: 77 Things To See, Hear, And Read This May

By Joe Berkowitz , May 01, 2017

There are pretty much only two movie seasons each year, Summer Escape and Oscar Bait. Although the first of the two categories is sometimes indistinguishable from March and April fare (hello, F8 of the Furious) there’s something indelibly summer-y about the cinema of May. This year is no exception with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 kicking in the Summer Escape door, like an emergency hatch on a space ship. Lest that intergalactic comic book adventure not signal summertime enough for you, the MTV Movie Awards–now rebranded as  the Movie and TV Awards–rolls in a couple days later, reminding viewers of a certain age about summers of yore. Have a look below at Fast Company’s Creative Calendar to see what else lies in store, in the worlds of music, books, TV and beyond.

Movies In Theaters

• Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, opens May 5.
• The Dinner, opens May 5.
• Three Generations, opens May 5.
• King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, opens May 12.
• Snatched, opens May 12.
• The Wall, opens May 12.
• Alien: Covenant, opens May 19.
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul, opens May 19.
• Baywatch, opens May 26.
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, opens May 26.

Movies To Watch At Home

• Handsome: A Netflix Mystery Movie, premieres May 5 on Netflix.
• Sense8, premieres May 5 on Netflix.
• Chuck, premieres May 5.
• The Lovers, premieres May 5.
• Chris Gethard: Career Suicide, premieres May 6 on HBO.
• Paris Can Wait, premieres May 12.
• Tracy Morgan: Staying Alive, premieres May 16 on Netflix.
• Summer of 69: No Apostrophe, premieres May 16 on Epix.
• The Wizard of Lies, premieres May 20 on HBO.
• Long Strange Trip, premieres May 26 on Amazon.
• War Machine, premieres May 26 on Netflix.
• Sarah Silverman: A Speck of Dust, premieres May 30 on Netflix.

Albums You Should Hear

• Amanda Palmer & Edward Ka-Spel – I Can Spin A Rainbow, out on May 5.
• At The Drive-In – in·ter a·li·a, out on May 5.
• Black Lips – Satan’s Graffiti Or God’s Art?, out on May 5.
• Blondie – Pollinator, out on May 5.
• Bonnie “Prince” Billy – Best Troubador, out on May 5.
• Brother Ali – All The Beauty In This Whole Life, out on May 5.
• Carl Craig – Versus, out on May 5.
• Logic – Everybody, out on May 5.
• Mac DeMarco – This Old Dog, out on May 5.
• Nite Jewel – Real High, out on May 5.
• Perfume Genius – No Shape, out on May 5.
• The Afghan Whigs – In Spades, out on May 5.
• Girlpool – Powerplant, out on May 12.
• Pwr Bttm – Pageant, out on May 12.
• Machine Gun Kelly – Bloom, out on May 12.
• Seether – Poison The Parish, out on May 12.
• Todd Rundgren – White Knight, out on May 12.
• Zac Brown Band – Welcome Home, out on May 12.
• !!! (Chik Chik Chik) – Shake the Shudder, out on May 19.
• Erasure – World Be Gone, out on May 19.
• Faith Evans and The Notorious B.I.G. – The King & I, out on May 19.
• Land of Talk – Life After Youth, out on May 19.
• Linkin Park – One More Light, out on May 19.
• Roger Waters – Is This The Life We Really Want?, out on May 19.
• The Mountain Goats  – Goths, out on May 19.
• Wavves – You’re Welcome, out on May 19.
• Justin Townes Earle – Kids In The Street, out on May 26.
• New Order – NOMC15, out on May 26.
• The Charlatans UK – Different Days, out on May 26.

Things To Watch On Your TV Or Computer

• The Victorian Slum, premieres May 2 on PBS.
• Truth & Iliza, premieres May 2 on Freeform.
• Hidden America With Jonah Ray, premieres May 4 on Seeso.
• 2017 MTV Movie & TV Awards, premieres May 7 MTV.
• Anne, premieres May 12 on Netflix.
• I Love Dick, premieres May 12 on Amazon.
• Master of None, premieres May 12 on Netflix.
• Downward Dog, premieres May 17 on ABC.
• 12 Monkeys, premieres May 19 on Syfy.
• Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, premieres May 19 on Netflix.
• 2017 Billboard Music Awards, premieres May 21 on ABC.
• Twin Peaks, premieres May 21 on Showtime.
• Princess Diana: Her Life – Her Death – The Truth, premieres May 22 on CBS.
• Casual, premieres May 22 on Hulu.
• Dirty Dancing, premieres May 24 on ABC.
• The Red Nose Day Special, premieres May 25 on NBC.
• House of Cards, premieres May 25 on Netflix
• The Carmichael Show, premieres May 31 on NBC.

Books To Read

• One Day We’ll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter by Scaachi Koul, out May 2.
• Men Without Women by Haruki Murakami, out May 9.
• Trajectory by Richard Russo, out May 2.
• The Dinner Party by Joshua Ferris, out May 2.
• Since We Fell by Dennis Lehane, out May 9.
• Into the Water by Paula Hawkins, out May 2.
• The Leavers by Lisa Ko, out May 2.
• Bad Dreams and Other Stories by Tessa Hadley, out May 16.

[Photo Mash Up: Adriana C. Sánchez for Fast Company; Source Photos: War Machine: Francois Duhamel, courtesy of Netflix; Anne: Caitlin Cronenberg, courtesy of Netflix; Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Eric Liebowitz, courtesy of Netflix; House of Cards: David Giesbrecht, courtesy of Netflix; King Arthur: Legend of the Sword: courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures; Alien: Covenant: Mark Rogers, courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation; Chuck: Sarah Shatz, courtesy of IFC Films; Downward Dog: Craig Sjodin, courtesy of American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.; I Love Dick: Leann Mueller, courtesy of Amazon; House of Cards: David Giesbrecht, courtesy of Netflix; Master of None: courtesy of Netflix]

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