EPISODE 526: AS YOU WISH
Looking for love in all the wrong places by whose standards?
POP CULTURE SPIRIT WOW
I’ve been watching a lot of comedian Eddie Pepitone the last few weeks.
For instance:
Eddie’s super power is the capacity to switch lightning fast between Obnoxious Blue Collar New York Guy and Urbane, Thoughtful Dinner Party Guest who likes to point out what’s silly about Obnoxious Blue Collar New York Guy.
He’s a lot of fun to watch.
But I’ve realized his comedy is not why I keep watching him.
The fact is I just love listening to someone with a great New York City accent right now. Somehow it’s helping me.
A couple nights a week I’ve also been going to the famous New York City piano bar Marie’s Crisis Facebook group to hear some of their performers sing Broadway standards. On Saturday mornings one guy I like brings out songs from shows that no one has ever heard of because they flopped. He finds some great ballads.
I’ve also just about finished the Inspector Morse series, which I’d already watched once all the way through since the beginning of this Unusual Period in Our Collective Existence, but felt as soon as I finished that I had to start over and begin watching again in tandem with spinoffs Lewis (which I have now finished) and Endeavour (all of which I’ve seen before).
I literally want to write an article comparing the three shows to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Lewis is a show about a father figure mentoring a young detective; Endeavour about a kid from a very broken home whose boss fathers him; and Inspector Morse about a free spirit who’s desperate to find love and community.
Just waiting for The New Yorker to call looking for a hot take.
I would so believe it if we found out The New Yorker editorial staff is actually cats.
Is your life like this at all right now? Like you did a random internet search, went down the rabbit hole it revealed, but then instead of coming back eventually, you actually found a place down there you kind of like? Oh my, this warren is so spacious! And I had no idea that the sun could heat the ground so deep underground!
I can’t say that I mind it, actually. I mean, the dreams that come some nights that I’m at a social event and suddenly remember the virus is real but no one is wearing a mask and my subsequent crippling paralysis as I struggle to decide can I just leave or is that rude, and does it matter anyway because I’ve already been wandering around with all these monsters for some time now, they can get a little bit old.
(Dreams of being at a social event without a mask and then remembering Covid=2020’s version of the dream where you walk on stage without knowing your lines.)
But stumbling into these little cul-de-sacs of grace, community and/or dated storytelling has been a great source of relief.
New York City seems like it has started to turn the corner on the health situation. They had no deaths from the virus Saturday, and I’m just ecstatic for them.
Meanwhile some of my fellow Californians:
Actually most people online seemed horrified that Disneyworld and Downtown Disney are open. Including maybe Disney’s press people:
The writer is trying to channel that Disney hope and joy, while the photographer is like, *eddie pepitone voice* THIS IS REALITY PEOPLE.
This one feels much more classic Disney, if you can just get past the fact the warmly smiling attendant is wearing a blowtorch mask and pointing a gun at the girl’s head:
Meanwhile I’m literally shopping for a face shield like that for plane flights.
Sorting through Disney tweets gave me an idea for an online dictionary, where instead of definitions you post tweets that capture the meaning of a word.
AGHAST:
(That’s a picture of people waiting to get into Disneyworld.)
ANXIETY:
I know some people find this little creature adorable, but I feel confident he lives in my nightmares and feeds on my fears.
Somewhere along the way I came upon this, which seemed to capture, well, everything really:
I swear this is a near-transcript of me on many phone calls the last four months.
Meanwhile here are some moments from this week that have reminded me of how good we humans can be.
Someone send this kid to Disneywor…oh, shoot.
A great thread:
And in strange but true and wonderful:
It turns out there are many pictures of James Gandolfini with SpongeBob. Someone actually researched it and the story is pretty wonderful.
Also there’s this story of Carl Reiner’s last performance, three days before he died, reenacting the ending of The Princess Bride with his son Rob.
It includes the video of Reiner’s performance; keep a hanky handy.
Yeah, that’s mid-July 2020 for you. Finding our joy in that Frida Kahlo-meets-Sesame Street corner of the internet.
I say good for them. No matter what strange backroads we might occasionally find yourself in as we keep working/waiting this thing out, we have to go gently with ourselves. Gotta take the gifts where we can find them.
Plus hey, who doesn’t want to eventually stumble upon Grover playing Aaron Burr?
(I’m actually a little bit worried about the person who did this. Thanks to Chris Kent for pointing it out.)
See you next week.