EPISODE 531 THAT’S WHAT THIS STARSHIP IS ALL ABOUT
My current life goals include Ian McKellen's socks and Kamala Harris' willingness to just bust out dancing.
POP CULTURE SPIRIT WOW
So, another week in paradise! Or 2020. Your mileage may vary.
Actually if this is your version of paradise you need to write me because you are a very interesting human being. Or – and I think this is more likely – you are a dog who can read. Which is awesome.
(My sister tells me their puppy Chewbacca – who may I say seems to be very much intent on holding on to puppy status – YOU’RE TWO, CHEWBACCA, GET OVER YOURSELF -- is over having everyone home all the time.)
Probably the most exciting thing to happen to me this week was this jacket/top/hope-filled life choice.
I mean… come on. That is some Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat level apparel going on right there.
Likewise, check out Sir Ian McKellen’s scarf and sock action.
That’s from a conversation he had last week with Armistead Maupin, which was fantastic. The man knows his stockings.
I actually posted the Kamala image on the LMU Jesuits Facebook page, as part of celebrating the selection of a talented woman of color as a candidate for Vice President.
It was interesting to watch the battle between the love of a good outfit and big moment in history and the political back and forthery.
I just want to put this out there, and you can sit with it, swish it about in your mouth, see if it’s got more of a cherry or a nutty flavor: If you’re posting more than 3 times a day about politics – and this also includes making comments on other people’s posts – you’re probably trapped in a social media whirlpool and you have to stop or you will almost certainly lose your mind. Also you’re making the rest of us kinda crazy.
I say this as someone who has occasionally had a summer home in that particular whirlpool. It’s a very unique kind of place, actually. Your garden variety whirlpool pulls you under and you drown. What makes the social media whirlpool a really unique and special residential opportunity is that you do actually drown, but you never die.
It’s like have you ever heard if you got pulled into a black hole your death might literally take all of eternity?
(Oh good, we’re talking about death now. This sounds promising.)
The gravity of a black hole is so strong it massively warps the passage of time around it. So while our lives would keep going at their heady soda pop rate, inside the event horizon of a black hole we think everything slows wayyyy down.
That’s the social media whirlpool. When you’re in it, everything around you is so warped you don’t even know you’re slowly coming to pieces.
So yeah, three months of that to look forward to. Should be super fun!
(Although let’s be honest, if it wasn’t for 2020 being so very 2020, we would have spent all summer in this mode, and maybe the spring, too. #SilverLinings
This takes a little work. Give yourself a chance.
I took a drive today for the first time in 3 and a half months. Also got gas, after getting advice from my dad on how to do that safely. And did a drive through. Yep, doing all the things now. Hip chic and trendy, me.
My biggest takeaway, which will be no surprise, is how many people are wandering around without masks. Even in crowds.
People like to talk about Hollyweird and the Left Coast, but California is very law and order in many ways. If you jaywalk Californians will stare at you like you might next pull out a knife and start howling at the moon.
But for some reason this mask thing is our Achilles heel. Our numbers are some of the worst in the nation. I just don’t get it.
On the upside, every time I look at numbers in other parts of the country I get really excited for them. New Yorkers, you guys have done so well. Boston, way to go. San Francisco is at roughly 100 new cases a day. That’s amazing.
I feel like a proud parent. I have no idea why. Please do not take this from me, it’s all I have. This and my television.
Clean up in aisle six. You see?
Speaking of television – hey there, segue – I think I mentioned that I’m working on creating content for a website I want to start that’s all about learning how to write for TV from TV. Every night as part of my ritual I watch a couple hours of TV – usually something light (right now: Doom Patrol), something serious (like Ozark – and by the way you might as well ignore everything I wrote last week because I have spent the last week twitchy as a kid who didn’t get his Twinkies for season 3; I’m doing my best to control the urge, but it is not easy); and a British detective show (just started George Gently, who honestly seems like kind of a horrible person).
When I’m done watching sometimes I write some notes, or a little blog post of a takeaway, something the writers did that I think is worthy of note. And hopefully eventually that is what I’ll some day soon start posting.
It’s all very presumptuous, clearly. Who am I to comment on other people’s work, Joan Rivers?
(Wow, where did that reference come from?)
But I’m kind of loving it too. And I had this idea for a feature I may do in the blog if there ever is a blog, it would help if I could think of a name – and it’s taking a show that failed, watching it and then writing about it.
I know, I am going to set the world on fire, aren’t I?
But bear with me for one second. Did anyone watch Abby’s? It starred Natalie Morales as a San Diegan who turns her backyard into a bar (which is literally something I have seen done in San Diego).
NBC released the first episode for free on iTunes when it came out, and it’s been sitting in my Apple TV collection forever.
And it’s actually kind of wonderful in some ways. First of all, it’s shot before a studio audience OUTSIDE and at night. Which is super fun; watching the show you just feel like you’re part of the backyard bar.
Then the show is basically the San Diego version of Cheers – a cast of regulars, who are basically all of Abby’s neighbors – sitting around drinking and talking about their families. Many in the cast are semi-unknowns. But they’re a lot of fun to hang out with.
The bar also has a million rules and customs that have to be followed. Like no sandals on men (which I support 300%). No talking about your dreams and aspirations. No Mai Tais. There are so many and they’re so random it creates a lot of fun ideas for story.
As far as I can tell, the show’s big problem is its engine. A show needs some relationship, issue or setting that generates story after story. Cheers had Sam & Diane. Modern Family had all the things that come up in a family. Parks & Rec had both the things that happen in local government, and in Leslie a character driven always to do more for public service.
Two episodes into Abby’s, I still don’t know what the engine is. There’s maybe eventually a possible love interest, but it’s very marginal so far. Mostly the episodes seem to be about how Abby is super-demanding – which is weird, both because it sort of makes the protagonist the villain, and because Natalie Morales is just such a joy. (If you don’t know the name Google her; if you recognize her you’ll know exactly what I mean.) She is naturally funny and warm and having her be a controlling sourpuss just doesn’t really fit her.
The season is only ten episodes. Check it out. At a time when we’re all locked indoors a show about neighbors sitting out in a backyard drinking feels AMAZING.
I have this dream of doing an oral history of the show. Which is insane but also, it’s 2020 people. Everything is a legitimate use of time now.
And speaking of why not – hey if the segue works… --this amazing person reshot the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey beat for beat for 2020, and it absolutely captures my experience of life right now.
Other great videos I came upon this week:
This is a Live Cam of 2 Baby White-Bellied Sea Eagles.
And this is very high quality Star Trek word salad that I feel someone could get a PhD dissertation out of interpreting.
Also stumbled upon this amazing interaction between Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez and her second grade teacher, who tweeted at her when she said she was going to get only one minute to speak at the DNC (which is pretty crazy).
My second grade teacher was Mrs. Hamburger. I can’t tell you anything else about her, because again, her name was Mrs. Hamburger.
But these days, maybe we can all raise up some teachers that have been good to us. Let our gratitude and positive feelings be a source of life for all the teachers who may really need one right now.
Take it gently.