Feeling slightly better about the country...

since Biden was elected, but still want the Northeast to secede from the US and join with the Pacific Coast to form a new country. 😁 It'll be like East and West Pakistan after India gained its independence in 1947. Of course, historians will point out that there was a lot of suffering and turmoil because of it and then there was also the war that resulted in Bangladesh, so my analogy is a pretty bad one and the idea of secession is not very good either. I guess I will just be thankful that I live in a state that went for Biden. At least, the populous counties did. And I am represented by Democratic senators and a congressperson.

This pandemic is messing up my retirement plans to get a place in Spain or Portugal for the first three months of each year. I was looking at Porto but following it on Yahoo weather, it seemed to be raining all of the time. I also heard the the Azores are very nice too. But since the citizens of this country are personae non grata due to Covid, I will have to postpone any ideas of spending part of my retirement elsewhere. Also it has delayed my anniversary trip to London from work . I wanted to go in summer 2020 but now am hoping for fall 2021. It's been ten years since I have been to Europe. 

What a terrible country!

 I am in total agreement with the opinions expressed by Frank Bruni in this op-ed. I would love to leave the country but with family, I can't. Then what country would take an American? 

How Will I Ever Look at America the Same Way Again?

Rediscovered song

I have still been watching musician live shows during the pandemic. Recently I watched Robyn Hitchcock do a tribute show of John Lennon songs. He included this one, #9 Dream, which I forgot was such a good song.  It's a bit of a nostalgic one so I liked it for that reason.

Route 66 is more than 65.

 There are a lot of good versions of this song and several bad. But this may be the original. 

Can't Play Music anymore

One of the unfortunate results of the pandemic is no more music playing for me. I was in the process of starting a new band with another group of oldsters, playing old 60s music with a smattering of 60's oriented later music. (My previous attempt at a new wave band fizzled.) But the music is loud it can't be played outdoors, and playing and singing indoors is out. So this is on hold for now. I'd enjoy finding a singing partner to do vocal duets like the Everly Brothers and Louvin Brothers did. I have used Garageband to record me doing both parts. It's fun but when I listen closely I hear lots of off-key notes. 

Cathy's Clown    

Jjordan370 · Cathy’s Clown

Have You Seen Her Face?

Jjordan370 · Have you seen her face? 1

Shaggy Hair

As barber shops have been closed since March, I have been without a haircut since the end of February. I am starting to look like a 70s baseball player when I wear a hat. No mustache though. Actually, my barber will be closed for awhile as he had some major medical issues two years ago.  I will need to go to his competitor until my guy is back, if he ever is. One of the problems I have with longer hair is that it falls down over my forehead and gives me a Ted Koppel look. I have dreams every once in awhile in which I have my college length long hair again. I am afraid that if I did that again all of the grey hair I have, which to this point has been restricted to parts of the body no one can see, will show up. The ravages of aging. 😢 

 

Funny new yorker cartoon

that expresses the way I am feeling. Ordinarily work slows down in May and I welcome the down time. But we have been slow since mid-March so days are basically the same. It's even getting so that weekends aren't that different. There is a question to whether we will even be able to go see customers in the fall as we usually do. 

I am still enjoying the stuff I am DVR'ing from Turner Classics though I wish I would have done more 30s musicals when they were on. I am not much of a Broadway show fan but I do enjoy the Busby Berkeley and the Astaire Rogers films. Shall We Dance had an amazing dance on roller skates in Central Park. And then of course there is this song . 

Solitary Confinement

Eight weeks as of this coming Friday. It's unfortunate that it's been both a rainy and a cooler spring as yard work or walks would be a pleasant diversion. I have given up on series on both Amazon and Netflix. I detest the character of Villanelle in Killing Eve. Since I realize she's going to be in it for the duration, I have stopped watching it. Money Heist is also going on way too long. I see that it in in three seasons. How can the seizure of the mint last for that amount of time?

So I started to DVR movies on Turner Classics instead. I recently watched My Man Godfrey with Carole Lombard and Melvyn Douglas, Ace in the Hole with Kirk Douglas,  42nd Street with Ruby Keeler, and Yankee Doodle Dandy with James Cagney. A few Spencer Tracy Katherine Hepburn comedies are next. Definitely escapism from the public health and political crises we are living through. I could never understand how the German public would follow Hitler, but watching the behavior of the MAGA crew, it seems dissimilar in degree, but not in kind.

It Happens Eventually to All of Us

Covid 19

Strange world. I keep wondering about the sort of anxiety people who lived in 1929 felt about what the future held. I am dealing with solitary confinement well enough. Once two weeks from my last interactions with people outside my household passed, I felt a lot safer. No fever or coughs to concern me. Runny nose is due to spring pollen.

So getting a lot of reading done and watching stuff on Amazon Prime and Netflix. I am not much of a binger. Two episodes is usually enough in one sitting. I watched Tiger King like a sizeable portion of the American public. I got to the end and felt like I had wasted 7 hours of my life. There is no need to watch the bonus episode as I had no interest in what any of them had to say. I felt almost the same about Giri Haji, the Japanese English detective series. Another 7 episodes with an unsatisfying ending that included the teen daughter incongruously choosing the song below on a jukebox in a cafe in London. Does "seem like a mighty long time." But on the positive side, Better Call Saul, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Plot Against America and Money Heist have all been very good. Also just started Killing Eve.

Live from Seattle

One of the benefits from all of the lockdowns is that there is a lot of live music online. Rhett Miller from Old 97s has done 2 live shows from his home and will do them Monday, Wednesday and Fridays. Ben Gibbard from Death Cab for Cutie is doing his sessions daily from his studio in Seattle. The one pasted below is especially good. His version of Waltz #2 by Elliott Smith is outstanding.

Paul Revere and The Raiders- I had a dream

I have just started to rediscover these guys. Unfortunately I couldn't find a live version of the band doing their choreography to this song. It is an appropriate one as I did have a dream last night that involved riding with someone on public transit in what seemed to be New York City. I woke up as a head was laid on my shoulder.

Prince Super Bowl Show 2007

Somehow I missed this live. I don't remember what I was doing. 😉


 

Jimmie Rodger's Straw Hat

The straw hat was once considered the height of fashion in the 1920s and 1930s. I can remember while working in a drug store in 1980, every Sunday morning an old guy would come in dressed in his finest, wearing his straw hat and, I am guessing, thinking he was the height of sartorial style. I think of this when I go to work dressed in my suit and tie and everyone else is dressed in casual pants and shirt. I think I look very nice and professional when in reality I am probably the 21st century equivalent of the guy in the straw hat.