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.

Decade almost done!

What is all of this obsession with the passage of time? In fact, reviewing the last few years of this blog, it's all me bemoaning the fact that I am aging or expressing amazement that so much time has passed since a certain event or experience occurred. So instead, I will do my best of 2019.  I will limit it to that as I can't sort out what happened between this decade and the last.

Best concert: considering that I only went to about 5, I'd say it was Squeeze at Parx Casino. They were among my favorite bands in the 80's so hearing them play all of the songs I loved so well was a pleasure.

Best book I read: The Winter War by Eric Rauschway. About the interregnum between Hoover and FDR in 1932-33 and the steps Hoover took to try to sabotage the New Deal. As with concerts, I probably read fewer books than I would have liked, considering how many and how quickly I needed to read in my master's program. I have spent a lot of my reading time on antebellum America, specifically slavery. The worst part is that I forget a lot of the details in what I have read so can't quote chapter and verse. Right now I am plowing through Black Reconstruction by W.E.B. DuBois, mostly out of a sense of duty. I still haven't investigated adjunct teaching at a community college but with retirement not too far away, I may be more motivated. I am attending a lot of sessions on pedagogy at the AHA convention this weekend for some ideas I can use in the future.

Best Movie- again, not too many candidates. I did see The Irishman in the theater and liked it, despite DeNiro being one of the least Irish looking actors who could have been chosen for the part. Mostly movies on Netflix and Amazon Prime.

Best Run: Love Half Marathon in Philly. It was my best time- 1:53 and I finished in the top 15% of my age group. Unhappily, my IT band has been acting up again. It doesn't affect me when I run, just afterward. I hope I am ready for the Love Run again in 3 months.

Best Training run: Along the Merrimack river in New Hampshire while on a work trip. I was expecting to run a few loops though an apartment complex to get three miles in but on the way back took a detour and discovered a trail along the river. I still only did three miles but in the unlikely event that I stay at the same hotel again, I will do the entire run on the trail, as it looked like it went for several more miles after my turn around.

Best shopping bargain: I forgot to pack a tie to match my sport coat so went to a mall looking for an inexpensive one. I saw plenty of $40 ties but none of them were what I wanted to spend that much on. My last stop was the budget store in the Macy's basement where I found the perfect Michael Kors silk tie for $7.99. It's still in my regular tie rotation.

Best Manchester United season- certainly not this one. They are a downslide since 2013 so even though I usually watch every game, it's never all that pleasurable.  I was definitely spoiled by the success in the 2000s which is when I started following them intensely.

Best wine I bought: Duckhorn Sauvignon Blanc. Made even better that it was on a restaurant wine list, so I recommended it to acclamation by my dinner companions who drink white wine.

Best meal: Cava, a tapas place in Portsmouth NH. I was there for work so not my ideal dining companion but food was amazing and we had some good rioja to accompany it. Lots of other meals that were good but not outstanding.

Best experience: grandfatherhood. Hands down

Years almost done

Yes it is. As it has been for the past 35 years, I am waiting for sales to come in to see whether I make any real money. This year may be pretty lean as the factors affecting the industry have finally caught up to us. Then as usual, I am preparing for a meeting in a warm resort in January. This year it is back to Scottsdale where I have some pleasant memories of climbing Camelback Mountain, among other things. I hope that I can still have the stamina to do it. My IT band has been acting up from distance running so I am resting until mid-January when I will begin training for another half marathon, my 21st. I am just going to use an elliptical for cardio until then. I am down to a weight I like so don't want to add the pounds I took off due to dental surgery.

This song always reminds me of Scottsdale.