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.