w/e 2022-03-13
This week I’ve listened a lot to Transangelic Exodus by Ezra Furman. I’ve heard some of her tracks before, not least on Sex Education, but hadn’t paid much attention and only listened to the album (from 2018) after a prod from this Hurray for the Riff Raff AMA.
It’s so good. It’s the kind of music that makes me think that if I, a straight, cis, middle-aged guy, living a boring life in rural England can find it exciting while cleaning the bathroom, how exciting must it be for some of the people who are closer to the singer and subject matter in any way at all?
§ We’re whizzing through the remainder of Friday Night Lights which, after the long first season, accelerates into shorter episodes and seasons.
Even if this particular show doesn’t appeal I can recommend binging a series from this era or earlier, in which the internet – never mind social media – is practically non-existent. It’s modern enough to seem like the present day, but so ignores events in the wider world (a character’s absent father being “in Iraq” is as close as it gets), and so free from the effects of most modern media (realistically or not) that it’s an extremely pleasant diversion from everything.
I’m now wondering what other un-challenging-but-not-bad, long-running, pre-2010, low-stakes dramas we could be losing ourselves in. In general I wish there were more – any! – experimental, un-naturalistic, boundary-pushing TV drama series but right now the warm bath of Friday Night Lights is just the ticket.
§ In case you were wondering (Tom) I ground to a halt with The Last of Us Part II for a few weeks and have only just dipped my toes in again recently, playing for an hour a couple of times this week. I think it was a combination of feeling motion sick the last time I played and being in a section of the game where it was night, raining, and a bit repetitive. I didn’t want to spend any time there even if I could avoid motion sickness (which I’ve managed this week). I’ve now pushed through to a flashback which is sunnier but, by definition, doesn’t exactly advance the narrative.
§ I watched a live-streamed gig last night which was the expected combination of fun and FOMO. The most surprising thing to country-mouse-me was that no one in the young (relative to me) audience was wearing a mask. I know we don’t have to now but still. I assumed that at least at a gig hosted by a lefty non-profit collective there would be some mask wearing.
It’s been one day less than two years since the last time I went to the cinema (or a church hall, in that case). Two years and five months since my last gig. I’m not sure when I’ll go again. If others were masked I’d feel reasonably safe if I was too, but I’m still not sure I’d want to go – it’s just not a pleasant experience and it all becomes too much effort (from here, certainly). And if no one’s wearing masks then… well.