(Gosh blogging really did die off once everyone decided to sound like a UN observer on the internet and I can’t say I’m not guilty of it.)
So lockdown. I went through all the normal phases as everyone else. The bouts of self-censorship: saying first “I know there’s people suffering in much worse ways than me but I’m mad that my Norwegian cruise got cancelled.” Then throwing all cordialities to the wind and straight up complaining about my cancelled Norwegian cruise and my cancelled Tenerife trip and the concerts and lectures I had booked throughout 2020. Lectures! I became gross like everyone else. Grouchy hibernation.
I bought a Nintendo. I baked bread once. I jogged and jump roped. I bought plants. Sometimes it’s better to just do these things and tune everybody else out. I spent more time at the park than at home to the point where I’ve now memorized different dogs and their schedules — not their owners, just the dogs. And also birds — promptly at seven o’clock every night, swarms of green parakeets fly down my street.
Other things I’ve been reading/watching/listening/doing:
Here’s a slice of the freewheeling, carefree, brain-numbing playlist I’ve been relying on lately. Very baseline pop, very disco, very gay. Lots of 4-count beats, synths, and also Lana Del Rey (still on my Lana kick). Also sidenote: disco revival seems to be the popular thing to call the new Gaga/Dua/whatever but I’m not so sure. But also I’d be interested to see how much of that chatter drives people to queen Donna Summer as it rightfully should! Anyway, it’s all the kind of music that makes me thing “Global unrest? What global unrest?”
More coronavirus-specific things: Animal Crossing, Fiona Apple’s new album, and Florence Pugh’s Instagram cooking stories. But those have all gone untouched for months now and already feel like relics from some bygone era. Time passing feels bizarre, etc.
More recently:
- Watching old clips of Regis Phillbin on Letterman
- Enjoying the kind of Netflix fodder I never thought I would: Dark, Into the Night, Masterchef, Floor Is Lava, and of course Terrace House
- Did a rewatch of Please Like Me and I think I have to say it’s one of the best shows ever made? It’s really just a sweet and perfect little thing.
- Finding new favorite Alice Munro short stories like “Apples and Oranges” but specifically the part where she describes sitting out in a backyard on a summer night and listening to the noises of the neighborhood.
- Also reading The Vanishing Half, LaRose, Kafka on the Shore (reread), and Middlemarch on and off. Enjoying all of them!
- Replaying Skyrim and just overall becoming the do-nothing video game slug I was born to be.
- Watching buses drive by with old sun-stained adverts for The Invisible Man and Trolls World Tour and The Quiet Place Part II and wondering if these are just going to be the only movies that ever existed in the history of the human race.