Hello. Again. Back from the COVID, barely, and I also caught a stomach bug which saw me decamp from the train that was taking me to Frankfurt and enter a random hotel where I proceeded to throw up through the night. Let’s just say it’s been a rocky few weeks, instead of them being filled with family and friends delights.
But have no fear. I have been CONSUMING! Yeah, copious amounts of vitamins and medications but also CONTENT. Yeah, content in the form (primarily) of podcasts because I’ve been on the road for such a long time but also because TBH, not a lot catching my eye these days in terms of series and movies.
So here goes.
Watching — Back episodes of Rick and Morty which I found incredibly fun at the beginning but now struggled to finish, mostly because Rick’s wet burping triggered by stomach bug to no end. I did enjoy the episode about a sex-crazed hive mind and anything with parallel universes is always fun. I also finally finished Blonde, which was just an incredibly traumatic thing to watch and it made my additionally sick to my stomach. There have been rivers of ink on Blonde so I won’t bore you with my thoughts. Watch it, so you have the personal agency to agree or disagree with the reviews. I also completed the glorious Rings of Power on Amazon Prime and despite The Guardian in the UK slating it like I’ve never seen them slate something on TV before, I thought it was brilliant. A bit “world’s tiniest violin” at times but wonderfully designed, well written, compelling characters and I cannot wait for Season 2 when I assume we’ll see the remainder rings being crafted.
I spent a few nice hours watching BBC Earth documentaries with my dad. Now, in the UK BBC Earth has some staples like these (LINK) but internationally they tend to rerun old shows like a documentary on how Stephen Hawking continued and changed Einstein’s theories. My dad was transfixed and we had some solid chats about the nature of reality which resulted in him asking to be gifted Hawking’s “A Brief History of Time” and then proceeding to make silly dad jokes whenever I asked him about the book. Sample “Did you start the book?”, him: “I am trying to find the … time”, me: “LOL, very funny. Let me know how you get on with it”, him: “In time.”
I sadly also watched a lot of Romanian news shows and basically witnessed mass disinformation happening live. Let me tell you this one story where the TV was saying that the CEO of Pfizer had declared they had not tested the vaccine before releasing it and I spent 20 minutes trying to talk my parents into understanding how demented it was that there was NO other place that reported that and, hence, it must be a lie but …yeah, they chose to not believe me and believe the TV station because it was … on TV. Heartbreaking.
Reading — I am still enjoying Ted Chiang’s collection of short stories “Exhalation”, but have made limited progress mainly because it’s the kind of writing that you want to think about once you’re done.
Listening — this one’s the biggie. So, I started Season 7 of Revisionist History which promised to be somewhat interesting and then started with the weirdest of “magic wand” episode EVER. I won’t spoil it for you, suffice it to say it’s a bit removed from the normal Gladwell approach and I am not sure I’d enjoying it.
I also started and finished “Sweet Bobby”, another catfishing podcast. It’s made me think about something I had read a while back which is that our mental illnesses “du jour” are closely connected with our media choices. And it’s interesting that as this space which is so weird about anonymity and identity which is the Internet is creating so much content about people messing with theirs or other people’s identities. One to reflect on.
I most likely won’t finish “The Reason Why” — which is a podcast about the history and trouble of Cornwall, one of the most famous tourist areas in the UK. It covers everything from Cornish identity, the take-over by second homers and the relationship with platforms like AirBNB. I find it to be a bit meandering and cannot help but wonder whether I am learning anything new that I haven’t already read in mainstream media.
Of course, I have also been inhaling politics podcasts because.. well, UK politics, and added The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos to my list but never got started really, as the one random episode I listened to ended up being a replay of Revisionist History.
Back in London and hoping to be more settled for next week.
