I know I said I would post the tale of how I broke both wrists and my nose during this week (in 2016), but honestly, I don’t have the energy to relive that trauma right now. Instead I’m going to blather on as usual.
Christmas went well. I got to have “girl dinner” and watch “Die Hard” on Christmas Eve1 then visit my mom on Christmas Day. I listened to medieval carols and Berlin-based techno. I ate a half-pound of smoked salmon all by myself. My mom brought out the good china and silver.2 Christmas dinner included salmon, sweet potatoes, broccoli, roasted baby carrots, Georgian-style mushrooms, turkey meatballs, khachapuri, cheesecake and later, fruitcake (yum) and mini mince pies eaten straight from the packaging. I must never eat sugar or salt or cheese or gluten again, or at least not until Easter. I do not want to know my a1c or my blood pressure.
The “new” car is slowly becoming mine. I figured out how to reset the time and date to reflect local conditions (the car thought it was December 2024). I learned which switch defogs the mirrors. I quite like this car, surprisingly. I am usually lukewarm about cars, as long as they do what they’re supposed to. I appreciate the heated seats, powered driver’s-side seat, adjustable lumbar support, back-up camera and clear sightlines, all of which were missing from the previous one. But I am also uneasy because I feel like I came out on top. Shouldn’t I have to suffer more? Or have I suffered enough? The unplanned car payment might seal the deal.
In addition to “Die Hard,” which was much better than I expected, I have been watching three series on Apple+ (the only streaming service I actually pay for, so I feel obligated). One is “Slow Horses” which I adore. I think a lot of its appeal (for me) is that even though the characters are presented as total fuckups, they are also trained MI-5 agents and they know what to do when shit goes down. There’s so much satisfaction in seeing the underdogs succeed. It’s also fun to contemplate how Jackson Lamb might have ended up in his current situation and what exactly he thinks he’s doing there. Another plus: strong but believable female characters including one who is definitely nearing crone status, if not already there. Whether the espionage bits live up to LeCarré is not a topic I’m qualified to judge.
A second series, also currently airing, is “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters” which is part of the Godzilla universe as far as I can tell. It’s told through layers of confusing flashbacks. The protagonists haven’t yet figured out what’s going on, though they have encountered Godzilla more than once. The CGI monsters are not as scary as you might wish. It takes place around the globe, with settings (so far) in Tokyo, Bikini Atoll, “Monster Island,” San Francisco, Seattle, Alaska, the Atlas Mountains and somewhere in the Western Plains (maybe?). It’s entertaining enough. Kurt Russell and his son Wyatt play the same key character at different ages and both are good, Wyatt especially.
I am enjoying how the Monarch universe bleeds into that of the third series, “Invasion,” about, guess what, an alien invasion, which is rapidly turning into a hate watch. Most of the people are so annoying! There are 4 main stories–one features an Iranian-American woman and her two (exasperating, whiny) kids. There is Backstory, most of which has not been elucidated yet, even though we’ve reached the second season. Or maybe I’m just imagining things. The woman and her kids may have discovered a mysterious artifact, the one thing that can defeat the aliens (aside from hydrochloric acid, flamethrowers and nukes.) A second storyline follows a Japanese woman, a “communications expert” whose lover, a Japanese woman astronaut, might have died in the first alien attack, but who also might have merged with the alien overmind and be trying to steer the humans to victory (or might be a Trojan horse). Thirdly, there is an English kid named Caspar with epilepsy who might have defeated the first wave of invasion with his mind and who might be brain-dead but also alive. Is this just “Jedi shit?” His schoolfriend Jamila is determined to find out. The fourth tale is of Trevante, a Black American serviceman who has both Backstory and PTSD and is first encountered in Afghanistan in 2022, which is confusing, because wasn’t the American withdrawal before then? Those last two characters are the least annoying. Trevante’s actor is especially fun to watch, although his character’s plot function is as yet unclear.
In each case the settings are lush, production values are high, the actors are competent and everyone is very pretty. However, I can only really recommend “Slow Horses,” unless you share my peculiar fascination with lame sci-fi dystopias.
I’m still considering the Substack Nazi problem. Basically, I am not going to move this letter anywhere right now for many reasons, having to do with
1. Money (I don’t want to pay to post)
2. Ease (I have a relatively tiny audience; exporting to another platform would be a drag; I like Substack’s community engagement features)
3. Justification (I doubt readers of this newsletter will encounter any Nazi rhetoric unless they choose to, which seems unlikely).
I read this justification of staying on Substack by someone who goes by “Popehat” and is a lawyer or at least went to law school.3 I thought it was a pretty reasonable attempt to think things through, a bit long-winded maybe, but it’s good to consider these things carefully. Also: law school. I was surprised to see, in an online discussion, posters objected to his line of reasoning because he didn’t state “Nazis are bad” up front. Doesn’t “Nazis are bad” go without saying? I too was educated to state my argument thoroughly (which, admittedly I don’t do unless I’m being graded on showing my work) as though I might have to defend it, even if I felt I was clearly in the right. I don’t object to framing a debate in this way, so I wasn’t surprised or offended that someone did. Is this a Gen X or Millennial attitude, though? Has pedagogy changed? I can see being annoyed at what might seem like “both-sides-ism” in terms of contemplating Nazis, but the argument isn’t really whether or not Nazis are bad (they are) but rather, the more nuanced question of what should writers who use the Substack platform do about sharing the platform with people whose views they thoroughly repudiate.
In any case, let me make this clear: Nazis are bad. The First Amendment only applies to the government. Substack, as a private company, can do what it wants, but hiding behind the idea that they are promoting “free speech” is disingenuous.4 They aren’t making any money off me (another justification). I am in fact probably costing them money. And I love my small but burgeoning crone (and crone-adjacent) community.
My last recommendation of 2023 is Sasha Frere-Jones’s substack, laconically titled “S/FJ,” which features many links to interesting non-pop musics, mostly electronica, techno, and jazz, DJ sets on Soundcloud and things of that nature. It’s fun, if perhaps a little self-serious.
A reminder: This is your last opportunity of 2023 to like, subscribe, share or comment. Talk to me, babes!
Another reminder: I will not be posting again until February 2024. See you next year!
Can you believe this was the first time, where was I in 1988?
Actually, mom’s caregiver, but mom probably told her to.
He’s a criminal lawyer.
It’s not as though Nazis are a protected class.
Thanks for Slow Horses too. Don’t have that service so will read. There are 8! As to rubbing elbows with Nazis. Comes up often in my line of work. Here is one we share. JJ Angleton ran Klaus Barbie out of France to work for us in Bolivia. You and I know many people who knew JJ. When at last we gave him up my favorite Vietnamese intellectual defended him with some success on the grounds that Klaus had done nothing that France and the USA had not done. Morals are contagious but no one is going to catch them from FaceBook. Happy new year -
The Forester is very nice to drive.