What are you watching and/or reading to escape paying attention to the fall of democracy?
My husband and I just started season 5 of “Poldark”—the period drama from Masterpiece. We were watching it in Passport (the PBS app), but Netflix just acquired it, so you can watch it there. Highly recommend (if you like period dramas). I’m a longtime Masterpiece lover, but somehow I missed Poldark when it originally aired. It takes place in the late 1700s, with the main character (Ross Poldark) having returned to Cornwall from Virginia, where he was fighting for the British in “the American War.”
Ross and Demelza Poldark will win you over as they gallop across the cliffs of Cornwall, which look very much like Ireland to me.
Also, we recently read “A Visit from the Goon Squad” (copyright 2010) by Jennifer Egan in my book group. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2011, but I had never read it. This genre-blurring book traces the lives of a GenX record-executive and his young assistant across decades of cultural change, interlocking thirteen short stories into a vivid mosaic of time, music, ambition and memory. I liked it so much, I read “the sequel” The Candy House, which came out in 2022. I can’t really explain it, but the term “sequel” is not particularly apt in this case. It’s more of a prequel & futuristic running out of the stories from Goon Squad. Highly recommend if you’re between 50 and 70 years old and find the zeitgeist interesting. Even if you simply enjoy saying the word zeitgeist, I think you will like these books.
Knowing me as you do (😉), please let me know if you have any other recommendations.
With increasingly unhinged far right authoritarians running the show here in the US, it’s hard to stay calm. Due to the Kirk assassination, many people will no longer be able to speak their minds due to promised retaliation by the government. And I don’t just mean talk show hosts and journalists. Teachers, doctors, university leaders, nonprofit administrators and regular old corporate employees are losing their jobs over what they say.
Here’s Commander Waterford and Commander Putnam lying about left-leaning organizations promoting violence and telling us their grand plan for Gilead.
Therefore, if you are able, I recommend escaping to the great outdoors or, if it’s raining, the great indoors—a big-ass movie theater with reclining seats, Dolby Atmos sound, and a bar.
I thoroughly enjoyed the sold-out premiere of Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale. If you ever loved the show, you won’t want to miss the final installment set in 1930. Downton looks amazing on the big screen and your old favorite characters all make appearances, even the deceased ones. Not to give too much away, but acceptance of divorced women and gay people into polite society is a major theme.
You will be reminded that time marches on and progress has—and always will be—a matter of more inclusion, rather than less.
My father turned 91 yesterday. My granddaughter will turn 1 next month. And this beloved poem from The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran, which I first read in college, still resonates so deeply with me.
“Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.”
I’ve mentioned (about 100 times) that I’m turning 60 this year. And so are all my friends from high school and college. We were all born in 1965–the first official year of GenX, which is usually labeled as people born from 1965 to 1980. Personally, I don’t really think 1980 belongs with us. I think GenX should be 1964-1979. We’ll take Michelle Obama and Kamala Harris (both born in 1964) and the millennials can have book-banning Ron DeSantis (born 1980), but I digress…
That’s right, the coolest generation is turning 60.
One of the coolest members of GenX—actor/writer Pamela Adlon (b. 1966)—sets her daughter straight in “Better Things”
Travel seems to be a top priority for people turning 60, but my friend Susan is doing something different for her birthday this weekend. She’s going on a silent retreat. This is a first. I’ve not heard of anyone else spending a weekend in silence for their milestone birthday. I like it though. It’s unexpected and exactly what she wants. Maybe she will have some sort of A-Ha moment that she will share with us when she gets back.
Cheryl Strayed (born in 1968) from her bestselling memoir “Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail.”
My husband and I are major consumers of “prestige TV.” We get all the channels and watch all the shows. (Severance, Succession, Hacks, The Last of Us, The Bear, Handmaids Tale, etc.) We watch together and we talk about the shows. TV is our thing.
Sometimes a show is too violent for me, so I relinquish it to my husband to watch while I’m at choir or doing something else. (For example, I bailed on The Sopranos fairly early on and I never watched Breaking Bad.) I always have a few shows I’m watching on my own, because I stay up later than him. Currently, I’m watching Marie Antoinette on PBS Passport on my own. Downton Abbey is another example of a show that my husband didn’t watch with me, though he fully embraced The Gilded Age, so it’s not that he won’t watch period pieces. (We’re big fans of Wolf Hall.)
We plan our TV watching out in advance. Sometimes, a very important show—like last night’s White Lotus season 3 finale—needs to be watched live (rather than on demand) in order to avoid spoilers, which will undoubtedly be everywhere today!
We fully intended to watch the White Lotus season finale live last night, but then my husband got tired and wanted to save it. Obviously I wouldn’t watch it without him, so now I will spend the entire day trying not to read anything about it, which basically will require staying offline altogether.
So, as the stock market crashes (I’m assuming another Black Monday is underway) and people are distracting themselves by discussing whatever happened on White Lotus last night, I will try to finish reading my library book today.
Ironically, the book is Intermezzo by Sally Rooney (author of Normal People) and I could totally see it getting made into a Hulu series (like Normal People did) that I would end up watching on my own because my husband doesn’t like shows that are too “relationshipy.”
Comments closed due to abject fear of White Lotus spoilers.
As I prepare to turn sixty in 77 days, I am working on my Bucket List (things I want to do and places I want to see before I “kick the bucket”). I’ve always been one to keep a “to do” list (I like getting stuff done), but this one is fun. I started it shortly after my dear friend Carla unexpectedly got sick and passed away in 2022 at age 57.
I try to really think about places and experiences that call to me, not just rack up instagrammable, exotic locations. I have reasons for wanting to see these places. For the bigger trips, I try to keep the budget to $10,000 (or less) for the two of us for a full week. I know that’s a lot of money for a lot of folks, but believe me, I know people that spend a whole hell of a lot more than that on their luxury vacations. I would say we are “budget conscious” travelers, but I will splurge on special experiences like dinner in the Eiffel Tower or a helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon.
Is there any other foreign country that looms quite so large in the American psyche? I don’t think so!
Like millions of other Americans, I am a descendant of poor Irish immigrants. My great grandmother Mary Barry was from Dublin.
My mother’s father’s mother, Mary Barry, with six of her children, including my maternal grandfather Henry (far right). She was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1880 and died in Queens, NY in 1952. She immigrated to America, through Ellis Island, in 1903. She was 23 years old and arrived with three US dollars to her name.
This trip to Ireland will mark my first group tour experience. We’ve never been on a weeklong tour before. I usually book the hotels and do all the planning myself, but since it’s my birthday, I wanted to give myself a break and have someone else do the planning.
I looked at many types of tours (including on bikes and boats), but ultimately decided to try a Rick Steves tour. Good old Rick—PBS super nerd! I love his guidebooks and his travel philosophy in general. Plus, he is a well known weed-smoking liberal, so the chances of having any Trumpers in our group are slim.
So now, I need to start reading more about Ireland. I’ve already watched many of the recent TV shows and movies set there, including the excellent miniseries about The Troubles—Say Nothing.
Our tour is in the Republic of Ireland only, but I’m contemplating taking a trip up to Belfast (Northern Ireland, UK) at the end of the trip. We will be staying a few extra days in Dublin, where our son will join us, so I need to make some plans for that time.
Please send your Dublin recommendations and any advice you might have about planning a day trip to Belfast.
Also, books! What should I read to help truly understand the heart of this country and its people, from whom so many of us Americans descend?
I’m open to the classics, as well as modern fiction, historical fiction and nonfiction.
OK, I’ve deactivated my Facebook as a first step in trying not to care as much about the election. I’ve never done that before, but apparently it can be reactivated easily. I was just seeing way too many upsetting posts, particularly from feminist groups documenting the horrors that women in the Trump Abortion Ban States are enduring.
Also, I’m done reading The Washington Post. My husband reads it daily, so we won’t cancel it, but honestly, fuck Jeff Bezos. I’m so tired of these asshole white male billionaires and their outsized influence. And while I’m at it, fuck Joe Rogan too. Did you know that little shit is only 5’7”? I am taller than Joe Rogan. And of course, it goes without saying…FUCK ELON MUSK.
Aaaah, now that that’s off my chest…
Back to my efforts to not care about anything other than my own inner circle.
I have some fun things to look forward to:
-Luncheon today: I’m attending a ladies lunch this afternoon. (Actually, I think there’ll be one man there, but he’s cool.) The guests are all church friends of mine so there is absolutely no chance that any of them are Trumpers.
-Babysitting next weekend: My husband and I are going to babysit our adorable, perfect infant granddaughter for a few hours next weekend! I cannot wait to see that little angel again. I can already tell that having grandchildren is going to the absolute best part of being 60+.
-Book group meeting next week: I get to see one of my favorite groups of women. I am so fortunate to have this small group of book-loving friends with whom I can be completely open and always feel supported. (We are reading Solito by Javier Zamora this month and I need to finish it this weekend.)
Also, I had a realization that if Trump wins the election, I’m probably going to seek out a paid position (perhaps a part-time one). I’m going to need something else to focus on, other than the news and volunteering for lost causes. And I think I can still make some decent money in my field, which would mean more resources for the people I love.
I bought an octopus from a glass blowing artist. She’s just under a foot tall.
Marcella
I hadn’t been planning to buy an octopus, but then I read the book “Remarkably Bright Creatures” by Shelby Van Pelt, a novel about a grieving woman and a one-eyed Giant Pacific Octopus named Marcellus. After that, I visited a glass studio where the artist makes all types of sea creatures, waves, shells and other things. I was a bit confused why all his octopi had two eyes. It turns out I was not the only one left a bit confused about this by the book:
I can’t deal with a group larger than eight for dinner. I’d probably invite a bunch of creative types, especially funny ones. They might be hard to cook for, but the conversation would be entertaining.
Maybe…
Bowen Yang
Barbara Kingsolver (She’s the only guest that concerns me. A Pulitzer Prize-winning writer would be an amazing guest and I’ve read most of her books, but does she watch TV? Could she deal with all these funny people?)
Kate McKinnon
Greta Gerwig
Wanda Sykes
Quinta Brunson
Matthew Gilbert (retiring TV critic for The Boston Globe—I’m going to miss him so much!)
Speaking of buckets…way to go Boston Celtics! 🏀☘️ NBA championship #18.
This morning’s Boston Globe
I started a Bucket List (I’ve heard some say “Life List”) in the notepad app on my phone a couple years ago. I update it whenever the mood strikes. Sometimes a TV show, movie or book will shake up the order. For example, I read a book called “Independent People” by Haldór Laxness (a Nobel prize winner in literature) which resulted in Iceland getting booted from my list.
Here’s the latest version: Grand Canyon ✅ Paris ✅ Finger Lakes & Hot Air Balloon ✅ Tanglewood Yellowstone National Park Ireland NYC comedy club or SNL Southern Italy (Naples; Amalfi Coast; Cinque Terra) and maybe Sicily Sweden Return to Paris in warmer weather and see the sites we missed Argentina? Return to SoCal – LA/San Diego; Santa Monica; Venice Beach; Yosemite; Joshua Tree? Key West Austin TX Greece Acadia National Park
An image from my last trip to LA (you know, the city that’s won 17 NBA championships)
The year was 1988 and George H.W. Bush was on the ballot.
My friend Julie (the eventual artist) made sure we visited the Watts Towers in South Los Angeles.
The famous Watts Towers in LA—a renegade 33-year folk art project by Italian immigrant construction worker and tile mason Simon “Sam” Rodia
Apparently some part of it was closed that day, but we got the idea. It’s very cool—a labor of love.
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