But This Is Wondrous Strange | 24.02
Yet Another in a Long Series of Diversions in an Attempt to Avoid Responsibility
The evening plane rises up from the runway
Over constellations of light
I look down into a million houses
And wonder what you're doing tonight
That's a bit of the song "Presto," from the Rush album of the same name. Neil Peart, who wrote the words, often despaired over our collective struggles and celebrated our various joys. He was curious about humanity, of course, as most writers are.
I noticed myself getting annoyed at the routine this past week: wake, work, eat, sleep. Today seems very much like yesterday, seemingly nothing to write about.
But also. Wonder isn't just about the unusual, the beautiful, the mysterious. It's also about the mundane, the everyday. What are you doing tonight? All of us exist exclusively on a small blue world, spinning out all our billions of tiny lives in the middle of a vast ocean of distant sparks barely connected by webs of gravity. Even the most boringly plain evening someone can have is, in the grand scheme, from a cosmic perspective, endlessly amazing and weird. Easy to forget. Comforting (possibly terrifying) to remember: being typical is also being extraordinary.
SITUATION: Wistful
There are more links in heaven and earth, Horatio
VIDEO/TV
Eclipse happened! NASA uploaded a 4.5 hour livestream tracking across lots of sites along the path of totality.
https://www.youtube.com/live/2MJY_ptQW1o
Julia Sawalha was interviewed by Richard Herring on his podcast. She's her usual delightful self, but her insights into her Absolutely Fabulous character are also terrific. Fans mostly see Saffron—daughter of Edwina Moon, played by series creator Jennifer Saunders—as the oppressed and resigned daughter forced to parent her own mother. But for Julia, Saffy is an active participant in their mutual dysfunction. This is such an insightful and compelling acting choice. I'd always known that Saffron benefits from a sense of control in her relationship with her mother, but this is deeper than I'd given her credit for.
I know I just gushed over Geddy Lee's book last edition, and I'm thinking this might seem like more Rush content than is warranted but I'll add it anyway. I've watched a few of Geddy's live shows discussing the book on tour, but this one in Toronto was hosted by Alex Lifeson, so it's most notable. It's wonderful to sit in with two friends who are having so much fun together it's irrelevant to the setting or anyone else involved.
Amber Ruffin went on Late Night w/ Seth Myers to promote The Wiz coming back to Broadway with her rewritten book. "The book" is everything in a musical that's not the songs, i.e., the story, stage directions, dialogue, etc. It's always fun to see how gleeful she is to make Seth squirm.
MUSIC
The strangest thing this week was the dance remix of Nanalan's "Who's That Wonderful Girl."
I scrolled to a TikTok that might have had some interesting or informative things to say. But I stopped paying attention almost immediately because the backing track was "Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress" by The Hollies. It's a song so infectiously good I find it almost impossible to focus on anything but how great it is whenever I hear it. The video below seems to be an upsampled or re-encoded film. They aren't playing live, but it's sharp and vivid and like Peter Jackson's carefully remastered Get Back footage, feels like it was shot yesterday.
BOOKS/READING
Molly Templeton wrote an eye-opening piece about what our goals should be for reading.
Reading itself should be productive, in the sense that it produces ideas and feelings and thoughts and empathy and a lot of other things, too, across the whole range of human experience.
It's short and sweet.
[https://reactormag.com/on-letting-go-of-the-idea-of-keeping-up/
Along the same lines, YouTube creator @alishanotalihsha Lays out an argument for being a hater. Really, it's a plea for discernment: criticism is good, and we should avoid the trend of wanting to be seen as readers and focus on the reading.
Back to Reactormag, this vulnerable and raw short story by Jordan Kurella was touching and intimate.
[https://reactormag.com/evan-a-remainder-jordan-kurella/
Let's Wrap It Up
Wow, two weeks in a row (barely, depending how you count a week)! Just a few dozen more and it could be a habit. You never know.
The title of this edition is a quotation from the movie Real Genius. Photos are city lights at night and a close up of my work notes.