On Golden Pod

That is not a typo, but a rather bad pun. One of the films Eleanor picked out from the library stash last week was the legendary Golden Years return of Henry Fonda and Kate Hepburn in On Golden Pond.  I remember seeing it in cinema when it came out, probably in Ithaca; and like many films from that era, it really hasn’t held up over the decades, especially now we are so much closer to the ages they are in that film. We turned it off after about 20 minutes of watching Hank do nothing but complain and act like a blind, deaf doddering old fool. The pun came from a local delicacy at a nearby restaurant called the Pizza Plant, where the specialty of the house is a cross between a deep dish pizza and a calzone:

I will get back to the “pod“ part of this entry later, but first some commentary about preventing myself from turning into a blind, deaf doddering old fool.

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There were two Rochester trips this week. One was for a court appearance for a coworker on Halloween, where she won despite coming to court in a Mickey Mouse outfit (I did make her take the ears off), but Thursday was for the annual open enrollment meeting at the office there. I’ve always gotten my health insurance on my own through the local Chamber of Commerce, but I had a couple of reasons for looking into theirs for my final year before Medicare. For one, the firm has an annual policy period starting December 1, and I will be starting Medicare in November of next year. My current coverage is on a calendar year basis, so I won’t have to pay ahead for two months I will never use and hope to get a refund. The other motivation was from Independent Health, which just the day before sent me my 2024 renewal, with a 30% increase from around 500 a month to close to 650. That has not been the case in recent years- it actually went down slightly one year when the deductible went up a bit- but it was enough of a kick in the pocketbook to take the Rochester option seriously.

The plan the Rochester office subsidizes has a higher annual deductible- it's $7,500 compared to something in the 2000s with my current one- but I will not come close to hitting my current one this year, and I think I have only gone over it once in the 15 odd years I’ve had this kind of plan. The big difference is in the premium cost. Instead of 650 a month, I would be paying just over 200. Even if I leave or the firm blows up and I wind up on COBRA, I would still be paying less per month and then the proposed renewal I just got.  Our primary is covered, as are most providers that are on any Blue network nationwide, and my maintenance scrips are all on their formulary as well.

The only tricky part is maintaining enough hours to stay covered. If I only count the hours I bill to clients of that firm, I am under their 20 hour minimum, but (a) the signup guy said they really don't keep track, and (b) I’ve never recorded my time for things for them like meetings, assisting coworkers with routine questions, driving there and back, and taking coworkers in Mickey Mouse ears to court appearances.  That should more than cover the difference. I can then sock away the $450 a month savings into our health savings account, and into regular savings after that maxes out, to cover the deductible difference if this is the year I suddenly get sick. They also offer some AFLAC plans that would cover some of those ridiculous hospital and ambulance costs if something were to happen.

That I just have to figure out Medicare by this time next year, but Eleanor is already way ahead of me on that. She just got a major cost saving by switching to a new prescription Part D plan but she is expecting will save around 800 a year on her end.

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So from the Land of Hopefully Not Sick, we now return to the Principality of Pod.

Once we passed on Hank and Kate's old people moments, we've worked through several tv things, ranging from old to not particularly new. Hulu just picked up the entire run of Moonlighting, that ABC '80s series starring Cybil Shepherd and a very young Bruce Willis in his first starring role. It's one of those shows that got stuck in Digital Rights Hell for decades because of the soundtrack used in the episodes; the producers only licensed songs for broadcast, not for DVD or streaming. It took years, but the creator of the show finally convinced Disney (owner of ABC and the production company of the series) to pony up to Al Jarreau and other soundtrack artists so they can be aired without cutting the songs out or replacing them with knockoff versions. Ironically, Bruce Willis's health problems may have contributed to their late change of heart, and word is that the actor, now in late stages of frontotemporal dementia, seems to really enjoy watching his younger self again.

Maybe those Mickey Mouse ear purchases helped contribute to the cause.

The binge we just began features another 80s heartthrob, Ted Danson of Cheers. He starred more recently in The Good Place, but this HBO series was from over a decade ago: in Bored to Death, he plays a narcissistic media mogul who employs, and more often makes inappropriate personal demands for drugs and attention upon, the main character played by Jason Schwartzmann. It also homages Moonlighting in the sense of showing the weekly adventures of a private detective who really isn't one but manages to solve cases anyway.  We're four episodes in to its 24-show run on DVD, and it's quite fun.

Eleanor came up with those two; my recent addition to our rotation was a Peacock-Brit TV collaboration from 2021 called We Are Lady Parts. It's just your basic tale of four young UK Muslim women who happen to be in a punk band, and the merry mixups that occur with their more traditional elders, their love lives, and among themselves as they form, break up and finally hit their stride by the end of the sixth and final episode. The show was supposedly renewed for a second series, but nothing has come of it.  We were watching it Wednesday night during the hour we would ordinarily been at poetry on Elmwood, but they've moved that biweekly reading so it begins past Geezer O'Clock at night and we really can't stay up that late anymore.  So when an episode caught the essence of the poet atmosphere we've come to love and miss from there, it was a nice homage of its own:
 

Watch on YouTube

And, poem.

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De pods, boss, de pods!

 

I know. I didn’t forget them. Just wanted to get the other stuff in first.

The other medium we’ve been working through over the past few weeks has been one that is new but not too new. The “podcast“ has had an interesting brief history. Although its name comes from the once dominant Apple audio product known as the iPod, the concept behind it- recording a creative presentation for playback by a listener on an audio device- was allegedly in existence back in the time of cassette tapes. The concept never really caught on, except down at the Patent Office, and demands concerning that from patent trolls may have hindered the development of the podcast as an effective means of communicating entertainment.

I first learned about the intellectual property battle over podcasts on, of all things, a podcast. Over a decade ago, there were several of them connected to weekly programs on NPR, basically consisting of the episode provided for broadcast on their affiliate stations. They had weekend shows I listened to like Whad'ya Know and Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, but This American Life was the one that explained how a patent troll had threatened the entire burgeoning medium of podcasting on account of a concept that dated back to the days of Memorex and BASF.

Ira Glass was able to tell the story on a podcast because the troll had very graciously told non-commercial services that they wouldn’t be sued for using his technology. The case lingered on in the courts for many years until finally the Supreme Court declined to reverse a decision that invalidated the claim of the troll once and for all. Podcasts are now free to be created, distributed and, surprise surprise, monetized. They have now largely surpassed written forms such as blogs for creators to create.

One of the earliest commercial ones that I followed for a time, still hanging on among the hipster crowd, is Welcome to Night Vale. This program's quirky mix of dialog, music and imaginary (we hope) weirdness has produced multiple books (one of which I own), staged live performances (one of which I attended) and even a now-on-hiatus television adaptation. I enjoyed it because the audio medium fit it; the music and vocalizations went beyond what words on a page or screen would have presented.

The current podcast rage, though? Less so. Take the fake one that is shown in progress on the Steve Martin/Martin Short/ Selena Gomez comedy whodunit Only Murders in the Building. It's all about the sound levels and audio hooks more than it is about the content- and that's the failing of many of these compared to a blog entry or, dare I say it? a newspaper or magazine article. They're just words, only out loud. They take longer to listen to than they would to read, and they're much harder to work around the advertising content that infects even NPR podcasts.

Eleanor's found one she really likes, and wants me to really like. It's called Smartless, featuring three B-list actors who shoot the shit, tell jokes, interview people and shoot some more shit.  One episode she really REALLY wanted me to check out was one where they interviewed Paul Simon.  It took awhile to find the longlost podcast app on my phone- I think it's one of the ones I managed to butt-delete at a concert several weeks back- then more while to find the series and episode- and finally time to listen, which I did on the way to seeing a friend perform on Elmwood two Saturdays ago. And,.... okay. Hearing Paul's voice contributed to the quality of the product.  What was amazing, though? Eleanor was ready to listen to it on her own again and transcribe it for me.  (NPR podcasts will sometimes do this for at least some of their segments; not this one, far as I know.)

I was blown away that she'd make that much effort for me. I don't know if I'll be more up on the format now that I've got one with decent content, but I'm not turning this into a podcast anytime soon.

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Speaking of content, I think that's enough for one entry. We may head over to the dog park in the morning. The one here, that is, not the one described in the very first episode of Night Vale:

Hello, listeners. To start things off, I’ve been asked to read this brief notice. The City Council announces the opening of a new dog park at the corner of Earl and Sommerset near the Ralph’s.

They would like to remind everyone that dogs are not allowed in the dog park. People are not allowed in the dog park. It is possible you will see hooded figures in the dog park. Do not approach them. Do not approach the dog park. The fence is electrified and highly dangerous. Try not to look at the dog park, and especially do not look for any period of time at the hooded figures. The dog park will not harm you.