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Musings about Friendsmas
Dec. 25th, 2024 04:21 pmContinuing the Odd Couple callbacks of recent postings....
We wish you a Murray Christmas!
My announcement of the morning, on being awakened by the dog shaking herself on the bed when licking Daddy's ear didn't work:
“SANTA CAME! AND HE BROUGHT WEIRD DREAMS!”
And I mean WEIRD. My car catching fire - flames, not just smoke- heading to a 341 meeting (they’re all Zoom now and nobody “heads” to them, Dumbass Subconscious:P)
Awakened by that, I’m settling to a day of reading this. It’s finally mine, preciouses-
- and whatever Ron Howard managed to do with the film interpretation of this tale? Can’t be any better or weirder than the All True of this friend's nonfiction book:)
That's my book entertainment for the day. Muscically, we're both enjoying Lucy Kaplansky's latest release- a two-dozen compilation of live recordings, outtakes and rarities going back to her cover of James Taylor's "You Can Close Your Eyes" recorded in her bedroom when she was 16. We've seen photos of her in her early Folk City NYC years in her 20s when she looked incredibly young, but the voice on this track sounds fully matured and beautiful. (She's about a month younger than I am, and that maturity hasn't taken a mile off her vocal fastball.) Filmwise, we're rewatching a Richard E. Grant chestnut (not on an open fire) called Withnail and I; he is the Classic Veteran Veddy British Actor™ in a more recent series we're finding incredibly funny called The Franchise; it mocks all the superhero trope universes, both Marvel's and DC's (it even shows a WB studio logo in it and airs it on DC's cousin network HBO Max). Its cast is mostly UK-born and the show is filmed in England, with Himesh Patel (Yesterday), Jessica Hynes (Shaun of the Dead) and Lolly Adefope (the original BBC Ghosts) among those we've loved from earlier things. (Bringing suitable sturm und drang-style gravitas to direction of the superhero-film-within-the-show is German actor Daniel Brühl, also featured in Ron Howard's Eden project.) We're nearly through the eight episodes of that Marvel-ous fun.
Yet the one we did get to the end of a series with last night, inspiring the title of this Christmas Day post, is the Apple TV series Shrinking. That streaming network, like Max and Mouse offerings, dribbles them out an episode or two at a time, unlike the Netflix and Prime binge-drops of their entire seasons at once. Shrinking had become a Wednesday night staple here, but the season finale was dropped a day early so it wouldn't get lost in the Wednesdayness of this Christmas. Unlike the Brit tradition of Christmas-themed specials of their shows from Doctor Who to even Great British Bakeoff (which even Ted Lasso adopted during its run though aired on Apple in August), the Christmas Eve finale of Shrinking chose the previous month's American Thanksgiving holiday as its focus for the finale.
There's connection between those last two, all along offscreen and on it in this current season. Shrinking was co-created by Brett Goldstein, who's here, he's there, he's every fucking where ROY KENT! in Ted as well as editing and writing for that show. In the first season finale of this newer series, he enters the cast as well, revealing his character to be Louis, the drunk driver who killed the wife and mother whose death at Louis's wheels send series star Jimmy (Jason Segel) and his screen daughter Alice (Lukita Maxwell) into downward spirals.. Much of the second season is about the integration and attempted disintegration of Louis's own story into the lives of those two people, of those around them including Jimmy's boss and therapy mentor Paul (Harrison Ford). While not spoiling what actually happens before, during and after the characters' Friendsgiving dinner, it cannot be a spoiler to identify that as the setting, since the title of the episode is "The Last Thanksgiving." Through amazing dialogue and beautiful camera work, we see this group that somehow forms a family, laughing together, eating together and especially healing together. Louis SPOILS to SPOIL SPOILER BIG SPOILER, and by the end, NO MORE FUCKING HINTS. Go watch,
The point, though, is how it focuses on a major US-observed holiday as focused on connections among friends who may, or may not, include family as the focus- which is what Christmas really seems to have become here, and among friends in other places as well. Musician friends of all faiths and of no faiths sing the carols- not for their doctrine but their tradition as musical beauty. Ugly sweaters proclaim all kinds of messages about winter and football and even, yes,
-breaking up the Beatles (don't blame it on Yokey!)
Giving for us is more important than getting. The only pressies I walked out of my two offices with were a Lululemon-branded travel mug I'll never use and a bottle of very expensive champagne I'll never drink. The sheer pleasure has come from figuring out who to regift them to. It also came as a relief that I snuck into Wegmans early enough yesterday to remember a gift card for Corey the Mailman, who has always been kind and prompt.
As for the Fundies who claim to be refugees from the War on Christmas whenever anyone hurls a "Happy Holidays" epithet at them, I can only offer this sentiment back:
Enjoy your remaining holiday(s), and the rest of this mixed-up bag of a year, with those you love, be they with blood ties or otherwise. I love each and every one of you reading this, except the Russian bot at IP address 81.19.74.144, to whom I leave the same message of holiday cheer I share every other day of the year:
We wish you a Murray Christmas!
My announcement of the morning, on being awakened by the dog shaking herself on the bed when licking Daddy's ear didn't work:
“SANTA CAME! AND HE BROUGHT WEIRD DREAMS!”
And I mean WEIRD. My car catching fire - flames, not just smoke- heading to a 341 meeting (they’re all Zoom now and nobody “heads” to them, Dumbass Subconscious:P)
Awakened by that, I’m settling to a day of reading this. It’s finally mine, preciouses-
- and whatever Ron Howard managed to do with the film interpretation of this tale? Can’t be any better or weirder than the All True of this friend's nonfiction book:)
That's my book entertainment for the day. Muscically, we're both enjoying Lucy Kaplansky's latest release- a two-dozen compilation of live recordings, outtakes and rarities going back to her cover of James Taylor's "You Can Close Your Eyes" recorded in her bedroom when she was 16. We've seen photos of her in her early Folk City NYC years in her 20s when she looked incredibly young, but the voice on this track sounds fully matured and beautiful. (She's about a month younger than I am, and that maturity hasn't taken a mile off her vocal fastball.) Filmwise, we're rewatching a Richard E. Grant chestnut (not on an open fire) called Withnail and I; he is the Classic Veteran Veddy British Actor™ in a more recent series we're finding incredibly funny called The Franchise; it mocks all the superhero trope universes, both Marvel's and DC's (it even shows a WB studio logo in it and airs it on DC's cousin network HBO Max). Its cast is mostly UK-born and the show is filmed in England, with Himesh Patel (Yesterday), Jessica Hynes (Shaun of the Dead) and Lolly Adefope (the original BBC Ghosts) among those we've loved from earlier things. (Bringing suitable sturm und drang-style gravitas to direction of the superhero-film-within-the-show is German actor Daniel Brühl, also featured in Ron Howard's Eden project.) We're nearly through the eight episodes of that Marvel-ous fun.
Yet the one we did get to the end of a series with last night, inspiring the title of this Christmas Day post, is the Apple TV series Shrinking. That streaming network, like Max and Mouse offerings, dribbles them out an episode or two at a time, unlike the Netflix and Prime binge-drops of their entire seasons at once. Shrinking had become a Wednesday night staple here, but the season finale was dropped a day early so it wouldn't get lost in the Wednesdayness of this Christmas. Unlike the Brit tradition of Christmas-themed specials of their shows from Doctor Who to even Great British Bakeoff (which even Ted Lasso adopted during its run though aired on Apple in August), the Christmas Eve finale of Shrinking chose the previous month's American Thanksgiving holiday as its focus for the finale.
There's connection between those last two, all along offscreen and on it in this current season. Shrinking was co-created by Brett Goldstein, who's here, he's there, he's every fucking where ROY KENT! in Ted as well as editing and writing for that show. In the first season finale of this newer series, he enters the cast as well, revealing his character to be Louis, the drunk driver who killed the wife and mother whose death at Louis's wheels send series star Jimmy (Jason Segel) and his screen daughter Alice (Lukita Maxwell) into downward spirals.. Much of the second season is about the integration and attempted disintegration of Louis's own story into the lives of those two people, of those around them including Jimmy's boss and therapy mentor Paul (Harrison Ford). While not spoiling what actually happens before, during and after the characters' Friendsgiving dinner, it cannot be a spoiler to identify that as the setting, since the title of the episode is "The Last Thanksgiving." Through amazing dialogue and beautiful camera work, we see this group that somehow forms a family, laughing together, eating together and especially healing together. Louis SPOILS to SPOIL SPOILER BIG SPOILER, and by the end, NO MORE FUCKING HINTS. Go watch,
The point, though, is how it focuses on a major US-observed holiday as focused on connections among friends who may, or may not, include family as the focus- which is what Christmas really seems to have become here, and among friends in other places as well. Musician friends of all faiths and of no faiths sing the carols- not for their doctrine but their tradition as musical beauty. Ugly sweaters proclaim all kinds of messages about winter and football and even, yes,
-breaking up the Beatles (don't blame it on Yokey!)
Giving for us is more important than getting. The only pressies I walked out of my two offices with were a Lululemon-branded travel mug I'll never use and a bottle of very expensive champagne I'll never drink. The sheer pleasure has come from figuring out who to regift them to. It also came as a relief that I snuck into Wegmans early enough yesterday to remember a gift card for Corey the Mailman, who has always been kind and prompt.
As for the Fundies who claim to be refugees from the War on Christmas whenever anyone hurls a "Happy Holidays" epithet at them, I can only offer this sentiment back:
Enjoy your remaining holiday(s), and the rest of this mixed-up bag of a year, with those you love, be they with blood ties or otherwise. I love each and every one of you reading this, except the Russian bot at IP address 81.19.74.144, to whom I leave the same message of holiday cheer I share every other day of the year: