No Static at All: Road Trip Radio

Me with Assateague Ponies, the requisite bus length away.

Consuming: Lots of strawberry margaritas, t-shirts, sand, and sun on our beach road trip. We stayed at beach hotels of various types in Rehoboth, Delaware,  Assateague, Maryland, Chincoteague, Virginia, Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Cambridge, Maryland and Cape May, New Jersey ranging from chain hotels to a swanky golf resort to an old-fashioned place with a great view. We saw wild ponies, dolphins, lots of seabirds, deer by the side of the road, and I saw little fish and a snake in the water at Kitty Hawk. Almost no media. The only TV we watched was The Weather Channel (which convinced us not to go to South Carolina into a heat wave with rainstorms). I read only one book, Kate Atkinson’s A God in Ruins, which took me all week even though there was a lot of reading time–though to be fair I spent a fair amount of time just gazing at water. It’s tempting to reread Life After Life, to which this is a “companion piece”, but not that tempting since it’s equally long.

Producing: Nothing much for work, but part of the reason for this trip was to investigate places near beaches we might retire (in 20 years). I have learned about myself something I should have already known. I don’t want to be too far south and I don’t want to be where you have to go through miles of farmland and poverty to get to civilization. Chris doesn’t think living right by any beach is smart, and I agree that with global climate change most of the beaches we know about now may end up underwater, but if we go a little south of here to the mid-Atlantic states and pick something a few miles from a beach, we will be happier. I love Cape May, though the surrounding communities seemed kind of sad.

Grace from Nurse Jackie. Showtime.

Anticipating: Lots of work before the sabbatical officially starts. Now that Nurse Jackie is over I can finally finish the paper I’m giving about socially committed girls in TV dramas in Iceland in three weeks, so that will comprise much of my new few posts.

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We love music, but don’t listen to a ton of it in our apartment. I can’t usually work with music on, and we watch so much TV during the evenings when Chris is home from work that we don’t usually think about it. After many years of driving to work with the radio, now I use my subway time for reading, not music listening. I should be a ton more traumatized by the fact that I accidentally deleted 1100 or so songs off my old phone, (illegally gotten years ago, so not restorable), but since at home I can listen to Spotify or Pandora, or Sirius, or YouTube,  it really isn’t a problem.

Freaks and Geeks. NBC.

So road trips are when we listen the most. As I wrote about last summer, we listen to oldies radio, usually 60s on 6 or 70s on 7. Whatever we can sing to . . . yes, we’re those people you see singing in the car. What I did not count on on this trip was that, now that they’ve removed the satellite radio from my car (it’s been causing battery issues for years–but they could have asked), and I’ve moved it to my phone, that the charger I bought just a few weeks ago AT THE APPLE STORE would often tell me it wasn’t authorized for my IPhone (that I bought earlier this year AT THE APPLE STORE). So for the first half of the trip we listened to regular radio. It was probably the first time in over 8 years that I’ve heard static on radio stations. Between that and radio ads, which I can’t stand, I frequently changed the station (Chris drove the whole way), trying to find something new.

Mad Men. AMC.

We were in many rural areas where we’d lost stations of various formats, some of which made sense–The Vault was what one might call Dad Rock, even if my dad wouldn’t be interested–and others that didn’t, and just played anything older than maybe 5 years. There were periods on route 13 when I had to turn it off all together as we couldn’t find anything but country or Christian rock (tough on the way back when Chris was starting to get laryngitis, so we couldn’t even play a car game). There was one cool show I was sad to lose. We never heard what station it was, but Wolfman Jack was talking and songs included something called “Fujiyama Mama” by Wanda Jackson, and Johnny Cash singing “A Boy Named Sue.” Neither is remotely PC, but they were fun to hear.

My So-Called Life. ABC.

The charger worked for another couple of days, and then flaked out again, so we bought another at a Staples in New Jersey right before we bought fresh produce (after all the corn I’d seen growing, I needed some). We usually listen to 60s on 6 or 70s on 7 so we can sing–or at least I could by the last day (I’ve since picked up Chris’s illness, though I’m mostly just tired, not hacking and coughing and for now I can still talk, though I don’t really feel like it and I slept all day yesterday).

Whitney from The Affair. Showtime.

We heard a Casey Kasem countdown from the week ending June 25, 1977 (you’ll have to scroll down to it) that had to be the wimpiest week in rock history. It was so awful we had to keep listening just to see how bad it would get. There were only two songs on it with any soul at all–“Sir Duke” by Stevie Wonder, and “Got to Give it Up” by Marvin Gaye, the number one song of the week (in another shout out to timeliness, Casey also talked about Phil Spector when he introduced Shaun Cassidy’s version of “Da Doo Ron Ron.” Cassidy sucked all the soul out of it. I would also argue for Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams.” Chris puts in a bid for the top country song of the week, Luckenbach, Texas, to count as having soul, but the rest was just the worst. Barry Manilow (and not “Copacabana”), Andy Gibb, Andrew Gold, two different versions of “Gonna Fly Now” from Rocky, several country songs (can you tell I don’t care for country?). Nothing that’s going to Mars.

Glee. Fox.

After that, after a few minutes trying to see what Party Music was (nothing we like–neither of us have never been partiers) we went with the Soul City station on Sirius, which I never knew about before. They advertised a Road Trip Radio, but I could never find that. Anyhow Soul City was right up our alley. We heard Aretha and Marvin and The Jackson 5 and sang every word all the way home.

 

Nothing but Netflix

Sex and the City. HBO.

Consuming: I have been spending a lot of time just fooling around online. I’ve finished 3 or 4 New Yorkers a couple of Entertainment Weeklys (nice job on the LGBT issue, even if it was a little self-congratulatory) and a University of Chicago Alumni Magazine, but haven’t even cracked an actual book. I ate at Cafeteria, which I had heard of because of Sex and the City, not because I wanted to bring out my inner Charlotte York, but because it was a place I’d heard of but hadn’t been and since Chris had a job interview later, I was too nervous to work before seeing his job talk (preceded by that of one of the other interviewees). It was actually kind of hilariously 90s. Lots of gay waiters and busboys mostly (at least at first) ignoring me even though the place was nearly empty (it was a Tuesday at around 10:30). Had a nice chat with a guy later who as he left said “I have to go look busy.” Really yummy French Toast though.

Bert Cooper from Mad Men. AMC.

I did finish my Mad Men rewatch. I really hadn’t paid as much attention to the guy from McCaan-Erickson on my first watch, but he’d been hovering from the start and the ending seems even more preordained now. What did Bert Cooper do all day? I’m often bored, and I have the whole Internet. He doesn’t even seem to read a lot of books.

Producing: Not much. Some productive outlining. Planning our upcoming road trip. Through effective social networking, found two people to stay with Holden during our next couple of trips. You would think a free place to stay in Manhattan would be quite the allure, right?

Myrtle Beach. Photo: sundancer2000

Anticipating: A week of beaches and car rides, accompanied by oldies music on Sirius. We don’t know how far we’ll get, but we’re thinking Myrtle Beach.

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The experience of binge watching is, as has been discussed in countless think pieces, quite different than watching from week to week. I really appreciate that about Netflix, and Netflix’s own series. But it definitely impacts the way we watch.

Bloodline Photo: USA Today

I imagine that if I had tried to watch Bloodline in a normal week-to-week sequence, I would have watched some of the episodes several days later than they aired, and more out of duty than interest, even though the acting was excellent and the setting and costumes were great. But sometimes it felt ponderous the way The Affair (which Chris gave up on early and I tended to watch only when I found spare time, and mostly because I started it) did. While all the actors in it were “names,” and the main cast looked to me like they could be related (though I wonder about an Italian milkman who may have fathered Cardellini’s character), people of color were mostly present as minor characters. House of Cards is similar in that way.

Grace and Frankie. Netflix.

Grace and Frankie was a lot of fun but not necessarily must-see TV. It wasn’t as 100% lovable as The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (nor was the theme song as good), and I couldn’t get over the idea that Sam Waterston’s character seemed neither truly gay nor Jewish. I would have liked to see someone like Dustin Hoffman or Alan Alda (also not Jewish, but closer) play that character.

Orange is the New Black. Variety.com

We just a few hours ago finished the latest season of Orange is the New Black. I have heard people complaining it wasn’t a great season, and it’s true that the stakes weren’t as high as prior seasons. Litchfield did seem more like summer camp than prison sometimes. It can be simultaneously annoying and amusing that they’re all well read and have a good sense of humor, which we all know isn’t true of the general population, so it seems unlikely in prison.

I’m sure I’d be excited to watch this show week-to-week if a network aired it that way and that the online discussion during the week would be really robust, more than it is when everyone is watching at a different pace. Every race, many ethnicities, many faiths, many sexualities, it’s all represented, and there are just so many characters. As I’ve mentioned multiple times, when I can’t sleep, I think of lists of actors who have been on various shows. This show doesn’t have a ton of recognizable actors on it, though I’ve learned a lot of names by now, but even when I just thought of characters in terms of their character names or in some cases their traits since there are a lot of names I just don’t know, I came up with 75 or so recurring roles. IMDB lists 539 actors who have been on the show in only 39 episodes. That’s quite an impressive number. By contrast, In 172 episodes, Seinfeld had just under 1300 and that’s a very high number for a sitcom compared to others I’ve looked at.

Flaca finally gets a flashback. Netflix

Of these, 368 are women (or girls, since we see a lot in flashbacks).  It would take a lot longer to analyze race/ethnicity (and there is, or course, no simple way to do that anyhow), but it is clear there are many many more women and people of color and LBGT characters than on any other US show ever. This show is also one of the better ones in terms of balancing funny with tragic. I don’t really have a problem with it competing in drama for the Emmys, though the comedy is where it really shines. Often, however, the seeming off-hand funny thing someone says turns out to be a trigger for something that becomes a big important event.

Soso does too. Netflix.

I hope as Netflix develops more shows they realize what’s good about this show rather than what’s trendy. I haven’t seen, or heard much good, about Sens8, which seems somewhat designed to catch the “some of everyone” vibe, but not as successfully. But whatever the flaws of some of these shows, it’s a great new way to watch that seems really different than the same old seasons and same old shows.

 

Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most

Ft. Tryon Park

Consuming: I took last week mostly vegetate before I start the real work of the sabbatical and will spend some other days doing the same since I have a lot of vacation accrued. As part of vegetating, I spent time with vegetation. I went to Central Park (twice), Fort Tryon Park, Inwood Park, and Bryant Park. I also visited the Morgan Library and Museum.

We also continued our tour of Old New York with The Oyster Bar in Grand Central Station, despite the fact

Tavern on the Green

that for quasi-religious reason, I don’t eat shellfish. We planned to meet for just martinis, but I ended up with a steak. I’m sure for oysters it’s great. We also had lunch at Tavern on the Green. I’ve been following the continuing sagas of rotating chefs and menus and awful reviews, so we were prepared for the worst. I thought the way Chris’s Caesar salad was plated was blah (and the one with chicken at the next table looked inedible), and my potato-leek soup was OK, but pretentiously served. However, the setting was lovely, the band played standards well, and I really enjoyed seeing tables full of people with different shades of rosé on one side, and people enjoying the park on the other side on a gorgeous day.

It’s finally linen season, so along with a new mouse and removable drive, I got new shoes, some shirts, and a new bathing suit I’m not sure fits. The car got new oil and is currently getting new windshield wipers and air filters. She will be getting new headlight covers soon.

Lena Dunham of Girls in my courtyard

This week I’m peering out the window a lot because they are filming an episode of Girls in our apartment building including the apartment I can see out the kitchen window (but not the main window), and in the lobby and courtyard. I’m a season behind, but I’ll be curious if they’ll mention the neighborhood or pretend this is Brooklyn. They’re also painting an apartment across the courtyard, which may or may not be for filming. I’m a little concerned that as they use/refurbish some the apartments that they’re going to upgrade them and rent them at market rates and/or go co-op.

Peggy from Mad Men. AMC

Producing: I’ve started reworking my book proposal so it’s just one book instead of three. It allows me to broaden the scope the way publishers seem to want without having to write a whole book about the “talented girl” era, which is mostly shows that started OK but turned to crap. I also read a book about a show I’ve been researching, and rewatched much of Mad Men in preparation for amending my presentation for Reykjavik, so at least some of the consuming was productive. After a tough term where blogging took a back seat, I hope to do it more often.

No, I didn’t know what tenterhooks really looked like either.

Anticipating:  There are a lot of decisions being made at our college right now. I keep saying we’re all on tenterhooks, but realized I didn’t know what those really were. Hopefully we’ll hear some good things in the next month. We’re going to drive down the coast to various beach towns where we might retire (even though for me that’s in 20 years).

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Jon Stewart and Jessica Williams: Comedy Central

It’s the time of the year when nearly all the shows I watch have ended their runs permanently or for the season. I’ll definitely miss Mad Men–no other show is as pretty in terms of costume and sets. Nurse Jackie has a few more episodes, which I need to see before I finish my conference presentation and Jeopardy!, the last few weeks of Jon Stewart’s Daily Show, and mostly disappointing but occasionally funny The Nightly Show still have new episodes, but otherwise everything is done.

Who knew Lindsay Weir would grow up to do such bad things? Photo: USA Today

I’m still watching (I’ve got Mad Men reruns on in the background now), but I’m not expecting to watch something that comes on at a specific time and I’m not having to worry about spoilers. No one much cares about Royal Pains. There are plenty of summer shows on the main networks, but I just can’t get excited about starting anything like that. So we’ve been binge watching–we watched the latest season of House of Cards, Bloodline, and Grace and Frankie in the last two weeks, all fun in their own ways. We’re excited about Orange is the New Black, though I’m not sure we can squeeze it in before our trip. I am also behind on Girls, Veep, and a few others shows, as well as never having watched Breaking Bad. Recently, I got the Seinfeld box set, mostly for the commentaries and features. There must be something I can watch, but not really watch, though, so I can edit or research (not really write) with that on. I’ll want to give all of that full attention. I’m thinking maybe Portlandia.

I think of this time as sort of a TV detox. The tyranny of the TV gets me down toward the end of the season when there’s just so much to keep track of and so many “think pieces” and forums to read on every single show that by the time we get to June/July, I just need a break. The school year is over, all the students I mentor have been reassigned, I’m no longer convener (sort of like department chair) and the shows are done for the most part. So in theory I can shift gears and start writing.  In actuality, I’m still shifting gears. Because Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most.