I’m finally getting around to writing. It looks like I’m taking today off. What does that even mean for me? It means avoiding all stress. Yesterday I had therapy. I had to deal with something I can’t talk about here. It doesn’t help that my next session is next year. The next two Fridays are Christmas and New Year’s Day. It’s the busy season for mental health professionals so I couldn’t get an appointment for another day. I did get something accomplished yesterday, I finished recording my holiday show for Folk Music Notebook. I was getting new music files as late as Thursday night. Then I realized as I recorded it that some of the files I already had were wav not mp3, so I had to convert them. Then many were missing metadata so I had to add it so Ron could see what he was working with. Then I had to put it all in order, my segments along with the songs. If I had some DJ software this could probably be done much more easily. I did something new with the host segments, I didn’t write out scripts. This was not a regular Gord’s Gold, this was not me teaching about an artist. This was a show to concentrate on the music, and I just had to give a little background. For many songs I simply gave the title and artist. After each set I named every song and gave the names of the first song or two of each set before I played it. That’s how I listen. How often have you heard a song and then gotten mad that the DJ didn’t name it afterward? I assume that most people will be unfamiliar with most of what I play. There are even two Gord’s Gold exclusives, unreleased songs. That means you’ll have to listen to the show to hear them. It’s on Wednesday at Noon and again at 6 EST and runs for 90 minutes. Thanks to the unexpected problems I didn’t finish everything and send it to Ron until 2:11 AM. I didn’t get to sleep until after three. Ever notice how often I give precise times? I’ve always done that as I usually check the time on digital clocks. For sending the files I looked at the confirmation email.
There is an embarrassment of riches on TV. Even with everything going on I was not going to miss the season finale of The Mandalorian. I love the show, but I can never spell it right. It should be spelled like Mandelbrot or Mandel Bread. I’m not putting it that way because I’m translating the Yiddish to English, but my first association of Mandelbrot is the inventor of fractals, the mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot. Normally when it comes to food, I’m a good Jew, but my family was never big on mandel bread and I’m very big on fractals. I had the pleasure of meeting Mandelbrot a number of times. He ran in my mathematical circles. I’m not going to give any Mandalorian spoilers. Just make sure to watch. I went from reluctantly watching the show to loving it. It’s just like Game if Thrones.
This week also so the premiere of the new season of The Expanse, the greatest science fiction series ever. I was disappointed today when I found out that I’ve seen everything released so far. There will be new episodes dropping every Wednesday. Now I have to remember to watch once a week. I recommended it to my therapist and especially her husband. He’s a big fan of Arthur C. Clarke. The show is in his style and the show has the same attention to detail as 2001: A Space Odyssey. Star Wars also had groundbreaking special effects, but the purpose was different. It tried to be visually exciting, but it didn’t try and make you feel like you’re in space. When I watched it in a theater when it was first released I lost my suspension of disbelief when the fighters banked against a nonexistent atmosphere. We had already seen real spaceships in real space; I was disappointed they made no effort to create that feeling. Don’t say that I’m overthinking it. This is not a matter of thinking, but gut feeling. How would you feel if in a car chase a car changed lanes by moving sideways? It would feel like a videogame, not real life.
The other show just added to my watchlist is Titans, now that HBO Max is on Roku I can watch it must more easily. It had me hooked almost immediately; it is much better than I expected. I’ve been watching it today. As an added bonus they had Sunshine Day playing on a car radio. That’s by the Silver Platters, the band the Brady Bunch kids formed on the show. That is so kitschy that I can’t resist. That’s not the general tenor of the show. It is quite dark.
I was thinking all sort of serious thoughts today but as part of my avoiding all stress I won’t write about them. You don’t need me to once again write about our power to delude ourselves. I’ll get it down to sentence. You know how other people delude themselves? You probably do to. I know I do. It’s not an insult if I call one of your ideas a delusion. I mean you hold a deep belief for irrational reasons, as do we all.
Oh, I almost forgot, part of why yesterday was jammed pack was so many streaming shows. As I had to miss some of them to get work done. That’s why I didn’t finish until deep into the night. Let’s see which I can remember, Alice Hasen, Sharon Goldberg & Carolann Solebello, Zoe Lewis, Amy Kucharik, and the Ruthless Comedy Hour. Just had an idiot insight. Until I typed that I didn’t know how long the show was. As I was watching I thought it would be longer. I the before times I saw it live, that was more than an hour. It’s put on by Karen Bergreen, Cynthia Kaplan, and Cory Kahaney. I’ve written about Cynthia before; I even did a Gord’s Gold about her. They are all very funny and each show there are special guests. You’ll all be familiar with one of last night’s, Andy Borowitz. I’m not a big fan of the Borowitz Report but live I loved him. Now I want to be his friend. The other guest was Erin Jackson. The show is on Zoom. Sign up for the next one, you’ll laugh out loud. I had my mic muted but whoever runs the show saw me laughing and asked me to unmute. It’s Zoom so you can’t have everyone unmuted. Every once in a while you’d hear the inevitable “I’m watching my show!” or simply echoes because they didn’t use headphones. It was zoom so mine were in my ears when I started. I just realize I spent all that time streaming and the only male I saw was Andy Borowitz. I didn’t check the gender breakdown of my holiday show. I’m going to do that now. It was not a consideration when programming it. Before I give the breakdown I’ll explain the methodology. I counted how many men and women were in each group given credit. Backup musicians don’t count. I also did it by track, if I played two Beatles song that would count as eight men. Here’s the final score, Women 32 – Men 21. Blame the disparity on the Roches. Next year I want more Irish music. If you are one of my friends send me any of your holiday music. I’ll remind you next year when they start getting released.
Wise Madness 