Yesterday was Tuesday and I finally did what I plan on doing every Tuesday, I went to the movies. Why? I have an AMC gift card and they give a discount on Tuesdays. They also give discounts for seniors and matinees. Even with the service fee it only cost $8.25. Given Omicron surge I had second thoughts but went with going. They check vaccination status and ID, I am boosted, I wear my KN95 mask, and the theater is not crowded. I can see how many tickets are presold on the app. I had no one within 20 feet of me. I haven’t gotten to the first thing people mention when they go to the movies, the title of the film; it was Spider-Man No Way Home. It’s setting box office records, but I suspect that’s pent-up demand. It’s my least favorite MCU film. It felt like a tribute to fan service bringing back the old Spider-Man actors and villains. It had the ridiculous moral sense of the CW shows I stopped watching. I felt the entire plot made no sense. The acting, dialogue, and visual effects were up to MCU standards but not the story. Of course, the problem with the MCU is that if you miss one film you fear you will miss something you need to know for latter films. I will catch up on the Eternals as soon as it is on TV.
I saw the film at what I consider my home theater, the Magic Johnson in Harlem. It takes me a half hour to get there. It was a good say for my subway mask strategy. When I see someone unmasked, I point to my mask and mime putting it on. I think of it as gently reminder a stranger that his fly is open. Both people I tried it on masked. I added a flourish with the second. When he masked, I gave him a thumbs up and a big smile. He returned a big smile.
The natural instinct for many, including me, is to hector the unmasked, even insult them. I’m getting better at resisting the urge. The thing that anti-maskers hate is being told what to do. They think others look down on them. When you feed into that prejudice you reinforce it, and their resistance. There’s an irony here; we are judging them for putting their personal desires above the common good. But by hectoring we are making it less likely that they will mask and so are risking the common good to follow our personal desire. And here’s the thing, when he smiled back, I could see that he’s not a creature of evil, but a decent person. Perceiving that makes me happier, so my personal desire is still fulfilled.
After the movie I walked to Trader Jones on 92nd Street, 1.75 miles getting both needed groceries and exercise in one shot. It’s always a treat going to Trader Joe’s rather than Aldi or Stop & Shop. In addition to the superior products and reasonable prices they train their workers better. It’s always pleasant dealing with them. You never have to hunt for someone to ask a question. When you ask it, they either know the answer or find out for you. I don’t even mind the lack of self-checkout.
For dinner I made Philly Cheesesteak. I had to do an arctic expedition in my freezer to find the shaved steak I suspected was there. We have a very full freezer, so it is often difficult to find things. I miss having a separate freezer like I had in my house. Then I could buy large amounts of things when they were on sale and freeze them and still easily find them when needed.
I got some bad music news, both the Dar Williams and Robinson & Rohe shows were canceled due to Omicron. I would really like to be pretentious and just use the Greek letter, but a capital omicron looks like this, Ο, exactly like a Latin O. The next variant will be Π, I can try it then. For now, to be a pretentious know-it-all pronounce it with a short initial O. The first syllable rhymes with Tom, not Tome. It’s fine to be pretentious yourself but please don’t correct people. In colloquial English, the long O is perfectly acceptable.
I almost forgot an idiot story! Folk Music Notebook gave the DJs top five albums lists. Just go to the website, folkmusicnotebook.com and scroll down. You’ll find mine there. Don’t take that as Gospel, I couldn’t narrow it down to five. On Thursday I’ll post my full list and air music from them on Gord’s Gold. When I looked at the other DJs’ lists, I saw that Marilyn Rea Beyer included Undertaker’s Songbook by Sons of the Never Wrong. I loved that album and didn’t notice it in this year’s releases. I’m now going to have to do an extended director’s cut of the show for archived version on Mixcloud. I’ll work on that today. Now it’s time to work on breakfast.
Wise Madness 