Music is great, Starbucks is great...

 

So not much happened in these two eps, eh?

But first

( Spoilers and unformed clay )

Here are things I'm enjoying despite my fixation on that main thing I'm fixated on:
( Things )

Today a friend visited for breakfast and coffee time along with their kid. She texted before she stopped to pick up Bruegger's Bagels (Bruegger's: We're The Closest To New York Bagels You're Gonna Get, Northerners), so by the time she pulled up, I had the eggs scrambled and the sausages done. The coffee had been on for a while.

( Friends... or probably more accurately navel-gazing/therapy shizz/grief )

Other than being a little peeved that this show forced me to do homework, e.g. read the Wikipedia entry about "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" and Google "what is a waxing gibbous moon?" I give both episodes A+++s (four plus subtracted for homework).

( Spoilers about the best way to prepare a rabbit, Frenchie's beautiful body, when Jim and Dwight can work in harmony, and, of course, fishing )

Anyway, more later because my head is just Anne Bonny's wonderful, terrible ugly fucking cuckoo clock.

Oh, yeah, and! And! Stede's repeated use of "doggie heaven" like someone who just learned the term "synergy" is... just exquisite.

Hahahahaha I found the IG equivalent of an Advent calendar: the 30 days of OFMD Bingo:
( Here be my metaphoric monster )

( Day 1: When did you discover OFMD? )

( Day 2: First impression of OFMD )

( Day 3: First OFMD image in your gallery )

( Day 4: Reasons why you like OFMD )

( Day 5: Favorite main character(s) )

( Day 6: Favorite supporting character(s) )

( Day 7: Songs that remind you of your favorite characters )

( Day 8: Underrated character )

( Day 9: Characters that resonate with you )

( Day 10: Character you hated at first but grew to love )

( Day 11: Favorite duo )

( Day 12: Scene that made you laugh )

( Day 13: Scene that made you cry )

( Day 14: Favorite episode )

( Day 15: Favorite quote )

( Day 16: Favorite line delivery )

( Day 17: Favorite OST )

( Day 18: Favorite Title Sequence )

( Day 19: Favorite subplot )

( Day 20: Favorite OFMD outfits )

( Day 21: Favorite Couple )

( Day 22: Second favorite couple )

( Day 23: Favorite rarepair )

( Day 24: Favorite kiss )

( Day 25: Favorite OFMD meme )

( Day 26: Latest OFMD photo in the gallery )

( Day 27: Favorite cast member )

( Day 28: Favorite crew member )

( Day 29: Cast mates you'd like to see together in another project )

( Day 30: What do you look forward to most in S2? )

Thank you, Void, for participating in this with me. It was a helpful way for me to not rewatch the series again until just this week. I appreciate you, Void. You're my best friend.

ETA two more amazing line readings as I rewatch eps 9 and 10: Joel Fry's "Yeah, it's fucking badass" re the cat flag, and Alma's "I don't! Want! Your old! Food!"

Answer: still going strong in Spring Green, WI! Went to visit my former college roommate/current grown-up friend Mary for our nearly-almost-always-annual visit to American Players Theater. We had a year or two just after graduation where I couldn't afford it; then pandemic disrupted a few years of it. It was good to be out in the woods (so far: no mosquito bites, or at least ones that are not itching/actively giving me malaria) seeing a collection of mostly silly, sometimes melancholy Chekhov short pieces. The cast was entirely core performers, folks I've been watching perform at APT for at least one decade, if not two, and they were all excellent. The broad slapstick made me reminisce about how much their outstanding production of A Flea in Her Ear made me laugh, and Nate Burger as Chekhov/the narrator reminded me of how emotionally compelling (and sex-ay) he was in Arcadia.

I did mostly okay, all things considered, during the lockdown/extra caution years of the pandemic. You know, on the pandemic spectrum of okay where I compulsively bought vinyl stickers and made neat lists of the tv series I was working my way through (lol, then four years later, I barrelled through Succession in, like, two months). But one of the biggest challenges for me was the loss of going to live theater and comedy and the movies. A combination of moving from Chicago, losing proximity to friends who would willingly or even enthusiastically attend things, and my pay cut from my heady days as the director at a "not-for-profit" with an 80M operating budget have contributed to a slower-than-I-would-have-wanted-or-predicted return to all these things. But I'm getting back into it. I'm going to see comedy twice this month--gotta give it up to Acme: they book a lot of my faves, as well as David Wain and Ken Marino's cover band.

Visited my fave stationary store, Anthology, while I was in Madison. Managed to exit with a reasonable amount of cards/stickers. I wish I could roll around in Anthology like a field of clover. Maybe some day I'll open a stationary store with my pandemic stickers as start-up stock.

In other news: still thinking about the OFMD S2 teaser quite a bit. Wondering when the full 2+ min trailer will be up. I'm going to be a little adrift here the next month since Reservation Dogs is wrapping, What We Do in the Shadows already closed up, and Only Murders and The Afterparty are fast on their way to concluding. Oh, if only I'd saved Succession! Heh, maybe I'll rewatch The Bear from the beginning. Or... uh, rewatch OFMD from the beginning.

1) I started reading a book! Can you believe it? I'm 30 pages in, though, so... let's see how this goes.

Here are things I have been watching, and now that I have a new job, I have no one* to talk to about my stories:
1) This Fool (Hulu): I feel like I'm carrying around a curse for all the comedies I really love. America Auto: cancelled. Mr. Mayor: cancelled. The Other Two: I mean, they SAID it was ending where they meant it to end, but... come on. Anyway, this is all to say: I really hope there's a S3 of This Fool. It is funny and sometimes strange and it's about working class people, which you don't see much. I love that it's specific, and I love that there's always at least 3 very LOL moments in any given episode.

2) The Afterparty (Apple+): it's been fun... I was expecting the runaway performance to be from Zach Woods, but Paul Walter Hauser is taking this by a mile.

3) Reservation Dogs (Hulu/FX): One of the best shows ever; maaaaaybe in my Top 10.

4) What We Do in the Shadows (Hulu/FX): Nandor de Laurentis

5) Good Omens 2 (Prime): I watched it all in one weekend. It's fun enough, didn't quite reach the cohesive storytelling heights of S1, and thoughts and prayers to the folks who celebrate this as their fandom.

6) Jury Duty (uh, Freevee? Is a thing I guess?): it's making me laugh so so so hard, and I'm trying to slow down and savor it, and not blow through it like I did the new I Think You Should Leave. Comedies that are wild shit that makes me feel all spun around are rare.

7) Corporate (The 'Mount): I started watching this because a friend recommended it, and then I realized it was the exec producers of This Fool. I'm having a good time. RIP Lance Reddick.

8) Doctor Who (Prime): I've watched a few of the Tennant season eps; you know... it's fine. I think Doctor Who is another thing that I watch and enjoy, but it doesn't really trip my trigger.

9) The OFMD trailer still hasn't dropped because Max is run by literal sewer monsters. The other day they promoted the MOVIE CATS on their Instagram. Fucking bridge trolls.

*That's not true; Mel and I are watching Reservation Dogs and What We Do in the Shadows and discussing them in person and via text on the regular. 

...hey, in case the 15 of you remaining on her that I remember from 2013 didn't get the memo: Twitter is in the terlet. So I fka LiteFMGangsta fka jesshelga on LJ am coming back to my migrated old repository for my fanfic (hey, fun fact, I wrote some more when I had a combo pandemic-nostalgia meltdown over It 2 in 2019-20) to have a place where I can talk about TV. Maybe more people will engage here than on Twitter with my important thoughts about This Fool and The Righteous Gemstones.*

*These shows will rapidly be replaced as soon as I finish watching them/as soon as the trailer for Our Flag Means Death S2 drops.

Oh, and I moved from Chicago to Minneapolis. And have a whole new slate of cats. Follow me, won't you?