{"id":921,"date":"2020-07-25T15:51:30","date_gmt":"2020-07-25T20:51:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ldinmanbooks.com\/?p=921"},"modified":"2020-07-25T15:56:01","modified_gmt":"2020-07-25T20:56:01","slug":"and-the-living-is-easy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ldinmanbooks.com\/index.php\/2020\/07\/25\/and-the-living-is-easy\/","title":{"rendered":"…And the living is easy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Not much has been going on here at Maelstrom Manor in the last week or so. I have consumed an appreciable amount of media and an equally appreciable number of very good grilled cheese sandwiches. I cut my own hair for the second time this epoch<\/s> in my life<\/s> this epoch which feels like the equivalent to my entire life so far. My main objective was to lighten the load on my head for the summer months, but I did not meddle too much with the delicate bang-swoop my stylist had created in the Before Times, and so the result is coincidentally a bit like that of Charlize Theron in The Old Guard<\/em>. Nominally; Theron is about my age, isn’t she? So why does she have such a smooth un-crepey underchin? Mysteries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, speaking of The Old Guard<\/em>, I heartily enjoyed it and feel more fannish about it than I have about anything in a long while. It was exactly the shoot-’em-up hero-team movie I was looking for when I rented Birds of Prey<\/em> some days ago. (Capsule review: yes, the cinematography is good; yes, the wisecracking peripatetic narration a la Kiss Kiss Bang Bang<\/em> gets my affection; yes, some interesting characters — and Ewan McGregor is astonishingly creepy. The sum of the parts, though, I found a bit oppressive, and I can’t say I’m entirely glad I watched it.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Old Guard<\/em>, though — it has all the things I like to see in a hero action flick. Charlize Theron kicking ass: check. (Bonus: she grins at Nile when fighting her like come on kid, hit me harder than that!<\/em>) Team strength based on friendships (actual friendships, not snarkfests): check. The Operative<\/s> Chiwetel Ejiofor as a morally-troubled chorus base note: I won’t say no! A coherent narrative structure with an equally-coherent moral imperative as a throughline: far too rare in these things. Opportunities for days for meta speculation: more fun even than the fanfiction, I have to admit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For bedtime viewing I’ve been mining Youtube for all the seasons of Time Team<\/em> that aren’t on Prime. Last night’s viewing was an episode set in coastal Scotland, and the local guest archaeologist’s name was Douglas Speirs; I snorted. A thing I very much enjoy about later seasons of Time Team<\/em> is that all the regulars have this contentiously affectionate relationship with each other. You can count on Phil Harding getting into it with John Gater the geophysicist; John Gater getting into it with Stuart Ainsworth, the landscape archeologist (“Where’s Stuart?” someone inevitably asks; the answer is usually following a tangent in the undergrowth somewhere); and Tony Robinson starting a scene by waving his arms and crying, “It’s Day Three and we haven’t found a single thing<\/em>!!” and all the archaeologists unite to retort, “Yes we have!” with varying degrees of injury. Then they all go down the pub.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Talk about vicarious enjoyment. I can’t go down to my local and watch the Royals game on the big TV with a frosty pint in hand, rubbing elbows with the other regulars. And I really miss that. But I can go to sleep in the comforting knowledge that somewhere, Professor Mick Aston is still wearing a hand-knitted jumper striped in many wild colors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s the kind of world I want to get back to.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Not much has been going on here at Maelstrom Manor in the last week or so. I have consumed an appreciable amount of media and an equally appreciable number of very good grilled cheese sandwiches. I cut my own hair for the second time this epoch in my life this epoch which feels like the<\/p>\n

Read More <\/i><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"...And the living is easy\nIn which I muse over movies and videos, with a grilled cheese sandwich. #authorblogging","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13],"tags":[181,165,20,182,183,27],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/payFy4-eR","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ldinmanbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/921"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ldinmanbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ldinmanbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ldinmanbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ldinmanbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=921"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/ldinmanbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/921\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":922,"href":"http:\/\/ldinmanbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/921\/revisions\/922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ldinmanbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ldinmanbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ldinmanbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}