May I recommend
… the TV show, Lupin
As I mentioned in this post vis a vis horror movies, I am a hardcore wimp when it comes to anything scary.
I am also not interested in watching upsetting things. My tolerance for horrible, shitty things happening to children or helpless people is very very low. I was out on episode 3 or 4 of Breaking Bad when Walt and his buddy go to a meth head’s house for some reason or other (meth) and there are 2-3 neglected children sitting on a couch, crying and going hungry. NOPE. Don’t want to watch that for entertainment, thank you!
Coupled with my fear of scary things, this means that what I will watch has become quite limited.
That being said, one show I have recently enjoyed on Netflix was Lupin. This is a French series set in Paris (which is of course wonderful in and of itself - the boulevards! The fancy museums! The strong cheekboned 50 year old women absolutely killing it with their well-moisturized skin and perfectly knotted scarves!). The French factor is also highly enjoyable because you get to feel smart watching it, even with the English subtitles.
The story is about this guy, Assane Diop, who is obsessed with a real-life series of books about Arsène Lupin “Le gentleman cambrioleur.” From what I gather (having never even heard of these books, let alone read one) Arsène Lupin goes around pulling off highly intricate and twisty thefts from wealthy Parisians and while he may engage in some fisticuffs, never actually kills anyone.
The TV show follows the same premise. Assane Diop for various complicated backstory reasons, wants vengeance on a wealthy Parisian family and sets about taking them down through a series of complicated and surprising heists and shenanigans. Diop is played by the very handsome, very tall and very charismatic Omar Sy.
Now, the series has the potential to turn into something fraught and heavy. It deals with some terrible things including prison, kidnapping murder and betrayal. These are all things that in my old age ping my “unpleasant” meter. What saves it however, and allowed me to watch both seasons with an unworried and open heart is that in the very first episode, one of the police who is chasing the thief, realises that Diop is emulating the famous(?) French character of Arsène Lupin and the cop basically says “That’s the thing about Lupin, he is always one step ahead of everyone.” Immediately all of my tension dissipated. Even when things looked very grim for my buddy, Assane Diop, I would remind myself that he is always one step ahead of everyone and most of the time, he was. Such a relief.
(Oh yes, and because people contain multitudes, I was into Game of Thrones, which is chockablock with rapings and dead babies and Aliens continues to be one of my all time favourite movies. It’s fine, complexity and contradiction are what make us beautiful and interesting as humans).
What shows are you enjoying these days? Tell me in the comments below!
Josephine Baker is amazing
Josephine Baker will be the first black woman to be buried at Paris’ Pantheon.
I am a big Josephine B fan. She features pretty prominently in my forthcoming novel, THE HONEYBEE EMERALDS, and I did a lot of research about her… Did you know she was a major resistance figure in the Second World War? That she adopted 12 children? That Princess Grace paid for her funeral and she was (until this story came out) buried in Monaco?
Her trailblazing career as a Black woman in entertainment could alone have earned her a Panthéon plot, but Baker didn’t stop at singing, dancing, and acting. She leveraged her celebrity to become one of France’s most intrepid spies during World War II, smuggling messages written in invisible ink on her sheet music and concealing other intel in her luggage or even pinned to her undergarments. She was awarded the Croix de Guerre, the Medal of the Resistance, and a military rank: lieutenant of the Free French Air Force.
A gentle and well-reasoned request
Oh My Fucking God, Get the Fucking Vaccine Already, You Fucking Fucks
Thanks to good friend, Christa, for alerting me to this one.
Oh, you’re afraid of fucking side effects? Fuck you. You know what has fucking side effects? Fucking aspirin, fucking Tylenol. You could be fucking allergic to pineapple, you fucking fuckwit. Everything has side effects. You’re being a big fucking baby with a huge diaper full of fucking diarrhea, complaining about maybe feeling slightly tired for a day or two while your asymptomatic COVID case you get and pass to some innocent fucking kid could wind up killing them or someone else. Fuck you, you fucking selfish fucking shit-banana, you unredeemable ass-caterpillar, you fucking fuck-knob with two fucks for eyes and a literal poop where your heart should be.
Rethinking work
What if people don’t want a “career”
As someone who has suddenly hit the twenty year mark on her career (What the ever loving hell?) I do wonder more and more what it is exactly I am doing. Glad I’m not alone.
The modern understanding of a career in most knowledge work fields involves a non-trivial amount of sacrifice. You are expected to pay your dues, work your way up, and ride out the rough patches. Endurance is key. If you stick it out long enough, there’s something great on the other side — primarily security. Even in jobs where management is less cynical and exploitative, the focus is always on the long term: It might suck now, but you’re building toward something. And that something — the resume at the end of your life — is a genuine measure of a person’s worth
Emma Mitchell 💙 @silverpebble
Feeling slightly better today, due in part to the wonder I felt at seeing a hundred foot c**k and b**ls made of starlings flying over Brighton Pier. The Wild Remedy 🐦 https://t.co/GuGqtD2U6i
The New York Times @nytimes
When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, it may not be amore at all, but a ghostly white barn owl about to kill and eat you. If you’re a vole, that is. https://t.co/dYj51KI8Ga
TikTok
Move along, you buttered noodle
Lost wallets
Good morning
Can’t blame him, really
Family dinner
Mount Everest
Explaining the pandemic
I shouldn’t laugh
When your cool niece and nephew dog sit. Daffodil is a Tik Tok star!
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Amy Tector, The Honeybee Emeralds (March 2022)
That dog flying off down stairs! Haha! Honored I made the blog. Current favorite TV show is Ted Lasso. I just discovered CBC gem Drake Mysteries as well.