Friday Faves 3/27: Road Trips, Germaphobes in movies, Roy Keane, Music Festivals, and Almond Cake
Best Activity
This quarantine experience has felt a bit like a road trip. At the start, there’s that moment in the car when everyone is feeling positive and upbeat. Someone created a playlist on Spotify, someone else scouted out a great lunch spot, and someone else organized snacks. The music is blaring, folks are singing along, and the landscape is zooming by. There’s no traffic on the highway. Smoooooooth sailing. The anticipation is high and it’s bursting with positivity. This is how the beginning of last week felt. People were energized to fight this virus and win. We’re all in this together. We’ll stay inside for as long as we need to. Heck, our forefathers stormed beaches for our sake, the least I can do is binge “Tiger King” and “Love is Blind.”
Like any road trip, that initial burst of energy wanes. The snacks come out, some folks drift off to sleep, others chit-chat and try to maintain the excitement around the destination. Making plans and such.
Currently it feels like we’re in the third phase of this road trip analogy, the “Are we there yet?” phase. We all know how this phase goes. No matter the age of the traveller, there’s the itchy feeling of being in the car for a little bit too long. A quick gas stop and large coffee doesn’t quite feed the soul, and as you pile back in the car, maybe changing the seating arraignment, you dread the thought of more hours on the highway. The end almost feels further away than it did at the start of the ride.
It seems as if this week people were starting to feel like they just wanted to get out of the car, road trip be damned. Unfortunately, the loudest person asking “Are we there yet"?” is our driver, the President, who seems interested in picking a different destination, one much closer than the original choice (think “World’s Largest Watermelon” instead of Disney World…), because one or two folks in the back are yelling loudly enough “ARE WE THERE YET!!!??” (these are the types that would fart with the windows up and punch fellow riders in the arm…).
The difference between this pandemic and a road trip is two-fold. First, this pandemic is scary as hell, especially for those on the frontlines in hospitals. Second, we don’t really know where this road trip is going to end. We don’t know the destination and we don’t know when we’ll arrive.
Think about all the times you have preached patience and perseverance to a child or a co-worker or spouse. Consider the “self-improvement” work you’ve done and the books you’ve read over the years. We’ve done the prep for this, and we have to remember that, yes, this is the worst road trip ever, but we’re not there yet, and it might be a bit longer. So stop farting and punching your brother in the arm!
I just hope the driver doesn’t threaten to turn the car around. That would be bad.
Best Watch
Ford v Ferrari - It was great watching Batman and Jason Bourne work together to build Ford race cars! This is a really great movie if you love cars and competition and good old America! I know nothing about cars, but the story is incredibly interesting and Christian Bale and Matt Damon are superb. The racing scenes are great, and I found myself moved by the scenes between Christian Bale’s character, Ken Miles, and Miles’ son Peter. Really touching stuff.
Little Fires Everywhere - This show is based on the novel of the same name by Celeste Ng. It stars Reese Whiterspoon and Kerry Washington as two moms raising their kids in Shaker Heights, Ohio. The show focuses heavily on the high school experience of four kids, and given the show is set in the late 1990s, there’s some great nostalgia baked in.
There are currently four episodes available on Hulu.
What About Bob: It has been along time since I had seen this movie, but it might be my favorite Bill Murray performance (yes, even better than Carl Spackler in "Caddyshack and his role in “The Man Who Knew Too Little”). The opening ten minutes are incredibly timely given his debilitating germaphobic and agoraphobic behaviors.
It’s free on HBO right now…
Best Listen
Roy Keane interview- I stumbled upon this 2 hour interview (filmed in front of a live audience) on Youtube. It’s from last September, and it offers fabulous insight about English soccer. Roy Keane is brutally honest and sometimes delusional, but he’s a riveting character. I had this on in the background as I worked, and found myself laughing out loud enough times that Tiff asked me what I was listening to. Here’s the full interview.
Here’s one section where Keane is speaking about being suspended for the Champions League Final in 1999 and how much he enjoyed the free time in Barcelona with fellow suspended teammate Paul Scholes.
Music Festival Fantasy Draft: Who knows if we’ll ever have music festivals again… this podcast is three guys building their own individual music festivals in the form of a draft. Once a band is picked, they can’t be picked again. I listened to this on Sunday during my run when I was in a real grumpy mood with all this coronavirus stuff. It turned me around.
Best Read
Iconic Shirt Numbers: Michael Cox of The Athletic is a must read if you love soccer. He started a series about two months ago where he writes about jersey numbers, which are traditionally connected to a position on the field. I was learning about a famous #6, Bobby Moore of England and enjoyed reading the history about the #6 shirt. Here’s his article about #6.
That Discomfort You’re Feeling is Grief: Thanks to my friend Tung for sharing this article with me. It’s a really helpful way to think about what’s going on right now and how to think about our anxiety and grief during this pandemic. Harvard Business Review.
Best Eat
Tiff’s Almond Cake: Good golly, this was downright delicious. I’m not a big almond flavoring person, but this might have changed my mind. It had the consistency of a pound cake and it joined me a few times for my afternoon coffee. It’s a good thing that she was kind enough to deliver a chunk to our neighbors.
Best Drink
Notch Left of the Dial: I was really feeling good about my alcohol distancing over the months of January and February. Now, though, a beer or two in the evening helps me wind down a bit. I don’t think I’m the only one that’s self medicating with some drinks. Left of the Dial is a great one because it’s very low alcohol, so it doesn’t leave you feeling crappy in the morning (the whiskey does that…). It’s a local brewery up in Salem, so I like to tell myself I’m helping out!
Best Plugs
The Imperfect Game - Last Friday, I spoke with my cousin, Jerome, who lives in China. We talked about his experience in quarantine for the last two months and the potential reboot that he was starting to see.
Both and I also recorded a podcast this week. We decided it would be fun to research a hero and villain in various English clubs.