Tonight on Insurgence #819, show #37 of year #16 of Insurgence I will be playing music from 47SOUL and from Consolidated. 10 pm to midnight US Central Time on WHYS Community Radio, 96.3 FM Eau Claire, and also, streaming, via the web, at: www.whysradio.org
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Since last week I have been working on writing about Code of a Killer for 21st Century British TV Crime Drama: a Critical Guide, and after somewhat of a slow start I am doing well on this entry essay and expect to have it completely done by the end of the day this Sunday the 28th so I can start work on Chasing Shadows beginning Monday the 29th.
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I am sensitive to how social media (and personal blogs too) can often appear to represent most people always doing well, always living their best possible lives, always experiencing and accomplishing positively and productively, and this can, however unintentionally, make many people attending to social media (and personal blogs) feel at least somewhat down, now and then, by at least unconsciously comparing and contrasting their experiences of their own lives with the representations social media offers of other people’s lives.
So I will just share that, yes, even as I continue focused and productive, I do feel the constraints of living a life largely confined to my house and having only traveled a relatively quite short distance and infrequently at that in well over a year now.
Also, yes, I do routinely need to fight all of the following tendencies: 1. to feel tired of my own writing, of my own words and of my own characteristic tendencies in wording; 2. to feel frustrated by not being able to remember what I want when I want it, such as precise details from a book I have read not even that long ago, or with how messy my initial rough drafts feel to me as I am writing them as well as how uncertain I also feel in writing these drafts that I am expressing anything all that clearly or usefully; and 3. to worry whether I am doing enough of what is genuinely worthwhile as well as feeling frustrated by contending with chronic illness and the impact of aging.
I just keep at it, and fight past those tendencies, doing the most and the best I can.
These past nearly eight months concentrating on doing vast amounts of writing virtually every day verify for me the best response to anxiousness about a writing project is to just write, and keep writing, until I find my way and come up with something with which I am satisfied. It simply requires persistent commitment and dogged effort to _try_, as well as a readiness to keep breaking down writing tasks into successively smaller steps and stages, as well as to strive as hard as I can not to get too caught up in worries about what I did or did not do in the past or what I will or will not do in the future but rather to zero in on what I am doing right now, in the immediate present.
In fact, as much as I do respect the value of planning, I often wonder why professions like the one I have been a part of for over 36 years now, like so many others, stress–and demand–so much planning, because in my experience some of my most remarkable achievements have come when I did not plan for these, did not anticipate them, as they emerged in the process of immersion in the moment, and this has come with teaching, scholarship, and service.
I generally do like to plan sufficiently to create structures in place that in turn maximize opportunities for spontaneity, for immediacy, for the unexpected, for give and take, for leaps and bounds, for epiphanies, for creative tangents and open explorations.
In writing it is much like that too. I start drafting with broad ideas of what I might do and then I sit down and set to it, to see what actually happens as I put ideas into words, and as I find ideas within and through words.
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Tuesday was our dog Casey’s 10th birthday. He’s been a wonderful dog for us, we love him dearly, and I hope he will continue to be part of our family for a good number of years to come. Casey is fussier than when younger, but Andy and I agree getting older is not easy, for dogs or for people, so this increased fussiness is understandable and we will always strive to be as patient, accommodating, reassuring, and supportive of Casey as we possibly can. Nevertheless, even so, Casey continues to be an exceedingly people-friendly and frequently most lively and happy dog. We are grateful for the time we have had together and we are as well for what is yet to come.
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Last Saturday I shared Andy’s and my response to the feature-length documentary film _White Riot_.
We currently, and recently, have been watching many different shows. We recently finished the Irish-language political drama, _The Running Mate_, which was a lot of fun: https://watch.mhzchoice.com/the-running-mate
As what likely counts as a ‘guilty pleasure’, we watched the TV reality show _Marriage or Mortgage_ all the way through, which I appreciated because it included ample representation of people of color as well as lesbian couples, couples of different races, elderly as well as young couples, and couples including people with disabilities:
https://www.womenshealthmag.com/life/a35866190/marriage-or-mortgage-couples-now/
We have been watching the Scottish Gaelic-language family drama _Bannan_, which is interesting mostly so far because of its Isle of Skye setting and the use of Scottish Gaelic: https://watch.mhzchoice.com/bannan
And we have been watching the Flemish legal/courtroom crime drama _The Twelve_ which is perhaps somewhat overly soap-operatic, but reasonably engaging, I can’t yet tell whether I believe the woman on trial for double murder is guilty or not, and I appreciate this is one of the few Flemish language shows I can ever recall watching.
Also we have been continuing with the Danish family drama _The Legacy_ I have written about here previously: https://theeurotvplace.com/2015/05/the-legacy-megahit-danish-drama-premiering-in-the-us/
And we have been started watching the German crime drama _The Nordic Murders_: https://crimefictionlover.com/2020/11/the-nordic-murders-the-latest-german-crime-drama-on-walter-presents/ and the German-Austrian crime drama _Murder by the Lake_: https://watch.mhzchoice.com/murder-by-the-lake The latter maintains a fascinating setting: Lake Constance, which overlaps with Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
As we have been continuing as well with _Comedians of the World_, which we have enjoyed performances so far by comedians from The Netherlands, Quebec, and the Middle East: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAJGOIs9pak
Finally, another what likely counts as a ‘guilty pleasure’ is _The Flash_, now in season seven. Andy has long been more of a superhero fan than me, but I agreed at the start of season two to share the experience of at least one such TV series with him, and that turned out to be _The Flash_, which can often be frustrating and silly, but I do at least appreciate the effort, even if somewhat overly simplistic, that the series invests in emphasizing friendship, family, love, caring, emotional vulnerability, multicultural diversity and representational inclusion, and a clear counter to at least traditional forms of hegemonic ruggedly taciturn masculinity: https://www.cwtv.com/shows/the-flash/central-city-strong/?play=821e545a-f7aa-4c6d-a45e-2ee5127be492
Again, as in previous weeks, I expect I am missing some shows we have been watching, and even some movies as well, because as pandemic conditions continue, despite gradual improvements, we still spend a lot of time indoors, and that gives us incentive to screen quite a lot, at least late at night.
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I did enjoy the opportunity to take a long walk again last Saturday and I have been keeping up with running regularly, inside on the treadmill and outside when warmer and sunnier. I am happy with how much progress I have made since resuming running after a long break from doing so, and continuing to enjoy adding this practice into my routine. I like the fact that it is now quite easy to run three to four miles at a time. Eventually, and I hope soon, Andy and I may go out and do a few more things, now that it has been just about two weeks since we received our 2nd COVID-19 vaccine shot, and I seem to be well past any lingering side effects from that 2nd shot. Perhaps we might even take a trip somewhere this summer, although where to we have no idea, since we usually travel to the British Isles, and that’s still out of the question for at least this summer.
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I am continuing to do a whole lot of reading of various kinds. This is so much that I’ll just highlight one book among many here and now, one book I read from start to finish since last week: _Guilty Until Proven Innocent_ by Jon Robins:
https://www.bitebackpublishing.com/books/guilty-until-proven-innocent
As indicated by the publisher, “Whenever a miscarriage of justice hits the headlines, it is tempting to dismiss it as an anomaly – a minor hiccup in an otherwise healthy judicial system. Yet the cases of injustice that feature in this book reveal that they are not just minor hiccups, but symptoms of a chronic illness plaguing the British legal system. Massive underfunding, catastrophic failures in policing and shoddy legal representation have all contributed to a deepening crisis – one that the watchdog set up for the very purpose of investigating miscarriages of justice has done precious little to remedy. Indeed, little has changed since the ‘bad old days’ of the Guildford Four and Birmingham Six. Award winning journalist Jon Robins lifts the lid on Britain’s legal scandals and exposes the disturbing complacency that has led to many innocent people being deemed guilty, either in the eyes of the law or in the court of public opinion.” It’s a compelling and important book–captivating and disturbing.
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I can’t think of much else of interest I’ve been doing since last week. I’ve been largely completely preoccupied with my current and ongoing work, so much so I’ve fallen way behind in keeping up with email. For some strange reason I suddenly have started to receive all kinds of traditional mail from innumerable causes seeking money, most of which I simply need to turn down and immediately recycle this mail, because I already give a lot. I don’t know quite how or why that has happened. All in all, I’m making it through well enough, and I wish the same, and better, to everyone out there. It’s a bit lonely now and then, the life I’m currently leading, but I’m in much better shape than a great many, and I’m doing meaningful and satisfying work, and otherwise enjoying the activities and pursuits that my life involves so that is good.
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I just remembered one other thing to mention. I watched the Syracuse men's basketball team make it into the sweet sixteen once again, last Sunday, and I enjoyed doing so even if it was somewhat harrowing, down to the wire at the end. I was a big fan of the team back when I was at SU as a PhD student, and have continued to follow them ever since, but it's incredible that it has been over 27 years since I graduated, and I've been over 3 times as longer living and working in Eau Claire than I did in Syracuse–and that Jim Boeheim is still the head coach and now is son is one of their star players.
The Son Shoots, the Father Shouts, and Syracuse Keeps Winning