“TV” still bringing it

I’m in the middle of two new documentaries airing on “TV” right now. Tiger, of course, from HBO, the two-part story of Eldrick Tont “Tiger” Woods, as though no one has heard anything about the man who’s been world famous since he was two years old and has been one of the most well-known people on the planet for the past quarter century. Yeah, it’s more Dateline NBC than golf tournament but hey, what was I expecting? There’s enough golf to keep the purists entertained. So far.

I’m also halfway through a seven-part series on Netflix called Pretend It’s a City. Two of my favorite people collaborate on that one: Martin Scorsese and the incomparable Fran Lebowitz. If I could trade lives with anyone in the world, Fran Lebowitz is definitely in the top five.

But for a few years in the middle there I probably would have traded places with Tiger Woods too. Just not, you know, for a few things. If you’re not sure why just watch the documentary. It’ll probably come up.

Sports! I thought we were friends!

Sports are supposed to be a pleasant diversion from the calamities of real life, no?

Notre Dame out, Washington Football Team out. Wizards dead last in the NBA.

And tonight I’ve got the most uninteresting championship game I’ll have seen in quite some time.

Still beats news and politics.

We could all use a little college basketball

Wednesday evening was the first time this season I’d seen my local college basketball team, the Patriots of George Mason, play a home game on TV. Playing down the road from me in Fairfax, Virginia, the Patriots dropped their in-state battle with VCU, but I delighted in seeing the game on the small screen with my boy. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to color commentary from my favorite living author, John Feinstein, though the highlight for my son and me was examining the crowd shots for our cardboard selves at EagleBank Arena (nee Patriot Center).

Some day we take the cutouts home.

And sit there ourselves!

Just 21

Remember the beginning of 2020?

When we found out we now had to put the entire 2-0-2-0 when writing the date so that someone couldn’t go and add numbers to our 20?

Yeah, I’ve been upset about that all year too.

But not in 21!

That crisis is over!

Loved this one

I was nervous about watching Amazon’s heavily-touted new film, Sylvie’s Love. Looked kinda like people trying to win Oscars and a musical version of The Help. I figured it would be patronizing and shallow and full of cliches.

Yup, it is. And somehow it’s still fantastic.

Forget Soul, forget Wonder Woman 1984, Sylvie’s Love is the movie you want to watch this holiday season.

Usually billed as a Black Mad Men, it’s actually more of a Black Diner, a subject that’s about 40 years overdue. Add to this premise an awesome soundtrack of jazz and “good” R&B, like if you shifted the songs from American Graffiti back 5-10 years but kept the quality constant.

There really are only three aspects to any movie: the picture, the sound, and the story. Sylvie’s Love, like Mad Men I suppose, is just visually appealing, there’s no other way to say it, and the sound is pure artistry, whether taken from old 45s or music composed new for the film. The story is a bit cliched, yes, but not, as I’d feared, in a patronizing Black way. That the main characters are Black actually has little to do with with the plot, and damn that’s refreshing. The story is boy-meets-girl. So are 99% of all movies.

Do yourself a favor and watch Sylvie’s Love. I probably will again before Winter Break is out. In the mean time I’ll be dusting off some old LPs and suiting up for old times’ sake.

Heresy

I’m on vacation.

So permit me three bits of heresy.

  1. I watched the two movies “out” this weekend: Wonder Woman 1984 and Soul. According to the Internet Soul is the greatest movie ever made and WW84 is the worst. I disagree. After the first 10 minutes of Soul (which was appealing) I lost interest, and it just got weirder after that. Wonder Woman? Solid Christmas Day fare.
  2. I watched It’s a Wonderful Life… in color! Yeah, first time. And it was… fine. Heresy, I know.
  3. I still the Washington Football Team is going to make the playoffs.

Made a list, checked it twice

A little over a year ago I published my “Christmas List,” a list of things one must see and do between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Or else let’s face it, Christmas isn’t really here.

There are TV specials and movies to watch, songs to hear, food and beverage to consume, and various other things to witness. Literally “observing” the holiday, as I often express it.

There were 50 things on the list.

In this unusual and challenging year I’m happy to say I missed only four of them. As of tomorrow it should be only three, as I do plan to attend a small, socially-distant “Christmas party” at (as reads list item #39) someone else’s house (preferably way nicer than your own). Unfortunately I will have to leave three items off this year’s list: #32 [travel down Broad Street (Virginia Route 7) in Falls Church]; #34 [walk through the “Winter Walk of Lights” at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens]; and #44 [the mall]. Whether for crowds or an unwillingness to travel, these things were just not happening.

But 47 accomplished? That’s something to be celebrated.

I’ll admit that some things this year were completed in modified form. For example, donating toys to charity this year happened virtually, and for “putting money in one of those red kettles,” well, luckily the Salvation Army now has its kettles online. What was once a Rite Aid in Sterling is now a Walgreens, and though I did complete the task with a trip to said Walgreens the show just wasn’t the same. So that one’s off the list now.

Which got me to thinking…

are there others I should add?

Eighteen as a matter of fact.

In no particular order…

Listen to Tony Bennett’s A Swingin’ Christmas in its entirety. Recorded with the Count Basie Big Band in 2008, proof that at 82, the man could still swing.

Listen to Ella Fitzgerald’s Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas. Recorded in 1960, it took nearly a half century for another Christmas album to swing as hard.

Make s’mores. Preferably outside, but inside if you must.

Have one of those Reese’s peanut butter “trees.”

Watch 1942’s Holiday Inn, the movie which originally introduced the song “White Christmas.”

Watch 1954’s White Christmas, the movie most people assume introduced that song.

Listen to Les Brown’s recording of “I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm.” The lyrics don’t even mention Christmas but it’s probably my favorite Christmas song.

Watch the Season 9 Christmas episode of Family Guy, “Road to the North Pole.” Family Guy actually has a bunch of Christmas episodes; this one’s the only one that’s an hour long. And it’s the best.

Treat yourself to a “grownup” egg nog.

Visit two adjacent shopping centers in Great Falls, Virginia. Counts as one item because they’re across the street from other. At the intersection of Georgetown Parkway and Walker Road you will find the world’s classiest Safeway (I know, it sounds like an oxy moron, just trust me), and then across Walker Road you have the Village Centre shopping mall. (Classy enough to warrant the British spelling of centre.) Drink in the holiday awesomeness of both shopping plazas.

South Park. “Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo.” Still hilarious 23 years later.

Stovetop popcorn. Whether you string it up or just eat it, this is a holiday must.

Hot chocolate. Duh.

Chips and dip. My only childhood memory of my father’s parents house is eating potato chips and sour cream and onion dip on Christmas Eve from a garish ’70s-era green chip-and-dip bowl set. In your recreation any bowl will do.

Read Mercer Mayer’s Merry Christmas Mom and Dad.

Watch the BBC broadcast of Raymond Briggs’ The Snowman. (One of those rare circumstances in which the movie is better than the book.) Double bonus if you watch the American version with an intro from that famous American, David Bowie!

Watch one of your old home movies filmed at Christmastime. Double bonus points if it’s on VHS.

Make a new home movie. Triple a million bonus points if you’re recording it on VHS. Minus a million points if you’re recording on your phone.