black mirror
I had half-hoped to hang out with Gabriel last night, as I haven't seen him since New Year's and Shobhit was at work all evening, but, it was not meant to be. He called me while I was walking home from work, and said under normal circumstances he'd be at Mandy's along with his mom, all of them watching The Bachelor, but apparently Mandy is sick. He still decline the visit, later texting me that he was going to spend some much-needed time with Lea.
So, I just spent the majority of the evening finally finishing up the last of the three episodes in the latest, fifth season of Black Mirror, which have been out since June apparently. It's taken me months to get to it; I didn't even watch the first episode, "Striking Vipers," until January 5, about three weeks ago.
And I have to say, having seen all three of the season 5 episodes, I was rather relieved. Seasons in the pasts had successions of episodes that were each so much bleaker than the last that I could hardly take it, and I considered giving up on the show completely. I always liked it and found it thought-provoking, although to this day that very first episode of the first season, in which the British Prime Minister is forced to fuck a live pig on national television, is the most grotesque and difficult to take of them all. Later episodes have actually been far more unsettling, even while being less sensationalistic and outright gross.
I was looking at the list of episodes for all seasons on IMDb last night, and was rather surprised to be reminded that original season, which itself also consisted of only three episodes, originally aired in December 2011. I was like—holy shit. That's nearly a decade ago! Okay, barely more than eight years, but still. A lot of time has passed. And, to be fair, those episodes aired first in the UK, as did the three episodes from the second season in 2013. So far as I can tell, none of those first six episodes were available to American audiences until late 2014, when Netflix purchased the show, later releasing two new seasons as "Netflix Originals" in fall 2016 (season 3) and late December 2017 (season 4), with six episodes each.
Looking at my total streaming viewing history on Netflix, it appears I did not start watching until fall 2016, which explains why it feels so much more recent to me than 2011. It appears I must have watched the first couple episodes on DVD, as the streaming history only starts with the last episode of season one, then all of season 2, and then season 1 again, a few of those being during the Halloween weekend I visited Shobhit in West Hollywood.
Incidentally, I still remember what introduced me to Black Mirror and ultimately got me to watch the show a while after I read it: an online commentary, from a mainstream publication if I remember right nut I can't find it now, using the public's reaction to the idea of forcing their Prime Minister to fuck a pig, as depicted in Black Mirror, as an analogy for the 2016 election in America. The basic idea was, in the episode, everyone thinks it's a hilarious joke, until the nation is forced to actually watch their leader fuck a pig on TV (by someone holding a kidnapped princess as ransom), and their smiles slowly fade into horrified disgust. This, the commentator said, was the basic process of the American public watching President Fuckwit get sworn into office.
I realize now, however, that my memory must be playing tricks on me. This way of remembering it would only make sense if I had watched the episode "The National Anthem" after Election Day in 2016, except Netflix's viewing history page for my account proves I saw that episode on October 29. That was before the election. So, never mind on that point, I guess!
It was still a deeply disturbing thing to watch. As was the inauguration of President Fuckwit. Those two visuals, this president getting sworn in and another national leader fucking a pig on live television, will be forever entwined in my mind. Which still strikes mas a apropos. This president could literally do precisely that—fuck a pig on TV—and our Republican-controlled Senate would still declare him perfectly fit for office. I honestly don't even think that is even real hyperbole, considering everything our craven Congress has already turned a blind eye to.
Anyway! Getting back to the current, three-episode season. I enjoyed them all, though I found the first episode, "Striking Vipers," to be the most provocative, the idea of two straight men falling for each other but only as opposite-sex avatars inside a VR game. None of these three episodes are at all pointed in giving the viewer the creeps in a uniquely modern way, the way whole seasons have been in the past. I can tell from comments online that the average fan of the show was not as into it as a result, but I liked it. I do think previous seasons were better, but these were still worth watching, still provocative, and it was certainly interesting to see Miley Cyrus as a main character in the final episode. A lot of that one was actually pretty funny, if among the least plausible of any Black Mirror episodes (the idea that a pop idol's crowds would be just as eager to see "live performances" of her hologram as they would experiencing her legitimate talents in the flesh is, obviously, kind of idiotic).
In any case, both episodes were around 70 minutes long, and now I can check them off my list.
I killed around two and a half hours watching them, with frequent pauses to pee because I drank two cocktails, mostly just to use up the last of the blended fresh pineapple before it would otherwise go bad. That said, a total of three shots of tequila plus a bit too many bites of sample cheese at work clearly did me no favors; my weight is up slightly for the third day in a row, which is not good. On the other hand, I remain under 154.5 lbs and, having shed even five pounds of the weight I recently gained, it seems, makes an even bigger difference than I might have expected. My clothes feel less tight, and I don't even feel like I am practically bursting through my tighter shirts anymore. Imagine how much better it'll be once I get below 150 again!
Besides all that, I remain ridiculously obsessed with researching the most minute details of what to expect, what I might pay for, and things to do in Australia. Yesterday I was quite happy to find a surprisingly suitable alternative to paying $280 AUD (which is still $189 USD—too fucking much!) to do the Sydney Harbour BridgeClimb. Not only is it free simply to walk across the bridge and back (just as you can San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, which has a 4,200 ft main span as compared to Sydney Harbour Bridge's 1,650 ft arch span) and thus affords spectacular skyline views of its own, but there's also a "Pylon Lookout" you can do, climbing up stairs to the top of one of the bridge pylons, to 285 ft above sea level (or 124 ft above the bridge lanes, or nearly half the total height of the bridge from there) for all of $19 AUD ($12.84 USD). And given the choice, I am all about paying $19 to get a view from half the height rather than fucking $280 to get to the top (where they won't even let you take cameras)!
I also discovered Sydney's extensive ferry system—the world's fourth-largest, with 31 vessels, just above Washington State's at #5 with 28 vessels—includes a Parramatta River ferry that I think could be fun to take. It's just a regular ferry fare, and snakes a fair way up the Parramatta River from Sydney Harbour and would likely include a lot of scenery we would never see any other way. I'm not making this a mandatory "thing to do" on my list, but something I'd very much like to do if we have time and we feel like it at the time. Hell, for all I know we could discover all sorts of interesting stuff I never already learned about online once we get there.
I've done a huge amount of research on things to do in both Sydney and Adelaide; some research but much less on Melbourne, where we are only staying two nights, so there won't be near as much time for sightseeing. I still look forward to Melbourne, though, as it has Australia's biggest skyline—not quite as many skyscrapers as Sydney, but close, and a lot more that are much taller; its average height is the greatest in the nation. It's the one city with a skyscraper observatory that we'll be going to. I will also insist on visiting Sydney Tower, but that's technically an "observation tower" rather than a skyscraper.
[posted 12:30 pm]