trash memoranda
Mostly uneventful since yesterday's DLU . . . I walked home from work. I read my library book, which I'm already 60 pages into. I really wanted this to be what I had to read on my flights to and from Las Vegas, but to my amazement, at this rate I'll have it done by then! I think there are fewer words per page than the nonfiction book I just finished and took me like three months to finish. Also this is a YA novel so it's already a swift and easy read.
This does mean though that I really need to select another library book to have hopefully ready for pickup by Friday next week. Wait, I think I've found it! I really should read more novels, but I also want to read this 2013 book Song of Spider-Man: The Inside Story of the Most Controversial Musical in Broadway History, which I heard on a podcast months ago really pulls no punches with the famous people it discusses. Also, I feel like it's perfect for a trip to Las Vegas—Broadway is New York City, obviously, but Vegas is just as famous for its live shows, and we'll be seeing live shows, so it should make a great companion piece. All right then, that's taken care of!
I actually had that book checked out months ago and had to return it after it expired without ever getting to it. I think I should manage to get to it now though. No one else even has the library's one copy on hold right now, and it's checked in at the Central Library, which means it will be ready for pickup within a day or two. Nice.
Anyway, I thought Ivan had last night off of work, which would make it easier to get him to watch this week's episode of American Crime Story: Impeachment, but when I asked him to confirm, he told me he had picked up a shift. I was surprised, as he had called in sick last weekend one night, citing frustrations with people there. But whatever, I guess now he'll get an extra night's worth of wages.
He was up earlier than average and so he found time to watch it anyway—also, now that he takes Light Rail since it's been expanded to Northgate at the beginning of the month, he leaves a bit later for work than he used to need to. That reminds me, that expansion happened on October 2 and I still haven't gone out to check out the three new stations! Maybe Shobhit will go with me to do that this weekend. I want to take pictures at each new stop. I actually did that on the very day of the opening of the Capitol Hill and U District stations, with Laney, but I was out of town opening weekend this time and keep being either too busy (as I will be tonight and tomorrow night) or just keep forgetting about it. I'm going to put this on my calendar, that should help.
Tonight, Shobhit and Tracy and I are all going to see Dune. Tomorrow, I did manage to get a virtual pumpkin carving party with Gabriel, Lea and Many—and also Tess—scheduled. I still need to look up what movies might otherwise be available to see this weekend.
Oh that reminds me, I stopped by QFC on my walk home and bought a $5 pumpkin. I was too cheap to spend an additional 10 cents on paper sacks, which I realized after about two blocks of the half mile home from there, was a mistake. I still made it, but damn, having that pumpkin in a sack rather than lugging it all that way in my hands would have been a lot easier. Oh, I also need to fetch my pumpkin carving kit from the storage unit in our building's basement parking garage.
So, Ivan went for a walk and was back by around 7:30 with his takeout dinner. We watched this week's episode of Impeachment, which is the seventh episode of a 10-episode season and the first to give Edie Falco as Hillary Clinton any real lines. She's been glimpsed several times thus far, but only for a split second on a TV screen and such. The preview for next week made it clear Hillary will get some more focus; even this week she was in all of about two scenes. Still, it's interesting to see how the showrunners are handling it—Bill Clinton is clearly a villain (and I did not need this show to convince me of that), but, contrary to what far too many others did just because she is married to him, Hillary here is not at all being characterized in the same way. In fact, as of this week's episode, she seems to be still believing Bill's denials. Anyway, the presentation before the season premiered was that this was a telling of this story from the perspectives of the women involved, and the suggestion was always that it included Hillary Clinton. But before this week, the focus was by far the most on Monica Lewisnky and Linda Tripp, with a healthy serving of Paula Jones. Only now is Hillary starting to come into focus, and it's interesting to see how she's being handled. So far at least, she's being treated very fairly.
Shobhit remains convinced the entire season is absolute trash, but it's only his knee-jerk reaction to a completely unjustified expectation that it will reflect badly on today's Democrats. My position remains: this is a compelling story whether he likes it or not, and it's not in the least bit trash considering the painstaking attention to true-life details. The show is not lying about what happened. This shit actually happened. Also, the show may be making it clear that Bill was a douche, but it's putting equal emphasis on how the Republicans were craven opportunists even then, doing everything within their power to leverage this affair to their advantage. The horrible state the Republican Party is in today (not that it was ever great) very much traces back to this era, which the show is making a point of showing. It's not like they're making the Republicans out to be "the good guys" here. Basically, everyone in the federal government is capable of being shitty.
Really, the only people being shed in a truly positive light, notwithstanding their flaws that the show also does not pretend are not there, are the aforementioned women, that having been the point of this season all along: Monica, Paula, and Hillary. They were the ones most victimized by all of this, and that's what the show is tracking. I truly don't get why Shobhit refuses to understand that.
Once the episode was done, Shobhit and I watched two episodes of What We Do In the Shadows before I went to get ready for bed.
[posted 12:29 pm]