It’s freezing in LA right now. It’s literally 47 degrees as I type. It’s glorious. We’ve had rain for days, off and on, like light showers of wet hope. Do we have enough vaccines? No. Are we ever leaving our houses again? Probably not. But will we die of thirst? Not today!
And besides, things could be worse. We could work at Panda Express.
Voting rights is in the news right now, which is never a good thing. People voted a lot in 2020 and they must be stopped, apparently. Or not. There are over 250 bills in 43 states attempting to suppress the vote but there are also 700 bills in 43 states attempting to expand the franchise so it’s not all bad news. But it is a lot of bad news. The bad laws do always seem to win. But, there is hope. The For The People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act would pretty much knock out the vast majority of those state bills. We need to pass them. But for that we need the Senate to end the filibuster. So don’t lay down any money on those odds. And even if it passes our Gideonesque Supreme Court will probably strike most of it anyways, as they did with Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act in 2013 and as they are likely to do to Section 2 any day now. Does this mean we shouldn’t pass these new voting rights acts? Of course not. But it does mean that this battle will probably never end. Or that we should move to Denmark. Denmark feels right.
I’ve been thinking about Denmark a lot because a) it seems lovely and I am a big fan of minimalist furniture with clean lines but also because I just watched The Investigation on HBO(Max). The Investigation is about the murder of the extremely cool journalist Kim Wall by the senile sociopath and failed prison escapee Peter Madsen. I actually saw a documentary about this at Sundance last year. Into The Deep was one of those wild documentaries where they show up to film a show about a dude building a submarine and end up having their footage used as evidence in a murder trial. We may or may not ever seen Into The Deep because apparently the producers didn’t listen to their lawyers (always listen to your lawyer) and that’s too bad. Hopefully they’ll re-edit. But The Investigation is interesting because the show’s creator hates the way murderers get so much attention in true crime, so the show is purely focused on the police, the investigation, and the victim’s parents. They don’t even say the murderers name.
Do we pay too much attention to murderers? Probably. But, as Truman Capote, father of true crime, Holly Golightly, and perfectly knotted scarves discovered, the murderers are what’s fascinating. The whole reason we obsess over true crime is because we want to know how someone could possibly do something as awful as kill another human being, often in gruesome and disturbing ways. What goes through the mind of a killer? What makes them snap? How do they think they’ll get away with it? It’s interesting and I don’t think the focus on the murderers will, or should, ever change. BUT, The Investigation is quiet, calm, respectful, and fascinating, and hopefully we’ll get a lot more true crime that looks at things from this perspective as well. Mostly from Denmark
Oh hey I was on CNN. At 4 in the morning. Don’t judge my weirdness.
And we endorsed Elizabeth Guzman! Meet her, love her, support her.
Watch
The Undoing (HBO)- Nicole Kidman. Hugh Grant. Donald Sutherland. Murder most foul.
A Very English Scandal (Amazon Prime, who we hate because they are union busters and overall baddies and after COVID no one is ever using Amazon again, right?)- Because once you watch The Undoing you’re going to want to have a full on GrantFest.
Servant (AppleTV)- This. Show. Is. Wild. And weird. And creepy. And very M. Night Sham. It’s a horror story about what happens when people will do literally anything to shield a privileged white woman from reality. Not for the faint of heart.
Listen
Welcome To Your Fantasy (Spotify podcast)- Who knew Chippendales was so interesting? Probably everyone but me.
Aria Code (podcast)- It’s back!!! This Metropolitan Opera podcast is one of my favorites. I listen to it as I limp home from my long runs. If you like opera, it’s glorious. If you don’t like opera, this will make you like opera.
Lungs- Florence + The Machine- Because it’s always a good time for Flo.
Read
A German got lost in Maine and became a celebrity (h/t Daniel L.)