What I'm Watching

Hi reader. If you live in Canada, you’re probably concerned about what happened in the United States last month. Maybe you’re worried about how it will affect us (i.e. tariffs from our biggest trading partner) or you’re worried about Canadian culture being downstream of American culture and you think we could elect our own criminal. If you care about Canadian democracy, please watch Unrigged. It’s free! And only six 30-minute, easily digestible episodes. (That’s 3 hours! You can spread it out over weeks.) I know you’ll find it worthwhile. Watch Unrigged on YouTube.

What I’m Watching:

• My Man Godfrey (1936): One of the definitive screwball comedies is pretty funny even if I don’t quite get the message it is trying to tell me.

• Holiday (1938): Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn. This felt a tiny bit racy to me for a Code film. I laughed more than I thought I would. How did I watch two screwballs in one month?

• Love Streams (1984): A good, distinct movie about two (well-to-do) siblings strugging with mental health problems that feels very much like the template for all those American indie films of the aughts and teens.

• Davandeh (1984): Apparently this is one of the first post-revolution films to get attention outside of Iran. I don’t know if that’s true, or how many post-revolution films that didn’t get international attention were made before it, but it does very much feel like a classic Iranian film - I see a lot of similarities with some later ‘80s Iranian films I’ve seen, as well as more recent stuff.

• Manbiki kazoku (2018): An affecting portrait of a poor Japanese “family” who survive partially, though not exclusively, by shoplifting.

• Martha (2024): An engrossing and engaging documentary about Martha Stewart that I mostly found far more interesting than I supposed, in part because she’s had a very interesting life. If I can say one thing to recommend it: she didn’t like it.

• The Kids in the Hall Live at Danforth Music Hall: Not a movie obviously but not musical enough to fall under what I’m listening to. I don’t have a category for theatre because we very rarely go. We saw a pretty rough performance that was a tribute to sixth Kid Paul Bellini that was rough in part because, last minute, Scott Thompson was doing Dave Foley’s lines.

TV I’m Watching:

• Atlanta: I had to wait for some movies so I started watching season 3 but I really haven’t watched much of it lately. I do usually need a break in between episodes.

• Bad Monkey: This is a very enjoyable mystery comedy that feels very distinct from so much of what is currently being made.

• Basketball: The Raptors remain bad. But they remain competitive against all but the league’s very best teams. I enjoy this team. (Also throughoughly enjoying the NBA Cup except those horribl courts.)

• The Great British Bake Off: We haven’t watched this in years but Jenn watched to watch the latest season so we are. I guess it’s a replacement for Taskmaster.

• Shōgun: I have often said I really do think there should be more adaptations of literature to TV. It seems obvious to me. I thought Game of Thrones would unleash a flood but so much of it (that I’m aware of) is IP. If there is more of this stuff out there, I guess it’s buried in the absolute avalanche of content that is constantly coming out. Anyway, I’m enjoying a TV show that is set in a place that most American TV shows are not. And I’m enjoying that it’s an adaptation of a novel so I have (some) faith that the story won’t go way off the rails.

• Taskmaster: We finished the latest season.

What I’m Listening to:

• Anton Bruckner: Listened to noe of his masses.

• Johnny Dodds: A clarinetist from the ‘20s.

• Barbara Hannigan, Bertrand Chemayou Live at Koener Hall: Two pretty wild vocal performances bookending some fun piano music.

• Ligeti: Listened to his chamber concerto and somehow managed to listen to his first string quartet at a live performance (see below) around the same time.

• Liszt: I’ve been trying to listen to his later music but there’s so much of it. I don’t really know how to curate it for myself.

• Quatuor Magenta Live at Kingston Road United Church: I haven’t been to a concert in a church in over a decade. This was a fun performance of a classical string quartet, a modernist qartet and a romantic quartet.

• Mussorgsky: Listening to his lieder.

• Pucini: La bohème. I think I still prefer Turandot for the moment.

• Rachmaninoff: Listening to his Vespers.

• Ravel: Listening to his piano music.

• Jimmy Reed: An early electric blues musician.

• TV on the Radio: “Tiny Desk Concert”: They’re back!

• Muddy Waters: Listening to a best of collection.

• Covers: Our list isn’t out yet but I’m working on my blurbs for Cover Me’s best covers of the year and best cover/tribute albums of the year lists. Once they’re out maybe I’ll remember to add them here.