The Berlin Files #79: wall climbing
Toots & the Maytals, TV nerdery, and much more on hopeful signals, quarantine life, and radical transformations.
Hi all. Eric here.
Things... are not going so great right now in the United States. And if that sounds a tad negative, it's partially because my eyes are stinging and my throat is raw from the smoke hanging over Seattle as I write these words, produced by fires that are tearing through enormous swaths of the American west.
In other words, this represents my mood as much as anything right now.
And yet we press on. Here's a light version of the Files this week, stuffed with some nice and silly tweets that will hopefully make you happy. Oh, and I also go down the rabbit hole on some deeply nerdy TV-related stuff, so look out for that as well.
Hopeful Signals, Quarantine Life, & Radical Transformations
Vaccine & Prevention Progress
Here's some straight reality from someone I trust on this stuff: "Dr. Anthony Fauci said it could be the end of 2021 before life gets back to how it was before Covid-19." And that's with the hoped for development of a safe and effective vaccine:
"By the time you mobilize the distribution of the vaccinations, and you get the majority, or more, of the population vaccinated and protected, that's likely not going to happen to the mid or end of 2021," he told MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell.
Politico's Lauren Morello looks at it from a glass half full perspective:
The company’s decision to pause the studies while it reviews safety data is encouraging, because it shows the system is working. But it’s a good reminder that developing safe and effective vaccines is a tricky process. And it’s rarely followed so closely by the general public as it has been during this pandemic.
As the pandemic drags on, we are learning more about how it spreads and the best ways to avoid transmission. The trick, of course, is getting people to comply.
And this is fascinating on that note.
Also good news in how we're reducing the mortality rate for those who have become infected:
Low-cost, easily accessible corticosteroid drugs reduce mortality by about one-third in seriously ill coronavirus patients, according to an analysis in JAMA, a leading medical journal
Meanwhile, while new cases are still at a disturbingly high rate in the U.S. -- in the 37,000 per day range -- they are down about 13% week over week and far below the second wave peak we saw in August.
The Future of... Sports & Events
I have mixed feelings about how some college football teams are attempting to bring fans back in to attend games (and indeed some prominent college football programs have decided to shut down for the fall 2020 season entirely) but appreciate the attempt at social distancing and reduced density. Here's an example.
The NFL, which kicked off its regular season this week, is allowing individual teams to set live attendance policies, somewhat oddly. It will be interesting to see how those policies play out and if they will end up getting adjusted one way or another over the course of the season. What's undeniably good news, at least so far, is how few coronavirus cases the NFL has reported to date, especially given that it's not going the enclose-the-league-in-a-bubble route as the NBA has.
Quarantining
Sometimes, it's just comforting to kick back and watch Dan Rather recite Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.
And if that's not your scene, how about this from skateboarding legend Tony Hawk?
Finally, I may have been stuck in my house too long because I honestly can't tell if this is real or not real or some fundamental clue dropped into our civilization by the Ancient Aliens.
Music Club
Frederick "Toots" Hibbert of Toots & the Maytals passed away this week. I'm a big fan of their music. I'm pretty sure I initially discovered them by way of the band Sublime, which covered an incredible song called "54-46 Was My Number." Here's the Toots & the Maytals' version, which I strongly urge you to listen to if you've never heard it.
And of course if you know of it you will immediately throw it on because you know.
"Pressure Drop" might be their best known song. Also great. They're pretty much all great, and an amazing mood setter for a weekend morning or pretty much anytime.
TV Club
I've spent a decent chunk of my life watching television, writing about TV, evangelizing TV as a worthy medium, running websites dedicated to TV news and reviews, and working on tech products related to TV, but I haven't spent all that much time talking about TV in the Files over the last six months or so. Well, that may start to change.
Keep the above in mind, and then factor in that we're stuck in the middle of this pandemic, Seattle and the west are stuck under a smoke cloud, and throw in a dose of I-don't-have-kids-so-I-have-time-think-about-super-nerdy-stuff.
With that preamble, I'm excited to announce that I started messing around with coming up with a list of my favorite television shows of all time. Very important to note here that I used the word favorite and not best, because there's probably a decent delta between the two. Favorite allows me to succumb to my emotions about such an exercise which, of course, makes it more fun. It probably makes it more subjective too, but let's face it, this is a deeply subjective (and nerdy, don't forget nerdy!) endeavor to begin with.
Going with favorite also allows me to safely discard TV shows that one might argue "should" be on a list versus what I want to put on the list. Cheers and Curb Your Enthusiasm are two great examples here. I admire Cheers' place as an important sitcom in television history and, were I to throw on an episode, would probably enjoy it well enough while appreciating the strong writing and performances that make it a beloved series for many. But am I looking to throw an episode on anytime soon? No, not at all. I'm cool with the amount of Cheers that I've consumed in this lifetime.
Curb is a little trickier. I'd be happy to throw on an episode of Curb when I've of a certain mood, and find it pretty consistently hilarious (an extremely hard thing for any show to pull off). But, to be perfectly honest, there are a ton of episodes and even full seasons I've never seen and, even as a completist in many television-related pursuits, I'm kind of okay with that.
You might be asking, "Well, your inclusion criteria would surely change based on the number of total shows you place on your list, right?" First, amazing question. And, to answer, yes. Absolutely.
I'd embarrass myself (further) by revealing the number of shows I looked at and considered, but finally came up with a list of 25 shows as my absolute favorites. At least of this very specific moment in time.
I don't have them ranked as yet, but here's what's very likely my Top Five:
The Sopranos
Better Call Saul / Breaking Bad (I'm considering these two series to be part of the same connected universe)
The Wire
Mad Men
Party Down
Next time, I'll reveal more of my choices and dive deeper into nerdery around recency bias, rewatchability, short versus long series runs, completed versus as yet completed series, and more. Oh, the fun we shall have!
Election 2020
I learned a lot about Joe Biden from this long, very interesting New Yorker piece: “Can Biden’s Center Hold?”
Just in case this helps even one person: “How to vote in all 50 states.”
Climate Watch
Tweets of the Week(s)
It's a Wrap!
You made it. Now get back to understanding that everything is fine.
Also:
Support The Berlin Files: buy me a cup of coffee, only if you want to. I'll use the money to support local coffee shops here in Seattle.
Once upon a time, I wrote a book about the TV show Mad Men. If you're a fan of the show, my writing, or that era of U.S. history, give it a check out.
E-mail me. I get it here: eric@forwerdmedia.com.
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And one last time…