Up until the Covid 19 epidemic I thought “SIP” meant take a small amount of water, wine, tea, or coffee. Now of course we think of the acronym for, “sheltering in place.”
I don’t know about you, but before this epidemic, I would have called it, “House arrest.”
UGH! I’ve never been much of a homebody—at least, during the hours I’m not at home writing. Between going to the theater, museums, concerts, films, and long walks, there had been so many wonderful things to do outside the home.
But now, after many months of SIP, Josie and I have learned to adjust. The car stays mostly in the garage and we stay mainly at home.
Writing is still our day job, but now after dinner, we’re discovering more than ever that premium streaming channels are the retreat we never had in the days of early cable when the popular joke was, “Seventy channels and nothing to watch!”
PBS Passport is five dollars per month, and it gives you access to all those great shows you forgot to watch.
If you love old movies as I do, YouTube premium is only ten dollars per month, and it’s a treasure chest of things you’ve never seen or don’t remember. Dick Cavett, who interviewed Bette Davis when I was struggling with tenth-grade geometry, is one small example. Last night we fell across another: Lured, starring a very young Lucille Ball alongside three always-wonder actors: George Sanders, Boris Karloff, and Charles Coburn. (See the photo above.)
BIG PLUS: All commercial-free.
The Criterion Channel, also ten dollars a month, is dedicated to the restoration of old films into picture-perfect prints. In the past few weeks, we’ve seen two Otto Preminger classics in addition to Around The World in Eighty Days, Amacord, and Marlon Brando’s greatest film, On the Waterfront.
Then there are the three giants of streaming: Amazon Prime, Netflix, and Hulu. Now saying there’s “Nothing to watch on TV” is like going to London and saying, “There’s nothing to do.”
Music services, Spotify, Apple, Prime, and much more, provide an ocean of choices for music lovers of all ages and interests.
And finally, podcasts: I’d quickly agree that a lot are awful, but some are wonderful. NPR’s Fresh Air with Terri Gross has put every one of its vast library of interviews online.
Still not enough choices to grab your attention? Go to Google, ask any question about something you’d like to find, and in less time than it takes to blink your eyes. It will probably offer you a variety of choices.
Finally: as all readers know, there is a bottomless well of good books to read. And, in the digital age, access to great books, has never been greater.
In fact, below I’ve got links to a few that are free right now by signing up for the authors' mailing lists. Go check them out.
Are any of us happy to be sheltering-in-place? Very few if any, I suspect. One thing we can be thankful for: we’re living in the digital world of 2020 as opposed to the dial-up age of 1990.
Here's to staying healthy, happy, and well-read,
—Martin
ENDS JULY 11, 2020! And...
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