The Escape Post

This is an escape from politics post.

But it was partially prompted by a comment a dear friend of mine made on the 2024 President Elect’s nomination of (now former) Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), MAGA flamethrower and arguably the most hated elected official in Congress among his colleagues, to the post of U.S. Attorney General.

For those who don’t recall (Note: Or prefer not to), Gaetz was credibly accused by numerous witnesses of child sex trafficking; having sex with a 17-year-old girl; and bragging to his fellow congressmen on the House floor of snorting erectile dysfunction medication, chased with energy drinks, so he could “go all night”(Note: They also claimed he showed them partying picks).

In any event, said friend randomly quipped making THAT GUY our #1 chief law enforcement officer – “was like putting Dracula in charge of the blood bank.”

Which must’ve been overheard or mentally channeled by SNL’S Colin Jost, because on this week’s Weekend Update he posted a photo of Gaetz, with his trademark slicked back hair and demonically tweezed and tortured raised eyebrows, and reported:

“…Gaetz, who was created when Frankenstein raped Dracula…”

I know. It’s a lot.

And that’s only the beginning of… so much.

Clearly, we all need time. And here at NotesFromAChair, Holly and The Chair have some suggestions for films, TV and internet trolling to take your mind off being an unwitting citizen of the new Gilead, um….America.

Watch “Emilia Perez” on Netflix – The Chair thinks it’s the film of the year (Note: And if you’re a subscriber you know how accurate The Chair is at predictions). In any event, it’s a totally surreal, magical, dramatic and darkly funny tale of three women, one man and a bunch of yet to be fulfilled dreams that are, in part, all set to…yes, music. For sure Oscar nominations for best picture, best director, best screenplay, best actress and supporting actress as well as _________. And if that wasn’t enough, it tackles themes of immigration, feminism, economic inequality and trans rights. Making it popular could even be enough to break what’s left of Matt Gaetz’s brain!!!

Go see or buy on Amazon Prime (Note: Curse you, Jeff Bezos!) — The Substance. Holly says, and this is a direct quote – It is beyond the beyond and beyond. And who are we to disagree with her, especially if we haven’t seen it. Demi Moore, for those of us of a certain age, is a MOVIE STAR frozen in time and who better to play a star frozen in time (Note: So to speak) than….Demi Moore. We don’t truly know how she does it, but also who better to topline in a body horror movie than an actual 62 year old actress who looks 32 from afar and maybe, 42, up close. How does she do it? Well, that’s what the film is about. Sort of.

The tamest still from the entire movie.. really

Re-watch Ghost on many streaming platforms or pull out an old DVD of one of Demi Moore’s best (older) films – The Chair was reduced to a blubbering mess of tears by the end and it wasn’t because he remembered a time around when this movie came out that he had a volume of hair similar to Demi’s seminal pixie cut. Rather, it’s because Ghost is a Hollywood movie at its best. It’s funny (Note: Whoopi Goldberg earned every gold gilded (Note: Sorry) portion of the Oscar she won, and second note: The first Black women since Hattie McDaniel in 1939 to do so); it has something to say about greed and envy vs. the power of love (Note: Ahem); and it will allow you to have a good cry about all the things and people you love but will always have in your heart along with the best crier in the history of the silver screen – Demi Moore! (Final Note: Yes, it’s true). Sometimes when a movie you’ve seen five or ten times shows up on cable and you don’t plan to watch it but do, it changes your whole outlook for….at least a day.

The Great British Baking Show, the new season on Netflix – Holly thinks it’s irresistibly escapist; infinitely British in the best, most disciplined way; and inescapably impossible to process just how precise a dozen bakers can be asked to be while fulfilling the ultimate British command to keep calm and carry on. The Chair enjoys the show but sometimes fails to see the appeal of concocting the ultimate figgy pudding with pineapple and rutabaga dustings. And even Holly admits she longs for the day when the final challenge will be to ask contestants to merely concoct the perfect chocolate brownie. But that would be another show. In another country.

This season, come for Paul and Prue, but stay for Nelly. #icon

Somebody Somewhere on HBO or MAX – This specialty item is one of The Chair’s favorite TV series in the last decade. It stars former cult NY cabaret singer/comic Bridget Everett in a semi-autobiographical story of a larger-than-life woman in the very small town of Manhattan, Kansas (Note: Yes, it’s a real place and Everett’s home town) recovering from her sister’s death. But more than that, she’s also trying to rediscover her life and her voice, as we all are these days, with the help of some new-found friends. Every episode is a slice of life told through the lens of a group of people the incoming presidential administration would likely categorize as misfits, sinners or simply non-existent but that The Chair considers his tribe.

Television’s best friendship, hands down

Shrinking (season 2) on Apple TV – Holly is hooked on season 2, and not only for Ted Lasso’s beastly funny Brett Goldstein being featured in a potentially career-changing guest star arc. Rather, it’s because somehow therapy with the dysfunctional surrogate father-son therapist duo of Harrison Ford and Jason Segel manages to make sense in a world where people help people to face their inner truths while all the while avoiding or deluding themselves about the realities of their own lives. The Chair was fully on board during all of season one but can’t face a second season of therapy in his post-election, in denial haze. For now.

OK but full disclosure, I miss the beard.

YouTube, TikTok and Facebook Reels & Short Video Scrolling – Some say it’s a waste of time and energy suck. But The Chair believes it can make the many long hours of a day of news you are not about to acknowledge go by just like that. I mean, where else can you purchase a stylish puffer jacket that can lose its shape after one wearing for just $19.95, find out which celebrities are the best and worst tippers (Note: Some of them may no longer be alive) and discover superhuman musical talents you might never know existed. On the latter score, a week after Election Day at about 2:30 am I discovered the 2012 winner of the first season of The Voice in Australia. Her name is Karise Eden, she was coached by Seal and if she is not a reincarnated version of one of my all-time favorite vocalists from the early 1970s then, well…she is, trust me. If only because if there was one creative talent in the universe I’d like to have it would be to be able to tell the world to F Off while singing like this.

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver on HBO or MAX – Yes, we mentioned this list is a political respite. But John Oliver says everything we can’t because no one else has 12-15 of the best creative writing staff on TV researching stories and concocting snide insults, clever bon mots and active call-outs while shining their unrelenting lenses of shame on some of the most outrageous injustices and generalized sh-tty behavior occurring in the world today. As a recovering news junkie hoping to create a better world while not ignoring the crumbling version of the one I fear we will all be required to live in and reform during the next four years, watching Mr. Oliver, et al for 30-40 minutes each week ultimately gives me hope that there are answers, laughs and camaraderie if you go looking for it among fellow travelers. And keep your mind open and free of brain worms. (Note: RFK, Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services? WTF????!!!!).

Got more? Let us know in the comments. We’re all for more pop culture escape hatch suggestions.

Righteous Brothers – “Unchained Melody” (from Ghost)

10.20.24

by notesfromachair

Boomers, Batman, and Beetlejuice

Michael Keaton hosted Saturday Night Live this week and in his monologue he mentions that his new film, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, is out in theatres.

The theatrical film business being what it is – you might not know this. But suffice it to say it is the sequel to what else – the 1980s megahit where he reprises his ghostly title role because, well, why not? For once it makes sense and shouldn’t at all be seen like a cash grab. If only because ghosts in heavy white makeup can believably go 35 years without showing their age.

Especially if they remain as funny, trim and committed to playing a character and, thus, earning a laugh, as he is.

Keaton’s always been a really great actor – equally outstanding and believable in the broadest comedy and darkest drama (Note: On the latter score, rent the film he just directed and stars in, Knox Goes Away, on Amazon and you’ll see just how talented he really is. Or watch his recent Emmy-winning turn in the terrific Hulu miniseries, Dopesick (2021) ).

It’s worth noting we’re sort of running out of these type of movie star/actors.

The kind that maintain a career over forty years and whose work in iconic roles span multiple generations. The self-deprecating stay-at-home dad from Mr. Mom, the first and second modern-day, darkly tortured Batman, the crazed or not-crazed, depending on your POV, actor/bird in Birdman, even the straight down the middle newspaper editor in his other Best Picture Oscar-winning, Spotlight.

Still, there’s something about Beetlejuice that was evident on Saturday night. Keaton’s opening wasn’t merely a cheap promo for his new movie, but rather a moment that gave an opportunity for 2024 SNL cast member Mikey Day and former SNL cast member Andy Samberg (2005-2012) to both come out in the heavy white makeup, dressed in the bold white and black striped suit and wearing the crazy green wig, doing their best Beetlejuice doppelgangers.

For the comics, who were aged 10 and 12, respectively, when the film came out, it looked like a fantasy come to life, and they couldn’t curtail their enthusiasm for getting to dress up as one of their childhood touchstones next to the guy who created/IS him.

To that end, they confessed the tribute was really designed to goad him into once again at least doing the Beetlejuice voice, which the slightly embarrassed Keaton finally does, sort of, by the end of the bit.

The same way Jennifer Anniston did when former SNL cast member Vanessa Bayer did her Rachel from Friends bit in 2016.

The same way Nicholas Cage appeared to be when Samberg did his overwrought Cage persona on SNL in 2012.

The same way Jerry Seinfeld couldn’t help doing when then SNL’s Jimmy Fallon did his sing-song Seinfeld star/character in 1999 and…

The same way Joe Coker performed alongside one of SNL’s original Not Ready For Prime Time Players, John Belushi, when the latter sang as an impeccable, soundalike/lookalike Joe Cocker in 1976.

Which is to say nothing of all the real-life politico drop-ins.

There is a new four-part MSNBC documentary entitled My Generation running on consecutive Saturday nights covering the baby boomers (born 1946-64), Generation X (born 1965-1981), millennials (born 1981-1996), and Gen Z (born after 1997). The promo material states the eight-hour series “will document the iconic events, people, and media that shaped each generation” and describes it as “a dose of nostalgia for those who lived through these times and a primer for those who did not.”

I guess.

But I watched some of them and couldn’t help wondering — who makes up these categories anyway?

I can tell you as a baby boomer that there is a huge generational difference between those born in 1946, 1955 and 1963. For instance, in 1948, only 1% of U.S. households owned a….TELEVISION.

It wasn’t until 1957 that the first passenger jets were in use. And in 1964, The Beatles made their first stateside appearance on television, mere months after Pres. John F. Kennedy was assassinated.

I’m old enough to vaguely remember the debut of The Beatles but a world where almost no one had a TV or flew on a big airplane, well, that’s a product of someone else’s generation.

Still, I do get I’m kind of old. Which, if you get to be the age of any baby boomer, you will realize is really a privilege.

At least that’s what one old person told me some years ago.

This is all to say that if you really want to reflect on generational differences, just go to nbc.com or YouTube and watch a bunch of SNL clips through the years. That will take you to what once was and you will also appreciate the passage of time AND get a few chuckles, or at least a couple of nostalgic, Oh my Gods, in the process.

To that end –- shameless self-promotion – VERY shameless – you can get a copy of: The SNL Companion: An Unofficial Guide to the Seasons, Sketches, and Stars of Saturday Night Live on Amazon. Here’s the link: https://a.co/d/888Dhde

I wrote it, along with my better half, Stephen Tropiano, and, along with a bunch of fun history, quips and pithy historical observations, it has an episode guide where you can pick and choose your pleasure or…poison.

What you will fondly relive and remember or what you will skip over, ignore or forever choose to deny.

Mere documentaries do not allow you to make that choice.

SNL Michael Keaton Monologue (10/19/24)

notes from a chair

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The Escape Post

Boomers, Batman, and Beetlejuice