It's TV Time

      Let's talk about TV but first, it's been a while since I posted a photo of myself for accountability. I've spent a lot of time bashing how I look lately and how I'm not where I'm at, but that doesn't mean that I've failed at body management. I still have a goal and look in mind and I will get there, but I just wanted to keep you up to date on just what I look like, so here is a crappy out of focus picture that I took last Monday.

 

     You can see I've maintained rather well despite my rumblings. You can also see that color fading in my beard, it's not gone yet, and I'm still having dry skin issues, but this is the first week I've gone without any swelling reaction, so that's a plus. I'm pretty sure I'm on the back end of all this now, I just have to get my skin healthy again.

     Ok, I meant to talk to you about two shows I watched last week, but forgot. The first is The Queen's Gambit. It's on Netflix, and it is outstanding. It stars Anna Taylor Joy as a young chess prodigy that has some addiction problems and her drive to be the best chess player in the world stirs those addictions into some very costly behavior. It's a limited series, so this is the only season. I binged it all in a day and loved every minute of it.

     The second show is on Amazon Prime and is called Truth Seekers. It comes from the minds of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. I love anything they are a part of especially if they are part of the creative team behind it. Nick plays a cable repairman that moonlights as a paranormal investigator. It has that BBC big budget (which is rather a low budget) vibe to it, and kind of feels like a spin off of Doctor Who. It's really smart and funny, and is also a short series that you can watch in a day. I'm not sure if it's been picked up for a second season, but they leave it open for one with the way it ended. If you like sci fi quirkiness, you will love this show.

     Those were the two I wanted to tell you about last week. Last night I watched a documentary on Disney +. It premiered Friday, and it's about Taylor Swift's latest album. As you may know, I am a Swifty and love Taylor, but my appreciation for her grew astronomically from watching this film. It's called Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions. It is her, Aaron Dessner of The National, and Jack Antonoff of Fun and Bleachers. They were co writers on this album with Taylor, and they all recorded their parts either at their own personal studios, or as in Taylor's case, from her home. They never played the album together, and this project was the first time they actually got together in person to play through the album. In between each song, either all of them or sometimes just two of them at a time, talk about the upcoming song and the inspiration behind each song, and the stories of writing it. If you haven't heard the album Folklore yet, it is a bit of a departure from Taylor's past albums. She took a chance and wrote with indie artists that she always wanted to write with and what came from it may be the most personal album she has ever written, even though there is an underlying story within it of 3 people in a sorted love triangle. 

     Even if you aren't a fan of Taylor and are just a fan of music, watch this documentary. It really goes inside the song writing experience and then there is them playing each song live in the studio together. Watching that even inspired me to pick up the guilele, which in turn got me to pick up the ukulele, so I could learn one of the songs, which brings us to Favorite Song of the Week.

     While watching the movie, one song stood out to me. I've listened to the album several times, but I didn't notice this one as much as when I watched it. The guitar part is fingerpicking and is really smooth, and I though it would translate over to ukulele since they were playing it so far down on the neck. Turns out I was right, and after several hours of frustration and interruptions I got to a point where I felt pretty good about the direction I was going with it. I've never been great at fingerpicking so this was an ambitious endeavor. I figured out the pattern and gave it a try with the chords that I found for it, and that's where the frustration comes in. Even though it's the same pattern over and over again, doing that while changing chords and doing it all at the right time is difficult. I finally gave up and started with the basics. Get the chords down while strumming and then tackle the hard stuff. Once the chord progressions was down, and I know longer had to look at the tab, and could do it from memory, it was time to work on the fingerpicking. I gave it the full on try, and failed miserably, so I shortened the pattern and only played half of it through with the song for a few times. Once I felt comfortable with that it was back to the full pattern. I had to stop after a few hours because my finger tips are bruised and my hands were hurting. That's the cost of not playing for a very long time. I need to get my hand and finger strength built back up. By the time that happened I was playing along with the song, fingerpicking and making the chord changes with only minimal mistakes, which could have been from the fatigue in my hands and fingers. It's going to take a lot of practice still, but I will get it. Anyway it's time for me to tell you what the song is so, for my Favorite Song of the Week, this is Taylor Swift with her song "Invisible String".

     Next week I may have some pictures for you. I'm doing a photoshoot with that woman I told you about last week. It's going to be fun. I'm ready for it. Mostly because it's a chance to be creative and get behind the camera again, but also because I get out of the house for a few hours, which hasn't happened for some time. She has an ambitious schedule and ideas for one evening, but we will get as much done as we can and I'll share a few of the best shots with you next week. Til next week peace in and goodnight.