April 18th, 2021

It was an absurdly lovely day out, so I spent most of the day outside either on a bike ride:

or sitting on my deck reading Joel Drucker's extremely deep dive into the 1972 Davis Cup Final between the US and Romania from Racquet Magazine Issue 15, "Battles of Good & Evil." Calling Drucker's nonfiction an essay or article gives it short shrift both in terms of the quality of the writing and the sheer length of the piece. It was one of the best things I've read in recent memory. I'd link to it, but Racquet's business model means that only a select few pieces ever get posted online. All I can really link to Joel's remembrance of one of the piece's central figures, Dennis Ralston, shortly after he passed away. I'm guessing you don't have a subscription to Racquet (which, to be fair, is a bit steep). If you find a copy and have and hour or two, I highly recommend "Battles of Good & Evil." You don't have to be a tennis fan to find the story fascinating - it touches on a lot - but it certainly helps.

Thus, I did not follow my normal Sunday routine of watching CBS Sunday Morning on Sunday morning. Rather, I watched it on a Sunday evening after enjoying a full day out of doors. As I noted a few weeks ago, sequestering yourself inside to get some writing done during a lovely spring day is not ideal. Basically, the pact I've made with myself for this blog is that I'll get to it when I can, but I'm not going sacrifice enjoying the finer things in life. For me, the romantic tableau of a writer at work involves a snowy cabin, with no distractions except for maybe a fireplace. I'm not getting paid for this, so until this, or something akin to this, pays my bills, it must compete for my attention with other sundry interests I wish I had the time for, but regrettably do not. I am dedicated to accomplishing the task of one entry per week at some point, but you may have noticed that the recaps get posted anywhere between the Sunday and Wednesday after the show airs depending on whatever else I have going on.

CBS Sunday Morning doesn't exactly take the summer off - there are no true repeats. But they do start to sprinkle in previously aired segments to fill out the show. As I debate whether I should be spending my time on this (a pleasant pastime indeed) or carpe diem-ing, it is somewhat of a relief to know the show will help make that decision for me. To every season... there is a time for new episodes and a time for repeats.

On that Ecclesiastical note, I have a thing next Sunday, so don't expect an on time delivery.

The Ballad of Weaves #53: Part 4: Denouement has be bumped until next week.

The CBS SUNDAY MORNING POWER RANKINGS

1) Seth Doane

It's so hard to pick #1 this week. The Amalfi Coast or Space? If I had to pick one to visit which would it be? One the one hand, last time we heard from Mr. Pogue, he dapped up the blog and I am a bit of a space nerd, in case you haven't noticed the Trek references I throw around. It is a biologically inherited trait from my father. Also, my uncle worked on the Osiris Rex project that landed a spacecraft on an asteroid. I know Mars is all the rage right now, but that landing on that asteroid is no less cool and science fiction-y. It kind of sucked that COVID kept us from throwing a party for the touchdown. What I'm saying is that it kills me to pass up space, but really Seth has an unfair advantage being based out of Italy. I give you the Amalfi coast:

Also the food. I'm not a foodie per se, but my salivary glands are susceptible to food porn. Give me all the shots of lemon based dishes you got. I can't get enough. It also brought back memories of a lemon pound cake that I enjoyed quite a bit in my youth. Even though I can't make it with lemons from the Amalfi coast, I'll still be digging through old recipes to find it and whip it up for nostalgia's sake. It's hard to beat food based nostalgia. Also, Seth bites into an lemon and this happens:

Pogue may have Outer Space, but Doane has the Amalfi coast, food, and the opportunity to drop a reference to one of the 10 best Simpsons episodes.

2) David Pogue

Again, space is really cool, but a peanut butter and jelly cracker in space versus a scrumptious lemon tart? That's a uphill battle. David came really close to the top spot, so he get a food based Simpsons gif too:

It's so hard not give a story that covers pooping and peeing in space the #1 spot. Also, the zero G mice. Someone make me gif of zero G mice. That's all I ask of my tax dollars. That and maybe a few teaspoons of asteroid dust. I've got connections.

3) Kelefa Sanneh

You always learn something watching Sunday Morning and this week the big thing I learned is that Easter Island's real name is Rapa Nui. I knew that technically it belonged to some South American country, but I couldn't remember if it was Chile or Peru. As I geography nerd, I was happy to to be reminded that it was Chile. The star of Kelefa's piece is Mahani Teave, a world class concert pianist and one of only a handful of people that can speak the Rapa Nui language. There something quite poetic about the story of a girl who comes from an island with single piano and become a world class concert pianist. Only it doesn't stop there. Said girl returns as a woman with a few more pianos and builds a music conservatory out of ocean garbage. Apparently, Rapa Nui is in the middle of the Pacific garbage vortex. That's a depressing sequence of words. But there is nothing depressing about this story. Kalefa is not to be outdone by Seth in the establishing shot department:

Also, Mahani Teave is stunning. She's tall and lithe and charismatic and commanding at the keys of a piano.

Quick aside: My sister plays piano. I remember when she was in high school, she was practicing a Rachmanonov piece for a recital. The sheet music explicitly said "FOR MEN" on the cover, I guess the assumption being that women's hands were too small and delicate to play Rachmanonov's obviously masculine chords. We always got a kick out of that. I'm not sure if it was the chauvinistic sheet music or the implication that my sister has man hands.

4) Holly Williams

I'm not going to mention Holly's accent. Oops, I did it again.

Anyway, here's a few paragraphs on Promising Young Woman. (Mild spoilers.) I watched it and had a rather unpleasant dream that night. Carey Mulligan gives wonderful, strangely nuanced performance. Strange because if someone says "revenge thriller" as William's classifies it, your first thought would not be nuance. In a movie that so easily could tilt towards over the top theatrics, she keeps in reigned in. She's more tired than she is crazy. Tired of living with and not being able to move past a trauma. As for the mention of the review that called her crazy, I haven't read the review, but I'm not entirely sure that's a sexist take. There have female driven revenge movies before. Enough with Jennifer Lopez, Columbiana with Zoe Saldana, and Peppermint with Jennifer Garner are all movies that I haven't seen but spring to mind. The point is that it's not exactly novel.

One of the reasons Promising Young Woman, can mess with your mind, is that unlike the other revenge films, there are shades of gray. Mulligan's character is not a single minded avenging angel. She stops to think from time to time and wonder if the path she is headed down is right one. It's that stopping and thinking that's the thing and elevates the movie to Oscar worthy. If your choice is between revenge/justice or not, then pursuing it at all costs may not seem crazy. If the choice is between revenge and happiness... It's as much about the internal conflict as is it the external conflict. You're not really sure what you're rooting for Mulligan's character to do. Is she doing more harm to herself and others? It's a real, unanswered, question.

Some might complain that the film is tonally inconsistent. In the segment it is designated a revenge thriller, but I might even call it a dark comedy because it is funny in parts. It's also got a little romantic comedy sprinkled in. With all the well manicured shots, it can feel like an extremely menacing Wes Anderson movie as well. I think the movie does this intentionally to heighten the impact of the distressing scenes. With much unseen and certain parts of the backstory left unrevealed, tonal shifts from comedic or romantic back to psychic terror are just a reminder that, no, there is no escaping what happened.

The ending... I'm not sure about yet. I haven't seen the other three Best Actress films yet. But between Mulligan and McDormand, I lean towards McDormand, but it might be a LeBron/Jordan situation where I'd vote for Mulligan because McDormand's already got her hardware.

5) Lovebirds of Tanzania

Because I'm geography obsessed, I'll just point out that Tanzania is on the East Coast of Africa. Bordered to the south by Mozambique, to the north by Kenya, to the East by the Indian Ocean, and to the west by a few countries - I'd have to look at a map to be sure... I gave in and looked at a map. Uganda is also on Tanzania's northern border. To the west, there's Rwanda, Burundi, the DRC, and Malawi.

Also, this mention of birds in the power rankings is, as always, brought to you by Audubon Florida.

6) Jane Pauley

Jane's back after a 2 week break! It was a light week for the host. No Sunday Almanac (I mean, the way for a host to earn a #1 spot seems pretty obvious at this point...). No Sunday Passage. Not even any Sunday Indices. However, we're all happy to get our Picard back. Jane's outfit even looked vaguely nautical as if to mark that the captain of the ship is back aboard.

7) Norah O'Donnell

An interloper from CBS "Not Sunday" Evening, the wife of "Chef Geoff" (!) interviews W. Funny how I referenced W's painting back in February, when discussing the artistic merits of Bob Ross. Maybe I have psychic visions. Each week there is a segment that I feel I significantly underrate, and this week it's O'Donnell's profile of W.

I'm not a Republican, and W's presidency seems like a lifetime ago. I probably disagree what some of the policies he had and actions he took as president moreso today than I did back when he was actually president, but all I see today is a man who genuinely loves the United States and is distressed by the current state of politics. Some zealots probably still want their pound of flesh from W, Bush Sr., etc. as anyone with an R next to their name as the enemy and we can't say anything good about them. But I see how gracious he always was towards the Obamas. And maybe it's a low bar, but honestly the political climate would probably be more palatable if W actually still held some sway over the GOP. Look, Sunday Morning is not 60 Minutes. Mike Wallace is not walking out tear the former president to shreds. So we get to watch W cart around his tree farm in central Texas.

Is it just revisionist history to compare him to the more recent Republican president and say, "I dunno. He just kind of seems like a likable guy."?

I have no opinion on his artwork. But if I ever write a book, I think it'd be fun if the cover art was a W painting.

8) Tracy Smith/Rita Braver/Connor Knighton (tie)

Three Sunday Morning stallwarts tie for 8th in a segment heavy show.

• Tracy goes to Vegas to discuss the world's pent up desire to get back to traveling. My friend is an economist and went to an economics convention in Vegas once. The conference was told never to come back. I wonder if Vegas is desperate enough to host an economics conference again?
• Rita discusses travel photographers making due in the back yard during COVID quarantine. I'm not into the 'Gram, but pretty photos are pretty photos. Montana was discussed, so here's Captain Vasily Borodin's soliloquy from The Hunt For Red October as is required by law.
• Connor Kighton talks to PBS travel king Rick Steves. Rick Steves is kind of a funny name, but he seems like just a delightfully nice person. Rick Steves plays piano and trumpet. Connor seems like he might have gotten his hair trimmed recently. He also wins best reaction of the week when Steves says he's learned how to use his oven during COVID:
  
  
  

9) Anthony Mason

Another interloper, this time from CBS Regular Morning, I'm not quite sure how Anthony Mason got to be network "music guy" but that seems to be his niche. Nothing against Anthony, but he doesn't really have a rock 'n roll look. And his name sounds like a Perry Mason reboot where the son takes over Perry's undefeated law practice. It's also somewhat humorous that the other Anthony Mason is the dearly departed Knicks power forward. An image search produces the following:

Which is the CBS correspondent?

As for the brother's Osborne, the tease of a big revelation at the start meant that we are always building toward talking about which brother was gay. Although for a minute, they almost had me fooled and I thought it revelation was just going to be the other brother's anxiety. There's a bit of talk about country music becoming more accepting, which means that I'm sure next week that Anthony will be talking to either Mickey Guyton or Rhiannon Giddens. Now I kind of want to go out and buy a Rhiannon Giddens CD. Maybe you should do that to.

10) Martha Teichner

Apologies to Mark Phillips, but I've had my fill of Royal watching. We all had our fun bashing Piers Morgan, but the Royals do smell an awful lot like a reality TV show. The insistence on presenting on a well manicured image only serves to reinforce the similarity. I'm give Prince Phillip one week of props for dashing looks and environmentalism, but two weeks is a bit much.

I think John Oliver probably got to me. I do find that judging historical figures by standards that did not exist during their time is problematic, but allow me to throw stones from the US's glass house built on slavery, but we could at least mention the casual colonial racism. All things considered, he was probably an ok guy. If you really want to take a hatchet to his legacy, I'm guessing your beef is more with the monarchy as an institution than with the man himself.

The point is that nobody takes the Teichner spot from Teichner.