Sick Stuff: November 26, 2022
This is Sick Stuff, a newsletter about Sick stuff to watch, play, read, or listen to from your favorite sick girl.
Watching
This installment’s Watching section is longer than usual, mostly because I have been pretty much laid up on the couch since getting Covid and watching various things, has been the main thing that has been accessible to me the last month or so. I have been having struggling again with eye pain & dizziness (inflammation symptoms) which means time on small screens and gaming have to be limited. When all I can really do is lie back and watch, I am especially grateful for content I can connect to.
First on the docket today is FX docuseries Welcome to Wrexham, which can be streamed for free on Hulu with a subscription, or a few other places. This series had been recommended to me a few months ago and then I kind of forgot about it, until it was brought up again by my bestie, Tim, on thanksgiving day.
This show follows the somewhat improbable, but entirely true, events that unfold when Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds buy a Welsh football club (soccer team, to Americans) that is 4 tiers below the Premier League in the rather complexly tiered English Football system. If you’re not a football (soccer) fan, never fear the show explains everything you need to know to follow what is going on, in fact it does so rather cleverly.
By now I feel like we have at least somewhat established that I kind of love the UK, and that I definitely love British TV. We maybe have not established that I used to work on football (soccer) products for an athletic footwear company and had a few years of being pretty devoted to Premier League football, specifically the East London team West Ham United. That said, you really don’t have to know anything about this sport or the league system in the UK to enjoy this show, which is primarily about the intersection of sport and community. I binged the entire 18 episode season on Black Friday and frankly loved every minute of it. It you want real life Ted Lasso vibes, look no further, this is the show for you.
I mentioned in the last installment that I had settled into Portland’s dreary season by watching the good, the bad and the ugly of the British mystery genre. By far the best one I have watched recently is Karen Pirie. To watch this in the US you need to have BritBox, a prime TV channels add on. I know this will be a barrier for a lot of folks, but if you, like me, love British TV, BritBox is my top recommendation for streaming service add ons in terms of quality and breadth of content.
Karen Pirie follows the eponymous young Scottish detective as she is assigned to what we, in the US, would call a cold case after it is receiving renewed attention when an investigative journalist starts a podcast looking into it. Unknowingly, DS Pirie is assigned primarily for optics, but she is driven, passionate and determined to succeed. The series takes place split between the present day investigation, and flashbacks to the time of the crime. Lauren Lyle gives a strong performance as Pirie, especially for someone who is relatively unknown even in the world of British TV (although you may recognize her from Outlander). A quick but very enjoyable watch, I am hoping there will be a season 2.
Ok I fear we may be getting more and more niche, but in for a penny, in for a pound. One of my absolute most watched things of late has been the House & Garden youtube channel. I find myself currently kind of obsessed with the contemporary take on the English country house style that seems to be so common in the British interior design community right now, and this channel is an endless source of inspiration.
One of the things about being a creative, chronically ill person, is my creative mind is often working, even if my body is not. Sometimes my fatigue is so bad there is no creative impulse at all, but there are many in between times when I am physically very restricted but creatively there is still a spark. Trying to find accessible ways to occupy this part of myself when I don’t have the energy for actual creative projects is tough, but sometimes it just involves letting myself dream, and if someday I have energy to bring those dreams to life, then great. Right now, the dreams are all about how I can inject more color and pattern into my house, a little more flavor into what, throughout my illness, has become a very comfortable and practical, but slightly bland home.
Be warned: if you ever have any inclination to move to and English cottage, this channel will ignite it further. The coziness is profound.
Listening
In addition to watching lots of TV and youtube, I’m still listening to audiobooks as well. Just this morning I finished Gabrielle Zevin’s newest novel Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow. I adored every minute of it.
Tomorrow is the story of friends who first play, and later make video games together. It is the story of their friendship, of their creative collaboration, of their work, and of their lives. For those who love games, the musings on the importance of play and real world game references will be pleasant touchstones. For those who don’t, the tender prose and depth of the characters will carry you well past the backdrop of a game studio. Tomorrow is one of those novels that holds you in it’s world from beginning to end. It is also Book of the Month Club’s Book of the Year for 2022 so I am not alone in my admiration for this work.
That’s all for this installment, a peak into all the odd little corners of my brain. Stay tuned for our next one, when I bring you more Sick Stuff.