emergency issue - level 3 2.0

here we go again...

August 12, 2020

Last night, Aucklanders got some Very Bad News: lockdown is back, at least for the next couple of days. After that, who knows? It’s a stressful time, one that is bringing back to the fore all sorts of anxieties that many of us thought would be consigned to the past forever. Not so. Now, while we wait for more information about the cases announced last night and whether we’ll be plunged back into the days of 1pm briefings and short walks for a longer time, we’re being told to stay at home. Here are some recommendations for making the coming days feel a little less bleak.

Movies

One of the best ways to kill time is to settle down with a good movie. If you really want to kill time, you need a long movie. Recently, I’ve been digging into Netflix’s collection of gangster and mob movies, a genre I had never really engaged with, despite going to all-boys schools and then studying law. The Godfather is rightly considered a classic, maybe one of the most watchable films I’ve ever seen, and while you can’t find its excellent sequel on NZ Netflix at the moment, I hear it’s on the Italian site, if you know how to find it. Likewise, Netflix NZ now has Goodfellas, Scarface and The Irishman, all modern classics with brilliant characters, compelling stories and auteur direction. As an added bonus, you’ll finally understand about 25% of modern pop culture references (“an offer he can’t refuse,” “going to the mattresses,” “rule number two: don’t get high on your own supply” etc).

If you can’t stomach the occasional gratuitous violence or fratricide, or are just a bit over Italian-Americans talking about their favourite meals, and you need some low-stakes escapism, I cannot recommend Disney+’s selection of family-friendly, posi-vibes flicks enough. Binge the whole Star Wars or Marvel series, reminisce when people were optimistic about the American experiment in Hamilton (which is a brilliant musical, but has its flaws), or remind yourself of how good Ratatouille is. It’s all there, and there’s even a new Beyoncé visual album, Black is King, an interpolation of the new Lion King film with stunning cinematography and great original songs.

I’m admittedly not a massive film head, but if you want some recommendations for a specific genre, feel free to get in touch with me on email, on Twitter or on Instagram.

podcasts

I have an unhealthy addiction to podcasts, which seeps into the rest of my life and is why I’m only ever seen in public with headphones in. Luckily, that makes me uniquely positioned to recommend you good podcasts for playing while you clean up after a failed sourdough, or go on your local walk solo. Here are five of my favourites at the moment.

Samin Nosrat (of Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat fame) and Hrishikesh Hirway (who also hosts ‘Song Exploder’) have a pandemic cooking podcast called ‘Home Cooking.’ In it, they take listener questions about what to cook with pantry staples, with plenty of good, practical tips about cooking stuff at home. 

NPR’s ‘Planet Money’ is doing a series for American summer called Summer School, where they break down Economics 101 topics with real world examples and explain why it is that the economy works like it does. I’ve found it helpful in my journey to figuring out why the economy is doomed even though consumer spending is up.

The New York Times put out a podcast last year called ‘1619’ that goes a long way to explaining the history of race relations in the United States. If you want to find out why it is that people are still protesting there, it’s a good starting point. If you want a similar understanding about the history of New Zealand, I strongly recommend RNZ’s ‘The Citizen’s Handbook’ series.

If you want to hear two smart-ish guys talk like dumb people about clothes and pop culture with guests of varying levels of fame, I submit for your consideration ‘Throwing Fits.’ James Harris and Lawrence Schlossman are menswear media OGs, and their podcast is vulgar and funny and has a whole extended universe you can dive into if you need something to do. 

Local comedians Tim Batt and Guy Montgomery literally just announced the fifth season of their hit podcast, ‘The Worst Idea of All Time,’ in which they watch the same film over and over for stupid amounts of time. They’ve done Sex and The City 2, Sex and The City 1, Grown Ups 2 and a Zac Efron movie about DJing, and now they’re doing… a 1970s erotic film series directed by a Frenchman?

If you want some more specific podcast recommendations, feel free to get in touch with me on email, on Twitter or on Instagram.

recipes

Here are a couple of my favourite recipes from when we did lockdown last time:

That’s all for this quick emergency issue of clipboard, we resume normal programming on Sunday when hopefully there will be some more clarity about what is going on. If we still have to do some sort of lockdown type thing, get in touch if you want any other recommendations or have questions that need answering. Stay home, support local (if you are interested, I did a list of my favourite level 3 takeaways for Index last time, hopefully most of those will still be available) and keep in touch with your friends and family.