BCGriff (Page 1)

Zero stakes when you do theater over Zoom

One thing I learned about screens and videoconferencing the last year-plus is they lower the stakes for everything. No need to ride a bus four hours to Washington, DC, to go to that grad school reunion (“I think I’ll set my computer by my favorite chair here”), nor put

Humor

A couple of nature boys

I attempt to confuse mosquito. I installed the air conditioner yesterday after dinner. When I sat in my chair to read my book, I heard a buzz past my ear, and CLAPPED at the air. With what rage I did so! I missed the mosquito. And I was left with

Humor

Fitty fizzog he have

I attempt to outwit mosquito. I woke sometime in the middle of the night to a mosquito buzzing past my ear. I had noticed the other day an itchy spot on my shoulder and wrote it off as something random while suspecting I might have a mosquito. Well, I do.

Humor

The sun, J.

I used my Andis Master adjustable blade clipper yesterday. I went from 000 halfway up the side of my head to 1 just below where my shock of undercut long hair [https://bcgriff.com/humor/undercut-like-porticoes-bologna/] is; then I used the Andis Excel with the 00000 blade below the 000.

Humor

Caught between avoidance mechanisms

Limits beget creativity. I was caught on the edge between two avoidance mechanisms—avoid the anxiety of going to the supermarket, or avoid the anxiety of not having a food stockade [https://bcgriff.com/humor/wear-protective-face-bandana-outlaw/] sufficient to avoid going to the supermarket. I settled on first actually making a

Humor

Male, Greek and naked

The Greeks [https://bcgriff.com/humor/upper-bodies-carved-cuirasses/] on PBS [https://ny.pbslearningmedia.org/collection/episode-3-chasing-greatness/]. The age of the city-states [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City-state] went from the 800s to the 400s. The Golden Age of Athens [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth-century_Athens] and democracy was less than

Humor

Eight comic novels to make you snicker on trains

I remember reading Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov on the Washington, D.C., Metro to and from work in Rosslyn, Virginia, and stifling sniggers while enjoying private jokes no one else on the train could understand. This is a sign of a good comic novel. What makes it a delight,

Humor

Upper bodies as carved as cuirasses

Between Greece’s Bronze and Golden Ages. I watched some more of The Greeks [https://bcgriff.com/humor/down-societal-collapse-rabbit-hole/] last night, the first 20 minutes of Part Two (“Out of Strife”) [https://ny.pbslearningmedia.org/collection/episode-2-the-good-strife/] [sic], which goes from the collapse of the Bronze Age through the Greek

Humor

I go down societal collapse rabbit hole

Legendary Mycenaean civilization ends mysteriously. I found a National Geographic documentary on ancient Greece [https://ny.pbslearningmedia.org/collection/the_greeks_national_geographic/] on PBS Passport last night, and watched the first episode [https://ny.pbslearningmedia.org/collection/episode-1-cavemen-to-kings/], going from the Stone Age to the end of the Bronze

Humor

Caroline, coquettish as ever

I yawned the whole evening. It was a sleepy tired, not a tired tired. Only after watching the season two finale of Poldark [https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/shows/poldark/] did I feel alert and present again. Ross, with money to spare now that Wheal Grace struck a mega-lode

Humor

The next Lady Rosamund

I watched the second half of the first episode of Downton Abbey [https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/shows/downton-abbey/]’s final season last night. Where were the men? The Christmas special closing season five had Edith “feeling alive again” in the company of the property agent who will later

Humor

CousinAnnelovesDownton

Mom tells me she found Howard’s End [https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/shows/howards-end/] the series on PBS the evening before. It was good. She liked it. “But I fell asleep.” OK, so here’s a series we could potentially watch together. It’s time to give her

Humor

The uber-masculine caped and coated Thomas Cromwell

How actors bring themselves to a role. I started watching Wolf Hall [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_Hall_(miniseries)] last night on PBS. It’s good. It’s more than good. It lacks the pure entertainment value that Poldark [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poldark_(2015_TV_series)] and

Humor

I’m a doctor, I’m cool

J_____’s girlfriend was back with him in the kitchen again last night. Clearly they’re not afraid of getting germs from me [https://bcgriff.com/humor/shared-sicky-ness/]. I’ve still been wearing the mask outside the room though. Just now for breakfast I kept the mask on during preparation

Humor

Meals in situ

The logistics of Lysol. Have mild congestion. Inner corner of left eye was looking pink last night. It’s the same symptoms, and even same sequence of symptoms, as I had had in early March, except for the tiredness, headache, and loss of appetite that preceded it. I wore a

Humor

Shared sicky-ness

Nostalgia for times ex-boyfriend and I fell ill at same time. Coughed four or five times, mildly, as I was falling asleep last night. Then woke early and was wide awake. The banging of the radiator and warming room when it wasn’t that cool to begin with might have

Humor

An undercut like the porticoes of Bologna

I cut my own hair. Took the 00000 line higher up the sides yesterday morning, to about an inch below “high and tight.” It was Easter. I wanted renewal and rebirth. And I had accepted that holding on to the mass of my hair “so Eric [the barber] [https://bcgriff.

Humor

"Is this yours?" roommate asks

J_____ takes out from the refrigerator a bag of collard greens that I first noticed in there a few weeks ago, although a few weeks ago for me, especially in this strange “cyclical time” we’re all experiencing right now never leaving the house, could have been several months ago.

Humor

Clandestine services mustache

My intent had been to have something between what I would call a “natural chevron” and those classic straight across the upper lip, well-maintained mustaches sported by the various diplomatic and clandestine services chaps working in offices, and seen about town among the extras, in BBC’s Smiley’s People.

Humor

Dying Gaul mustache

I looked at photos of Sam Elliott the actor yesterday, having found a website with “the best mustaches of Sam Elliott” or something like that. I settled upon his mustache from the film Did You Hear About the Morgans? as my favorite, and noticed how in all his mustaches he

Humor

A frittata you'll have to work for

Frittata ruins evening. List of things to do differently next time for a frittata [https://bcgriff.com/humor/is-this-yours/]: use a proper frittata/omelette pan, use less potato for the amount of egg I used, slice the potato thinner, have a proper cover for the pan that actually covers the

Humor

Social distancing while sleeping

Had a dream that all sorts of people were coming into my bedroom and getting less than six feet close to me during the night, the most prominent of which was a character, played in my dream by Awkwafina who was in the Singapore food porn marry-a-rich-Singaporean movie. My bedroom

Humor

Like a silent retreat after day four

“Saw” M_____ yesterday on video. M_____ S_____, that is. She asked if I missed physical contact, and my honest answer was, “I’m not sure.” I said I missed seeing Mom, and I supposed I missed seeing my barber [https://bcgriff.com/humor/undercut-like-porticoes-bologna/]. And it’s true that after

Humor

Out of bed comes good

The difference between virtual and physical failure. It’s Tuesday, the day “G”-starting surnames are supposed to apply (along with “F,” “H,” “I,” and many other letters). I’ll try calling again later, maybe around dinner time. This is one of those experiences that feel like “the online world

Humor

Can I get coronavirus if a guy shoots in my eye?

A gay man applies gallows humor to coronavirus the way he does with STDs. Back in the day, pre-pre-exposure-phophylaxis for HIV and Truvada, when I would come up with all kinds of theoretical ways I might have contracted HIV (and this always took place after sex, never before, let alone