The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Museum of History and Culture opened with lots of fanfare in September.
Tonight… a two-hour star-studded show to celebrate what the museum is about. A conversation about tonight’s show with Tasha Coleman, Senior Manager of Counsel Relations and Special Initiatives at the museum.
A preview of tonight’s extravaganza
Home is where the heart is, so said someone somewhere. Home can be here, there or everywhere at once. Warmth is what my heart-cockles feel in those special hearthy-homey places and spaces.
For me, home conjures a desire for a warmer holiday season—specifically Christmas.
Memories of Laker games, concerts, tennis matches and hockey…
Familiar sites along the street—using utility poles to visually hawk wares and services…
Chicken joints I never frequented, but recall folks in the neighborhood swearing those fried fowls were the business!
The liquor store along a familiar street from my youth. For better or worse, booze barns speak every language in every neighborhood.
A memorial to local legends, the Beach Boys.
Their childhood home in Hawthorne, Calif. was demolished to make way for “The 105” or Glenn Anderson Freeway. But some folks got together to to memorialize the location where they crafted some of their works. This group—one to help change the musical landscape and put everyday parts of sunny Southern California on the map in some ways. I grew up not too far from that area. Never realized how close! I literally caught a bus one block south of their home while traveling to the local Hawthorne Mall (which has since closed down).
By the time I was born, I’m sure the neighborhood’s demographics had either significantly changed, or were about to. The Beach Boys’ tunes struck my fancy as a kid after I started listening to an oldies station in our area. Their songs sounded so light and airy. Whenever I want to steal away to a carefree bubble, I put their songs on. Whenever I want to feel appreciated for being a California Girl, I play that song… even though I can’t help but wonder if, in those days, that vision of beautiful ones included young ladies who look like me.
Why must folks threaten to kill off characters to keep us coming back for another go-round? Gets on my nerves. But it works.
So we see the good doctor again, the one who delivered Kate, Kevin and their wee little brother who passed away. He’s also the one who was partially responsible for getting Randall to Jack and Rebecca.
It’s Christmas time. No, not in Hollis Queens… But in 1989.
So we see the good doctor again, the one who delivered Kate, Kevin and their wee little brother
Kate gets a tummy ache and they have to take her to the hospital, which is where they see the good doctor. He had gotten himself into a car accident… Skidded on an icy patch and sustained some internal injuries and bleeding… a slow bleed between the heart and lungs. Doc seems to think he won’t make it out of the needed surgery.
Of course Jack reeks of positivity. He thinks the doctor will be just fine. It was Christmas Eve, the good doctor’s family was not around… So the Pearson’s stood in as Doc’s supportive family. And Randall, the sweet young man that he was (and still is), used his allowance money to buy a snow globe to thank the good doctor for bringing their family together.
Stage Drama
So Kevin and the playwright, Sloane, slept together. And she tells him he needs to go to Hanukkah dinner with her. Because he owes her. And her family’s piece of work. But so is his, so he’s in great company.
So what happens is that he spills the beans about Sloane’s play is a no-go. Olivia disappeared, they don’t have a star, so the folks who are (were) funding the play pulled their money. So Kevin, in the spirit of his dad who was the EEEEEEternal optimist, he suggests they put the play on themselves. Kevin offers to back it with his money… And encourages Sloane to play the starring role. She’s familiar with it. She wrote the play, and played that while work shopping it.
Meantime Kate is meeting with a counselor about gastric bypass surgery. She’s listening to all of the risks… Rebecca is also present and seems unconvinced this is the best move for her daughter. Rebecca also learned a little more about Kate’s medical history. Like how she’d been on Prozac. But she stopped because it made her gain weight. Rebecca also learned about Kate’s binge eating.
So what else is up with their disconnect? It can’t only be because Kate mom is skinnier than she is…or is it? What else happened to Kate or to Rebecca that makes the relationship so fractured? I wonder if they’ll go into that more when the show returns on January 10. Rebecca wonders if Kate’s food problems are her fault, and tells Kate she didn’t know if she was bringing it up too much or not enough… she never knew what to say. Kate hasn’t put her finger on it either, and says she doesn’t know if her mom caused her food issues.
William is at a support group. And he speaks about taming his addiction from the inside. And then another man named Jessie speaks afterwards. As he talks about a man he loved. And a man who left. And left his heart in shambles. That man… William.
Yes sir, William is gay. He’s like the kid with two dads—like in a book at school. That’s what one of his granddaughters noted later on in the show, after William showed up at Randall’s house with Jesse. Grandad is gay. “Or at least bi,” she schooled her parents. Out of the mouths of babes who know what’s really going on, and have no qualms about love in all its forms.
Continue reading This is Us episode 10: Hooking us in for a January comeback
What are Garcia Flynn and Anthony after? Wish I knew. All I know is they travel through time to stop Rittenhouse from being able to… Not sure. But the writers keep throwing bread crumbs each week. Seems our villains—who might be our heroes, but seem really dastardly right now—don’t want Rittenhouse to learn how to travel through time.
Our villains might be our heroes, but seem really dastardly right now
In this week’s episode, they’re in 1969, trying to make sure Flynn doesn’t thwart the first moon landing.
He doesn’t, and our heroes manage to save the day yet again.
Viewers can’t expect to gain tons of new knowledge about Flynn’s motives, outside of him wanting to stop Rittenhouse from learning secrets of time travel. However, this episode reveals more learn about Flynn’s family background.
Flynn ends up meeting his mom, then a young widow who also worked as a secretary for an aerospace company. By the time Flynn is born, she’s an engineer. He tells her, after giving his mom’s son a shot in the arm, he remembers her as a sad woman, and he wants to make her life happier.
That shot? Saved his half-brother who was going into anaphylactic shock—the same day as the first moon landing. According to Flynn’s recollection of history, his half brother who died before Flynn was born. Flynn saved him that day and somehow ends up curing the boy’s allergic reaction to bee stings. When our heroic trio return to the present, that boy is now a man—living in Paris.
Meantime, Rufus doesn’t like the person he’s becoming as a result of these time hopping excursions. For the first time, he killed a man and didn’t feel anything about it. But before that, he was in nerd-man’s heaven with all his heroes doing their thing in mission control that day. (By the way, I consider “nerd” a compliment.)
This week’s episode also gave a long-overdue nod of recognition to NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson, whose calculations were instrumental to some of the agency’s groundbreaking missions.
This week’s episode here:
This is Us. A show that’s remarkably human.
In previous episode I didn’t recap…
Beth finds out Rebecca met William years ago. She learned this while she and William got high off some “adult brownies.”
Toby is grubbing down his spaghetti. Talking about what they’ll do in New York for the part of Thanksgiving holiday. Kate tells Toby the trip for both of them is a no-go because he’s chucked the diet and now Kate’s chucking him.
Kevin pretty much gave Olivia a rundown of his life. She intimated she felt he was from a typical bland middle-class family. “Wonder Bread,” she called it.
Yeah. They’re anything but that.
Continue reading Secrets escape the bag and big decisions—This Is Us Episode 8
They’re stuck. In 1754. Around the time of the French and Indian war. Some of Garcia Flynn’s henchmen put explosives on the Lifeboat, the prototype time machine that our main characters need to get back to the 21st century. The henchies were going to blow it up, but Wyatt gets their attention to try and stop them. Wyatt shoots one henchie to death, but another shoots at one of the explosives attached to the mothership.
It’s damaged, the henchmen leave, and Lucy, Rufus and Wyatt are stuck.
Rufus runs down possible ways to fix the machine… then remembers he may not have to. There’s “The Protocol.”
It involves digging a hole three feet in front of the Lifeboat and burying a message on special paper that’s sealed in a special, environmentally-unfriendly capsule.
They bury this message so folks in the future can find it. Then they get to moving… walking. And walking. And more walking. They find a dead soldier and get caught by Shawnee.
They’re in captivity and Rufus makes me wonder where he grew up because he starts talking about how he’s craving Chocodiles!!!! I ain’t neva heard any character talking about Chocodiles. I used to grab one on the way or from school every now and again. They cost a quarter back in the day.
Lucy geeks out when the chief walks in, because this tribe is run by
A woman! And she doesn’t trust the English-speaking white folks.
They’re about to kill Lucy and Wyatt but not Rufus. Why? Because he didn’t have a choice to be there… he was forced. She assumed Rufus was a slave. Of course, he isn’t, but he really didn’t have a choice because he was the only person who can pilot the Lifeboat. Anyway, the chief wanted to kill Lucy and Wyatt because they, according to her words, chose to be there.
Rufus comes to their rescue, like the magical negro he is, and says if they kill Lucy and Wyatt, they’ll have to kill him, too.
So the tribal leader agrees to spare them all because of Rufus’ honor, but if they act shady, she promises to kill them all.
Back in the future, the feds and folks from Mason Industries are digging up someone’s yard in a suburban Pittsburgh neighborhood. The Feds cleared the whole block by saying Zika-infected mosquitoes were found nearby.
They excavate and eventually find a capsule with the paper Rufus buried inside. Only the capsule is cracked and the special paper has partially disintegrated from time’s wear and tear.
So how will they get home? Well, unless the show arc is about to take a sharp turn to the who-knows-where, I assumed they’d figure out a way to get the trio back home.
They did.
You’ll find out when you watch that episode.
One thing to note: All of the angst and mistrust that Rufus, Lucy and Wyatt waded through in the Watergate episode was resolved, it seems. And they all acknowledged the reasons behind each other’s desires… Their pilot doing whatever it takes to keep his family safe, to also keep Rufus from selling out to Rittenhouse (Wyatt threw the recorder Connor Mason gave Rufus in some large swampy-looking hole), to bring back Lucy’s sister, and prevent Wyatt’s wife from getting killed.
Oh, and they made history, too.
So the crew bounces from The Alamo to the leisure-suit 70s, but not before we get a glimpse inside Rufus’ life.
He’s at home. His mother tells him about a game Rufus missed. His athlete brother missed a shot at the final buzzer, and was a little despondent about it. Rufus apologies for missing the game, but his mom says they both understood because he (Rufus) is working so hard for his family. Apparently he’s making bank and used his earnings to buy them a nice pad.
But Connor Mason shows up to their home with the Rittenhouse man…the same man who Rufus encountered on the street one night after his car konked out. Thanks to a Rittenhouse initiated hack. See, that happened after Rufus told Connor he wasn’t going to spy on his time traveling partners anymore.
Yeah. They stopped his car AND threatened his family the way men and suits do. They didn’t state it outright, but we all knew if Rufus didn’t feign cooperation his fam would be done for.
So or kept spying on them.
But in this episode all the secrets come spilling into the open. Including Lucy’s chats with Garcia Flynn.
But they both discover Rittenhouse is a name they have in common. And Wyatt discovers they’ve both been lying to him. And they all discover they have secrets. I think this includes Wyatt, whose motivation for time travel could be to make sure he alters events so his wife isn’t murdered. Wyatt also learns, from Flynn, about a diary Lucy has written… although she hasn’t yet written it… that talks about Wyatt’s obsession with his wife’s death.
This week’s location: Washington D.C. Watergate. Rittenhouse wants what’s still a mystery today… an 18 1/2 minute gap in a taped conversation between then-president Nixon and H.R. “Bob” Haldeman.
They also want some document… that turns out to be a “who.” A person they want Rufus to get rid of, but instead he helps to flee. The Doc knows all names of Rittenhouse member as by heart. And she’s been hiding out with the black liberation front.
Funny moment. Rufus finds their location with Lucy, but this time, she’s the odd one out. Instead of Rufus waiting outside in the 1930s with folks looking at him like he’s suspect, it was Lucy’s turn. And Rufus returned her advice. “Try not to make any eye contact.”
The full episode here and at NBC.com’s Timeless page:
When I am out in the field for work, I usually gather way more than enough tape than I need to turn a story around. What a waste if I don’t at least try to use at least some more of what’s gathered to tell more of the story.
That’s the goal of Extra Tape… even though I’m not using tangible tape to record anything anymore.
So let’s get to the story… The rector of a congregation in Silver Spring, Md. arrived to church and found hate-based messages written in two places on the church campus. Both messages read “Trump Nation whites only.” This congregation and its supporters and allies are pushing back with love:
Montgomery County, Md. Police are investigating what they call “hate-based vandalism,” and are offering a reward of up to $10,000 for information that leads to an arrest or arrests.
So when you attempt to start a good habit, don’t be like me one year ago. Follow-through with it. I tried this gratitude experiment I read about last year. The point was simple. Find at least one thing to be grateful for each day. While driving around today, I swear I saw a sign that asked “How many things can you find to be grateful for in the next ___ miles?” I don’t remember where I saw it, or how many miles I had to think up things I’m grateful for. I can tell you, I didn’t list my memory, because I promptly forgot.
But not before I forgot to be grateful for a job, Since I was driving about as part of my job.