Wrapped up The Larry Sanders show a few days ago. It was fantastic. Needed a replacement.
When I say need I mean need. I am desperate to laugh. It is fucking medicinal right now at a level of intensity heretofore not experienced.
I had a meltdown a week or two ago with this Covid madness. I have realized since then that it is a general malaise; it is there always, assaulting my brain with the incomprehensible, and fucking despair. It was that two year old girl that pushed me over the top that day. But generally I am just sad. Even given the bizarre truth of how good our life is going right now
So I need distraction. I need to laugh to bring my soul back above the surface. Even if only for short periods of time.
I always assume my approach to life is the best. I want to binge watch shows I haven't seen before. Stimulate my brain with newness. I was considering Parks and Recreation, which I have never seen, or The Office, which I only sporadically watched.
Ran it by Carol - she said "How about Cheers?" I am trying to be more flexible so I agreed.
Holy shit it was like coming home. Immediately. I was overwhelmed with the sheer comfort of watching these episodes. And there are a LOT pf them. Like 22 per season with something like 11 seasons.
Such a good show. The kind of show that strikes a perfect balance between insanity, sensitivity, lovable characters, intelligence, and just full on funniness. We have laughed so much. The first day we watched 10 episodes. That's almost 5 hours of TV. Fucking fantastic.
I am so comfortable with these characters and they make me feel good. So happy to have them back in my life. It feels like I know them.
It also touches a nerve with me. One thing I need in my life is a comfortable bar to hang in. I sorely miss that right now. Have for a long time.
Probably the three best experiences in that arena in my life were Mangini's, The Legion, and Sarge's.
Mangini's was a dive bar - I'm talking fall down alcoholics - that we hung in as college students. The average age of everyone else in the bar was 123. But we got along with them. Drank with them. Played bumper pool with them. Had fun.
The Legion was fun for me because I was a minor celebrity. I was a pretty popular bartender there and I was comfortable there. And the regulars were essentially fucked in the head. Which made for some crazy times. Very crazy times.
Sarge's was the best. I was treated like royalty there because I am married to the owner's sister. Pretty good deal. We knew a lot of people there. Good people. The bar was a 2 hour drive for us, so we didn't get there as often as we wanted to. Then again, considering the distance, we got there more often than you would think. It was a blast.
Anyway, I want a Cheers back in my life again. It is a comforting thing to have.
And the song, man. The song is perfect. Especially given these dark and despondent times we are living in. It is wistful and comforting. As we pull up each episode there is an option to skip the intro. Which means skipping the song.
We never do that. Never. We listen to it every single time.
I will leave you with the lyrics. They are perfect.
Making your way in the world today takes everything you got.
Taking a break from all your worries, sure would help a lot.
Wouldn't you like to get away?
Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name,
and they're always glad you came.
You wanna be where you can see,
our troubles are all the same,
You wanna be where everybody knows your name.
You wanna go where people know,
people are all the same,
you wanna go where everybody knows
your name.
No comments:
Post a Comment