What We Do in the Furloughs
Curing creative distress with cultural consumption
“I do the words.” That’s how I explain my role as a copywriter at work. It’s an oversimplification, but people still respond with “wow—I never even considered that as a job.” As if the words on websites just…appear.
The hardest part of being a professional writer—for me, at least, though I suspect other creatives feel the same—is finding the time and motivation to write outside of my 9-to-5. When your hustle is also your hobby, everything can feel like work.
Now, thanks to a global pandemic, I have the writing-for-me time I’ve pined for. 90 days of it. Three weeks in, remembering to eat lunch remains an accomplishment. Someone else will have to write the Great American Quarantine Novel, because I ain’t got it.
I got Hulu, Netflix, Spotify, four gajillion cable channels, and an entire internet’s worth of content to consume, though. Here’s what I’ve read and watched to keep my mind busy.
Shut Up and Play the Hits
A Last Waltz for us “old millennials” and Gen Xers, this 2012 documentary follows James Murphy as he prepares for LCD Soundsystem’s farewell concert at Madison Square Garden. In typical rock-doc style the film intersperses show footage, private scenes, and Murphy’s conversations with Chuck Klosterman.
Murphy is unshy about his pretentiousness but driven by a desire to be “cool” that most of us outgrow, making him at turns pitiful and relatable. Is self-awareness cool, when the “self” in question is insecure? It seemed obvious—despite talk of gray hair and “going out on top”—that LCD Soundsystem wasn’t done. Spoiler: they’ve since reunited, toured, headlined Coachella, performed on Saturday Night Live, released “American Dream,” and won a Grammy.
The concert footage captures peak LCD: an electric fizz that sounds equally at home in a mildewy dive bar and in the Garden. Although I cannot understand why he saves “Jump into the Fire” for the end, when it should obviously segue into “Drunk Girls.”
