To Do 06.25.20

BINGE: Black TV Shows

If you are hearing about Black lives now more than ever, you might think it’s all hardship and oppression. That’s real. But there’s also creativity, warmth, purpose, joy, tradition, laughter, family, faith, education, etc. Here are some TV shows that give a peek into those qualities that make Black lives not only matter, but magnificent. Good Times was a TV revolution in the 1970s for its depiction of a poor family living in the projects who were rich with love. Queen Latifah’s 1990s hit show Living Single starred young Black women (and a few men) navigating life together, and did so a year before Friends. The Bernie Mac Show brought the charm, realness and love of family of the namesake standup comic to network sitcom land. A Different World shines with young people at a predominantly Black university. Insecure is a real, hip and musical journey with Black millennial girlfriends in L.A. Atlanta, about young Black folks trying to come up, might be the sharpest depiction of the South right now. Black-ish is a current version of Black family sitcoms of the past, with more irony. Pose focuses with exuberance on LGBTQ+ people of color in New York’s lively voguing culture of the 1980s.

LISTEN: To Protest Music

Protest songs can be about a specific event in time while transcending that event to become timeless, urging you to keep thinking through the moment and to keep feeling what you’re feeling. Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are a-Changin” synthesized Irish ballads, the Bible and hippie culture into an iconic protest song of the 1960s. “We Shall Overcome,” a slow-sung gospel song, unified masses of people during the civil rights movement. U2’s anthemic “Sunday Bloody Sunday” is about British soldiers shooting civil rights protesters during The Troubles in Northern Ireland. Green Day’s “American Idiot” conjures The Clash and Dead Kennedys to blast lowest-common-denominator politics. The Killers’ “Land of the Free” is an anthem and a lament about many of our deepest problems. Kendrick Lamar wrote the searing and propulsive “Alright” in the wake of the death of Michael Brown. “Imagine” by John Lennon was his way of planting in people’s minds the audacious dream of a better world; see a performance of it by 57 Stevenson School students (search “Imagine Stevenson School Musicians” on YouTube) that will compel you to think and feel and, yes, imagine.

WATCH: Something Funny

It’s good to stay up on what’s going down. But it’s a lot right now and you need downtime too. At night, watch a comedy movie to end the day with a smile. The 40-Year-Old Virgin is Steve Carell at his dorkiest fish out of water. In 2019’s Booksmart, the studious girls get their party on to hilarious effect. Any of British director/writer Edgar Wright’s so-called Cornetto trilogy (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, The World’s End) will make you giddy. Tropic Thunder spoofs war movies and Hollywood at the same time. Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle is a classic stoner comedy. Spy, starring Melissa McCarthy as a timid undercover agent, is lethally funny. Check out Mike Judge’s Idiocracy for some of the best smart dumb comedy around. Bridesmaids will have you verklempt. There’s plenty more. But don’t wade too far into those soothing waters of escape; you’ll want your faculties back in the real world.