Gratitude is the emotion. Celebration is the practice.
Have you ever met someone and known from the start that an angel had been sent to grace your life?
That’s how I felt in October of 2012. Frank had gone off to Japan for a fifteen-day adventure, leaving me with an unusual stretch of solitude. In a stroke of serendipity just weeks before, I’d reached out to Peggy Fitzsimmons, having heard remarkable stories of her de-cluttering magic. She happened to be free in October, and we booked five full days of work together.
When I sat down with my husband to watch Nomadland, released last week on Hulu, I expected a bleak portrait of near-homeless Americans disadvantaged by an ever-widening economic disparity. Co-produced by and starring the brilliant Frances McDormand, I was willing to go on the journey, and connect to the pain of a disenfranchised population.
The film is a multi-layered work with plenty to say. Some will see it as a paean to independent spirit, and the primal appeal of the open road to those who refuse to be settled. And while it’s true that economic hardship creates the underlying conditions of struggle, a few intriguing scenes suggest deeper layers.
Ted Lasso, a new original series on Apple TV+, manages to pull off a near-impossible feat. It is a laugh-out-loud funny comedy imbued with silliness, genuine warmth, moments of poignant pathos, and a special something extra wrapping the show in fascination.
The story begins as the indomitable title character arrives in London to coach a premier football club. Embodied as a sheer force of goodness by the brilliant Jason Sudeikis, also one of the series’ creators and writers, Lasso is an upbeat, quirky Division 2 football coach from Kansas City with homespun wisdom. He knows nothing about European football (soccer), but is willing to leap into the unknown and guide the team.
