The Author Gives Employment News and Then Discusses a Few Movies and TV Shows

Jessie Buckley and Olivia Coleman in Wicked Little Letters

It’s a wonderful feeling to be offered a job. To be wanted. Valued. Appreciated. I enjoyed that feeling yesterday when I was hired by Kaplan in Berkeley, an English language school where I can ply my trade as a teacher. I was interviewed and observed giving a twenty-minute demo lesson for fifteen students. Suffice to say it went well.

I’d been down in the dumps for months about not being gainfully employed on a regular basis since April. I’d left LSI in Berkeley last December as the school was falling apart for EF in San Francisco a steady, stable school that seemed to be thriving. EF closed its doors in June. LSI is still a going concern. (Shows what I know.) The difference? Paying SF rent versus owning the building you operate out of.

So I look forward to a regular paycheck but much more than that I look forward to doing something I’m rather good at while I’m still in peak form. I love the work. I love the interaction with students. I love helping students improve. 

In my younger days I wouldn’t have imagined that I’d still want to be working at my age. I imagined retirement as paradise. It can be. If you’ve worked long and hard at a job — especially one you never really loved — the notion of having a daily lie in and all your hours to yourself can be enticing. But why would I want to retire from something I love doing? 

Some people cannot handle retirement, it even leads to an early death. I’ve known of a couple of people who sank into despair when their working days ended and died within a year. Likely of ennui. My father initially struggled with retirement but then he found activities such as fishing, gardening, canvassing for the Democratic Party and chillin’ with his grandkids. During my brief flirtation with retirement I was delighted to fully occupy myself with writing -- a couple of novels emerged. If I had to I could handle retirement with aplomb (or a peach or an apricot). But I don’t gotta.

My starting date is still to be determined though likely shortly after Labor Day. Can’t wait.

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I saw Sing Sing at — as they used to call them — a moving picture house last Sunday. As he did in last year’s Rustin, Colmon Domingo turns in a brilliant performance and he has quickly established himself as one of our preeminent actors. Sing Sing is the true story of the famous prison’s theater rehabilitation program. Many of the actors play themselves in what is obviously their film debuts. The blend of professional actors like Domingo and “real people” like the previous imprisoned works seamlessly. It's one of the films that is all the more effective because it’s a true story.

I also recently caught another new movie, Wicked Little Letters, on Netflix. What fun! Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley are brilliant. Miss Buckley first came to my attention as the homicidal nurse, Oraetta Mayflower, in season four of Fargo. She has emerged as an absolute treasure. Letters is delightfully funny, delightfully British and is another film that is all the better for being based on a true story. In this case an investigation into the anonymous author of numerous crudely insulting letters sent to the residents of the seaside town Littlehampton. 

Speaking of fun, I also recently re-watched The Birdcage (1996) Nichols starring Robin Williams and Nathan Lane. It’s one of those rare films that is literally laugh-out-loud funny. To be clear this means that the viewer (in this case, me) laughed loudly on several occasions during the course of the picture. I titter and chuckle a lot during comedies but to actually loudly guffaw is for me unusual. For there to be numerous instance of this is rare indeed. Most of the laughs came courtesy of Mr. Lane who was just then emerging as a star.

What else makes me laugh out loud these? Seth Myers on his show Late Night for one. I just started re-watching 30 Rock and the first two episodes provoked outbursts of empathic chuckling. Prior to thatI  had worked my way through all eleven seasons of Frasier and many of its episodes did the trick. Frasier, by the way, is great comfort viewing. It doesn’t ask a lot of you, it's not provocative but it doesn’t, shall we say, talk down to you. Great cast but my favorite is David Hyde Pierce as Niles. Perfect comic timing. More laughs are coming next week when Martin Short and Steven Martin return in the newest season of Only Murders in the Building. What joy.