Does anybody really know what time it is?...

does anybody really care?....and so we approach the end of 2021...or as I now refer to it as 2020 2.0...here we are again...omicron is rampaging...you can't get a testing appointment...a home kit...well, you can...but you'll wait...pay mark-up...if you were negative when you get on line, you'll be positive by the time you hear "next"...I think all of this is kind of like groundhog's day...the angst replays over and over...and the stupidity too...and it makes the concept of time very elusive...it still seems to slip through your fingers...but what have you done...because this is like fire...which needs oxygen to burn...and covid's oxygen is a host...to infect and mutate going forward...and that leads to vaccination...not just here, but in countries you might never have heard of...and the line between the haves and have nots...the inequality of this world might just kill us...and so I look to my salvation...the arts...and all those who are pushing back...still creating...giving us novels...streaming...music...movies...art...and I want to be wowed...because I need to be wowed...want to love a new movie...not based on a critic who heaps praises on it for its credentials, not substance...but this year that has not happened...so far this year I have only found that "wow" in one book...and two performances...the book is "Matrix" the latest from the immensely talented Lauren Groff...for the few days it took me to read, I was taken away from the relentless horrible news cycle here...and transported to an abbey in the time of Eleanor of Aquitaine...and taken to other terrible times...but also times of great redemption and heroism...and then last week...watching the segment on Joni Mitchell at the Kennedy Center Honors...Brandi Carlisle singing "River"...Brittany Howard singing "Both Sides Now"...google and watch...then google and listen to Joni in her prime...close your eyes...ignore breaking news on your cell...skate away on that river with Joni...breathe deep...glide into 2022 with time on your side, and hope in your grasp...

maybe not just like that...

and just like that I watched the first episode...the much anticipated continuation of the lives of Carrie, Charlotte, Miranda...and the ghost of Samantha...so, how is it?...well, first, as a writer, let me weigh in...I could hear all my professors...workshop compatriots...screaming...SHOW, DON'T TELL...Michael Patrick King and the writers need to go out on that limb...accept the audience has a decent baseline intelligence level...we can follow...don't bog the 41 minutes down with explanation...second...is this going to be 10 episodes of mea culpa?...we all know SATC was very white...it also was less than flattering in Charlotte's conversion to Judaism...or in its portrayal of "waspy" old money...and were Stanford and Anthony gay stereotypes...yes...then, no...in trying to right what current cancel culture dictates as wrong...the series risks get strangled as it tiptoes the politically correct minefield...I've been reading comments on Twitter, and elsewhere..."OMG, how could they do that to Big?...uh, wake up...our beloved characters are in their fifties and sixties...and dear Mr. Big already had a cardiac wake-up call way back when...and for the record...Carrie and Big's love story was messy and complicated...much like real life...this death may actually drive the plot...or not...let's see where they take her going forward...but here it is...the real problem rests with some of the show's audience...for women who were in their teens and early twenties watching the original...you aren't where these characters are now in life...so I hate to spout generalizations but you might not get it...whereas the original, with "Sex" blazing in its title...pushed boundaries within the confines of HBO...I am hoping this new chapter pushes boundaries of our dated perception of post-menopausal women...their relationships with significant others...children...peers...best friends...but most importantly themselves...if the writers can get there without tripping on the clumsiness of our "girls" navigating new territory...well, I'll raise a Cosmo to that...