And Now for Something Completely Different

We need a break from that C-word thing, so I asked the Examiner crew what they do to distract themselves or otherwise get in a different head space.

Here’s a sampling of what they sent me. Some of them sent a long list of things, and I think I’ll return to those lists in the future (maybe we’ll get to Phil’s wrestling videos); we’re in this for a very long haul, unfortunately, and we’ll need some regular breaks.

Erica Butler

This is the thing (besides my 8-year-old) that has given me the most joyful distraction of the past few days. Maggie Rahr had tweeted out the cat and domino video, which is the only one I’ve seen, but according to Mashable, this is the source:

There’s something about the idea of this person spending such a great amount of time (possibly close to a 14-day isolation?) on this video that makes it even better somehow. Like the care, creativity and sheer determination it must have taken to make this video fills me with respect. And also it reminds me that humans really do need silliness. Some need more than others, but we all need some.

Linda Pannozzo

I love Baroness Von Sketch… it isn’t always great, some sketches really miss the mark, but this one always makes me laugh:

El Jones

I watch the Royal Opera House channel (I like the Royal Ballet in rehearsal vids). This one is odd but very calming: 13 minutes of ballet dancers just walking across the stage. The grand defile of the Paris Opera Ballet (for hundreds of years every dancer from the youngest student in the school to the primas is presented to the public):

Philip Moscovitch

This scene, from one of my favourite films, the weirdo musical-comedy-horror-camp movie Phantom of the Paradise.

Iris the Magnificent

Bake With Jack! I got into making sourdough bread this summer, and just in time. This fella’s videos helped a lot, and he says “pain in the bum” with a cute Cockney accent:

Yvette d’Entremont

I also have a penchant for funny animal videos, most especially ones featuring dogs acting like humans. Don’t judge me! Something about it just makes me forget bad things. Haha:

Joan Baxter

Yesterday afternoon I was deeply saddened to read a tweet from Marco Werman, host of PRI’s “The World,” saying that the Congolese soukous star, Aurlus Mabele, had died in Paris, reportedly from complications from COVID-19.

In his tweet, he invited his followers to honour Mabele by watching this video:

So I did.

Over and over.

And then over again.

Evelyn C. White

In the sublime diddy-bop with which Whitney Houston enters the stage one witnesses the all too often tested survival instincts of Black women from Nigeria to North Preston. Despite the outcome, this epic live performance never fails to lift my spirits and continues to inform my practice as a journalist.

Tim Bousquet

I get lost in Marx Brothers’ videos. They’re of a very different era; to our modern sensibilities, there are some cring-worthy moments, some of the skits fall flat on their face, others seem to go a very long way for punchline (there’s a four-minute prelude to get to the pun “Sanity Clause“), and yet taken as a whole, it’s a body of work that is simply delightful.