Entertaining Ourselves During Quarantine
If you’re fortunate enough to be safely housebound as the current pandemic continues, you’re probably doing what our team is doing: relying on movies, TV shows, books, and music to provide distractions and stress-relief. One of the most powerful tools for processing and coping with real-life events can be the simple enjoyment of someone else’s creative ideas.
That probably explains why streaming services saw mass surge of viewers watching Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion in March. If art imitates life, then it makes sense that some of us find comfort by watching a film with themes and events that mirror our own lives at the moment. Music works the same way – psychologically, it can help us understand our own mental and emotional states by listening to someone else’s.
On the other hand, we all need a little escapism. And if we can’t catch a flight to somewhere warm and gorgeous at the moment, we can queue up an album or a binge-able series that makes us feel almost as relaxed.
I wonder how many people are watching summer flicks like Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Dazed and Confused, and Into the Wild in lieu of their cancelled summer plans. Maybe you’re in the middle of re-watching all of Seinfeld or Living Single to remember a simpler, earlier decade. Or perhaps Spotify recommended a new artist last week, and you so badly needed a change of pace that you’ve been listing to them nonstop ever since.
Whatever your choice of entertainment, the Vivid team is in the same boat. As a firm with several clients in the creative space, we’ve never appreciated entertainers, writers, performers, artists, and singers more than we do right now. Here’s a look at what each of us is watching, listening to, or interacting with at the moment:
Beth B. Moore, Senior Counsel:
“Dave is the based-on-real-life television incarnation of Dave Burd, the YouTube-famous rapper/comedian known as Lil Dicky, playing himself in a fictionalized half-hour serial comedy on FX, currently in its first season. Audiences get to know Dave, the goofy, cerebral, Jewish guy with a girlfriend, as well as his alter-ego Lil Dicky, the crude, egotistical, fantasy-driven storyteller, never knowing exactly where to draw the line between the two.
Dave's journey in the show as an up-and-coming rapper demonstrates and respectfully challenges the absurd relationships artists have not only with their own art, but also with their management team, record label executives, producers, and other artists. Viewers who are not dissuaded by the show's NSFW humor will hopefully see what I see: an incredibly funny, original, existential, high quality production that sets a new standard for the combination of music, television, and pop culture.”
Melissa Castro, Associate:
“Besides live streams, I've been really into The Quarantine Coloring Book. It's a collection of black and white drawings by various artists made for downloading and coloring. It's the perfect activity to do indoors while listening to music or outdoors while enjoying the weather! It's relaxing, it gives my eyes a break from electronics, and it’s fun to get colorfully creative.” (IG: @thequarantinecoloringbook)
Marcy Sperry, Founder:
“I’ve been watching Ozark. It’s a phenomenal series Jason Bateman is genius – he directs and stars in it and just nails his character. It's gripping. It's filmed here in Atlanta too, at Eagle Rock Studios. Our team got the chance to tour the set last year, which makes it twice as fun to watch now!”
John Brinson, Paralegal:
“I have been hooked on Call of Duty: Warzone during the extended time at home. Not being able to see my friends in person has been rough, but using this as a medium to connect a few times a week (rather than just through texts) has been a much needed outlet. I’m sure there are tens of millions of others in the same boat as me, considering the game wasn’t released until a few weeks prior to most of the U.S. shutting down.”
Nikki Davis, Office Manager:
"I've been obsessed with Fiona Apple's new album, Fetch the Bolt Cutters. She’s got a voice that reminds me of being a kid—when I was 8 years old, you could find me after school glued to my grandma’s TV while watching VH1 and MTV for the first time. I remember seeing Fiona show up on Pop-Up Video and trying to understand what in the world she was singing about, and why she looked so grumpy.
Thirteen years later, I get it. Her new album is honest in a way you won’t find from other artists. It lands in the same quirky, raw, bluesy indie space that she’s so good at embodying—and the subject matter is cut from the same cloth: navigating friendships as you get older, reconciling your younger identities with your older self, defining what you will or won’t put up with as an adult. If you’re the introspective sort, this is a great piece for anyone sheltering solo these days."
Alex Aron, Senior Counsel:
"My favorite movies tend to be action, crime, and thriller films. I recently watched Den of Thieves on Netflix and really liked it. It's hard to say no to a good heist movie, and it helps that this one was filmed here in Atlanta. (I definitely saw Johnny's Hideaway during one scene.) Cheers to our local film community!"
