Consortium of Seven: Year 4

        Particularly disjointed this week. No good reason to go into specifics, just the opening caution that these are disconnected bits that just happen to find themselves in this Friday piece.       Thanks to an old friend, I had access to Apple TV+'s Ted Lasso as of this past weekend, and happily binged through the 10-episode season one that weekend, and have since rolled into the 12-episode season two. I believe I have five or six episodes to go. I'm trying to savor them.       The foundational premise is that an American college football coach (the eponymous Ted, played by series co-creator Jason Sudeikis) is, to the international sports world's surprise, hired to coach a (fictional) English Premiere League football (which Americans would call soccer) club, despite his having no experience with the sport. The "why" of the job offer is also laid out, as I recall, within the first episode, but I don't wa...

        Another week where trying to keep some concept - or at least personally-convincing illusion - of balance in play, and keep on keeping on, is a challenge.       My votes have been cast - official notice that my ballot's been received and accepted - and I need to find some peace in that and in simply surviving.       Shifting attentions to the trivialities of entertainments feels insane in the face of so much, but we do need distractions to help us reset when the so much is buzzing in the brain that sleep isn't an easy option, and must be tricked into settling in.        I'll note in passing that I'm continuing to enjoy AMC/AMC+'s Interview with the Vampire (Sunday nights), Amazon Prime's adaptation of William Gibson's The Peripheral (new episodes Fridays), and IFC's fourth season of mockumentaries Documentary Now! (new episodes Thursdays.) The latter's generally fun on its own, but ...