A ay yi yi!

Alexa invades home of old woman

Ave Maria Morena! A small object, much resembling a wee clock radio, has landed in my kitchen. My excuse for acquiring this gadget was that it would enable me to dwell in the land of YouTube and be ‘edutained’ whilst I cook.

I am bored by most things and appalled by the news, but podcasts have more than made up for that. There ARE wonderful things happening too. I do like having an algorithm pander to me. Tell me more about Vitamin D. Let me follow the instruction of Pradip Jamnadas, MD, who, unbeknownst to him, is the main character in the medical team that keeps me alive. The team has expanded now, thanks to AI, so I can double check, but not overthink.

Earlier in life I deliberately stayed in the fog as much as possible. The realistic opportunities for working class girls were meager. With little to no guidance, I soothed myself with famous books and I read the surface stories. Though my body was trapped in Levittown, my soul was sweltering in Yoknapatawpha County with the Faulkner folk. I’d say that was about as far as I could imagine from where I was at the time. I was a pretentious pretender. I can’t claim to fully apprehend the deeper story even today.

Two threads peek through this old garment that is basted together and now strongly sewn in places: books and music. How clever. I escaped into both. When I was a child, my seafaring grandfather brought back an album of 78 rpm records: ‘Machito y sus Afro Cubans.’ I started with rhumba and the obsession with latin music and dancing grew and continues to grow. So, I can be podcasted into fascination and now, thanks to Alexa, I can gently say, “Play ‘Nague’ by Machito,” and forget about pomp and pederasty in the government.

Ay yi yi!