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Abid Rahman

There’s no point pretending, the cascade of pandemic news is starting to get to me and, I’m sure, everyone else. Anxiety is up, optimism is down and the economy is flat­lining. Given the state of things, it can be hard to see any upside at the moment, and too easy to see levity as downplaying the situation or being glib and uncaring. All of which makes writing columns like this pretty tricky.
But we can’t let the virus win.
So this week’s column is all about good vibes, focusing on positive news, the moments of joy and the downright hilarious things that have happened recently.
To add an extra layer of difficulty, I will use the structure of the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon parlour game to thread together these happy vignettes. All good things should end with Kevin Bacon.
Let’s start with some good news that’s very close to home. I got married last month. There were face masks, elbow bumps instead of hand­shakes and hugs, and social distancing – the whole nine yards. Quarantine etiquette meant physically exchanging rings wasn’t on the agenda and kissing the bride was verboten, but love finds a way.

 Of course, owing to the circumstances, it was a drastically small affair, but we made it work and the suspension of international flights meant the mother-in-law couldn’t make it. The wedding pictures are hila­rious, so much so I want to send them to John Krasinski.
Krasinski was the inspiration for this column in many ways after his lo-fi, DIY attempts to highlight “Some Good News” went viral. In his YouTube show, which follows a mock news report format, the actor runs through inspirational stories from around the world of people dealing with the pandemic.
Yes, even those getting married. The cynic in me was all ready to roll his eyes, but the attempt by Krasinski, aka Jim from the US version of The Office, is sweet and uplifting and worth checking out.
The Office’s Will Ferrellalso made the news recently for being one of more than 20 celebrities, led by Gal Gadot, who thought what the world needed right now was a pretty bad rendition of John Lennon’s anthem Imagine .Maybe they felt it might help people heal or feel better, but all it did was unite left and right, liberal and conservative, in the opinion that it was tone deaf and awful. Lennon could never have envisaged such unity.
Lennon’s death is captured in the 2007 biographical film Chapter 27, starring Jared Leto (as Lennon’s killer Mark Chapman). The Oscar-winning actor is famed for his kooky ways. But Leto out-Leto’d himself recently when he tweeted that he had missed news of the pandemic lockdown in the United States as he had been in the desert on a 12-day silent meditation.
“We were totally isolated. No phone, no communication etc,” he tweeted. “We had no idea what was happen­ing outside the facility. Walked out yesterday to a totally different world.” No sh*t, Jared.


Leto was late to coronavirus but he was early to Netflix’s incredible docu-series Tiger King. The actor’s live-tweet of his Tiger King binge was widely followed and, like everyone else who has seen the show since, he was floored by the cast of cartoon characters populating the world of exotic animals in America’s Deep South.
If you haven’t already seen Tiger King, don’t miss it. For once, the hype undersells how mad this show really is, and you’ll want to know what the world is raving about.
Tiger King has become such a pheno­menon that people are ravenous for more. Already green-lit is a limited drama series adaptation, starring Kate McKinnon as Big Cat Rescue’s Carole Baskin.
There is also talk of a feature film. Among the actors in the hunt for the role of Joe Exotic are Edward Norton and Leto, but the favourite with Las Vegas bookmakers is Kevin Bacon.


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Coronavirus pandemic

Tiger King on Netflix and other things to enjoy under lockdown – good news in bad times

Joe Maldonado-Passage, also known as Joe Exotic, aka the Tiger King of the Netflix docu-series of the same name. Photo: courtesy of Netflix

The author (Abid Rahman) and wife on their wedding day

Coronavirus: Gloria Estefan updates ’80s hit, telling fans to ‘Put On Your Mask’

A screen grab from Gloria Estefan's “Put On Your Mask” video, sung to the tune of her 1980s hit “Get On Your Feet”. Photo: Gloria Estefan via Instagram

Tiger King, Westworld and Peaky Blinders: what are Hong Kong’s athletes watching during coronavirus isolation?

Victoria Campos, Ramona Pascual and Siobhan Haughey are binging on TV shows like the rest of us right now. Photo: SCMP Graphics

Kingdom: return of Korean zombie series is a well-timed lesson in what to do in a pandemic

Bae Doo-na in a still from Kingdom, now streaming on Netflix. Photo: Handout

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Seeking the positive in the pandemic, from social distancing at a wedding to Jared Leto’s live-tweeted binge of the most talked-about show on streaming


Seeking the positive in the pandemic, from social distancing at a wedding to Jared Leto’s live-tweeted binge of the most talked-about show on streaming.


Coronavirus pandemic: All stories

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Jared Leto

Expresses the views, ideas and conclusions of the author. (Eg. Enough of Crazy Rich Asians, think of crazy poor Hongkongers.)


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.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Seeking the positive in the pandemic, from social distancing at a wedding to Jared Leto’s live-tweeted binge of the most talked-about show on streaming

Seeking the positive in the pandemic, from social distancing at a wedding to Jared Leto’s live-tweeted binge of the most talked-about show on streaming