Saw FIRST MAN, which was good if not great. I guess biopics never completely work for me and it is hard to top THE RIGHT STUFF when it comes to astronauts. But this was well made, well acted and about as good as it could be.
Rewatching SUCCESSION on HBO and enjoying it more the second time around. And I must say I think THE DEUCE's second year was pretty terrific. (Megan bowed out early on this season so this has nothing to do with her involvement).
Had dinner with friends several nights and lunch with friends several days. As I have said before, I cherish my friends. They have carried me through some rough years.
How about you?
15 comments:
Glad you've had some good TV/film viewing lately, Patti.
I had the same thoughts about First Man. Well done but the first half is a little on the slow side.
My reading this week: Sunrise Highway by Peter Blauner, good but not great. A terrific SF novel by Israeli writer Lavie Tidhar called Unholy Land. And Roger Daltry's autobiography Thank You Mr. Kibblewhite, interesting for fans of The Who but not particularly well written. Reads more like transcribed tape recordings.
Also liked how The Deuce ended up. A strong second season. Watching Australian series Rake on Netflix. Finished season 1 and enjoying it. Four more to go. Also enjoying John Oliver.
The Detroit Lions are terrible and I have stopped watching.
Weather sucks. Not ready for this cold. And snow. But it is going on mid November so it's expected.
Elections went well in Michigan. Would have liked Dem wins in Florida and Texas-particularly hate Ted Cruz.
Carry over from last week's Wednesday addendum: I am so, so glad the current Governor will be gone in January.
I leafed through Sally Field's book and it looks absolutely fascinating.
Parent teacher conferences for Boy #1 were last Thursday and he is doing quite well in his sophomore year. I asked his French teacher about study abroad and she said he would be skilled enough by his senior year. Not sure if Boy #1 would be interested but I have said he should ponder the idea. Assuming we can afford it, of course.
I finished listening to the third Tana Fench book. I'll have to take a break from those for a while. The books are all good but after listening to three books in close succession leaves me over analyzing her formula and foci on family trauma and associating trauma with a geographic location.
Democrats still have a chance in Florida. Much as the Arizona conservative and bisexual (because this happens) Democrat seems likely to win (I can only guess the number of Sin-ema jokes made). I guess we'll see about Georgia.
Glad as too often in the past that I've lost only the books and magazines I have so far. Toting book boxes both good and bad for the back. But at least we have an apparently consistently working sump pump now.
Alice gets a new CPAP today, as the first one made it very difficult to sleep. Kind of Really Not Helping.
The short season of THE DEUCE, indeed very engaging, leaves HBO as of last night with Very Little to run in series on Sunday night, at least till something else is added...the new SALLY4EVER import intentionally lays everything on thick, particularly of course the protagonist having had a decade-long live-in affair with a man that no one could tolerate for an hour. I don't care how passive Sally is meant to be, and she isn't all That passive, she would've left or been exonerated for justified homicide some years back at latest, or more likely never had a second date. (Not that he's so much abusive, though he stages a Very unfortunate attempt at Spicing Things Up, so much as whiny and aggressively self-indulgent and needy.) It's FAWLTY TOWERS level extreme, in a less slapstick sort of way. FT was never my jam, either, though I could watch it, much as I watched the pilot here (and those reviewing several episodes note that the Julia Davis character Sally turns to as a new lover is also deranged, which was being hinted at strongly in the first episode.)
We're in New Orleans. That alone is enough. We're with friends and we wish you could have been here.
The high point so far was the barbecue at Deb and John's in Slidell yesterday. I rented a giant SUV since there were seven of us. John was up at 1 am to start smoking brisket and pulled pork in the Big Green Egg. We had a great time. You were missed.
George and Diane and our other friends are leaving Wednesday but we will be here until Friday.
Often thought i probably need a CPAP. Don't lift boxes of books. I know more people who hurt themselves doing that at library book sales.
Also I think HBO is doing MY BRILLIANT FRIEND next.
Gerard, I bet those trips are heavily subsidized. My DIL did it her junior year of hs and her family would not have had the money.
Scott Walker needs to be pushed out to sea.
Jeff & Jackie, Maggie, Beth & Wilba, and Diane and I loved the feast Deb and John presented us with yesterday. The food was fabulous as was the great conversations!
New Orleans is rainy today, but we're going to have dinner at Emeril's with our niece who is a CSI forensic investigator in Slidell.
Western NY is freezing and getting snow. We're in the Big Easy enjoying Life! Wish you were here!
I have cousins in the New Orleans area. LaQuerres. Glad folks are having a pleasant rendez-vous.
Alas, Patti, not lifting boxes of books (and magazines, worse if they're slick-paper magazines) isn't an option: lifting and tooting is a necessity to get at the storage boxes at the bottom of the stacks in the cube, to determine what's water-damaged in every given bottom box. Actually bending over in a chair and emptying and sorting the boxes might actually be hyper-extending my back worse. Though I'm a long-time veteran of both such activities.
Among the books I've failed to save is a historical novel by Zoe Oldenbourg. Haven't ret read anything by her...I see she has mostly passionate and mildly engaged readers on Amazon, if I was to replace my paperback from them, no outright detractors. A good name for historical fiction.
I don't believe I have severe enough apnea to make the trouble of CPAP worthwhile. But I haven't been tested.
Tooting less a necessity than toting.
Me either, todd, but I wake up a lot, which I guess is a sign.
Glad you are all having fun down there. Hopefully I will get somewhere sometime. I definitely have cabin fever.
We've moved (of sorts) into our new apartment. There's a lot still to bring over, but we have a bed, a sofa, a television, and the damned cat so we are officially here. Saturday they replaced the broken glass in our living room window and fixed the AC. This morning they came to install a new dishwasher, realized they had the wrong parts, left, and came back again. Our house has still not sold, so we are considering our options.
Television and internet were hooked up Friday. By Sunday both were dead. Calling out cable company was an exercise in frustration -- I would get disconnected, told twice they had no record of my phone number, and was told they were too busy to take my call. Grrr. Finally got a hold of the cable company about 5:00 this morning and was told that the storms through the southeast has raised with their lines. Somewhere in Tennessee (or maybe Kentucky) thirty-five fiber optic cables were severed in the storm; the cables were in a flood area and were now underwater. I was told once they were able to drain the water, they would fix the cables. But -- o frabjous day! -- when we got home from lunch today, everything was fixed. And that is my excuse for not responding to this post earlier.
Sunday was Pensacola Marathon day. Mark ran two years ago and did very well (under four hours). This year he was not able to train as he should have due to unbearably hot weather and strong storms this summer. He had planned to train for a bit over one thousand miles over the summer but was only to do under three hundred -- about 22% of the training he really needed. So his goal this year was just to finish the 26.2 mile course. And he did through pure guts and determination. He finished in about four hours forty-five minutes, was third in his age group, and 188th overall. We had made encouraging signs for him and everyone hop-scotched over the race route to track his progress. Jack also positioned himself at several spots around the route to give high-fives to the runners.
A storm hit us pretty hard this morning, with tornado warnings and occasional flooding. It let enough about 11:00 to allow the whole family to try out a seafood restaurant on Pensacola Beach. Erin's boyfriend Trey joined us after having been suitably warned about our raucous behavior. As we were seated and had been served drinks, the sky opened up again and the part of the restaurant we were seated in began to flood. Our apologetic waitress moved us through ankle-deep water to a much dryer area. The food was great, the servings humungous, and the comradery infectious. We ended up taking huge doggy bags home. A great morning, but (sadly) no beach.
Jessie has started her chemo light treatment and is taking it very well. She is still getting daily radiation. She looks and feels great, although she still tires easily. She works for the city and her office always dresses up for Halloween with a different theme each year. This year their office was a "toxic waste dump" where everyone wore hazmat suits. Red filters on the overhead lights gave a radioactive feel, a barrel of oozing toxic waste (homemade slime Amy and Jack made in our kitchen), yellow caution tape, and a recording telling every to evacuate now made the whole thing look very cool. We finally saw pictures and were suitably impressed.
Speaking of suitably impressed, I'm reading Megan's latest novel and...well, you know. A very talented kid you have there.
Take it easy and enjoy your week.
Thanks, Jerry.
So sorry you are having issues getting settled. We have had a lot of rain here but the last few days are just cold. Bet you don't miss that.
I couldn't get here yesterday, so here I am a day late. Sorry. Threw my back out about an hour ago, putting on my socks. Sheesh. So I'll be walking around doing "careful back" today. After reading a couple of reviews of the new book ASTOUNDING, including one on George's blog, it finally came from the library. I was extremely disappointed. It was not at all what I expected, and had way too much focus on L. Ron Hubbard and his obsessions of Dianetics and, later, Scientology. Deleting all of the Hubbard material from the book would have improved it greatly.
We've been getting down to the 30s at night, but it's very dry and we're already inches behind on rainfall. Our irrigation system is shut down for the winter, so I'll be outside with hoses watering things that need it.
Barbara has been enjoying the mystery series by Mark Pryor, she's on the third one now. I'm reading Laura Lippman's first one, Baltimore Blues. At the halfway point, it's just okay, but I'm expecting it to get better. I don't know what I'll read next.
Cowboys beat the Eagles.....cold weather may have killed off the attack mosquitos for now.
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