Reading I LIKE TO WATCH by Emily Nussbaum, the New Yorker TV critic, which is loads of fun and also RULES OF CIVILITY by Amor Towles, I find the writing odd but can't quite say why. It's like there are two writing styles used. My book group chose it. They really loved A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW last year and were attracted to this his earlier book.
Saw AD ASTRA, which seemed like an overly elaborate way to tell a withholding father story. I expected to like it more. I didn't expect to like DOWNTON ABBEY and I didn't much. I think I have made my feelings about rich people known more than once on here. Although I have to admit, Fellows used a clever device to tell the story and the downstairs group most got the better story here.
The third and best movie I saw was THE MALTESE FALCON on a big screen. It is part of a series called FLASHBACK CINEMA, which brings old classics to a big screen. It does a pretty poor job of publicizing it though. If you want to see if it's available in your area, it www.FlashbackCinema.net
I finally got Kanopy to work on my TV, which gives me access to what my movies my library has. You might want to check that out too. Quite an array of stuff on there.
And what are you up to this week?
12 comments:
Flashback Cinema sounds great, Patti. I should check that out.
Things are fairly quiet here as we move into October.
It recently dawned on me how much I enjoy the interaction between kids and dogs. This after watching Jack go from person to person on the dog beach asking if he could per their dogs. Jack came back to out spot and filled us in on every dog's name and how nice they were. A puppy belonging to a family some twenty yards off kept escaping and coming over to our chairs the play with Jack and to lie in the shade under our beach chairs to the dismay of the ten-year-old owner who kept apologizing every time she had to retrieve her pet. Meanwhile on the other side of us, a young baby kept crawling away from her mother and toward us. The baby moved much faster in the sand than either Kitty or I could. The mother also kept apologizing each time she ran to retrieve the infant. The sun was warm, the breeze was refreshing and the motion of the waves hypnotic. Kids and dogs and everything else seem like they were put here just to make me happy.
And Happy Happy Joy Joy about the impeachment procedings. I don't know what will happen but Congress is finally doing its Constitutional duty. I suspect we will have a few surprises coming out way during this process. Trump's team of rabid talking-pointers are not doing well defending him and poll numbers are beginning to show a majority of Americans support the impeachment procedings, if not actual impeachment itself. Early dys yet but great fodder for late night comics.
I read the new Stephen King and enjoyed it. I also read the latest book about Robert Parker's Jesse Stone by Reed Farrel Coleman -- another good 'un. I have been slowly working my way through THE COMPLETE SHORT STORIES OF J. G. BALLARD -- dense, surrealistic, and powerful experimental fiction and have found a great deal of sly humor in his stories that I had not really noticed before. I also found that the "complete" stories was not complete so I/m also reading those from separate sources.
We've been on a FATHER BROWN kick lately, much like our MIDSOMER MURDERS kick. (When all else looks boring, turn on another episode.) We also binged the first season of GLITCH, which I liked more than Kitty did.
We were introduced to Samai, the next door neighbor's cat -- beautiful friendly animal with markings like a leopard. She likes her belly scratched. Our neighbor set up a cat door so Samai can come and go as she pleases; what she pleased to do was catch a rat and bring it into the house. As of two days ago, the neighbor has not been able to catch the rat, leaving him very frustrated and Samai very smug and proud of her prowess.
Everyone here is healthy and happy, which is how I like it. Hope you are also happy and healthy over the coming week, Patti.
We had two concerts two days apart at The Town Hall, which, you might be interested to know, was opened by suffragists in 1921, and has a slogan "not a bad seat in the house." Even by those standards, we had great seats at the 1,500 seat hall, first for George Thorogood & the Destroyers, whom we've seen at least half a dozen times, first in the Blues Tent at Jazzfest in New Orleans, but more commonly at the Beacon. We were in Row M on the center aisle. Fun show, though the people standing often blocked the stage. Two days later we were in the fourth row on the side aisle for Graham Nash and his band. The 77 year old Nash, who looks and sounds great, did his first two solo albums, followed by half a dozen Crosby, Stills & Nash (and other) songs - finishing with Our House, Love the One You're With (a Stills song), and Teach Your Children, which he dedicated to all the teachers in the world. The Hall is on 43rd Street between 6th and 7th Avenue, so it was easy for us to walk over to 43rd and 5th and catch the express bus home, which drops us right across the street.
Weather has continued fine, if warmer than average. And speaking of warmer than average, think about this. New York has only had four days of 90+ temperatures in October EVER, the last being 78 years ago in 1941. Current prediction is we could tie the 1923 record of 90 on Wednesday before summer finally lets go and we drop to the 60s.
Good thing there's no such thing as global warming, right?
The new television season on the networks has started and so far EMERGENCE is a keeper, but we'll see where it goes. Definitely a STRANGER THINGS/Eleven vibe with the little girl. ALL RISE had us going for the remote after 5 minutes. Advice: skip it. We watched EVIL last night, and though there are good people behind the scenes and in front of the camera, there is enough evil to deal with in the real world without spending another hour doing so every week, so pass.
Jerry-obviously the warmth of your family is like a beacon on the beach.
In my entire life, I have probably only been to a dozen rock concerts. I don't know why. I guess Phil's love for classical music outweighed mine for rock or jazz.
I tried STUMPTOWN, which I liked well enough to watch again. I love THE GOOD PLACE although it does seem short on new ideas now.
KANOPY is probably the better deal. It is totally free and you can download it easily.
Jerry, loved the stories too, but if we had a rat in the house, Jackie would be gone until it was caught! We've had mice over the years (I have to deal with them), but that is a bridge too far.
Patti, in our younger days we went to many classical concerts (including free NY Philharmonic concerts in the park in the summer), but these days just don't. Not sure why, except that when we were younger a good friend was always pushing concerts and operas. The only "classy" things we've been to in the last several years have been Alvin Ailey dance performances (we've been going for decades) and an occasional NUTCRACKER (because Jackie loves it).
We recorded STUMPTOWN because Jackie wanted it. I'm not really interested but willing to give it a try. Still never watched THE GOOD PLACE. We're also currently watching MINDHUNTER, TRAPPED, NCIS, MIDSOMER MURDERS (on Saturday nights), GAVIN & STACEY, DEATH IN PARADISE, DOC MARTIN (series 9 just started), KEEPING FAITH (Wales).
Never heard of Kanopy. What is it?
Plenty of Buffalo Bills fans thought the Bills could defeat Tom Brady and the New England Patriots yesterday...but I didn't. The Bills are a young team requiring more improvement before they can defeat the Super Bowl champs.
Bills QB Josh Allen is in Concussion Protocol which reminds me how lucky I was that Patrick and Katie had zero interest in contact sports when they were growing up.
The House will Impeach Trump, but the Republican dominated Senate won't convict him. Our political system is broken.
Tomorrow, Western New York will enjoy 80 degree temperatures for the last time this season. More typical Fall weather moves in later this week. And the leaves are starting to drift earthward...
Never mind. Just checked, and our library does NOT have Kanopy available.
Saw two movies in the theater this week. The Maltese Falcon which was great seeing on the big screen and Ad Astra which looked good but was a bit thin on plot. Sort of a Heart of Darkness knockoff in space. Looking forward to The Joker next week and The Irishman which is getting great reviews. The Irishman opens Nov. 1.
Stumptown was the best of the new shows on. Turned off The Prodigal Son after 30 minutes. Same with Evil. Both hampered by predictable writing. Still watching Lodge 49 and The Deuce. Started Unbelievable on Netflix last night and blew through 4 episodes. So much better than network tv.
Read and enjoyed Chances Are by Richard Russo. Read Matthew Hughes A God in Chains and liked it a lot. Hughes is a much overlooked SF/F writer. Starting The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz. A new SF novel that has gotten great reviews.
My oldest granddaughter just entered the hospital last night. So it looks like my first great grandchild is on her way.
It may warm up to 51 today, the first day out of the 40s in a week. Also it's been rainy and windy. Fall is definitely here. I'm in a reading slump, but am going to try to spend the day today reading a library book that's here. We'll see how that goes.
Sorry, Jeff. I wonder why.
Is it a 2/3 vote needed to impeach? Never happen.
I doubt I will get to be a great grandmother.
Just a majority needed to impeach. Two-thirds needed to convict in the Senate. Don't give up so easily. Things are moving forward at last and if it comes down to saving his skin and staying out of jail, he will throw everyone under the bus and cut a deal.
Kanopy and other streaming services marketed to libraries are really neat. But, paying for them has been a big issue over the past few years. My library system will pay $50,000 to trial a competing service, named Hoopla, for part of 2019.
I finally watched the Han Solo STAR WARS movie and enjoyed it. For reading I've been listening to Max Hastings VIETNAM: AN EPIC TRAGEDY, 1945-1975. That promises to be a bummer.
I've been reading an ebook version of Samuel Fuller's BRAINQUAKE that was reprinted by Hard Case Crime.
I had another sport watching weekend with Boy #1 running cross country on Saturday and mountain biking (MTB)on Sunday. Sunday was mud, mud, mud. The race course was deteriorating so much that some races were reduced by one lap. This guy's bike from Sunday is illustrative of many (not my photo) https://rubberdown.smugmug.com/2017-NICA-Races/2019-NICA/Race-3-Nordic-Mountain/JVIII-Varsity-D1-D2/i-K4CKvVR/A
Many people will camp at the MTB events and most of the four wheel drive trucks could not pull their trailers and campers through the muddy track out of the camp area. Fortunately the venue had a couple tractors available to pull people out. I was able to pick up some speed, cross the mud track, and drive out an alternate exit.
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