I have never understood how to line up graphics on my blog, so I am putting them all at the bottom.
Finished THE DUTCH HOUSE, as read by Tom Hanks and it was a wonderful experience. He is just a superb reader. Read on kindle, SUCH A FUN AGE, which was an unusual look at racism that doesn't seem like racism until you really study it..
Now reading THE COUPLE NEXT DOOR, or listening to it. Also still reading THE STAR MACHINE.
Saw the movie SUN DON'T SHINE, which was pretty darn dark but well done. Watching THE LAST DANCE about Michael Jordan-although ten episodes may be more than I want to know. Still watching HALT AND CATCH FINE and finishing up I MAY DESTROY YOU. Last episode of ENDEAVOR tonight, which seems like not enough although it hasn't bee particularly compelling. I remember the MORSE's as being so much better but maybe I am remembering them wrong. Tempting to sign up for BRIT BOX and see.
Went to a zoom birthday party which didn't really come off well because we spent the majority of time trying to get everyone on board. Someone needs to figure out what you can do for fun at a zoom birthday party too.
The weather has been hot but so sunny. I don't remember a sunnier summer ever.
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We are watching MORSE on Britbox on Saturday nights, which has become our "British" night. (Usually, we follow it with JONATHAN CREEK.) So far it is a little different than I remember it, but I do remember Morse coming up with "brilliant" reasoning and always arresting the wrong person first before getting it right. It's good to see these actors again, many of whom are (sadly) dead all these years (33 since it started). Thaw of course, but in the episode we just watched there was Michael Gough (granted, he lived to 94), Clive Swift (Hyacinth's long-suffering husband on KEEPING UP APPEARANCES), Frederick Treves, Peter Woodthorpe (Max, the coroner), Roger Lloyd Pack (who died younger than the others, only 69), Elspet Grey (the mother in series 1 of BLACKADDER). And Kevin Whatley looks so young!
We finished the dark and nasty third series of MARCELLA. We're enjoying THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY more than I expected to after George's review. Also watching RITA (Danish), which you mentioned last time, series two of SRUGIM (awful Natti never changes), VERA (series 10, also on Britbox). So, closing in on finishing shows before we start something new. We gave up on WYCLIFFE, which neither of us was enjoying much.
Last night we watched a Johnny Cash concert from a Nashville prison from 1975, with guests Roy Clark and a very young and thin Linda Ronstadt. Rewatched WHERE'S POPPA? (1970). Ruth Gordon was something else, wasn't she? And it was fun seeing my brother in law Buddy Butler as a member of the gang (along with Garrett Morris) that repeatedly mugged Ron Leibman in Central Park. Leibman died a couple of years ago. Also deceased: Ruth Gordon (who was only 73 in this, though she was playing 87), Barnard Hughes (who we saw several times on Broadway, including the Tony-winning play DA), Vincent Gardenia (who lived a mile or two from us, and who is memorialized on Sixteenth Avenue in Bensonhurst with his name on the street signs). A young Rob Reiner had a small but fun role, and his then soon to be wife Penny Marshall can be seen in his courtroom scene. The movie introduced Trish Van Devere (now retired), who went on to marry George C. Scott and appeared with him a number of times. It was a real black comedy.
Otherwise...same old, same old. Jackie watched the DNC and called me in to see a few of the speeches (the Obamas and Bidens, mostly). We will NOT be watching this week's abortion. We had a few nicer days before the heat returned.
Keep well, everyone.
Glad to see you've been reading some good books, Patti. That's solace, I think.
It looks like Marco and Laura will do most of their damage to the west of here. I feel sorry for the folks from New Orleans to the east coast of Texas -- they have already had to deal with from storms.
Speaking of feeling sorry, public schools start today in Florida. Jack will have to deal with a new school, new teachers, and whatever response to COVID the school has decided on. At the high school where Christina works, one teacher has already tested positive. **sigh**
With the opening of school, our weekday routine of going to the beach ends. **double sigh** As if to make up for it, the dolphins have been put on glorious shows for us. Such graceful creatures.
Binged on all three seasons of OCCUPIED, about a "friendly" occupation of Norway by Russia. A bit soap opera-ish, butu it really held out attention. The first season of BIOHACKERS, a medical thriller set in Germany, came across as a teen-geniuses-versus-powerful-evil-doctor trope; all it needed was the additional of Nancy Drew and Young Indiana Jones.
I have reverted to short stories for the main part of my reading this week, mainly science fiction and mysteries, flitting back and forth between anthologies, collections, and old pulps. My reading has more and more been of "comfort reading" of the type I enjoyed many year ago. A reaction to the pandemic and Trump's Cat 5 fecal storm, I guess.
Despite everything, it's been a very good week. We remain strong, healthy, happy, and amazed by the wonders all around us. Even the damncat has been purring more and puking less. Who could ask for anything more?
Well. the one thing I could ask, Patti, is that you also have a healthy, safe, and happy week.
Diane and I loved the audio book version of THE DUTCH HOUSE. Tom Hanks was an excellent narrator!
I'm spending today prepping for my colonoscopy scheduled for 7 A.M. tomorrow. Fun, fun, fun.
Like Jeff and Jackie Meyerson, we have ZERO interest in the Republicans conventions in D.C. and Charlotte, NC.
Movie theaters are opening up this week, but I'm not going to sit with strangers for two hours in an inclosed room until I get a vaccine. Until then Netflix, HULU, HBO, AMAZAON PRIME Video, and Disney+ will have to suffice.
Western NY is baking with high temperatures and no rain. Maybe Marco and Laura will bring us some much needed moisture.
Books. I am reading:
Robert Silverberg, Alien Archives. 18 short stories.
Otto Friedrich, City of Nets: A Portrait of Hollywood in the '40s. Thanks for recommending this. It's a lot faster read than I expected. I could have got it from the library.
Arlene Alda, Just Kids From the Bronx: Telling It the Way It Was. An Oral History. Alan Alda's wife, a photographer who has written a number of books, spoke to people who grew up in The Bronx and became famous. These are mostly 2-5 pages each, and chronological by birth. Sadly, a number of them have died (most this year): Carl Reiner, Regis Philbin, Milton Glaser, Mary Higgins Clark.
Books about the movies have been my balm this year. Friedrich is so good. I am tempted to get his books about other subjects. Dry and hot here too. Going to have a big water bill. Also my dehumidifier is running non-stop. I will have to try OCCUPIED. Anyone tried THE TWELVE?
Movie theaters still closed here. Gretchen is strict and they theater owners are livid, saying how can nail salons be allowed to be opened and not them. Most of the schools in MI are online but a few friends have children teaching in ones that are open. What a worry.
My sister in Merritt Island, Florida greets a class of Second Grade students today. She has to wear a surgical mask, a plastic shield and gloves. Will it be enough? Scary stuff.
While you and everyone else seem to be watching movies, I’ve done a little reading. Turnbull, anthologies, other i can't remember.
Read new books by T. Jefferson Parker and Joe R. Lansdale. Next up either the ne Denise Mina, James Lee Burke or an autobiography by Oliver Stone.
Watched very little tv this week. Mostly Detroit Tiger baseball. And few movies-Bird of Prey and Richard Jewell.
How frightening that must look to seven year olds, George. Surely it would be better to work online.
I am amazed at how you can read so many hours, Rick. I read about three hours a day but that's all I can manage. I take an hourish walk, spend some time gardening, cooking and cleaning. But that still leaves me with four or so hours to fill in. What is there but TV?
I have yet to read Mina. I always mean to. Have the Lansdale book on reserve. I have five waiting for me but it is so hot to walk there. I will probably get them to deliver.
We did watch OCCUPIED. I thought the first and third series were better than the second. We're watching LOVECRAFT COUNTRY on HBO. So far, it is pretty faithful to the book.
We thought LOVE IN THE TIME OF COVID sounded interesting enough to try, but things in it just grated on me (granted, I am not the target audience) and we didn't make it through the first part before deleting it. Too many cliches and the idea of using real couples as the couples in the show did not go far enough to keep our attention.
Or maybe that's just us.
THE OLDENHEIM 12 is the other one we are watching. Halfway through it. And we watched (on our second PBS station, which seems to get more offbeat stuff than Channel 13) the first part of the (10 part) Swedish crime drama BEFORE WE DIE. Central character is a woman cop whose boss is pushing her towards early retirement, against her will. Two years previously, she had her son arrested for dealing drugs. Now he's out. Unknown to her (the audience is told this) he is working undercover for the police. Meanwhile, she is sleeping with her married former partner, who is kidnapped while he is on the phone with her, seemingly by one of two motorcycle gangs he is investigating (but is he?). There was enough to hold our interest so far.
The thing I've noticed lately about Scandinavian and other European shows is the names. On RITA, her three kids are named Ricco, Molly and Jeppe. Molly? On OLDENHEIM, the main character is named Peggy. Not very Dutch. On DEADWIND (Finland), kids are named Henna and Emil. I just find it interesting, especially when there is an American sounding name in the middle of foreign ones.
Molli
Female Female Name
Usage
Sweden Swedish
Denmark Danish
My thoughts on THE LAST DANCE exactly. Enjoyed it but a bit lengthy for me.
It feels like they are retreading the same games with various players. Maybe it's just I am not basketball savvy.
My top read this week was Other Paths to Glory by Anthony Price. It was a wonderful book. He is one of my favorite authors and he got the Gold Dagger for this book in 1974. I also read Shooting at Loons by Margaret Maron. I had read the first two books in that series years ago and did not like them, but this was very good and enjoyable. Light on the mystery but a good picture of a specific area in North Carolina (Harker's Island).
I am now reading Fall of a Cosmonaut by Stuart Kaminsky. When I finish this one I will have only three more to read in the series.
I would like to see The Last Dance. I can see how it could be repetitious. I watched basketball on TV in the 1990s and I think I would enjoy it.
Yes, if you are familiar with that 1990s basketball era, you will enjoy it. And both my kids, as I said, loved it. Have read something by Price will have to look for this one.
I somewhat randomly tuned in a Bulls game one Saturday afternoon in '95 or early '96 and was amused that despite not following basketball, the five primary Chicago players in that game were all familiar to me, at least as names of Impressive Players, by osmosis: Jordan, Pippen, Rodman, Kukoc and Harper. It also became clear, watching that game, aside from how much better they were as a team than their opponents, how little the five as a whole seemed to like each other...it was apex professional play without much sense of joy in their work. Haven't seen the series yet.
That observation becomes evident.
I've done no reading. I've been laying in bed listening to audiobooks and playing a mindless game on my computer tablet. A post above reminds me I listened to a T. Jefferson Parker novel and I've always enjoyed his work.
I lost my patience with my children and bullshit on Saturday and just withdrew. I hit the edge of my tolerance with teenage grouchiness. I suppose there was a lag time of work stress hitting me after we shut my building down for three days due to a positive COVID test among staff. This weekend Boy #1 and I drive north to Bayfield, WI for a recreational mountain biking trip with his bike team. If my temper remains threadbare I will give him a warning.
Our local schools have delayed opening by one week. They've also offered up virtual options taught by the local teachers. Boy #2 has opted for all virtual. A nice adjustment the high school made is to only have four classes per school session. So, rather than a regular semester or quarter with 7-8 classes they are splitting the quarter and classes in half. This reduces students circulating in hallways and classrooms and allows less exposure for teachers as well.
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