Freezing cold here but not a bad week at all. I got out to lunch with a friend, got out to see PARALLEL MOTHERS (excellent) with another. And had a
friend over for dinner Saturday night where we watched the extras from MILLERS CROSSING and a interview with Stephen Sondheim on you tube.
HOME is a terrific UK show if you get HBO MAX. REACHER is lots of fun on PRIME.
And today I am going to see BRIGHTON 4 at the Detroit Film Theater.
Enjoying THE ROUND HOUSE by Louise Erdrich. Also MY GRANDMOTHER ASKED ME TO TELL YOU SHE'S STORY (Backman). so-so.
I saw my oncologist this week and everything looks okay although there is some blood work out there.
So what's up with you guys?
23 comments:
Not a huge football fan but glad to see Matthew Stafford get a Superbowl ring. Something he would never have gotten in Detroit. Also I thought the Bengal's QB came across very arrogant in interviews which turned me off.
Went and saw Belfast a second time. Good movie but not great.
On tv continued watching 1883 (the last two episodes have been disappointing) and Billions.
Read The Second Cut by Louise Welsh which I liked. Probably going to reread the previous book with the same character-The Cutting Room. Just started The Goodbye Coast. A Phillip Marlowe novel. And a few more Robert Silverberg stories.
Snow today. Cold. Supposed to get to 48 on Wednesday. Then drop again.
I will have to look up the schedule for the DFT. They used to send me their booklet every season but haven't the last couple seasons.
I heard that Parallel Mothers is excellent, Patti. I'm glad you enjoyed it. And it's good to hear that you got out and about a bit, too. I hope your week goes well.
Sounds like you had a pretty good week, Patti, albeit a cold one. We're in the middle of a cold snap here on the Florida Panhandle, which means it's really a cool snap.
Being the great prognosticator of sports that I am, I can now predict that somebody won the Super Bowl.
Evidently there is a new hedgehog living at Christina's place. Have not yet been over to see him/her. There may also be a new baby ball python -- Christina was not very clear on the details.
The good news is that Kitty's heart and lungs appear fine, although the bronchial spasms have done some not nice things to her; she's having a hard time breathing, has severe pains when she gets up, and tires far too easily. More tests are in the offing and she has started some new medication. Doctors are concerned but not very worried. This should pass soon (they feel and I hope). We missed out on Jack's basketball game this Saturday because she was feeling punkish. **sigh** In the meantime, my biopsy has been rescheduled to April. Also on the plus side, the cat has not thrown up (yet) this morning. We take wins wherever we can.
As I write this, the old "I'd like to buy the world a Coke" ad started on the television. (Kitty is watching a Youtube piece on the history of Coca Cola.) That ad has always given me a good feeling and we all need good feelings nowadays.
We watched CHOSEN, a Swedish series that has little in its favor. Poorly written, poorly directed, poorly edited, poorly translates, and poorly dubbed, yet somehow we found it fascinating. Two races of aliens are evidently vying for the the conquest of earth, having chosen a small Swedish town to hatch their plans. There's a small group of teenagers blundering around to mess with their plans. The lead character is Emma, who has just turned seventeen and is played by a woman whose days as a teenager are far off in the rear view mirror. Also watched a couple of Jason Bateman comedies, including BAD WORDS, with Bateman as a 40-year-old man entering a kid's national spelling bee.
Read ELIOT NESS AND THE MAD BUTCHER, a thoroughly researched book by Max Allan Collins and A. Brad Schwartz about Ness's post-Untouchables career as the Safety Director in Cleveland, where a "torso killer" plagued the city for several years. The killer was never officially identified or caught. This was a follow-up to their SCARFACE AND THE UNTOUCHABLE, another well-researched book. As entertaining as the first book was, BUTCHER took the saga to another level. A thoroughly good read and highly recommended. I also finished DANCING IMPS IN THE WINE, a rather twee and moralistic group of stories and fables from the 1890s written by "Angelo," a pen name for journalist Shang Andrews -- meh. Much, much better was SHOOT-OUT AT SUGAR CREEK, a Caleb York western by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins. Collins manages to channel his old friend Spillane to a T. A great read and possibly the best in the series. Also read DRIVING LESSONS, a novella by Ed McBain published by Otto Penzler. It was later released with an additional novella as part of a MCBAIN DUO: DRIVING LESSONS AN PETALS. All this in addition to the usual short stories, this time a bunch of early science fiction tales by Poul Anderson.
Stay safe, stay happy, stay connected, and have a great week!
We woke up to 7 degrees (wind chill ZERO!). But we're supposed to hit 50 degrees on Wednesday. Still mounds of snow everywhere!
I enjoyed the Super Bowl, but the commercials were sub-oar.
Diane and I PORTALed with Patrick and Katie. Patrick just returned from a computer conference in Santa Clara. Katie plans to take the train this weekend to NYC and see some plays. Of course, she'll stay in Patrick's new apartment.
Loved REACHER! Hope AMAZON Prime Video does all of Lee Child's books! Stay safe!
Sounds good. We know Brighton Beach fairly well so will look out for that one.
Same old, same old here - restaurants, television, books, mostly staying to ourselves. We are not doing some of the things we did in past years because of the uncaring, unknowing, downright stupid, careless behavior of Floridians, encouraged by the idiot Governor. No movies (not that there is much we are interested in seeing, and I am happy streaming things I want to see), no trips to Palm Beach (Jackie is boycotting it as long as Trump is in residence at Mar-a-Loco), no visits to a couple of restaurants we like because they Just. Don't. Care. Tables are right on top of each other, no mask policy (and from looking in, staff is unmasked), etc. We've added about 10 new restaurants (several are other seafood places) so this is no loss. We've seen my cousins twice but since they are not making an effort to see us, it's on them if they want to get together.
Television. We did get Hulu on (which we subscribed to at home) so far finishing ONLY DEATHS IN THE BUILDING, and we've added several other shows and movies to the list. Still spacing out REACHER, which continues to please. We finished BELOW THE SURFACE (Denmark), but series 2 isn't available yet. Finished the Aussie RFDS (ROYAL FLYING DOCTOR SERVICE) and will watch when it is continued. QUEENS OF MYSTERY always seems like it should be way better than it is given the premise, the actors, the look, etc. but every episode puts me to sleep at one point. At least MIDSOMER MURDERS and BROKENWOOD MYSTERIES (superficially similar) keep you awake. the end of the first episode. Wow, didn't see that coming. Started the British THIS WAY UP, created by, written by and starring Aisling Bea as a woman recovering from a nervous breakdown and teaching English as a second language, with Sharon Horgan as her protective (perhaps overprotective) older sister. CHOSEN (Netflix) is Danish. Black teenager Emma discovers there is something wrong with the meteor that supposedly hit 17 years earlier, and is going to join other skeptics to see what is really going on in town. Six episodes, 40-50 minutes each.
Still haven't seen BELFAST because it is still $20 on VOD.
Waiting for a realtor to come out and tell me what my house is worth so I will be back later today.
I feel like the Max ALLAN Collins show about HAP AND LEONARD deserved come of the attention REACHER IS getting. How did that get overlooked?
Thanks for the plot summary, Jerry, but chosen is Danish, not Swedish. We watch so many shows from both countries - also Norway, Iceland, and to a lesser extent, Finland - that I do recognize actors from one to another, though no familiar faces in CHOSEN so far.
Patti-Hap and Leonard is Joe Lansdale not Collins.
Of course! QUARRY was Collins.
Sounds good. We know Brighton Beach fairly well so will look out for that one.
Same old, same old here - restaurants, television, books, mostly staying to ourselves. We are not doing some of the things we did in past years because of the uncaring, unknowing, downright stupid, careless behavior of Floridians, encouraged by the idiot Governor. No movies (not that there is much we are interested in seeing, and I am happy streaming things I want to see), no trips to Palm Beach (Jackie is boycotting it as long as Trump is in residence at Mar-a-Loco), no visits to a couple of restaurants we like because they Just. Don't. Care. Tables are right on top of each other, no mask policy (and from looking in, staff is unmasked), etc. We've added about 10 new restaurants (several are other seafood places) so this is no loss. We've seen my cousins twice but since they are not making an effort to see us, it's on them if they want to get together.
Television. We did get Hulu on (which we subscribed to at home) so far finishing ONLY DEATHS IN THE BUILDING, and we've added several other shows and movies to the list. Still spacing out REACHER, which continues to please. We finished BELOW THE SURFACE (Denmark), but series 2 isn't available yet. Finished the Aussie RFDS (ROYAL FLYING DOCTOR SERVICE) and will watch when it is continued. QUEENS OF MYSTERY always seems like it should be way better than it is given the premise, the actors, the look, etc. but every episode puts me to sleep at one point. At least MIDSOMER MURDERS and BROKENWOOD MYSTERIES (superficially similar) keep you awake. the end of the first episode. Wow, didn't see that coming. Started the British THIS WAY UP, created by, written by and starring Aisling Bea as a woman recovering from a nervous breakdown and teaching English as a second language, with Sharon Horgan as her protective (perhaps overprotective) older sister. CHOSEN (Netflix) is Danish. Black teenager Emma discovers there is something wrong with the meteor that supposedly hit 17 years earlier, and is going to join other skeptics to see what is really going on in town. Six episodes, 40-50 minutes each.
That is Jeff above me.
Most of BRIGHTON 4 is inside and the scenes that are outside do not show it to any advantage. These are immigrants and they live in dilapidated housing, work for poor wages and yet feel lucky to be here. And I guess they are at the moment.
Rain today which is great. Happy Valentines Day to you. You are so busy and going out like it’s 2018! Wow. What ever happened to shelter in place and avoid Covid? Maybe the pandemic has slowed down there, if so, good for you! I didn’t watch the football game, but Barbara enjoyed the halftime show and some of the commercials, especially a Kia one with a robot dog. I’ve tired of the Olympics, the coverage has been poor. I was sorry the IOC caved to the Russians on the ice skater. Read Cat Who Saved Books And The Seven Dials Mystery, but migraine making reading difficult. Great news from your oncologist.
We are not doing much here. Grocery store trips are our only outings and we have not been eating in restaurants. Ordered takeout from Chili's once recently.
Reading: I read CONVENIENCE STORE WOMAN by Sayaka Murata. A very short book, about 160 pages, and very strange, but I loved it. I also finished CARRY ME HOME: BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA, about the civil rights movement in Birmingham in 1963. I started reading it one year ago, took about a 6 months break in the middle, and took about a month to finish the last 300 pages (of 600).
Watching: We finished our re-watch of GOOD OMENS. We just bought a new copy of GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933 in the Blu-ray version and watched it. And started watching DOCTOR WHO episodes with David Tennant. I have never watched any of the DOCTOR WHO episodes, so an entirely new experience.
Patti, I am glad to hear that the oncologist visit was good.
Rick, NBC's Olympics coverage has been poor for years. We turned off what we were watchcing at 11:00 and they were showing the ice dancing, so Jackie watched it. But the split screen with competitors on one half and a commercial on the other was a new low.
I have had a simple rule for years: no pre-game show, No Halftime Show, and no post-game. Watching a hip hop halftime was never going to be in the cards here. We watched an episode of SEINFELD instead.
What I was saying before: we finally started THE CHESTNUT MAN and so far we've seen Mr. Madsen from SEASIDE HOTEL and Martin from THE RAIN. Danish shows have a lot of crossover.
QUARRY was messed over by Cinemax basically falling apart when Time Warner was fighting with other cable-system owners over how much they should pay for HBO and Cinemax...and most dropped Cinemax from the packages they were in, or dropped it altogether. Likewise the fine series JETT. Cinemax cancelled all their series...one would've hoped HBO Max might've picked them up.
Glad things are mostly good...as reported. I made a nice dinner for VDay for Alice, not that I don't try to do so regularly...
Jerry--all things improved soon, we can all hope.
Am waiting patiently for Epix to continue GRT SHORTY, a series which improves on the films and perhaps even the decent Elmore Leonard novel (not his best).
GET SHORTY, of course...GRT as in great or grit Shorty would be reasonably fair.
Somehow I saw the first season and then it disappeared on my cable system. Maybe at one time Epix was free with HBO.
Probably was in your good-to-deluxe package, as Epix is was the new kid. They're not corporate cousins, as Epix is LionsGate's baby. But things, to put it mildly, are fluid in that industry as with most others of late.
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