Saw EVERYTHING, EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE and cannot say I really enjoyed it despite the universally good reviews. Way too much martial arts for me. And its frantic pace made me jittery. However, the fault is in mine, I think. The quiet parts, the message, was lovely.
Josh's birthday celebration was postponed because Kevin has a double ear infection. International travel has a way of exposing you to brand new bacteria,.
Still watching PACHINKO, SLOW HORSES, STARSTRUCK, JULIA. Ready to dive into TOKYO VICE. Waiting early for the return of the Great Pottery Throwdown. I have to say though Netflix is really fading away for me. Way to many reality shows and foreign imports of dubious quality. Anyone find something good to watch there?
Reading SHOOTING MIDNIGHT COWBOY and the new O'NAN book.
Looks to be a beautiful day today, thank goodness after so much cold, wind and rain.
What about you?
19 comments:
Watched All the Old Knives on Amazon. I liked it but didn't love it. Likewise for House of Gucci. Watched and liked the first 3 episodes of Tokyo Vice. Not much on Netflix right now but the last of Ozark is coming and so is Peaky Blinders.
Reading Baldemar by Matthew Hughes on Kindle. It's ten stories many of which I have read already but I find Hughes stories very enjoyable. Also reading Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi. Enjoying it so far. Couldn't say the same for Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead. I got bogged down in the middle and gave up.
Went to see Jack White at the Masonic in Detroit Saturday night. Good show. Audience was well behaved for a rock concert. Not many masks though. Got my 2nd booster on Saturday.
Driving Alice to the hospital for surgery in a few hours. Likely two days of observation after the procedure. It's mostly elective, to remove a benign internal growth before it becomes even more problematic (a slow development since first being detected when she was 18yo). Haven't yet determined if I'll be allowed to visit under current COVID precautions, but probably not.
This has tended to overshadow most other matters of late. Did watch the slate of the more interesting programs last night, 60 MINUTES (the Ukraine segments, as clumsily as they were narrated at times), THE SIMPSONS (a bit irritating in its simplistic take in this episode, a bit what the Brits once called "wet", but my mood might've been a factor), THE CIRCUS (blessedly limiting their mutual admiration, brunch fetishism and most of their shallower takes on he actual matters at hand), WINNING TIME (for a few reasons better than the spoiled rich folks in the couple of Showtime business series in timeslot competition with it), SHINING VALE (well turned but feeling a bit thin and sitcommy) and LAST WEEK TONIGHT (Oliver and his series a bit prouder of themselves than the work might warrant, but so vastly better at what they do than Maher is at his pomposity blitz...Bill Maher is basically the Donald Trump of attempting serious comedy). Much as SHINING VALE is more effective horror drama, as a dark sitcom, than Epix's asinine FROM, this year's LOST.
Fitfully reading. Time to scrub everything down (at least in the bathrooms and kitchen) while Alice is gone, so the biome isn't too threatening as the incision heals.
I've, as yet, only had relatively minor surgery. Something else to look forward to.
Agree with you on Netflix. They seem to have scooped up every bad, cheaply made foreign film in existence to pad their offerings. Watched BIG SKY (just one more episode to come, methinks), MOON KNIGHT (still reserving judgement), and John Oliver, Seth Meyers, and Colbert (to reassure myself there is still some sanity left in the world). Beyond that...nada. Everything else seems gimmicky, woke, or sexist. Kitty has begun watching BRIDGERTON while I'm in another room; I give even odds whether she will continue.
Met with the heart surgery team on Wednesday. Kitty has a couple of rings to jump through before her valve replacement. She needs a full body CAT scan (scheduled for this morning); next week they will do a heart catherization to ensure there is no arterial blockage. If both of those tests come out positively, her case will be brought before a surgical committee for review. If everything works out, surgery could happen by May 3rd. In the meantime, Kitty seems to be breathing better and getting out a little more.
This Wednesday, I'm meeting with my surgeon to discuss my recent biopsy. I don't expect any major news.
What else? This has also been the week the damncat has decided to become incontinent. She's nearly seventeen years old so we may cut her some slack.
Worst thing on TV last week? Republicans walking out en masse immediately after Ketanji Brown Jackson was appointed. A shallow, petty, and spiteful action that bodes no good. Second worse thing? The 2015 flick MINDGAMERS which we inflicted on ourselves this weekend. Schizophrenic, plotless, confusing, and poorly acted, it was as if a junior high school AV class decided to make a film while tripping on acid. File this one under We Watched So You Won't Have To.
Had far better luck with reading, more specifically RAZORBLADE TEARS, which, in between all the violence and gore, tackled some major topics. The rest of the week was spent reading old issues of F&SF from the mid-Fifties. I'm now caught up with the magazine through 1956; I'll probably continue through the last three year of the decade over the next few months. Currently reading GWENDY'S FINAL TASK by Stephen King and Richard Chizmar. On deck is THE KAIJU Preservation Society and a collection of Hap and Leonard stories.
This past week has made me feel as old as I really am and I'm not too pleased with that at all. I need to breath in some spring air. Luckily, the weather has been beautiful this week need I need all the beauty I can get.
Have a fantastic week, Patti. Stay safe.
Todd, best wishes to Alice, along with our hopes for a fast and full recovery.
Good luck to Kitty and Alice!
Diane and her sister, Carol, flew to New York City to see THE MUSIC MAN and FUNNY GIRL with Katie. I stayed home to collect the newspapers and mail. I'm not eager to fly and sure enough, Diane and Carol had their JetBlue flight cancelled yesterday. They scrambled to find another flight back to Buffalo and they're scheduled to flly back home on United this afternoon. We'll see if that happens.
Temps went below 32 this weekend, but now the forecast is warmer...with rain. I've been reading Library books while the house is quiet and serene. I've read five books since Diane and Carol took off for NYC! At this rate, I'll be caught up on Library books this week! Stay safe!
Anxious to get a review of THE MUSIC MAN and FUNNY GIRL.
Saw WHEEL OF FORTUNE AND FANTASY by the director of DRIVE MY CAR and didn't care for it much. Three 40 minute episodes, one of which I slept through.
A long time for Alice to worry about a growth of sorts. Yikes. Best to her and Kitty.
Today is warmer here but raining again. If only we could ship some of this rain west.
Looks like the Tigers are still the Tigers.
Yes, we are absolutely finding the same thing with Netflix. We're watching fewer and fewer things there all the time (though we do have a long list of things to watch) and more and more on AMazon/Britbox/Acorn/MHz Choice/PBS Masterpiece). If it wasn't for SCHITT'S CREEK and SEINFELD, we'd be watching nothing on Netflix.
We have started catching up on stuff we missed in Florida - YELLOWJACKETS on Showtime (watched 6 of 10 before we left) and MY BRILLIANT FRIEND on HBO. Still have John Oliver and KILLING EVE (the ones we saw were very disappointing). Also went back to series 4 of GAME OF THRONES, but not sure we're coming to get through all of the 8 series.
Did our taxes (getting back a few hundred), Jackie went to a couple of her doctors (her first cataract surgery is now May 24, with the second two weeks later), we are pretty much unpacked. Our new bedroom furniture is coming tomorrow (we got the super to take down the old stuff). It's been cool to cold, mostly, with some rain, warm up is coming. No concerts until June and travel until July, but we may start checking TDF for shows on or off-Broadway.
Steve, I felt that way about ALL THE OLD KNIVES when I read the book, but we will probably watch it. Jackie didn't read the book, of course. Also reading hte Scalzi now, as well as collections by Linda Castillo and Roddy Doyle.
Good luck to Alice and Kitty (and Jerry too).
Yes, I am only watching SEINFELD, as pre-bedtime fare.
Thanks, folks, and indeed all good things for Kitty (and the aging kitty, and forbearance, Jerry). She's in surgery now, as I type.
Jeff, you reassure me that I've missed little if anything with YELLOWJACKETS, even given a good cast (hell, FROM has a good cast. Don't bother.). I gave up on KILLING EVE about four or five episodes in, after not only a major supporting character idiotically committed suicide (when he presumably would have the most reason to not endanger himself or his loved ones) by quarry, but also the Sandra Oh character decided she wouldn't mind dangling her family out in front of this not terrible magnetic serial murderer. Why should it make (any real emotional, rather than plot-driven) sense if it's Kewl? The Bond Film (non-)Conundrum.
We’re back from driving down our SNOWY hill to get our booster shots. This is the latest date for snow here on record, though tomorrow will set another record. Good reading weather.
We watched and enjoyed Ken Burn’s FRANKLIN, and as usual for anything by Burns it was very well done. We also watched MIDSOMMER MURDERS, FATHER BROWN and some local PBS shows, all good. I’ve been reading mostly short stories, an SF anthology (see blog), and an Otto Penzler edited anthology of golden age stories (blog soon). I don’t seem to have the attention span for a novel just now.
Good luck to Alice, Kitty and anyone else with medical difficulties!
Best wishes to those of you having medical treatments.
Boy #2's high school play, POE: DREAMS OF MADNESS, went off pretty well. I attended the three performances and the actors seemed to settle into the roles over that short time. The play is dramatizations of Poe stories as imagined by Poe during a sleepless night. Boy #2 had two parts with the lead in HOP-FROG. I've not read POE in decades and still recalled the stilted language of his poetry and my dread and fear from the first reading.
I finished REACHER and THE BOOK OF BOBA FETT. Reacher was decent. but I still consider Reacher a borderline sociopath. The finale's extended shootout against a almost unending supply of suicidal bad guys went too long.
I've been reading T. Jefferson Parker's BLACK WATER. I took the book to the play so I could read before the curtain and during the intermission. I realized the novel was older than everyone on stage and only 6-7 years younger the teacher who directed.
We spent this morning talking to the president of our Home Owners Assoc. and the management company about overbilling on our water usage. The management co. representative has been difficult to talk to so I get upset. So all that drove all else out of my mind.
Right now I am reading THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY by Matt Haig (not sure how I like it yet) and I just finished BEAST IN VIEW by Margaret Millar on Saturday. I can see why BEAST IN VIEW won an Edgar, but I have like other books by her better.
Our streaming or disc viewing has been the standard shows. It is true we haven't watched anything on Netflix for a while. Glen commented on that recently.
You know, it just occurs to me I didn't finish REACHER. Can't decide whether to finish it or not. I liked Willa's performance but I guess all in all it did not impress me that much.
Started FRANKLIN but did not finish it either. I think Burns' best series are on a topic rather than a man. Like Jazz or Baseball. This doc was pretty static to me. And Franklin was a very interesting man. Perhaps a dramatization like they did with Adams would have been better. That was such a great miniseries.
I really enjoyed the Country Music series more than I expected to. Of course, The Civil War was a major interest of mine long before he covered it. And I loved the baseball.
Jackie said that REACHER was her favorite show of the year. She also thought they should do a miniseries on Franklin.
I better go back and finish it then. Yes, country music was terrific.
Burns chooses good subjects and does mediocre jobs at best, consistently. The more one knows about the subject at hand, the less impressive they are. I don't find this to tend to be true of the likes of NOVA, FRONTLINE, INDEPENDENT LENS, THE SHOCK OF THE NEW or other better PBS documentary series. JAZZ annoyed the hell out of a Lot of people, and with good reason. Leans too heavily on a single source, usually, to steer his narratives.
THE ADAMS CHRONICLES was a better project as well, I'd agree, though it has been decades!
And, of course, performance documentaries have the strength of those performances.
Good point. As someone who knows very little about very many topics, he's perfect for me normally. I.E. the parks.
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