THE STAIRCASE-well, it will be hard to top the excellent docu-series of a few years ago. So many children to keep track of.
Saw two movies at the movie theaters: THE DUKE. Charming and well done if a bit too cute. So much a flaw in many British productions. SECRET CITY with Sandra Bullock was fun if slight. She certainly looks great at age 57.
Speaking of 57, Gary Cooper was 57 in LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON, playing opposite a 27 year old Audrey Hepburn. He looked older than 57 too. It was a bit creepy but since she always seemed to play opposite older men, it wasn't as scary as it might have been. Megan did a podcast about Billy Wilder's lesser known films and this was one of them.
A few lovely days here although the race track outside my windows is hard to take on a Saturday night. Some state ordinance is holding the local cops from ticketing these hooligans. They have fixed their
exhaust systems to make a lot of noise. Can't bear the thought of the Woodward Dream Cruise in August.
But this has already started for me. I have a front row window onto it.
The legs problem is a result of the estrogen-blocking drug I am taking. So I will have to try to get used to it. Thirty percent of the women taking it suffer leg pains. The side effects are considerable but how can I not take it.
LOVED THE POWER OF THE DOG by Thomas Savage. Also enjoying HOMEGOING. Hard to read about the suffering of the Black people but the story is too powerful not to read.
What about you?
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Didn't see any movies in the theater this week. Watched the last Spiderman movie on disc. It was well reviewed but was too teen orientated for my tastes. Watching Bosch Legacy. At least the commercial breaks are shorter than ones on regular tv. Also watching Barry, Under the Banner of Heaven and Outer Range. Also, John oliver who has been very good lately.
Read City On Fire by Don Winslow, one of my favorite writers. Excellent book. Now reading One-Shot Harry by Gary Phillips. It's about a black newspaper photographer in 60's Los Angeles. After that Sea of tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel. Loved her Station Eleven but hated her last book The Glass Hotel.
Weather is getting better. Watched a grandson place baseball today. Had a great grandson born on Tuesday. My third great grand child.
I have jury duty again Monday morning so probably won't be able to comment at all beyond this. I am hoping that will be my last day of jury duty.
I am very sorry about your leg pain as a result of the drug, but agree it is best to take it.
I'm sorry to hear about the leg pain, Patti, especially if there's not a lot you can do about it. It is good to hear you've had a couple of days of good weather, though. I hope it lasts. And thanks for reminding me of Love in the Afternoon.
One nice day this week, as the mostly awful Spring weather has continued, with two days of rain added on. Bah. Went to the city one day as Jackie had to go to the hospital for a (5 minute) pre-test before her cataract surgery in a couple of weeks. We took the express bus both ways. The only highlight was lunch at Sarge's Deli.
Watched the black & white indie C'mon C'mon with Joaquin Phoenix bonding with his sister's 9 year old son when she has to take care of her estranged husband. You would never know the kid who plays the nephew in English. Also watched the 2002 Concert for George, a tribute concert on the one year anniversary of George Harrison's death, with Eric Clapton, Paul & Ringo, Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty, etc. Hard to believe another 20 years have passed.
I find myself reading a ridiculous six books at once - two short story collections, a mystery, the rest non-fiction. I really need to cut this down.
Netflix has sucked lately. We watch mostly through Amazon - Britbox, Acorn, MHz Choice, PBS Masterpiee. We canceled Hulu. the King 11.22.63 was a poor adaptation of the book and we quit halfway through. Enjoying ANNIKA and WHITSTABLE PEARL and TRACES (finished second series). Quit the Turkish followup to the Belgian INTO THE NIGHT (YAKAMOZ S-245) after 3 stupid, nasty episodes (Netflix). Jackie is going through the various HBO Harlan Coben adaptations. She just watched one in Polish.
We're trying to go to a show every other week. This coming Saturday is THE MINUTES by Tracy Letts. Up next: POTUS and TAKE ME OUT.
Congrats to Steve on his third great-grand!
The leg pain is unfortunate but is better than the alternative I suppose. Is there an alternative drug you can take?
We're slowly getting settled in to the new digs. We are still trying to find things that Christine and Jessamyn had packed away when they moved us. Someday soon we expect to find Kitty's shoes and my dentures.
Took the six-hour trip to UABirmingham hospital for tests and consults for Kitty's valve replacement. It was agreed that the procedure needed to be done sooner than later. We're scheduled to go back Wednesday and the actual valve replacement will take place Thursday morning. Can't happen soon enough for me. This may not solve all of her problems, but at the very least, will be a major first step.
Our merry band of helpers for the Birmingham trips were Christina, Amy, and "Cindy" -- a cement block that went with us everywhere to help Kitty get in and out of the car and her bed. Amy and Cindy soon developed a special bond.
Mother's Day was a quiet affair although there was cake and strawberries dipped in chocolate.
Not much TV this week. (Go figure.) Kitty has been watching THE GUILDED AGE, while I have been avoiding it. I did catch the last episode of MOON KNIGHT and am still confused. **sigh**
Only read two books this week, both creaky old science fiction/fantasy: Ralph Milne Farley's THE RADIO BEASTS (my FFB this week) and A. Merritt's BURN, WITCH, BURN. Currently reading Merritt's SEVEN FOOTPRINTS TO SATAN. On deck for the next Birmingham trip are four Joe R. Lansdale books.
I soon expect to hear of you joining the race cars outside your window, but until then may you have a fantastic week. Stay safe.
Jackie already has the leg pains without taking that drug.
Still finding Viola Davis hard to take as Michelle Obama.
Yankees were wildly condemned this off-season for not making any big free agent signings, but they are doing great so far. Reasons: 1. most importantly, they are healthy. Aaron Hicks, Aaron Judge, DJ LeMahieu, Jameson Taillon, Luis Severino, Giancarlo Stanton all on the field.
2. They greatly improved their lousy defense, going from one of the worst teams to one of the best
Hepburn and Cooper creeped me out in LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON, yet I never had a problem with her and Cary Grant in CHARADE 6 years later.
The Sandra Bullock movie is THE LOST CITY, not SECRET CITY (an Aussie series). It is on HBO or Showtime next weekend.
Jerry, give Kitty our best for her surgery this week. Fingers are crossed.
THE GILDED AGE is a soap opera. Christine Baranski's character is unbearable. Lots and lots of Broadway actors in almost every role. Nathan Lane is a hoot with his ridiculous mustache and Southern accent.
Diane returns today from her trip to Ohio to help her older sister. While Diane was gone, I got caught up on several streaming series. SLOW HORSES followed Mick Herron's spy novel very closely and a Second Season--DEAD LIONS--is in the works.
Like Jerry, I'm confused by MOON NIGHT. Weird...but in a bewildering way.
Our weather heats up this week into the 70s. And, no rain forecast until Saturday!
We have a nice neighbor who owns one of those pickup trucks with the noisy mufflers. Really noisy. I don't know what the attraction is for these noise makers, but people buy them. Our Summer noise problem is fireworks. Despite the Pandemic and Inflation people somehow find the time and money to buy fireworks and fire them off on hot Summer nights triggering dogs barking and squirrels scurrying everywhere.
Meanwhile, Western NY's Covid-19 infection rate climbed into the 20% range. Diane and I will get our Second Booster this week. Stay safe!
I couldn't make it through the GILDED AGE. Maybe Lane had it right playing it way over the top. I have never found Baranski the actress some do. Even in the THE GOOD FIGHT she is annoying to me.
Yeah, Cary looked younger than Cooper does. So too Gregory Peck, William Holden and maybe even Fred Astaire.
Possible my leg pains are not the drug. I can take an earlier one but the outcome is better with this one.
Despite all the lighted signs about Noise Reduction Enforcement the hipsters are out in force. And they are about to dig up the street on the other side of the building. I am in a dead zone.
Steve-I had my kids young but they didn't get going for years. Yours must have. My grandmother was a great, great by age 68. I wasn't a grandmother until 59.
My grandmother was a teenager when my mother was born, so she was a grandmother around age 42.
Wow. I do have one friend who was a grandma at that age. And a greaet, great by 73. But Steve has them beat.
I know. It seems so weird now, when both my sisters had their first child at age 40, as did a cousin's wife. It really is a different world.
My youngest daughter was a grandmother at 37.
Half of the women in the world now are just becoming mothers at 37. By 37, my kids were in high school. So different.
Since Woodward is one of the most famous streets for both the Cruise and traffic in general, I’d assumed you expected it when you picked your apartment. Sorry about the leg pain. I’m not reading anything, nor watching much beside PBS.
Further condolences for the leg pain (hope you can take analgesics for it that help some), congratulations to Steve and his family, and glad things are proceeding apace for Kitty and new inanimate service item Cinder and the rest of Jerry's family. I don't ever submit myself to the kind of durance perhaps not quite vile you do for some of your FFBs, Jerry, though Farley certainly was a pioneer...just not necessarily one for the ages.
Y'know, even though my parents were involved with autocross racing and were fans of auto racing of all sorts throughout their lives, I'm not sure I've ever heard of the Woodward Cruise. Could well've forgotten it...at 57, I'm getting increasingly good at that (I always took Audrey Hepburn's characters to have Daddy Issues, the geezers to be sad cradle-robbers...even as a not well-preserved specimen, not smoking nor drinking much nor making beef 59% of my diet does leave me somewhat less beaten-looking than her usual co-stars--of course, April-October Romance is a long Hollywood tradition). Paulina Porizkova, Keanu Reeves and Lenny Kravitz are current 57yo sorts...I'm more back in the pack with Stephen Colbert, in terms of wear and tear.
I like WE OWN THESE STREETS a Lot, but it's a rare item from Simon, Pelecanos and co. I don't like. Don't need sympathetic characters, albeit I find those trying to investigate the corruption at least Sympathetic Enough. THE BABY seems like a one-note premise, but the pilot was clever and I'm going forward. BARRY remains pretty good. GASLIT is fine so far, haven't been swept away by what I've seen of FIRST LADIES. Rewatching THE GOOD WIFE (have always liked Baranski, but like most actors she needs a script...THE GILDED AGE wasn't so long on those) and catching up/reviewing THE ROCKFORD FILES...the Stephen Cannell scripts particularly, and the Juanita Bartlett scripts sometimes, seem as unsurprising as you suggest, Patti, but generally I sill like them (and the Bartlett episode getTV reran last night was just Odd), while the various David Chase scripts which are run-ups to THE SOPRANOS eventually are particularly fun.
Both Alice and Laura out of the hospitals and on the mend. Big favors.
My parents made their greatest mistake at age 27 (while the conception was while they were 26) they did feel like they had Waited Some. I've been living with Alice for 26 years. Hm.
Still not going to audience events. Haven't even been to a library lately.
Movies entail a crowd of three when I go. I think we are never going to be free of Covid so any sort of life will mean risk of that now. Since being alone inside my head is more terrifying, I will have to take chances.
Who is Laura? Did I miss that hospitalization. Will travel back in time to check.
Laura is my longest-term more or less consistent contact friend, and I'm her health proxy. We met in high school in Honolulu in 1979 (my friend Keiko I met in 1982; I was in school with her brother and her boyfriend, and we were at the University of Hawaii together for a year, and were elected to the UH student senate in 1983 as members of the Green Slate). Only my sister has a longer run putting up with me. In the second week of Alice's recovery, Laura needed to go in at the hospital she works at, Mass General.
Yes, Covid will be a new flu for the most part eventually, most likely. I'm just waiting for the most virulent Covids to overkill their hosts. I'm not wearing the best masks to supermarkets and bookstores, but am still wearing the Not As Good masks, making me increasingly rare.
Have to wonder if THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT and THE DAILY SHOW were unscheduled repeats last night because of further Covid outbreaks. Shall Go Look.
The idiot Mehmet Oz, running for the GOP nomination for US Senate from Penna, in his most common ad now promises to "fire Fauci" (as if he would be able to do that at all), but, then, the at least as rich and unimpressive David McCormick has even more Nazi-like ads. Neither actually lives in Pennsylvania, though they quickly dummied up local addresses.
Another late entry.
Picked up Boy #1 from U of MN over the weekend. A surprisingly quick packing late Sunday morning that took less than three hours to pack up, clean the room, and check-out. While in Minneapolis I picked up some Mother's Day gift beer.
Boy #2 took the AP test for Calculus yesterday. A four hour exam. Results always take a while but he while do fine. His mother took him to the orthodontist this morning and his braces are now off.
I started listening to J.G. Ballard's MILLENIUM PEOPLE. Only the second novel of his I have read/listened. Published 30 years after CRASH but much of the same style and some shared themes. I also got back to listening to James R Benn's BILLY BOYLE series and finished #10. 11? Maybe 12.
Looking forward to the new KIDS IN THE HALL episodes on Amazon.
I have never seen KIDS IN THE HALL. Probably too late to get it. My husband was a Ballard fan.
I'm reading some Ballard for tomorrow or Friday. I like a lot of what the cast/writers of THE KIDS have done since more than I like the original series, but am curious as to what they'll do now...were the AP exams always four hours? Probably. That's a Stretch Back...though I still remember being stumped as to how to respond to the AP English essay question with something the assessor would know anything about, given the literary work I would ideally describe in response (something to do with mythological resonances)...probably why I got a 4 rather than a 5 on that, which was acceptable, even if I wanted the better score, as a junior. It got me 3 credits at 200 level at both unis, and no question of needing to take 100 courses, as it was.
Does watching one's kids go through these kinds of things stir up all those things...how much recapitulation of memory comes with parenting? I think my parents, who went through rather different sorts of adolescence (among other stages), often were at a loss.
I only took one AP class, History. I earned a 4 and received credit. Not that one credit meant much at college. I don't recall how long the exam period lasted, but I figure it was likely 3-4 hours.
The local high school offers several AP classes and Boy #1 took several AP exams. He earned at least a semester of credit. Some universities won't give credit for an AP score. The passing score only allows students to skip an intro course. I'm thinking his test scores may have been fallen on both sides, credit and skipping.
Both children are unlike me in that they are smarter, self-motivated, do their homework, and are more concerned for their grades. I don't always relate.
I cannot get over how motivated my grandson has become. He really admires his teachers and tried his best to please them. Because he is in a very good public school, the demands are great.
My kids were also motivated, but I was not particularly. I had no sense how much depended on it.
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