These are three of the winning quilts from the American Quilt Show I attended in Grand Rapids. Three hundred fifty gorgeous pieces of art. There were many from Taiwan, Japan, Australia and pretty much every country in Europe and every state. Some very traditional but many did not look like quilts at all. Also went to the Gerald Ford Museum and the Grand Rapids Art Museum. Quite a lively city. Several great meals. It seems like food has become a high art almost everywhere now. It has become a challenge to identify the ingredients in most dishes.
Sad that BETTER CALL SAUL is done although it ended very satisfactorily to me. Still enjoying RESERVATION DOGS/
Hardly read a word this week.
What are you up to?
16 comments:
Diane invited a group of colleagues that she used to teach with for Lunch on the deck. My sister has sold her house in Niagara Falls and plans to stay in her condo in Florida all year round instead of splitting time between NY and Florida. So we invited her to have Lunch with us this weekend. We invited my brother and his wife, too. Who knows when we will see my sister again with travel becoming such a rigorous process.
Finally, we're getting some rain. But my lawn still looks brown.
Catching up on some Library books. And, I'm trying to reduce my book collection by 10 books a week. Some of the choices are easy--books I used to refer to when I was teaching--but soon I'll have to make some Hard Decisions on books I like.
Stay safe!
Finally, finished A Secret About A Secret by Peter Spiegelman. I found it a very slow read. Now reading The Damned Lovely by Adam Frost and dipping into various short story collections.
Sorry to see Better Call Saul end but at least they wrapped it up satisfactory. Still watching John oliver and Animal Kingdom. Plan on watching House of Dragons today.
I watched the first episode of KLEO, a German spy series, at Jefff's M's recommendation. The dubbing is fine if you don't want to read subtitles.
NETFLIX
Glad you enjoyed Grand Rapids.
We didn't do much this week but eat out (4 times), stay home because of the heat (3 days), read and watch television. Some new choices (mostly on Acorn):
STATIOON 11 (HBO Max) this came out during the pandemic but we didn't have access to HBO Max then. I read Emily St. John Mandel's book some years back and enjoyed it. So far I see they've made some major changes to the basic premise (which is sort of intact). Too soon to judge.
HIDDEN ASSETS. Irish cop Emer Berry (Angeline Ball, first seen in THE COMMITMENTS 30 years ago) works for the CAB (Criminal Assets Bureau), whose job is to seize assets of drug dealers plus anything one could reasonably believe they bought with drug money. They discover uncut diamonds, which leads to an apartment in Antwerp (the diamond center), where a woman was murdered and terrorists made bombs, one of which was set off by a suicide bomber. I know it sounds complicated but you can follow it fairly easily, there is NO divorce or annoying teenagers or other home story to distract from the main story as in so many of these crime shows, and I appreciate that it is a short six episodes. The Belgian cop is good, played by Wouter Hendrickx.
Still enjoying DARBY AND JOAN. CONDOR, not as much. Joe Quinn is not the most sympathetic of protagonists. McDONALD AND DODDS has a third series on now (maybe Britbox) and we enjoyed the first episode with Alan Davies, 89 year old Sian Phillips (who was playing 100!) and Holly Aird as guest starts. It's set in beautiful Bath.
An entertaining non-crime show is the Icelandic FRACTURES. Which asks the question, sort of, can you really go home again? Kristin, an ER doctor, takes her 15 year old diabetic daughter Lilja and moves back to her parents' house in her home village after discovering that her husband (a surgeon) is cheating on her. Things are very different than they are in the big city. First, everyone knows her (some still call her "SIssy") and she knows them. People believe in herbs and other homemade remedies, whic are sold by the doctor's receptionist. Kristin's mother is psychic and holds sessions where she talks to the departed (for a small fee), including (SPOILER) Kristin's sister Margret. Then there is Ragnar, the town cop and her former boyfriend. ALl the single men in town show up to see the doctor. The recptionist's Mom spends her day holding court in the clinic's lobby, kibitzing with the patients (where they want to or not). It's the kind of quirky show Jackie loves, but I'm enjoying it too THere are 8 episodes. I think it is Acorn too.
Steve, I'm glad it wasn't just me! George raved about the Spigelman, but I found it slow going, though I did keep at it and enjoyed it in the end.
We will try KLEO today (or soon). We've been using a lot of subtitles, not just on the foreign stuff, because with the fans and air conditioning, it is too hard to hear all the dialogue on British shows.
ANother. We're on the third series on LONDON KILLS, by the way. Another that makes do with 5 episodes per series. CONDOR has 10. I can understand 10 with a show like BORGEN, but otherwise I think 8 is enough for a crime show like CONDOR.
Still muddlin' through.
My erratic sleep patterns of late had me up at 2:30 where I discovered that Blogger had blocked my pst for today because it did not meet its "community standards" -- no explanatip or context given. Trying to determine what had bothered them, or their algorithm, or any anonymous person who might find offense, I added a somewhat scathing comment and/or defence and sent the pst off to "review." The block had been lifted by 4:30. I'm tempted to change the old Chinese curse to "May you live in censorous times." If I had wanted to vilate community standards, be assured that I have both the skill and, if needs be, the determination to do so in a bang-up fashion.
Received Kitty's ashes from the crematorium this week, bringing a heart-wrenching thud of finality to her passing. Sometime in the Spring we will have a memorial service for her in Massachusetts, after which her ashes will be laid to rest in the family plot.
Ceili's beloved companion Azazel, a super-sweet cat with the brains of a box of rocks, had to be euphanized this week. He had lost the use of his back legs, blew a pupil a couple of days before, and was in pain. Still, a very tough decision, and I feel so sorry for her loss. On Friday, Erin's boyfriend Trey, had to euphanized his dog because of cancer. Then, just a couple of hours later, Acorn, Christina's 9+-year-old Chesapeake Bay retriever, had a stroke and had to rushed to the vet. Acorn is okay for the moment but the stroke had had an effect nd we are concerned about her future. Also in pet news, Pine Cone, Erin's sweet pet hedgehog, is now safely ensconced with her in Tallahasse for the Fall semester. Erin had hoped to also bring Duncan, her little dust-mop of a dog with her to school, but Duncan was not allowed in the dormitory. Duncan, now missing Erin terribly, has taken to sleeping in my bed with me. **sigh**
During kitty's illness Ihad put asid all thoughts of my prostate cancer to take care of her. Now it's time for me to do something and the choices are surgery or radiation. My immediate response is for surgery -- just suck it up and get rid of the cancer. Radiation would required treatment for five days a week for at least five weeks. I know am beginning to realize that, at this point, I need some consistency and order in my life if I am ever going to achieve my new "normal." The radiation treatments will give me a reason to do something on a regular basis, at least for the five weeks or so, and that may well be what I need at this moment, so I am leaning toward that. I don't have to make a decision until this coming Thursday.
Befor sending Erin back off to college, Christina, Eri, Mark, and I piled into the car for early voting in the Florida primary. Since I am not a registered Republican I could not do my part in voting Matt Gaetz off the ticket for the November election. I have to be satified knowing that s.o.b. will not be getting my vote in the Fall. I strongly feel voting is the most important thing a citizen can do but with the current political divide, it seems to be turning into a grudge match. **again, sigh**
Watched some TV, read a little bit, but nothing much.
Those quilts you picture are beautiful! I envy your experience at the quilt show. We all need beauty and the awareness of the inventiveness of others in out lives.
Have a great week, Patti!
I remember Phil weighing these options. He went for the surgery and had a quick recovery. If only they had spotted the colon cancer at the time.
Wish I could see CONDOR. If my library ever opens, maybe they have it.
Patti, we're watching it On Demand.
Jerry, good luck. Not cancer, but I had green light laser surgery for an enlarged prostate. Quick and painless and no problem since (so far).
The quilts you show here are gorgeous, that sounds like an excellent show to attend. I did a small amount of piecing and quilting a few decades ago, enough to appreciate the work that goes into it and the art involved.
Lots of good suggestions for watching here. I will have to look into them and see if I can get them.
We are watching ONLY MURDERS IN THE BUILDING and DIRK GENTLY on HULU, PICARD, DEEP SPACE NINE, SHAKESPEARE AND HATHAWAY. We are close to finishing DOCTOR WHO, Season 10, and won't continue until we have some of the next Doctor's episodes. And looking forward to the few broadcast shows that we like coming back in September: NCIS, NCIS: HAWAII, and CSI:VEGAS (which we watch on Paramount+).
Reading: Recently finished THE BURGLAR IN THE CLOSET by Lawrence Block, and want to read the next one. Currently reading VANISH by Tess Gerritsen, #5 in the series; WHY DO BIRDS SUDDENLY DISAPPEAR? by Lev Parikian; and DEATH AROUND THE BEND by T. E. Kinsey.
Oh, that quilt show must have been fabulous, Patti! I have to admit I've never tried quilting myself, but it looks so beautiful when it's done well.
I did enough of it to know I was no artist! These were real pieces of art.
I have a story in the new Lawrence Block anthology. Should be out sometime in 2023 I think. I love his Matt Scudder books.
I look forward to reading that story when the anthology comes out, Patti.
Thanks, Tracy. They sent the edited version recently so I am hopeful the very long wait might be over.
Congratulations! And it's coming out with a Block item or two, if it comes out fairly soon.
Have continued to attempt improvements on house and finally, finally settle my father's estate (the insurance company always seems to find a new way to go back on a previous instruction), hence a slowness to respond. Despite putting a word or some in on George's entries. And occasionally Jerry's. And not sleeping in regular patterns. So it goes.
Just looked at a TCM dub of PANIC IN NEEDLE PARK. Saw this when I was about 9yo as edited for broadcast tv when we still lived in the Boston area (and before we would again), at even that way, it was pretty harrowing in its portrayal of a heroin junkie's life (and my Thing about needles was very much in place at that age). Good NYC cast (amuLsing to see a mustached Joe Santos already playing a cop in 1971...Paul Sorvino, Raul Julia among the more eventually famous supporting players). Seeing this and THE FRENCH CONNECTION II when it was new and in a theater with my father (who loved the original, was less enthusiastic but also less crawling out of his own skin with the sequel and its needling than I) were both memorable experiences (I would've been a wizened 10yo by then, in Hazardville, CT and seeing the film at the Enfield Mall or Enfield Center). At least on TCM, no editing of a bit of Kitty Winn's skin, albeit she was presumably all skin and bones even before prepping for the role. The "it ain't getting better" ending certainly has stuck with me through the years. The Kaiser Broadcasting station in Boston had a good eye for film packaging, to make up for not getting the sports the way WSBK would, and Kaiser was the budding network-that-never-quite-was that had the bright idea of stripping STAR TREK repeats against local news at 6pm on their owned UHF stations around the country that helped get TREKmania fired up, and Paramount mulling its own network ambitions again (after the collapse of Paramount Television Network, 1949-1956, most notable for TIME FOR BEANY, which won them a Peabody Award and the steady viewership of Albert Einstein). Also, their stations, including the Detroit one (WKBD--Kaiser B'casting Detroit), generated/carried the series that had George Romney sinking his national electoral chances harder by noting how brainwashed he'd been about the dangers of Dominos Falling if Vietnam was allowed to tumble. It took putting a dog in a cage on the roof of their car for his son to fumble as publicly, and at least George had it right. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiser_Broadcasting
And those are indeed handsome quilts! (my family had two more-conventional ones...put to use till they fell apart, and I sometimes feel a bit bad about that...one Alaskan, one Hawaiian).
Post a Comment