Saw HALLELUJAH, the movie about Leonard Cohen at the theater. There were four of us, yet the ticket seller warned us to sit in our assigned seats. The theater held perhaps 200 seats.
At home, Criterion is running the "kitchen sink" British films of the 50s-60s. I have seen them all before but it's fun to see them again. So far I have watched THE GIRL WITH THE GREEN EYES and THE L-SHAPED ROOM. Both are overly long but have lots of good things in them. Seeing Rita Tushingham, 22 at the time, with Peter Finch, 48 is more alarming now than then I think. We were used to seeing Audrey Hepburn with every aging actor of the time around then.
Finally getting to SLOW HORSES, which is very good. Also moderately like BAD SISTERS.
A rainy day here. Not many of them this summer.
Reading CLARK AND DIVISION still. I have to spread it out so I won't forget it for the book group. Naomi is going to visit us via zoom. I didn't have much luck with FEN after making my library round it up for me. Reading one strange story is perhaps enough for me.
What's up with you?
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Finished The Devil Takes You Home by Gabino Iglesias. Very good. Reminded me a bit of S. A. Cosby. Finished a collection of stories by Albert Cowdrey-Revelations. All of the stories were first published in F&SF. Still reading The Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe and some short stories by Stephen Volk. Getting Fairy Tale by Stephen King Tuesday will start that then.
Didn't see any films in the theater this week . Rewatched some newly remastered 4k discs of The Killing and The Cat People (1982).
I hope you enjoyed Hallelujah, Patti. I always thought Cohen was so gifted, and I know very little about him.
Still fumbling along with good days and bad days, working slowly to whatever my new normal will be. Have opted for radiation and am scheduled for for a minor procedure to place markers for the radiologist on the 16th with a followup at the end of the month, then the zaping can proceed, five days a week for five weeks. Joy.
Jessie, Ceili, Amy, Christina, and Jack went on a cruise to Cozumel and the Yucatan last week to celebrate Jessie's 50th. Highlights included the Mayan ruins in Uxmal and swimming with dolphins. They had a fantastic time and needed the break. Ceili also celebrated her 26th birthday just before the trip. How did theimme pass so quickly? -- I remember her just yesterday as the tightly swaddled newborn quietly taking in the world with approval, happy just to BE.
Back to beaching on a regular basis. The waves and the gentle breeze have such a calming effect.
Not able to watch television for any length of time. Have started SHE-HULK and I'm enjoying the quirkiness. Watched PAPER GIRLS and I just finished the first season of THE BOYS. Heve not yet gotten back to watching the late-night comics or the evening news. Soon maybe.
Reading has also been slow. I have to take a break after an hour or so. Still, over the past two weeks I finished the newest Amos Walker from Loren D. Estleman, and anthologies from Peter Haining, Bill Pronzini, Roger Elwood, and Andre Norton, as well as a collection of Gothic stories and poetry from the past two centuries. Coming up are THE DAUGHTER OF DR. MOREAU by Sylvia Moreno-Garcia and the latest Dean Koontz.
The weather has been alternating between raining like stink and frying eggs on the sidewalk here. Climate change is the gift that just keeps giving.
Have a happy Labor Day and a fantastic week, Patti!
Kitty would be proud of well you are doing, Jerry. I know people six months into it that still can't read or do anything requiring concentration. I am glad the Covid is retreating and you can get out.
Yes, the doc was enlightening. His career had big ups and downs.
Long article in the NYT about the future of cinema. Pretty pessimistic about it surviving for many theater chains. They don't seem to have enough content either.
It's raining like crazy in Western NY today, but we need it. It's been a hot dry Summer.
Diane is helping me pack for the BOUCHERCON in Minneapolis. I dread the Delta flights, but I'm hoping for the best. Diane's sister will be arriving on Thursday from Ohio to join Diane for the Family Reunion on Saturday.
I loved SLOW HORSES and can't wait for DEAD LIONS, in production now.
MARVEL/DISNEY re-released Spider-Man: No Way Home with 11 minutes of additional content..and it's the Box Office winner this weekend. That's how hard-up AMC and Regal are for movies that will attract large audiences. Sad.
Stay safe!
I got some really good reading done this week. I loved Chris Offutt's THE KILLING HILLS, now that I finally got around to it. His writing is brilliant and his evocation of the Kentucky hills is sharp, yet subtle, as are his characterizations. Wonderful book. I have SHIFTY'S BOY up next. And I am waiting for MY FATHER, THE PORNOGRAPHER, which is en route to the library. I did read the original story. Also reading KENTUCKY STRAIGHT, his first short story collection. I think I might have read the second.
Also really liked Ramona Emerson's SHUTTER, set in New Mexico, in Albuquerque in the present and the Navajo reservation area near Arizona in the flashbacks. Her protagonist is a forensic photographer for the Albuquerque PD, but she can see and hear and communicate with dead people, which causes her quite a problem. Very good job for a first novel.
Also enjoyed GIRL IN ICE, mentioned before. And I read a couple more short story collections. I found the Charlotte Armstrong I SEE YOU disappointing after the last one I read.
Otherwise it has mostly been television. We finished DARBY & JOAN, which we really enjoyed. They made each episode a little mystery as well as continuing the story. Looking forward to a second series. Finished the latest series of BROKENWOOD MYSTERIES (New Zealand) and THE SANDHAMN MURDERS (Sweden). Two more episodes of the Icelandic FRACTURES (MHz Choice) to go.
THat MHZ seems great. Better than BRIT BOX or ACORN, do you think? I am trying to get SHUTTER but my library hasn't ordered it yet.
Spy dramas are always heavy going for me because I don't have the instinct.
Speaking of spies: Whittaker Chamber's grandson wrote me and said he had done a wikipedia entry for Phil It is under Philip Abbott (academic). He read something Phil had done on his grandfather and they became friends in 2014. How Phil would have love it the irony of this.
We're enjoying MHz Choice because we do like these European shows, and subtitles don't bother us.
Love the Whittaker Chambers story.
Cool. I imagine by this the grandson is a more savory character than Chambers was.
I loved MHz Worldview when it was a free, over the air network that also streamed its main feed for free over the web. It was the affiliation of a number of independent public stations in the US, when we had some, ten years ago or so, and was multiplexed on some PBS stations. And, it probably won't surprise you, I took care of the network for TV GUIDE products from beginning to almost its end (it did outlast TV GUIDE's full corporate existence).
It and Link TV (one of the first international importers of BORGEN) were wonders...the ghost of Link is one of KCET's feeds in LA.
I guess I'm wallowing in tv nostalgia for Labor Day.
Enjoy your reading--that's a good set--and everything else, Jerry. And everyone else...
Just got back from breakfast out, then the grocery store. It was very hot here yesterday (97 deg) and the night was so warm we could hardly sleep. We don't have air conditioning. Today the high is supposed to be 87 and then tomorrow back down to 81 Tuesday.
Jerry, it sounds like you are doing well, considering. And going to beach sounds very good for you. I hope the radiation therapy goes well.
In the last week I finished reading THE TENDERNESS OF WOLVES by Stef Penney and CRAZYBONE by Bill Pronzini. Both very good. CRAZYBONE is the 26th book in the series and I will move on to the next book (BLEEDERS) soon.
This weekend we watched AIRPLANE! (released the year we got married, 1980) and THE HITCHHIKERS GUIDE TO THE GALAXY film with Martin Freeman. We have been watching the DIRK GENTLY'S HOLISTIC DETECTIVE AGENCY also. And PICARD and DOCTOR WHO. And more.
I edited a very odd construction in the Phil WIKI, and noted that the article has a link to my blog, as it happens.
Cool, Tracy...that's a Nameless novel I haven't seen yet.
Phil's article is PHILIP ABBOTT ACADEMIC to differentiate between Phil and the actor. I think it needs some editing. Will look tomorrow.Thanks, Todd I need you to edit my obit.
I have been meaning to watch AIRPLANE again. Hope my visit in January is not that hot. Must be very hard without AC>
January should not be hot at all. It is hard without air conditioning, but really there are only a few days of the year that we have that level of heat at all. So hard to justify the work to add air conditioning. Last year we did not use a fan all summer.
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