A great relief that my brother and his extended family all survived Ian although I read in the NYT today that his county really blew their evacuation and cost lives. Glad theirs were not affected by such incompetence. However, electricity and Internet is still elusive.
No movies.
TV: watching Vera on Hoopla, trying Industry on HBO Max, which my son and daughter like but I'm having trouble getting into it, Atlanta on FX, Bad Sisters on Apple and The Patient. Reservation Dogs just finished wonderfully. Also a really quirky Canadian show on Netflix Michael: Tu and Th, about a therapist and his patient. A bit like Schitts's Creek as to its sense of humor.
Reading THINGS WE LOST TO THE WATER, Eric Nguyen, short stories by Olaf Olafssen and a novel by Elena Ferrante (THE DAYS OF ABANDONMENT). Also just started the David Milch memoir.
Lots of time with friends this week. Again, I am so thankful for them. I know I want to run around more than most people seem to need to. Did I always?
20 comments:
Luckily I don't know anyone in Florida. Michigan weather is so mild. At least in SE Michigan.
Lions are 1 and 3. They score 45 points and still lose.
I watched Blonde which I liked a lot. Yes it is dark. It follows the novel closely.On the btv front it is mostly tru crime, Reservation Dogs, John Oliver and the Simpsons.
Finished The Killing Hills by Chris Offutt than read his follow up Shifty's Boys. Also an old reread Darker Than Amber by John D. MacDonald.
Went to a birthday party for my 3 year old great granddaughter. Otherwise I selfom went anywhere.
Glad your brother and fam are safe. So many are not. From what I've read FEMA is responding as well as possible -- ulike under Republican admins. DeSantis is opposed to federal aid for disaster relief unless it concerns Florida. **sigh** Our part of Florida was safe and we had clear blue skies while Ian hit down south. It's going to take a long time for the state and its people to recover.
Scheduled to start radiation this noontime. Thirty-eight treatments at a rate of five a week. I'm told I have a moderate case and there should little problem with recovery. Fingers crossed. Starting next week, my treatments will be at nine o'clock, so I'll have time for a cup of coffee after dropping Jack off at school.
Christina and Walt are heading off for an extended anniversary weekend on Thursday and I'll be taking full care of Jack, including all medications. We should have a great time.
Earlier this week I caught up on some films based on comic books -- WW84, Joker, The Batman, and Morbius. Joker impressed me far more than the others.
Did a lot of reading. James Lee Burke's collection JESUS WENT OUT TO SEA, Thoms Walsh's TO HIDE A ROGUE (my FFB), A Roger West novel by John Creasy (POLICEMAN'S DREAD), Helen Nielson's VERDICT SUSPENDED, Bill Pronzini's SMALL FELONIES 2, and finished George P. Elliott's collection AMONG THE DANGS. Also read a graphic novel THE MICE TEMPLAR, VOLUME 1: THE PROPHECY (which George sent me) and Ivan Brunetti's doorstop collection AN ANTHOLOGY OF GRAPHIC FICTION, CARTOONS & TRUE STORIES, vOLUME 2 (I needed to go out and buy a magnifying glass to read much of the small print; First World old age problem). Started another doorstop anthology, Alan Russell's RIVALS OF SHELOCK HOLMES, VOLUME 2 (500 oversized pages with small type).
Beached yesterday until the sand flies got to us. Beautiful day with clear skies and calm waters. Then we went to a dog adoption event at the animal shelte where Amy works. Fell in love with many animals, including Poseiden (a large and drooly bull mastiff) and Tigger (a seven-year-old bulldog mix). Follow this with a late lunch with the girls. A perfect day.
I hope you have a perfect day, Patti. In fact, seven of them during the coming week. Stay safe and keep on gallivanting around with friends!
I'm very glad your family is safe, Patti. That has been a terrible, terrible storm.
A friend did several weeks of radiation this summer and fared well with it. Hope it's the same for you. Glad Ian missed you.
I will have to read those Offut books. Seems like everyone likes them.
Yes, it was, Margot. You picked the right end of the country for hurricanes.
My sisters in Clearwater, Fl and Merrit Island, FL escaped Hurricane Ian's wrath. Rain and wind, but little damage. They were lucky!
Diane loves to be active, too. She has her Book Club meeting today, lunch with friends tomorrow, her yearly physical Wednesday, and tickets to a musical on Friday.
For the first time in three years, I have read ALL of the Library books I'd taken out. The Library Box--where I keep Library Books so they don't get lost in this house--is EMPTY! But, of course, I have plenty of Stark House, Hard Case Crime, and other publisher's books to review. No rest for the wicked!
We woke up to frost on our lawn (Diane brought in her plants last night). The furnace is running. National Fuel Gas sent us a letter warning that natural gas prices would DOUBLE this Winter. Yikes! Stay safe!
Double! That is scary. Too bad Diane and I don't live closer to each other. We could run around together. Nothing like frost here I don't think. Of course, from eight floors up I might miss it.
Good luck, Jerry. I'm sure you'll come through it fine.
George, I believe it! It was 48 here this morning and felt a lot colder.
We've gone the other way, Patti. Other than going to Florida in the winter (and a July 4 trip with my cousins), we are happiest staying at home. Do not need to travel or socialize. And yes, you need to read those Chris Offutt books. I will let you know when the short stories are in the mail.
I knew I was reading a lot of short stories, but...September total was 93 stories and TEN collections finished. I have five days before Martin Edwards' massive THE LIFE OF CRIME is due (and I can't renew it), so I am hoping to finish it this week. Very good book. Meanwhile, unlike George I have a huge pile of other library books backing up while I read that and the short stories.
Otherwise, it is mostly hours of television at night. Jackie generally watches one hour (rarely two) in the afternoon of a show that doesn't interest me. She finished the Aussie THE GLOAMING after I hated it, and is watching the Swedish GASMAMMAN, which I didn't care for either. One more she will be adding is David Kelley's British ANATOMY OF A SCANDAL, which we started last night but which is not for me (or most of the reviewers). Sienna Miller (ironically, considering her private life), finds out that her M.P. husband (Rupert Friend, of HOMELAND) has been having an affair. Then the woman (who has clearly had a consensual relationship) accuses him of rape. Good acting but ridiculous.
Series two of THE OUTLAWS is much darker than the first one. Enjoying RECIPES FOR LOVE AND MURDER, A PRIVATE AFFAIR, the new BORGEN (finally, after we finished rewatching the whole original series, which was great). We watched the first of three movies - VENDETTA - made in the ZEN series with Rufus Sewell as Aurelio Zen, a rare (according to this) honest cop. Like other British shows, this was filmed on location (in Italy) and the characters were supposed to be Italian, but everyone speaks ordinal British English without an accent. We will watch the other two (CABAL and RATKING). These were originally aired in 2011.
I will have to look for the Zen series. I think I saw the first but not the next two.
I tried PRIVATE AFFAIR but twinkly young women who solve crimes do not usually work for me. Only old women. And young men.
Yes, it is a bit hard to credit, but we like her from THE MINISTRY OF TIME. And I like Jean Reno as her butler/assistant.
Jackie said that ZEN is on Britbox.
Ordered Britbox!
Hope as with everyone that the therapy is quick and effective and relatively trouble-free, Jerry. Any quartet of films in which JOKER is the best is indicative of how things are going with comics films.
I have on good authority, given a discussion elsewhere, that nearly everyone who knew him except his universally-appreciated wife thought Andrew Offutt was a jackass. Well, that helps explain that.
Jeff, any David Kelley project is likely to have better acting than the script will ever deserve. Glad the new BORGEN has arrived, I'll have to seek it out.
Patti, social life is good...those of us without much of one in a non-virtual sense are too often irritable, I can attest on the best authority. The flu bug I've been fighting off hasn't helped that or my irregular sleeping hours much.
Best to all.
FWIW: AMERICAN GIGOLO (Showtime) remains a rather slick and watchable bit of crime soap, with good talent working all ends. A number of them were working on RAY DONOVAN, which it unsurprisingly rather resembles.
The pilot of EAST NEW YORK (CBS) is slickly produced and well-enough acted but rote. Could improve.
The cast of THE CIRCUS (Showtime) continue to believe that we give a rat's ass how they have lunch.
I might be alone here in wondering if and with whom hosting THE DAILY SHOW (Comedy Central) and THE LATE LATE SHOW (CBS) will continue after Trevor Noah and James Corden quit. Noah is the greater loss on the better show, but the supporting cast and some of the aspects of the current LATE, LATE will be missed.
BLUMHOUSE'S COMPENDIUM OF HORROR (Epix), to judge by the first episode (as some of you might've seen me kvetching) is remarkably inept. TCM came up with a good set of horror and ghost-story-fantasies for the first weekend of October...FXM came up with an unsurprising mix of the same dozen of the barely more than 100 films they always show (why? They even always run IN LIKE FLINT but never OUR MAN FLINT, if either was worth more than a dull minute's timewasting), and AMC ran another unsurprisingly even duller mix of big dumb hits of years past.
And, indeed glad your brother and his family, Patti, and everyone else's relatives are mostly safe, and with luck will see something like normal life again somewhat soon. And let's hope that DeSantis is somehow toppled, though as Cuba is currently seeking help from the US among others, I'm sure he'll find some way to nastily profit from not being seen with Biden, and yelling about any aid the US gummint sends their way. However little and indirectly.
Opps. The above from Alice's computer without fixing the addy.
One of the books I got at the book sale this year was COUNTRY DARK by Offutt. I haven't read anything else by him.
We finally got back to watching SHETLAND. I had not realized that we had not watched Season 6, so we are watching that now and then we will get to Season 7. Also watching ONLY MURDERS IN THE BUILDING, STAR TREK: DISCOVERY, DIRK GENTLY and more. We are back to watching the Perry Mason Season 6 episodes on FREEVEE; I guess it was just a glitch that we could not access them for a week or so.
I did read an article about Trevor Noah leaving THE DAILY SHOW. Although I haven't watched late night TV for years, it was very interesting reading.
The damage in Florida and New York is overwhelming. My brother lives closer to where Jerry lives in Florida (I think) and thus would not have been bothered by the hurricane there. But his son and daughter-in-law live in New York and I have no idea where. I should check with him.
I was never alone until three years ago when Phil died. I am not afraid of being alone but I am lonely if I am alone for long. So that's why I run around. I would love to live like THE GOLDEN GIRLS.
I now have SEASON 7 of Shetland on BRTI BOX. Sadly I cannot get a $8.99 monthly charge from ROKU for AMC+ off my American Express bill. I can find no way to call ROKU and they don't seem to respond to their community chats. They don't even have AMC listed as a subscription and still they bill.
I haven't watched any late night shows in many years. I know Noah from his great memoir though.
I fear this will only help DeSantis and somehow hurt Biden.
As the better late night comedians noted last night, the Florida Republian delegation all voted against national disaster relief the other day, something that made no sense even in typical times given where Florida is (Marco Rubio chose to be absent).
It's worth taking a look at segments from THE DAILY SHOW, THE LATE SHOW with Colbert and LATE NIGHT with Meyers, or watching the commentary/parody segments. There is essentially never a reason to watch Jimmy Fallon's show. Kimmel's and Corden's shows are less acute, frequently, but have their moments. Fallon basically never does. He's a less bitter Joey Bishop.
The interviews on the chat shows from the good comedians are not enough better than Fallon's, for the most part, but even there they aren't as relentlessly desperate for approval. I will skip the interviews with duller folks on the regular from them all.
Burst from my disguise as Alice yet again.
I'm still here. I'm just slacking.
I have not done well on working through the TBR pile and just had another one come in on hold yesterday. Maybe I should start speed reading. At least I am keeping up on my audiobooks
Speaking of which, I am listening to THREE SOLDIERS by John Dos Passos. I've nenot ver read many of the famous '20s and '30s writers. THREE is a war novel and Passos only has two battle scenes. Both are decidedly UN-heroic with one scene an act of murder.
I read multiple WW2 and Vietnam war memoirs when growing up. All of those authors were united in saying the Army was full of bullshit and boneheads. THREE is no different. I see a real difference between those post-war pieces versus the rah-rah kill-em-all works written during the recent 20 Years War.
I've not seen any films of note but did enjoy the silliness of Will Ferrell's 2009 version of LAND OF THE LOST.
Regarding Offut: I listened to KILLING HILLS and remember enjoying it. I've wanted to read the memoir about his father, MY FATHER, THE PORNOGRAPHER, and that is also on audio.
HBO is premiering the second season of AVENUE 10 in a couple days. I very much enjoyed the first season of that comedy.
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