Josh and Julie took me to see a local production of SINGING IN THE RAIN, which was amazingly good. The staging was so impressive in contrast to what you would have seen two decades ago. Today I go to see SIX.
Beautiful weather. It hasn't rained in a long time. And today it cooled off.
I never have to have a colonoscopy again. Yay! Unless of course, there are troublesome symptoms. 75 is the cutoff.
Sad to see SUCCESSION, BARRY, TED LASSO and MRS. MAISEL go, All I have left is TOP CHEF, which is at the end and PORTRAIT ARTIST OF THE YEAR.
Enjoyed YOU REALLY HURT MY FEELINGS with Julia Louis Dreyfus. Four people in the audience. Kevin gives 9/10 to SPIDERMAN IN THE MULTIVERSE. I think that is his highest score ever.
READING SCORCHED GRACE (A crime-solving nun) and THE DICTIONARY OF LOST WORDS.
Josh and Julie
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I love this weather although I'm sure a bit of rain would not hurt.
Not watching as much tv since I'm spending most the day outdoors reading, talking to people and petting dogs.
Finished Pennies From Heaven by James Blaylock. Now I'm reading Titanium Noir by Nick Hardaway (John le Carre's son). Next up Killing Moon by Jo Nesbo and Lucinda Williams's autobiography.
Next week I attend a Grandson's graduation. In the daytime next Saturday. 530 grads. I hope it's not too hot-it's outside. Than on Sunday I'm going to see The Cure at Pine Knob Music Theater.
As a bit of tribute to my late parents (who remained auto racing fans throughout their lives, but gave up active participation in racing the cars after we left Alaska in '69), I watched a bit Indy Car coverage through certain streets of, live today on ABC. The closest I've ever come to auto daredevilry was sort-of racing a Porsche, while I drove my parents' Audi, on the Pali Highway after dropping them off at the Honolulu Airport, and on my way home back to Kailua. Nothing Too Crazy, mind you, but faster than I should've been taking that cliffside highway.
On Showtime, the first two episodes of UNCOUPLING are remarkably good for a Darren Star co-production/creation...that it mostly focuses on the gay male characters perhaps has moved him to cut down on the clownishness; that the cast includes Neil Patrick Harris, Marcia Gay Harden (surely the source of a "drag" name of someone somewhere, or many many-wheres) and Tisha Campbell doesn't hurt at all. While THE IDOL on HBO was, despite a cast partially filled with good comedic actors and Johnny Depp's daughter in bruise-colored blush (and Eli Roth, playing Eli Roth, aka the annoying slightly younger brother of many default Ben Stiller characters), is in its first episode mainly a sad, pseudo-racy attempt at soap opera for teens.
Still digging BREEDERS repeats, and others. Continuing with season three of HAPPY VALLEY, and catching up on BLINDSPOTTING and RULE THE WORLD...and Starz is running repeats of HIGHTOWN now, so they might well be ready to run the next seasons of MINX and HIGHTOWN simultaneously, which would not upset me. Looking forward to the pendant series to JUSTIFIED. As noted on my blog, SISTERS, which FX will run the latter three episodes of (first? only? season) this week, is on a sharp improvement curve (and the premiere was watchable if a bit easy)...and HBO has renewed SOMEBODY SOMEWHERE for another season. If only Showtime had been so sensible with LET THE RIGHT ONE IN and AMERICAN GIGOLO.
Glad you had some fun, Patti...and Steve, a reasonably hot grad ceremony will get you ready for a rock concert audience...
So glad you had a good time at Singin' in the Rain, Patti. Sometimes those local productions really are excellent.
What I love about local productions is the sheer bliss you see on the faces of the performers.
SIX was excellent although that was a professional production. What energy these women brought to the stage.
I have SHOWTIME but I forget to check their offerings out.I gave up on the cannibal one.
Sadly we have no outdoor seating there. There is a park two blocks away but it is not very inviting. Too little good seating or shade.
I hope you enjoy SIX as much as Diane and I did (we saw it twice).
We also enjoyed SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE, but I had to grade the movie with an INCOMPLETE since after two hours and 20 minutes the words TO BE CONTINUED flashed on the screen. So we'll have to wait until 2024 to see the end of this movie. The movie took in $120.5 million so far.
Western NY is mired in cloudy skies caused by the smoke of the wildfires in Nova Scotia. Diane, with her acute sense of smell, complains about the scent of burning forests in the air. Many of our friends with asthma have trouble breathing this polluted air.
Stay safe!
Hooray for out-and-about Patti! Hooray for decent weather! And a super-hooray for one major benefit of getting older -- reaching the colonoscopy age level! (After I had my last colonscopy, the doctor came in, all smiles, and said, "Conratulations! You graduated!")
It's been a quiet week in Lake Wobegone,my home town...Wait. That's not it. Anyway, the Meatball v. the Mouse war goes apace, with our governor completely outclassed; both sides are driven by money and power, but if I had to pick a favorite, I'd go with the Mouse. Also this week, they repaved our road, which is the most exciting thing to happen around here sine the local Publix supermarket got a new bacon slicer. And evidently they found an elephants' graveyard near Gainesville; of course, if there was an elephants' graveyard to be found anywhere in Nirth America, it would be in Florida, the state that continues to amaze...Wild times.
Walt's mother in Virginia bought a new car, one with "all the bells and whistles." (I hope i also has a horn.) She's giving her old car to Mark, so he and Christina are in the midst of a four-day road trip to retrieve it.
Ho-hum, no TV. A thank you both to good weather and the writers' strike.
Read and enoyed Erle Stanley Gardner's final Doug Selby mystery, THE D.A. BREAKS AN EGG. Leonard Wibberley's del;ightful THE MOUSE ON WALL STREET was my FFb this week. Victor Gischler's STAY was one of those thrillers where the bad guys should have known not to pick a guy with a hidden past; as always with Gischler, I could not put the book down.I read two graphoic novels this week: Laura Marks's DAPHNE BYRNE (from Joe Hill's Hill House graphic novel line, about a young girl with powers in 1886 New York) and Marjprie Liu's THE NIGHT EATERS, BOOK 1: SHE EATS THE NIGHT (Chinese-American twins v. Oriental demons and a haunted house). Two books by Lawrence Block: KELLER'S FEDORA, a novella from Subterrean Press, and THE GIRL WITH THE DEEP BLUE EYES, a murder-plot novel from Hard Case Crime. Also from Hard case, Donald E. Westlake's THE COMEDY IS FINISHED, a "lost" novel about a kidnapped comedian. Alospn Gaylin has taken over the continuation of the Sunny randall sage from Mike Lupica with ROBERT B. PARKER'S BAD INFLUENCE (Lupica is stayin within the Parker fold -- he has both a spenser and a Jesse Stone novel coming up). Max Allan Collins and branara collins contiue their deceptively clever Trash 'n' Treasure sries with ANTIQUES CARRY ON by "Barbara Allan." Finally, to add some local flavor, BEYOND GULF BREEZE, the second (and final) Sally Malone mystery by local author Joyce Holland; this one -- despite its many, many, many flaws -- could have been a winner with some strong editing, but, as published, it's a hot mess. Currently reading CHARLESGATE CONFIDENTIAL by Scott Von Doviak, another Hard Case Crime offering.
Today is both National Gingerbread Day and National Moonshine Day. Whichever you choose to celebrate, have a good time and stay safe.
Loved SIX. Such energy and great voices.
Jerry-your reading rate is amazing. If I got off the Internet, I could do better.
Nice picture. Staging can make a huge difference in shows. I still remember years ago seeing J. B. Priestley's AN INSPECTOR CALLS in 1994, where it rained on stage. Very cool.
We saw KIMBERLY AKIMBO on Saturday. You can look up the NYT review from last November to see how much he loved it. Good show, very well done, a little long at 2 1/2 hours, but definitely worth seeing. Kim is a New Jersey teen in 1999 ("before teens had cellphones"), who has a rare aging disease that is unlikely to let her live beyond 16. Victoria Clark (Tony winner for LIGHT INT HE PIAZZA nearly 20 years ago) does a wonderful job in the role. She lives h=with her self-obsessed parents (Dad is a drunk, Mom is pregnant). It's just a charming, delightful musical. I'm glad we saw it, especially after the downer GREY HOUSE.
This weekend we're seeing ROCK & ROLL MAN, a musical about Alan Freed with music from the period (Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, etc.) plus new songs.
We finished ROUGH DIAMONDS. Good, but I doubt there will be a second series. I got a notice from MHz that the French SPIRAL is leaving at the end of the month so I am trying to finish as much of it as I can. We're on series 5 of 8. It is about sleazy cops and crooks and lawyers and judges in Paris. This series is less sleazy than past ones. We're watching CITADEL on Prime, which is entertaining in a not serious way. If you like over the top spy stuff (hello, George) as well as great actors like Stanley Tucci (as the head of the title organization) and the ubiquitous Lesley Manville as the super bad guy head of the evil Manticore, it's worth a try. Plus, the episodes are around 45 minutes long and there are only six episodes in the first series. Also started SOMEBODY SOMEWHERE and we've halfway through the second series of HAPPY VALLEY.
I finished the Pronzini/Malzberg collection and have the second Edward P. Jones collection next, among others. Also reading T. J. Newman's thriller FALLING.
The oddest thing was, this past weekend PBS ran the free concert Carole King (apparently) did in Central Park...and it was the first either of us had even heard of it! It was on May 26, 1973, a Saturday, so we would have been here. We'd already been to concerts there - like the free Barbra Streisand concert in 1967 or so. I just have idea at all. Did we not go because we were busy doing something else? It was clearly overcast and chilly weather, so that could have been a factor. Was one of us sick? The bizarre thing is that we don't have any memory of the concert having taken place. I didn't start keeping my weekly/monthly books until 1975 so that doesn't help either. Weird.
This last week I had problems with fatigue and digestive system problems. On Friday they got so bad that Glen took me to the emergency room in the evening. Six or so years ago I had a bleeding ulcer and ended up in the hospital and the symptoms were similar. After tests they sent me home with a prescription and instructions to get an appointment with my doctor. The fatigue has been less but still bad enough that I am doing very little of anything. I hope I can get an appointment soon.
This week I finished CLARK AND DIVISION by Naomi Hirahara and liked it very much. The best part for me was background story of the internment of the Ito family in Manzanar during World War II followed by their resettlement to Chicago, far from their original home Southern California. Especially knowing the author's expertise in that area. I would like to read more of the resources that she suggested on that subject. I did not find the mystery portion of the story as interesting, but overall it was a great read. I am glad to hear that there will be a second book in the series.
I am now reading THE MITFORD MYSTERY by Jessica Fellowes, which I am liking better than I expected.
Very glad to hear that you will have no more colonoscopies. Good to hear that there is a cutoff at 75.
Yes, anxious to follow the family with EVERGREEN next. Sympathize with the digestive problems. It did turn out I have some diverticulosis that might cause some of mine.
Even this local production had falling rain, a movie screen playing their silent movies and other great touches. But there is nothing like seeing a play on Broadway.
It is fairly hot in my part of WI. I spent the weekend doing cleaning of the my van and the house. My wife and I attended to June County Dairy Breakfast on Saturday. Boy #2 refused to get up early enough and come along. It was an extra early visit because my wife and I both worked. The breakfast was quite a bit different with no blaringly loud live polka band and the addition of air conditioning. The coffee is always Burn Your Face Off hot.
I continue watching WALKING DEAD and started rewatching A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS since listening to a podcast about the series. I have a couple episodes of JETT left to watch on Max. (Todd Mason mentioned JETT not long ago and that prompted me to return to the seres.) I think the series was going to a kind of Nicolas Winding Refn feel. The colors and camera movement. The longer scenes where the actors are thinking or waiting. A certain emotional detachment by the protagonists.
Listened to Willy Vlautin's THE NIGHT ALWAYS COMES. A great novel. But, I'm used to noir and the expected the protagonist to be captured or killed at the ending. Also listened to:
- THE KANASAS CITY COWBOYS by Johnny D. Boggs. I always enjoy his Western novels. He even makes baseball interesting.
- IVANHOE. Boring and drawn out but surprisingly relatable for such old writing.
- Lori M Lee's middle-grade novel, PAHUA AND THE SOUL STEALER because she spoke at the state library conference in April. Fun and interesting fantasy novel from the perspective of the Hmong main characters who are still adjusting to life in WI. Part of the plot involves reincarnation. As someone who grew up in standard Lutheran religion the idea of reincarnation kinda creeped me out. The thought that I am not myself, but just the continuation of another person/soul. I suppose there are multiple theories or doctrine on reincarnation, but that was what came to me.
- New listening to Stuart M Kaminsky's FALL OF A COSMONAUT. The Rostnikov series has always been solid for me.
In a few days the family gather for my mother's 80th birthday. Hopefully the weather will cool. My mother wrote that the heat got to her over the weekend and wore her out. Boy #1 should arrive today by train. The train itself is running several hours late.
Love Willie Vlautin. I think I have read all of this novels. I hope that hot weather stays north of us.
Terribly sorry about the health hassles, Tracy (and Patti)...I do tend to catch another watch of JETT episodes when Cinemax is offered via a free weekend, and should simply get the string untangled to watch "Max" streaming more regularly--it and QUARRY, from the M. A. Collins fiction, were the great losses when Cinemax was stripped of all its series production. Vlautin is another I've been Meaning to Get To.
I was extra, super excited when I heard about Quarry coming out. I am pretty sure I saw the first episode when offered for free as a teaser. Never watched the series though, even though I bought the DVD for work.
Last post about QUARRY was mine.
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