Really enjoying THE BEAR. Episode 6 and 7 were terrific. Put a book mentioned in 7 on hold at the library-UNREASONABLE HOSPITALITY. I have seen this sort of service play out at two restaurants recently.
Also loved VORTEX (thanks, Jeff) although it looks like Netflix is going to leave it hanging.
Saw the movie THE LESSON, which I very much liked. Richard Grant should have had better parts than he's had.
I am getting so much out of my new writing group. I was so lucky to stumble on them. An English fellow's memoir about being farmed out as a kid during the blitz brought us all to tears. I so hope he has time to finish it. He is probably 92.
Have also met a retired English Professor whose specialty is Emily Dickinson. I have always meant to read her poetry all the way though because I find her very difficult. Maybe now's the time.
Been watching movies with method acting on Criterion. I don't think I have ever seen IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT all the way though before. Really a gem. As to RACHEL, RACHEL, based on the Margaret Laurence novel A JEST OF GOD. One of my favorite writers.
How about you guys?
16 comments:
Just finished the new S. A. Cosby novel which I liked. I have the new Megan Abbott to read although I have a couple of library books to read first-new novels by James Lee Burke, Connie Willis, Matthew Hughes and Richard Ford.
Saw no new movies. Not much on tv this week except for the second season of The Lincoln Lawyer. And Loudermilk on Prime.
Had some tests run on my kidneys. They seem to be okay. Have another eye injection today. At least they are 8 weeks apart.
Tomorrow looks to nice but than rain in the forecast.
I first saw IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT in its entirety (aside from whatever commercial broadcast on a network would've cut out ca. 1974) as a kid, and it's one of those films I've seen several times since, usually in its entirety (I was amused to see in a brief looke at a TCM repeat today that in GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER, a film I haven't seen in its entirety since I was of a similar tender age, Poitier's character's mother is played by the same actress, Beah Richards, who plays the abortionist in HEAT, whom Tibbs addresses as Mama after her more or less nickname, Mama Caleba). The sin was that Rod Steiger was nominated for and won Best Actor in the film, with Poitier not so nominated; also the country music parodies in the film were just a Bit too moronic. Otherwise, it holds up...I was also amused that John Ball, who created Tibbs with the novel form of IN THE HEAT, with his second novel set the action in a nudist colony, THE COOL COTTONTAIL, which would've been all but unfilmable at the time, presumably in response to the liberties taken with the character of Tibbs in the film. (Of course, Insp. Closeau could visit a nudist resort in A SHOT IN THE DARK, but that was Very carefully choreographed and a comedy.) Ball is, to borrow George's term and if he was to suggest this in Ball's case, I'd agree: underrated. Lee Grant...Warren Oates...
I've found three new (to me) series to look at, from the US debuts (or repeats) on CW and PBS affiliates...the 2021 CBC series MOONSHINE has been imported by the CW, with all the "language" silenced (as CBC doesn't worry about Canadians' virgin ears)...an odd-family drama with some hints of crime-related aspects, where the prodigal daughter who's been an NYC-based architect of some repute visits her Canadian family running a run-down resort hotel, with her son...and things lead to she and her son potentially staying. Easily the most adult series on the CW, though the new owners won't be buying the second or third seasons from CBC, apparently, leaving the door open for, say, Ovation on cable or even Ion or Retro TV on broadcast (if the last could afford it) to snap it up. PBS likewise began D. I. RAY, a police procedural starring Parminda Nagra last night, and the Philly PBS station apparently tagged on their first or second run of another 2021 series, the UK commercial series PROFESSOR T...if MOONSHINE is a better version of, say, NORTHERN EXPOSURE, PROF T is a better version of MONK. None will make me forget about the film or novel of IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT (I'll never voluntarily recall the tv series--OK, it had a good opening montage, with a worse cover of the theme song--tough to beat Ray Charles), but good enough, so far. Having dug out my vintage EPOCH issues, at least one of them with be this week's SSW.
Glad you're having a good time with the new writing group! The kid was hired out to do things for people in grim ways? Or just the grim times of toil, sweat, blood and tears?
I'm very glad to hear you're enjoying your new writing group, Patti. That can make such a great difference, can't it? I haven't watched The Bear, but I do hear that it's great.
We endured another hot week in Western NY. We don't have the triple-digit heat baking the South, but I'm not a fan of heat, humidity, or bugs.
My little sister and her husband from Florida will be in town on Tuesday. We're taking them to a swanky restaurant to celebrate her recent retirement from teaching. We have tickets to the MISSION IMPOSSIBLE movie on Wednesday. I'm taking Diane and two of her friends to her favorite local restaurant to celebrate Diane's birthday on Thursday. Busy week!
Today, a crew will be coming out to service our GENERAC natural gas generator. This is part of our maintenance contract. They change the oil and install a new spark plug so we'll be prepared for any power outage.
Stay safe!
I wonder if this building has a backup generator. I hope so.
I have never seen the TV version of HEAT. The fact that so many of the actors in HEAT came out of the actor's studio made it interesting but perhaps dated. Same too RACHEL, RACHEL.
I want to read Ford's BE MINE, having read everything he's written, but I am not sure I want to visit ALS, which is a large part of the plot according to the reviews. I think an early Bascombe book featured prostate cancer. Disease as a major plot point is not a favorite thing.
Leaving for Connecticut today, then with my cousins to Maine tomorrow. Home on Sunday. We've been going away with them around July 4 every year since 2017 (except 2020, of course), usually a few days in Connecticut, Rhode Island or Massachusetts. This is longer and father afield. We've never been to Maine before.
The weather here has been very warm to hot and extremely humid. Portland looks mostly cooler and I hope we don't get too much rain. The worst was two years ago in Boston, when we had torrential downpours that started when we were in a restaurant eating dinner. Crazy people were eating outside under umbrellas, but they had to move them inside due to the rain.
We finished VORTEX yesterday, and I don't really see a second series, though you never know. It kind of went all to hell in that last episode, but we really enjoyed it too.
TRANSATLANTIC is watchable but not compelling to me, though the real story is. SLEEPING DOG (Germany) is another like VORTEX in that his best friend is a murder suspect. (I must say that in VORTEX I picked out the murderer right away. Ask Jackie if you don't believe me.)
We started the third (and final) series of the Belgian UNDERCOVER. Watching D.I. RAY (PBS Masterpiece), with Parminder Nagra as the newly promoted DI in Birmingham, perhaps assigned to this case because of her Indian heritage (which, in an ironic twist, is nullified because she doesn't speak the language and seems to live mostly in a white world, even to her fiance). Interesting tidbit: her mother is played by Shobu Kapoor, who also played her mother in BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM 20 years ago!
At least we've found a few Netflix series to watch. We're closing in on the last series of Poirot with David Suchet, and these last episodes are not so good as the earlier ones. But FOYLE'S WAR - now up to 1944 - is excellent as ever, probably because Anthony Horowitz wrote 24 of the 28 episodes.
Reading Helen Ellis essays, R. A. Lafferty short stories, and Chris Offutt's CODE OF THE HILLS.
Have a good week.
I didn't watch many episodes, but Jackie liked the IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT television series. She is watching the 2002-2006 EVERWOOD now on Freevee. She started after Treat Williams died.
I picked him out too, Jeff, because the other possibility was clearly a red herring. I would like to see a second series. Very likable characters. Be safe.
I've read all of Ford's books, too. But I'm going to take a pass on this last Bascombe novel. ALS is a terrible disease (as is prostate cancer) and I have too many other books vying for my time. Thomas Wolfe said it best with YOU CAN'T GO HOME AGAIN. Doing a fifth Indian Jones movie, revisiting Bascombe, and bringing back FRASER just shows how going to the well too many times doesn't work.
I looked up Parminder Nagra after the above reference to BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM. Nagra was 26 (or so) when she played the teenager in that film. Meanshile, Keira Knightly was an actual teenager at 16.
I quite enjoyed the audio version of THE KEEPER OF LOST CAUSES by Jessi Adler-Olsen. A mystery-thriller set in Denmark in 2007. The narrator had an accent that sounded very much like Werner Herzog which gave a weird feel.
Been reading ebook of ENGLISH PASSENGERS by Matthew Kneale. I thought I was borrowing an audiobook and went ahead and started reading anyway. Set in 1858 Tasmania with a religious nutbag, genocide of the native peoples, grave robbing, and general bad behavior. Enjoyable.
In our neck of the climate catastrophe, we're getting a comparitively cool, only slightly smoky, and not so much rainy as overcast day...small favors.
Good luck to everyone! Hope the eyes aren't too trying, Steve...in a decade in New England, I was barely ever in Maine, oddly enough, Jeff...or, for that matter, in RI. Living in MA, CT and NH, and having my father's family mostly in VT, took up most of the time spent...
EVERWOOD was a very decent series. Wish I could say the same for the HEAT series...if you feel the film of HEAT is dated, Patti, you should try the series for a few minutes, at least. If Jackie has a rec for better episodes of it, I can believe it eventually improved, but it had put me completely off by the end of the first season.
Indeed, Gerard, Nagra was always being cast younger than she was...notably in ER, as well. Just saw a chunk of the POV documentary episode "Writing with Fire" on World Channel, and am recording the balance as I prepare to Go Do Tasks...feminist journalists in India in BJP strongholds and worse, not always the healthiest of occupations, making it all the more necessary. Damn it all.
New additions to what we are watching: DEATH AT PEMBERLY (3 pt. miniseries). Also started THE AFTERPARTY on Apple TV. Recently watched a COLUMBO with John Cassavetes, Myrna Loy, and Blythe Danner (ETUDE IN BLACK).
I have seen IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT a couple of times, once after I read the book a few years ago, and then again fairly recently. I liked it both times. I don't think I ever watched the TV show. It might have come out when we did not have a TV, when our son was young. I do want to read A JEST OF GOD and then watch RACHEL, RACHEL.
Currently reading SS-GB by Len Deighton. I put it off for a long time, although Len Deighton is one of my favorite authors, so I should have known I would like the writing and the story. Alternate history stories are a challenge for me, though.
I am getting really weary of restricting fluids to 1.5 L daily, it has been about a month now. But the fatigue has lessened quite a bit, so I should not be complaining. A minor thing, really.
I am wondering if my sleepiness is affected by the amount of ice tea and water I drink.
Etude in Black is one of my favorite Columbos.
Don't think I ever watched EVERWOOD although I like Treat Williams. He was a great villain in that JCO story they made into a movie with Laura Dern. SMOOTH TALK
Keeper of Lost causes was a very good movie too. I think they made three from that series.
Todd, I believe she started watching HEAT with a later series than the first.
My ex passed away from ALS. Not a pleasant way to go. Not sure I would like to read about it.
Patti-Is the woman in your writing class an ex professor at Oakland University?
I have trouble getting to sleep. I sure hope it is not the afternoon coffees. Although I can always switch to decaf.
Post a Comment