On Saturday my former community's library had an author's fair where about a dozen authors played to an audience of...none. It was pouring rain and it's a very small community. I felt sorry for the library, which had purchased a lot of very nice nibbles for the non-event. The woman next to me had written a memoir of the day in 1985 when her father murdered her mother and burned their house down. Or should I say, she hired a ghost writer to write the story. She brought 100 copies of the book along with all sorts of handouts and electronic paraphernalia.
Yesterday I went to a 'Brunch with Mozart' event with two women I didn't know at all. I had met them at the Senior Center a few days earlier and it seemed like a good idea. And you know what, it was. The musicians were all members of the DSO and the brunch was incredible. Both women were interesting and we plan to go to the next event in November.
I purchased tickets to see the Taylor Swift film on Thursday because my friend (89 yo) has been anxious to see it since in went up on the marquis months ago. I could not name one Taylor Swift song, but it's an event and on a TH it should not be too crowded.
Reading. In a reading funk right now. I have been wishing for a good ghost story but not the bloody kind.
And we won't go near the political news.
What about you? What are you up to?
26 comments:
Moonlighting was such a great TV show, Patti - glad you're watching it. My daughter and granddaughter went to see the Taylor Swift film and they both said it was well done. I hope you'll enjoy it.
Three hours seems awfully long...Thanks!
Diane and I went to see TAYLOR SWIFT: THE ERAS TOUR movie yesterday with hundreds of other Swifties. I was one of the few men in the audience. It's a SPECTACLE!
BRUNCH WITH MOZART sounds great!
I remember liking the first couple seasons of MOONLIGHTING but the later seasons lost all the magic.
Diane wants to watch LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY this week. I'm reading more and watching less TV. Stay safe!
Author events are always iffy. When Ken Follett was signing at a New Hampshire bookstor, Kitty and I were the only ones there; I felt sorry for Follet, but Kitty got to talk with him about PILLARS OF THE EARTH for forty-five minutes. Once, at a D.C. mall, I saw an author chasing down mall customers outside of the store, begging them to look at his book...For a good,non-gory ghost story, have you tried Ropbert Nathan's PORTRAIT OF JENNY? It was made inot a great flick in 1948, starring Jennifer Fones and Joseph Cotton...Never saw much of MOONLIGHTING; it was scheduled in the same time block as REMINGTON STEELE, which I much preferred.
Jessie came back from the Maryland RenFaire with COVID. Despite what RFK Jr. (and the DeSantis adminstration) say, vaccines work and Jessie only had a few uncomfortable days...Someone is giving snakes away after the owner died. She claims at least one is a cobra, but she doesn't know what she's talking about. Amy is interested in a python and Mark may also take one. Don't know if anything will actually come out of it...Jack is actually healing nicely from his operation but because he was fooling with the bandages, the scar will be more visisble -- and because Jack is eleven, he thinks that will be cool.
Huzzah for the writer's strike to be over. I'm gorging myself on the late night talk shows. How I missed Colbert, Myers, Kimmel. Oliver, and Weekend Update! (Jimmy Fallon not so much.)
Sometimes the only grown-ups in the political room are these comics.
Read another Dave Robicheaux novel by James Lee Burke, LIGHT OF THE WORLD; I had forgotten how much I like the character and the author. Robert Crais's Elvis Cole and Joe Pike novel L.A. REQUIEM was also a good read, coincidently with a Louisiana tie. Rex Stout's posthumous book CORSAGE; A BOUQUET OF REX STOUT AND NERO WOLFE was a small-press collection that included Stout's first (and previously unreprinted) Nero Wolfe novella). A Bertram Chan dler's THE DEEP REACHES OF SPACE was an expansion of his 1946 story "Special Knowledge." Chandler, who was a ship's captain. was very adept at turning a sea story into a rousing science fiction adventure in deep space. I've always enjoyed his books. Ny FFB this week was Lee Goldberg and William Rabkin's AIMEE AND DAVID THRULO'S ELLA CLAH: THE PILOT SCRIPT, a story that did justice to both the Thurls' characteract and the scriptwriters' talents. Staying with Lee Goldberg, I also read the television tie-in novel DIAGNOSIS MURDER: THE DEAD LETTER. I'm currently three-quarters through Goldberg's DISGNOSOS MURDER: THE SILENT PARTNER and about one-third through a very early John Brunener science fiction novel, GALACTIC STORM.
There was a very chilly breeze at the beach yesterday, but a blue heron dropped down about a dozen feet from us and visited for about twenty minutes before moving on, and we saw two groups of Dolphins frolicking. Afterwards we walked through the local mall and I everything I did not want or need, and nothing else.
What I do want and need is for you to have a great week, Patti! Stay sfae.
Honest to God, I proofread the above before posting it. I may not be getting old, but my eyes sure are!
Love Robert Nathan and esp. PORTRAIT OF JENNY. And the movie is spectacular. That COVID just won't quite.
LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY-she nails the part and Lewis Pullman was great too. But it was not my favorite novel. Too much like Julia Child.
Yikes about that memoir. Yes, everyone has at least one story, but it doesn't mean we all want to read about it. You've been doing a lot more cultural stuff than we have. We do have a matinee on Saturday - Shaw's ARMS AND THE MAN, one we've never seen, is playing off-Broadway on 42nd Street west of 9th Avenue. Unfortunately, they are predicting the seventh straight rainy weekend.
My cousins came back from their trip to Europe (they loved Budapest), where they went rather than the original plan of Peru and the Amazon. But both came back with Covid for the second time (at least). These people who don't wear masks in airports or long flights are just asking for it. We got the new Covid shots last week and neither of us had any reaction. We'll get our flu shots ast the end of the month. It has turned much colder (yes, I know, it is October, but colder than normal) and rainy lately.
I'm enjoying the Joe Lansdale collection THINGS GET UGLY, and also THE BOYS INT HE BOAT, which Patti recommended a few weeks ago. Can't believe I never heard of the book or their story before. Also reading a Cynthia Harrod-Eagles book. Sports is a wasteland for New York teams, especially the Giants.
We did watch ANNIKA last night (series two, episode one) and watched the first episode of the very disturbing Canadian LITTLE BIRD (also PBS) on Saturday. From the late 1950s into the 1980s (unbelievably), Canadian welfare officials were just grabbing up Native children from their fasmailies and putting them into foster homes and then up for adoption. Even worse than in this country, at least as it is presented, there were no hearings or court orders or anything. They just went to the homes and took the children. The series centers on Bezhig Little Bird, who is taken when she is 5, and who is raised in Montreal as Esther Rosenblum. I found it very upsetting.
We finished the first series of Irvine Welsh's CRIME (Britbox). The second just ran in Britain last month. It's dark (serial killer of young girls) but we enjoyed it. Dougray Scott stars as Ray Lennox, with other Scottish actors on hand.
In case you aren't depressed enough, you might try (we deliberately missed it when it first ran on HBO in 2020, but Jackie wanted to try it now) an Oprah's Book Club choice, I KNOW THIS MUCH IS TRUE, with Mark Ruffalo excellent as twin brothers, one schizophrenic and the other his protector/caregiver. It is a real downer, trust me, in six parts no less.
We are enjoying (MHz Choice) the Austrian series WALKING ON SUNSHINE, about backstage machination at a sort of mini-Weather Channel.
Never watched MOONLIGHTING.
George, Jackie wants to know how old the audience was, our age or 30s or ...?
Like most TV shows, MOONLIGHTING was a good season-and-a-half series that went on well past its sell-by date.
Lessee--Saw the late Jack Higgins at a signing in McLean, VA, in 1993. There was a fairly good turnout of fans, and Higgins was gracious. I bought a copy of his then-latest, EYE OF THE STORM and THUNDER POINT, and asked if he'd ever considered writing a sequel to my favourite, THE WRATH OF GOD. He said no. Saw the late Tony Hillerman when he did a talk at the Smithsonian in 2003. The PBS series of Leaphorn/Chee had recently aired; Hillerman said he thought Wes Studi turned Leaphorn into too much "a Chicago cop." Off-topic, I also met the great Japanese actor Tatsuya Nakadai when he appeared at the Smithsonian in 2013 for a Q&A after a showing of YOJIMBO.
I wish I were as well-read as you, Jeff, Jerry, and George.
Hi Fred!
I watched REMINGTON STEELE too and I believe that is streaming on one of the many channels bankrupting me. I don't think I saw the PBS Hillerman series. The first season of the new one (DARK WINDS) is good. At the Senior Center today they were giving out shots. A lot of people were upset that people seemed to be getting COVID anyway. But Michigan has a new strain of it not dealt with in the shot.
I loved Budapest too. We saw it and Vienna on the same trip. My friends, just returned from Europe, said they were about the only ones on the plane with masks.
Bad week physically. On Tuesday I sprained a muscle in my arm playing Wii bowking. Have a bruise the size of a baseball. Than I had a bad reaction tothe new Covid vaccine and was sick for a day.
Reading the new Lou Berney and the new Stephen King. Just picked up the new Lou Reed bio from the library.
Watching the Fall of the House of Usher on Netflix. The movie The Covenant on Amazon (pretty good).
Detroit Lions are still playing off. Pkayoffs maybe?
We can only hope, Steve. I have the new Berney but have yet to begin it.
Most annoying signing: John D. MacDonald signed at a Bouchercon and Mike Nevins brought a SUITCASE full of books to be signed. I think they immediately instituted a "3 books only" limit. Most authors are very, very gracious when you tell them how much you enjoy their books. Very gracious: William Campbell Gault signing at the first Milwaukee Bouchercon seemed shocked (if pleased) how many people wanted to get his signature and to tell him how much we enjoyed his books.
Wow, that is obnoxious because it has to be about money, not fandom.
I have thought about giving MOONLIGHTING a try. I never saw it and I like Bruce Willis.
We have been watching POKER FACE, CSI, MURDER SHE WROTE, LONDON KILLS. We finished the original PERRY MASON episodes this weekend. We are in the 4th season of STAR TREK:VOYAGER and are rewatching SHAKESPEARE AND HATHAWAY. Lately we threw in episodes of BROKENWOOD MYSTERIES and MIDSOMERE MURDERS.
Interesting about all those signings. Sorry that author affair did not go well. Under the circumstances I can understand why, but it is a shame that the library tried so hard with no results.
I finished GAMBIT by Rex Stout last week and enjoyed it. As I do when reading any Nero Wolfe novel. I had forgotten that is was a pretty straightforward mystery and on the short side. Not my favorite but a good number of fans rate it highly. After reading it I found two more resources on the internet about Rex Stout that had been written fairly recently. One by Ethan Iverson and one by David Bordwell. I have ordered PERPLEXING PLOTS by Bordwell as a result.
After that I read SOMETHING WICKED by E.X. Ferrars (or Elizabeth Ferrars). It is the first in the Andrew Basnett series. I have liked everything I have read by Ferrars.
Now I am reading SOMETHING WHOLESALE by Eric Newby, which says it is about him working in the family garment business but really covers more than that (I think). I am only 70 pages in (of 220 pages) and not sure how I am liking it. Glen has read THE BIG RED TRAIN RIDE (which I will also try), but I this is my first book by Newby. I do want to read LOVE AND WAR IN THE APENNINES.
I forgot to say what Glen has been reading. He did finish reading THE THIN MAN by Dashiell Hammett. He continued to be disappointed in it because the characters were not at all like the movie and the plotting was quite a bit different.
Now he is reading THE GHOST SHIPS OF ARCHANGEL: the Arctic Voyage That Defied the Nazis. He is liking that but it is not as good as other books about World War II that he has read recently.
I remember Phil (my late husband) loved THE BIG RED TRAIN RIDE. He like travel narratives. Just listened to BOOKS AND AUTHORS podcast and ended up buying two books on kindle. I must have a hundred books on there I haven't read. UNCLE PAUL, by Celia Fremlin. I am sure I read it before but...
Fred, it's easy to become as well-read as Patti, Jeff, George, and myself. First, realize that there only twenty-four hours in a day, then read for thirty-five of them.
Tracy, I read THE LAST GRAIN RACE by Newby, in which he signed on for - basically - an around the world trip from England to Australia and back on one of the last tall ships. This was the late 1930s.
He was a fascinating guy.
Jeff, thanks for that info. I will look out for that book. It sounds like he led an interesting life.
Patti, as far as ghost stories (or weird stories) go, Glen likes Robert Aickman's writing. He just purchased WE ARE FOR THE DARK (Six Ghost Stories), with three stories by Aickman and three by Elizabeth Jane Howard.
Oh, I know Elizabeth Jane Howard. I will look for that. You people are costing me money!
AMAZON WE ARE FOR THE DARK
Hardcover
from $766.00
2 Used from $766.00
Paperback
from $216.46
Maybe I will look a bit more.
Patti, this is where Glen ordered it from:
http://www.tartaruspress.com/aickman-we-are-for-the-dark.html
The amount translated to about $51.00.
Thanks, Tracy.
As a Librarian who hosted an author visit with an audience of two (I was one of the two) I understand. At least this was a paid talk by the author, so her time was compensated if her ego wasn't.
I visited the dentist today for the first time in six years and had a fairly clean bill of health. I was happy with the news.
Listened to Tana French's WITCH ELM. 22 hours long and the story could have been cut down a fair amount.
Starting watching the recent German production of ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT. Only 30-45 minutes on the film before I had to don something else. I think the digital animation is well-done and not overdone. There are so many flicks that lay the animation on WAY too much.
Next week is the WI state Honor's Orchestra where Boy #2 will be playing bass. I sometimes struggle to understand how he was admitted to the orchestra when he so rarely seems to practice. I am looking forward to the concert.
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