I saw JUNIPER with Charlotte Rampling on KANOPY. It would have been a mediocre movie without her. Had a great last song by Marlon Williams. A little like Elvis, right?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQjNd0EhmKc
Because I have so much trouble finishing one book a month for my book group, I joined another one tentatively. This is a bigger group so if I don't like the book or get busy, no one is depending on me. Books: HORSES and JAMES. Lots of Haiku. Still trying to get the hang of it.
Watching OUTER RANGE, REV, CATASTROPHE, FRIDAY NIGHT DINNER.
What about you?
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Sometimes it is just a matter of finding the right book group, Patti, as they all do differ. I hope this one works for you.
A very quiet week, although I was strongly tempted to have a wild celebration of Trump's conviction. I remained somewhat calm and sedate, however, praying that his crowd of yahoos will not use his upcoming sentencing as an excuse for violence. Our justice system is noit perfect and can get things wrong, but in this case, no way, Jose.
Christina, Walt, and the kids went o=to Providence Canyon (the smaller scaled "Grand Canyon" of Georgia for a weekend adventure, hiking the canyon until their feet fell off. Mark found and caught (by hand, naturally) a five foot gray (or maybe black -- they're hard to differentiate) rat snake, proudly holding it for pictures before letting it go. (He had thought of taking it home, but wisely decided against it.) I, being sanely a non-hiking person, stayed at home and took care of the animals -- a chore I performed splendidly by not letting Willow, our vey frail, aged, nineteen-year-old cat, die on my watch.
For Memorial Day, we ignored the voice of reason and threats of immovable holiday traffic by going to the beach. Wisely, we went at 6:00 pm, when most beach-goers were leaving. B beautiful weather, with the beach becoming less populated by the minute as the day-trippers kept packing up to leave. As I have mentioned before, the quiet beauty of the waves ehlp center me for the upcoming week.
Spent most of the week binging on A TOUCH OF FROST, the British detective show that rand from 1992 to 2010, starring David Jason as the title character. Great writing and great acting, with many familiar faces in early roles (Michael Kitchen of FOYLE'S WAR), Nathaniel Parker of THE INSPECTOR LYNLEY MYSTERIES, Neil Dudgeon of MIDSOMMER MURDERS, and others). I'm now up to Season Nine (of fifteen) because I am such an obsessive-compulsive s.o.b.
My television binging left me little time for reading. I did finish ARTIFACT, a collaborative fantasy thriller by Kevin J. Anderson, Janet Berliner, Matthew J. Costello, and F. Paul Wilson, and my FFB this week. All four are proven best-selling authors and sections of the book were exciting, but the overall result was a jumbled mess that needed a strong, sure editorial hand to overcome the problem of too many cooks. My reading palate was definitely cleansed by Lee Goldberg's CALICO a mystery-western- time travel extravaganza that proved as enjoyable as anything Goldberg had written. Highly recommended, although
Goldberg did spend a bit a tad too much time describing in detail the filth and smell of a Western mining community, IMO. I also read three very insignificant graphic novels, whose titles I will omit to prevent any ill feelings. Coming up: The latest Charlie Parker from John Connolly, the latest Longmire from Craig Johnson, and the latest thriller from Duane Swierczynski, as ell as the last seven seasons of A TOUCH OF FROST.
Today is Love Conquers All Day (in my case I'll be celebrating Love Conquered All Day), as well as National Chocolate Macaroon Day. Celebrate both responsibly, Patti, and have a great week. Stay safe.
I started to watch Frost but the quality was awfully poor. Does it improve? Always enjoyed it when we lived in the UK but maybe high definition hadn't come along.
Rain, rain, rain. Western NY is stuck in a rainy pattern this week. Rain is forecast for every day.
I was caught up on Library Books when all of a sudden six books all came in at the same time!
Diane is getting us prepared for our trip to Ohio. Ohio didn't used to have tornados...but now they do. Patrick and Katie are flying to Ohio to join us.
Diane is looking forward (with some regret) to THE COMFORT OF GHOSTS, the last Maisie Dobbs mystery by Jacqueline Winspeare. AMAZON says the book will arrive tomorrow. Stay safe!
We rewatched the last episode of OUTER RANGE (series one) to refresh our memories, then (last night) watched the first of the second series. First thoughts: Why is everything SO DARK? Wasn't Will Patton dying of cancer, on his deathbed? Now he's fine?
Watched the first couple of episodes of A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW (first episode was very good, second wasn't as good) and THE SYMPATHIZER (which you really need to pay close attention to while watching). Ewan McGregor is very good, but whoever said, "You know, who says we can't cast a black man is Mischka?" should have been smacked. Really bad choice.
Since there is not likely to be another series of LINE OF DUTY, we've watched other series with their stars - RIDLEY and BLOOD with Adrian Dunbar, TRACES and MAYFLIES with Martin Compston. Now we started (Britbox, I think) TRIGGER POINT with Vicky McClure. She plays a bomb disposal expert in London (after service in Afghanistan). Worth a try.
We have one more episode of HACKS to go. Finished STAR TREK: DISCOVERY (series 5) and it just wan't very good, was it?
Jerry, agree on Lee Goldberg's CALICO - we both loved it - and the Trump verdict (we certainly celebrated). Got a text from my cousin last night. She'd been to see the Alicia Keys show (HELL'S KITCHEN) on Broadway and was seated near Michael Cohen. She walked by him on the way out and said, "I'm glad you got the fucker."
We'll be on the Island of Long this weekend as we have a concert (one of only THREE we have this year, so far), Bonnie Raitt in Westbury. We're staying over at the Marriott on Saturday night.
Finally finished volume one of the R. Roosevelt biography, and I discovered there is a third volume covering his post-Presidential years. I have volume two on hold. Just got the latest Marcia Muller from the library.
Jeff, if I ever meet your cousin, I'll buy her a drink.
OUTER RANGE is always screwing around with time lines. Maybe I am too old for that. I have 6 plays/musicals in the next month but no concerts. In fact, can't remember the last one I attended. I am sorry to miss the GREAT LAKES CONCERTS this year.
Cat's teeth seem to be healing...my sleeping patterns not yet correcting. Was buoyed (and unsurprised) by Drumpf's conviction on all charges, which would've taken more bribes than he usually manages to cough up to avoid.
Have finally started looking at MARYLAND, the MASTERPIECE series import on PBS. Pretty good so far. Reviewing PERSON OF INTEREST, which also holds up reasonably well.
Started reading Bertrand Russell's THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS as my waiting-room reading on Friday (thanks, George)...amused, along with his assumption that we all, or should want to, dress for dinner, as noted by the introduction to this edition, that he assumes that animals will be content if they are fed. Um, not quite (though starving them will not make them happy.) Still slowly making way through some collections and anthologies. Russell perhaps should've visited with the Houses.
Last Tuesday we returned to the I Madonnari site (a chalk painting festival that was running through the Memorial Day weekend). We wanted to see the completed paintings, and I was surprised that all of them had been completed. We did not realize that the workers would still be dismantling the site (food vendors and entertainment) and there were many more people still checking out the paintings than we expected. We took just as many photos as we had on the previous Sunday.
Later in the week I had an ophthalmologist appointment and I have two appointments scheduled this month for cataract surgeries. I know it is supposed to be straightforward procedure which usually goes well; nevertheless I am anxious about it.
Our standard watching right now is HARRY WILD (Season 1), CSI, MURDER SHE WROTE (Season 4), NORTHERN EXPOSURE, RESIDENT ALIEN (season 1), LEVERAGE, and STAR TREK ENTERPRISE. We are almost at the end of LEVERAGE, but we will start LEVERAGE: REDEMPTION after that. Thanks, Todd, for mentioning PERSON OF INTEREST. We may start rewatching that again sometime soon.
I finished three books in the last week, and I liked all of them:
SALT LANE by William Shaw. I liked it more than I thought of would, since I was not thrilled with Alex Cupidi in THE BIRDWATCHER. She is a more appealing character in this book, and I will look for more in the series.
SKELETON-IN-WAITING by Peter Dickinson. Published in 1989, it is a sequel to KING AND JOKER, published in 1976. Both are alternate history novels. I liked it better this time than the first time I read it (in 2004).
PERSEPOLIS: THE STORY OF A CHILDHOOD, by Marjane Satrapi. A graphic memoir, which tells the story of her life in Tehran from ages six to fourteen, from the point when the Shah is overthrown through the war with Iraq. There is a second volume which I now also want to read. I know very little about Iraq.
Glen is now reading DEATH OF A BUSYBODY by George Bellairs. This is an early mystery in the Inspector Littlejohn series. This is the only one in that series that we have in hard copy; we have several more on the Kindle. He is enjoying it so far; he likes the description of the village.
I have started PERSON OF INTEREST many times and I always get drawn away for no good reason. I really enjoyed the first season of RESIDENT ALIEN. Have not watched the second. I have one Bellair on my kindle but now I better get with starting HORSES. Liked but did not love MARYLAND. I think it needed better writing in the last episode.
We are big fans of PERSON OF INTEREST. Of course, star Michael Emerson is married to Carrie Preston (who stars in ELSPETH), who played his girlfriend in several episodes.
Jeff, the reason I got interested in watching PERSON OF INTEREST for the third time is when I realized that Carrie Preston had played Michael Emerson's girlfriend in PERSON OF INTEREST. That was one of my favorite parts of that show.
Boy #2's graduation was successful. Boy #1 arrived in time and refused to stand when local alumni were asked to do so. An outdoor ceremony on the football field and my mother and I took chairs to sit on the field with some others. I did okay during early afternoon event and staye dhydrated with over a quart of water. I still ended up feeling sick and worn out for the rest of the day.
The school no longer does valedictorians and salutatorians. Classes now have a points ranking and students earn magna cum whatever and summa whatsitcalled. Boy #1 was Summa with a bunch of other students. Unknown to him and us was that he and one other student were asked to stand as the top two points people of the Summa group. I was pleased.
Read a couple graphic novel adaptations of SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE and EIGHT MILLION WAYS TO DIE. Enjoyed them both. I was flipping through a SLAUGHTERHOUSE novel a few months ago when Boy #2 read it for school. I first read it in high school on my own and missed a lot of what was going on; especially the protagonist's massive mental trauma.
Will start on Charlie Huston's latest novel, CATCHPENNY, which I chanced upon in a bookstore's SciFi section.
Was it the heat? Be careful in any event. Have not read SF since high school.
I've had trouble for the past 10 years or so where I wilt in the sun. I had thought keeping up on water intake would prevent an issue, but nope. My mother said when I was a child I'd be outside with others and come in red and pink from the weather and sun when my brother and others were ok.
I generally try to avoid direct sunlight, drink a lot of water, and expect I will need a long nap in the afternoon.
Never heard of ELSPETH and see Wendell Pierce is in the show. That's an endorsement for me.
Sorry to hear that. Lucky that you live in a state that doesn't get too much really hot weather.
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