Had four good days in NY where we saw MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG, STEREOPHONIC and AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE in quick succession. We also saw great exhibits at the MET (Harlem Renaissance), MOMA, (Kathe Kollwitz) and FOTOGRAFITZA (Vivian Maier). Also saw the premier of FANCY DANCE with Megan at the Hotel Whitby with the cast in attendance. Had okay food but nothing exceptional.The temps weren't too hot for our visit but were climbing day by day.
And then my friend got COVID. I hustled her to a URGENT CARE, where we were both tested and somehow I didn't catch it. Her prescription for Paxlovid really seemed to help. But sadly we had to fly home, well masked, but perhaps infecting more people. What can you do? The place we stayed (a friend's) was about to undergo a kitchen renovation so we needed to get out.
Last night I saw a very good movie if it comes your way, GHOSTLIGHT. Set in Chicago and acted by Chicago actors. Lovely little movie.
No TV except a doc on the making of the original MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG.
Reading HORSE, which is okay but boy, horses don't much interest me. And it is hard to read about the treatment of slaves once again. Do book groups ever choose books that are happy?
How about you?
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13 comments:
So glad you made your way back safely. Best wishes for your friend's recovery. Covid can be a real sumbich -- just ask George. The plays and exhibits you attended sound fascinating, and I know you really appreciate time spent with Megan.
An uneventful week here. Sunny and warm. Internet went down for another full day and I spent another day without a phone as they tried (and failed) to hook me up with my new one. thanks, AT&T.
Three events this week passed quietly: Walt's birthday, Juneteenth, and the solar solstice. the fourth event -- our visit to the Road Kill Cafe last Monday -- was interesting, but I have already reported on that.
No TV this week except for one evening when Jack and Ben came in to watch Season 4 of STRANGER THINGS in my room. I spent almost the entire time with a bearded dragon resting on my chest as Hopper tried to survive Russian prison and as Steve, Nancy and the gang ended up in the Upsidedown, beating monsters with boat oars...
Tuesday and Thursday mornings are free movie days at the local theater; they show two movies each week and you can pick whichever one you ant to see on each day. This week it was DESPICABLE ME 2 and SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 2. (Last week, it was DESPICABLE ME 1 and SONIC 1; next week it's DESPICABLE ME 3 and something else because SONIC evidently didn't make it to a third movie.) WE saw DESPICABLE on Tuesday and Jack laughed a lot, as did the young mother seated directly behind me. Thursday, Jack ran across a friend and we ended up watching DESPICABLE again, giving both Christina and myself a chance to nap a bit.
This week turned out to be a Dean Koontz week for reading, including the twelve ebook novellas that comprise his Nameless series about an amnesiac clairvoyant who goes after the most despicable And not in a Minions-friendly way) murderers: The Nameless sequence, Series 1 (2019) includes, IN THE HEART OF FIRE, PHOTOGRAPHING THE DEAD, THE PRAYING MANTIS BRIDE, RED RAIN, THE MERCY OF SNAKES, AND MEMORIES OF TOMORROW. The adventures of Nameless concludes in Series 2 (2021): THE LOST SOUL OF THE CITY, GENTLE IS THE ANGEL OF DEATH, KALEIDOSCOPE, LIGHT HAS WEIGHT BUT DARKNESS DOES NOTM, CORKSCREW, and ZERO IN. As with much of the author's work, these novellas are interesting, compelling, and somewhat flawed. I also read two other Koontz ebooks: RICOCHET JOE and THE NEIGHTBOR, the last being a companion to his novel THE CITY. I also read two Erle Stanley Gardner collections, PAY DIRT AND OTHER WHISPERING SANDS STORIES OF GOLD FEVER AND THE WESTERN DESERT and BEHIND THE MASK, which collected Gardner's Bob Crowder stories. Larry Niven's DRACO TAVERN collected 26 stories about a bar serving races from across the galaxy -- a hit or miss collection, but the good stories were really good. I followed up my FFB from two weeks ago, Andre Norton's Time Traders novel KEY OUT OF TIME, with the final book in the series, co-written with Sherwood Smith, ATLANTIS ENDGAME. My only graphic novel this week was Tom King's VISION, VOL. 2: LITTLE BETTER THAN A BEAST. In the queue are another Gardner collection and an Elvis Cole novel from Robert Crais.
Have a great week, Patti. Stay safe.
Sounds like a good and busy trip until the end. And George & Diane Kelley got Covid on their trip to Ohio last week too! Very unfortunate. Glad you didn't get it. The weather has definitely warmed up since you were here, with several days over 90 last week. You did more in the city in a week than we've done in the three months since we got back from Florida.
We stayed in several days due to the heat. Jackie went to the doctor about the back of her leg, and it turned out that the problem was the back of her knee after all. She does NOT want to have another knee replacement as long as it doesn't hurt the way the other leg did, and for now she is going for physical therapy once a week, which is helping. We'll see how it goes, but for now it is status quo.
We finished the last two episodes (each) of A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW (pretty good), OUTER RANGE (getting a little ridiculous, now that they're bringing back people from the dead), THE SYMPATHIZER (Robert Downey, Jr.'s makeup alone made it worth seeing), and series 1 of the Danish UNIT ONE. Also watching HIDDEN ASSETS, SEASIDE HOTEL (final series), THE LAZARUS PROJECT (series two), TEMPLE (series two), NINA (series two), etc. Jackie gave up on HART OF DIXIE, watched the latest BRIDGERTON series, and is watching (so far, at least), the nasty YOUR HONOR, though she is not sure she will continue with it.
I read Colm Toibin's LONG ISLAND, the sequel to the 2009 BROOKLYN, set over 20 years after the action of that book. I find these people very frustrating to read about, as they all keep everything secret, to a pathological extent. If they just told others what was going on and what they were thinking it would be better, and more reasonable, all around. I did enjoy it, for the most part. Also read three volumes of short stories, as seems usual for me these days.
Diane and I returned from our trip to Ohio and fell under the energy draining malaise of Covid-19. Lots of coughing, sneezing, aches and pains. Too tired to do anything. Diane contacted her doctor who suggested she take Mucinex and drink plenty of fluids. I contacted my doctor who told me to drink a lot of water and sleep. After a miserable week, we went into the Weekend with Diane testing negative and I still tested positive for Covid-19. We both feel drained.
While we were suffering from Covid-19, Western NY was getting baked by 90 degree temps and with high humidity. It's rare that we get that hot this fast. Not a good sign.
I was too sick to read last week. What a waste of time Covid-19 is! Stay safe!
Wish we had a free movie day but it sounds like kids' movies so I probably wouldn't go. I did see INSIDE OUT2 with the throngs of people.
Sad to hear more people are getting COVID again and surprisingly people who masked pretty consistently.
Sorry your vacation had such an unexpected ending. Sounds like you packed in plenty of stage performances before then.
My family has the exciting news that our house now has a new air conditioner.
My family has the sad news that we had to pay for a new air conditioner.
The working AC made indoor painting A LOT easier on Saturday.
I'm struggling to focus put into words my library's need to expansion in relation to a long grant application.
I'm now on my third Lawrence Block book in the past couple weeks by reading TIME TO MURDER AND CREATE. Listened to David Baldacci's MEMORY MAN and it was pablum with enough spikes of interest to make me finish the story. I read a review online saying that is wasn't that the main character was so brilliant, but that everyone around him were already dim bulbs. I agree.
Wateched most of OBLITERATED on Netflix. A super secret military and spy group catch and capture people plotting to set off a nuclear bomb in Las Vegas. They proceed to celebrate and get very drunk and very high. They are then called back upon discovery that a decoy bomb was captured. A fun premise that more matches the Baldacci novel. I cannot tell if the over-the-top plot twists, fistfights, and gunfights are a put-on. Or, if I'm supposed to go along with the nonsense and constant cliches. At least there is nudity and some pretty decent jokes.
Patti, Your trip sounded both good (the entertainment and seeing Megan) and bad (your friend getting COVID). I am sorry that it wasn't all good but glad you are home without further mishaps.
My eyes are doing very well after cataract surgery on the left eye. Even with only one eye done, they seem to be working well together and I have been working on the computer without reading glasses (which is what I had to use before). On the other hand, I am still experiencing fatigue most of the day; some of it could be allergies. I have my second cataract surgery tomorrow and not looking forward to that, but then it will be over with.
My fears about not being able to read for a while after the surgery were unfounded. I was able to read with reading glasses the night of the day I had surgery, even though my eyes had been blurry all day.
I finished reading FAMILY BUSINESS by S.J. Rozan. It was very good. Also read IN THE MIDST OF DEATH by Lawrence Block (an early Matt Scudder book) and THE CIPHER GARDEN by Martin Edwards, the 2nd book in his Lake District mystery series. Both also very good. I am now reading THE STORIED LIFE OF A.J. FIKRY by Gabrielle Zevin.
Glen is continuing to read AT HOME: A SHORT HISTORY OF PRIVATE LIFE by Bill Bryson and still liking it. The latest interesting part was about how stairs can be more or less dangerous to use based how they are designed; the height or depth of risers, etc.
We have been watching our normal shows. Plus we watched a PERRY MASON TV movie and two other movies: NIGHT AND THE CITY (Jules Dassin) and DEATH TRAP (Sidney Lumet). NIGHT AND THE CITY did not work that well for me; the photography was too dark and the story was too dark. But DEATH TRAP was very fun.
Our library put in steps with uneven risers and had to redo-taking months! Would like to see Death Trap again. It may be allergies. Taking Claritin every day is wicked.
I should read more Block. I always enjoy Scudder and the Burglar.
Jackie had the same result as Tracy from cataract surgery. Can read and use the computer without glasses. Although, she still needs reading glasses for small print.
We saw DEATHTRAP on Broadway way back in 1978. Ira Levin was a very clever writer. The play starred John Wood, Marian Seldes - who appeared in EVERY ONE of the 1,809 performances (including previews) of the play, and Victor Garber. They don't write plays like that and Anthony Shaffer's SLEUTH much anymore.
Would also love to see the movie of SLEUTH. Another one that's hard to find.
Today is Lawrence Block's birthday...now we are, or at least he is, 86, and I hope in good fettle. I'm not having as much trouble as George, but I'm definitely under the weather, still, if perhaps improving. Glad your first cataract surgery has gone so well, Tracy, and good luck with tomorrow's. Jerry, I've frequently been a cat mattress and not infrequently a dog's, and my younger sister in her infancy would fall asleep on me as would some other, later woman companions at times (usually not as the result of boredom but I make no guarantees), but I'm pretty sure I haven't yet served as the sleeping warmer of a lizard, clean-shaven (as the geckos in and around our Kailua house, at times, trended) nor bearded. Congratulations on the new A/C, Gerard.
Hope your NYC companion's C19 fades fast, and that George's is now in recession as well, along with Diane's.
SLEUTH extended cut(?): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8e1_gcUPkIw
I assume you meant the first film...
I always forget to check you tube. Feel better soon everyone!
Wishing Tracy the best on tomorrow's surgery.
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