Now that I divested myself of Netflix, Hulu, and Britbox I am left with Prime, Kanopy, Apple, Criterion and Max. There is still very little to watch. I find myself on PBS app more than anything else. I am watching The Apple Doesn't Fall on Peacock but it seems so stretched out, making more episodes than it needs. Also rewatching Homicide: Life on the Streets, which is more amazing than I remembered. And watched the first ep of the second season of Pachinko and have forgotten so much. I need to consult a synopsis. Luckily Vulture has one.
Reading The God of the Woods (Liz Moore), which seems good so far. I finished my book club book, which was okay, but not great. Megan brought me Willie Vlautin's The Horse, which she really liked. Her new book comes out next spring . El Dorado Drive. Set in Grosse Pointe, which was where we spent 25 years.
Getting hot here again.
And what about you?
20 comments:
{I hate technology! Twice already, my comments have vanished into the either as I type them, never to be seen again. Perhaps this third time will be a charm.)
Mark left Friday morning at 4:15 to drive to Albuquerque, his new life, and adulthood. He drove steadily and arrived the next day and checked into his new apartment yesterday. He has one day to decompress before starting his new job at the zoo. We miss him already. The whole family will drive out there for Thanksgiving, bringing the rest of his stuff (and his snakes). Meanwhile, we're retrofitting Mark's old room for Jack. We've raised a lot of dust and every allergen in the world, so I'm in temporary misery. Plus I did something to my shoulder that has caused great pain for a week -- it's easing now, a bit.
Erin has applied to a number of vet schools. Her grades are good, but there are only a few openings and many applicants, so admission is not assured. Fingers crossed, because Erin would be great at this. Erin's new cat, slinky, has not ventured from her room; he's intimidated by the dogs who are are very curious about him. Amy's rescue kitten, Wacky Cat, is getting bigger and moving around more. She has a few developmental problems that she should outgrow. Amy's main job now is to get her to eat something besides wet food.
Jessie and the girls are headed to New York this week for the wedding of one of her nephews. They haven't seen him or his immediate family for a number of years, so it should be interesting.
Friday, one of Christina's third grade students showed her a book and asked her if she had read it. The girl gushed about how great it was and that the author was one of her favorites. The book was Kate Di Camillo's THE MAGICIAN'S ELPHANT and Christina downloaded it during recess. She told Olivia that she had downloaded it and would reading it over the weekend and the girl was very impress. Christina told us that the book was okay and probably far more interesting to an 8-year-old. Christina will report back to Olivia today and they will discuss the book. She said if there was anything she could do to further a child's love of reading, she's on it.
I voted. Only for a few people, though. Our country is heavily (over 80% Republican and many Democrats opted not to be in the primary, although they will be on the November ballot. As a Democrat, therefore, I did not have the opportunity to vote the bastards out, although the two die-hard, divisive, MAGA Republicans on the county board lost their bids for re-election, which greatly pleased me, although I have no idea how good (or bad) the eventual winners will be.
More to come.
I am back again, having lost this post twice. I really do hate technology!
The weather has been hot but not blistering hot, thank goodness. We went to the beach yesterday, but it was a red flag day, so no one went in the water. The breeze was fantastic, and the roar of the surf was calming. We thought we saw dolphins in the distance, but they turned out to be a small pod of porpoises, which are smaller and faster than dolphins. There was a "Ghost Crab Hunt" scheduled for Saturday night, but we were too lazy and tired to join in. The group that caught the most crabs won a prize, and then all the crabs were released back into the wild.
(Dammit, I just lost the post again. Seems that Word is using some type of AI to mess with my head. I managed to retrieve most of it this time. Onward, to replace the parts that were eaten.)
Books read include Ngaio Marsh's NIGHT AT THE VULCAN (a.p.a. OPENING NIGHT), a Roderick Alleyn mystery and my FFB this week; Rex Lardner's TEN HEROES OF THE TWENTIES, YA biographies completed anonymously by Lawrence Block; the anonymous anthology SABRINA THE TEENAGE WITCH: EIGHT SPELLS A WEEK; Blake Crouch's end of the world thriller RECURSION, a convoluted tale of multiple timelines; and H. Bruce Franklin's scholarly anthology FUTURE PERFECT: AMERICAN SCIENCE FICTION IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY -- REVISED EDITION. After readin g that one, I went back to the first edition of the anthology and read those parts that had been excised for the second sedition. (There was a third edition some years later which added a section of Feminist Science Fiction, reprinting abridged (and heavily edited) excepts from two scarce novels -- I may read these some time in the the future. Or not.)
Glad you got to spend time with Megan. I'll look out for the new book.
Enjoy your week, Patti. Take care.
I'm glad you got the chance to visit with Megan! And I know what you mean about all the streaming apps. It's hard to know which ones to use and which ones aren't going to be worth the money. I know we've gotten rid of a few.
I am so sorry post are getting lost. If you send me a copy I can post it here. I will ask google how to avoid it. I just don't understand how any on cannot vote Democratic in this world.
Yes, Margot I go back and forth between services. Some are easier to dump than others.
Western NY is facing another week of temps in the high 89s with high humidity.
I have my yearly appointment with my Retina specialist today. Then I'll spend the rest of today in dark rooms as my dilated eyes return to normal.
I like BAD MONKEY on Apple TV+.
Glad you had some time with Megan! Patrick is flying to Brazil for a GOOGLE conference. Katie is going to NYC this weekend to see more Broadway plays. Stay safe!
I have to give BAD MONKEYS another try. Megan is flying to Nashville for Bouchercon. I miss going if only to see some of you guys there. Phil had retina issues.
I think what Jerry might be hating specifically is the New Blogspot commenting array, which won't allow one to toggle back and forth from the post to the comments. Remarkably foolish.
Sorry about the week not continuing as well after Megan's visit. I've never been bowled over by the ALIEN films (thought ALIEN: RESURRECTION was the least bad, not a popular opinion), so wasn't going to make any effort to see the new one.
Indeed, HOMICIDE: LIFE ON THE STREET was almost inarguably the best US tv drama series during its run...losing it in '89 was only meliorated by the arrival of ONCE AND AGAIN (though that might've been about the best time for US broadcast tv so far, the latter '90s/early '00s).
Jerry, you remind me again of how badly my ex was treated when she applied to vet school, back in the bad old days when you could only apply to a certain vet school if you lived in a given state (in Virginia, as we were, she could only apply to Virginia Tech's vet school, well before the campus was shot up, killing among others Michael Bishop's son). Most remarkably, the interview panel wanted to know just what this Amnesty International thing she was involved with at her undergrad school, George Mason U, was, anyway? (Tech's vet school was deathly afraid of animal rights folks in '90.) She is now working in public health statistics; she would've made an excellent vet. Weirdly late primaries you have in Florida, Jerry...but, then, Florida.
Good luck with your retinas, George!
Benisons to all, in the unlikely event I don't pop back in...I certainly have enough to do, little of it actually pleasant.
Or, even' the latter '80s/early '90s, I meant to write, about Peak US broadcast TV.
Every time I read your comments about nothing being on TV, I think...hmm, that's certainly not our experience, as four or five hours a night could be filled two or three times over. We have Britbox, Acorn, PBS Masterpiece, MHz Choice/Topic, Prime, HBO/MAX, Showtime/Paramount +. Finished TROPPO (Aussie) series 1, UNIT ONE (Denmark) series 2 (with the last series coming in September), BABYLON BERLIN (German, obviously) series 2, CANDICE RENOIR (France) series 9 (one more to go), SPOOKS (MI-5) series 5 (of 10).probably others. Watching ARCTIC CIRCLE (Denmark) series 2, HOSTAGES (Israel) series 2, THE TRUTH (Israel), THE EAGLE (Denmark) - sort of picks up where UNIT ONE leaves off - the former was 2002-2004, this was 2004-2006 - series 1, NCIS series 18, SUITS series 1, BREAKING BAD series 2, KLEO (German) series 2, FAT FRIENDS (British) series 2. Also started re-watching the British MEN BEHAVING BADLY (with series 2, when Neil Morrissey joined the cast) and MIRANDA when we have a half hour to fill.
Nothing much else happening here. It was a very pleasant, cooler week, but the heat is returning this week - could be 93 on Wednesday! - so summer is not over yet. Lots of reading, including the light and amusing HOW TO AGE DISGRACEFULLY by Clare Pooley. Think of THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB without the murders, and with toddlers added.
Jerry, we all enjoy your posts so thank you for persevering.
I finished watching ECHOES on Netflix. It was ok. Twins swap lives every year until one of them gets fed up with the other one and decides to run away with a secret boyfriend. The story was interesting enough to keep me going but not compelling. Also watching GIRLS5EVA and that has some great acting.
Been reading BATAVIA'S GRAVEYARD. The author has a lot of information on the Dutch East Indies company. The British East India company has some deservedly awful reputation, and the Dutch were even worse.
Tomorrow we move in Boy #2 to his dorm. Having him so close by, about 30 miles from door-to-door, does make life easier than moving him to Chicago or Pittsburgh. He has a try-out for a student orchestra later in the week. He played tuba in the City Band over the summer and two of the Band members tried out and made the cut for the U of Wisconsin Marching Band. An impressive accomplishment to make the cut for any major university with a popular football team. I'm told the marching skill is more important than the playing ability. Our local high school did not do much marching or field maneuvers so it's neat the local student made it in.
Jerry, Blake Crouch's books always sound interesting to me, but when I try to read one, I just can't get into it. But RECURSION sounds like something I would really like, at least enough to get past chapter one, which I just read on Amazon. I'll let you know.
On the political front, I read a comparison between RFK Jr and the Orange One and how similar they are. Both being privileged rich kids who fall forward. The writer told a story of buying cocaine from RFK Jr when both were college students and RFK being angry that the writer absently mindedly took home the plastic straw used to consume the drug.
Then, a separate story appears from RFK's daughter about RFK chainsawing off the head of a dead, beached whale. Strapping the head to the family car. Then driving 5 hours back home.
The irresponsible JFK, Jr., William Kennedy Smith, and RFK, Jr. all have contributed evidence to why a certain family deserves no worship. Even if they are occasionally sensibly disavowed by cousins...and even given all that bent the childhood/youth of the Jr.s.
Patti, I am glad you had a good visit with Megan. That was a lot to get done in two days.
This week we watched The Narrow Margin with Charles McGraw and Marie Windsor, directed by Richard Fleischer. It was a good train movie and had a lot of surprises.
And I just got a message that the people who are cleaning our carpets are coming today instead of tomorrow and we have to move some stuff quick. Don't know when I will be back on the computer today.
Not good at too many subtitled shows. I too have tried Blake Crouch books and not gotten into them. I met a young woman at a coffee shop who said, the marching band was the best way to make friends at big universities. She was at one of them and was looking for a high school job coaching band now. I guess Kevin's guitar will not help him with that activity.
Will have to hunt down THE NARROW MARGIN.
I watched THE NARROW MARGIN in the '80s. Definitely worth a look.
I forgot that we watched a movie (on Netflix) Saturday night - the creepy, if well done, WICKED LITTLE LETTERS. It was based on a real incident - it's set in Littlehampton in 1920 - of poison pen letters being sent around a small town, though mainly (it seems) aimed at the pathetic spinster Olivia Colman, who lives with her awful father (Timothy Spall, not really old enough to be her father) and weak mother (Gemma Jones). They accuse the next door neighbor, the foul-mouthed Irish woman played by Jessie Buckley. There is literally NO evidence against her, if plenty of prejudice, and the idiot cop in charge dismisses the difference in handwriting between the letters and Rose's writing as irrelevant! It is clear from fairly early on who the real perpetrator is, and you watch just to see how far she will go and what it will take for real justice. Some things are too of today - the black judge, the Indian woman Police Constable - but it's worth watching for the actors, also including Eileen Atkins (just turned 90), Joanna Scanlan (most recently seen here in NO OFFENCE), and Hugh Skinner, who plays "Wills" in THE WINDSORS.
I saw that at the theater last year, I think. Quite a cast. Yes, not hard to figure it out but worth it for the cast, setting, etc. Coleman must never sleep!
There are so many vet offices within a few miles of me, I would expect more schools. I bet more women are entering the profession than men.
Strange Darling opens in theaters this week and stars Willa Fitzgerald (Prime Video’s Reacher) as The Lady, the protagonist on the run from The Demon, played by Kyle Gallner (WGN’s Outsiders). The psychological thriller from director/writer JT Mollner is filled with twists and turns as it follows a twisted one-night stand that leads to a murder spree from a serial killer.
Hey, JVN. Just saw this now! Thanks.
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