LOST LADIES, an Indian movie, was better.
Watching SHRINKING (Apple), BAD SISTERS, (APPLE), A MAN ON THE INSIDE (Netflix), SOMEBODY, SOMEWHERE (Max). I am sad SOMEBODY is over after tonight. I would like to have the characters from this one in my life.
My Roku broke and I had to reinstall all the streaming channels. I really have no idea what I am doing in so many areas of my life. On Wednesday, three friends and I went to what we thought was a concert with four string players from the DSO. I wondered why I got an email telling me I could bring any comfort items I wanted. It turned out this was a concert for families with handicapped children. Must learn to read the fine print more closely.
Got tkts to see the statue of David when we are in Florence. Hope we didn't screw that one up.
Reading The Life Impossible by Matt Haig.
What about you?
20 comments:
Don't feel bad. If I didn't screw this up, there would be nothing left of me.
Bitter cold put a couple of extra blankets on weather. A bit unusual for Florida. I suspect if I were back in New England, it would be considered beach weather. I think I'm getting to be a wimp.
Speaking of wimpiness, I spent most of the week lying flat because of extreme back pain. Better now, thank goodness.
Christmas decorations are starting to go up. One of two lighted reindeer in the front yard keeps falling over and losing its head. **sigh** Christina has started assembling her Christmas village. She's been adding to it for 25 years and it now fills two zip codes. I'll be doing Christmas shopping this week, and for the first time in years, I have no idea what I'm going to get anyone.
Jessie and Amy are back from their Bahama cruise and have many adventures to relate. Kaylee and her s,o,, who both work at the County jail, are now on the same shift for the first time ever...true love wins.
Happy, the neurotic, obsessive-compulsive puppy turned 6 years old this week. Meanwhile, Newcat -- who loves everybody -- keeps running from me in terror. **sigh**
Read three more Hard Case Crime novels: EASY DEATH by "Daniel Boyd" (Dan Stumpf), MEMORY by Donald E. Westlake (which has just been re-released under the title THEACTOR, and Rex Stout's early (1931) psychological novel SEED ON THE WIND. I also read the expanded edition of John Connolly's paean to a horror movie, MIDNIGHT MOVIE MONOGRAPH; : HORROR EXPRESS, which he included in his latest collect NIGHT & DAY; I have three of the remaining nine stories in the book left to go. I thenwent on to YouTube to watch the movie; cheesy but fun.
Stay warm, stay safe. Be careful, Patti -- Santa Claus is watching because he's an agent of the Deep State.
It's funny how narrow a comfort zone with warmth we have. In Michigan , we are going up and down right now. And I was freezing visiting a friend where instead of 72, she probably had the temp set at 68. I watched Megan interview the Coen brothers on NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MAN Dvd last night. She has done it before for Miller's Crossing but this one was even better. A real art to it. Why is Newcat afraid of you? Cats are funny animals that way.
Yes, Newcat seems to be afraid of me. I am much more of a cat person than a dog person, although I love both, but I cannot make any inroads with Newcat, who sincerely loves every other person in the house. He was five years old when he came to us a few months ago and I suspect I might remind him of someone who may have done him harm in the past.
I hope you have a wonderful trip to Florence! Sorry to hear about the Roku. Every time there's a new device or app or something, there are new ways it can go wrong...
Florence? As in Italy? Did I miss something? We were in Florence - and saw the David - in 1974 and 1976. Just incredible.
I know what you mean about Somebody, Somewhere. We watched the last two episodes last night. They seem like real people, unlike so many on television.
We decided to skip GET MILLIE BLACK (HBO) after trying the second episode. We didn't like anything about it. Watched the third episode of THE AGENCY (Paramount+/Showtime). Jackie is feeding it confusing, but I'm enjoying it so far.
As much as I hate the idea of going to the airport and getting on a plane these days, we are. My sister has cancer (again; she had breast cancer 13 years ago) and had a kidney removed. Jackie has been offering to visit her for months but she kept putting us off, but now she changed her mind, so we are flying to Phoenix tomorrow morning and will be home late Friday night. I hate the whole travel bit - driving to the airport, parking and taking the train to the terminal, walking across, security, etc. but we haven't seen them in 10 years since after my father died.
Jackie watched a trashy miniseries with Nicole Kidman, THE PERFECT COUPLE, which she didn't really like but kept watching. At least she was rewarded when her most hated character turned out to be the murderer. Kidman is very good, on the other hand, on the Paramount+/Showtime series LIONESS, with Zoe Saldana. We've started the second series.
Watched the first episode of the latest - and apparently final - series (#9) of Steve Pemberton & Reece Shearsmith's INSIDE NO. 9 (Acorn? ).Britbox? This is an anthology series of half hour shows written by the duo and starring one or both of them (often in elaborate makeup and costumes). It can be very dakr but also funny. The first episode in this series is set on a late night London underground train that suddenly stops. Then the lights go out and a nurse has her purse stolen. It can be uneven at times, but it is well worth watching. And there are often well known guest stars you'll recognize from other British series, here Siobhan Finneran (Downton Abbey, Happy Valley) and Mark Bonnar (Vera).
Reading a lot of short stories. Finished the book on Covid by Marie Brenner. Trump and Cuomo do not come off well, nor should they. Just got the new Michael Connelly from the library and may read that on the plane.
Weather has been cold but mostly dry, but it was 55 yesterday and they are predicting rain today (and Wednesday), then much colder. Oh well, it's December, right. Less than four weeks until we leave for Florida. It will be good to get away for four days around 70 in Scottsdale.
Stay safe out there.
And I have no knack for technology.
If you are going to Florence, I highly recommend Il Latini. We ate there in 1974 after Arthur Frommer touted it as a "big splurge" restaurant. It was "expensive" only on the Europe on $5 a Day metric, but otherwise not. The food was wonderful and the portions huge. We went back in 1976. A year or two ago we looked it up online and it is still there, though I think it is definitely pricy now. But it is definitely worth making a reservation if you're going to be there. I bet I could find it, despite it being 50 years since we were there. Facing the Duomo, you turn right...
Just checked. It is as I remember it, a 10 minute walk from the Duomo. I would definitely make reservations.
Katie is returning from Germany where she vacationed with her friend, Amber. Patrick is in Washington, D.C. at an AI conference. Diane and I have the Christmas tree up and put the lights on. Ornaments next.
Diane is hosting her Book Club next week and inviting "strays" to our Christmas feast. Plenty of preparation work ahead!
Have a great time in Florence!
Florence sounds like a great destination. The weather swings have me worried. Last week had regular winter weather and today has a high of 49.
Just looked up SOMEBODY SOMEWHERE and see it is set in Manhattan, KS. I used to enjoy visiting Manhattan when I lived nearby. I presume the show is not filmed there. I periodically complain about an X-FILES episode set in KS and a county away from where I lived. There were mountains in the background.
Visited my mother in IL over the weekend. My brother and his wife were in from out-of-state and we were able to socialize. She had questions about Boy #1 and Boy #2 and I replied, "I don't know." Boy #2 did reply about whether he would do music as a second major and he wrote back that it was "too much extra work." That is fair; Comp Sci is supposed to be time intensive as it is.
I heard Paul Doiron's DEAD BY DAWN. Dorion kept the story driving and interesting. It was afterwards that I was questioning several plot points and character actions.
Started THE SECOND SLEEP by Robert Harris. I've been a Harris fan since FATHERLAND came out 30 years ago but I've rarely sought his books out. SECOND has been enjoyable so far. Set 1400 years after an apocalypse and society and technology are roughly the same as the early 1800s. A mix of murder mystery and treasure hunt.
I've bought the Criterion editions of the Coen films for my library. I've not yet rewatched the films or taken in Megan's interviews.
Anonymous was me. Did not realize I was not logged in.
I am not going to Florence until May. But David was almost sold out already. We are on a Road Scholars tour but it did not include David. Will look for that restaurant. I am going to Sarasota for three weeks the end of February. Both trips with two other women.
Your kids travel a lot, George. They are having an exciting life.
I did not realize you were going to Florence. That sounds like fun, although I would hate the flying.
Jeff, I sympathize about the travel, especially airplane travel. But I am sure a warm Phoenix trip will be nice once you get there. Sorry to hear about your sister's health though.
We had some temperatures in the 70s last week, but today the high will be 60, then for about a week the highs will be between 60 and 66. And no rain.
This week we watched a BROKENWOOD MYSTERIES episode, and we are continuing to watch MURDER SHE WROTE, THE ARK, and CSI. Nearing the end of THE ARK, but still have plenty of episodes of the others. Once we get done with the DOCTOR WHO episodes with Jodie Whittaker and a few Specials, we will be done with that for a while.
Last week I read WE HAVE ALWAYS LIVED IN THE CASTLE. I have avoided it for years. It was not nearly as scary or tense as I expected it to be. There was a sense of foreboding and waiting for something horrible to happen. I liked the writing and the way the ending was handled. I read it for my Classics list.
Then I started reading DEAR CALIFORNIA: THE GOLDEN STATE IN DIARIES AND LETTERS by David Kipen, which Glen read back in August. I am liking it. Also started reading THE UNFORTUNATE ENGLISHMAN by John Lawton last night. It is the 2nd book in the Joe Wilderness series. I read the first book (THEN WE TAKE BERLIN) in October and was disappointed that it had a cliffhanger ending.
Glen is continuing on THE POWER AND THE GLORY by Adrian Tinniswood about country houses in the UK before World War I. He is enjoying it and has read about half of it. He now has read a good number of stories in HAUNTERS AT THE HEARTH: Eerie tales for Christmas Nights and has liked most of them.
As I remember it - granted, things have changed in 50 years, as with Stonehenge, where you used to be able to walk between the stones - we just went to the Accademia (don't remember what it cost to get in, but not much, as I think we got student passes) and there it was, David in all his glory, 17 feet tall.
I found my diaries from those years, and we paid $6.40 (which we considered a big big splurge) the first year, and $7.40 two years later, per person at Il Latini. I'm guessing $100 now, but the menu I saw was pretty much impossible to read. Back then, it was an all-includive dinner - you started with antipasto & melon, had a pasta course, then a main course with vegetables, then ice cream, then almond cookies with sweet wine, then coffee. But the main course was a platter of chicken, beef, veal AND pork, and the veggies were THREE platters for the table, of string beans, mushrooms, and eggplant. Plus all the bread, wine and mineral water you wanted. Two years later was basically the same, but with rabbit added to the other four meats, and the veg was zucchini, fried zucchini, white beans and salad.
I do hate flying but mostly it's about airports. You'll be glad you did it, Jeff (and Jackie). Time is running out for most of us now. I will miss not going to CA this year but glad to get to see my brother if only for a day. Also Sarasota has a lot to do. Most of our meals are with Road Scholar but I will look for that restaurant on one of the other days. We are spending a few days beyond Florence in Lucca.
My husband was a Robert Harris fan.
It is so great you kept all of those diaries, Jeff. Wish I had thought of that. I do have letters I wrote to my mother from the year in England and the six months in Amsterdam though.
Just got the Criterion DVDs. Anxious to hear Megan and Bill Hader talk about SCARFACE.
The interviews I have seen with Bill Hader always have him coming across as as a big fan and student of performing arts and the history of film and tv.
The new series of Dalgleish is on Acorn now. They add one new one each Monday, though clearly not in order, as tonight's episode is Cover Her Face, which was the first Dalgleish book. It's been so long since I read them, though...
I don't get ACORN or BRITBOX right now. I did see the last series and liked them.
For some odd reason, even though the story seems to be set ca. 1970, they made the central family of the book Indian. The plot is mostly the same. It just didn't work as well as most of the others. In fact, both of us were nodding out at times. But then Dalgleish didn't have any of his usual team.
I think its for the sake of diversity. Sometimes it makes no difference to change these things, but other times it doesn't work. Making Hamlet a Black Woman at Stratford last year made it into a flop because it was just too much for their audience of elderly people.
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