Claudia Schmidt at Trinity House
(hat tip Kathy Cunningham)
Saw PRIDE AND PREJUDICE on the big screen and it was sensational. Also saw a play, ECLIPSE about Ossem Sweet, a black doctor who moved into a white neighborhood in Detroit in 1925 and what happened. An earlier book, THE ARC OF JUSTICE, also told this story. Five women did it justice in ECLIPSE, women who largely went unknown in 1925. And one male actor was the best crier I ever witnessed,
Also went to hear a fabulous folk singer , Claudia Schmidt. Been singing for fifty years and her voice is as powerful and beautiful as a 25 year old.
Still looking for that perfect book for the airplane. No hardbacks.
Jittery about the trip. Not the flying, it's losing or forgetting something that gnaws at me. Perhaps this will be my last trip overseas.
LOVED THE PITT, maybe the best show ever. And I swoon over all of the Aussie men in OFFSPRINGS in Prime. It was originally aired 2010-15.
I will post an empty post here for the next two weeks.
21 comments:
Glen had his tooth extracted Friday morning. It went very quickly, and per Glen's comments, the doctor and his assistant were very nice and addressed his concerns about laying flat. Afterward, he was mainly concerned about the bleeding but that was not really a problem. He has not had a lot of pain but has has continual headaches. The doctor did discover a small sinus infection.
Commenting early because we are trekking to the grocery store early Monday to get more things that Glen can eat, and a heating pad just in case.
I really wish we could watch THE PITT but we don't get MAX. We finished LUDWIG and liked it a lot. We watched a MIDOMER MURDERS episode and started the new season of LEVERAGE: REDEMPTION. Plus, more of MURDER SHE WROTE and CSI: NEW YORK
Glen is now reading LIGHT RAINS SOMETIMES FALL by Lev Parikian. The subtitle is "A British Year Through Japan's 72 Ancient Seasons." He is liking the book; it is about nature, rain and birds and other creatures.
Right now I am reading NIGHT CALL AND OTHER STORIES OF SUSPENSE by Charlotte Armstrong and DEAR CALIFORNIA: THE GOLDEN STATE IN DIARIES AND LETTERS by David Kipen. I have been reading that one since last December and just picking it up now and then.
I'm glad you've had some good experiences with movies and theatre lately. As for your trip, I really hope it goes well and that you have a wonderful time!
May your trip be filled with great experiences and may you return full of joy with forever memories.
We skipped out Tuesday evening art class for Jack's middle school band concert. It was super enjoyable, they did a great job, and since I am tone deaf, I never noticed those few missed notes. Amy's boyfriend Gavyn (Yavin) said this was his very first middle school band concert; the poor man did not know what he was missing. Happy I went. The last art class is scheduled for this Tuesday; if we take another one, we'll aim for a different instructor.
Mark turned 25 this week. It's hard to imagine him a quarter of a century old but even harder to imagine a time when we did not have him in his life. He send us phots of he and Eleanor, a Lappet-Faced Vulture, during Vulture Roundup Day. An endangered species, it's one of the largest of the vultures, with a body length averaging 40 inches, with a wingspan of up to 9.5 feet; lappet Females can weigh up to thirty pounds. The beak of a lappet is nearly four inches long nd its feet measure nearly five inches. Although a scavenger it has been known to attack small animals. The photos show Mark grinning like a fool and holding Eleanor as if she were a prom date; a heavily gloved hand reaching from the edge of the photo is holding Eleanor's head away from Mark's face.
Chicken Nugget, Amy's neurotic dog, came to the beach with us on Sunday , the first time since she was a puppy. Turns out she is afraid of waves. (**sigh**). It was a beautiful morning but the sun was blistering hot nd there was no breeze, so we left early. Christina and Jack went back in the afternoon when it wasn't as hot and there was a soft, cool breeze; they stayed for an hour and a half and watched the Blue Angels practice in the skies overhead.
Not much television this week. I did stream DAREDEVIL BORN AGAIN. Enjoyed it but the series left EVERYTHING hanging until the next season starts in March. Beyond that it was the usual, although less so -- most of the late-night comics were off this week and, sadly, HAVE I GOT NEWS FOR YOU ended its season.
Short stories this week included GOOD HAVIOR, a collection of Letty Dobnesh tales from Blake Couch (my FFB), two anthologies (CORNISH TALES OF TERROR, edited by R. Chetwynd-Hayes, and TALES OF TERROR FROM BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE , edited by Robert Morrison & Chris Baldick), and about twenty stories chosen at random which had appeared in various Alfred Hitchcock anthologies ghost-edited by Peter Haining. PRINE OF PERSIA by A.B.Sina was a rather confusing and unsuccessful graphic novel based on the video game franchise. David Morell's novella THE HUNDRED YEAR CHRISTMAS was a warm fantasy which he had published in book form. Two great novels this week: WITCHCRAFT FOR WAYWARD GIRLS by Grady Hendricks, and IN THE MOON OF RED PONIES by James Lee Burke.
Travel safely, and regale us with your experiences when you return, Patti.
FWIW dept., we didn't subscribe to MAX proper, but have access to it because we do sub to HBO (and did to Cinemax when it still existed). That might allow you access...though when our cable company, Verizon FIOS, became a streaming company was about when Paramount's Showtime/The Movie Channel was removed from our bundle, and Starz might've been as well, though not as early as Showtime. Adorable corporate games.
Here's Heather Cox Richardson this morning (dated yesterday, when presumably she wrote it) on more such games, more in the political sphere: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/april-27-2025
And glad that your husband's dental surgery went well, even with post-op healing process very much in place.Sinus headaches and further dental fun lurk in my future as well...all sympathies.
I'm sure you'll have a great time on the trip. Yes, forgetting something is always on my mind. We have forgotten chargers a couple of times and had to find a Verizon to replace them. Don't know how the different systems they have there will work re charging devices and phones.
Weather has been really up and down, one day very warm and the next cold with a biting wind. April is a crazy month.
We saw DEAD OUTLAW last week, and I'm still trying to assess why the critics liked it so much more than I did. I did like it, it was fun in a way, but I think Jackie hit it when she said it is an off-Broadway show on Broadway. It remains to be seen if the tourists who come to see CHICAGO and GYPSY will go see this zany musical.
I totally agree on THE PITT. We're rationing out one episode every few days to make it last longer. Brilliant show. We watched the last two (of 6) episodes of the British TRUELOVE (Acorn) last night, and I must say it didn't go where we anticipated. Worth seeing for Lindsay Duncan's performance. Not a laugh riot, that's for sure, with the assisted suicide plot.
Now that we have Hulu (for 4 months at least) we're trying to pick up on things we missed, starting with THE BEAR. Also watched the first episode of series two of ONLY MURDERS IN THE BUILDING, and it is already way too self-referential (let's talk about our podcast of the first murder) for its own good. Watched the first MANDALORIAN on Disney+ too.
We're watching four French shows at the moment on various platforms: MISMATCH (about the two half sisters, one a judge, the other a cop), CASSANDRE (90 minutes each; cop moves from Paris to be near delinquent son),
Sorry, I accidentally posted that. Continuing with French series: THE DOC & THE VET (something like that; 90 minute episodes, rural France), and the latest, THE ECLIPSE, where a cop's idiot son accidentally shoots his girlfriend during a total solar eclipse, but her body disappears.
Also 90 minutes each: THE CHELSEA DETECTIVE and the New Zealand-set, MIDSOMER MURDERS-like BROKENWOOD MYSTERIES.
Back later.
I thoroughly enjoyed THE PITT, as well, which struck me as ER stripped of censorship concerns and less worried about cute comic relief so as to not be Too Much a Downer. Have also been enjoying medical series DOC and THE CLEANING LADY (both on Fox), and WATSON (CBS), even though the latter two are at least as much crime drama as medical drama series.
I hope the European trip is seamlessly enjoyable.
I've picked up one (I think) US Dell reprint of Peter Haining's UK ghost-edited "Hitchcock" anthos (as opposed to the anthologies Dell, Random House, or often both offered through the decades, usually ghost-edited by Don Ward in the '40s at Dell, Robert Arthur till his death in '69 at Random House, Harold Q. Masur for the further RH adult anthos and a few bookends of the YA anthos by others just before Arthur and after his death by other hands, and the anonymously-edited "best-ofs" from ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE over the decades (till Davis Publications bought the magazine, and their best-ofs were edited by AHMM editors in the clear, a much less adorably annoying practice).
The general lack of the network comedy-chat series for Easter/Spring vacations has been slightly saddening, and the short season of CNN's US version of HAVE I GOT NEWS FOR YOU even sadder, but I'm glad they plan to go forward with it, at least till Drumpf/minions try to force comedic critique of him off the air with any success...I've been watching some recent examples of the UK original of HAVE I while awaiting the second season. And at least Jackie Kashian and Laurie Kilmartin's podcasts, and Harry Shearer's radio series LE SHOW and NPR's WAIT, WAIT...DON'T TELL ME have been continuing...25 years seems like it flies by, at limes, even at 50. I hope (I think) to see how it feels at the century-mark.
I enjoyed the new Lady Astronaut book by Mary Robinette Kowal, THE MARTIAN CONTINGENCY.
Jackie is watching THE WHEEL OF TIME in the afternoons.
I'm glad Todd mentioned that about MAX. We've always had it through our HBO subscription. We're also watching HACKS, but through three episodes it certainly doesn't live up to the "best series yet" hype. Too nasty, not funny.
Carol Polsgrove's IT WASN"T PRETTY, BUT DIDN'T WE HAVE FUN?: ESQUIRE [magazine] IN THE '60S (W. W. Norton, 1995) is my most recent halfway-through nonfiction. Seems like it received less attention than some other books about and from ESQUIRE in its decade and the '80s.
https://archive.org/details/itwasntprettyfol0000pols/page/62/mode/2up
I enjoy HACKS, but it is about smug, damaged people, even if they are still mostly functional. I will be trying THE REHEARSAL (HBO/MAX) out, though it might be more ambitious than accomplished.
Mary Robinette Kowal picked up her third byline name from an old high school friend of mine, who is (I believe) either primarily or part-time a vintner these years, while keeping a hand in with his career in audio recording.
Someone told me yesterday they were watching THE PITT on Amazon Prime and not paying episode by episode so perhaps there's a way to do that. I would visit a website that gave that kind of information out. There is JUST WATCH but it is not always correct.
Looks like the Bobby Darin show has a great performance but only a so-so jukebox approach. Hated the Neil Diamond one. TV has become too complicated for most people I know who end up just watching network shows. Or give up altogether. The Houses on the Beach would be good memoir for Jerry, right?
Some of these dental procedures are much easier than in the past.
I get Heather's letter every day and can sometimes bear to read it.
Diane is hosting her Book Club meeting today. I'll be preparing coffee and pouring wine as usual. Patrick is in Japan for that GOOGLE conference. Later this week, he'll be flying to Taiwan. Katie just returned from London. She loved the new STARLIGHT EXPRESS that opened in the West End.
We're still receiving from Diane's sister's visit for Easter and driving her back to Ohio. No more snow so that means mowing the lawn each week now.
Have a safe trip. Maybe you could find a paperback LARGE PRINT book for your flight. Stay safe!
Jackie loves jukebox musicals but hates Neil Diamond, so I was spared that one. BEAUTIFUL and JERSEY BOYS were probably the best, but I enjoyed MAMMA MIA too.
George, we saw the original STARLIGHT EXPRESS in the '80s, I think. Glad she liked it, but I thought it was the stupidest premise for a musical ever. It made CATS look intelligible. At least cats are alive. Train engines? Not.
Memoir title. I loved those three, Jeff. The music overcame the approach.
I haven't been informed previously that STARLIGHT EXPRESS was not only the roller-skating but the Thomas the Tank Engine musical...
I agree, Patti, it does seem like dental procedures go better now. I don't know what has changed.
Re Max and HBO, we have never subscribed to HBO so that is not an avenue. Maybe someday I will pay for the service for a month or two to watch THE PITT, but we don't usually watch shows that fast so it would have to keep it for a while. Or maybe there will be a special offer I can take advantage of. Right now we have plenty of shows to keep us happy.
Late entry for me.
I will create packing checklists for what to bring on a trip and I still get anxious that I am forgetting something. In response I try and be as minimalist as possible. That doesn't always work. Case in point is this past Saturday where I drove up to Eau Claire on Saturday to camp over night and see Boy #1 run the half- marathon on Sunday. I had to bring the dog along and was overpacking and overthinking clothes for the weather, dog stuff, food, and more. And then, after buying gas I had to go back home because I forgot to bring dog food.
I've thought of employing the Jack Reacher travel method of a toothbrush and one pair of clothes. But, shopping at a thrift store every couple days and throwing away the old clothes is a bit extreme.
After Boy #1's solid run on Sunday morning I drove home, did a lot of nothing except nap, then went to Madison to meet my wife and Boy #2 for a evening University performance of Carl Orff's CARMINA BURANA. Like plenty of people I am familiar with the dramatic vocal piece from use in film soundtracks. I never before heard the rest of the music and there was a full choir and three solo vocalists.
Been through two of WOOL trilogy by Hugh Howey. Long SciFi noels that kept me interested. Started AN ACCIDENTAL DEATH by Peter Grainger. Completely unfamiliar with the series featuring DC Smith but enjoying the story and narration. The narrator sounds like Michael Caine but even more Cockney.
I now have the 37 hour audio of Thomas Pynchon's GRAVITY'S RAINBOW to listen to. Not sure what to expect there.
Read through other comments.
- Heather Cox Richardson's daily output is very impressive.
- Steven van Zant's autobio discussed his love of The Rascals and desire to get them back together. He put together a stage show - jukebox musical - for the group and they had successful previews in different cities before trying to move to Broadway. But, the band members were still incapable of getting along. He wrote that one member was just hanging out for a bit in a bid to up his stature and charge more as a solo act. They split in acrimony and Little Steven was greatly ticked off.
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