In a theater perhaps with five hundred or more seats, six of us watched NUREMBERG. Now it wasn't a great movie but it was a decent movie, why are so few willing to watch a late Friday afternoon movie. The senior price is $10 in Detroit. Is streaming killing the movies? I can see why people are staying away from the ones about killer Moms but it seems like mostly horror movies people want to see. Does horror reflect our lives? Any movie I have any interest in I want to see at a theater on a big screen but I guess I am in the minority. I want to get out of the apartment as much as possible. The waitress where we went afterward for dessert and coffee (a $17 piece of cake which we shared) said, "What are you guys doing out this late?" It was nine o'clock.
The concert I attended last night was packed. And not just with the gray-haired. They have made these concerts very affordable and pleasant. ($25)
Enjoying PLURIBUS. Also THE ASSET.
Reading THE PECULIAR LIFE OF A LONELY POSTMAN. But not enough to know if I am going to like it yet. Still hammering away at the Hammerstein book. Onto the Mary Rogers bio next.
What about you?
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As one who spent a lot of time working at an Actors' Equity theater in both volunteer and paid positions, I now avoid theaters like the plague. Likewise concerts, lectures, and films. Too many rude and inconsiderate people in the audience, too little shows of interest, and just plain curmudgeonliness (is that a word?). And get off my lawn.
Had a regularly schedule podiatrist appointment this week. I read (with horror) about Kevin Tipple's recent podiatrist visit and was thankful his problems were not mine. (I also sincerely wish that Kevin's problems were not his.) I have an ongoing calcium growth on my sole that needs to be dug out and/or shaved so I can walk without pain. It's not a major thing but I never look forward to these visits. Also, with the way my back had been acting up lately, I am unable to bend and reach my feet. It's been two mon since I have been able to put on socks. Mt prescription of lying flat and resting the back has been working and I am slowly getting more mobility. Soon, I hope, will come the day when my toes are joyfully reunited with my socks. Beyond that I am still as healthy as can be. And also extraordinarily handsome, but that's a given because I am a Scorpio.
Christina has been experimenting with cooking lately and bringing me samples of her attempts. (Walt usually does most of the cooking in the house, and does it well.) I feel guilty having food brought to be just because I am spending most of my time flat on my back. I am able of going into the kitchen and foraging for myself, but, hey, Christina is a pretty good cok herself. And I never turn away free food.
Not much happening this week. We had a couple of bitterly cold days, but back in New England it would have been considered bikini/Speedo weather. It's warmed up nicely, though. Again, because of my back i missed out on some beaching time -- something I regret.
Christina and Jessie will driving out to Albuquerque over the Thanksgiving week to pick up Millie, the gray rat snake. I suspect this is not something every family will do.
No television except for BEYOND PARADISE and the late night comics.
As for reading, I read Clifton Adams' NEVER SAY NO TO A KILLER, published under the name "Jonathan Gant," a 50's crime novel and my FFB. Also read the second Samuel Craddock book by Terry Shames, THE LAST DEATH OF JOHN HARBEN, and the massice tribute anothology to Stephen King's THE STAND, THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT, edited by Christopher golden and Brian Keene. I read three Hard Case Crime Graphic novels (THE ASSIGNMENT and TRIGGERMAN by Walter Hill and "Matz" (Alexis Nolent), and THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE by Sylvain Runberg. Also a Manga taking place in the world of THE WITCHER, RONIN by Rafar Joki. Also five volumes in the WINSTON-SALEM IN HISTORY series by Manly Wade Wellman, singly and with Larry Edward Tise; these were all heavily detailed and footnoted. To cap the week off, there was Elizbeth Zelvin's feisty poetry collection THE OLD LADY SHOWS HER METTLE.
Are you planning on catching your own turkey for Thanksgiving? If so, send pictures. Have a great week and stay safe.
Diane and I have tickets to see WICKED, PART 2 on Friday at our local AMC. There's no doubt that streaming services have damaged movie theater attendance.
Patrick will be coming home for Thanksgiving. Sadly, Katie has to work, but she'll be home for Christmas.
I've been fighting an annoying cough and stuffy nose. My plan is to lay low this week and get better before the Holidays. Stay safe!
When we started dating 100 years ago (well, 1967) we went to the movies almost every single weekend. Unless there was something else going on, we went - even if there was nothing playing that we particularly wanted to see. There were still a lot of local theaters showing double features then, so we saw some things twice, including the great but disturbing Roman Polanski REPULSION. Our first date was - believe it or not - a late showing of WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?!
Here is a list of some movies we saw in 1967. We were pretty undiscriminating, in that the main thing was go to the movies.
TOBRUK
THE NIGHT OF THE GENERALS
ENTER LAUGHING
HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING (saw this at Radio City Music Hall)
THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE
CAPRICE (horrible Doris Day movie; double feature)
BAREFOOT IN THE PARK
A GUIDE FOR THE MARRIED MAN
TO SIR WITH LOVE
THE DIRTY DOZEN
Over the years, things changed. Thrown in VCRs, then DVDs, and now streaming. Plus, add the hassle of getting to the movies, the cost, the too often obnoxious talkers, etc. and we prefer to see most things at home. We're comfortable, we can pause to go to the bathroom or get a snack, if we don't like it we can freely turn it off without feeling guilty that we paid money to see it, etc. Plus, don't forget the big one: Hollywood is making fewer and fewer movies every year that we want to see, period. For the most part, I'd rather watch a streaming miniseries and rewatch a favorite movie, as we do every year. Sad, but there it is.
Not enjoying the much colder weather - I'm starting to feel like Jerry here. But in less than three weeks we'll be in Arizona visiting my sister, and 7 weeks from tomorrow we'll be in Florida. Yes, the packing and the trip are a hassle, but it is so worth it.
We spent Wednesday in the city. Took the express bus, stayed at a Marriott on 37th Street off Fifth Avenue, met my cousin and his wife for an early dinner down the block from our hotel at Reichenbach Hall, called "the largest German beer hall in New York," which has excellent beer, delicious bratwurst and other sausages, and a favorite of Jackie's, goulash and spaetzle. Yum.
They went home (they had been in the city seeing CHESS, which they hated; I could have told them that, as we hated it in London in 1987) and we took the bus to the Beacon (Broadway & 74th Street) to see Boz Scaggs. It was the ninth time we've seen him in concert, the first since 2019. I always wonder about performers, how they choose a setlist for a tour, especially if they have a huge backlog of songs. Jimmy Buffett had a dozen or so songs that he pretty much did every night. Then he added in a few old things, something new if he had it, and a few other things. John Fogerty pretty much does a Creedence Greatest Hits (plus solo hits) show. But people like Jackson Browne and Boz Scaggs seem very different. Browne does do some big hits, but I don't know a lot of his albums well enough to recognize all the other stuff. Scaggs did a couple of his biggest hits - "Lowdown" and "Lido Shuffle" - plus four songs from the latest of his three self-produced CDs (not counting the just released one, which we don't have). Then he did his usual eclectic mix of blues-type stuff. We enjoyed it. We have one more concert before Florida: Earth, Wind & Fire next month.
A lot of streaming stuff on television now. Jackie watched the new series (there will be one more) of THE WITCHER. We're watching the second series of the Spanish BREATHLESS (Netflix), a medical show set in Valencia. It has a lot of the soapy-type stuff you'd see on American medical shows like GREY'S ANATOMY (plenty of gay and lesbian stuff), with added in unionized doctors threatening to strike, the President of the area dealing with breast cancer, and a lot of fast moving stuff each episode. It's no THE PITT, but it's worth checking out. The new (fourth) series of BLUE LIGHTS is on, will start it soon, and we still haven't started NOBODY WANTS THIS yet.
A fair amount of reading, though mostly short stories and non fiction.
More 1967 movies:
TWO FOR THE ROAD (a favorite; watch it every year)
IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT
BONNIE AND CLYDE
THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS
CAMLELOT
WAIT UNTIL DARK
THE COMEDIANS
COOL HAND LUKE
GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER
THE GRADUATE
THE PRESIDENT'S ANALYST
If they released movies like these, I bet more people would come out.
I finished a couple newly released audiobooks. RED RABBIT GHOST by Jen Julian which is a mix of Southern Gothic and horror. Although, I guess most Gothics have a twist of horror, don't they? The plot has two protagonists with significant personality and mental health issues and had me thinking, "Yeah, you deserved that, you jackape." Heard an exemplary narration of the reprint of THE LOWLIFE by Alexander Baron. I never heard of Baron before. A low-rent gambler in 1963 London reluctantly makes friends with a new family in his apartment house.
I've been watching GOOD COP, BAD COP on HBO/MAX. Not a great show. Not a bad show. But, a fun show and it has Clancy Brown. Season 3 of FISK is on Netflix. Quite enjoyable of a small law firm in Australia.
The lat season of STRANGER THINGS
My work presentation this past Friday was successful with the grants committee of the foundation approving $250,000 to the library renovation. We still await a final vote by the Board of Directors in a couple weeks.
Nuts. Posted early.
The final season of STRANGER THINGS is releasing soon. I just read about David Harbour being a major creep. His wife is (was?) British singer Lily Allen. Allen just released an album filled with songs about his behavior. I read that one of the young female leads in the show reported creepy trouble from Harbour on set.
The only movies on your lists which disappointed me were CAPRICE (the Maltin guide warned us, and when I found he was correct, I cut it off), CAMELOT (just sort of grew duller and duller after a decent start), and COOL HAND LUKE (mild disappointment, even given I'm on the side of justified rebellion).
Congratulations!
Jerry, do you catch HAVE I GOT NEWS FOR YOU on CNN and HBO (and posted in parts on YouTube, where I see the UK original? I appreciated John Oliver's defense of public broadcasting in the US last night, though they apparent weren't aware that PBS was set up in part to tame the more left-leaning NET (National Educational Television) Network which preceded it.
And, sorry about your back problems keeping on. I had to do so emergency labor the other night, and the lactic acid is slow to leave my shoulders and thighs...but nothing in that league your not-playing in since about thirty years ago.
We have been enjoying rain for several days and we should get more. So we have been staying home. Last night we got an alert from Santa Barbara County for heavy downpours through Tuesday, and it is raining steadily now, but weather forecasts don't show that, so who knows?
Glen is now reading BRITAIN AT BAY by Alan Allport. It covers World War II, in 1938-1941. He is enjoying it a lot, the writing is very good, and he will be getting ADVANCE BRITANNA by the same author. That one covers the years 1942-1945. It is not out yet and he will wait a while before he gets a copy anyway.
I read two books this week. They were very different, and both were very good. First was LUCY BY THE SEA by Elizabeth Strout. It was set during the pandemic and kind of sad. (Soon I will read Strout's TELL ME EVERYTHING.)
Last night I finished Megan's book, EL DORADO DRIVE. A very fast read for me, for a 350 page book; I am usually a slow reader. The story of the messy relationships between the sisters was compelling. The need and greed for money was a powerful motivator in all the adult characters. I always like family stories, but I felt sorry for the kids. The setting of Detroit in 2008 and 2009 was very interesting. Now I want to read THE TURNOUT; I have a Kindle edition but I can tell that is one I want to read in hardcopy so I will find a copy. I have two other books by Megan (BEWARE THE WOMAN and YOU WILL KNOW ME) to read.
We recently tried a new show, SHERIFF COUNTRY, with Morena Baccarin. Stopped watching it after the first episode because it was much too soapy. We watched a BROKENWOOD MYSTERIES episode this week, the 4th episode in Season 11, so only two more episodes to watch. There is supposed to be a 12th season, but we will have to wait a while for that. And we have also been watching BEYOND PARADISE. We watch movies on Thanksgiving Day and we are working on deciding which movies to watch this year.
Tracy, Jackie loved Tami Neilson's appearance on the last episode (I think it was) of BROKENWOOD, singing "Stay Out of My Business."
I suddenly remembered last night that we watched the Christmas episode of BEYOND PARADISE but forgot to watch the rest of the series when it came on, so watched the first one (the new restaurant) last night.
The movies were better then. I saw all of them and again since.
We are having scallops. Kevin's favorite dish.
We are seeing WICKED after the scallops.
Will look for Breathless.
Yes, congrats. I started Good Cop, Bad Cop and forgot about it. That happens more and more.
You Will Know Me is one of my favorites because it is from the Mother's POV. I wonder if I resemble her. I hope not. I will be sure to tell her you liked it.
I've started looking at BORGEN again (the excellent series set in the world of Danish politics), and will move onto the sequel series which I haven't seen before. The Netflix version is dubbed, alas, and its default setting has the original English subtitles playing underneath the dubbed English lines, which are at least slightly different with nearly every line.every line.
Every line! (I stutter-type!)
Jeff, thanks for telling me about that episode of Brokenwood with Tami Neilson. I am looking forward to it.
All the spinoffs from YELLOWSTONE are soapy at base. Hence their success.
Patti, Even though I have not read You Will Know Me yet, I am sure that you do not resemble the mother.
Todd, we watched it in the original language - I find it off-putting and confusing having dubbing and English language subtitles. The sequel was watchable, of course, but not a patch on the original show. But it is relevant too, especially with the Idiot Boy's recent obsession with Greenland, though perhaps he's forgotten about that as he's moved on to other things.
On the movies, yes, CAMELOT was pretty bad. Vanessa's singing (such as it was) was not good.
BORGEN was a great show.
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