Three good movies this week. An Icelandic film, THE LOVE THAT REMAINS
An old French film called SOFT SKIN by Truffaut that really shows Hitchcock's influence on him and the old Tracy and Hepburn film DESK SET, which was startlingly modern with the issue of people being replaced by machines. Finishing up HACKS, which was pretty mediocre, love WIDOW's BAY.
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Spring has also sprung here and I'm beginning to spend time on the front patio swing, just me and a good book and a beer. Sounds as though you are feeling better and that makes me very happy.
Because of Christina's new work schedule she has not been able to enjoyo the beach on weekends as we usually do, so she and I hit the beach on Wednesday to take advantage of the great weather. There was a woman who sat down in the water by the shore and attempted to put on a mermaid fin with not very much success. The waves kept buffeting her back and forth and she was struggling with the task. After more than ten minutes a boyfriend?husband?kind stranger? supported her back against the waves so she was finally able to get the mermaid tail on, then off she went. No one bothered to explain to her that using a mermaid tail is HIGHLY DISCORAGED and has led to a lot of accident drownings, but I believe she survived...at least she swam horizontally along the beach until she was our of sight and we did not hear of any bodies floating to the surface that day. One thing I had never noticed before -- or, at least, never paid attention to -- is that about 80% of the couples walking along the beach do so with the female closer to the water and the male closer to the shore. This, I believe, may be a survival instinct on the part of the male -- when a kraken attacks from the water, it is the female who gets it first, leaving the male to scurry to safety. Survival of the cowardly, I suspect. Oh, and Christina spotted a juvenile shark swimming about two feet from the shore; I, of course, did not. Stupid cataracts. Nonetheless it was a warm and relaxing morning, with the Gulf displaying its usual beauty.
Gavyn had orientation for his new job on Monday. Also on Monday, Jessie reported she saved a turtle on Pensacola's busy 9th Avenue, so congrats to both. Kaylee has begun to learn to crochet, starting with tiny little animals and doodads, so congrats also to her. Congrats also to my Arizona niece, Lizzie, who had a birthday on Friday; Lizzie is a new-age health and fitness type and really should have been here instead of Arizona so i could give her a hug.
Yesterday was Christina's birthday and it seems like only yesterday that she was a sweet and curious little girl insisting on wearing only flowered cotton tops and racing around the yard. I am still amazed (but not surprised) that she is now a fantastic and talented woman that any father could be proud of. For her birthday, Walt got her a strange, swinging chair thingy for the front yard that looks a bit like an elevated chaise lounge being swallowed by a tsunami. (Yea, it's hard to describe, buy it is super cool, very comfortable, and Christina love it.)
Not much television this week. THE PUNISHER was Marvel's entry into th violence porn market, but still interesting. Colbert seems to be having a great time closing out his eleven year run; out of respect for him, both Kimmel and Fallon will not be airing new shows on Colbert's last night. Finally got around to begin streaming WONDER MAN and am enjoying it vert much.
Read only one novel this week: Lawrence Block's early FOUR LIVES AT THE CROSSORADS, a sexy and bleak crime caper and my FFB. I did complete flour very hefty anthologies, all horror -- THE ULTIMATE ZOMBIE. THR ULTIMATE WEREWOLF, and John Skipp's ZOMBIE: ENCOUNTERS WITH TH HUNGRY DEAD; some very good stories among the usual dross.
Hope you spend the coming week avoiding dross and enjoying only the good things, Patti. Stay safe.
We jumped right from barely Spring into Summer yesterday, as it was about 86 degrees, with more of the same promised Tuesday and Wednesday, then...a return to well below average temperatures around 60. It's been a roller coaster.
OK, did that just to see if it would post my comment or I had to do it on the phone.
We watched the first two episodes of WIDOW'S BAY and found it silly but entertaining enough to keep watching, though I didn't realize at first that they only do one episode a week. Still holding off on HACKS, what with the lousy reviews. Why can't Hollywood ever quit when they're done, instead of going on too long and hurting the reputation of what's gone before? HACKS reached a stopping point with the last series. They should have stopped.
Watching the last series of the French THE BUREAU, which so far is more confusing than satisfying. Also on the second series of FOR ALL MANKIND, and started the second series of TEHRAN (both Apple+) last night, with Glenn Close joining the cast as a Mossad agent for series two.
We're supposed to be getting BEYOND PARADISE now, but aren't, yet, so we're watching DEATH IN PARADISE. Finished CALL THE MIDWIFE. MADEMOISELLE HOLMES is back with series two.
On Netflix we're watching the Danish THE ASSET. A young woman is pulled out of the Police Academy and given an assignment (with promise of future employment) - to befriend the girlfriend of a drug dealer to get close to him so they can take him down. The relationship reminds us somewhat of the Belgian/Dutch UNDERCOVER series, with the two women getting very close.
Jackie is watching THIS CITY IS OURS, yet another show using Sean Bean (a favorite of hers) to draw her in, only to have him leave abruptly. She said this Liverpool-set crime series is very similar to the Pierce Brosnan/Helen Mirren MOBLAND in feel and style.
I'm reading 5 or 6 books at once, which is driving me a little crazy. I started that Jayne Ann Phillips book but it didn't grab me quickly, so I returned it. A couple of short story collections (and just picked up a third), Jill Lepore's essays, a couple of books by Ray Bradbury (non-fiction book of essays), THE LIBRARY BOOK (a celebration of libraries), and the first J. D. Robb book. I really need to settle down and finish one thing at a time.
Western NY is going from the 60s to 85 degrees today! The weather is flipping from Spring to Summer. We'll be 20 degrees above Normal today. Diane and I are driving Diane's friend to Rochester today so she can shop at Land's End. It's her Birthday and Land's End is giving her $50 as a Birthday present.
Patrick is flying to London, England tonight for another GOOGLE conference. Katie is flying to San Francisco for a friend's wedding.
I've been watching Graduation Ceremonies where the graduates are booing the Speaker if they mention Artificial Intelligence. Entry Level jobs are declining at a scary rate!
Political and Economic uncertainty continues. Stay safe!
My wife and Boy #1 came home with a 5-month-old cat yesterday.
I tilled the garden. Changed the oil in the tiller and the snow blower. And I am neither pleased or displeased with the cat. The other two cats, however, are not not happy.
I've been watching FALLOUT on Amazon. I like the costume and set-design. The story is meh.
Have not done much reading. Listened to the new Louise Penny novel THE LAST MANDARIN written with Mellissa Fung. It's a standard international thriller and not all that interesting. I did finish it though.
My wife and I made a quick trip to Joilet, IL last week to attend a 90-years birthday party for my sister-in-law's mother.
Yeah, I bailed on the Phillips book too. Too much geology, geography and history of WV for me. Jerry, were you so much at one with nature in Maryland? It must be great to have a big family, lots of animals and the beach. Today is 90 here but in two days it's back in the sixties. Gerard is living the rural life. We always had to pay to have such chores done. Been watching LONG LOST FAMILY of PBS. If you had a child out of wedlock in the UK fifty years ago, your story is probably on here. A good cry at the end of each episode. George's kids spend more time in the air than on the ground. They are well=traveled.
My favorite thing in THE LIBRARY BOOK so far was Stephen Fry discovering "The Importance of Being Earnest" via the 1952 movie version (Edith Evans played Lady Bracknell). When the mobile library came around the next week, he "threw myself inside the mobile library the moment the door at the read had opened and the steps been let down. 'Have you heard of Oscar Wilde?' I squealed at the cardiganed librarian within... 'Do you have a play he wrote called THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST? ... Please, I have to read it!'"
This led to the rest of Wilde's writings - after he read the play "three or four times a day every day for two weeks." He read the Complete Works, then THE TRIALS OF OSCAR WILDE, which he said changed his life. This led to many other books.
He was 11 years old.
Looks like three horror anthos, Jerry. Glad the family and random mermaids seem to be thriving/keeping on!
HACKS the final season didn't bug me the way it has Patti, but it has been a lesser season (tried Hannah Einbinder's stand-up special and it started terribly...she comes across as herself even more insufferably her own biggest fan than her HACKS character ever does).
Ain't no Safe of late, George. And local weather expects a 33 degree dop in temp over several hours the day after tomorrow. And the local property tax assessment has damn near doubled on this house.
Twain and Saki had a similar effect on me, Munro when I was 8-10, Clemens 9-11. Had to read all I could.
As a grandchild of West Virginia (and Vermont, and Alaska-born, so my folks could see some Real mountains), perhaps I Need to read the JAP book.
We treated with four unrelated cats at one point here, Gerard...they eventually got along. The current junior cat has emotional problems, and has to be segregated from the elder cat (my parents' last cat), the latter beng stronger and smarter than the pugnacious one, and the little one hasn't won any of the fights she's picked with the elder...she refuses to take that as a suggestion of the wiser course.
Sure, say that summer has arrived or en route, but that's not the case here in Winnipeg where the temperature has been hovering around freezing. We were fooled by one warm day when people appeared in shorts. Our professional baseball team, Winnipeg Goldeyes, plays its home opener Tuesday night and I may have to wear a quited jacket to stay warm. I bet most fans won't last nine innings. Plans to have to the water hooked up at our family cottage at Lake Winnipeg were postponed until June 2. Usually hookup is done before today, which is the Monday of our May long weekend. Haven't read much fiction of interest lately and didn't finish three novels that I started. Now reading In the Days of My Youth I Was Told What It Means To Be a Man, a memoir by Tom Junod. an excellent profile writer. It's described as " an intensely emotional detective story powered by a series of cascading revalations." On page 125 and so far, it's an excellent read.
Is a goldeye a kind of animal? A species of wolf perhaps. I could google it, I know. Up and down temps isn't easy either. I think weather will be unpredictable forever now.
I guess Deborah Vance' s narcissism is all too reminiscent of others. Shouldn't she be grateful for 75 good years in an iffy profession? All of the wit has left the writer's room.
Yes! She got what she always wanted, her own late night talk show, and made it a success. Isn't that good enough?
No matter where you go during the winter, there is always some guy wearing shorts.
And middle schoolers without coats.
Late again on Monday morning. Not much going on here. We are still working on potting plants in the front area, but have slowed down because of my digestion problems, which are better now, sort of. We got rid of some plant shelves, etc. from the back area when there was a free bulk pickup last week. Today we went to Costco for a medical prescription.
Glen read a huge graphic novel this week, in one day. It is THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT by Mimi Pond; 462 pages, hardback, and very heavy. I don't think I will be able to read it in one day, but I will be reading it. It is set in Oakland, California; a woman in her twenties is working in a diner while pursuing her artistic career. It is semi-autobiographical and follows the same people in the earlier graphic novel, OVER EASY.
Right now Glen is reading MURDER AND OTHER ACTS OF LITERATURE, a short story anthology edited by Michelle Slung. He has read six of the 24 stories, and liked 5 of them. Some of the authors are: William Trevor, Eudora Welty, Muriel Spark, Alice Walker.
I read PEOPLE WHO WALK IN DARKNESS... an Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov Mystery by Stuart Kaminsky. It was the 15th book in the series and every bit as good as all the prior ones in the series. Set partially in Siberia, partially in Moscow and Kiev.
Now I am reading THE CITY IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT by Charlie Jane Anders. It is science fiction, about life on a colonized planet, where half of the planet is perpetually cold and in the dark, and the other half is always light. My son read it first. He thought it was well written but it could have been 50 to 100 pages shorter; it is around 350 pages. It is definitely readable, but I am not far in enough to know how I feel about it.
Tracy, I loved the Rostnikov series, my favorite of Kaminsky's series.
My mom loved Stuart Kaminsky but I have never read him. I will look for one. Those are great writers included in that anthology. I am in constant admiration of the breadth of your reading. I do miss gardening. We had too much land at the last house for me to manage so now I have none. Which is not fun.
Or pajamas, Gerard.
RE Stuart Kaminsky, my favorite series is the Rostnikove series, but I have read a book or two from his other series and I plan to read more of those.
I do like to garden and I definitely like to have blooming plants, but it is a lot of work, hard to keep up with, even with the small amount of "yard" that we have.
Well, it was almost immediately yanked away. Somewhat in a faster version of Colbert's situation.
The team: https://www.thepwhl.com/en/teams/vancouver-goldeneyes/introducing-the-goldeneyes
The bird (a sea duck): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_goldeneye
Lying in bed with elder cat looking over my shoulder out the window; Alice's typical Monday long day at the office not yet done. Younger cat, who is also cursed with one of the ways spaying partially fails (either the vet misses a bit of the ovary or the cat's pituitary helpfully steps in to make sure she'll still go into heat), is downstairs resting after a busy day of calling for tomcats while standing on the dining room cat table, up against the window.
Even mowing a small lawn such as ours can be a trial in the 90-degree days...
I do like the Abe Lieberman series set in Chicago too. Je also had a series set in Sarasota you might want to try, Patti. I didn't read many of the historical series featuring real movie stars .
Toby Peters was the PI in 1940s Hollywood.
Lew Fonesca was the process server in Sarasota.
Kaminsky started out writing about Hollywood. Before the fiction, I read his 1974 book, DON SIEGEL, DIRECTOR.
That was what my Mom loved about his novels, the Hollywood settings.
We had a lawn service, which saved us mowing.
It really is a small yard with a large house taking up much of the lot (and across the street from a public school...hence a tax-hike target)...and except in 90+ degree weather, I don't mind it, vs. the acre yards of my parents' houses in CT and NH in the '70s...today's electric mower rather less unpleasant than the gasoline mowers of 50 years ago, as well.
We've had an electric mower for a few years now and I prefer it over gas.
Kaminsky's Rostnikov is a favorite of mine as well.
I have too many books to read but just reserved a copy of THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT.
Driving this afternoon, the car's thermometer hit 100 degrees F. Not much cooler off the asphalt.
Too many books remains optimism till it becomes a syndrome.
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