Saw the movie TUNER, which I thought was pretty good. It had action but it still managed to show you the lives of its characters and had lovely music. Watching MAXIMUM PLEASURE GUARANTEED on APPLE. Also WIDOW'S BAY. Finished HACKS and THE BURROUGH. Didn't get much out of the BURROUGH but HACKS ended well.
Reading a collection of short stories by Ha Jin. Friday I go to Stratford to see THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST and GUYS AND DOLLS with my son, his wife and my grandson. I will put a posting up for next Monday and respond later.
So what are you up to?
13 comments:
I'm glad the weather's turning nicer for you, Patti. And your reading and viewing sound interesting, too. Let's hope that means the week ahead will be a good one for you.
Lovely weather here also. We have a swing on the front patio that is comfortable enough for a good book and a beer, although the heat excludes me from using it in the middle of the day.
Jack made it out of the eighth grade without getting arrested -- not that that was a strong possibility but with kids sometimes you just can't tell. He will entering a newly-built high school in the Fall; for the first year it is open, they will be serving freshmen and sophomores only, which will make it easier for the new students.
Christina, Walt, and Jack have embarked on a mini vay-cay, which was one of Christina's birthday presents, while I handle animal duties here. I'm not sure if they trust me because Erin and Trey will stopping by to check on me to make sure I have not ordered a stripper pole -- something I threatened to do while the others were away. Taking care of the animals will give me some face time with Newer-Cat Rose (the most trepidatious animal in existence), who currently hides out in Christina and Walt's bedroom 24-7.
Jessamyn and Amy are very curious about their fifteen-year-old neighbor. three police cars pulled up to her house across the street and arrested her a couple of day ago. They don't know why, but the police needed a warrant to arrest her. Kaylee, who works at the jail, says that she was not admitted there, so she may have been Baker-acted (placed in a mental health facility for up to 72 hours). The girl is now back home; both the girl and the family are very quiet and do not interact with any of the neighbors. Both Jessie and Amy hope that the situation has been resolved peacefully and that their neighbors can go on with their quiet lives...but they are curious.
Erin's Family Book Club met yesterday. the book, which was selected by Christina, was THE LIFEGUARDS by Amanda Eyre Ward. Christina was quick to point out that she SUGGESTED the book, rather than RECOMMENDED it. A complete turkey with unlikable and unbelievable characters, giant plot holes, suspense that completely fizzled out, unresolved points, a severe case of coincidence theater, and -- worst of all -- it portrayed Falmouth, Massachusetts, as a complete hellhole. For the first time in ever, Amy DNFed it, and was amazed at how bad the book turned when we told her what happened after she dropped out. We all had a fantastic time tearing that book apart. Next month's choice is VERA WONG'S UNSSOLICIGTED ADVICE FOR MURDERERS by Jesse Q; Sutano.
Not much reading this week. the only book finished was a Rick Brant "Electronic Mystery," THE LOST CITY, my FFB this week. I have been slowly dipping into Jack Seabrook's detail examination of ALFRED HITCHCOCK' PRESENTS, reading about a few episodes each day; with over 250 episodes, it will take me a while to finish the book. I have also (finally!) started readking the complete COSMOS, a round-robin novel from 1933-34 by seventeen of the leading science fiction writers of the day -- a truly creaky classic previously available in only bits and parts.
Lots of television this week. Two movies: JACK RYAN: GHOST WAR, and Alan Ritchson's WAR MACHINE, which pits the hero against an unstoppable killer robot. I finished the last season of STRANGER THINGS, and followed that up with The Duffer Brothers THE BOROUGHS, which was not as good as I had hoped, but some of the actors were great. Bert show of the week was SPIDER-NOIR, whose only flaw was Nick Cage going goofy every now and then. I finished the 1952 12-part Republic Serial ZOMBIES OF TH STRATOSPHERE because I have absolutely no taste, and followed that cheese-fest up with EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS, notable because of a script by George Worthington Yates (THEM!, THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN, IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA), from a story by Court Siodmak (DONOVAN'S BRAIN. THE WOLFMAN, BRIDE OF THE GORILLA) and special effects by Ray Harryhausen.
I hope everything you see this week will be of a higher intellectual ;plane, Patti. Stay safe.
It's interesting what different things appeal to different people. George watches a lot of Marvel & Disney things that don't appeal to us, though we will try the Nic Cage Spider-Man series. (I must admit here that Spider-Man has never appealed to me in any incarnation.) Similarly, we gave up on Widow's Bay. We just didn't care for it at all. Not sure where The Boroughs is going, but we like the cast well enough to continue watching so far. We finished The Morning Show (series 4) and After The Flood (Britbox; series 2), and are closing in on the end of the French The Bureau (Paramount +, I think; series 5, which despite positive reviews is mostly a confusing mess. I mean, why did they go to Cambodia?) and the fifth series of Slow Horses (Gary Oldman is clearly having a ball). Jackie thought the second series of Hijack was ludicrous but kept watching (for Idris Elba, mostly) and she's watching the last Outlander now.
We have a show this week: a Saturday matinee of The Balusters by David Lindsay-Abaire. Weather has mostly been better. Got a lot more reading done lately, though I've been very disappointed with THE DELIVERY, the sequel to THE MAILMAN (a favorite) by Andrew Welsh-Huggins.
For the first time in a long time Western NY had a week of rain-free weather. The temperatures are flirting with 70s and the sunshine feels nice.
Diane and I moved the table and chairs onto the Deck. The awning guys came out and put up the awning so we have some nice shade. Diane wants a new vehicle--she's thinking of a compact SUV which would allow her to get in and out more easily than her Altima sedan. We plan to gift the Altima to Kate sometime this summer.
I'm almost done with SPIDER-NOIR and can't wait for the Second Season! Stay safe!
George, I thought of you last week when Jackie stimulated the economy. First, when we had the mini-heat wave I plugged in the air conditioners, and the big one in the living/dining room was dead, kaput. Instead of the Friedrich we had had, she got (with our super's approval) a Midea from Costco, which was on sale for $329. It's smaller than the previous and it is incredibly quiet! No more having to turn the music on the Bose way up when the air is on. The super put it in for us in 15 minutes or so.
Then she decided our ten year old microwave had had it, so got a new Frigidaire (who knew they made microwaves?) from Amazon for about $100.
I mistyped. Farberware, not Frigidaire.
You can't go wrong with a Forester. We've driven them for 21+ years. This is our third.
Second the Subaru rec.
I got a jury summons a few weeks ago and my reporting period will start Monday, June 8. I am not happy about that at all, especially since I continue to have issues with my digestion, which makes me tired all the time.
Last night we watched a new show, RJ DECKER, on Hulu. It is based on a Carl Hiaasen novel and we enjoyed the first episode. Also we watched the last episode of MENTALIST. We hardly remembered the last two seasons of Mentalist, so it seemed all new to us.
Glen recently started reading HEYDAY: THE 1850S AND THE DAWN OF THE GLOBAL AGE, by Ben Wilson. This is the title of the American edition and that edition has a special introduction. The title and subtitle of the British edition is HEYDAY: BRITAIN AND THE BIRTH OF THE MODERN WORLD. He has read about 1/4 of the book and he is liking it. Very interesting topics are discussed.
I read THE MAN WHO DIED SEVEN TIMES by Yasuhiko Nishizawa. It is a time loop novel, a subgenre of travel travel. This wasn't the best time loop novel I have read, but it had plenty of humor and I liked the way it was written. The protagonist, who tells the story, is a 16-year-old boy who is still in high school, and he and the rest of his family are visiting his grandfather.
Now I am reading MURDER ON THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD by Stuart M. Kaminsky, the second book in the Toby Peters series. I am not very far into it, but it is good and I will be reading more of them. I like that they are not very long.
Maybe bring a note from your doctor, Tracy. It seems like a good reason to dismiss you. I love time as a plot device.
I was moved to Go Look at the available episodes of RJ DECKER that ABC (it's a broadcast series in first run) has up on its streaming platform...I might've been tired or distracted when I watched the pilot, as I didn't care for it, but the later episodes were good. https://abc.com/show/42dc1837-dd3d-4192-8185-9cda9628808c
My comment was lost in the internet, Or, I commented on a post from a couple years ago.
Wife, Boy #2 and I got out and about on Saturday and visited a botanical garden and had dinner.
I read DRIFTLESS by David Rhodes. The novel came out in 2008 and it sure took me a while to get to reading it. Rhodes was a rising literary star in the 1970s until a motorcycle accident paralyzed him. Novel is set in rural WI and pretty good. Even with the repulsive visit to a dogfight by two characters.
New cat and old cats are now getting along. New cat's name is Goose. New Cat Goose attacked my hand yesterday and clawed open the skin on the back of my hand. His youth brings a lot more energy.
I've mainly been rewatching old TV and figured I should catchup on STAR WARS shows by finishing the MANDALORIAN.
I've been trying to see that last season of MIRACLE WORKERS with Daniel Radcliffe and Steve Buscemi. No luck so far but I need to try and get the TBS app working for me.
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