Monday, June 04, 2018

Things That Are Making Me Happy

Enjoyed THAT KIND OF MOTHER, Rumaan Alam. Also THE TALE, on HBO with Laura Dern. Also somewhat, ON CHESIL BEACH, which follows the novel closely. Saoirse Ronan has a great body of work under her belt already.
Our flowers are in, a bit more difficult than usual this year. Our beauty bushes are in full bloom.
Our cleaner and her husband are redoing our screened porch in a few weeks, which should be a big improvement because it sits in plain view. Enjoying the interviews on the Criterion Channel. Fun hearing what movies various people were drawn to.
How about you? What's going on there?
And

WHAT WAS THE FIRST MOVIE YOU REMEMBER REALLY ENJOYING?

17 comments:

George said...

The first movie I remember enjoying was SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON in 1960 (I was 11 at the time). I loved this survival story.

Diane and I have been catching up on all the mail and errands that mounted up when we were traveling.

Summer arrived in Western NY with temps in the 80s. I, of course, stay in the A/C.

Finished Madeline Miller's wonderful CIRCE and sent her an email praising her novel. And Ms. Miller sent me a response!

Anonymous said...

Oh, beautiful flowers and a re-done place to enjoy them! I love it!

pattinase (abbott) said...

The first movie I remember seeing at the theater was DADDY LONG LEGS. A strange movie for a seven year old but I went with my grandparents and they wouldn't have given the subject matter a thought.

Jeff Meyerson said...

First movie ever? That's a tough one. I was thinking a couple of weeks ago about Kirk Douglas (now 101) and remembered how much I enjoyed 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA (1954) as a kid. That could be the first.

We finished the excellent Israeli series PRISONERS OF WAR (both seasons) last night and I would definitely recommend that you check it out. (Fortunately, our library had all 7 discs of the two series available. They are in Hebrew, with English subtitles.) Yes, superficially, it starts at the same basic point as HOMELAND, with the return of captured soldiers after many years (here 17). But the two series go in very different directions, and we were really drawn in by the characters.

While I'm having some problem settling on one book, I have been enjoying several collections of stories. No novel, however, is making me race through it in the way I like.

I can't say I'm enjoying the bizarre weather - 87 and humid on Saturday, 62, overcast, with a cold wind on Sunday - but the trend is better, except for all the rain.

Lots of new, interesting Summer TV coming on.

Steve Oerkfitz said...

First movie? Maybe Pinocchio. Had to remember that far back.
Interesting weather going from 50's to 90. Now it seems to be settling into the 70's.
Finished rereading Lonesome Dove. Now I might reread the prequels. Also read The Big Heist by Anthony Destefano. It's about the Luftansa heist in 1978 which was used as the backdrop in Goodfellas. Now reading The Feather Thief about a different kind of heist.
Didn't see any movies this week. Not much out there right now. Looking forward to Hereditary in a couple of weeks.
Enjoyed the conclusion of The Americans and Trust. And the new season of Animal Kingdom. Still find Legion fascinating although I don't have a clue to what is going on. Also enjoying Westworld which I find better this season than last. Will watch Ed Harris in most anything.

Gerard Saylor said...

I remember waiting in line for STAR WARS. I was 6-years-old. My older cousins had already seen the picture and were trying to describe the light sabers. I had no idea what they were talking about.

I took the kids to Madison Saturday to see a car show downtown. My younger son was not wanting to go and was going to stay home. I ended up blowing my stack from frustration of trying to get him our of the house and he came along. We had a nice time at a kinda lame car show, had ice cream, my older son checked out a camping store, and we went and visited my wife's library since she was working. While we were there I scored a couple withdrawn Max Allan Collins novels and a Dashiell Hammett collection.

vivici said...
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George said...

Like Steve, I'm completely mystified by LEGION on FX. But I'm hanging in there despite the epic surrealism.

Rick Robinson said...

First movie I remember really enjoying? Hmmm. Perhaps the re-release of Disney's SNOW WHITE, or the one of FANTASIA. Also it might have been SHANE when it came out in 1953.

We had some rain showers yesterday, but over all the weather is great, the garden doing fine. I just finished and enjoyed RIVER OF TEETH by Sarah Gailey. Imagine cowboys riding hippos in New Orleans area swamps. It's a novelette, and I'll start the follow-up, TASTE OF MARROW today. They're collected in AMERICAN HIPPO, along with two shorter works. I'm also working my way through a 909 page anthology edited by Gardner Dozios, who passed away last week. I try to read a story or two between longer works.

Jeff Meyerson said...

OK, you sold me. How can I resist feral hippos. I only wish Bill was still here to enjoy these. I downloaded the first one from the library.

Charles Gramlich said...

I watched a good movie too, Jeepers creepers 3. Probably not your type

pattinase (abbott) said...

I only wish Bill was here. Period.
Why is my reading so ordinary compared to most of you?

Jerry House said...

The first movie I remember really enjoying, excluding the Hopalong Cassidy retreads on television? It's a toss-up between SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON and the Barbara Steele horror flick BLACK SUNDAY. You can't get much more diverse than that.

Sometimes you have to look for happiness wherever you can. My agony with the dentist this week means that I have to eat soft food. To me, that means PIE! Yum!

Since Jessamyn was diagnosed with cancer Kitty realized that it had been a while since a checkup. Test results show that Kitty does not have cancer. And eight days after her first round of chemo, Jessie's hair began to come out in clumps so she preemptively shaved her head -- and she looks great bald! Simple wins.

Ceili is excited about opening her own nail salon. Things are looking good for her.

Our neighbor Raymond has been dropping off fresh tomatoes from his garden, bless him. We've been living on tomato and mayo sandwiches. Not as good as pie, but pretty darned yummy. (Raymond is also the neighbor who sneaks over and mows our lawn when we least expect it. He makes his rounds through the neighborhood just to keep busy; and he is appreciated.)

Christina and the kids came over today to paint our living room. It took Kitty a while to decide on a color but she was eventually spot-on. It looks great! We bought a cake.

Some decent books, some decent television, and some decent weather (Alberto hit the counties on each side of us, but skipped over our county -- phew!), and some great family times -- it doesn't get much better.

Hope you and Phil have a fantastic week!

pattinase (abbott) said...

Went to the periodontist today and found I need $3500 surgery. She can do it all in two hours though. So that's good.
Glad that you can find pleasure in tomato sandwiches. So can I but there are no good ones in Michigan yet.

Jerry House said...

If you say that a little louder, Patti, I'm sure Raymond will find his way to your door.

Rick said...

The first movie I can recall seeing in a theater was a re-release of "The Wizard of Oz" that my mother and grandmother took me to. It was around 1953.
(Rick Libott)

Kevin R. Tipple said...

I have no idea what the first movie I enjoyed was. i suspect it was probably a Disney flick and probably Granny (my Mom's mother) took me. She like dto take us kids to the movies. Probably took me to the Lochwood theater that was connected to the old Lochwood Mall. Probably mid or late sixties. None of that stands today. Nor does the Dairy Queen that she often took us to either before or afterwards.

So, I am late as to participating this week and there has not been much. the heat is not my friend physically and the grief has been heavy. But, I am pleased to report we missed the baseball sized hail that struck just to our NW across Dallas yesterday morning. I am very happy about that. And I was pleased to stagger out in the heat yesterday on a library run and retrieve the latest in the Spenser series by way of Ace Atkins as well as the DVD of UNFORGETTABLE from Masterpiece Mystery. Pleased about the retrieval. Not the heat!

Kevin
(who really needs some football and has a very long wait ahead of him)