Monday, April 01, 2019

Things That Are Making Me Happy

We had a quick visit from Megan although she was either on the phone or writing scripts most of the time. They begin shooting in two weeks so she is even more harried than usual. Being a show-runner means there is no detail of any aspect of the show she is not involved with. They are using almost entirely female directors and writers. Since most of the characters are women, it makes sense. USA moved the show to January so it and BRIARPATCH could debut together.
Rereading MAISIE DOBBS for my book group. What a self-assured first novel that was. Although there is very little mystery in this first book.
Really liked the movie TRANSIT if it comes your way.
Started watching HANNA, which seems okay but maybe not terrific. Phil liked the three seasons of BILLIONS he watched.
Enjoyed THE HIGHWAYMEN. Costner and Harrelson make a good team. Maybe TRUE DETECTIVE 4. 
What about you?

Here's the story on Margot Kinberg. 

16 comments:

Margot Kinberg said...

Glad that you got to catch up with Megan. Wishing her well with this new project!

pattinase (abbott) said...

Thanks, Margot. Where did your blog go?

Jeff Meyerson said...

We saw the movie HANNA but the reviews of the show have turned us off. Maybe after watching all the other things on our list. Ditto for THE HIGHWAYMEN.

Very impressive that Megan is doing the show. What great experience. "Showrunner" seems to be a title that didn't exist before the last decade.

Network TV continues to suck, though we do watch a few things still, even though if it were up to me, that number would probably be down by half. Most nights we alternate between Netflix (BORDERTOWN, SHTISEL, AFTER LIFE, NCIS, THE WEST WING) and Amazon Prime (CATASTROPHE, MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE, WILD AT HEART), with an occasional movie thrown in.

I enjoyed ALL THE BIRDS IN THE SKY by Charlie Jane Anders, winner of the Hugo and Locus Awards in 2017.

Back to colder today, but the weather is slowly getting Spring-like.

I hope Phil feels better this week.


George said...

We woke up to more snow this morning. Not a funny APRIL FOOL'S DAY joke!

Diane is reading the new Maisie Dobbs novel, THE AMERICAN AGENT. She's enjoyed the entire series. I met Jacqueline Winspeare at the BOUCHERCON in Chicago a few years ago and she kindly signed Diane's copies of her books.

I've been reading classic Science Fiction stories for a project I've been working on.

Glad you were able to spend some time with the incredibly busy Megan!

J F Norris said...

According to Bill Selnes' blog, Margot Kinberg quit blogging completely. I don't think there was an announcement there to prepare anyone. She just literally pulled the plug and deleted the entire thing. Maybe you can email her privately and find out the reason.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Someone emailed me that she had grown tired of the preparation her blog took. But I will email her. Hopefully she will keep in touch on facebook.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Really enjoying AFTER lIFE.
I think I read the first three Maisies and then gave it up. Not that they weren't excellent.

Steve Oerkfitz said...

I like Billions and The Highwaymen. One of my favorite shows Barry started it's second season last night. Didn't know Briarpatch was being adapted for tv. More Ross Thomas novels should be filmed.
Saw Us. The worst movie I have seen in years. Poorly directed, written and acted.
Read a good collection of stories: You Know You Want This by Kristen Roupenian. Am now reading The Avenue of the Giants by Marc Dugain. A French novel based on the life of Californian serial killer Ed Kemper.

Talked to my oldest daughter yesterday who is in Hawaii right now. It was $440 dollars round trip from Toronto. It would have cost $999 from Detroit. A huge savings since there are four of them.

Met a woman in January and are now boyfriend/girlfriend. Never expected this at my age.

Rick Robinson said...

Glad to hear Megan was there, hopefully giving you two some of her busy time. I haven't seen any of those shows; I just don't watch much TV in any form. When I switched to Tipthewink, I left Broken Bullhorn up as an archive, which I use, even if no one else does. I wonder why Margo didn't do that?

We had a sunny, warm (high 60s) weekend and were able to get into the garden, mostly pulling weeds, but also dividing a large Daylily and doing some garden cleanup. I was nice to be in the sun. I hope you both are feeling better!

Jerry House said...

Like so many others, I will miss Margot's blog.

Looking forward to watching DARE ME in January. I though the book was outstanding.

Kitty had her first round of chemo light on Thursday. Except for the initial pain of getting a blood draw, everything went well. They're treating her with Rituxan in hopes of getting rid of the autoimmune hemolytic anemia that has been plaguing her for the past two years; the treatment has about a 60% success rate so we're hopeful. We were told this first round would take about 8 hours and we were out in six. Future treatments will be much faster and easier.

Saturday saw the whole famdamily on a road trip to Mobile to watch Erin in her final Winterguard competition. One again, her team took first place. Yay! A combination of having their time moved up and a GPS that kept trying to get us going the wrong way on one-way streets made us anxious that we might not get there in time. We were actually seated just seconds before Erin's team went on, so someone was looking out for us. On the way home we stopped at Buc-ees travel station in Robertdale, Alabama, part of a chain of iconic Texas road stops, where we had tummy-satisfying BBQ beef brisket sandwiches. We will be going back there to sample some of their other wares.

March went out on bitterly cold note yesterday, curtailing our beach time. Low temps and high winds left the beach empty. We tried but could not be out there long. The water, though, was the beautiful green that gave this area the name "Emerald Coast." So we went over to Jessie's for corned beef and cabbage and make-your-own sundaes.

Saw a lot of bad television this week -- the it-must-have-been-written-and-produced-by-someone's-sixteen-year-old-daughter kind. One outstanding example was THE GAELIC CURSE on (I believe) Netflix This one was so appallingly bad I could not shut it off. I just kept thinking it could not get any worse but it did. Most of the actors also worked as various crew members; briefly appearing extras with no lines not only got end-title credits but their non-existent characters were given names; each member of the orchestra was also given credit (along with his or her instrument), leading me to think they worked for screen credit alone; entire families took part in the production. The plot, concerning the staff of Moses, made no sense, and jumped all over the place without any logic or explanation -- I'm afraid that director would not know a segue if it came up and kicked in a very sensitive place. In an ordinarily bad film the acting here would have been the worst thing about it, but an ordinarily bad film does not have such abysmal production standards. This is a movie that MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 would not dare to air. Believe me, Patti, you owe it to yourself to see this film -- everything dark and gloomy in your life will seem like a walk in the park on a sunny April day in comparison. It's that bad. So naturally it comes with my highest recommendation.

One thing that did not make me happy this week is the rally where Trump supporters kept chanting "AOC sucks!" Every time I think our Schoolyard-Bully-in-Chief could not go any lower he finds a way to drag our country further into the mire. Ptah!

I am hoping, however, that this coming week drags your an yours further into sunshine, roses, and lollipops territory. Take care.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Steve-I am so happy for you!
Jerry-you have such a great family. Can't imagine being on a beach.

pattinase (abbott) said...

I am fine, Rick, except for fatigue and depression, that is. Care-giving is a mighty tough road.

Gerard Saylor said...

I took Boy #1 to Northwest Arkansas for a couple days of mountain biking. He said he had a good time but often had to wait on me to catch up to him. We had to quit early on the 2nd day because of rain but were then able to visit a few bike shops for him to look around.

Boy #2 and my wife were able to do a few things in our absence including a performance of MY FAIR LADY and mini-golf.

Care giving is a tough road indeed. Since I was the only one driving to AR and back I broke the driving over two days. That meant we had time to swing by Champaign, IL and visit my parents for three hours. The primary care giver goes through plenty of stress and worry plus managing medications, meals, so on, so forth. If you can get someone in to help you out please do so.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Thanks, Gerard. One of the worst things is making decisions about what needs to be done about everything by myself. Does this need fixing or can it wait? Is it time to have mulch applied? Did he eat enough today? Does that toe need to be seen by a doctor? Should the car be serviced even though no one is driving it? Is that too heavy for me to life? (Yes, usually). Is it worth getting a new chair for my back? I spend a lot of time googling how to fix things, what might help with various medical issues.

Todd Mason said...

The most surprising unalloyed pleasure of the week was watching the fourth and final episode of the Epix channel documentary series PUNK, easily the best documentary project about punk rock as a whole I've seen, after catching the Showtime documentary JEFF BECK: STILL ON THE RUN. Beck is even more a character than I realized, as well as someone who tends to amaze even other past-master rock guitarists with his desire to constantly innovate. Clapton noting that he was feeling pushed out of the Yardbirds by their manager, then first experiencing Beck's work as the "new hire" for lead guitar, decided, Well, it IS time to go.

The most unsurprising being how happy doing her gaming videocast makes Alice, my sister feeling mostly happier in making her way through her transition, and the cats coming to see me for their affection doses, as opposed to for their food (they loudly complain about the delays in the latter...c'mon, ape!)

Kevin R. Tipple said...

As one who was on the solo care giving road for many weeks and months, feel free to drop me a note and ask anything at any time. Sandi was a diabetic so I get the whole--does that toe need attention--thing among others. And, yes, the car that is not being driven should still get some regualr service. Also needs to be started and run at least once a week for about a half an hour to keep it running and prevent the dead battery fairy. Distant relative of the DRUG FAIRY that apparently randomly puts drugs in the poockets and purses of folks who are about to be stopped. Not to be confused with the NOT MY PANTS fairy who causes folks to just randomly put on other folks pants.

Kevin