Monday, November 16, 2020

Still Here







 I certainly wish I understood how to arrange graphics on here. Anyway. Finished the Cary Grant bio, which was great, and watched Indiscreet, which I realized halfway through I had seen quite recently. Still enjoyed it. For a romance, it was a bit dour. Or perhaps Grant was. What is your favorite Cary Grant film? I am torn between Bringing up Baby and North by Northwest.

I also watched two great recent movies this week: God's Own Country and 40-Year Old Version. Both streaming. I tried a number of series but didn't settle into any of them. Hard to follow Queen's Gambit, which was so great. Just way too many series about missing girls. I watched an old Poirot, the first one Masterpiece ever did, I think, and wondered why the first season of Poirot was all short stories. 

Reading a lot of books at once. Still. I am not sure why. I don't like to read hard cover in bed at night so I always need a paperback there. Hank and Jim is great at laying out that early thirties era when you had all these stars in rooming houses waiting for their break. My Dark Vanessa is another story of older man, young girl as is the Nabokov one (Laughter in the Dark). This is an early version of Lolita but it feels like it was written by Chekov, very odd. 

Donald Trump is in a race with Covid to see who's scarier. I can barely read the NYT in the morning now. The Detroit Free Press isn't much better. Now we have to worry that the states will run out of money before the vaccine is ready and they will not be able to distribute it. Yikes. 

I bought a wedge pillow this week. It does seem to help a number of issues. I also bought an air purifier, which makes me cough. Great. 

So what's new with you?

18 comments:

George said...

I am still recovering from the "Hail Murray" last-second TD pass that defeated the Buffalo Bills yesterday. A bitter pill to swallow...

The wind storm yesterday knocked out power to thousands of Western NYers but we were okay. All the leaves on my lawn are now gone!

Patrick and Katie joined us for a masked and socially distant visit last night. We helped them play an on-line Trivia game. Diane knew Leonard di Vinci died in France and I knew the phase "Drank the Kool-Aide" came from the Jonestown incident. Patrick knew all the math questions and Katie had all the answers to the Oscar/Grammy/Emmy questions.

Friends of ours spent $1200 for an air purifier and they cough all the time, too! Stay safe!

Steve Oerkfitz said...

Those two are also my favorite Cary Grant movies. Yes, hard to follow Queen's Gambit so I went back and rewatched Scott Frank's previous series Godless. Jeff Daniels is so great it. Also rewatching the French miniseries of Carlos which is about the terrorist Carlos the Jackal. Also watching The Undoing on HBO. Not sure what I think about it so far.
Had a good reading week. Finished Peace by Gary Disher, Law of Innocence the excellent new Michael Connelly, The Mexican Tree Duck by James Crumley-not his best. Next up The Book of Lamps and Banners by Elizabeth Hand.
Tomorrow I go back to the doctor and hope I can get rid of the boot on my foot and drive again.

Jeff Meyerson said...

No air purifier, but we have three humidifiers because the dry winter weather and the steam heat make my dry skin even drier.

I knew you'd be as appalled as I was at the end of the Bills game. Bummer. Can you believe the 3-7 Giants are now in the playoff mix? Could the NFC East be any more pathetic?

Patti, will check out those movies. I have one for you - The Life Ahead on Netflix. It is basically a remake (set in Italy rather than France) of Madame Rosa, based on the same Romain Gary novel, starring a still terrific Sophia Loren. In the original, Simone Signoret was 57 but played a decade older. Loren is 86. The kid who played Momo was terrific.

The only new shows we've added this week were: the third series of the German DARK, which is even more confusing than the first two series, as they have added an alternate world with different versions of the same people, some of whom are married to different people, plus two additional time periods; and the Israeli MOSSAD 101. Seems this grounded agent is not impressed with current Mossad agents, so he collects 13 people (two American born brothers, people from Brazil and Iran and France, a test pilot, one former agent, etc.) and tests and trains them to see who makes the cut. The episodes are about 40 minutes each, and so far it is like a reality show in that he eliminates one person at the end of each episode. In a typical plot twist, he has to answer to his ex-wife, a psychologist who is against the whole project. We're enjoying this one, as with most Israeli shows we've watched (Shtisel, Srugim, When Heros Fly, Fauda).

Jeff Meyerson said...

We haven't started Queen's Gambit yet, and the new season of The Crown is on too. Episode three of Roadkill was probably the worst so far. Who cares about these people? Laurie's wife is pathetic but the rest of them deserve whatever happens to them. Jackie is watching The Undoing but I quit after the second episode.

Favorite Cary Grant movies? North By Northwest, Charade, His Girl Friday, Bringing Up Baby, The Philadelphia Story.

pattinase (abbott) said...

What was the deal with having Connie Chung on THE UNDOING and never really showing her. As Robin Agnew said on Facebook could her cosmetic surgery be worse than Kidman's? I found it insulting. You hear her voice for five minutes and never see her. I think Hugh Grant and DOnald Sutherland are stealing the show. And what is the thing where you keep getting closeupss or Kidman's eyes. I guess these questions are for Steve and Jackie.
Thanks for the recs, Jeff. My friends here also loved the Loren movie.

Steve Oerkfitz said...

Actually Patti I find myself distracted by Donald Sutherland's eyebrows.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Yes!They seem to have a life of their own.

Jeff Meyerson said...

It's true. I walked in on the last five minutes of THE UNDOING (not last night but the previous episode) and asked Jackie what is the deal with the close ups of Kidman's eyes.

Jerry House said...

My votes go to BRINGING UP BABY and HIS GIRL FRIDAY. At least for today because smiling is my go-to place.

Finally got to beach yesterday. It was glorious and relaxing.

We are just about finished with our re-watch of POIROT and MARPLE. Also re-watched THE BARZAN TRILOGY, PERDIDA, and its prologue film (which I did not tally care for). John Oliver, Steven Colbert, Samantha Bee, Seth Meyers, and Bill Maher remain our safety valves. Really enjoyed the movie YOU CAN'T KILL STEPHEN KING, a take-off on horror movie tropes; Six kids, including the token Black one (so identified in the film), go on a trip to Maine to visit the lonely cabin of one of their grandparents (and also to try to get to see Stephen King) and mayhem ensues. There is even a motorboat named CHRISTINE. Fun flick.

Life will be a bit ker-fluffled for the next couple of weeks. Mark has tested positive for Covid, so there's a bit of musical chairs going on. Christina will be staying home taking care of Mark. Walt has moved to a hotel room. Jack and Erin and Erin's dog have moved in with us. The damncat is not happy about the dog. Thanksgiving has been cancelled. And the Trump Administration is refusing to give us funds for this transition. **sigh**

But the weather is beautiful, as is my wife. It (the weather, not my wife) was a bit chilly this morning, but it is still a glorious day.

May your week be as glorious, Patti. Stay safe, healthy, and happy.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Just to be able to go to the beach would be quite a bonus.

Rick Robinson said...

Reading short stories. Been ill for a few days, can't keep anything down. Maybe I'll lost a couple of pounds.

TracyK said...

Jerry, I am sorry to hear how much your life has been kerfluffled. I read your post at your blog for today and there is a lot going on in your house. I hope Mark gets better soon. Take care.

Cary Grant movies: I am torn between NORTH BY NORTHWEST and NOTORIOUS (although we haven't watched that one in a while). I think my husband would agree with those, but he is also very fond of CHARADE. I love THE PHILADELPHIA STORY, but Glen dislikes Katherine Hepburn.

My reading was slow at the beginning of this month, but I finished MURDER FOR CHRISTMAS by Francis Duncan, MURDER IN MESOPOTAMIA by Christie, and ESCAPE VELOCITY by Susan Wolfe in the last week. I am now reading THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD. Not for the first time, but it has been decades.

Patti, about the images on Blogger, I wish I had some advice. I have had less problems lately, even some improvements in the way it was behaving, but still can't put images side by side. I don't want to try something else like WordPress, I was in IT before I retired and I never excelled at learning new software.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Same here. It's gotten worse since they changed things.
NOTORIOUS is never streaming anywhere. I haven't seen it in 25 years at least.

pattinase (abbott) said...

SOrry you are sick, Rick. I never feel well this time of year due to the moldy leaves.

Rick Robinson said...

Cary Grant movie? I love THE PHILADELPHIA STORY, but I guess my favorite is MR. BLANDINGS BUILDS HIS DREAM HOUSE.

@ Tracy: I really want to reread MURDER IN MESOPOTAMIA and/or DEATH ON THE NILE, or both. Soon.

TracyK said...

Rick, both of those two books by Christie are very good, and different.

I hope you feel better soon. Not being able to keep food down is the worst.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Love both of them, Rick. He was such a versatile actor and this bio is excellent.

Todd Mason said...

Still HIS GIRL FRIDAY for me. Hilarious and only occasionally going for the easy joke, and at base serious, and from the period where as corrupt as it was, the Democratic Party still had a strong left/populist component mostly missing today.

Contractor doing a fine job fixing our ruined interior walls, I get to take pictures of our ruined books and Persian rugs now that the insurance has finally coughed up grudging admission that they should reimburse us for them.

Hope the various seasonal maladies resolve in everyone's favor sooner rather than later. I'm just weary A Whole Damned Lot, myself.