Although I will be in CA the next three Mondays, I am going to post the days so you can share what you are doing with me and each other. I am only taking my cellphone so I won't be able to do much without a laptop.
Three good movies this week-all streaming or VOD. I liked MY DOG STUPID enough to get the book called WEST OF ROME by John Fante. ETERNAL DAUGHTER was prettty amazing and Swinton should be nominated in both acting categories. DECISION TO LEAVE was a bit hard to follow. I really don't like subtitles on a complicated movie in a foreign language on a TV screen but it was terrific despite the struggle.
THE LYING LIFE OF ADULTS on PRIME is another good adaption of Elena Ferrante's novels. The dubbed version was a relief. WILL TRENT, streaming on HULU looks to be a decent crime show. It is based on the Karen Slaughter novels. Also sampling ALASKA DAILY with Hilary Swank. Yes, she is the white savior of indigenous people but I am hoping we get beyond that. I really like the cast.
I hardly left my apartment this week. Lots of vague but annoying sinus and throat issues. Josh and his family took me out for dinner to celebrate turning 75. What a nice family I have.
How about you?
14 comments:
The Lions played well and beat the Green Bay Packers keeping them out of the playoffs. Too bad the Rams played poorly against Seattle keeping the Lions out. Still the best season the Lions have had in quite awhile.
Watched The Menu which I liked a lot. Watched Pale Blue Eyes which was okay. Well acted but sort of lifeless. Couldn't get interested in any series so I have been going back and watching old X Files which hold up pretty well. Finished Maror by Lavie Tidhar. A long decades spanning novel about crime in Israel. A lot based on real occurrences. Next up The Cartographers by Peg Shepherd.
Fairly cold but typical for this time of year in Michigan. Little snow. Unfortunately little sun either.
Enjoy California.
Don't buy Miele dishwashers, despite the New York Times gushing over them ("Should last twenty years!"--ours lasted seven before unfixable breakdown, my sister and her wife's lasted eight, likewise--also, since when is 20 years a remarkable lifetime for any household appliance? Every appliance of any quality I grew up with habitually lasted at least that long). They make fine vacuum cleaners, and Claire and her ex had no problems with rest of the Miele appliance suite they remodeled their kitchen with.
We go sopping for the new one today, barring a larger flood than the one we had in the kitchen floor.
Have as much fun in Cali as possible, barring the potential floods there!
I liked the WILL TRENT pilot as well, as far as it went; it's broadcast on ABC, as well as is ALASKA DAILY, which meliorates but never quite loses the White Savior flavor.
Now catching up with ANNIKA as well as RIVER, both getting runs on NJ PBS. Clearly, I am all but randomly drawn to UK crime drama with Scandinavian immigrant leads. Splits the hot, or cold and damp, trends of a decade back in such work. The silencing of certain words in both for broadcast slightly annoying but tolerable. Meanwhile, Sundance Channel (and its siblings') repeats of LAW AND ORDER with similar dialog censorship and even images blurred, on cable, has no excuse to happen. Repeats shown by Bounce TV (the little broadcast network aimed primarily at a black audience) might have a(n overcautious) reason to have done to them, in comparison.
Another quiet-ish week. Christna bounced back well fromher bout with Covid, but Amy, one town over, came up with some sort of intestinal flu that has knocked her out for a frew days; the docs expect it to run its course by tomorrow. Everyone else is healthy and happy.
Last week we celebrated Jack's adoption day (8 years as an official member of the family but ten years as a de facto one). Sweet Frog sundaes all around.
This Friday Walt and Mark are leaving at 0-dark-hundred for their 9-day python hunting trip. Since Walt does the cooking here, Christina expects a lot of Thai food delivery for the n ine days.
No TV this week, although I am setting up the DVD player so I can watch SPIDERMAN: FAR FROM HOME later this week.
Books read were Alex Navala-Lee's ASTOUNDING, about John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, and L. Ron Hubbard, a fascinating, detailed read; also Bill Pronzini's collection THE CEMETERY MAN and five anthologies: NEW WRITINGS IN SF 5, Lester del Rey's final best-of-the-year science fiction collection, Arthur W. Saha's YEAR'S BEST FANTASY STORIES 10, weird menace/shudder pulp collection THE HOUSE OF LIVING DEATH, and (finally!) Beaumont and Nolan's massive OMNIBUS OF SPEED. Currently reading Greene and Adey's locked room anthology DEATH LOCKED IN. Up next is Neil Gaiman's AMERICAN GODS.
Enjoy California but watch your step; I hear the ground has been a bit soggy lately. Stay safe.
I didn't know you were going to be in CA! Please email me or FB me if you'd like to get together!
Yes, Margot, I will. I will be there from the 14 to the 4th.
XFILES reruns is a great idea. I am no even sure I saw all of them in the 90s.
In all the years we went to La Jolla, we had three days of real rain. It looks like we will have that the first three days we are there.
So sad to hear about Russell Banks. CONTINENTAL DRIFT and AFFLICTION are two of my favorite novels. Plus Megan met him a couple of times and was charmed-as were his four wives, I guess.
Good luck shopping for a dishwasher, Todd. I had a friend who had to wait a year early in the pandemic.
Have a great time in California, and watch out for those "riots, fires and mudslides" as JImmy Buffett put it. Looking forward to seeing you in Florida in March. We got here yesterday and are settling in (though we have to get the television straightened out). It's smaller than the other apartment we had, which was huge with two bedrooms and two bathrooms ,but this one is much nicer, right on the water, with enough storage space for everything.
The trip down was fine, no weather issues like last year. Also, as I told George, there seemed to be fewer people on the roads this year. There were only a handful of Canadian plates along the way, whereas last year there seemed to be hundreds.
You can't beat upper 70s in January, though our weather before we left was quite temperate. I can take 50s with no snow or ice.
CA looks to be in the low sixties, which is okay for me because I don't want to swim or even sit on a beach. But the women going with me are used to FL and might find it too cool.
Glad the trip was easier. My friends driving to Savannah last week had horrible storms to negotiate.
Yes, we were lucky. We missed all the bad weather, had sunny to partly to mostly cloudy weather all the way through, temps were around 40 overnight and low 60s during the day, until we got to Florida, where it was 78 yesterday.
It has been raining fairly heavily in Santa Barbara since sometime last night. Temperature today is 60, lows tonight in the 50s, but there will be nights in the next week or so when the lows will be in the 40s.
I am working on finishing ANNA KARENINA this month or next, and also reading THE SIX by Laura Thompson. I just started a book by Robert Barnard (THE GRAVEYARD POSITION) because I want to finish reading something this month.
We finished watching SHETLAND Season 6 and THREE PINES. Have been watching LEVERAGE REDEMPTION Season 2. Also continuing on STAR TREK DEEP SPACE NINE. And more.
I arrive on Saturday. Bring on the sun.
Right now, in Santa Barbara, we are forecast to have rain Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. After that, it should be clear. [Right now, all of Montecito, and parts of surrounding cities are being evacuated due to burn areas from past years. Not where I am.]
Where you are going in California may be different, and conditions could change. I hope you get sun.
Watched pale blue eyes…avoid.
THX!
Post a Comment