Watched SELF RELIANCE on Hulu , a C+ movie. I am tracking the movies I see on Letterbxd, a website now. A handy place, where you can also get reviews of friends who have seen it. Watching MR and MRS SMITH (or is it Jones) on Amazon. EXPATS, which is strange but the critics tell me to hang in so I will. Enjoying MONSIEUR SPADE and TRUE DETECTIVE sort of. When I need to feel relaxed I watch ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL, where the problems of a lamb are tolerable. I enjoyed BARGAIN BLOCK on MAX, a show where they redo houses in Detroit. I never thought I would be watching redecorating shows again, especially since I will never do that again, but the Detroit aspect won me over.
Reading Ann Cleves RAVEN BLACK and Sigrid Nunez, THE VULNERABLES.
Going to see a play (FORTUNE) in Ann Arbor today. I don't have high hopes because it's never been performed before.
Not sure how much I will be around or have Internet access this week. It's all up to the Gods.
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Recorded the Grammy awards and watched the first half. U2 was their token rock band this year (usually it has been The Foo Fighters) and they gave them all of two minutes. Annie Lennox acquitted herself very well. And Billie Ellish can't sing unless you consider whispering singing. Will watch the last half today to see Joni Mitchell. Watching Harrow on Hulu, True Detective, Monseiur Spade , Loudermilk and Curb Your Entusiasm.
Half way through California Bear by Duane Swierczynski and The Best of Michael Swanwick vol. 1.Haven't been reading very fast this week I keep falling asleep.
Had my first ever apointment with a Cardiologist (a followup after being in the hospital in December. Told me the Metopolol they gave me there wasn't necessary any longer. My heart seems to be in good shape and I don't need to go back for 6 months.
As someone who has moved a lot, I sympathize. Changes of address seem to be the most problematic for me. There's always one or two I miss, sometimes causing me problems.
This has been a horizontal week for me. I threw my back out and had to shuffle along using two canes for most of the week, thus the majority of my time was spent lying down with a heating pad. I've had back problems since I was fifteen and this was a bad one, heavily aggravated by our family painting session last week. I'm moving much better now but still am not back to my usual shambling self.
I did, however, finish that 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle, if only in small spurts. Because the cat knock the puzzle apart during the night and the dogs ate some of the pieces that landed on the floor, it was a 991-piece puzzle. It's amazing how some missing pieces can add to the complexity.
Erin turned 22 and we celebrated with ice cream. I think everything should be celebrated with ice cream. Last week was also the birthday week for Amy's dog and one of Erin's hedgehogs. Does anyone else celebrate animal birthdays?
Yesterday was another family crafting day, this time it was stained glass. Christina got the kits through the mail and they came from somewhere in China. We had our choice between a bear, a fox, a flower, or some mountains -- I chose the bear because the picture shown looked really cool. (We later found all the pictures shown on a "stolen artwork" site on the internet. The kits were not what we expected. We were given a cardboard outline and a bunch of glass and were supposed to make something out of it. The glass pieces did not fit the contours of the outline and they were added to each kit willy-nilly. Some kits had too many pieces and some too little. Many of the pieces were of unusable shapes and were of random colors. (The fox, for example had no red pieces; my bear -- which was supposed to be dark blue -- was mainly triangular pieces of green glass.) The instructions made no sense. We did our best, laughing at the absurdity of it all. So fie on you, China! We had fun.
Not many books read this week. Three adventures of the Toff by John Creasey: POISON FOR THE TOFF (aka THE TOFF ON ICE), THE TOFF IN WAX, and THE TOFF AND OLD HARRY (I've started THE TOFF AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA and that will complete my Toff kick for this month). I spent most of my time dipping through two books. I read many of the reviews from Pronzini and Muller's 1001 MIDNIGHTS on Steve Lewis's blog, but decided I really need to read them all from the beginning -- I've now worked my way through to letter "G." I had also picked up Willard R. Espy's ANOTHER ALMANAC OF WORDS AT PLAY, which is a humorous compendium about the vagarities and beauty of the English language. A witty and fascinating book. It had been many years since I had read an Espy book and I savored this one. Highly recommended. On deck are a couple of Elvis Cole/Joe Pike novels by Robert Crais and James Lee Burke's new short story collection. I may also start binging on John Creasey's Roger West series.
Enjoy your new digs, Patti! Stay safe.
I have really enjoyed LOUDERMILK although I watched it a few years ago somewhere. He is such a good actor. I take Metopol for bp. I have lost a bit of weight and wonder if I still need it too. My bottom number and pulse are always in the fifties.
Got home to late for Grammys but caught Monsieur Spade but slept through most of it. Reading is harder. Everyone says this. We have lost focus, I think.
My son has back problems. Phil did too when young. I do think Jerry could find a show runner to to a series about the House family. I don't know of any family like yours: the combination of art, birthdays and animals.
Moves are always hard, and sometimes a complete crapshoot, Patti. I hope it all goes smoothly. Meanwhile, one thing at a time...
We saw our first movie in the theater in close to four years last week, THE HOLDOVERS, and it was pretty good (though a little long). They've definitely upgraded the theater since we were last there and it was sparsely filled at 4:00 pm on a Tuesday. (Tuesday is the cheap day - $6.50 a ticket.) So yes, we'd probably go back, if there was anything we wanted to see. Right now, we are much more comfortable sitting home streaming series.
It was so weird for me realizing yesterday was my (older of two) sister's 65th birthday. That makes me feel even older (if possible). What happened was, in the middle of the summer of 1958, my parents sent me and my brother letters telling us we were moving from Queens (Kew Gardens) to Brooklyn (what is now Midwood, though it was just Flatbush then). We didn't even get to say goodbye to our friends. Turns out that not only was it much more convenient to where my father worked (about a mile or so from where we live now), but my mother was pregnant. My sister was born the day after The Day The Music Died (though I have no memory of Buddy Holly from back then). I remember coming home from school and going to my aunt's house across the street where we heard the news.
*sigh*
But I digress. Florida is definitely cooler and wetter than normal this year due to El Nino (or Taylor Swift, I don't know), but that's OK with us. We're not beach people like Jerry is. So it's books and television and the computer and nice restaurants. In the four weeks we've been here, we've eaten in 25 different restaurants, and we still have a couple of new ones to go. Even though Bay Ridge is spoiled for choices of places to eat, we don't eat in nearly as many different places as we do down here.
We are enjoying Monsieur Spade, but more and more I think we should be like George with Reacher and wait until all episodes are available to start watching, because watching something once a week, it is hard to remember exactly what happened and who everyone is. One show we aren't having that trouble with, both because there are so few characters and they are all so unpleasant I couldn't forget them if I tried, is The Expats. I know the NYT claimed the middle two episodes were better than the first two, and the last two are fabulous, but...they're wrong. The third was the worst yet, if only because the only sympathetic major character, Nicole Kidman, suddenly had a complete breakdown and descent into Crazytown a YEAR after her son disappeared. I dislike this show more each week, but Jackie keeps insisting we invested this much time so we should see it through to the end.
I liked the first episode of Mr. & Mrs. Smith. The second, not so much. I think they figured, "hey, we got a big name guest star - John Turturro - let's just let him improvise and see what happens." The episode went pretty much nowhere, and I don't like her so far.
Yes, to All Creatures as comfort food that settles down Sunday nights after the crap.
What have we added this week? Well, first we finished The Drowning, which went totally off the rails in episodes three and four. Skip it, as The Decider would say.
The Lakeside Murders (I think PBS Masterpiece) is another Finnish crime series, with two 45 minute halves to each story. It's the usual mix of smart cops with dysfunctional home lives (at least in part) and is definitely watchable if you like the form, as we do.
This is too long, apparently, so will havae to divide it in half.
We added a couple more foreign series, each with 90 minute stand alone episodes, A MURDER OF CROWS (didn't love it; the gimmick is, the main cop can't sleep until the case is solved. It's German, on PBS Masterpiece), and THE WAGNER METHOD (French; he gets transferred to Strasbourg, where his estranged mother is the Mayor - also PBS).
The latest English series we added was NO OFFENCE, three series starting in 2015. It's on Acorn, but Jackie think it might be on Britbox too. It was created by Paul Abbott, who started writing on Cracker, later created TOUCHING EVIL and SHAMELESS, among others. Three series, each with one major crime. The team features a lot of women, including the boss who is outrageous in a sometimes funny way. It's set in Manchester.
Bummer on the back problems, Jerry. Jackie has them too - worse when she was teaching. Every once in a while she gets hit for no apparent reason, and then it is a week or so until it loosens up.
Jackie suddenly had a brain wave and discovered that we can watch Netflix here after all. Will try and watch RUSTIN one of these days. We did watch the first episode of LOUDERMILK, and I must admit I did identify with him more than a little. I most remember him as the star of OFFICE SPACE.
He was also one of Sarah Jessica Parker's boyfriends on Sex and the City. I agree about M. Spade. So hard to follow and yet I love the look and feel of it. If you use closed captions it gets really hard, especially with the sign they use to say music is playing coming down smack in the middle of the French translations. Parents did think they could slip stuff by us in those days.
Western NY is expected to encounter a Heat Wave later this week with temps in the 50s (20 degrees above Normal). Other than a week in January where the suburbs south of Buffalo got 80 inches of snow, this Winter has been unusually mild.
I read in the morning and early afternoon. No reading at night anymore. So, evenings become TV Time. Diane and I watched The Grammys and liked some of the songs. The Tina Turner Tribute was shockingly short--one song. And, did anyone not think Taylor Swift would win ALBUM OF THE YEAR? It's the fourth time Taylor Swift has won that award.
You have my sympathies with your moving problems. I keep telling Diane, I have one move left: I've donated my body to the State University of Buffalo's Medical School. Have a safe trip! Patrick is in London, England.
We have had a lot of rain lately. Thursday was very heavy rains, then a break, then a lot of rain again yesterday, although not so heavy. Governor Newsom proclaimed a state of emergency for Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. But we have not been affected. Other than we stayed at home, as directed. I have yet to hear of any specific damage anywhere close to us but we don't watch the news. Some rain expected later today and into the night.
We are mostly watching our regular shows, although we are thinking of adding MONSIEUR SPADE soonish. We are watching DEATH AND OTHER DETAILS as it comes out. We are still in the first season of NORTHERN EXPOSURE. We finished Season 8 of SHETLAND and enjoyed it. MURDER SHE WROTE is a favorite. We like all the guest stars and seeing if we can recognize them. On February 2nd we watched GROUNDHOG DAY; it had been a long time since we watched it.
Reading: I finally gave up on PALACE OF TREASON by Jason Matthews. I read half of it, 230 pages out of 460ish. After page 160 it started getting better, with some interesting new characters, but still I could tell I wasn't going to enjoy pushing through to the end of the book.
I finished WAIT FOR ME, a memoir by Deborah Mitford, published in 2010. I enjoyed it, reading about her childhood, her family and then her life as a duchess. There was a lot of humor, it was not dry at all, but it was filled with a lot of events, people, dense at times. Which is why it took me seven months to finish it, I suppose. Now I will return to THE MITFORDS: LETTERS BETWEEN SIX SISTERS. I started that back in March of 2023 and had read 250 pages of about 800 pages. It is an easy read except when some footnotes are added to the letters. And all the family called each other by nicknames, so those have to be deciphered at times.
Now I am reading DAYS AT THE MORISAKI BOOKSHOP by Satoshi Yagisawa for the Japanese Literary Challenge. Only 150 pages and I am about 1/3 of the way through.
Glen is still reading LONDON 1945: LIFE IN THE DEBRIS OF WAR by Maureen Waller. That is a subject I would like to read about too.
Been reading THIN RED LINE in bits and pieces. Find my missing Hard Case crime paperback and am happy about that.
Heard Angeline Boulley's FIREKEEPER'S DAUGHTER and it was too long. I thought she crammed too much into the story and some of that really stretched by suspension of disbelief. That said, still an enjoyable read. Even with the mushy gushy teen angle. Denise Mina's RED ROAD was a good listen.
Been watching RICK AND MORTY on MAX. MIDNIGHT CLUB and FISK on Netflix.
Boy #2 continues high school play practice. Today after school is a forensics meet for him at another school. Spectators are either heavily discouraged or forbidden. Probably for the best.
I know less about Deborah than a few of her sisters. I have been worried about the rain in the LA area especially. Glad you are safe.
Oh, yeah, books. I've been reading a lot of non fiction. Latest is Adam Kay's THIS IS GOING TO HURT: SECRET DIARIES OF A YOUNG DOCTOR. Kay became a doctor in 2004 at 24 and quit six years later (2010) to become a writer, like so many other doctors before him - Michael Crichton, Robin Cook, etc. This book was a huge bestseller, apparently, and was published in 37 countries. I was really looking forward to it after reading rave reviews, and there is a certain amount of humor (though most is juvenile, IMHO), but though it is certainly readable, I am finding him too slick and superficial for my taste, at least so far. We'll see if it changes as he gets a little older. Or maybe I'm at an age where I don't want to read his facile jokes at the expense of others.
Also reading THE FAMILY MARKOWITZ, a collection of stories by Allegra Goodman.
I know exactly what you mean by too slick. Don't iron all the wrinkles out of a book. They make it human.
Although I must admit there are some good lines. A woman he was giving the morning after pill asked him [or so he said], "I had sex with three men last night. Is one pill enough?"
*bada bing*
HA! It is good.
Yeah...no few MDs are biological engineers, and, like their professional cousins, often not the most sophisticated nor sympathetic of personalities as a result...the ones who Get emotion better (even if they might try to keep it in check) often choose to be, say, lawyers, instead. Some of the writers of similar materials stayed MDs, though they were likely to take on pseudonyms, such as "Richard Hooker" (M*A*S*H) or "Seymour Shem" (THE HOUSE OF GOD). The latter was the novel all of Alice's classmates were told was the best introduction to the life of a medical student they were likely to read.
An annoying week for some of us...condolences, Patti, for all the moving hassle and the prospect of suddenly Too Much sun in the new apartment. And, Tracy, hope you remain away from flooding and similar danger in the area...my friendly acquaintance Jackie Kashian lives with her husband and in-laws (who are at the stage where they can use the care/aid of their son and d-i-l) lives in Sherman Oaks and I only this afternoon became aware of the fullness of the dangers there. My own week less trying than Jerry's (an amusing means of making lemonade, with those delightful "kits") or some others here, but, for example, much of today was devoted to replaning the wooden front door on this house, which has swollen in a permanent way, apparently. (Never, I do mean never, buy a century-old house.) I'll have to replace the sheet-metal piece at the bottom of the door tomorrow. Alice was off getting a dental filling. I don't think I'd trade, though after sitting on the cold porch for a few+ hours bending over to get the last annoying bits of the bottom the door, I was popping the ibuprofen pills along with her.
Did watch way too much television on Sunday night again, what with CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM's not-bad season premiere (though I'm not sure it's not appropriate timing in wrapping the series with this season) added to FUNNY WOMAN, MONSIEUR SPADE, TRUE DETECTIVE, THE WOMAN IN THE WALL and the like...I thoroughly agree that it's too easy to forget salient details from week to week, particularly taking them in in too much of a glut. Also, glad to (eventually) see HIGHTOWN had finally returned for its new season on Starz (and Hulu), so caught the first two episodes (a Friday night series on Starz) on Saturday.
More of all that was good for everyone.
Oh...a creditable film, a 2019 indie called THE LONG SHADOW, a police drama involving a small Louisiana town that is in the process of being bought up (to be razed) by a railroad and its backers, and skullduggery around this. Lays a little too much emphasis on an item that plays heavily into the resolution, but otherwise is sure-footed. Saw it on Showtime's/BET channel.
Todd-Hightown is only through Hulu if you subscribe to Starz.
Too bad..is Hulu becoming utterly redundant, or is it becoming the New Cable?
Also, in reply to Jerry's question, we haven't celebrated any cat birthdays since we usually (and for the value of we as Alice and I) have no good idea which days our various our cats were born...sometimes not even when they were adopted by us (though my friend April's late sister's cat Whiskers was adopted by us on April 1st of last year; my late parents' cat Ninja was adopted by us in late winter/early spring of 2015 (we had three other cats at that time...Ninja, sadly, has only been buddies with the one tom so far, Domino, and not for lack of initial civility on her part...rescues and surrendered cats can have baggage. Arbitrary b-days might not hurt...
Interesting that the better chat shows last night have had the lefter Dems and fellow travelers, Elizabeth Warren on Colbert's and Bernie Sanders on Meyers's, to rally the the middle-aged. Not the worst idea.
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