Really enjoying MUM, which is on Britbox. Remind me a lot of "FRIDAY NIGHT DINNER. Also watching JOAN-not sure about that one yet.
Have seen two eps of SEVERANCE and still weighing in on that. It has to stick the landing and I am not sure it will. Started a Japanese series on Netflix called ASURA.
Watched THE QUIET GIRL, (Prime) based on FOSTER by Claire Keegan. Such a great and faithful film. Both of Keegan's books are more like novellas and I highly recommend them. You can read them in a couple of hours. Although you want to linger on every word. I went to a discussion at the library on SMALL THESE LIKE THESE (it was below zero) and everyone loved it. Keegan also has several short story collections.
Saw THE ROOM NEXT DOOR (novel title: WHAT ARE YOU GOING THROUGH) and was so-so on it. I think Almodovar really doesn't have American characters and dialog in his head and all three leads (Moore, Swinton and Turturro) seemed overly formalistic and sometimes wooden in their line delivery. I loved the book (Sigrid Nunez). My favorite novel by her, THE FRIEND, comes out in a movie in March (Naomi Watts)
Seeing THE BRUTALIST tomorrow. Hope I can make it through.
Reading YELLOWFACE (R. KUANG). Amazing to me that anyone not in the publishing business would want to know so much about what she covers.
I got (via Abe Books) another book by William Shaw: SALT LANE.
GO BILLS AND EAGLES!
So what's going on there?
15 comments:
Trump and democracy. Coal tar and breakfast cereal. Florida and snow. none of things go together well. So when snowmageddon hit us last week, we had no option but to close everything down for four days on the Panhandle. Snow plows were brought in from Atlanta. Roads and bridges and government offices and schools were closed. About 450 workers got to work removing the snow and ice by hand from the Three Mile Bridge between Gulf Breeze and Pensacola. In Gulf Breeze we got about eight inches of snow; other parts of the county got up to nine and a half inches -- small potatoes for a native New Englander like me, but I. too. stayed hunkered down because I just don't trust some of these yaboos behind the wheel in this type of weather.
Christina crocheted and read. Erin read and gave one of the hedgehogs a bath. Jessie read and caught up on housework. We all napped. It was glorious. The snow, by the way, was mostly gone by the next day, but the melted snow then turned to ice in many locations.
So, nothing done this weekend. I did stream all the seasons of REBUS (both the John Hanna and the Ken Stott versions), and watched the Pauline Collins-led version of Agatha Christie's SPARKLING CYANIDE. In this version, Christie's Colonel Race became Colonel Reese (played by Oliver Ford Davies) and Collins was his wife; the movie had a very Tommy and Tuppence feel, but I will forgive anything that has Pauline Collins in it; I've been in love with her since NO, HONESTLY. I'll probably start streaming SHERWOOD this week.
Books read included John Creasey's first Department Z novel, THE DEATH MISER, a collection of western stories under the house name Romer Zane Grey (who was really Zane Grey's son and lent his name out for these stories. two of which were written by Bill Pronzini & Jeffrey Wallman), ZANE GREY'S ARIZONA AMES: GUN TROUBLE IN TONTO BASIN, Lee Goldberg's non-fiction THE BEST TV SHOWS THAT NEVER WERE (covering over 300 television pilots, some interesting, some inept), Richard Chizmar's engrossing horror novel MEMORIALS (highly recommended, despite some fast and loose writing in the epilog), and Max Allan Collins & Terry Beatty's fourth collection from the comic books, MS. TREE: DEADLINE (Ms. Tree has always been a favorite and I'm glad that Hard Case Crime has collected almost all her adventures in six large, glorious volumes). The book I'm starting today is Gabino Iglesias's HOUSE OF BONE AND RAIN.
The only thing on the schedule this week is a chat with my primary care doctor about last week's blood test. I suspect she will tell me it was blood and it was red.
Glad to hear that you are watching, and going out and reading so much, Patti. Keep it up. And stay safe.
A friend in Savannah can't get out of her house due to ice. They don't even seem to stock ice melter there. I have seen the Ken Stott version of Rebus but not the John Hanna. Will look for it.
Jerry, maybe we missed the story, but if you don't mind telling it, Jackie has been bugging me to find out how you guys came to live down there.
Our weather in Palm Beach County has been nothing like yours - "cold" was mid-40s for the low. We did have a lot of cloudy, windy, rainy weather this week, but nothing like you and Deb went through. The only surprise is, no Republicans crowing about "see, I told you there's no such thing as global warming."
Hope you're back to normal now. I know Deb is back to work today (bummer).
We saw the John Hannah version of Rebus first, so it was hard getting used to Stott.
Good morning, Looks like we're getting back to "normal" for South Florida this week. No sympathy needed, but it was cloudy, cool, windy and showery all last week. Of course, many Floridians walked around in shorts and t-shirts, but I wore a sweater most of the week, with a light jacket and even a heavier one a couple of times.
This afternoon will mark three weeks here, a quarter of our trip, and we've settled in. We're seeing my cousin Larry and his wife Fran this week. They finally managed to squeeze us in to their busy schedule. They are very unlike us. They always have to be doing something - movies, shows, card games, etc. We're content to relax, spend the morning keeping our brains active with word games and books and newspapers, then go out for a late lunch, and watch television at night (mostly streaming).
I did read three books this week. I recommend Liz Moore's nearly 500 page THE GOD OF THE WOODS. Very good.
Plenty of good restaurants for us down here. This week we had Italian Monday, ate at a diner Tuesday, the bagel store Wednesday (and got a calzone/stromboli for dinner), Mexican/Cuban on Thursday, Brazilian steakhouse Friday, pizza Saturday, and seafood Sunday. More seafood up in Jupiter today.
We added a number of new shows on Acorn and Britbox and MHz Choice. We tried THE JETTY, with George's favorite Jenna Coleman, but didn't care for it (or believe it), as she seemed way too young for the role (though she was playing a cop around her real age) of the mother of a teenager. Also, we didn't care for the sleazy storyline. THE GONE is an Irish/Kiwi joint production. An Irish cop (Richard Flood) retires after 20 years, then gets a call from a judge (Michelle Fairley from Game of Thrones) that her daughter has disappeared with her boyfriend in New Zealand. He immediately flies there and teams up with a young Maori cop. There is a very strong Gabby Petitto feel to this, but we like it anyway. PROTECTION stars Siobhan Finneran (who is everywhere) as a cop in the witness protection program guarding a man about to testify against a criminal. Stupidly, she is having an affair with a much younger married cop she works with. Then, things go wrong the day before the trial starts.
I remember watching a few episodes of the Canadian time travel show CONTINUUM when it was first on a decade ago, but stopped. Jackie said she doesn't remember it at all and it is her kind of show, so we started watching it again. Still watching SILENT WITNESS and the tense MI-5 (SPOOKS) on Saturday nights. We watched the first episode of Dick Wolf's new half hour cop show, ON CALL, set in Long Beach, California. Not sure about it yet. And we watched the first episode of series two of THE NIGHT AGENT on Netflix, which Jackie likes much more than I do.
Patti, when is your trip? I'm sure the weather will be better by then.
Western NY is dealing with another crushing loss in Kansas City. The Bills out-performed expectations all year long, but couldn't close the deal in the AFC Championship game...again. I'll be moping around today as a result.
Patrick is heading to Columbia despite the rift between Trump and Columbian government over deportees.
Today we're supposed to be hit with 50 mph winds. I'm hunkered down, but Diane is going to run some errands this morning before the wind gusts increase. Stay safe!
Jeff and Jackie, we had moved to Southern Maryland after Jessie's husband had suddenly died. Christina and Walt visited, and found an octogonal house in a wooded area high on a hill by the Chesapeaake, while Walt began a series of computer security jobs at the Pax River naval air station. After few year, Jessie decided to go back to Massachusetts where she got a job assisting the manager of a large hotel. Kaylee (then calling herself Ceili) stayed with us because she was about to be promoted to an assistant manager's position at the local Giant grocery store. then somebody mentioned to Walt that there were jobs aplenty in the Pensacola area, which had a number of military bases. Walt became very interested. At the time, we were the main caregivers for Jack, who had a lot of special needs from being a drug baby. Christina asked us if we would mind picking up and moving to Pensacola. We said yes, and Kaylee said yes. Christina and Walt spent a week finding a new house for them while Walt went job searching. We came down about a month later and a month after that found a house for us. Jessie missed the family and was beginning to get irritated at new owners of the hotel so she came down a bit later and bought a home in Pensacola. So here we all are, nearly ten years later. Walt has moved from job to job, always getting more and more big bucks. Christina has put her sign language skills to use working at the county schools. And Jessie is now running most of the finances for the county's engineering department. Even though this is redneck, Red State, Trump country, we're having a blast. Our family tends to move as a pack.
The Hannah and Stott versions are like apples and oranges, both excellent ivry different ways. I never read any of the books so I don't have an opinion on which is more like the original.
Our southern Wisconsin weather has been up and down. This coming weekend is the annual Knickerbocker Ice Festival. Temps over the week will be above freezing and then refreezing overnight. Hopefully the ice rinks and lake ice won't turn into slush and puddles.
I listened to Sam Eastland's second Soviet crime thriller, SHADOW PASS. I fell asleep during the last five minutes and I don't think I missed anything.
Also listened to ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND. For me this was only worth listening to so that I could have a fuller understanding of the pop culture impact over 100+ years. Without any childhood fondness for the story or a 5-year-old to read along with the story is just a drawn out exercise in silliness, absurdity, and wordplay. Fun stuff under some circumstances. But, not my circumstances.
Also interesting is how the croquet game and tea party play an outsized part of everyone's knowledge of the story. Presumably because they have been in animated and live film versions. Also, that those actually have action. So much of the silliness is arguments between Alice and the absurd characters. And that absurdity is based off acceptable social behavior, and that has changed a bit over time and parts of the story have become dated. You have to have an understanding of why something is silly for the joke to land.
Anyhoo.
Both children are on the Dean's List - may have mentioned this last week but worth mentioning again - at the Us of MN and WI. Tuition bills also arrived. We have been extremely fortunate that the children have not been layered with debt and I am so happy for it.
The currently popular saying about the Leopards Eating Faces Party being surprised at recent political acts will continue to stand for years. Do your best and keep moving forward. Not every day is a win.
Last week we got out a lot more than usual. We went out very early for our failed visit to the lab for blood tests on Monday (because of the holiday), then did that again on Friday. We had dinner out at a favorite restaurant for our 45th anniversary, which was fun.
We are watching ELEMENTARY, NUMB3RS, THE MENTALIST, and CSI (last season), so lots of police procedural types of shows. Also watching some of the netword shows: ELSBETH and IRRATIONAL, while we wait for NCIS and NCIS ORIGINS and MATLOCK to start airing again.
Patti, you are watching a lot of shows I haven't heard of, I will have to check them out. We don't get Netflix anymore and won't go back to it unless there is something we want to watch badly. I have all of Clair Keegan's books on the Kindle (except for SO LATE IN THE DAY) and I really need to get to them.
A week or so ago, Neeru at A Hot Cup of Pleasure reviewed five books by J. Jefferson Farjeon. For the most part she was not overly fond of the books, but still it made me curious. I found that Glen had a copy of THIRTEEN GUESTS by J. Jefferson Farjeon in his TBR stacks, so I started reading it. It is a country house mystery and enjoyed it much more than I expected. I liked the characters and how he developed them, and there was some romance that did not take over the story. And I really liked the ending. I will have to check how other reviewers liked the ending, because it was unusual.
I also finished reading ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE by Elizabeth Strout, which is a series of linked stories, similar to OLIVE KITTERIDGE, but not quite so depressing. It is the second book in the Amgash series, and has some stories that give more information about Lucy Barton and her family in Amgash. Other stories are about other residents of Amgash, and in some way connected Lucy Barton. I liked it and am ready to start something else by Strout.
Glen is reading WESTSIDE by W.M. Akers. He picked a hardcover up at the booksale last year, then found out that my son and I had read it a few years back. It is a historical fantasy / mystery set in 1921 with a young female detective. He is a third of the way through and liking it OK. I have the second in the series on Kindle, I should try it out.
I'm glad Tracy mentioned Keegan. I forgot to mention that I read FOSTER and thought it was quite good. I'll need to find the show on Prime.
I started watching ERASERHEAD but have been doing so while multitasking other things. That means I just stand there and watch rather do my tasks. I have the house to myself tonight. I should sit and watch it then.
Jerry, for some reason, today it was Jackie's comment to you that disappeared. She said she was in awe of your big, loving family. And unfortunately, we are not that lucky. We love reading about your adventures.
I go to Sarasota on February 22, return March 15th. I really wish we could have gone earlier because late January and February are the part of winter I detest. The only network shows I watch are on PBS. All of the rest stream on Apple, Netflix, Hulu, MAX or Criterion. I only get five networks, in fact. I did try HIGH POTENTIAL (HULU) last night and it was okay but they made her way too smart. (She's a cleaner that is a genius at solving crimes, much like MONK) They can never get it right.
I think I have read all of Strout and liked every one of them. No, that's not true there is a new book, I haven't read. Listened to Walter Mosley talk about writing on the Masters app. So insightful as was JC Oates,
It's on Kanopy too.
Looks like a third version of Rebus too.
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