Didn't much like DELIVER ME FROM NOWHERE. To spend so much time on Bruce putting together NEBRASKA seemed a waste. And the rest of it on a fictional romance. His childhood sadly resembled a lot of people I know. Jeremy Strong was terrific as Jon Landau, his manager though.
Watching PLURIBUS on APPLE, which is terrific. Finished the latest season of the British competition show on PORTRAIT PAINTING. Midway through ALL HER FAULT (Peacock), which is pretty mediocre.
Reading HOTEL DU LAC, OSCAR HAMMERSTEIN AND THE INVENTION OF THE MUSICAL and PERPLEXING PLOTS, which Tracy recommended.
Heard a lecture on India at my senior center.
Going to the DSO today to hear CARMINA BURANO although it is snowing. EEK.
What about you?
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It is not snowing. EEK. in the Florida Panhandle but it is bitter cold. I realize bitter is a relative term, but all my relatives here and myself are bitter about the sudden chilliness. Because my back ws acting up this past week, I missed out on some of the warm weather activities earlier in the week, such as going to the beach and enjoying the Gulf (manatees were said to have been spotted), the big semiannual books sale from a local nonprofit (tens of thousands of books at $1 each), and the annual Pensacola Greek Festival (Opa!). Jessie and Christina took pity on me and brought me take out from the festival -- moussaka spanakopita, stuffed grape leaves, and a gyro. Yummy!
After nearly a week of lying flat, I got up this morning and my back felt great and I can move around without pain. How long that will last is up to the gods, but I will take the win, even if it turns out to be temporary.
Saturday, Jessie and Amy came over to help Christina tackle Part Two of Let's Get Christina Organized (Part One was her closets), this time tackling the hellhole that is her desk and surrounding areas. Part Three will take place in the near future, after which she will be settled for the next six months or so. Meanwhile Walt has finished renovating the pantry and I can organize some of my stuff. Walt still has to replace the overhead hall light by my bedroom. He removed the old light and there have only been wires hanging down from the ceiling for five days now...things in this household tend to get fixed in their own sweet time.
Sage the cat celebrated her 11th birthday yesterday. She still is not sure about NewerCat Rose and spends much of her time giving the stink eye to the room where Rose has been hiding out. Again, things here take their own sweet time to resolve themselves.
Christina has convinced Mark not to drive out to Albuquerque to retrieve Millie, the gray rat snake. Since Mark has started his new job, it is not advisable for him to take time off for a four-day round trip journey. So Christina will most likely be making the trip over the Thanksgiving holiday; Jessie will probably travel with her. (Due to my recent back problems, Christina vetoed my accompanying her.) Mark's job is going well, He's been certified to scuba dive in the various tanks to clean the walls -- something he was not allowed to do in Albuquerque, even though he is a qualified diver. He recently learned how to hand feed a white pelican by sticking his fist down its throat a white pelican is twice the size of a brown pelican, which in itself is a pretty large bird. They have also got him learning how to touch train and alligator, which is probably as scary as it sounds. Mark is loving it.
Meanwhile, Amy is settling in nicely in her new job as Administrative Assistant in the County Traffic Control Department. Her boss evidently eats, lives, breathes, and talks only about traffic lights. Conversation can be limited.
More to come.
Back again.
Veteran's Day is a big deal down here in our schools. Christina's class participated in an annual program in which the students went out side and stood as a several speeches were made and the school chorus sang a song. Sadly, there was only one microphone and it didn't work well, so no one heard what was said or sung. Then the class walked about in one big circle and went back inside. I \'m sure it is ceremonies such as this that will stay with the students for years to come. Meanwhile, Jack's school held a breakfast with veterans. Walt never served, and the army would not take me when it had a chance, so the only veteran around was Walt, Sr., who just moved into the area. Jack was very happy to have his Grandpa at the breakfast and Walt, Sr. had a great time. Walt Sr. is one of those who get along with everyone and Jack felt very proud.
Not much television this week, just the usual shows.
Books read this week included a legal western murder mystery by "Lawrence A. Blaine" ( a joint pseudonym for the prolific Robert Silverberg and lawyer/author Eleazar Lipsky [THE KISS OF DEATH, THE PEOPLE AGAINST O'HARA, LINCOLN MCKEEVER]), and my FFB this week. Also read a quirky novel, VICTORIAN PSYCHO by Virginia Fieto, a hallucinogenic serial killer extravaganza that is a homage to Brett Easton Ellis's AMERICAN PSYCHO (which in itself was a homage to PSYCHO -- more the Hitchcock version than Bloch's novel) -- funny, shocking, satirical, feminist, full of Victorian trope, and ranging closer to Alice Liddell than Ed Gein. A tour de force. I also read three graphic novels with various results. MILES MORALES: SHOCK WAVE by Justin A. Reynolds was a middle-grade Spider-Man tale that did not hold my attention. Scott Cawthon & Kire Breed-Wresly's FIVE NIGHTS AT FRDDY'S: THE TWISTED ONES adapted a novel from the popular survival video game franchise; anther that did not work for me. Philip Pullman's THE ADVENTURES OF JOHN BLAKE: MYSTERY OF THE GHOST SHIP, however, was a great read, incorporating time travel, pirates, and international intrigue. I finished a collection of essays, articles, and blog posts by Sam Gafford, HODGSON: A COLLECTION OF ESSAYS, which would be only of interest to William Hope Hodgson fans. I also devoured Gary Lovisi' THE FANTASTIC DETECTIVE NOTEBOOK, a highly personalized look at the merging of science fiction, fantasy, and horror with the detective novel. A fun book with a few flaws and some glaring omissions, but well worth the time. And it is illustrated with many delightful book covers.
I have -- GACK! -- started my Christmas shopping. Now I have to figure out how to send all those stockings full of coal to each member of Congress.
Sorry, no coal for you, Patti! Only lollipops, roses, and chocolate Santas. Stay safe and enjoy the week!
Love "Carmina Burana." Enjoy.
Busy week for us. As mentioned, we flew to New Orleans last Saturday and got to spend much of the day there as we arrived at 11:30 am. The weather all week was perfect - sunny, breezy, non humid (a miracle there!), temps in the upper 60s and low 70s. We had a fun day with Deb and John and the twins and their guests on Sunday, even though I wasn't feeling well enough to eat much. Deb made a great Greek feast.
Monday through Wednesday we went to several favorite places and restaurants around the city, took the various streetcars (St. Charles, Riverfront, Canal St.), let Jackie gamble a little in the newly renovated Caesars (formerly Harrah's), now (thankfully) smoke-free.
We had a really good time, but Jackie has come around to my way of thinking, that at this stage of life, travel is just too much of a hassle to be worth it, for the most part. We are going (if the TSA and Trump cooperate) to visit my sister in Scottsdale next month, but otherwise we'll stick to where we can drive (Florida, Connecticut) in future, at least other than an emergency situation.
This week (which is turning much colder, though at least no snow here) we have Boz Scaggs at the Beacon on Wednesday. (We last saw him in 2019.) We'll be staying at the Marriott on 37th Street and eating with my cousins at this fun German beer hall down the block from the hotel.
We did miss the whole "turning the clocks back" thing (which always makes me think of Bill Crider), as well as the NYC Marathon.
MURDER BEFORE EVENSONG (Acorn) is fun without being great. Amanda Redman is amusing as his controlling mother. As a big fan of Val McDermid's KAREN PIRIE, I can't help but compare the books to the series, to the detriment of the latter. This is a cold case/unsolved crimes squad, right? The idea of this 28 year old (as actress Lauren Lyle was in series 1) being in charge, particularly a woman who looks much younger (and I still can't get past the fanny pack in every scene), might be acceptable if it was like the books, where the "squad" consists of her and Mint. Having her direct what seems like a full squad in every British cop show, not to look for a missing two year old but to solve a 40 year old case, is not believable. The new book (#6) is out next month, and I bet it will be a lot better.
We watched the Lynley-Helen engagement in the original (2001-08) Lynley series last night, and it featured a young (early 20s) Matthew Goode as Lynley's heroin-addicted brother. We'll have to catch up on stuff we missed while we were away.
I read the new Lincoln Lawyer book by Michael Connelly, THE PROVING GROUND, and thought it was good but not as good as past books. I wish he's go back to criminal law. But then, I prefer the Bosch series.
I woke up to a couple inches of snow this morning. I'm debating firing up Big Orange to clear the driveway and sidewalks or just shoveling it. Usually, I require 4 inches of snow or more to snowplow.
Diane and her sister, Carol, had a great time in NYC this weekend. Carol had "Seeing the Rockettes" on her bucket list and now she can cross that off. They saw JUST IN TIME, the Bobby Darin musical and loved it! Now, they're head to JFK and we'll see if they make it back to the Buffalo Airport today. Stay safe...and don't slip on the ice under the snow!
Jerry-you certainly should be a humor writer. You posts always cheer me up. I am reminded of Parks and Recreation with Amy's job. Lying down for a week would be trying. They always told Phil when he had back issues to "not lie down" but I guess medical advice changes. Certainly this blood clot has gotten varied advice.
Val McDermid is such a terrific writer. Always fun to see actors in their youth. UK is good to its actors. I think Connelly has been ill which may have affected his newest.
By tomorrow it will all be melted here. Wait it out. Love Jonthan Groff. I saw a filmed version of MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG with Groff, Radcliff and an actress is coming to the screens in December. I saw it on Broadway and it was a lot of fun.
"He recently learned how to hand feed a white pelican by sticking his fist down its throat." No notes.
I'm been struggling through THE MEURSAULT INVESTIGATION by Kamel Daoud from 2014. A story told by the now elderly brother of the murder victim in Camus's THE STRANGER. To me it is a novel about how a murder harms the surviving family - both younger brother and mother. How a colonial government doesn't give a rip about the local people and the body is never recovered but left to wash out to sea. The book is tough going though; the story is not very engaging. Only about 150 pages long so I will bear with it. Maybe I would need to first reread STRANGER because there might be several plot points or style I am missing.
I went into Apple TV for the first time and started watching SLOW HORSES. Only watched about 15 minutes of the first episode. I did finish the no-so-interesting HALO. Something to entertain me in the background as I exercise or do other things.
Been listening to HOW TO MAKE A HORROR MOVIE AND SURVIVE by Craig DiLouie. Set in 1985 Los Angeles where a horror film director acquires a cursed motion picture camera that causes the death of the people the camera operator cares for. Fun. Humorous. Some nice scares.
Earlier listened to THERE IS NO ANTI-MEMETICS DIVISION by qntm. With the pretentious author name and concept the novel sounds like one of those impenetrable SciFi that is all high concept but low interest. It turned out fairly decent. The idea is that there are animals and spirits that cause people to forget everything about them. 100 meter animals waling around that no one can see. 200 meter cubes in downtown London no one can see and just walk around. A government agency works to stop and contain the malevolent ones. Really, it's no different than the hidden Hogwarts castle, fairies flitting out of sight, Norwegian trolls causing trouble, so on, so forth.
Meanwhile, I'm ok with the colder weather but the dark evenings hit me much harder than usual this year. I'll need to force myself to get outside in the dark. The old dog still wants to nightly walks but cannot go as far or fast.
My wife and I are undertaking financial strategizing to plan for retirement. There is a lot of pessimism over the economy and the viability of Social Security considering the idiots in charge and the hapless opposition in Congress.
Yes, I don't like seeing predictions we are headed for the one hundred year anniversary of the Great Depression with a replay.
Patti, I am glad to hear that you found a copy of PERPLEXING PLOTS, and I hope that you are finding it a good read. I cannot believe that you are having snow already. I don't want snow but rain would be nice. We are supposed to have rain on Thursday, but I will believe it when I see it.
We have finally started the latest season of SLOW HORSES. Also the latest season of BEYOND PARADISE. We watched another MST3K episode, SPACE MUTINY, with Cameron Mitchell and John Philip Law. Continuing more episodes of PROFESSOR T. And enjoying the new seasons of NCIS, NCIS: ORIGINS and NCIS: SYDNEY. It took me a while to like the ORIGINS spinoff and the show set in Australia. NCIS is the same as ever, but we will watch it as long as it runs.
Glen is reading IN ALL WEATHERS by Matt Gaw. He really likes to read about weather. The subtitle is "A Journey Through Rain, Fog, Wind, Ice and Everything in Between."
I finished reading THE WOMEN by Kristin Hannah last night. I liked the book a lot. It is a fiction book about a very young woman who decides to be a nurse in Vietnam, and enlists in the Army because the Air Force and Navy required two years of experience. The first half is full of the horrors of war, even if Vietnam was not considered a war. The second half was about the horrors of coming back to the US and finding out that everyone hated the people who fought in Vietnam and that everyone denied that there were women in Vietnam in any capacity. Plus the other horrifying effects of having been around fighting and trying to save the soldiers lives afterwards. There is more to it than that, and I did identify with a lot of it because the heroine was living in the same times I did, expected to be a wife and mother, not actually get out in the world and have a career. It was not a happy, feel good book at any point, but I learned a lot and now I want to read some nonfiction about the Vietnam "conflict." It amazes me that I know so little about Vietnam.
I've never read a Kristin Hannah novel. WOMEN sounds interesting.
I've read a decent amount of Vietnam War history. What a meat grinder.
There was an autistic kid at the library who repeatedly requested a book about tornados. It was an older paperback and he was likely the only borrower. We did not own a copy and had to repeatedly request the title from other libraries. The customer would keep renewing the loan until the end of renewals. Then return the book. Then request the book again.
I finally realized, "Wait a minute! Why don't I just buy a local copy? The kid can check it out as much as he likes."
THE WOMEN sounds a bit like the fine TV series CHINA BEACH, as well.
Or even buy him a copy (admittedly a practice that could quickly grow expensive).
Every book group I know is or has read THE WOMAN. A Rumor of War is a great one. (From Google)
Some of the best books on the Vietnam War include classic non-fiction memoirs like A Rumor of War by Philip Caputo and We Were Soldiers Once... and Young by Harold G. Moore and Joseph L. Galloway, influential historical accounts like A Bright Shining Lie by Neil Sheehan and Fire in the Lake by Frances FitzGerald, and iconic fiction that captures the experience, such as Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried. Other highly recommended titles include Michael Herr's Dispatches, Karl Marlantes' Matterhorn, and The Sorrow of War by Bao Ninh.
The Things They Carried is an amazing story collection
For Glen There is a new book out about the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald, which sounds like it has a lot about weather on that day. John U. Bacon's The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald. I heard him on the NYT Book Review Podcast and the book sounded fascinating.
As Drumpf refuses (I assume) to learn how unpopular he has become (not that he respects the populace nor really cares about the more previously self-deluding electorate increasingly realizing what he is), the grimness is unlikely to lift. But perhaps the current Admin's failures will multiply, resolve willing...and he'll soon be suitably tried and imprisoned, if indeed he lasts through his current term.
Glad things are mostly good for correspondents (as one who's thrown out his back in the past, Jerry, all condolence)...juggling cars in need of repair this week, as Something hit the back of Alice's driver-side mirror on her way home one night last week, knocking the structure loose--it remained attached due to its electrical adjustment cables...this, we're told, will take till Thursday to fix...mine needs several things done including safety inspection. Was just about to pursue that when Alice's had its mysterious run-in with ?a thrown-up rock? a wind-sundered tree branch?.
Ah, well. At least we are more or less intact...and hope your clot dissipates entirely sooner, Patti, with no recurrence.
One does wonder how a mother pelican is able to feed her chicks (assuming both parents don't play a role, and how far they might have to push foods into the kids' throats).
Gustav Hasford's THE SHORT-TIMERS is another notable, and now more obscure, US soldiers in Vietnam novel. It is most of the source for the Kubrick-directed film FULL METAL JACKET, but the novel's better.
A Czech website, of all sources, comes up first: Feeding the chicks: Pelicans (both parents, which had alternated keeping the eggs in their nest warm till hatching) actually collect as many fish as possible into their beaks, then press their beaks to their chest, and gradually push the fish into the beaks of their up to seven fledglings. (The chicks quickly achieve adolescence, and are introduced to their local colony's creche, with a few adult caretakers while the rest of the parents fish some more.)
His soirees are enough to make one ill. Loved the boos at the football game.
I read SHORT-TIMERS back in grad school when I had access to a massive library collection and learned it was the basis for FULL-METAL JACKET.
KILL ANYTHING THAT MOVES (2013) covers a lot the awful decisions and outright murders that happened in the war.
I read a memoir by a guy who was in a tank unit and his tour of duty perfectly straddled pre- post-Tet. He recalled a distinct difference in attitude and quality of his fellow soldiers. At one point the tank he commanded was driving on busy and narrow road that was crowded with civilians. The tank driver was driving extra fast and extra reckless and several times nearly hit - or clipped - civilian people and vehicles. The author kept ordering, then shouting, at the driver to slow down or stop. The tank driver had his head up out of the driver's hatch with good vision. The driver ignored all the orders until the author climbed out of the tank turret, down onto the tank's front slope, and kicked the driver in the back of his tank helmet.
Yes, I read THE WOMEN and liked it a lot too. Read many other Vietnam-related books mentioned above, and liked a lot of them, especially THE THINGS THEY CARRIED by Tim O'Brien, a great book. Todd, it does have a definite CHINA BEACH feel to a lot of it.
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