On TV watching ANDOR (Disney) Anne with an E (Netflix), TRYING (Apple). There must be more but I can't think of what. I watch a lot of LANDSCAPE PAINTER OF THE YEAR.
I went to my friend, Rose's 90th birthday party today. Her whole family was there as well as her friends. They held it at the Polish Cultural Center, which was fun. The food was terrific.
Still reading ASYMMETRY by Lisa Halliday.
Lovely weather although we could use some rain--but not as much as half the world.
How are things there?
18 comments:
I've been really wanting to see Hadestown, Patti. I'm glad you liked it so well. I agree that it's great when musical are filmed and made available to more people. Glad your weather's holding up. We're in the same situation. It's hot, although not unbearable, but we really need rain...
I am sure you need rain more than we do, Margot.
We had rain, thanks to the tail end of Bertha, but without much damage here. Everything cleared up by Saturday and we were able to beach...a gentle breeze, warm sun, and one lady who had to keep bobbing up to avoid getting her coifed hair wet from the waves; there was also a woman wearing a thing bikini who really should not have so the less said about that the better. For the first time over a month, Christina and Jessie were able to go in the water and just...float their tensions and worries away -- even the occasional jellyfish could not dampen their spirits.
Walt is redoing one of the bathrooms, replacing a pedestal sink with a vanity and adding a new medicine cabinet. This in anticipation of Senior and Ellen moving in a few months. The tub in the other bathroom may be converted to a walk-in shower with safety rails and an overhead light at the end of the hall needs to be replaced to afford better visibility. All this will be done some time. One concern is about the tile floors throughout the house. Ellen has been falling a lot lately, but her apartment is carpeted so she has not been hurt (yet); we are concerned if she falls on the hard tiles. Not sure yet how to best address that problem.
School starts in less than two weeks and Jack will be entering high school -- a scary thought.
Spent much of the week moving boxes of books out of Jessie's storage unit unto one I rented much closer to home. Sunday morning was a scheduled work party to clear out the remainder of Jessie's storage unit; now that Amy has her own apartment there is little need for Jessie to have the storage unit. I'll be spending some time over the next month in my own unit, organizing and cataloging my books. After the work party, we all retreated to Christina's for some take-out Chinese, a reward for a job well done. Christina used the time to have Erin check out the animals.; she trimmed the nails of both cats and both dogs (Erin has a calming wat of doing this that the rest of us lack) and checked out Sebastian, the Russian tortoise, to see if his beak needed trimming; it was done two years ago and has grown a bit over time, but it was decided to wait another year or so before taking action. One of Jessie's cats, Luke, had a bad case of explosive diarrhea and we knew Luke had not been eating the lettuce at Taco Bell; then Luke began to bleed. Turns out it was cyst that was easily surgically removed. The poor cat has to wear a clone, which meant he could not release his food dish. Jessie removed the cone so he could be feed and Luke was so hungry, he scarfed down his food so fast be got sick...First World problems.
Books read this week included John Farris's CATACOMBS (a supernatural thriller), John Saul's THE RIGHT HAND OF EVIL (ditto), Mickey Spillane's THE ERECTION SET (I normally enjoy his books, but this one was unusually meretricious and unnecessarily scatological), Jason Starr's television tie-in GOTHAM: CITY OF MONSTERS (my FFB this week), Preston and Child's early Pendergast novel THE CABINET OF CURIOSITIES (which introduced a number of characters and themes that would be followed throughout the series), and J. D. Robb's sixth Eve Dallas futuristic mystery VENGEANCE IN DEATH. Graphic novel read were Cynthia Von Buhler's MINKY WOODCOCK: THE GIRL WHO ELECTRIFED TESLA, and Warren Ellis's OCEAN/ORBITER (an omnibus of two science fictional GNs). Currently reading Ben Wickey's massive (471 pages, plus more than fifty pages of detailed notes in very small type) MORE WEIGHT: A SALEM STORY.
The coming week is supposed to be Warm (with a capital HOT). Stay cool, stay safe, stay well, and enjoy the coming week, Patti.
Diane, Patrick, Katie, and I all saw HADESTOWN a couple years ago on Broadway. It was a surprise hit and I'm glad they were able to gather the original cast for this movie version.
Western NY is on the cusp of a couple days of rain--which we need. But more Canadian wild fire smoke is headed our way, too.
Patrick will be flying to Germany to run a convention on Artificial Intelligence. Katie plans to fly home to attend a friend's Baby Shower. She loves her "new car."
Less than a 100 days to the Mid-Term Elections! Stay safe!
Thing bikini and a wearable clone do create images...your spell-checker has a grudge against you, Jerry. (As most of us might recall, cats and particularly dogs are sentence to wear cones around their necks while healing up in an area that they'd otherwise be tempted to lick or nibble.) Would railings in the halls help Ellen sufficiently, or along with padded carpet in the hallways?
I have gathered that THE ERECTION SET is Spillane on auto-pilot, and I wasn't too fond of the work I have read. I vaguely conflated a film from it (nonexistent) with THE GIRL HUNTERS, with Spllane playing Hammer.
I woke up to condensation covering all the exterior windows because it is so muggy here. I walked last night after 9pm when the temps had dropped a bit. It was still hot and muggy and really should have worn shorts.
Wife, Boy #2, and I went to THE ODYSSEY last night. A good film, I stayed interested throughout the 3 hour runtime. All the manufactured uproar over casting was odd considering two of the characters barely had screen time. I also don't think it is the cultural landmark other people have said. I do think the sound design was pretty nice.
Impressive cast, though.
Boy #1 called me at 7.43 in the evening last week and my phone ringer was off. He then immediately called his mother. She was next to me, answered the phone, and loudly said, "If you're bleeding that much go to the ER!!". I had no idea what happened, but considering her tone I immediately got up and starting packing a bag. Well, I will say that I consider her reaction to be an overreaction. Boy #1 cut his finger and needed four stitches. Boy #1 was also in error by telling his mother, "I cut a hunk off my finger. Should I go to urgent care or the ER?"
Anyhoo.
I heard YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN NICER TO MY MOM: A MODERN GOTHIC HORROR by Vincent Tirado. I mostly enjoyed the story but the narrator did not seem to. Family gathers for the reading of the patriarch's will and the will only says, "I made a deal with the devil and he is there with you. Figure it out. You have 12 hours."
I am still reading Charlie Stella's fictionalized memoir. The guy had a rough time of it as a kid and teen.
I've been watching TV but the only thing that comes to mind is the new Larry David show. I keep telling myself to take a night and watch a single film; don't just catch 20-30 minutes at a time and the go do something else.
Given the clumsy administration of the DP (the inept yet strangely durable current chairman is deseperately trying to fund the party on credit, as it's essentially broke), things aren't looking as rosy as they should be in the coming midterms for the Dem candidates, which I'm sure will be blamed on the leftist candidates. Let's hope the more wishy-washy Republican voters do stay home or vote DP this time, but it isn't the lock it should be. Drumpf's so funny, and so manly in his constant tantrums, after all. I do fear the Commie-baiting will scare some voters..."Those bastards want to restore aid to poorer families, and fund libraries, and all that Maoist stuff! How am I, your Pres. Drumpf, supposed to continue embezzling billions from the US government, etc., if I have to pay attention to cutting MedicAid further, or restoring its defunding?"
The theatrical video presentations were a good idea in the '70s (when they didn't get too far along) and an even better idea today, when the technology is better and a 10 or 15-dollar ticket beats the travel cost and NYC staging prices for any but the carriage first-nighters.
Decided to treat myself, for the first time in several years, to a batch of the fiction magazines (so that some of them aren't simply returned in the same quantity they arrived, at B&N). That even a "double-issue" of THE NATION now costs $15 a copy is profound sticker-shock; the only issues of EQMM and ANALOG (the only non-eclectic titles they had on the shelves aside from THE STRAND) were dated Jan/Feb (the current publisher of the former Davis, then Dell group, plus THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SF, keeps insisting they are course-correcting, but I doubt they believe it...the production values have been the shoddiest ever for their titles, except for a brief period in '71 when F&SF had a printer collapse under them and had to go to Brand X for several issues). The haul otherwise was THE STRAND, COPPER NICKEL, AMERICAN SHORT FICTION, PLOUGHSHARES, SUBTERRAIN, a relative newcomer MIDNIGHT MIND, and F(R)ICTION. As that topped the century mark, I didn't pick up KENYON and some of the others I might, thinking that I'm more likely (ha) to find them in libraries or that they'll have the institutional wherewithal to last a few more years if I want to buy back issues.
Charlie is definitely a character. Haven't been in touch with him for a number of years. One of our last corresponding bits involved weight-training---I was, and to some extent remain, all legs, and he (perhaps still) all upper body. As photos of either of us would tend to suggest.
We went to Costco early today - here, at least, it's quieter on Tuesday or Wednesday morning than Monday, but Jackie wanted to pick up a prescription.
We saw HADESTOWN on Broadway back in 2019. Good show, and loved Andre de Shields.
What is with the obsession with do many people on these television shows with getting pregnant. It seems to be a never-ending theme. We tried TRYING but it wasn't for us.
We are watching a lot, though. If you have Britbox, you need to watch the very tense TRIGGER POINT, about a London Police bomb disposal unit. Good show. We binge watched the last three episodes of series three.
RIDE OR DIE (Prime) is a little silly but fun. Octavia Spencer finds out her husband (a British Cabinet Minister) is cheating on her and wants a divorce the same day she discovers that her long-time best friend (Hannah Waddingham) is not an accountant but a government sanctioned assassin.
Still watching series two of SUGAR, but not sure it's going anywhere. Still too much Russia in FOR ALL MANKIND (series 4).
We have a matinee this Saturday of the concert version of LES MISERABLES at Radio City Music Hall.
My library just put Charlie's new novel, RASKIN'S WORLD, out on the shelf.
I found MORE WEIGHT online and it looks pretty neat.
I used to read all the journals publishing fiction at the university library. I am surprised any still exist with our reading habits.
We had a speaker try to explain AI to us at the senior center. My main takeway is once AI is as smart as the average human, the battle is lost.
I think SIX is coming to theaters here next. I saw it but will probably see it again. The sequel is all in Russian. I found it too drab although I guess life was pretty drab.
I don't have BRIT BOX sadly.
The new LARRY DAVID Show looks bad but maybe not.
We had to take the cat to the Vet today for a Wellness Exam and it was a major struggle to get him into the box. He is now up to 14 pounds. Very glad that is over and he won't need another one for a year. He was not a happy kitty but VERY happy to get home.
Last night we watched THE MOVING FINGER, a Miss Marple mystery with Joan Hickson. It was OK. We have had the DVD set for a while and we need to watch the shows or move on.
Glen is reading HOUSE OF FICTION: From Pemberley to Brideshead, Great British Houses in Literature and Life. It has a great cover. The chapters are about various authors and some are more interesting than others. He liked the one mainly about Jane Austen best, so far, and did not like the one about Sir Walter Scott. He is now reading about the Bronte's.
I am reading WELCOME TO THE HYUMAN-DONG BOOKSHOP by Hwang Bo-Reum, translated from Korean by Shanna Tan. Set in South Korea. I am about 60% into the story and enjoying it very much. It is about books but more about a woman trying to create the bookshop she wants and keep it running successfully. And philosophical thoughts about what people want out of life. Very interesting. Glen read this in March of this year and liked it a lot. Same for EVERY DAY I READ.
All readers love stories about books and bookshops, don't they? I have more books about books than anything else. Does anyone read Sir Walter Scott now?
But why did they make the Russian story with all British actors playing Russian?
Today was the first humid day after four gorgeous, mild, pleasant days in a row. This week looks rainy, especially tomorrow.
So humid here.
Have you seen the Operation Mincemeat musical?
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