Category: Television

Top of the Lake

What an amazing show.  I cried at least half a dozen times, once incredibly hard.  The twist ending which so annoyed the critics pleased me no end. And it’s Jane effing Campion, so it’s awesome, and Holly Hunter as a gnomic prophet is awesome, and Lucy Lawless gets a cameo, and it’s so thoroughly feminist, blah blah.  Anyway.

I practiced so long and so hard yesterday my fingers are all tore up.

I’m off to feed Ayesha, Paul and Keith’s new adorable kitty.

I signed this petition so I’m happy they are out.  I don’t want Canadian citizens and journalists in Egyptian jails, nope nope nope, especially after the Frontline on Egypt Jeff and I just watched.

The funny things the characters say

Jeff took me for breakfast… the leftovers will make a loverly brunch.  We also did a shop, including two for one standing rib roasts.  Nom.

Teaching the homeless to code.

I said I wouldn’t, but I did volunteer for something at church; I’m doing esthetics for Sally’s birthday (which is also a choir day so she can’t sing and set up at the same time).  I will be talking to Sue about what she wants, since the Board is doing the service that day. Sue returned my steampunk hat and we had a lovely visit.  It was weird; I thought of her because I knew she was back from vacation and I hadn’t talked to her in yonks, and she rang me up within seconds of this thought occurring.  Ah, the message in the wind.

Trip to Toronto is not yet booked, but it is tentatively 26th Nov to 5 Dec.

Good news for prostitutes and women at high risk of HIV everywhere.

I just had a character whisper in in my ear “Shiny is health, sparkle is magic”.  It made sense in context. (Kima, if anybody cares.)

Jeff and I are watching Cheers.  Shelley Long as Diane makes me want to alternately slap her and make counted crossstitch samplers of her dialogue, but the rest of the characters, especially Coach, are so funny my occasional cringes are worth it.  It’s one of the many shows in my tv blackout period so I never watched it the first time.

I am reading Foucault for Dummies.  There’s probably only one person who reads my blog on a regular basis who will find this amusing.

We are also watching Caprica, which is way, way better than I expected it to be.  As I remarked on another subject, all this and Bear McCreary too.

pOp is feeling poorly, so I am sending him a big hug and a wish that he recover his normal level of grumpiness with all due speed.

 

 

 

 

Hot sauce

There has been some of this stuff in my fridge pretty much continuously since I met Paul.

We finished Long Way Round.  I loved it.  If you love motorcycles, OR love travelogues OR are a fan of Ewan McGregor it’s worth seeing the whole thing.

May I just state for the record that Archie Panjabi is amazing in her role as Kalinda in The Good Wife.  She could play Kiaya Khatun or Roxelana Sultan if Lymond ever came to the screen…. that would be so awesome.

Breaking Bad is coming to an end within a few weeks. Here are a couple of articles I enjoyed.  Albuquerque.

and also A Pictorial History.

Keith dropped by yesterday.  Paul and he have a new tortoiseshell barn cat  they imported from the US.  Her name is Ayesha, and she does not want to be a housecat. She is, however, quite mellow.  I haven’t met her yet and look forward to making her acquaintance when she is better settled in.

Eddie let me clip his nails the other day with only one low wail to indicate his opinion of the indignity.

It’s been rainy and blecchy.

Cpap machine for a couple of hours last night.  I took it off when I couldn’t actually sleep with it on.  This is turning into a sore trial…

 

 

 

Listing

Today I have been to the physio, replaced the batteries in the label maker, worked some more on both Midnite and Tarot, confirmed my next doc’s appointment, vacuumed and washed the kitchen floor, and beaten out and washed and dried the kitchen rugs.  This represents a rather larger commitment to physical labour than has been the case lately, so I’m preening.

Physio was awesome.  It hurts like hell but I ALWAYS have more mobility when I come out of there, so I am pleased.

I think I’ll get myself another cup of tea and do some paperwork now.

New show!  We started watching Hell on Wheels, which is starting a third season; I’m quite liking Anson Mount as the lead, and the commentaries on racism, capitalism and the role of women are very interesting.  The only thing that pisses me off are the consistent anachronistic items that pop up in dialog.  I’m having to watch that in George’s dialog – he learned English in the 70’s and so his speech should reflect that. I do like Christopher Heyerdahl as a villain though, he’s damned good at it, (he was Hollin and Todd in SGA) and it’s filmed in Alberta, which is nice, and all the people playing Indians are actually native people.

Showing of the shop yesterday will likely come to nothing, but the gent in question was a stunningly tall and gorgeous Russian man in his late twenties, with a very pleasant accent and lovely manners.  So I was not unhappy to show it.

 

 

Visits and writing

We are through Cadfael and well into The Good Wife.  It is a very well acted show.

I am up to 10K words on my Tarot thingee and enjoying it immensely.  I have to set up a spreadsheet to try to deal with the interrelatedness of things.

Today I think I’m going to have a mushroom and spinach omelette for breakfast.  Cause I really need to use up the spinach and mushrooms, yo.  Also, must go to veggie store… all the veggies I pre-prepped so we could have INSTANT HEALTHY SNACKS are, like, gone.

Sue came by yesterday to borrow my fascinator.  I have two- the steampunk as opposed to headband one.  She is in no fewer than THREE shows this fall, which given she’s fifteen years older than me is a big old YOU GO GIRL. Her energy and acting ability continue to be a joy.  And she was wearing me mammy’s scarf whot she knit for her, which cheered me no end when I greeted her at the door.

Paul has taken me out for a couple of walks recently and it’s always nice to go to Deer Lake Park.  A couple of times he has providentially gotten me out of the house during the only two hours of the day it wasn’t raining and blowing.

Night before last the thunder and lightning at midnight shook the house on its foundations.

Two more sleeps for more Breaking Bad.  The race to the finish is enthralling.

I updated my google plus profile to make it link back to this blog.  Or try to.

My shoulder really hurts off and on (I am at an awkward stage of how strong and mobile that joint is, constantly reaching too far and doing too much) and I’m having meshuggas with the cpap machine, but I am letting neither of these things spoil my mood.  I do have a new hose for the cpap after my whining. So go me.  I’m out of pain pills but it doesn’t seem to be affecting how little or much sleep I get.

Not being able to practice mandolin is making me NUTTY.  I mean, nutty.

 

 

Hanna kissing Hedy / writing matters

dawwww.

Saw Despicable Me 2 and loved it.  Some of the physical humour is right up there with Warner Bros.

We’re most of the way through the first season of Good Wife and Jeff and I are quite enjoying it. Except when a corrupt member of the legal establishment does something, and then Jeff fulminates. It is terrible having had an honest judge in the family; everything else, real OR imaginary, suffers so by comparison.

I got my running around done yesterday.  It was horribly exhausting and it’s fucking hot out there so I came home and collapsed.  I should have gone to Andrew’s Pennywake, but I am good for One Big Thing per day these days, it seems, and have to quit overbooking myself.

I am up over 6K words on my new project and once the sun comes up I think I’m going to go find a library to work in – research don’t you know.  LTGW recommends that as a working style.  I’ll be working on Midnite Moving.

No Cpap last night, I was just too hot and sticky to think about putting the mask on my face, and it smelling like ass doesn’t help.

I had a problem with a technical aspect of Midnite Moving and be damned if the internet didn’t help out.  There is now a nanomolecular substance called CARBYNE.  Isn’t that cool?  Look it up, it’s awesome.

I had a weekend with a lot of Life in it

This kind of Life.  Love that show.

Also laundry, and mandolin practice, and poetry and a yummy lamb shoulder at Yianni’s with Katie.  I even ran the dishwasher!

Now I am enjoying the glorious pale blue sky and the steady breeze of the fans… I know it will only be hot for a few short months, but right now when we turn the oven on it gets durned hot in here at the shop.

Only people who have come in today are regulars.  But they love those muffins, that Ham Slap, that soup.  And so they return.

 

I updated my LinkedIn profile, but I think I did it wrong.  We shall see.  I update facebook and twitter every day the cafe is open.

 

Somebody came in who doesn’t speak a lot of English and pointed at the pistachio biscotti in the display.  She took one bite after she left the shop, pivotted on her heel and came back for three more.  It’s things like that which keep me engaged.

 

Such yummy muffins this morning, but everybody wants to know about cheesecake, for some reason.

 

 

further edges around Justified

Mercy me.  Moonshine is one of the background characters in Justified, and now it appears that artisanal ‘shine is making the big distillers lick their chops.

Downstairs toilet at home went kablooie.  Hope Jeff is coping with it okay.

Timothy Olyphant being adorbz on Ellen.

Timothy Olyphant demonstrating that nasty rotten lousy miserable trick men have of getting MUCH HOTTER as they get older.

Ok, gotta go pay some bills now.

 

 

Justified

Despite Jeff and I jumping on this show with enthusiasm, I still managed to get in a brief shop, hang around the shop for 4 hours while the temp sensor solution got put in for Bertha, launder many clodes and rugs and fold towels, clean the hell hole under the kitchen sink after scrubbing down the tub and the kitchen cupboards, which looked yucky, and sweep the kitchen floor and cook a tasty dinner (chicken thighs, noodles and fresh green beans).  But I have to say I love love love the character of Raylan Givens, and Boyd Crowder isn’t far behind.  It’s interesting that while the show is violent (the body count is what it is) there’s virtually no swearing and the nudity is in my view not gratuitous.  Although Mr. Olyphant can take his clodes off annnnnytime.

It’s 1:30 in the morning and I am up because of heartburn.  I should probably attempt to go back to sleep.

 

More yumminess

Katie made super fantastic amazing huzzah muffins yesterday, mostly by accidentally putting in too much margarine and not enough milk and oh my gosh they were so amazing.  (Chocochunk Cherry).  Today I am making multiflavours of biscotti for a pick up order tomorrow. Split pea with ham soup for lunch.  Keith and Paul came by for a snack and Keith also dropped by in the evening to catch up on Game of Thrones.  Katie bailed on the shop today so I’m by myself (she’s helping Jessica) but that’s okay, it’s relatively quiet. And I brought Otto in, so I’m working on my Tyrion song (it’s him spouting off about his siblings, his dad, his effed up life….)

Continued yumminess in the form of a show called Justified. I simply didn’t get enough Seth Bullock from Deadwood, so I was thrilled that Graham Yost (Elwy’s offspring) put together Justified, which is based on an Elmore Leonard short story and novels, and is basically Seth Bullock dressed up in modern clo’es and hewing the lawman’s line in Lexington KY.  It is with great joy that I have learned that the two seasons on Netflix are not the only two seasons – it’s actually filming the fifth season this year.  The first four episodes have been amazing.  The music is stellar and Jeff and I just love the song that plays over the credits, which is rap vocals over bluegrass instrumentation (ya don’t knock what works).  At the line “That would be refreshingly linear” I sank back into my seat and smiled with glee.

 

Okay, biscotti are calling for me to attend to them.

 

 

Back to the shop

I am heading back to the cafe with Katie this morning.

Real Humans, the SVT show from 2012, is the best sf show I’ve seen since BSG came out.  It is filled with beautiful and nuanced performances, amazing photography, whip smart writing EVEN IN TRANSLATION, deft and surprising plotting, great background music, hat tips to all our favourite science fiction movies, a portrayal of family life which through its economy and plotting is realistic and emotionally sound – without making the father look like a moron or a wimp or a drunk or an emotionally abusive jackass or the mother like superwoman or hysterical, or the kids like little cookie cutters, brilliant set pieces which totally rock the ensemble acting, and it asks, all the time and at many levels – what does it mean to be human?  Where do we get our ‘programming’ from?  Is the most important thing about us that we can be kind?

Oh, and naked girl robots, but you knew that without asking.  It is filled with little Swedish touches regarding being open minded about sexuality which play out in a variety of interesting and sometimes cringe inducing and sometimes laugh out loud hilarious ways.

It’s a very UNITARIAN show, in terms of its concerns and writing.  Very, very satisfying.

Didn’t get the job

Oh well, there’s always another one, right.

Keith got told yesterday they were going to be reducing his hours and 18 hours later had another job.  A more effective way of saying ‘FUCK YOU’ is difficult to imagine.   He was quite pleased with himself and got mom’s fusilli and slow cooked spaghetti sauce as a reward.

Also, the new Homeland, which was awesome, but I like any Homeland where Brody and Carrie have face time.

Carrie is getting MOTION SICKNESS from all the aftershocks in Masset.  I don’t think she wants to be living there any more.  Time to inspect the earthquake kits again.

 

 

I will never have as much fun as these two dogs

Rowf rowf rowf POP.

And in keeping with the canine theme this morning, check out these puppies interacting with an iPad.

SSSSSophisticated SSSSSSSSnake is sssssssssssuave.

Links good as of August 2020

Yesterday I ground through some work for church, ran the dishwasher and made cinnamon buns and put a roast in the fridge to thaw. Minister got back to me and wants to hear the song on Sunday.  Made an appointment with the bookkeeper.  I’ll be making an appointment with the dentist and the eye doc today, I can no longer stand how horrid my teeth and glasses are.

I am completely disgusted with the Mentalist.  Castle got its mojo back as soon as it ditched the arc.   I’m pretty burned out on NCIS although Mark Harmon is never hard to look at.  Treme is as amazing as it ever was.

ER

I may have mentioned Jeff and I are working our way through the entirety of ER (when we need a palate cleanser, 2nd season SG1).  We’ve had 8 seasons of getting to know, love and hate various people.

I took a book out of the library about Must See TV, the part of the nineties when NBC had groundbreaking shows like Third Rock from the Sun and ER and Seinfeld and Cheers and Frasier and Will and Grace and Mad About You and Friends, shows that were ALL ABOUT THE WRITING.  In the last chapter of the book, it was made abundantly clear that NBC no longer gives a tinker’s cuss about writing – sales and marketing runs the show and they run the least offensive shows that cost the least amount of money to make.  In defence of the current iteration of talent management and development at NBC, ER had a 44 market share and a top ten hit show in 2012 has a 13 (Julianna Margulies was comparing ER and The Good Wife, her current show), and it’s because there’s a lot more TV happening especially competition from HBO and AMC and Showtime, so it’s harder to have a hit.  But honestly, folks, without the writing and the courage to try something new, good tv DOES NOT HAPPEN.  It’s happening on cable  – that’s where the action is.

Well, in my little universe of time-shifted tv, main character Mark Greene just died of brain cancer, and I wept non stop for an imaginary character for 20 minutes.  Under the circumstances, mocking the ability of other people to believe in God seems a tad uncharitable…. must resolve to quit every doing it.  My imaginary friends…. sigh.

And Anthony Edwards, the actor playing Mark Greene, is back on TV, and the show description is so lame I don’t want to watch it.

Wrote 850 words of backstory on Midnite Moving Co last night.  Oh lady of the deep waves, how I love you.  Trying to write a human alien character who doesn’t speak is freaking hard….  But I now have the story of how she met George, from his perspective.  Writing it from hers will be very hard.

Off to church now.