Help – I Need Somebody!
Butcher has been responsible for the BrainDrain on the last Saturday of each month, but can no longer do so, due to capacity issues and rifts in the time/space continuum. And, my capacity has fallen into a black hole, created by my new corporate overlords.
So – DeadSplinterites – there are two PERMANENT BrainDrain slots, the first Saturday and the last Saturday of each month (I will continue to do the middle two or three Saturdays). Please apply in the comments or via direct message. If two of you want to split one slot, have at it, but please sort it among yourselves. The alternative to conscripts volunteers is, sadly, no BrainDrain on the first and last Saturdays.
What I Watched: The Marlow Murder Club, a short-season new mystery on PBS. Very Midsomer Murdery, a simple, engaging show that asks for little from the viewer; there is no challenge, and that is just what I need these days.
Here’s a good review and here’s a blurb from Decider:
The Marlow Murder Club is so aggressively cozy and fun that it feels almost like a satire of the genre. Indeed, there are multiple moments where you feel as though the Masterpiece Mystery series is winking at its audience. Judith is called out as a “busybody” and walks around with a tote of tools like a real detective. Becks’s breaking point comes when her “Best Mum in the World” mug shatters. Tanika and her cohorts scoff at the very idea of Marlow being a hotbed for crime! That said, The Marlow Murder Club is aggressively cozy and even more aggressively fun. This is not trying to be a hardboiled detective drama nor is it making grand statements about the state of the world. This show is literally designed to whisk you away to a picturesque British town, only as it exists as a ludicrously aspirational, incredibly wealthy hamlet in contemporary terms. Besides the joy of the murder mystery itself, The Marlow Murder Club doubles as straight up escapist fun. I am personally obsessed with Judith Potts’s life and now want to retire to a beautiful riverside house to work on crosswords, solve crimes, and swim naked. (A girl can only dream!!!)
What I Read: Eva Devon’s The Notorious Briarwoods series. Regency Romance, both bonbon fare, undemanding. This is an eight-book series, with book number eight scheduled to be released on the 17th. Here is the blurb for book one, The Wallflower’s Absolutely Scandalous Seduction:
Lady Hermia Briarwood loves being a wallflower. Invisible to the ton, Hermia has made a habit of studying the mad antics of society, and few antics are madder than her own eccentric family’s. Love them as she does, she wishes they all enjoyed a bit of quiet. Alas, they do not. Now, in her opinion, being a wallflower is far better than dancing with foolish fellows! Frankly, she can’t wait until her required seasons are done, whereupon she can retire to the country and spend her life in blissful solitude. After an accidental encounter with the Earl of Drexel, he offers her everything she’s ever dreamed of. A life alone. But how can she possibly keep her sensible heart in check when he unleashes his charm and wounded soul upon her?
The Earl of Drexel must find a wife. His family is the very devil. How could he bring anyone else into it? When he discovers Lady Hermia blending into the silk-covered walls at a ball, he cannot deny that she would make him the perfect wife as her only desire is to be left to her own devices. She will expect nothing of him. It’s ideal. Quickly, he offers a marriage of convenience. All they have to do is make it to the wedding, then they both will be free! However, he never expects just how much he’ll long to seduce his wallflower. Or how she will quite unexpectedly capture his heart. But he has sworn to never make the terrible mistake of naively believing in love. Not when that love might break Hermia’s heart and destroy what is left of his soul.
What I Listened To: Local the Neighbour – The Cure; Jonny Ong – Lovely In the Morning; and Whitey – This Is Forever:
Thank you for playing Brain Drain! How are you, dearest ones? Darling DeadSplinterites, what’s going on? Please do share with us!
I saw most of the episodes of Tacoma FD (from the Broken Lizard guys) which I enjoyed.
It’s kind of like Reno 9/11 but for firefighters.
That show is pretty funny but every time I see those press conferences like the NOLA one recently w/ the sign language interpreter, I think of this…
That killed me. I’m surprised the cast didn’t fall over laughing.
I would like to volunteer, but I’ve been ramping up working OT (gotta pay for tuition for the next school year) but I can’t commit until I leave (but that’s 8 or so months away.)
I can pick up the last Saturday. Maybe because I can forget these things if the first couple of times you could remind me in the previous Brain Drain?
I can do the first Saturdays. I don’t listen to music so you’ll get a slimmed down 2/3 BD.
@HammerZeitgeist, Thank you!!!!
Whew! I appreciate it very much.
My company has new overlords half my age who work all the hours. They say they don’t expect it, but they lie. The amount of required output is crushing. I am grateful to have been retained, to work from home . . . I need to work another 4 years to get the social security bonus money.
I get it. I hope they ease up on their expectations as they get older and “wiser”.
I will post music in all your Brain Drain threads.
Much appreciated Luigi!
THANK YOU!!!
And I will make a note to ping you on Friday’s for the SaturdayBrainDrain; serving as your alarm clock is much less onerous than writing one.
You are hired!!!!
Proudly I have read the entire book before Book Club tomorrow. We read James by Percival Everett. It’s quite good, a little trite at the end but I would have been mad if it ended any other way.
When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father, recently returned to town. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and too-often-unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.
While many narrative set pieces of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn remain in place (floods and storms, stumbling across both unexpected death and unexpected treasure in the myriad stopping points along the river’s banks, encountering the scam artists posing as the Duke and Dauphin…), Jim’s agency, intelligence and compassion are shown in a radically new light.
Brimming with the electrifying humor and lacerating observations that have made Everett a “literary icon” (Oprah Daily), and one of the most decorated writers of our lifetime, James is destined to be a cornerstone of twenty-first century American literature.
Also like to add, I finally saw Dune 2.
Dennis Villenuve made the right choice to split up the novel into 2 movies (unlike Peter Jackson’s choice for the horrible Hobbit series.)
It told the story without going thru all the confusing time warps David Lynch went thru (and lacked the robotic acting of Kyle) and had stunning visuals.
I half expected that Emperor Shaddam IV demand the Harkonens produce more spice by adding more Cowbell, but Christopher Walken is a very good dramatic actor so that didn’t happen.
My main preference of the original is Patrick Stewart as Gurney Hallack (but 40 years younger.)
We watched Missing You on Netflix, which is your basic Harlan Coben thriller with the twist ending. Wife really enjoyed it, but for me it was just a time waster. Don’t tell her.
Oh, and we binge-watched the first season of Night Agent because the new season is coming soon and we forgot most of it.
I’ve been in a mood of late so watched the Van Damme movie Kill ‘Em All 2. It was about what I should have expected from a 70+ year old dude but really, no splits? CGI splits maybe?
My buddy gave me a great short book, he knows me too well!
Listening to:
I’m very late to the conversation, and it looks like all of the Brain Drains are spoken for. Which is great! But I would like to put my name in as an occasional one-off substitute poster for this feature if anyone needs a break in the future. I’m happy to help.
I hope these changes don’t mean that we’ll see less of @elliecoo and @butcherbakertoiletrymaker. You guys are so important to this site.