What I Watched: The new season of The Brokenwood Mysteries. It has found its groove and become comfortable viewing. Most characters are likeable (except for the annoying coroner – in real life people would put up with her schtick for about three minutes). The country music soundtrack is well-curated, a great addition to the show. Amazon says this about season 10:
From a brutal murder with a Jurassic twist to a spooky crime scene on the Day of the Dead, Brokenwood’s alarming murder rate continues to keep detectives Shepherd (Neill Rea), Sims (Fern Sutherland), and Chalmers (Jarod Rawiri) busy.
What I Read: The Bite Back Box Set 1: Books 1-3: Sleight of Hand, Hidden Trump, Wild Card by Mark Henwick. I’m still slogging through this series; I really want to like it, but the more the characters develop then less I like them. Government conspiracies, vampires, werewolves, witches, drug gangs, etc., set in “realistic” current-day situations. From Amazon:
The paranormal world is facing the ticking time bomb of discovery by humanity. The last thing they need is a sharp-witted, ex-Special Forces private investigator with her own problems thrown into the mix…
Sleight of Hand For Amber Farrell, post-military life as a PI has its ups and downs: She’s been hit by a truck. She’s being sued by a client. Denver’s newest drug lord just put out a contract on her. The sinister Athanate blood-suckers want her to come in for a friendly chat. And the week’s just started. Enter Jennifer Kingslund: rich, gorgeous – a tough businesswoman who’s known for getting what she wants in the boardroom and the bedroom. Someone’s trying to sabotage her new resort and destroy her company – and she wants Amber to find out who. The answers lead Amber past Were and Adepts, right back to the Athanate – and a centuries-old war that could threaten not just Denver, but the nation that Amber swore to protect and serve.
Hidden Trump Amber Farrell is coming to terms with being part of the paranormal community, but she’s about to find that includes very dangerous responsibilities for her. Nothing is quite what it seems, least of all Amber herself, and to survive, she must form alliances with powerful groups whose interests are in conflict. Denver is hosting a meeting of the opposing Athanate creeds who are stirring after a hundred years of peace. War between them would be disastrous for everyone, human and paranormal, but it’s Amber who’s being blamed for the troubles in the run-up to the Assembly.
Wild Card Amber Farrell is hunting a rogue Were through the secret heart of her home town. Without the help she needs from Denver’s paranormal community, she’s unsure whether she can keep ahead of her own lethal problems long enough to catch the rogue. Any mistake by her could expose the hidden community. Even actions with the best of intentions reveal a terrible price. And every new discovery in the hunt for the rogue seems to change the whole game…
What I Listened To: Ciel – Fine Everything; Winston Taylor – Tightrope; and Tempesst – Sad Eyes:
Thank you for playing Brain Drain! How are you, dearest ones? Darling DeadSplinterites, what’s going on? Please do share with us!
…not sure how exactly because I swear I watched something that seemed worth trying to remember for today but I can’t remember what it was
…I think I’m just distracted because they cancelled stuff like the limitless spin-off or the brothers sun after a single season despite being great…& I swear netflix was pushing something like a 5th season of cobra kai at me?
…a show that falls between so many stools it’s not sure if its problem is too much/not enough angst/nostalgia/kung fukarate/whatever & the target audience for which is a demographic that may plausibly only exist in a hidden pivot table in an algorithmic database somewhere…how is there a greenlight for multiple seasons of that but no more brothers sun?
…it’s like there’s no justice in the world or something
There is very little justice in the world. Starting with the US supreme court.
I followed Luigi’s rec and watched The Taste of Things. He’s right, it’s a good movie. Juliette Binoche is so beautiful, of course, and the classic French food is incredible. They didn’t use fake or styled food, and only rarely resorted to “stunt” doubles for closeups of cooking. They even show ortolan.
This article from American Cinematographer about the filming (it has spoilers) is fascinating, even if I only understand a fraction of it. It’s a beautiful movie, and it’s really interesting reading about the problem solving done to film actual cooking in historic buildings.
https://theasc.com/articles/the-taste-of-things
Gross, eating ortolan.
Yeah I don’t get the appeal of that. On the plus side there were some absolutely beautiful vegetables in the movie.
Oh! The little ortolans.
I once worked for a company that was incredibly cheap. Every so often they’d provide staff lunches but they were so lame. Sub-Subway level sandwiches. I once, very publicly, said that I had a friend who belonged to a hunt club (this was true) and the weekend before the next staff lunch we would go pigeon hunting and we could serve squab.
The people I was friendliest with got this and smirked and gave me the side-eye. Most people didn’t know what squab was. Good times.
If you’ve ever held a pigeon or a dove, one striking thing is how light they are. They’re only about half a pound alive, so dressed and plucked I can’t imagine there’s more than an ounce or so of accessible meat on a hunted bird.
One of the dirty secrets of wild fowl hunters is the stuff they bring home tends to be poor eating between the gaminess and the fishy taste from a lot of their forage. There’s a reason why people want corn fed duck from Long Island.
I’m guessing farmed squab get fed a ton to fatten them up, but even then they’re almost all bone. Wild fish is great, but hunted game is usually not.
I was not serious about my offer (although I have had squab, in France of course. It’s called pigeoneau or something like that. I was underwhelmed, but I figured, you only live once. Plus I may have been a little drunk.)
You were smart to not go. It’s incredibly hard to even hit one unless you’re a good shot even with a shotgun and cartridge that are set up for a wide spread. Which is why ghouls like Cheney and Scalia only go on canned hunts with domesticated birds. And even then Cheney seemed better suited for a himan sized target.
I used to work for a food magazine and had to event manage a food tasting in, I think, Charlotte? Charleston? Some city that began with CH.
Anyway, the chef served quail. One bird provided about three bites. Everybody got one bird. On top of the fact that it wasn’t even big enough for an appetizer, I really didn’t like it. Not just the taste, but I hate being served a whole cooked animal that I have to tear apart.
After the event ended and I got everything packed up, I went to McDonalds.
Sigh. Nothing. Nothing memorable. Newsfeeds. But I was forwarded this:
Sigh. I do still enjoy an occasional high-test Coke.
i has little to share this week….but you know
I like her face jewels.
I get really distracted if a piece of lint or fuzz gets caught in my eyelashes.
I feel like sparkling face gems would annoy the crap out of my on my cheeks, but the shiny asthetic speaks to my inner goblin.
It’s fancy!
I’ve been watching The Responder on Britbox with Martin Freeman. It’s about basically decent, flawed people making terrible decisions. It’s very good but a little intense. My wife actually gave up on it because she said, “This is too hard”.
We’ve also been watching the newest season of The Bear. I don’t know what all the griping has been about. It’s actually one of the better seasons. The portrayal of Chicago characters and how they talk (“Fuck you. No, Fuck YOU. You don’t say fuck you to me, I say fuck you to YOU”) is some of the most accurate I’ve ever seen. I can almost smell the sandwiches from Mr Beef on Orleans street (which is what the restaurant is based on) and the bread baking in D’Amato’s bakery on Grand Ave. When Ritchie tells Carm to “go take a flying fuck at a rolling donut”, it’s like I’m back home again listening to the big kids at the park fighting over a craps game over by the water fountain. I’m getting a little tired of fussy fancy food after watching The Taste of Things, but everything else is stellar.
We tried The Responder and stopped early-on in season one. I agree with Mrs. Vuoto.
Here’s something interesting, if you’re a demography and employment stats geek like I am.
https://www.thecity.nyc/2024/05/16/health-care-jobs-economy/
I am more than familiar with the NYC health care spider’s nest, but I didn’t realize that so many of the jobs were so part-time and so low-paid. Lots and lots of the others are union. There was a huge strike threatened 2 years ago, 2 1/2 years ago? and the hospitals caved so they run roughshod over management and woe betide the client/patient who needs something during a mandated break period.
It’s a horror show. Sophia Petrillo didn’t know how lucky she had it at Shady Pines.
The biggest factors for health care wages are having an advanced degree and working in a unionized place. Hospital workers are often unionized so even food service employees can get decent wages. But it’s a really mixed bag for a ton of people who work in places like test labs, do home visits to maintain monitoring equipment, or are contractors who do basic wellness checks on nursing home residents.
I finally reconnected my Paramount+ and binged like 5 episodes of season 1 of Strange New Worlds.
I understand conceptually why they are like *monster of the week* episodes, but also I wish there was a little more of an overarching plot arc.
…every time I get reminded of strange new worlds I get closer to feeling comfortable saying it might be my favourite trek?
…he makes a great captain & a bunch of the supporting cast is great & it seems to avoid the things that can niggle me in other ones from time to time…it’s fun & hard to hate doesn’t sound like a ringing endorsement but within the field of star trek there’s a lot people argue falls at one or both of those fences?
…but I’m with you… somewhere between the level of *this week* it starts out with & the level of “we should have called it star trek: burnham & saved a lot of time” in discovery there must be a sweet spot in the venn overlap?
oh shit….thats not where i expected the british monarchy to go….tho i probably should have