What I Watched: The Librarians, an older show which ran from 2014 to 2018. It has been picked up for a fifth season to be released in 2023, so if this your idea of fun television, now is the time to catch up.
Good, silly fun, featuring Librarians as super-hero types, with each serving a particular trope – the thief, the soldier, the magician, the cowboy, the genius, and the adventurer. Here is what TV Geek had to say about The Librarians:
Full of cheesy dialogue, cheap set design and a fantastical plot line, you’d be forgiven for writing off The Librarians as a cheap fantasy show. Instead, The Librarians embraces its incredulous premise and manages to strike a great balance between its silly and serious elements. The well written group of characters at the heart of the show gel together perfectly and their chemistry, mixed with a sprinkle of comedy and a great soundtrack, make this a surprisingly strong and easy show to watch.
What I Read: Murder at the Serpentine Bridge: A Riveting New Regency Historical Mystery (A Wrexford & Sloane Mystery Book 6) by Andrea Penrose, who “Andrea Penrose writes smart, sophisticated historical mysteries set in Regency England—a world of glittering ballrooms and deadly intrigue.” There are improbable situations – a female who is a secret satirical artist, rescued street urchins turned into gentlemen, and servants treated as equal, trusted advisors. Even so, the books are engrossing. Here is the blurb from the website:
Beyond the glittering ballrooms and salons of Regency London there are mysteries to untangle and murders to solve—and the newlywed duo of Lady Charlotte and the Earl of Wrexford once again find themselves matching wits with a cunning enemy . . .Charlotte, now the Countess of Wrexford, would like nothing more than a summer of peace and quiet with her new husband and their unconventional family and friends. But when Wrexford and their two young wards, Raven and Hawk, discover a body floating in Hyde Park’s famous lake, that newfound peace looks to be at risk.
The late Jeremiah Willis was the engineering genius behind a new design for a top-secret weapon, and the prototype is missing from the Royal Armory’s laboratory. Wrexford is tasked with retrieving it before it falls into the wrong hands. But there are unsettling complications to the case—including a family connection. Soon, old secrets are tangling with new betrayals, and as Charlotte and Wrexford spin through a web of international intrigue and sumptuous parties, they must race against time to save their loved ones from harm—and keep the weapon from igniting a new war . . .
Also Reads: Nary a one of these books was a superior read. That said, they are perfectly good fluff and/or filler.
- Hunter’s Moon, by Annabel Chase and Tana Grey: Book three in the series about a family of witches who live in a magical castle and work for Hex Support, magical FBI.
- The Christmas Pawdcast, an Eternity Springs Holiday Novella by Emily March: cute, formulaic, holiday fluff, with dogs.
- Descend to Darkness, a Krewe of Hunters Novella by Heather Graham: an even more formulaic than usual offering from Heather Graham. At this point I am not sure why I keep reading her work, as it has become rather moralistically preachy and feels to me as if a bot could write it.
- The Accidental Queen, a Midlife Fairy Tale by Kristen Painter: I like Kristen Painter’s work; her Nocturne Falls and Shadowvale series are fun, easy reads, as is the Jane Frost spin-off series. This book was not here finest effort. Although that may be because it is positioning itself as the first of a series.
What I Listened To: Braxe + Falcon – Elevation (feat. Sunni Colon); Bicycle Day · Markus Nikolaus; and Preoccupations – Tearing up the Grass
Thank you for playing Brain Drain! How are you, dearest DeadSplinterites? Anything new or fun with you?
Finished “Eat The Rich” Docuseries.
The filmmakers couldn’t interview any of the big players, just most of the Reddit folks except “Roaring Kitty” (who lost his securities license) who helped start the mess. The guys who were late the game lost alot. The ones who were in on it early made out big. FOMO (or fear of missing out) was a killer (especially in finance.)
As someone who made some cash on the similar BlackBerry squeeze, I jumped off before everything blew up. Not by amazing skill, but luck. I had my price and when it met, I ran like as fast as I could. I still read the grumbling of guys who think BlackBerry can hit $30 soon. Yeah, right.
They didn’t say who caused the short squeeze to pop, but I figure it was Robinhood being kicked in the head by the Feds as they brought up the misery of the collapse of the Hedge Fund Long Term Capital which nearly destroyed the Asian economies + Russia in 1997. If the Citadel (who had a lot of skin in the game) had collapsed… ooops?
Meanwhile the Robinhood CEO couldn’t answer a simple Yes/No question from Rep Maxine Waters about a capital crunch which basically means yes.
Some of the Reps asking questions did look foolish, but it seemed most of them had an R after their name.
As for Robinhood, after their shares hit $56+, they dropped all the way to currently around $10 with flat customer engagement and trading volumes.
Now that The Librarians is putting together a fifth season, I will put it on my watch list.
What I watched: Spider-Man No Way Home. The Marvel movies can be quite uneven, from one franchise to the next, but generally speaking the Spider-Man films are consistently watchable. That’s not to say it equates to being particularly good film, but they are entertaining and the dialogue between the three Peter Parkers in this one is really pretty good. I especially liked that they didn’t de-age Toby Maguire and had him at his regular age.
What I read: In My Wildest Dreams, Take 3. So, once upon a time, I had an acquaintance named Wayne Jackson. Wayne was one half of The Memphis Horns, with his partner Andrew Love. These guys played on everything. I’d previously read Wayne’s first two parts of his autobiography back when they were just printed and bound at a local Kinko’s. He’d even autographed them for me, which was nice. Then I moved up here and we lost touch and Wayne died. Recently I looked up his books and sure enough his widow actually went to the trouble of publishing actual books. They’re all very short and quick reads–very much Ellie-worthy on that scale. Now, here’s an important caveat: Wayne’s writing is not good, and he should have hired an actual, professional editor rather than having his wife do it because the text is loaded with mispellings and his prose is that of someone who is clearly trying too hard. That being said, I do love first-hand stories about the music business so this book, and the previous two, were enjoyable reads for me.
What I listened to: Our latest stop on the best engineered albums of all time brings us to Currency of Man by Melody Gardot. Released in 2015 and engineered by Maxime Le Guil, this album is much more sonically complex that her previous three albums. Lots of layering and creative placement of the sound stage are in use here. Of course, as usual, the frequency range is very wide and the overall recording is quite clean.
I finished Season 2 of Derry Girls and the final season just hit Netflix. I’m looking forward to it.
I had not heard about The Librarians adding another season. I’ve watched the first four and found it pretty fun. I thought it was over though. Most of the cast have shown up on other things, but I imagine they can work when those shows are on hiatus. One thing about streaming is that actors aren’t locked into one show/one season any more.
Fun fact: a main writer for the show, along with Leverage and The Jackie Chan Adventures, and the godawful Catwoman, is John Rogers. You may have seen me quote his blog and his essay called The Crazification Factor.
It postulates that 27% of any given population is crazy.
Well, considering how many Republicans are in this country, I’m thinking that number is low.
Rogers notes that in the essay.
Heard this song last night, and it reminded me if you haven’t seen the show with Holly Hunter, it’s well worth it.
I’m watching The Midnight Club on Netflix. Mostly jump scares, a few pretty good ones, not much gore. I have two episodes left. It’s a good Scary Season watch.
I read Jackaby by William Ritter It’s the first in a series and I enjoyed it enough to see myself reading the others at some point. It’s sort of like Sherlock Holmes/Doctor Who in 1890s New England.
Im listening to your tunes @Elliecoo. I’d never heard Preoccupations before, will definitely listen to more. I like dreamy post punk and the vocals reminded me of Richard Butler.
I was excited for Midnight Club but I find it kind of boring. The short stories aren’t scary and the main overarching mystery is slow moving.
The School for Good and Evil (Netflix) was a fun fantasy Harry Potter-esque movie. The story aims to empowering for girls and women by turning typical fairy tail tropes on their heads. It’s not perfect but I enjoyed their effort. It was interesting that they are all American actors instead of the usual British accents of that genre. It also has diverse-ish cast. The teachers are Michelle Yeoh, Kerry Washington, Charlize Theron, and Lawrence Fishburne.
I don’t really get scared by movies or shows in general. So it didn’t seem any less frightening than anything else. I do think the stories are cheesy in the way of all campfire stories.
I had both flu and covid bivalent shots yesterday, based on having had no reactions to either before, and figuring it would be best to just suck it up and get it done. ***WRONG*** I feel like I have a heavy flu, everything aches, and I am tired and whiny. Please play BrainDrain without me, and enjoy! I’m for bed.
I hope you have a restful weekend and a swift recovery.
Get lots of rest and stay hydrated. ❤️
I did mine a week apart and they kicked my ass. Get a pile of dogs to keep you warm and rest up.
@elliecoo I hope you are doing better today!
Watching old surf clips my buddy has just re-released on his new streaming platform Nalu TV
Listening to this spooky cover…
Still reading House of Trump House of Putin. One big thing besides the insane amount of Russian mobsters affiliated with Trump is my new theory that one major reason for Putin attacking Ukraine is he lost so much revenue when they got a non-corrupt president. He used to make 100 of billions ripping of the Ukraines via his mobster oligarchs. This book really should have got more attention!
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40728633-house-of-trump-house-of-putin
I’m watching “Recipes for Love and Murder” and it’s charming and delightful as far as murders go!
https://www.imdb.com/video/vi689685017/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk
READ
The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot, by Robert Macfarlane: “Ways” in this instance means paths or routes. The author traces some very old routes used for commerce and just living back before there were vehicles. Interesting, and not quite what I expected — at least two of his old ways are sea routes. Highly recommended.
The Night the Lights Went Out: A Memoir of Life After Brain Damage, by Drew Magary: The author wrote for Deadspin and now rights for Defector, as well as other publications. He suffered a massive brain bleed while emceeing the Deadspin awards show a few years ago. The book is a quick read and is interesting in that Magary goes back and interviews a lot of the people who were with him and ultimately attending to him when he suffered his “event”. The recovery process from a traumatic brain injury is pretty fascinating. Also highly recommended.
WATCHED
A lot of outdoor hiking/camping videos. It’s fitting that I had just returned from a one-night tarp-camping trip with a buddy (and a very restless dog) when I learned that my dad had passed. I suspect I’ll be outside a lot this winter, in crappy weather, to cope with the stuff that life has been throwing at us. I think I watch these videos for equal parts education and inspiration. Here’s a representative video, from one of @Farscythe ‘s unhinged Dutch compatriots:
LISTENED
The most striking thing I heard this week was Colin Hay’s cover of Steve Winwood’s “Can’t Find My Way Home”. The album — I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself, which is all covers — doesn’t do a whole lot for me, which is disappointing. But this one song really grabs me.