What I Watched: Season 827 27 of Silent Witness, or as it is known around here, the coroner lady show. The weekly forensic mystery is still a good watch, but the character Jack must die. Writing him off the show with a promotion or relocation is too good for the character – he must be killed off. He is a thick-necked, pompous, holier-than-thou annoyance – just sayin’.
Some folks are also annoyed with past few season’s tone: here’s a Google AI Q&A: What has gone wrong with Silent Witness? Coupled with some dodgy casting, hammy acting, and the dreadful, overwhelming and portentous music they made the last two episodes very nearly unwatchable. For the first time, I am considering abandoning the series altogether. Can we have our old ‘Silent Witness’ back, please?
What I Read: A new novella,The Masquerades of Spring Kindle Edition, by Ben Aaronovitch. It features a spin-off character, set in the roaring twenties NYC, and very little of our London wizards. Still, as the saying goes, I’d read the phone book if written by Aaronovitch.
Here’s the Amazon blurb: Meet Augustus Berrycloth-Young—fop, flaneur, and Englishman abroad—as he chronicles the Jazz Age from his perch atop the city that never sleeps. That is, until his old friend Thomas Nightingale arrives, pursuing a rather mysterious affair concerning an old saxophone—which will take Gussie from his warm bed, to the cold shores of Long Island, and down to the jazz clubs where music, magic, and madness haunt the shadows…
What I Listened To: Father John Misty – She Cleans Up (the man has moves, much as I imagine @luigi-vuoto has moves); 16 Underground – Chasing a Comfort; The Bug Club – We Don’t Care About That; and Milo Korbenski – Booksmart Hunny:
Thank you for playing Brain Drain! How are you, dearest ones? Darling DeadSplinterites, what’s going on? Please do share with us!
I had some time to spare…
(On Paramount+) Caught up with ST: Lower Decks with all the S5 episodes that aired. They’re closing some ends as the season gets closer. I’m still enjoying the premise of the show which makes way more sense than the ST:TNG universe it is based on.
(On Netflix) Watched “THE COMEBACK” when Boston wasn’t the most disgusting sports town (Bruins, Celtics, Red Sox and fucking Patriots winning championships on a regular basis) and the Red Sox were the underdogs compared to the fucking Yankees.
It’s about the 04 comeback down 3-0 in the ALCS to the Yankees. They interviewed Curt/Kurt von Schilling among others. I guess the documentary folks stuck to sprots and only asked about the bloody sock.
Ironic to me that the team which was the last to sign a black player (1960) and a city well known for its racism would be savior was a Dominican player David Ortiz aka Big Papi (I really wanted the Jays to sign him when the Twins dumped him… fucking cheapskate GM Gord Ash.)
(again Netflix) Saw Tremors. One of the best “B” list horror movies from the late 80s/early 90s. I also enjoyed “Split Second” with Rutger Howard and “The Hidden” with Michael Nouri and Kyle MacLaclahan. Fun movie with a decent plot and great cast including Kevin Bacon.
I know I had to have watched something this week to talk about here, but my brain is drawing a complete blank.
I saw the first episode of Dear Mama, a documentary series about Tupac Shakur.
It’s more of a collage than a linear step by step story, and this episode focused a lot on his mother Aleni Shakur’s role in the Black Panthers, although it skipped around to other parts of his early life.
There are a lot of interesting pieces, like an interview with him in high school well before he became famous, but it’s not quite clear yet if it’s all going to come together as a meaningful portrait of him.
…hmm…I know I mentioned the john scalzi stuff in the comments for quite the wrong post…but…I definitely watched some stuff
…apple had a thing that turned out to be 7-episodes & not one movie called hi/jack with idris elba…bit wobbly in a few places but overall a decent excuse for a big man on a small plane imposing himself between any number of insurmountable threats without actually killing anyone…so…definitely worse uses for your time out there?
…finally watched that kneecap thing about the irish-speaking rap guys…makes a pretty interesting compare & contrast if you line that up with 8-mile on one side & the commitments on the other…maybe not for everyone but I think on the whole, would recommend
…the dude from leverage makes a decent alex cross…but it’s still plotted by patterson so there’s some OP lecter-type baddies & it’s never really been as much as the sum of its parts for me
…an anime thing called tokyo override was fun & at some point I’ll probably try the “man on the inside” thing with ted danson
…oh, & the second season of the diplomat with the lady from the americans…that, too
…but that’s all that springs to mind?
Watched: On the long flight, I watched Hitman which was great and Horizon which was not. It had great cinematography but was boring, no character development, jumped around too much and just dragged out (and worst is that was only part I).
Read: Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris. I’ve had this book for awhile & was saving it for a long trip. It is great like all his books, especially the part about him working full time as an elf at Macy’s.
Listen to: just for my buddy @luigi-vuoto , I’m listening to some classic steel guitar…
That’s my friend Sebastian Muller. He kicks ass.
I moved on from one addicting deck-building game to the next: Slay the Spire. I’ve sunk hours and hours of insomnia into it but I can’t beat the third act/final boss. I keep losing by tiny mistakes/miscalculations and it’s driving me nuts. My kind of fun (obviously)!
We’re in a holding pattern until some new shows come out. Watching 10 seasons of Candace Renoir on Acorn. French cop show where they wrap up the crime by the end of each episode. It’s OK. Waiting for the last episode of Shrinking and trying to find some new stuff. I’m wondering about this Say Nothing show about The Troubles. Anybody have any thoughts?
…I’ve read here & there people saying nice things about it but I haven’t actually tried it…& despite derry girls it’s not a backdrop I instinctively associate with passive enjoyment
…it’s a hell of a story & the book it’s based on said it was a true one iirc…so it’s probably got the ingredients of a high-grade drama that might even get a few things right…a lady in the guardian thought so…& I believe maxine peake had some opinions on the subject…if that helps?
wow silent witness has been going forever…used to enjoy watching it with the family when i still lived at home…..which is a pretty long time ago…lol
anyways…i have nothing to add here… the implementation of our fantabulous new miracle software at work went every bit as smoothly as expected…which is to say its a total shitshow and my life is overtime now… ive really only been home to eat and sleep this week
no movies,no books almost no music…on the upside almost no news too…which was nice
also one of my coworkers caught mumps….didnt know we still had that shit…kinda makes me think i found the antivaxxer….or maybe she did
and finally @keitelblacksmith would be proud of me…im officially a legit forklift driver now….took me a few years to do it…but now i finally have!
thats right….i wrote off a loading bay door with my forklift
Congrats!
thank you:) im proud of myself
(tbh i wasnt expecting someone to close the door on me as i was backing in)
Now work on your tricks!!!
As the workplace safety rep, I just suffered an aneurysm.
@farscythe
I so want to do a rodeo
i want to do it….but i also dont get why that isnt the license test?
i mean…i passed my test with 30 minutes of driving time….as i managed to not hit anything and have a pulse…and as the instructor put it…. you seem pretty calm
you know….
for a vehicle capable of driving through walls….thats kinda nuts
Just started watching “Kevin Can Fuck Himself” on Prime.
It’s got the daughter from Schitt’s Creek as the main character. A parody/real life version of the fucking manchild Kevin James bullshit TV sitcoms. I really hate the characters he portrays and not because his wives are way out of his league (which leads me to ask how the hell he landed them), but more for their spoiled man baby ways which makes him so damn insufferable.
I like it because it’s a smart serious look at living with a man-child.
In a lot of ways I can relate. The actor who plays Kevin is so good that I want to punch his character repeatedly in the face.
I can’t stand man-child characters on TV or IRL.
I can deal a little with man children (a couple of my friends have their moments and so do i) but even I get pissed off eventually.
Probably why I still snarl a bit when I think of the man child I lived with for 8 years.