What I Watched: Season one of Granite Harbor. It is a short, three-part police procedural drama that was fine. Not stupendous, but okay. The Guardian didn’t love it:
The three-part drama offers what hopefully amounts to the final twist on the venerable buddy-cop double act. Every other permutation has been tried. We’ve had artisanal beer connoisseur partnered with orange juice-drinking barbarian (Morse and Lewis), believer versus rational sceptical (Mulder and Scully), tough ambitious black woman cop from the big city and small-town anorak-wearing white male geek (McDonald and Dodds), even cop and crime-solving dog (Turner and Hooch).
Granite Harbour tips the proverbial tam o’shanter to these forebears with its pairing of a sassy Aberdonian with authority issues and a disarmingly accented Jamaican outsourced to the greyest corner of the United Greydom, poor chap.
What I Read: The addictive Third Eye: The Sound of Peace (The King’s Watch Book 11) by Mark Hayden. I heartily recommend this series. Here is the Amazon blurb:
We all know the sounds of war, but what are the sounds of peace? Conrad Clarke is about to get married. Could life get any better for the Lord Guardian of the North? The Codex Defanatus is sealed away, peace has been cemented in the Lakeland Particular and as far as he knows, no one is out to get him. Time to relax… If only. In the corridors of power, the new Warden is launching her project of change, and not everyone is happy. Closer to home, Conrad has to deal with the entombed Spirit of the old Warden, and far away on the other side of the Pennines, magick is stirring. Kathy Metcalfe hates her life at Beckthorpe Abbey, what with having to cook for all the recovering addicts, and she knows exactly how bad they are because she’s one herself. The only person at the Abbey who isn’t an addict is the oldest resident, Don Bell, and Don can’t speak. And then one night, strange lights drift across the lawn, and suddenly Don is a man with a mission. A mission to be rescued, if only he can find a way to send a letter… Not that Conrad has any clue about this. As far as he is concerned, getting to the church at all is going to be enough of a challenge, what with three gods insisting on wedding invitations and the mother and father of Hen and Stag parties to go first…It’s been a long wait since Conrad’s last adventure – catch up with all the news from Mark Hayden’s best-selling King’s Watch universe and meet old friends again. Follow Conrad, Mina and the gang as they prepare for the Wedding of the Century and grab a copy of the latest adventures in the King’s Watch.
What I Listened To: Lloyd Cole – She’s A Girl And I’m A Man (old awesomeness); Nick Leng – Trip to Mars; and CRi feat. Half Moon Run – Astray.
Thank you for playing Brain Drain! How are you, dearest ones? Darling DeadSplinterites, what’s going on? Please do share with us!
i finally read your witchy book 🙂
took me two nights….but only because i have to sleep before work too….hard to put down once you start it that one
thank you for giving me a book that was loads of fun and way out of my comfort zone (seriously….first thing the missus said was did you order the wrong book?)
not watched anything yet
and listening too….. well…if i can find half the joy this blind dude found in playing his guitar ridiculously well…..i will consider my life well lived
i am also still bouncy as fuck
Hi @Farscythe! 👋 so glad that the book worked for you. Next out-of-your-zone book recommendation, The Kitchen Witch by Delemhach. First in a currently four-book series. Not sappy romance. Great world building.
only one i can find is the house witch?
@Farscythe YES! The House Witch (who is a kitchen witch).
hokay….just ordered the first 3 out of 4…should arrive monday apparently….anyways….in ellie we trust
I’m right there with you! I recently finished The Very Secret of Irregular Witches. And was reminded that I have a kindle copy of the Kitchen Witch. Perfect for the season 🍁 🧹 ✨ 🍂
Reservation Dogs is headed into the final episode, and it’s been fantastic this season.
The latest episode is about one of the main characters needing to fill out a financial aid form for college, and without irony I have to say it’s incredibly moving. Half an hour flows by with barely a ripple and by the end you feel like you’ve been up and down a mountain.
This is on HBO? (Not a service I have access to.) You make it sound very enticing.
It’s on Hulu and one of the best shows ever made. It’s full of love, joy, and community in the face of tough times. There isn’t a single unlikable character. It’s so wholesome and still manages to be smart and funny.
I second this! Totally worth getting Hulu for a month.
It’s all that and it’s incredibly well structured. It’s an ensemble show that manages to balance a bunch of characters and storylines in a way that feels effortless and spontaneous but must have taken an enormous amount of thought.
If you’ve ever watched a show or read a book that starts out great but then falls to pieces because the writer didn’t know how to keep things together, this is the exact opposite. Reservation Dogs never cheats and goes to catch phrases, cheap fan service, superficial messages, blunt force symbolism. It’s brilliant but never feels like it’s trying to be.
I’m starting Reservation Dogs tonight on your recommendation.
Excellent @Hannibal, I think we may hulu.
Got S2 (and the final season it seems) of Winning Time and watched that while waiting for a caseworker to call about what to do with mom.
The interpersonal dynamics are what make the series.
At the time I was a Larry Bird “fan” because I could relate to a small town boy done good even if he were the whitest guy ever. I didn’t like/get the flash of the Lakers (but to be fair, I didn’t know shit about basketball.) As someone who appreciates smart approaches I’ve grown to really respect the dynamics they brought to change the NBA.
The transformation of caretaker/insecure coach who helped to usher in Showtime vs the egomaniac system pushing dickbag… Well, we know who the writers thought was the villain in the Westhead/Magic dynamic. To be fair, if the show is accurate, Magic had a point.
@ManchuCandidate, have you shared your report on your trip to DC? Your MegMegMcGee meeting? Inquiring minds ( who may have missed your prior feedback).
I just finished watching S2 of Winning Time. I really enjoyed that show. I am not prepared to believe that it is the final season. The series ending with the Celtics winning (spoiler alert!) is an abomination.
I started The Other Black Girl and am digging it.
I cannot fucking wait for The Fall of the House of Usher! What a stellar cast.
I started and gave up on AHS: Delicate. It’s about IVF which is not regulated enough in my opinion. Therefore it’s the perfect theme as many horror stories can be spun up from IVF. Too bad the writing is choppy and so is the acting… and for some fucking reason Kim Kardashian is acting in it.
How are you and the family feeling, @HammerZeitgeist?
We’re all feeling slightly better, thank you. We’re finally letting the kids play at the playground (masked) and picking up some fresh pastries to celebrate. Still testing positive for Covid but apparently that’s normal? I’m afraid that my loss of smell and taste will linger for months.
Oh, man… Having Covid is just so awful. I’m so sorry you’re all dealing with it. Did the baby get it, too?
When I had it, I had smell/taste back in about 2ish weeks. My sister, though, it took a few months, and my mom never lost hers at all. It’s so all over the place! I hope yours comes back soon.
Thanks @HoneySmacks I hope I get it back in a week or two. A decade ago I lost my sense of smell due to a random virus and it lasted for months. So I’m not too optimistic.
Yeah, babyHZ got Covid too and I had to take them to the hospital for a high fever. They are totally fine now 💜
I’m watching this too and really enjoying it. Like Lovecraft Country it’s unapologetically Black, it makes no effort to explain Black culture to us white people and to me that’s a feature not a bug.
Yes to all the above! They Cloned Tyrone is also FUBU like that. When my husband started that movie he didn’t get the tone. Then I mentioned that it’s FUBU and he restarted it and loved it. It’s immeasurably beneficial for everyone to decentralize the white (male) perspective and narrative.
I burned through AMC’s Interview with the Vampire this week. It hews much more closely to the original novel (which I read a LONG time ago), but there are some interesting updates. It’s not for the faint of heart though. Rice basically retconned Lestat into a good guy in later novels, but like I said, this is the character from the original book, and he ain’t a nice person.
I read do many books that I do not often remember the finer points when they are made into TV/movies. But I suspect that I’d remember this. Rice was such a prolific writer. Thirty years ago she even ventured into soft porn with her sleeping beauty trilogy.
…so…think I might have remembered to say I enjoyed strange new worlds a whole lot but was too busy being knee-deep in a mixture of toddlers, terriers, lego & birthday cake this time last week to mention I watched a thing called deadloch
…it’s…a bit like the brokenwood mysteries but aussie not new zealand…& leans a bit harder on the comedy angle
…a fair bit of the c-word which might be off-putting to some…but…I enjoyed it overall…there is an actual police procedural show under the stuff that’s played for laughs & both elements are at least not bad & blend into pretty good?
…also started some book about a period in chinese history when they were trying to oust the mongols in which (I think…my knowledge of the history doesn’t extend to the person they would have actually been if they were a real person) the protagonist is gender-swapped for a mulan type element…it’s called “she who became the sun” anyway & it’s at least as entertaining as the poppy war books
…catching up with lower decks, which I continue to enjoy…& caught up with ahsoka…which maybe still has slightly slower pacing than I’d prefer but seems to be pretty solid?
Terriers and toddlers, life could be worse? I’ve read and enjoyed The Poppy Wars. Did you recommend it? I’m ready a book now called Drunk on All Your Strange New Words, by Eddie Robson. So far, so good, and unique premise. Translation @Perdido for aliens 👽 is an actual job track, but it makes the human translators drunk. Resulting in falls, fights, and foux pas. @SplinterRIP hope that your day/evening is as good as possible!
Deadloch was a fun watch.
So I am hosting a small lunch for the 81st birthday of a family member, so I’ll be MIA for bit. And I am also rapidly becoming ill. (Meaning that I will be sequestering myself from her amap.) Small fever, shakes from being cold, snuffles. . . I think my neighbor may have given me the cold which her middle school son brought home to her. I hope this isn’t a second round of covid. We work together but the company is totally online, and between slack and huddle never see each other in person. Except . . . The AARP is contracting for so marketing and their systems are of an age that matches the retired persons whom they serve. So I met up with her in the front yard to hand over the printed firm which they required to be scanned and faxed. Who even knows why fax, this isn’t 1995.
Carry on, DS BrainDrainers!
I hope you feel better soon @Elliecoo! I recommend hot toddies.
@Hannibal thank you! Hot teddies for the win!
@hannibal remember when dealers were pros?
i just got cornered by some idiots telling me i didnt see anything
they fucked off when i pointed out i can see the plates on their scooters….
i miss the pros man….these fucking morons give me headaches
😂
Watched: I’m on a kick of going back and watching classic sitcoms from the 70’s. Started with the 800 pound gorilla: All In The Family. You know what? This show still holds up very well. Right wingers love to moan about how “comedy is dead” because they can’t say offensive shit that they mean to say and still get a laugh. I disagree that comedy is dead, but satire sure as shit is. Right wingers think a show like All In The Family is a documentary, and lefties are too busy clutching their pearls and writing stern letters to realize what’s really happening. Archie’s ignorance is there for all to see, and he is the butt of every joke–except for those where Mike’s own hypocrisy is displayed. Plus, there is so much in this show which is still absolutely relevant–like the episode where he goes on TV to suggest that the way to stop airline hijackings is to issue every passenger a gun when they get on the plane, and then collect it when they leave. The audience is howling with laughter because of just how fucking stupid this idea is…but we’ve got people putting forth similarly insane shit today–and they really mean it. The writing remains cutting edge, somehow, and I laughed way more than I expected watching this show.
As with many shows, it does start to weaken after the 5th or 6th season. The focus on the issues of the day has drifted, and the writing isn’t as sharp, but it was still plenty watchable. For you oldtimers, I would recommend watching it again. For you young whippersnappers, I strongly recommend reading the definition of “satire” before watching each episode.
Listened: Scott McKeon
@butcherbakertoiletrymaker 8 million years ago I saw The Ropers as a member of a live studio audience. It may have been a 3’s Company spin-off?
Yes, I remember seeing a few episodes of The Ropers. That was when Don Knots took over as the landlord on Three’s Company. The landlord for The Ropers was Jeffrey Tambor. Please don’t ask me how I can remember that, but not remember all of the important shit that blows past me on a daily basis.
I wish I watched the back of my eyelids yesterday on my 16 hour travel day but instead watched a few silly movies. One was Due Date w/ Zach Galifianakis & Robert Downey Jr. It has a few funny moments but was pretty dumb over all. Worst was Blended w/ Adam Sandler & Drew Barrymore. The only good part of that was Terry Crews. While on the trip in our 1400’s room in Bruges we watched In Bruges which was fantastic. Showed all the amazing places we went & had a great story. Super dark comedy like Fargo.
Read a bunch about this city since it was easily the most amazing part of my trip. Here’s a short history…
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/brugge-bruges-unesco-world-heritage-guide
I’m super tired and overwhelmed this morning and caught a cold the last couple days on the trip so now feel hung over. I have a bunch to do before going to Cali for funeral next weekend but I just want to watch college football and nap.
@Loveshaq welcome back, hope you feel better soon!
…in bruges is fantastic