What I watched: Mrs. Butcher and I saw “Nomadland”, which is about a lady (Frances McDormand) whose entire town falls apart when the mine shuts down, so she goes on to live the Van Life. Along the way she runs into a community of Van People that are constantly crossing each other’s paths. The main character turns out to be surprisingly self-centered. It’s interesting, in an Art Film sort of way. Would I watch it again? Probably not. Should you watch it? Sure. Whatever.
What I read: “Big Game – The NFL in Dangerous Times” by Mark Leibovich. Leibovich isn’t a sports writer, but a political writer, which made the book more interesting for me. It was neither full of access peddling Rah Rah, nor was it a 350-page screed about the evils of the NFL. It was a funny, and pretty blunt, look at the 2016-18 seasons, and has direct interviews with the likes of Goodell, Brady and a few others. The author places himself directly in the midst of the story telling, so he’s not a disinterested 3rd party—which also means that he is free to express both his fandom and his horror in equal measure. This is my favorite passage in the book, relating a visit with Jerry Jones in his tour bus (after Jerry had downed roughly an entire bottle of Johnny Walker Blue):
It’s important to have fun, Jones said, becoming philosophical. He’s always managed to enjoy his various undertakings. As a young man, Jones said he did a stint as a shoe salesman, which he also loved. He then said something about “spending the afternoon masturbating over selling shoes.”
Wait, WHAT?
“I’ve sold shoes,” Jones said again, “and I’ve masturbated in my shoes.”
Okay then.
What I listened to this week: You know, as varied as my musical tastes are, I’m not the most open to new things. That’s probably due to my general “change is bad” philosophy of life. In fact, most of the new music that I have listened to over this past year has been due to you fine folks. But, according to my “recents” list, I spent a fair amount of time listening to Colin James:
Sugar Pie DeSanto:
Pink Floyd:
and Bill Evans:
So, nothing new. But it’s my playlist so go piss up a rope if that’s not hip and edgy enough for you kids.
I’m writing this on Thursday because I took the day off and I won’t have time between now and Saturday at 10am to put this together. I was driving this morning to get some blood drawn for labwork. I’m driving on a four-lane road when I approach a red light that then turns green. The left lane has a car and a pickup truck sitting there. The right lane is clear. So, I signal into the right line to swing by them. Well, it seems that the fucking redneck cocksucker in the truck decided that THIS MUST NOT STAND. He fucking floors it and literally (literally) runs me off the road, coming within bare inches of my car. Then he makes a point of driving five miles an hour below the speed limit so that I’m forced to stay behind him. I promise you that this fucking piece of shit is a Trump voter. If I was stupid, I would have followed this fucking asshole shitbag motherfucker to wherever he was going and then confronted him about it. But you know and I know that a useless, ball licking, knuckledragger like this very likely keeps a gun on him at all times—because no way this asswipe fucknut would feel empowered to be such an over the top, shit eating, bastard when someone does something so egregious as attempting to pass them in an open lane. Without that gun, this donkey-dick-sucking fuckbag is terrified of the world around him. I hope that worthless sonofabitch dies in a fire.
Tell us all about it. What did you read/watch/listen to this week? Any stupid shit that stuck in your craw? Lay it all out here, because it’s (well, it’s going to be when this posts) Saturday and now’s the time to spew your invective about the unfathomable rudeness of the human race in all its vile stupidity. Purge yourself today, so you’ll have the rest of the weekend to prepare to act like you don’t want to let loose a primal scream at work on Monday.
Read: John Connolly, A Game of Ghosts. Part of the Charlie Parker series, which are mysteries full of supernatural elements. I missed the Happy Hour last night, but Connolly also wrote The Book of Lost Things, which reads like a Grimm’s tale and is pretty fun.
Watched: Homicide: Life on the Streets, season 3. About halfway through. I don’t know how Andre Braugher didn’t win an Emmy every year. Frank Pembleton is one of the most memorable characters on television. Been watching a lot of the Six Nations Rugby Tournament. They took last weekend off but they’ll be back at it today. NBC Sports Network in the U.S. I also found a finish carpenter’s You Tube channel that is deeply satisfying to watch. The guy is truly an artist.
Listened to: whatever pops up randomly from the USB stick in my car. Have a slice:
“Homicide” is what turned me into a huge Andre Braugher fan.
I really wanted to watch Brooklyn 99 when it came out, but I found the other male lead to be smarmy and unlikeable.
Andy Samberg (I had to google…)?
yeah, I don’t much care for him, and I pretty much watched Brooklyn 99 despite him. The rest of the cast was pretty great, though.
He has kind of a David Spade vibe. I fucking despise David Spade.
He’s another one I can’t stomach…
Homicide was prestige TV before there was such a thing. Great writing, complex characters, and Andre Braugher was incredible.
yowza, driving is one thing I do not miss in the WFH world. Between MA drivers and NH drivers every outing turns into an adventure.
Watched: Another version of Anna Karenin, for science, a miniseries with Helen McCrory as Anna. It was ok, they got the drug addiction part right, but McCrory as a femme fatale? I’m not buying it. Douglas Henshaw was a really good Levin, though, which led me to watch Black Work on Acorn. Meh, I got through 2 episodes, there’s nothing really wrong with it, but…I hate the lead’s hair cut, and for a cop she’s so stupid, and the BF and the husband look so much alike I can’t tell if I’m watching the present or a flashback.
I didn’t read anything nor listen to anything. My tinnitus is really bad this winter.
Yesterday I fielded a phone call from the same guy on the same subject that we have discussed either on the phone or via email at least 5 times. I even got my boss to weigh in last week. Somehow, I managed not to lose it and we ended the convo with him being satisfied with the do nothing scenario for now. Big step for me as I tend to get a bit testy when asked the same question over and over again, like my answer is going to change.
Misfits market sent me cilantro instead of parsley and I almost chopped it up and added it to my fingerling potatoes which would have pissed me right the fuck off, whew.
OTW – all well at Chez Sedevilc.
Did you ever see the HBO miniseries “Catherine the Great,” with Helen Mirren? That was “Great,” I thought. A little sensationalized, obviously, but the acting, setting, and costuming were outstanding. I think it was actually very perceptive in some ways, perhaps even unknowingly.
Yeah, no, it would appear to be right up my alley but there was something about it I couldn’t get into.
Yeah, you’ve got to watch out for that Italian parsley, which looks so much like Cilantro. Of course, one quick whiff is enough to tell the difference between a fine herb and a bunch of garbage harvested from the Bog of Eternal Stench.
I know, right? Italian parsley is pure trash.
@Sedevilc I forgot to ask earlier: how are you enjoying Misfits Market? What are the pros and cons? We have a super productive garden every year so not sure if this would work for us doing the growing season.
@butcherbakertoiletrymaker On the whole I like it very much, I am adapting to its quirks. For example, I get paid once a month and got into the habit of grocery shopping once a month, so, 10 lbs of potatoes or onions, large bags of apples and oranges. With Misfits Market, and I’m getting the smaller box every other week, you get small amounts of alot of things and that took some getting used to. The fun bit is you get to try vegetables you ordinarily wouldn’t buy. I’ve been doing it less than a year and I’ve eaten 5 different kinds of radishes. Who knew?
I will note that they screw up on a fairly regular basis, like this week the cilantro instead of parsley, but if you email them they will discount the next box and refund the money. Beware of the marketplace! That is where you can add things to the basic box. My personal pitfall!
Let me just add that the quality of the misfits market produce has been outstanding. So far the weirdness has been size related, like 1 ginormous beet, tiny lemons, once a grapefruit the size of an orange, stuff like that, but perfectly fresh and delicious.
Started watching Lovecraft Country. I’m enjoying the all Black cast, social commentary, and of course the unreal feeling of monsters and magic woven in-between.
I also started Ginny and Georgia. Some have likened it to a dark Gilmore Girls. I would say it’s like GG meets Desperate Housewives.
Thank you for today’s Brain Drain, @ButcherBakerToiletryMaker. It is a pleasure to read! I may know someone who feels as you do about idiots who drive poorly…as I remind him, deep breath, you are the better person.
As I do not leave the house, I am boring. We just started season 3 of the Expanse. Oh my, so good, but I still get the full body clutch during the walking in space scenes. I like Bill Evans a bunch, added him to my playlist. I am listening to Alberto Bof as background music for work. Here is Delv!s, Brother.
After all these plugs for The Expanse over the past couple of weeks, I decided to add it to my queue. I’ll probably start watching it after I’m done with Fargo.
You won’t be sorry. Just get past the episode one, season one. Give it two or three episodes to fully ripen and addict you. Also, as it has moved along, there is a little more humor, very deadpan…
…so I feel like I definitely watched some stuff but can’t bring much of it to mind so it can’t have been very good…been on a bit of a netflix run since amazon stopped having new expanse to offer & I must have watched something dumb because the algorithm is throwing wall to wall rubbish action movies at me in a fashion that would imply desperation if it were a person
…there was a sort of entertainingly dumb french one called lost bullet & a completely insane one with tony jaa & the guy from the raid called triple threat…the kind of thing where the crew of evil mercenaries concerned about a couple of people being able to identify them decide that the thing to do about that is to storm a police station where they’re in custody & murder every cop in the place in broad daylight with a bunch of loud automatic weapons…because that’s how to stay anonymous…which kinda made me want to re-watch ong-bak except that would probably just encourage the algorithm
…randomly stumbled across a 70s pam grier movie called coffy that was…not her best work
…mostly this was just stuff to have on in the background while I did something else but I think I need to thank @farscythe because kipo & the age of the wonderbeasts seemed positively coherent after that lot
I am a huge fan of early 70s Pam Grier. She’s a Hollywood workhorse and shows up all over the place; her imdb page is quite extensive. Have you ever seen 1970’s (as in, from the year 1970) “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls”? She has a bit part and shows up in a macramé top…memorable.
…I think I have seen beyond the valley of the dolls…but a long time ago…& I agree pam grier is great…coffy just didn’t strike me as one of the best options among the film’s she’s been in was all
Thank you for Triple Threat. Somehow the Netflix algorithm failed me in the opposite way and this one flew under my radar.
…well, yay for that…there’s a few on there with iko uwais (whose name escaped me earlier) & actually with a little digging netflix is surprisingly not bad for kung fu flicks…& a few decent hong kong cinema efforts like the original infernal affairs…the one everyone thought was oscar worthy once they remade it with hollywood types & called it the departed
I watched a lot of NBA this week. I’m looking for some good movies/shows to watch with the wife.
I resisted the temptation to watch The Chronicles of Riddick – again. Not sorry, it’s so damn entertaining. My taste: bad movies/good books; expensive beer/box wine; fancy skin care/sweats from Ocean State Job Lot.