Saturday Morning Brain Drain [29/8/20]

29/8/20 Elliecoo 29
Image from comedy.co.uk

What Keitel watched: (Disclaimer – Keitel doesn’t hate this show, but he mostly watched it because I begged him to find something so that I could finish this week’s Brain Drain.)

Agatha Raisin is a mystery series (really a spoof of the mystery series genre) featuring a bored amateur detective and her crew of assorted friends and associates (we are on season 3). Aside from the random weekly murder, there is the “fish out of water” byplay, as Agatha has moved from London to the Cotswolds. I find the lead character manic and annoying, and I loathe the clashing fashions and harsh makeup they put on the poor actress. (I am a terrible television fuss budget, which is odd since I’ll read pretty much anything as long as it is fluffy.)

Should you watch it? Meh, do you like sitcoms? This show calls for a drink that tries too hard, a truly pretentious cocktail…try a Blood and Sand, which according to the Cheapest Shot “roughly translates as: sex on the beach for posh tits”.

What I read: A novel by RJ Blain, Booked for Murder, the first and so far only book in her Vigilante Magical Librarians series. It is a delightful blend of magic, librarian humor, and old-fashioned murder mystery. The hero is a magical exsanguinater. So fair warning, much of the book was a set up for sequels – the mystery was not solved, the love interest remained unconsummated, and the murders continued – but I am okay with that. Now if I can only remember what happened in this book when book two comes out sometime in 2021…Should you read it? It is about vigilante magical librarians, of course you should.

What I listened to: Margin, by Beniot Pioulard, (Zachary Gray Remix)

The Wall and I by Nation of Language (they remind me a bit of New Order):

Egyptian Boogie by Richard Houghton:

So, darling DeadSplintertarians, please let us know what is going on – everything copacetic? How was your week? What did you watch, read, listen to, or do? What’s up with you???? Do tell…..

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About Elliecoo 563 Articles
Four dogs, one partner. The dogs win.

29 Comments

  1. The Asian guy is Shaggy, the goofy guy in the dark yellow checkerboard shirt is Scooby Doo, the clashy colored Debbie Harry look a like is Daphne, the guy behind her is Fred and the Thelma looking lady is Thelma.
    “Oh my word, Scoob.  It seems we have discovered some Scooby Snacks.”
    “Cheerio!”

    Or the Asian guy is Fred (hey why not) and the guy behind Daphne is Shaggy.

  2. I think I’ll skip Agatha Raisin, it sounds annoying.

    I didn’t watch anything new, a couple of episodes of things I already started – Grantchester, Marcella.

    I read Death in Her Hands by Ottessa Moshfegh. Moshfegh is a great writer, I like what she was going for here but I’m not sure this one completely worked. An elderly woman moves to an isolated cabin with her dog, and stumbles upon a mystery, maybe. It’s about loneliness and reclaiming your own narrative. I thought it okay until the ending which I found implausible but still very upsetting. Not my favorite work of hers.

    I’m listening to Shackelton and Zimpel Primal Forms, and enjoying it a lot.

     

     

    • I am dying of laughter right now. I started your recommended music and Bruce and Bill Chiweenie flipped right the heck out. They did NOT like that sound, at all. Then old Violet Chihuahua and old Emma Mutt joined the barking chorus, and life was loud!!!

  3. Still working my way through season 2 of both Star Trek Discovery and The Umbrella Academy. 
     
    My wife’s a librarian, so I will bring up Booked for Murder. I’ve let my novel reading slide for years now, which is ridiculous, since I can get literally anything I want for free. I mean, delivered. To my house. Or my tablet. I could not be more ashamed of my sloth. 

    • I have other books about librarians and magic, who knew that magic librarians were a niche genre? I have great affection for anyone who protects the written word and freedom of thought, so librarian novels are my jam. Hello to your wife!

      • …I think I already said Jasper Fforde for the Thursday Next books (starting with The Eyre Affair) since who can resist a world where Miss Haversham from Great Expectations is looking to borrow Chitty Chitty Bang Bang to race Toad of Toad Hall for the land speed record

        …but on a different tack the Carlos Ruiz Zafon series that begins with The Shadow of the Wind has a mystic library & is pretty great?

        https://g.co/kgs/3DYfko

        …don’t think I’ve watched much this week but did try season 2 of Altered Carbon…which is alright…but the first book was really the only one with a decent plot/structure so despite a pretty great cast it’s fairly missable in a bunch of ways?

        …& you can tell about where my playlist has been hanging around from the DOTs more than the DUAN, I fear?

    • Sometimes I need a new book and I’m so annoyed that I have to get on Overdrive and download one. And instead I read Am I the Asshole on Reddit. I share in your shame.

  4. reading..nada..
    watching…nada…
    listening…nada….well..nada new anyways…really..im quite bored here
    the world does not move at a pace capable of keeping me entertained…


    speedcore does tho…lol….also..i love the artist names…13 year old me is most entertained
    (but really…i actually enjoy the music)
    *bounces of the walls*

  5. Well, because I said I was curious about the ratings for the RNC’s final night, here we go. 
     
    Night four got 5.4 million viewers on the three major networks (ABC,NBC, CBS). Big Brother got 4 million viewers, which made it the most watched show (the three networks split the viewers, with ABC getting the most at 2.3 million).
    https://www.tvinsider.com/946439/big-brother-rnc-night-4-thursday-tv-ratings/
    In general, the DNC outperformed the RNC by a substantial margin. There’s an analysis here:
    https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-rnc-loses-bigly-to-bidens-dnc-in-tv-ratings?ref=scroll
    There is something deeply satisfying to me about Trump getting hammered in the ratings. I mean, he had only one thing that he was even remotely successful at, being on a shitty reality show, and now he’s getting bitten by the television that he fed. Worse, he’s getting beaten by reality TV, his old stomping grounds. 

    So what does the RNC do? Lol, you already know. They lie about it:
    https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/8/29/1973301/-Donald-Trump-s-convention-lost-the-TV-ratings-war-so-naturally-he-s-lying-about-it

    • The first post RNC poll is out and it’s a bad news-good news thing.
       
      The bad news is that Biden’s margin is down from 10 points to 6. The good news is that this isn’t a good post convention bump. McCain took the lead in 2008, and in 2016 Trump took the lead. Possibly more significant, when Clinton took the lead back a couple of weeks later, it was with only 43% of voters. Biden is now at 50% and undecideds are a lot lower overall than 2016.
       
      Of course, this is a national poll and doesn’t capture the Electoral College, nevermind that there is an unprecedented voter supression campaign and a virus running unstopped. So what any of this really means is unclear.

    • Do you like it? I have looked askance at the twin/evil twin/comic switcheroo twin plot ploy ever since the original Parent Trap. We will watch it, because we enjoyed the other seasons…

      • …there was a pretty great run of comics called Lucifer that spun off from Neil Gaiman’s run on The Sandman, which is where the resigning-from-hell bit came from…along with Mazikeen, who is one of the Lillim (which is a whole other thing)

        …so when I first came across it I was pretty disappointed…but it has a fair bit of charm…arguably the majority of which is down to to Tom Ellis…so it won me round in the end?

        …haven’t seen this latest season yet, though

         

  7. I WAS watching as much NBA as I could handle until I came home Wednesday from a really shitty day and was all excited for my Lakers game on the DVR.  I start fast forwarding thru the pregame show & it never ends!  I then check out ESPN to find out about the walkout.  Fuck!!!  I’ve waited too long for the Lakers to finally be back in the playoffs and now they were talking about ending the season again!!!  At least it is on again for the moment and I can look forward to coming home tonight and being able to watch it if the fucking cops can keep their guns in their pants for the rest of the day! 
    I’ve been listening to ska to get me to my happy place.  This is one of the newer ska bands that puts me in a happy place.


     

     
    Only reading I’ve been doing is news stories that stress me out, I probably need to stop.

  8. one more before I go, Half Past Two teamed up with Bite Me Bambi to do an awesome cover of one of my favorite Dance Hall Crashers songs…
     


     
     

  10. I plan on rewatching Black Panther tonight. I remember liking it a lot, but wondering who thought it was a good idea to give a big role to Martin Freeman as a good guy CIA agent.
     
    If anyone hasn’t seen 42, I recommend it. Boseman was really good as Jackie Robinson, and the movie is tightly focused on his first season with the Dodgers instead of doing the usual sprawling biopic thing, which almost always is a mess.

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