Review: I absolutely loved this accidental find on Apple TV that tells the funny, heartbreaking, romantic and inspiring stories of a number of different new American immigrants. Each episode is a standalone story of a true experience of immigrants from places such as Nigeria, Syria, China and Pakistan- in unexpected American locations like Oklahoma City, Topeka, Kansas and Boise, Idaho. The writing and acting (mostly unknowns with some special cameos thrown in) are wonderful and the stories are intimately uplifting chronicles of perseverance and friendship. Loved it. Second season coming this month.
Review: Picked up this book at a library sale because I liked the title (astute reasoning, I know). Dorris, the late husband of writer Louise Erdrich, and a professor of Indian studies at Dartmouth wrote his one and only novel in 1987- a fierce saga of three generations of Indian women, beset by hardships and torn by angry secrets, yet joined by the bonds of kinship. Starting in the present day and moving backward, the novel is told in the voices of the three women: fifteen-year-old part-black Rayona; her erratic and dying American Indian mother, Christine; and the fierce and mysterious aunt Ida, mother and grandmother whose haunting secrets, betrayals, and dreams echo through the years. The book took me a long time to respond to, and I almost quit it, but in the end, I thought it was compelling story and a taut look into the life of the modern Native American woman. Incredibly preserving group of women.
Review: Extremely profound and illuminating seven-part, 15 hour mini series from the masters of 21st century documentary- Burns and Novick. The series focuses on World War II in a “bottom up” fashion through the lenses of four “quintessentially American towns”: Luverne, Minnesota, Mobile, Alabama, Sacramento, California and Waterbury, Connecticut The series recounts the experiences of a number of individuals from these communities as they move through the war in the Pacific, African and European theaters, and focuses on the effect of the war on them, their families and their communities. Made in 2007, with the last of an elderly group of dying -off WW II vets. In times like ours, this experience cannot help but rekindle any lost sense of patriotism you may have. I dare anyone to watch these young American and British and their allies liberate the horrors of the camps or march down the Champs Elyse reclaiming Paris to the adulation of the hordes of victims. Extremely emotional experience that I found needed to be done in small segments, but worth every minute.
“Many a tear has to fall, but it’s all…in the game” ……………………………………………………………………………………The Four Tops
“Pipedreams and fantasy schemes; never turns out quite the way it seems” ……………………………………………Ferlin’ Norris
“What is the sound of one hand clapping?” ………………………………………………………………………………………………Are You Kidding Me?
I had big ambitions for the last waltz here…and time got away from me and Sunday became Thursday…and then Vermont became NY state…and here we are in our usual Binghamton haunts along the Ohio jaunts……. Coop Flyin’’ time, a bit of a blur…how ‘bout you, blurred?
Midterms are over……. could have been worse……. except…… in Ohio. What in the world is a JD Vance? Livin’ in purple tonight, but gonna get real red, real quick…. I can live with RED………just not (T)Rump-RED…..lets stick he and Desantis in The Cage and see what happens…a draw to the death?………… what a gift that would be? And maybe take Clarence Thomas in there with them?
But-I certainly digress. Kind of tired; kind of weary, bleary, teary……transitions kind of suck, and we make a royal habit of them.
Speaking of Royal, TQ made her rounds ere The Kingdom this week and sure kept us hoppin’ with lunch/ dinner gatherings for most of the last week-some with the old and loved, some with the new and who knows?
I’ll keep it brief and to the long elusive point:
Sundays are made for trips to the sausage maven at Honeypie and splendid walks along shores of recent drained Hapgood Pond
Once TQ gets to fixin, and into more fixin….…. the woman spent six hours cursing and trying to put up a state of the art motion light……and then tore into the electric fireplace…. gonna ship her off to Yellowstone to live with the kindred pioneer woman
THE POND peaked as were driving away today
It is mid-November and 75 degrees- lucky, lucky for us……. devastating for our grandchildren………but hey…it’s about now and about me, right?
We had dinner for the first time with The Mad Scientist and his Earthmover Trophy Wife…. with formal dinner service laid out (as in which fork do you use when?) ……and they had a massive GONG from a Tibetan monastery they bought while there, and had shipped home for some ungodly amount of drachma…and then…. had to go to the Newark Docks to see Tony Soprano and pay a daily Vig to get it……we’re going back to these people as soon as we return…. did I mention that Trophy Wife made a lamb cassoulet type thing………Bang a Gong, Big Tony……?
If you ever got drugs form Merck (not your street dealer who drives an ancient Mercury sedan…. the giant Pharma pesticide), you may want to look into their contributions to the Aryan war effort ant to DA Fuhrer-fuckhead…. Merck Jerks……
Got to gather with the Erstwhile Russian Spy, the World’s Most Beloved School Marm, the Masseuse in the Trailer, the Prince of the Spectrum People and the Empress of General Electric (Ret.) ……. this last week before we left…which is lot of dishes to wash…
Had final Monday night pickin and grinnin this week…with more tears shed…as well as chocolate cupcakes……which go only moderately well with fine bourbon……. but we were out the door with the tunes
And……… the Dumpmaster would not let go of TQ at the last dump trip….…had to beat him back with a bamboo stick……got a nice dump-dropped bike out of the deal
Go to go find dinner…thinkin’ Lebanese in Vestal…. there is song there, no….…back in the saddle again….
May you winter be divine and may the wind take your troubles away……I’ll catch you on the other side.
Notable People: Leonard, John Cale, Jeff Buckley, Sharon Robinson, Directed by: Daniel Geller, Dayna Goldfine
Title:Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song
Review: The story of the most recorded song in history and its brilliant and complex maker is a fantastic journey. If you don’t know much about Leonard, don’t miss this chance; one of eh most iconic figures of our times. If you already know the man, just sit back and enjoy. Scrupulously done with great and insightful commentary and spectacular music. Leonard was on a different plain and this song that he spent somewhere between 7-9 years composing (with ultimately as many as 70 verses) reflects the man and his muse in every way. The early footage of him will make you speculate if he was not Pacino’s inspiration for Michael Corleone. I have loved this man for years, and that only grew after watching this……and I mean love, not like, love. The film has won all kinds of awards and is around at art houses if you can catch it, but we got the local library to get it for us on DVD. Hallelujah!
Review: An extraordinarily rich book by this Vermont author (and former sports writer) given to me as a reading assignment from our German academic friends before they left for the winter for Deutschland. Wolff is the grandson of Kurt Wolff, a very famous 20th century German (later NY) publisher who published the discontented likes of Kafka, Sartre, Herman Hesse and Boris Pasternak- and was involved in Nazi resistance. He eventually escaped to France and then to New York, with his second wife, Helen, and together they created the very famous Pantheon Books in Greenwich Village. Kurt left his first wife, a Merck, in Berlin with their two children; Nico, who is the author’s father, stayed in Germany, and fought for the Nazis in the Wehrmacht, bur eventually emigrated to the US (once forgiven by the War tribunals as a helpless conscript) and hid his past. Alexander spent years and many trips to the homeland researching this book, and it is a fascinating family portrait, an informative treatise on war, and a very revealing take of the modern day German angst, guilt and defensiveness. Extraordinary insight into the powers behind the Fuhrer’s ascent and especially the role of the Merck Pharmaceutical power house and its cronies. Very powerful book.
Notable People: Ben Miller, Emma Naomi, Barney White, Sarah Woodward, Created by: Matt Baker
Title: Professor T
Review: another in a long line of offbeat mysteries from PBS Masterpiece, the brilliant Ben Miller (Death in Paradise) plays Professor Jasper Tempest, a genius criminologist at Cambridge who has major OCD (wears gloves at all times) and an overbearing mother. He reluctantly (and often hilariously) assists the police in solving bizarre crimes. It is an adaptation from a Belgian TV series of the same name – but the original is not nearly as good without the eccentric Miller. A second season is already playing on the BBC but not yet on PBS. Miller makes it worth watching.
Notable People: Jeremy Allen White, Ebon Moss- Bachrach, Ayo Edebiri, Lionel Boyce, Lisa Colon-Zayas, Created by: Christopher Storer
Title: The Bear
Review: Love this half hour knockout series that blends max intensity with high doses of comic relief. White almost reprises his wonderful Lip character from Shameless though even a bit more on the edge. The supporting cast is a magnificent ensemble, and you can’t make a show any more /Chicago than this. Filled with foodie dreams, gangsters, bums and the meshing of the world of haute cuisine with Italian beef- this is not to be missed. As second season is a lock. Hard to not love this one.
Notable People: Matt smith, Eve Best, Paddy Considine, Olivia Cooke…and cast of thousands Created by: George RR Martin, Ryan Condal
Title: House of the Dragon
Review: What’s not to like? Dragons, deceit, drama, cuckoldry, heads falling left and right, mystical medicine men, bloodletting, children with big swords……set 200 years before Game of Thrones, the show is the origin story for all the families and the history of the coveted Iron Throne that we became acquainted with the groundbreaking GOT show. The cinematography is magnificent, the sets and costumes beyond compare and the acting almost Shakespearian. The hour is over before you know it. Feeling certain there is a next version to come in this veritable goldmine for HBO. And, man, how about them dragons?
“Where have all the flowers gone, long time passing” ……………………………………………………………………Pete Seeger
“There is no poetry where there are no mistakes” ………………………………………………………………………….Joy Harjo
“The aim is to balance the terror of being alive with the wonder of being alive” …………………………Carlos Castaneda
Say it ain’t’ so…Joe…. where was the Papi-San blog last week? Did you mourn? Did you kvetch? Was your day or week thrown off” ……. ah….my fantasies are a life of their own. Truth is we went from a swag up the coast of Maine to the kids visiting…. to our last dance up in the non- tropical Islands…. stayin’ alive…. ooh, ooh, ooh…. stayin’ alive….
I just edited 300 pictures down to around 70- so please accept this as a small gift…. but then again, it is both Autumn in the Majestic Greens as well as having my babies here with us for five days…does it get better?
Spent the early part of week before last gazing at the last of the leaves on the Mount, and taking advantage of a string of 70 plus days to winterize the property…tho tempting to jump in for a brisk dip in the now miraculously almost full POND……where did it come from? Where has it been?
Daughter Tessa, Grand-kin Sloanie-Baloney and my Great (not an adjective, necessarily) Niece, Lena- all arrived at Albany international (yes-it truly is) last Friday. We had four fun filled days with the wonder-children in between four-year-old toddler meltdowns…culminating in our stumbling on to a giant parking lot pig, which Sloanie alternated screaming: “I want to see the pig” with “I hate the pig” …whilst Papi drove around the pig in circles trying to figure out what to do. The weather was magnificent, and we had picnics, and sparkles, and trunk or treating, and bonfire with s’mores and jumping in leaf piles and a trip to the pool, and a walk on the Appalachian Trail with swinging bridge and river rock skimming…and daily visits from the birthday fairy…suffice to say we were all exhausted each evening, and then retired to have Sloanie sleep in the big bed with Nana, Papi and Lucy….and lovingly/sleepingly kicking and pulling Papi- hair much of the night….light sleeper…but had a wonderful visit…
Has anyone watched Ted Lasso? I’m still laughing at 3 am after watching…………………
After last gasp birthday dinner- party for the BIG 4 YO, we headed back down to Albany on Tuesday on another drop dead gorgeous day to put kids on flights, and got back in time to take TQ’s car in for fixin’ after three months of trying to find someone to do it…. you know the drill…supply chain….no employees…blah…blah…blah…. Wednesday we took off for our annual Island jaunt and found to our amazement, that even the northernmost part of Vermont, right up by Canady was almost peak color…. still!…….. maybe the lake effect?….and…it was 76 degrees….and….there were no other souls in sight as we traipsed through multiple state parks, dunes, picnic lunches and hung at our beloved Cozy Cottage right on the the Big C. lake….which is at Grand Isle, Vermont, which we learned is the exact half way point between the Equator and the North Pole….who knew…and where else you gonna get this kind of knowledge?….A Nor’easter blew in overnight Wednesday- so Thursday dawned 30 degrees cooler, but sunny and bright and we toured the isles to see if we could find a road we had not yet been on after 20 years of traipsin’ (not really) and found our favorite chicken farm and apple orchard…scored the legendary smoked chicken pot pie from the Happy Bird Farm….OY………..
After a stop at Hackett’s Orchard for the requisite cider donuts, we headed home Friday, moseying down scenic mountain Route 116 and doing chores along the way…picking up an astoundingly completed car (at a third of the Ohio quoted prices…in a mountain garage that can fit but one car inside and 65 outside on some form of blocks)- and got home to start our inescapable march towards Heartland time, in ten days or so….
Da Lucy and I discovered a pining (for TQ) Dumpmaster Saturday morning, and a new dirt road, and though the leaves are beyond help, it was a gorgeous fall day walk over a small mountaintop…. today I think we go see the sausage mavens down Stratton and take advantage of the extended crazy nice weather for a ramble…………by the shores of gitchee- goomey……
Is Clarence Thomas a real human being?
Are the Cavs for real?
Can The Queen leave The Mount and the cardboard yard massacre?
Keep tuned in for the answers to these and almost ALL questions of merit…or ask your own…or find a bone…. or seedy sown…but not alone…the way is shown….and now I’m goin’……
