Notable People: Sam Elliott, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Isabel May, Lamonica Garrett, Created by: Taylor Sheridan
Title: 1883
Review: The cosmic cowboy origin story of the hit Paramount series, Yellowstone, is a pleasant surprise. A sweeping western featuring Elliott and a reluctant McGraw leading a bunch of in- over- their heads German immigrants on a massive trail ride from south Texas to the sweet valleys of the Willamette in Oregon, is nothing if not a frank and brutal telling of what these ambitions resulted in. Sam is Sam- just getting older, but still the best cowboy in the biz; McGraw is a shocking revelation- an absolute born natural worthy of award think. newcomer May is a heartbreaker I every sense of the word. Hill does not have the same acting genes as her husband, but is ok. You will feel like you have been through the trail drive yourself when it is over. Maybe get carried away in the end in sappiness, but still well worth it. Majestically shot and scored. I’d be shocked if there is not a next edition to continue to set the historical stage for the Yellowstone of today- quite the franchise happening here. We don ‘t have this network for streaming so got the DVD set from our local library.
Notable People: Jella Haase, Dmitrij Schaad, Julius Feldmeir, Created by: Hanno Hackfort
Title: Kleo
Review: After the fall of the Berlin Wall, a former spy killer is set free and embarks on a revenge spree against the people who conspired to betray her. That basic plot hardly describes this absolutely wacko dramedy from Germany. Haase as Kleo is so over the top nuts that she is fascinating-a combination of the mad hit woman from Killing Eve and Uma Thurman in Kill Bill, but even more unpredictable. And, Schaad is the perfect foil as the bumbling West German cop trying to get a real case. The show goes all over the continent and at times you will just laugh out loud. Really bizarre- but a lot of fun. Second season is a no brainer.
Review: Penny continues to put out one brilliant Armand Gamache mystery after another. This is her 2021 published book chronicling the effects of the Pandemic and post-pandemic life is Quebec. As usual the mystery is world influencing, the characters are beyond brilliant and the settings sublime. Who would not want to live in Three Pines…well, maybe if you are squeamish about small village murders. Gamache remains one of the best characters in my reading history-a philosopher and reflector for the ages. As usual the boo includes some very real historical references that will shock you. I struggled a bit with her projected (maybe Pollyanna) projection of the pandemic being fully resolved by a wiling populace being fully vaccinated and there no longer being any threat (life fully normalized)- but maybe, that’s just Canadian? I parse these books out periodically to hopefully never quite catch up with the end. Great reads; you’ll want to be off to Quebec this winter.
“Endless is my vow under the azure sky boundless autumn” ……………………………………………….Soen Roshi
“Master your instrument, Master the music, and then forget all that bullshit –and just play!” ……………Charlie Parker
“I started a joke……………. that had the whole world laughing” ……………………………………………………………Herman
Though tempted to let this week’s dazzling photo array stand on its own and speak for itself…. a few, just a few… words might be prudent………
The Queen capped her Cider Daze extravaganza last Sunday as a massive success; over a 1000 people per day, many sheckles for the Association coffers, and busloads of happy leaf peepers from the burbs….and don’t forget……The Cow Plopped this year….so a success by all standards……went over on Sunday just to hang for a bit with the Jewish Pig Farmer…. but not nearly as nice a day and came home to nap out the afternoon………….
When my niece and nephew were here, we found a new dirt road to meander- Packard Road – with a wonderful 1700’s family cemetery. While in the midst of nowhere, Papi had to go…. really had to go……so off to the fields he went to plop with the cows……Fast forward a week……and TQ takes da Lucy up for a walk…..now, being a relentlessly devoted roller, what does she find?………….TQ had to go to the to nearby farm for a hose down….. needless to say, to allow stinky admittance to the car……A man and his dog…….
Car drama in the Greens continued this week, when I dropped my car off for body work last Friday and been without ever since….my kingdom for an available rental car, sire……one car in The Mount, less than ideal………
But for Wednesday through Friday- was irrelevant, as we packed up for annual Mainer jaunt. …holy cow……72 degrees, bright sunshine, cloudless sky…. For the magnificent drive across Live Free or Die, and on to the Coast……hit several old forts in Kittery, then on to Wells for luncheonette fish sandwiches….and the tedious late afternoon drive up Route 1 to our motel cabin, which Papi booked thinking it was a different one…about 30 tedious miles south…are we there yet?…………..settled in quaint knotty pine cabin with the three of us immediately eying the limited bed space and assessing the likelihood of taking over the bed………………………………
Has anyone watched Derry Girls on Netflix yet……the nonstop muttering uncle, guaranteed to put any reasonable person to sleep, is worth the admission price.
Oops, got distracted………found Old Orchard Beach with its empty tourist streets and ghost of an amusement park…and its legendary AAA minor league baseball team since the 1950s…who can resist major resort areas in no man’s off season. Back to cabin and across Route 1 to little Thai joint………………………………with absolute best duck dish of all time, in drunken noodles…. CRISPY……yes, yes, yes, yes……
And, is anyone keeping up with the baseball playoffs?………….Go politically incorrect TRIBE….and the Paradise Padres……. whoda thunk?…….
Day two of Papi’s Big Adventure involved 7 hours of striving in circles up and down the southern Maine coast-mostly in futile search for the perfect Lobsta Roll……which we did not find…… but hit the animal sanctuaries, wooded sunlight walks, the ancestral Winslow Homer digs…. and the coming first wind wave of the approaching nor’easter (foreshadowing here) ……in amazing breakout, we had three restaurant meals in one day……eclipsing more than we have had in a given month since The Plaque arrived…..breakfast Diner hash…..unlikely Mexican Tacqueria for shrimpy lunch…..and classic fish house for din-din…all allowing us to freely cavort with the many maskless of our tribe….no Plaque here, my friends…..
Friday arrived with the promised rain and bluster….and oh, those Maine winds…all we could do to move the car away from the coast, and into the safety of the mountains…with a Live Free or Die- Claremont stop for shop and the world’s best subs….here I found the holy grail Lobsta Roll, masquerading as lobster salad…..back in our woods, we hit glorious sunshine and got in a walk in the perfect light of fall afternoon fade at the Ludlow cemetery, with the flaming colored ski slopes of Okemo in the vista…and then home to rest period. Saturday chore day- last mow of the season…and more cardboard yard murder by TQ……with late day walk up lovely dirt road and first trip in ages to beloved East…but skipped DA Duck……did not want to compare with Maine-Thai perfection……
May be a late edition next week as Tess, Sloane and Lena-BoBeema are all arriving Friday for last of fall weekend…makin’ al list –checkin; it twice…and the Big Girl hits the big 4 Y/O today…. WOW…….
Review: This 1994 novel is the third installment in Leon’s wonderful series featuring Commisario Guido Brunetti foe the Venice Policia. Brunetti is a great character-thoughtful, wise and incredibly ironic. The commentary on the state of Italian life, culture and government is worth it alone foe these reads. And, Leon winds in masterful mysteries full of offbeat characters. This one I tackled the underside of sexual identity way before it’s time and will keep you guessing to the end. This series is major keeper for those of us who like serial reading, mysteries and enigmatic characters-plus its lovingly set in Venice, in all its glory. You can almost feel the gondola ride.
My, My…. Hey, Hey………Chilly nights are here to stay
Hey, Hey…. My, My………Fallen leaves can make you cry
Well- short week since last missive…. lots of fall- doins-activities culminating in the annual explosion of Cider Daze….The Queen not to be found for days on end….so am going to let the pictures speak, have rest before resuming the vigil- and here are the very few things I learned this week:
Tho I finally found someone to repair my injured vehicle, after five weeks of insurance haggling, there are no cars to be rented in these parts over Indigenous Peoples weekend…. I can’t believe I used that…much prefer Columbus the Killer weekend or just The Tribe weekend….. but then my PC is on the low end as you know
Speaking of The tribe (not The ridiculously named Cleveland Guardians…. THE TRIBE) …they now got the Damn Yankees…. Prediction: upset in five
Vermont is so progressive they are going to try and pass a constitutional amendment allowing three year olds to have abortions (there he goes again)!…….promoted by a Republican governor, yet….
Drought, smought…no one ever really knows about Fall foliage-this may be best year in decades
ONE Degree of Separation- turns out one of the guys I play with (music, not sandbox) has played with Jerry Garcia and is related by marriage to Diana Ross…No Shit
Weatherman don’t really know shit- I dressed in five layers for the predicted barely-cracking- 40 set on the Green for Cider Daze…. turned out to be perfect fall day- 55, hot sun, no wind…was down to civvies by the end…
Covid is apparently done- as a thousand mad hatters from Jersey and Connecticut showed up north on the village green yesterday without a care…. eating, singing, yodeling, communing intimately in all ways
And, then after paying 3 hours of music, went to work the community supper in the uber-Oddfellows Hall- packed to the brim with maskless fools and berserkedly eating family style and screaming for more-……. immediately went back to car to get my n-95…can anyone say Super-Spreader?
And the Family Johnson, who provide Old Nellie for the annual Cow Plop contest (developed and orchestrated by Her Queeness) have a son named Jeremiah….shit you not….and it is perfect
And…old Bessie indeed Plopped on cue this year, making first day of the festival a resounding success
A group of unpaid, and unpracticed 70 year olds can still rock out
A God- Day arose yesterday y form the ashes of The Plaque
Long Live The Queen
That is really it….an American dream in full fruition…….Ferlin’
“I knew nothing but shadows and thought them to be real” …………………………………………………………Oscar Wilde
“When you can bear your own silence, you are free” ……………………………………………………………………. Mooji
“I do not seek; I find” ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………Picasso
Autumn burst on the proverbial scene this week- after deluding the mountain folk into thinking too dry, too wet, too cold, too hot…this is the year it will just skip us by….NOT…one day it looked washed out and seemed to be going from Green to Brown…the next day , the hills were alive with the sound of music……Had my eldest niece and nephew in this week from NC and a lot was done…so got way behind….and you wondered where the Hell I was on Sunday….well….Truckin’….got my chips cashed in Keep Truckin’, like the do-dah man… Together, more or less in line……
So, not got much in the tank at the moment…. like nada, no-mas, zilch, nuthin’, negatory, Namaste, nevah……gonna let the pictures tell most of the story, story…with few notes on NanaPapiland adventures to perhaps clarify…. or more likely confuse…
Spent days this week trying to find lunch……where have all the cafes gone…with the Covid wind……supplies, employees, excuses……holy mackerel…. can’t get a bugger…
The mountains are a rugged place for car repair, insurance settlements, computer fixin, phone doins…and nasty Cell service…but the Gods aligned his week, and we now have signal…an actual signal…. A real signal……holy cows…. (but sacrificed the printer connection to get it) ….no free lunch…
The Southies up the hill are still crazy after all these years…and hate to be called Southies…sorry ‘bout that…………………….
We may yet have ice skating this winter in da pond….
Storms wreak havoc, no???……
New Hampshire 300-year-old churches are the majordomo of rummage sales….
The Dumpmaster rides again….
What beats happy hour duck- deluxe at the Homestyle Hostel?……..
Well…maybe a post-happy visit to the Fah-Mas Mah-ket and some fried chicken from Schwan’s (previously Shaw’s) and dinner on TV tray tables –and baseball- by the fire….
Real Mets fans are fuckin’ nuts…………
Toolin’ #1- open studio weekend in central Vermont…. throw me sum pots……glaze me sum glass……. freewheelin’ thru’ Wallingford, Rutland, Fair Haven, Poultney, Castleton…. majestic mountain names…….and splendid late season Creamees at Lac Bomoseen……and then…. the glow of autumn lite on the ride home…. oh, mama…………….
Toolin’ #2- hidden Packard road dirt walks with the 1700s family cemetery on a fall morning, pickin apples from the stolen tree for crisp, Tap to Table festival in bright sunshine Sunday glow…listen to the music…
Oh, how we danced……the kid’s anniversary dinner with special Vermont vinery, red gravy extravaganza from Sal’s……dinner by candlelight in front of the roaring fire…. Bing Crosby, anyone?
Toolin’ #3- morning in classic (tho tourist-crazzy) Woodstock, the splendor of Queeche Gorge, Route 100 majesty, on up to the gilded gold-domed palace of the people’s house in Montpelier, spectacular burgers at Buddy’s’ Famous (Lucy welcome) …and then…the coup de grace……… of the Italianate onliest Hope Cemetery…
And lest we not forget the sparkle Barn sparklin’’
Now it time to say goodbye to all out fam-a lee….M I C…see ya real soon……K E Y…why, because we love you……
Notable People: Mohammad Amer, Teresa Ruiz, Omar Elba Created by: Mohammad Amer, Ramy Youssef
Review: Every once in a while I find we need comic relief from the crime, war and interpersonal dramas that we watch, so we often turn to Netflix for half hour lite. This one was a really good surprise. Crated by Ramy (who has his own half hour Palestinian comedy) and Amer, who stars in the show- and is somewhat of a cult standup comic in the American- Arab community. The fictional Mo is a Palestinian refugee, living in Houston, one step away from asylum on the path to U.S. citizenship, who straddles the line between two cultures, three languages and “a ton of bullshit.” Amer is a very funny guy though I am sure I miss some of the inside humor as an American white guy. This show does for Arabs and olive oil what My Big Fat Greek Wedding did for Greeks and Windex. And, amazingly, features the superb one off “Elon Musk jizzing Teslas into space” , though maybe it does not ring as well without context…laughed a lot-worth a watch.
“With no bird singing, the mountain is yet more real” ……………………………………………………………Zen Master
“Got a good reason- for taking the easy way out, now” …………………………………………………………Lennon/McCartney
“My poop in the woods was most satisfying” …………………………………………………………………………The Queen
Floatin’ like a butterfly…. stingin’ like a Bee….as autumn continues its very slow momentum at emerging in the mountains. Still a hit or miss whether the Foliage will explode late this year, or just mutedly fade away in pastel-like solemnity…. damn drought……though there have been a few real rain soakers over the last two weeks, which has The Pond smiling again, as it has risen to only being about 2.5 feet down from its all-time record low…and…… we are having to resume cutting grass again….no climate change here…
Started the week with Sunday dinner with The Erstwhile Russian Spy and The World’s Most Beloved School Marm, which was delightful…. TQ made some form of yogic enchiladas and TWMBSM, who is always on a meditative, healing diet, still found it in her heart to create a magical dessert of some kind that somehow was still in the generally healthy realm (no ask- no tell) …………………………………………
Tuesday, we took off for our first Fall- Outing of the year…up to The Northeast Kingdom, in search of the Woodchuck Mafia. Though it was predicted to be rainy, it turned out to be quite a good day, until late when we arrived at our cottage around beautiful Lake Willoughby in Westmore, Middle-of –Nowhere…. in time for soaker – to Marysue’s little hobbit house, which is so cozily comfortable that we don’t even use the sleeping oft, opting for all three of us on a trundle bed in the central living area. We meandered our way north up the ancient Connecticut River Valley discovering a surprisingly nice hike at Tucker Mountain, where we actually made the summit for the views, a rarity for us foundlings.
Consistent with living in the (maybe) post-Covid world, not a single nearby restaurant was open early in the week, so we had to graze our way through the general store to find something to eat for dinner, which actually turned out quite good, though I could not bring myself to buy their homemade chop suey, which resembled hamburger helper, rest its soul. Wednesday was a really pleasant fall day (shorts weather for Papi) for our annual tour of The Kingdom, which took us over multiple mountain ranges to Island Pond (major woodchuck rustic), Derby (fought the powers that be to have the state’s fifth Walmart despite the furor over losing its pastoral charm), Newport (post hip renaissance north) and down to Coventry (site of the famous gigantic Phish show at an airfare base)- where we made the annual pilgrimage to the real thing -Martha’s Diner -for the US’s best fried chicken (USA today 2012)-no disappointments there as we labored with love on the nearby picnic table on the town green. Wound up the day at majestic Brownington (the historical village home of Alexander Twilight, the country’s first black physician……who knew?) for our yearly walk around the massive property. Returned back to the cottage to find no eateries yet open (supply chain, no employees, blah, blah, blah), so creatively made some form of dinner via the cooler remnants, which was pretty ok. We made a detour to Willoughby Falls (a locally well-kept secret) to check out the spawning steelhead trout, but we missed them by about five months.
Check out the massive photo gallery for the real story.
Meandered our way back and forth across the state on way home Thursday crossing two major gaps for the peakish views and on down to Rutland, with emergency dispensary stop in Middlebury, just in time for the new super-duper booster shot to ward off The Plague……………… then a mad dash back to the house to intercept the auto crash appraiser, who comes to Vermont once a month from the flatlands, before he headed back into the woodwork……mission accomplished –so may yet get my car repaired by the end of 2023.
On Friday night, The Queen went to the monthly gathering of the Lady Mount Mystics for dinner and conviviality…and to see DA Bears….….30 minutes of Mama and Da Cubs apple eating right outside the door…we don’t need no damn zoo here….
Check out those pix…and see Sloanie bike like a mermaid…. Papi bad with metaphors….
Yesterday was one of those awful, unsettling, humbling, erratic (get the picture?) days that had an unexpectedly good turn. Spent around six hours trying to deal with failed technology, failed car repairs, failed overdue work assignment….much of it on the phone with a series of beleaguered Pakistanis….finally got one thing partially working, cashed in, and got motivated to head out…..skedaddled down to Londonderry and well-kept secret Lowell Lake……where we hiked the entire lake trail (3.5) in late day majestic autumn sunlight, ending at the early 1700s graveyard……..Forest Healing….impulsively stopped on the way home at the early 1800’s Fullerton inn, in quaint Chester, for a dinner in their formal dining room….all of which significantly changed the tone and tenor of the day….
So…. enuff already……. yer killing me…. Good Shabas to all……miles to go….keep your motors running, running down the highway, lookin for adventure, take whatever comes my way……BTBW………..Love Ya’ll Neville……
Notable People: Murray Bartlett, Connie Britton, Jennifer Coolidge, Alexandra Daddario, Steve Zahn, Jake Lacy, Created by: Mike White
Title: The White Lotus
Review: this limited six episode HBO series was sent my way by Feel the Connoisseur. It’s a very quirky show focused on the guests and high level employees of an exclusive Hawaii resort. The characters are just the right side of believable, but the relationships are potent. Nicely shot and with flashes of humor that make it not be tedious. The ensemble cast is quite good and Murray Bartlett as the closeted, coke snorting, out of control – yet impeccably behaved Hotel manager is well worth the price of admission. I had no idea while watching that this show dominated the 2021 Emmys in its category- would never have guessed, but it has been renewed for a second season to take place in Sicily, with some cast member returning, and a wacked out who’s who of others.
