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Reactions to things found on my correspondence list...not personal posts, news items...and a review by Smart Bitches.

1. Why Breakfast Should be the Biggest Meal of the Day

Yeah, this works if you don't have a 8-4pm job or a 7:30-3:30pm job. Have an hour and a half commute.
And by train. With no viable breakfast options at work. My coworkers do eggs in microwaves or bring in bagels and put peanut butter on them.
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2. Why Get Out is the Future of the Oscars

I actually agreed with this. I've seen four of the eight nominated films. Of the four, I enjoyed The Shape of Water the most. But, Get Out probably will change film the most. It's the most ground-breaking and surprising. It also takes the most risks.

Sort of similar to what Black Panther did to the superhero genre, in a way.

Get Out is biting social commentary in a comedic horror style wrapping. And it basically comments on how we've done film -- and perceived race in film in a way that is supposed to make you uncomfortable. The Black Panther does this too.

The other films nominated that I've seen aren't quite as ground-breaking, they don't shake stuff up.
I did like them more.

3. Smart Bitches Review of Hello Stranger by Lisa Kleypas

This review irritated me a little. Not that I necessarily disagreed with the reviewer's point, but I felt the reviewer over-reacted, and is weirdly un-selfaware. Is that even a word? As a result, I found myself questioning her rec's and the others on the site. (Although I've been doing that for a while now, after picking up some real stinkers that these ladies loved to pieces. The romance genre like all books and genres is hit or miss. And going by others recs can be dicey at the best of times.)

Anyhow...my difficulty is she got upset over this passage in the book she was reading:
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4. Olivia De Havilland's lawsuit against FX and Ryan Murphy regarding how she was portrayed in the Feud

This is sort of interesting. And informative, in some respects about de Havilland and not necessarily in a way she'd be happy about. First heard about it from shapinglight. Although got the link from petz, along with most of the other links.

I'm struck by the fact that a 101 year old woman cares about this sort of thing. Most of the people involved are long dead. She's no longer in Hollywood. And seriously, it was a fictional portrayal of De Havilland over 50 some years ago. So even if she'd been like that back then, she's not now. And not everyone perceived her in a negative fashion. I didn't. The scant amount of the series that I actually saw -- De Havilland came out relatively okay. Plus, it is Ryan Murphy who is a satirist.
He tends to go over the top on purpose.

Still. Why does she care?
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Coco - film review and television roundup

1. Coco - this is the Disney/Pixar animated film about a little boy's journey into the land of the dead during the Mexican Day of the Dead celebrations, borrowing heavily from Mexican folkloric traditions.

I cried through the last twenty minutes of it. Not at all what I was expecting. Very touching and heartwarming film. Reminded me a little of the Pixar film "Up" in tone and theme.

It's rather clever in places and very detailed. But the songs aren't that memorable -- Disney has been slacking off in the "song" or "original score" department lately. That said the story and concept are striking and innovative. While some of it falls into cliche and stereotype, it largely celebrates Mexican culture and its traditions.

It will most likely get the award for best animated film. Although I have not seen "Loving Vincent".

2. Grey's Anatomy -- eh, worth it for the very end -- when Arizona finally figures out what April has been up to. The expression on her face alone is worth that episode. Also there's some interesting by-play between the medical team working on the B'Way fan tumor patient, Kimmy. I rather liked the best musical ranking discussion between Kimmi and the egotistical doctor/lover of the neurosurgeon, whose name I can't remember.

Quickly, top three B'Way musicals?

1. Cabaret
2. Jesus Christ Superstar
3. Hamilton

Yeah, I like Sondheim, but I think his best musical was the collaboration he did with Leonard Bernstein, West Side Story. After that? I'd say Into the Woods. Sweeny Todd is just...it's good, but the songs don't transfer very well outside of it.

Also adore Rodgers and Hammerstein, but they are largely dated and have some cultural issues here and there. Sort of like Lerner and Low.

Swartz -- his best is probably Pippin, although there are a few nice bits from Godspell, here and there.

Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice -- were the best team up for both, but the only two musicals of theirs that I love are Evita and Jesus Christ Superstar, and Superstar is the one that effected musicals the most.

3. Good Girls

Eh. Not as good as the other good girls gone bad comedic drama, entitled "Claws". Claws had more interesting characters, and a better sense of humor. I think it was better written and acted.
So, am tempted to just tell folks to skip this and hunt down Claws which aired on TNT.

This one stars Mae Whitman (Parenthood), Christina Hendricks ( Mad Men), and Rhetta, supporting cast has Matthew Lillard (Scream, Scooby Doo) as Hendricks husband.

It's about three Moms who decide to rob the grocery store where one of them works -- in order to score $30,000. Little knowing that the grocery store is actually laundering mob money and they've scored over $500,000 from the vault. You'd think they would have figured that out from the sheer number of bags they took out of the vault. But they aren't all that bright. Which is one of my problems with the series the people in it are portrayed as rather stupid. My tolerance for stupid characters is not that high.

Although to be fair, it's gender neutral in this regard. Both genders are portrayed as stupid. These ladies make the women of Desperate Housewives seem like genuises in comparison.

Not sticking with it. Didn't care about any of the characters and was somewhat bored.

In short, I was disappointed by it. Oh well, that's okay, it's not like I don't have about 100 other television shows to choose from.

The Bead Lady

The Bead Lady - an ode to my Grandmother