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Bits and pieces..
Oct. 2nd, 2022 08:22 pm1. Family and Hollywood
Me: I think I figured out who was allegedly sexually harassed and had their career ruined by TH (very very popular actor in the MCU franchise that people love).
Mother: Who?
Me: That British writer, producer, director that my brother keeps talking about.
Mother: Interesting, that's possible. But I thought we'd decided it was the makeup artist? [ My brother refuses to tell us who it is, so of course we are guessing.]
Me: The British writer/producer/director of BBC/ITV television series makes more sense.
Mother: This is true. I wonder if that's the same one who asked him where Benedict Cumberbatch could go for privacy on a honeymoon?
My brother gave vacation advice to Benedict Cumberbatch via his friend. It's my sisinlaw - she's beatnik Hollywood. It's one of the many ways I know how nasty that business is.
Also, during our big family get-together two weeks ago, or was it one week ago? No two weeks. At any rate during that - family members told stories about how Uncle R was cleared for army intelligence in the 60s and 70s. Two men in suits showed up at the house and asked my Aunt D (youngest Aunt) about him and she was spooked by them (who wouldn't be) and told them off, before her parents showed up and asked what was up. Their neighbors also got questioned. And they tracked my uncle's down.
We all decided he was most likely a spy for Army Intelligence in East Germany. He got along so well with the checkpoint guys in Berlin that they let him and his team through with barely a blink of an eye. He was a basketball coach with civilian status. This was where he met his first wife, and the mother of his two sons.
In Vietnam - he got shot in the buttocks in a helicopter.
2. Started watching Rings of Power again on Amazon, the second episode is much better than the first - and quite action packed. I've decided Gandalf is the guy who landed as a ball of fire where the Harfoots are residing. I could be wrong about that. It could be Gandalf's colleague portrayed by Christopher Lee in the Lord of the Rings series. Or someone else. Unlike House of Dragon, I actually like all the characters in this series - and they don't look all alike - or not any longer at any rate. While after six episodes of House of Dragon, they are beginning to. Also, I only like two characters in House of Dragon, which is a problem for me. Worse, I like the two that the writer doesn't consider the heroes of the piece. This happened in Game of Thrones as well. In GoT, you were fine if you liked or loved the Starks, if you preferred the Lannisters or Daenerys, you were doomed from the start. In other words, if you are a fan of morally self-righteous folks who stand in judgement of others - GoT and HoD will work for you, if you aren't? Well, you were warned.
Anyhow, enough on HoD. Rings of Power has a lot more going on. Also it's a far bigger and more realized world. We have elves, dwarves, orcs, harfoots, and humans. I'm waiting for the Wizards - I think one just showed up. And it is providing a lot of the back story for Lord of the Rings. (I liked Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit novels better than the Game of Thrones novels.) We get what the dwarves were doing in Azur Dum, and how beautiful the city once was inside the mountain. And see what was going on with the elves building a tower and a great forge. And how many of these decisions eventually went awry.
The cast is rather diversified. And unlike Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit, there is more emphasis on the female characters, and they take center stage far more often.
3. Finished Serengeti Part I & II on HBO, this is a nature program produced by the BBC on African Savannah wildlife. It was lovely and kind of uplifting. Although a take away is that the animal world while brutally honest, is also just as self-serving if not more so than humans. The difference between us, I think, is we are self-aware, they are going off of instinct and the fight to survive.
Started watching Africa on HBO, which is a six part series on Africa wildlife and the continent. It is by the way, the biggest continent on earth. The entirety of China, US, Europe, North America, South America, and India can fight within it. It's also the most wild of the continents, with much lower human population densities. And contains some of the most diverse, different, and amazing animals on earth. Animals that exist no where else on the planet.
One segment featured a Duck Bill Shrew or Shrew Bill, who is among the world's largest birds, stands a meter in height. It has two chicks, but allows one to starve or die, in favor of the elder - only able to take care of one chick. It has two - as a back up plan. If the elder dies, they take care of the younger one.
Brutal, isn't it?
Mother: You take after your grandmother, she loved nature programs too.
Me: I find them comforting - well except for the insects and spiders. I could have done without the carnivorous crickets that are the size of a human foot.
Me: I think I figured out who was allegedly sexually harassed and had their career ruined by TH (very very popular actor in the MCU franchise that people love).
Mother: Who?
Me: That British writer, producer, director that my brother keeps talking about.
Mother: Interesting, that's possible. But I thought we'd decided it was the makeup artist? [ My brother refuses to tell us who it is, so of course we are guessing.]
Me: The British writer/producer/director of BBC/ITV television series makes more sense.
Mother: This is true. I wonder if that's the same one who asked him where Benedict Cumberbatch could go for privacy on a honeymoon?
My brother gave vacation advice to Benedict Cumberbatch via his friend. It's my sisinlaw - she's beatnik Hollywood. It's one of the many ways I know how nasty that business is.
Also, during our big family get-together two weeks ago, or was it one week ago? No two weeks. At any rate during that - family members told stories about how Uncle R was cleared for army intelligence in the 60s and 70s. Two men in suits showed up at the house and asked my Aunt D (youngest Aunt) about him and she was spooked by them (who wouldn't be) and told them off, before her parents showed up and asked what was up. Their neighbors also got questioned. And they tracked my uncle's down.
We all decided he was most likely a spy for Army Intelligence in East Germany. He got along so well with the checkpoint guys in Berlin that they let him and his team through with barely a blink of an eye. He was a basketball coach with civilian status. This was where he met his first wife, and the mother of his two sons.
In Vietnam - he got shot in the buttocks in a helicopter.
2. Started watching Rings of Power again on Amazon, the second episode is much better than the first - and quite action packed. I've decided Gandalf is the guy who landed as a ball of fire where the Harfoots are residing. I could be wrong about that. It could be Gandalf's colleague portrayed by Christopher Lee in the Lord of the Rings series. Or someone else. Unlike House of Dragon, I actually like all the characters in this series - and they don't look all alike - or not any longer at any rate. While after six episodes of House of Dragon, they are beginning to. Also, I only like two characters in House of Dragon, which is a problem for me. Worse, I like the two that the writer doesn't consider the heroes of the piece. This happened in Game of Thrones as well. In GoT, you were fine if you liked or loved the Starks, if you preferred the Lannisters or Daenerys, you were doomed from the start. In other words, if you are a fan of morally self-righteous folks who stand in judgement of others - GoT and HoD will work for you, if you aren't? Well, you were warned.
Anyhow, enough on HoD. Rings of Power has a lot more going on. Also it's a far bigger and more realized world. We have elves, dwarves, orcs, harfoots, and humans. I'm waiting for the Wizards - I think one just showed up. And it is providing a lot of the back story for Lord of the Rings. (I liked Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit novels better than the Game of Thrones novels.) We get what the dwarves were doing in Azur Dum, and how beautiful the city once was inside the mountain. And see what was going on with the elves building a tower and a great forge. And how many of these decisions eventually went awry.
The cast is rather diversified. And unlike Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit, there is more emphasis on the female characters, and they take center stage far more often.
3. Finished Serengeti Part I & II on HBO, this is a nature program produced by the BBC on African Savannah wildlife. It was lovely and kind of uplifting. Although a take away is that the animal world while brutally honest, is also just as self-serving if not more so than humans. The difference between us, I think, is we are self-aware, they are going off of instinct and the fight to survive.
Started watching Africa on HBO, which is a six part series on Africa wildlife and the continent. It is by the way, the biggest continent on earth. The entirety of China, US, Europe, North America, South America, and India can fight within it. It's also the most wild of the continents, with much lower human population densities. And contains some of the most diverse, different, and amazing animals on earth. Animals that exist no where else on the planet.
One segment featured a Duck Bill Shrew or Shrew Bill, who is among the world's largest birds, stands a meter in height. It has two chicks, but allows one to starve or die, in favor of the elder - only able to take care of one chick. It has two - as a back up plan. If the elder dies, they take care of the younger one.
Brutal, isn't it?
Mother: You take after your grandmother, she loved nature programs too.
Me: I find them comforting - well except for the insects and spiders. I could have done without the carnivorous crickets that are the size of a human foot.