A bit of everything? Plus a painting...

1. Well, Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, and Paul Thomas Anderson managed to save TCM aka Turner Classic Movies from the evil new executive at Warner Brothers, who attempted to do away with it.

I'm grateful. I agree with them. Our classic films should be preserved.

As IndieWire first reported, the trio placed an "emergency" call to Warner Bros. CEO David Zaslav last week following cuts to the majority of the network's leadership, including senior VP of programming and content strategy, Charles Tabesh.

Tabesh, however, will return to TCM with Scorsese, Spielberg, and Anderson acting as unpaid volunteers who will help guide and curate the network's programming, even including host intros and outros. TCM's Classic Film Festival will also continue.

"We have already begun working on ideas with [Warner Bros. executives Michael de Luca and Pamela Abdy], both true film enthusiasts who share a passion and reverence for classic cinema that is the hallmark of the TCM community," the directors said in a joint statement.


Thanks to Petz for the link.

2. Somebody Somewhere on HBO Max of all places, has become my new comfort show. It's a highly relatable series about struggling forty-something singles in Manhattan, Kansas. I finished the first two seasons and was blown away by it.

I'd describe it as hyper-realism. A dramedy, with touching and humorous moments. Relationship drama as opposed to workplace drama, but the focus is on friendship not romantic entanglements, and sibling/family relationships.
The core relationship is between a forty-something woman and a gay forty-something man, and their friends and family. It's among the best shows I've seen, well written and acted. (I admittedly don't find it that funny, but I don't have a raunchy sense of humor. But I found it touching and relatable enough to handwave that. It's also a kind comedy and not cruel like most of the comedies that I've seen to date.)

Here's the Guardian Review - Review of Somebody Somewhere.

( excerpt )

Highly recommend.

3. It's official, apparently, that The Flash bombed at the box office - it's barely gotten to $100M domestically, and just scratched $216M world-wide. The film cost over $200 Million to make.

The linked article explains why it bombed - which is simple enough, people like myself decided not to see it in movie theaters and wait for it to pop up on HBO MAX based on the reviews.

I was interested - until I read the reviews, and thought, Ack, I can watch that better on television with far less annoyance.

Scalzi's kid reviews it - HERE - complete with spoilers, although not all spoilers. I thoroughly spoiled - I've read too many reviews. So I know the unpredictable spoilers.

None of the spoilers endear me to the movie.

The movie did so badly at the box office, that they went ahead and announced that Rachel Bronshanan (Mrs. Maizel) will be Lois, and David Corenswet as Superman. [My favs were Christopher Reeves and Tyler Hoechel, I didn't like Cavill's Superman nor Brandon Rousch's. I'm picky, I like the optimistic and kind take - go too dark and gritty and you get awfully close to fascism. Superman does not work well as an anti-hero. Batman, yes, Superman, no.]

4. Wales and I discussed what we're doing on the fourth, and honestly, I think we'll be lucky if we do much of anything at this point. I want to go to the American Natural History Museum - but I don't want to get reserved pre-paid tickets online - just in case everything falls through, and we don't go. So the current plan is to meet at 11:30 Am in Carroll Gardens, and go from there on Tuesday. Worse case scenario we can wander about and do something else.

I haven't been over to that part of the city in years, so that alone would be entertaining.

5. Twitter is back up and running, and everyone is acting like nothing happened, and they've all flooded back after threatening to jump ship.

I honestly think a lot of them have an abusive love/hate relationship with Twitter. I can relate, I have love/hate relationships with NYC, BookStores, Mass Transit, and my church.

6. I'm tempted to get a ticket via TDF to see Merrily We'll Roll Along, starring Daniel Radcliff and Josh Groff. (I like Groff, a lot.)

7. My brother's air conditioner went out the other day. The earliest the A/C people could look at it was August. We have been having air quality issues all week long. (Canadian Wildfires - apparently mother nature figured she burned enough of the forests on the West Coast of Canada, and it was the East Coast's turn?) Anyhow, my brother went up into his attic and rewired his air-conditioner, and now its working. ( Read more... )

In other news, the frigging NY medical community is still gas-lighting my poor sister-in-law. I swear they gaslight everyone. This is why we have medical malpractice attorneys. ( Read more... )

8. On the book front...

I was reminded recently of my love/hate relationships with book stores. Old Freshman Roommate - who kind of needs a nickname....(Queen Charlotte) - informed FB that she'd sent press releases to area booksellers that she'd published a book. A couple of the booksellers emailed her back that they won't carry anything published via createspace or via Amazon, because Amazon is putting them out of business. And would only carry anything published via Ingram.

That's complete BS.
( long involved somewhat ranty discussion of book-selling - read at your own risk )

9. I have been in a long reading slump. I get through audio books, but not actual books. Almost done with Moonlighting - an Oral History - which could use a better narrator - the one it has - has a very thick nasal New Jersey accent that's annoying me. Also, the author seems to want me to think Cybil Shepard was a diva, but I'm beginning to think she was more a victim of a misogynistic and sexist show-runner/producer who favored Bruce Willis.
( Read more... )

Have made it through graphic novels or comics recently.

X-men Red (2022-Present) is really good. It's kind of like Game of Thrones for the X-men. Lead by Storm and Magneto, also various other lesser known characters.

Actually the current run of the X-men verse falls heavily into speculative science fiction, and focuses on a broader range of characters. It's a nuanced and character driven serial. Not as a much of a relationship soap opera like in the 1990s and 20th Century.

The Cat Sebastian Historical Romance is moving slowly for some reason. And I couldn't get through The Witch King (too much world-building, and war mongering, not to mention speechifying, and not enough character stuff) - I got bored and my attention drifted away from it. Also I'm not a fan of Judeo-Christian mythology, and this relies heavily on that - and witch/demon mythos, which doesn't work for me, personally.

Reading is, as I tried to explain to Wales today without much success, is a subjective sport. What's to one person's taste won't be to another's. Doesn't mean the book isn't any good, just that it isn't to my taste.

10. Finished my latest painting/drawing - this was inspired from a picture of a fictional couple that I've been following on a soap opera. It's not real close to the picture, at all. But I did like how it came out. I found it to be interesting, and better than expected.

So sharing beneath the cut.

( lovers )