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May. 12th, 2024 08:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat1. FB is full of Aurora Photos. No, I don't have any. I live in Brooklyn, NY, which is a)too far South, and b) too much light pollution. Also the nights it was most active? It was raining and stormy, with heavy cloud cover.
But there are some bizarre photos, one looked like an angle in the sky. As if the angles were dancing above us all - or above the folks in Minnesota, at any rate.
2. Question from 3 Weeks of Dreamwidth: " What piece of art has had a large impact on you, and how?"
Water Color. My father became enamored of it - when I was a teen, and took it upon himself to make it an activity to do with my brother and myself. So for the expanse of one or two years in the early 1980s, my brother and myself would go into Kansas City and take water color courses with my father. Learning perspective, washes, and how to use color and brush strokes.
My father was rather good at it. And my brother was better at perspective, I was better at experimentation and color. My brother is more of a minimalist designer and fine technique, while I'm a touch more abstract, vivid in color and like to do people.
We even did our own Christmas Cards, until finally my brother and I pulled out of it - and it was just my father who painted his own cards. He went back to watercolors in later years, and started just playing with colors and doing abstract paintings which calmed his mind and made him happy.
And I? I started playing with water-colors again last year, and have done about twenty-five paintings to date. It relaxes and comforts me to do them, and brings back memories of painting with my father and discussing watercolor paints and methods with him.
3. Television
* Almost done with Fallout. I do not find this funny. But it is admittedly rare that satire makes me laugh. Grim and depressing, yes. Funny, no. It also plays with a lot of established and overdone tropes. In short I don't understand why a lot of folks love it? It's okay. I find Walter Goggins character engaging - partly because of Walter Goggins, but that's about it. Almost done with it though - two episodes left. (It's short - just 8 episodes, most likely will be renewed for another season - since it was highly regarded and very popular. The characters are mildly likable, but it is violent (albeit in a comic book way) and gross (also comic or graphic novel way). I'm thinking this is geared more towards vidders than non-vidders though?
* Shardlake - this is a short series on Disney + - and somewhat odd for Disney +. [No, wait, it's actually Hulu by way of Disney, this bundling is so confusing.] It feels like it should be on PBS. It's about a hunchback barrister during the 1600s who solves mysteries for Thomas Cromwell, during the Tudor Reign. People underestimate him due to his hunchback. Scean Bean plays Cromwell. It's okay, I got bored and gave up during the first episode.
* Welcome to Wrexham - a documentary/reality series starring Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenny who decide to buy a Welsh Football Club in Wrexham Wales during the pandemic - no less.
"In September 2020, American actor Rob McElhenney and Canadian-American actor Ryan Reynolds announced their intention to buy Wrexham A.F.C., a Welsh professional association football club based in the Racecourse Ground in Wrexham, North East Wales in the United Kingdom. The company RR McReynolds was set up by November 2020, and the deal was completed in February 2021. As of the purchase, Wrexham A.F.C. played in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system, below the Premier League and the three tiers of the English Football League."
I watched the first episode of S1 - which sets it up. It's better than I expected. Considering I'm not a fan of people talking to the camera - I rather enjoyed this. I think it's because it's less about folks interpersonal relationships or gossip, and more about how to buy a football club and make it work, and the differences between UK Football and US sports. In short - it's a process documentary, not a gossipy lets rip folks apart documentary (which I can't watch). Think Ted Lasso over say The Office? And Ryan Reynolds amuses me. One great line: " I love the fact that they commented on whether this was a documentary - because there's a huge camera sitting behind my head. And how honest you were that yes, it is, right from the beginning."
[It's on Hulu and FX (also Disney by way of Hulu, since Disney is bundling now.]
* X-men '97
Still entertaining. And they appear to be doing some risky moves. I'm beginning to understand why the show-runner was fired? He wasn't doing a kids show.
* Wales and I discussed Baby Reindeer - neither of us could get past the first episode. Wales found it boring, and didn't understand the point of it or the appeal. I found it cringe-inducing. Apparently the alleged real life stalker is suing Netflix and Gad. Stating she's actually the victim here - she didn't make him part of her act, nor did she do a movie about him. (Uhm, she has a point?) Anyhow - that was inevitable. Because the moment folks find out it is a real story - they will hunt for the actual people involved to figure out what happened to them. This is why I decided it was not a good show for me to watch.
4. Books
I'm enjoying these dramatized adaptations done by Graphic Audio and available on Audible, also on Graphic Audio. It's kind of like listening to a radio program of the book in question. Loving them.
I've become a convert to the whole audio book and dramatized audio adaptation of books. It takes away eye strain and still gives me the story. Kind of reminiscent of being read to. And I adored being read to as a kid.
In elementary school - I'd had Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, and The Giant Peach read to me. Then we'd discuss it. It was glorious.
DNF Yellowface. I gave up with over 150 pages to go. Just couldn't do it any longer. It's about 390 pages. I stopped at page 209. It's too long - that damn editor was asleep on the job. I'd have cut it some of it out. Gets very repetitive in places and kind of preachy. I've decided not to leave a review on Good Reads. Just a rating, if that. I've kind of stopped giving negative reviews on Good Reads, it's all subjective anyhow.
What works or doesn't work for me, may well work or not work for someone else. This book is very satirical - and that doesn't tend to work for me a lot of the time?
Making my way through The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies, co-worker thought it was a steampunk fantasy that he'd read - it's not. It's a historical mystery romance hybrid. With a thirty-something heroine.
Rare that. This was rec'd by a college friend, who I have a half-assed email correspondence with. In that we occasionally email one another - but my email is so clogged with junk - I barely see hers until months after she sent it, and vice versa.
Comics. Making my way through the Kraokian era of X-men comics, skipping over bits here and there. Read X-men Forever #3 and Rise of the Powers of X - 3, also Fall of the House of X - 3. In this series, the villains appear to be Sinister, Xavier, Destiny, AI, and well MODOK, Nimrod, Moira, and the Sentinels. Sinister has now been overdone as a villain, he's on both X-men '97 and the comics, and I'm bored of him. The writers got far too enamored. And he's somewhat one-dimensional. Also bored of AI, Nimrod and MODOK. Moira had potential...but...however the theme is well done, which is knowing how things will work out, or being able to foretell the future isn't good for you. Lends itself to all sorts of problems - like a tendency to foul things up in a mad desire to try to change everything. This is an old "time travel" trope - and I'm weary of it. Move on already. I'm looking forward to the next writing team. And apparently I'm not alone in this.
But there are some bizarre photos, one looked like an angle in the sky. As if the angles were dancing above us all - or above the folks in Minnesota, at any rate.
2. Question from 3 Weeks of Dreamwidth: " What piece of art has had a large impact on you, and how?"
Water Color. My father became enamored of it - when I was a teen, and took it upon himself to make it an activity to do with my brother and myself. So for the expanse of one or two years in the early 1980s, my brother and myself would go into Kansas City and take water color courses with my father. Learning perspective, washes, and how to use color and brush strokes.
My father was rather good at it. And my brother was better at perspective, I was better at experimentation and color. My brother is more of a minimalist designer and fine technique, while I'm a touch more abstract, vivid in color and like to do people.
We even did our own Christmas Cards, until finally my brother and I pulled out of it - and it was just my father who painted his own cards. He went back to watercolors in later years, and started just playing with colors and doing abstract paintings which calmed his mind and made him happy.
And I? I started playing with water-colors again last year, and have done about twenty-five paintings to date. It relaxes and comforts me to do them, and brings back memories of painting with my father and discussing watercolor paints and methods with him.
3. Television
* Almost done with Fallout. I do not find this funny. But it is admittedly rare that satire makes me laugh. Grim and depressing, yes. Funny, no. It also plays with a lot of established and overdone tropes. In short I don't understand why a lot of folks love it? It's okay. I find Walter Goggins character engaging - partly because of Walter Goggins, but that's about it. Almost done with it though - two episodes left. (It's short - just 8 episodes, most likely will be renewed for another season - since it was highly regarded and very popular. The characters are mildly likable, but it is violent (albeit in a comic book way) and gross (also comic or graphic novel way). I'm thinking this is geared more towards vidders than non-vidders though?
* Shardlake - this is a short series on Disney + - and somewhat odd for Disney +. [No, wait, it's actually Hulu by way of Disney, this bundling is so confusing.] It feels like it should be on PBS. It's about a hunchback barrister during the 1600s who solves mysteries for Thomas Cromwell, during the Tudor Reign. People underestimate him due to his hunchback. Scean Bean plays Cromwell. It's okay, I got bored and gave up during the first episode.
* Welcome to Wrexham - a documentary/reality series starring Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenny who decide to buy a Welsh Football Club in Wrexham Wales during the pandemic - no less.
"In September 2020, American actor Rob McElhenney and Canadian-American actor Ryan Reynolds announced their intention to buy Wrexham A.F.C., a Welsh professional association football club based in the Racecourse Ground in Wrexham, North East Wales in the United Kingdom. The company RR McReynolds was set up by November 2020, and the deal was completed in February 2021. As of the purchase, Wrexham A.F.C. played in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system, below the Premier League and the three tiers of the English Football League."
I watched the first episode of S1 - which sets it up. It's better than I expected. Considering I'm not a fan of people talking to the camera - I rather enjoyed this. I think it's because it's less about folks interpersonal relationships or gossip, and more about how to buy a football club and make it work, and the differences between UK Football and US sports. In short - it's a process documentary, not a gossipy lets rip folks apart documentary (which I can't watch). Think Ted Lasso over say The Office? And Ryan Reynolds amuses me. One great line: " I love the fact that they commented on whether this was a documentary - because there's a huge camera sitting behind my head. And how honest you were that yes, it is, right from the beginning."
[It's on Hulu and FX (also Disney by way of Hulu, since Disney is bundling now.]
* X-men '97
Still entertaining. And they appear to be doing some risky moves. I'm beginning to understand why the show-runner was fired? He wasn't doing a kids show.
* Wales and I discussed Baby Reindeer - neither of us could get past the first episode. Wales found it boring, and didn't understand the point of it or the appeal. I found it cringe-inducing. Apparently the alleged real life stalker is suing Netflix and Gad. Stating she's actually the victim here - she didn't make him part of her act, nor did she do a movie about him. (Uhm, she has a point?) Anyhow - that was inevitable. Because the moment folks find out it is a real story - they will hunt for the actual people involved to figure out what happened to them. This is why I decided it was not a good show for me to watch.
4. Books
I'm enjoying these dramatized adaptations done by Graphic Audio and available on Audible, also on Graphic Audio. It's kind of like listening to a radio program of the book in question. Loving them.
I've become a convert to the whole audio book and dramatized audio adaptation of books. It takes away eye strain and still gives me the story. Kind of reminiscent of being read to. And I adored being read to as a kid.
In elementary school - I'd had Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, and The Giant Peach read to me. Then we'd discuss it. It was glorious.
DNF Yellowface. I gave up with over 150 pages to go. Just couldn't do it any longer. It's about 390 pages. I stopped at page 209. It's too long - that damn editor was asleep on the job. I'd have cut it some of it out. Gets very repetitive in places and kind of preachy. I've decided not to leave a review on Good Reads. Just a rating, if that. I've kind of stopped giving negative reviews on Good Reads, it's all subjective anyhow.
What works or doesn't work for me, may well work or not work for someone else. This book is very satirical - and that doesn't tend to work for me a lot of the time?
Making my way through The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies, co-worker thought it was a steampunk fantasy that he'd read - it's not. It's a historical mystery romance hybrid. With a thirty-something heroine.
Rare that. This was rec'd by a college friend, who I have a half-assed email correspondence with. In that we occasionally email one another - but my email is so clogged with junk - I barely see hers until months after she sent it, and vice versa.
Comics. Making my way through the Kraokian era of X-men comics, skipping over bits here and there. Read X-men Forever #3 and Rise of the Powers of X - 3, also Fall of the House of X - 3. In this series, the villains appear to be Sinister, Xavier, Destiny, AI, and well MODOK, Nimrod, Moira, and the Sentinels. Sinister has now been overdone as a villain, he's on both X-men '97 and the comics, and I'm bored of him. The writers got far too enamored. And he's somewhat one-dimensional. Also bored of AI, Nimrod and MODOK. Moira had potential...but...however the theme is well done, which is knowing how things will work out, or being able to foretell the future isn't good for you. Lends itself to all sorts of problems - like a tendency to foul things up in a mad desire to try to change everything. This is an old "time travel" trope - and I'm weary of it. Move on already. I'm looking forward to the next writing team. And apparently I'm not alone in this.