Sunday's Post on a Monday....& Memage
Jun. 29th, 2026 08:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat1. Saw Sheep Detectives on Sunday. It was a cute cozy mystery? Reminded me a little of the film "Babe" except as cozy mystery (Babe was much better). It did have a few laugh out loud moments, and I didn't figure out the twist - they fooled me. I was admittedly distracted while watching it though.
Hugh Jackman and Emma Thompson have bit parts or cameos - although both are well utilized. And in some respects play roles that I've seen both do a lot of late. All the other actors - live human actors - are unknowns. The name talents are the voice actors (which kind of annoyed me, mainly because there are some really talented voice actors out there that could put these folks to shame? It's a different process? Why not hire professional voice actors, and leave the professional actors to the live roles? But people like to know famous people are doing the voices. Not that you can tell.)
The famous voice actors are Bryan Cranston, Regina Hall, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, and Patrick Stewart. But I honestly couldn't tell.
It's adapted from a book, The Sheep Detectives is adapted from the 2005 bestselling novel Three Bags Full (also known as Glennkill in some regions) by German author Leonie Swann. I saw the books in Barnes and Noble recently.
Hugh Jackman plays George Hardy, a shepherd in a small village, who owns a bunch of sheep, and sleeps in a trailer. Each night he reads a mystery novel to the sheep. Then he unexpectedly dies. The Sheep realize he's been murdered and seek to help the local policeman, who is kind of inept, solve the case. The relationship between the sheep and the policeman is rather funny at times. While the Sheep can talk to each other? They cannot talk to the policeman. Like I said, it reminds me a little of the movie Babe.
2. The Vestibular Migraine appears to be gone for the time being. How long it will stay gone depends on whether the heat wave triggers my allergies and another migraine. Right now, I'm managing to fend it off with medication (aleve, tynenol, phrenphrinline, and antihistimines). Also staying out of the heat.
3. The heat wave that plagued Europe and the Midwestern US is about to descend on the Eastern US (ie. South Carolina, up through and including Maine, and possibly into Canada) - they are calling a heat dome on the news and weather channels.
In NYC, temperatures are expected to reach the triple digits by Wednesday and Thursday. Or the heat index is expected to. Thursday is slated to be 106 degrees in NYC. If you are headed here on holiday? Try to find indoor venues Thursday through Monday? There are quite a few indoor museums in the city and they aren't that expensive. The MET is always worth a look, since that's suggested donation, as is the American Museum of Natural History (that's fun to go to - just to stare at Dinosaur bones). They are a bit of subway ride, and a walk for the Met, so there is that.
Although it may not be quite as bad near the water. Thunderstorms are slated for the 4th, which may or may not cool things down a bit.
The city is slightly less crowded now that school appears to be out. The subways weren't quite as crowded to and from work. And the financial district had a few less people. That said, the way they are setting up barricades near the river, I'm wondering if the Fire Works are on the East River side this year?
In any event, it is relatively mild at the moment. With high temperature around 83F, heat index 86 F, and lows in the 70s. It's 79F now, and I have the AC and fan on - so it's 77F in the apartment. The apartment doesn't get that hot - I have indirect sunlight, and brick walls. But alas, I can't open the windows - without my allergies flaring up and letting in one too many creepy crawlies.
4. I finished the audiobook version of This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me - it was good. I highly recommend the audiobook version. The narrator was quite accomplished. Listening to audiobooks and Critical Role campaigns, and watch Vox Machina, has given me a whole new appreciation for professional voice actors. Vox Machina is a play on words - it means voice machine, which is basically all the voice actors involved. One of them does about fifty different voices. The same deal with This Kingdom - the narrator does about twenty different voices and five different accents. I know how hard that is - have I mentioned that I've tremendous respect for things I can't do? I cannot do accents or multiple voices. (Actually people who can sing - usually can - it's all about tonal flucuations, just as folks who can sing - probably will do very well with Mandarin or Asian languages, which are very tonal. I'm tone death - so not happening. I accept my limitations.)
Currently listening to Elizabeth Peter's Street of the Five Moons - it's a Vicky Bliss mystery. These are kind of - gothic cozy mystery comedies featuring an intelligent/savvy but somewhat inept twenty-something Assistant Art Museum Curator in Germany, who travels about on the Museum's dime solving mysteries. The romance is with an Art Thief, who she keeps bumping into, and in each of the cases, originally suspects and ends up trusting in spite of herself (it's a slow burn romance running across a series of four-five books). So there's the gothic. It's more adventurous than a cozy in some respects, but has an underlying tongue firmly in cheek dry wit - the book does not take itself seriously and appears to be poking fun at the genre. This one is read by "Barbara Rosenblat" - who is remarkably good. As Vicky - she manages a breathy impression of Kathleen Turner, and as the art thief, a rather decent take on Peter O'Toole meets Lord Peter Whimsy. Also manages a German and an Italian accent. I wasn't expecting much - it's a rather old school audio book, so I'm rather impressed.
Slogging my way through Withered Hill which I'm determined to finish this year. It's British Folk Horror with an allegedly unreliable narrator. So I'm curious. The thing takes place in a village in Cornwall, and in South London. And has a jagged narrative style. We jump between the period of time Sophie is outside Withered Hill and moving towards it, and the period of time she is stuck inside Withered Hill and attempting to escape (initially at least, she eventually gives up). But the pacing is slow, and there is way too much navel gazing and "woe, poor me" (regarding Sophie) for my taste. I don't really care about anybody in the book - the writing style is such - that I find it difficult to invest emotionally in the characters at all? I'm only sticking with it - out of curiosity, but it is a slog.
And moving slowly through the reading of the hard back version of "This Kingdom will Not Kill Me" - which seems to be more detailed than the audio version? Either that or I just pick up more details reading it. I'm enjoying it enough to do both. I wouldn't do this with other books, such as Withered Hill.
5. Finished S4 of Vox Machina, and promptly began to rewatch it from the beginning, also joined one of the fandoms for it on FB. I want to read people's takes on it and get news about it. Plus it pushes the political threads off the page. I've been filling FB and Instagram with movie, television series, and book sites in an attempt to get rid of all of the political posts (it is working) and the health posts (also working).
I was explaining RPG or Dungeons and Dragons to my mother (who vaguely remember my brother attempting to play it and failing miserably). It's not a board game. What it is - is you have someone who sets up the world, and the rules of the world, and plans the adventure and all the supporting characters - they basically take on the role of the General Manager/Dungeon Master/or Overseer - they run the game, with the players playing the characters on the journey. A roll of a dice determines what happens next, if you live or die, if you succeed, etc. The dice kind of are metaphors for the randomness of choices and the consequences of them. It's kind of a combination of rolling dice, adding and multiplying numbers (math), and improvisational acting. The Dungeon Master gives you improvisational acting prompts based on the dice roll, or you come up with your own ideas, run it by the Dungeon Master (who acts as the director of this play), and take off running. They will stop you or make you roll the dice or something - if they question your actions.
My brother didn't have the aptitude for it. He might have been able to do the math, but the improv and the acting and creating the character was beyond him. It's not how he thinks. Also there's not a nerdy bone in his body - I got the nerdiness/geekiness not him.
I'm fascinated by it. Watching professional theater and improvisational voice actors do this? Is wild. They come up with amazing things. The creativity and character and world building is just - wonderful and twisted in all the right ways. And they are genuinely kind people.
I'm also impressed by how they handled a problematic collaborator who didn't handle the transfer from private home plays and home streaming to public zoom streaming well. Or the shift of platforms. They didn't humiliate him in any way. What they did was privately deal with it, let him announce that he was retiring from the group to handle personal issues and had outside gigs, and let him leave with his integrity more or less intact. The fandom wasn't very nice about it (sigh fandom sigh), but Critical Role stomped down on any questions or comments in chat regarding it. And basically protected the member who left from any career backlash. Stating simply they'd agreed to go their separate ways. That was well done. I wish television series handled it that well.
People have issues with each other. According to Zooey Deschanel - when she guest starred on The Office, everyone hated each other, and people weren't on speaking terms. Like I said, performance spaces aren't different than work spaces, you don't always get along, and people can be annoying after a certain period of time.
Having watched episodes 1, 6 and 27 of Campaign 1 of Critical Role - I can see why the guy playing Tiberous Storm Dragon left. He didn't click with the other players on screen, and seemed to be struggling to follow their lead. Having been in a similar situation and on both sides of that particular argument? My heart went out to all parties involved. I felt particularly sorry for the guy playing Tiberous. It's really hard when you aren't on the same page as everyone else and you can't find the page or how to get there, and keep screwing up. And 20 times worse, when lots of folks are watching you and ripping you apart for it. That said, apparently he also cheated on the dice rolls...and made the mistake of interacting with the fans and fighting with them. When dealing with a fandom? It's always best to not engage. The internet has unfortunately made that difficult to do. No one is immune. But Critical Role's other members handled it well, considering.
In short, I've become enamored by Critical Role and The Legend of Vox Machina, and want more.
5. Question a Day Mememage
27. Do you have a favourite pasta dish?
I feel like I answered this? Maybe not? And no, not really? As a kid it was Lasagna. Now? I'd say gluten free spinach and cheese ravioli with pesto and broccoli. Or pea flour pasta with pesto and parmensene cheese and broccoli.
I can't eat mushrooms any longer, beef meatballs are out, as are turkey meatballs. So I do it with veggies.
28. Do you have a favourite morning beverage when you wake up?
Water. I might do tea.
29. If you could restart your life aged 16, would you do anything differently?
Probably not? I was involved in a lot of theater, and went to France for the Summer at age 16. I might actually have returned the French kiss of the cute French Boy dancing with me on Bastille Day under the fireworks on the beach, instead of freaking out on him. In my defense? He didn't handle it well? Instead of kissing me gently on the lips and working me up to it - he stuck his tongue out at me. Boys. Sigh. They aren't as savvy as they are in books, movies and television shows, are they? Nor are girls for that matter.
30. Do you shout at bad drivers when you are in the car?
I did when I was driving - way back in my 20s. Although I wouldn't call it shouting? More cursing them, with the windows up, and the music blaring. So they didn't exactly hear me. I remember cursing text messegers who weren't looking at where they were going.
God, there are multiple reasons I no longer drive and haven't in over 20 years. It's dangerous. Too many bad drivers on the roads. I don't know what it is like in other states? But the majority of drivers in NY specifically NYC, should not drive. That's true of bicyclists too - they should also not drive.
Hugh Jackman and Emma Thompson have bit parts or cameos - although both are well utilized. And in some respects play roles that I've seen both do a lot of late. All the other actors - live human actors - are unknowns. The name talents are the voice actors (which kind of annoyed me, mainly because there are some really talented voice actors out there that could put these folks to shame? It's a different process? Why not hire professional voice actors, and leave the professional actors to the live roles? But people like to know famous people are doing the voices. Not that you can tell.)
The famous voice actors are Bryan Cranston, Regina Hall, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, and Patrick Stewart. But I honestly couldn't tell.
It's adapted from a book, The Sheep Detectives is adapted from the 2005 bestselling novel Three Bags Full (also known as Glennkill in some regions) by German author Leonie Swann. I saw the books in Barnes and Noble recently.
Hugh Jackman plays George Hardy, a shepherd in a small village, who owns a bunch of sheep, and sleeps in a trailer. Each night he reads a mystery novel to the sheep. Then he unexpectedly dies. The Sheep realize he's been murdered and seek to help the local policeman, who is kind of inept, solve the case. The relationship between the sheep and the policeman is rather funny at times. While the Sheep can talk to each other? They cannot talk to the policeman. Like I said, it reminds me a little of the movie Babe.
2. The Vestibular Migraine appears to be gone for the time being. How long it will stay gone depends on whether the heat wave triggers my allergies and another migraine. Right now, I'm managing to fend it off with medication (aleve, tynenol, phrenphrinline, and antihistimines). Also staying out of the heat.
3. The heat wave that plagued Europe and the Midwestern US is about to descend on the Eastern US (ie. South Carolina, up through and including Maine, and possibly into Canada) - they are calling a heat dome on the news and weather channels.
In NYC, temperatures are expected to reach the triple digits by Wednesday and Thursday. Or the heat index is expected to. Thursday is slated to be 106 degrees in NYC. If you are headed here on holiday? Try to find indoor venues Thursday through Monday? There are quite a few indoor museums in the city and they aren't that expensive. The MET is always worth a look, since that's suggested donation, as is the American Museum of Natural History (that's fun to go to - just to stare at Dinosaur bones). They are a bit of subway ride, and a walk for the Met, so there is that.
Although it may not be quite as bad near the water. Thunderstorms are slated for the 4th, which may or may not cool things down a bit.
The city is slightly less crowded now that school appears to be out. The subways weren't quite as crowded to and from work. And the financial district had a few less people. That said, the way they are setting up barricades near the river, I'm wondering if the Fire Works are on the East River side this year?
In any event, it is relatively mild at the moment. With high temperature around 83F, heat index 86 F, and lows in the 70s. It's 79F now, and I have the AC and fan on - so it's 77F in the apartment. The apartment doesn't get that hot - I have indirect sunlight, and brick walls. But alas, I can't open the windows - without my allergies flaring up and letting in one too many creepy crawlies.
4. I finished the audiobook version of This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me - it was good. I highly recommend the audiobook version. The narrator was quite accomplished. Listening to audiobooks and Critical Role campaigns, and watch Vox Machina, has given me a whole new appreciation for professional voice actors. Vox Machina is a play on words - it means voice machine, which is basically all the voice actors involved. One of them does about fifty different voices. The same deal with This Kingdom - the narrator does about twenty different voices and five different accents. I know how hard that is - have I mentioned that I've tremendous respect for things I can't do? I cannot do accents or multiple voices. (Actually people who can sing - usually can - it's all about tonal flucuations, just as folks who can sing - probably will do very well with Mandarin or Asian languages, which are very tonal. I'm tone death - so not happening. I accept my limitations.)
Currently listening to Elizabeth Peter's Street of the Five Moons - it's a Vicky Bliss mystery. These are kind of - gothic cozy mystery comedies featuring an intelligent/savvy but somewhat inept twenty-something Assistant Art Museum Curator in Germany, who travels about on the Museum's dime solving mysteries. The romance is with an Art Thief, who she keeps bumping into, and in each of the cases, originally suspects and ends up trusting in spite of herself (it's a slow burn romance running across a series of four-five books). So there's the gothic. It's more adventurous than a cozy in some respects, but has an underlying tongue firmly in cheek dry wit - the book does not take itself seriously and appears to be poking fun at the genre. This one is read by "Barbara Rosenblat" - who is remarkably good. As Vicky - she manages a breathy impression of Kathleen Turner, and as the art thief, a rather decent take on Peter O'Toole meets Lord Peter Whimsy. Also manages a German and an Italian accent. I wasn't expecting much - it's a rather old school audio book, so I'm rather impressed.
Slogging my way through Withered Hill which I'm determined to finish this year. It's British Folk Horror with an allegedly unreliable narrator. So I'm curious. The thing takes place in a village in Cornwall, and in South London. And has a jagged narrative style. We jump between the period of time Sophie is outside Withered Hill and moving towards it, and the period of time she is stuck inside Withered Hill and attempting to escape (initially at least, she eventually gives up). But the pacing is slow, and there is way too much navel gazing and "woe, poor me" (regarding Sophie) for my taste. I don't really care about anybody in the book - the writing style is such - that I find it difficult to invest emotionally in the characters at all? I'm only sticking with it - out of curiosity, but it is a slog.
And moving slowly through the reading of the hard back version of "This Kingdom will Not Kill Me" - which seems to be more detailed than the audio version? Either that or I just pick up more details reading it. I'm enjoying it enough to do both. I wouldn't do this with other books, such as Withered Hill.
5. Finished S4 of Vox Machina, and promptly began to rewatch it from the beginning, also joined one of the fandoms for it on FB. I want to read people's takes on it and get news about it. Plus it pushes the political threads off the page. I've been filling FB and Instagram with movie, television series, and book sites in an attempt to get rid of all of the political posts (it is working) and the health posts (also working).
I was explaining RPG or Dungeons and Dragons to my mother (who vaguely remember my brother attempting to play it and failing miserably). It's not a board game. What it is - is you have someone who sets up the world, and the rules of the world, and plans the adventure and all the supporting characters - they basically take on the role of the General Manager/Dungeon Master/or Overseer - they run the game, with the players playing the characters on the journey. A roll of a dice determines what happens next, if you live or die, if you succeed, etc. The dice kind of are metaphors for the randomness of choices and the consequences of them. It's kind of a combination of rolling dice, adding and multiplying numbers (math), and improvisational acting. The Dungeon Master gives you improvisational acting prompts based on the dice roll, or you come up with your own ideas, run it by the Dungeon Master (who acts as the director of this play), and take off running. They will stop you or make you roll the dice or something - if they question your actions.
My brother didn't have the aptitude for it. He might have been able to do the math, but the improv and the acting and creating the character was beyond him. It's not how he thinks. Also there's not a nerdy bone in his body - I got the nerdiness/geekiness not him.
I'm fascinated by it. Watching professional theater and improvisational voice actors do this? Is wild. They come up with amazing things. The creativity and character and world building is just - wonderful and twisted in all the right ways. And they are genuinely kind people.
I'm also impressed by how they handled a problematic collaborator who didn't handle the transfer from private home plays and home streaming to public zoom streaming well. Or the shift of platforms. They didn't humiliate him in any way. What they did was privately deal with it, let him announce that he was retiring from the group to handle personal issues and had outside gigs, and let him leave with his integrity more or less intact. The fandom wasn't very nice about it (sigh fandom sigh), but Critical Role stomped down on any questions or comments in chat regarding it. And basically protected the member who left from any career backlash. Stating simply they'd agreed to go their separate ways. That was well done. I wish television series handled it that well.
People have issues with each other. According to Zooey Deschanel - when she guest starred on The Office, everyone hated each other, and people weren't on speaking terms. Like I said, performance spaces aren't different than work spaces, you don't always get along, and people can be annoying after a certain period of time.
Having watched episodes 1, 6 and 27 of Campaign 1 of Critical Role - I can see why the guy playing Tiberous Storm Dragon left. He didn't click with the other players on screen, and seemed to be struggling to follow their lead. Having been in a similar situation and on both sides of that particular argument? My heart went out to all parties involved. I felt particularly sorry for the guy playing Tiberous. It's really hard when you aren't on the same page as everyone else and you can't find the page or how to get there, and keep screwing up. And 20 times worse, when lots of folks are watching you and ripping you apart for it. That said, apparently he also cheated on the dice rolls...and made the mistake of interacting with the fans and fighting with them. When dealing with a fandom? It's always best to not engage. The internet has unfortunately made that difficult to do. No one is immune. But Critical Role's other members handled it well, considering.
In short, I've become enamored by Critical Role and The Legend of Vox Machina, and want more.
5. Question a Day Mememage
27. Do you have a favourite pasta dish?
I feel like I answered this? Maybe not? And no, not really? As a kid it was Lasagna. Now? I'd say gluten free spinach and cheese ravioli with pesto and broccoli. Or pea flour pasta with pesto and parmensene cheese and broccoli.
I can't eat mushrooms any longer, beef meatballs are out, as are turkey meatballs. So I do it with veggies.
28. Do you have a favourite morning beverage when you wake up?
Water. I might do tea.
29. If you could restart your life aged 16, would you do anything differently?
Probably not? I was involved in a lot of theater, and went to France for the Summer at age 16. I might actually have returned the French kiss of the cute French Boy dancing with me on Bastille Day under the fireworks on the beach, instead of freaking out on him. In my defense? He didn't handle it well? Instead of kissing me gently on the lips and working me up to it - he stuck his tongue out at me. Boys. Sigh. They aren't as savvy as they are in books, movies and television shows, are they? Nor are girls for that matter.
30. Do you shout at bad drivers when you are in the car?
I did when I was driving - way back in my 20s. Although I wouldn't call it shouting? More cursing them, with the windows up, and the music blaring. So they didn't exactly hear me. I remember cursing text messegers who weren't looking at where they were going.
God, there are multiple reasons I no longer drive and haven't in over 20 years. It's dangerous. Too many bad drivers on the roads. I don't know what it is like in other states? But the majority of drivers in NY specifically NYC, should not drive. That's true of bicyclists too - they should also not drive.
no subject
Date: 2026-06-30 07:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-07-02 12:23 am (UTC)In NYC - which has an excellent public transportation system, among the best globally, and among the few that is 24/7 - it makes no sense to have a car. You only need it to cart big items, and you can use uber or a cab or Task Rabbit for that. Also, most big items wouldn't fit in a car anyway, you'd need a truck. Now, you can just get it delivered to you.
They are working hard to discourage driving in the city. It results in gridlock, and added problems anyhow. Yesterday (according to the news) delays were up to 3 hours on the roads, due to accidents.
no subject
Date: 2026-06-30 07:36 am (UTC)Also glad that This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me worked out so well, will look it up.
no subject
Date: 2026-07-02 12:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-07-03 06:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-07-04 02:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-07-01 10:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-07-02 12:16 am (UTC)