Catching up: entertainment edition
The 9-to-5 gig is going well and turns out to involve some opportunity to practice information architecture as well as content strategy, yay! But it limits my time on social media, so I thought I'd catch you all up on what I've been watching and reading.
Based on Connie Willis' recommendations in the prologue to The Winds of Marble Arch, I've started reading the Lord Peter Wimsey novels. They're lovely, although clearly meant to be savored, rather than my usual breathless page-turning. I'm going to try the audiobook of Gaudy Night to see if that slows me down appropriately.
I recently started watching "The Librarians" again (having bailed on the first season), and decided it was worth showing to the kids. They love it. N is old enough to get a bunch of the jokes. K mostly likes watching with us, although she gets scared about the monsters sometimes. The writers have been giving Jacob some great lines lately. Paraphrased from And the Infernal Contract:
"Get ready for chupacabra jerky!"
"Ew, you're cooking him?"
"No, he's makin' it! He's awesome!"
And the classic moment (in "And the Image of Image") where two guys can't get a the nightclub, so the burly one's going to cause a distraction while the slender one sneaks in. But the fight that Jacob starts with the bouncer is a literature throw-down.
"Name me one poet or writer who can measure up to the best of Britain."
"You want 'em alphabetically or by century? -- tell you what, we'll just start with the twentieth. E. E. Cummings. Allen Ginsberg. You got William Carlos Williams, that’s a good one. I mean, you got Lowell, Sandburg, Plath, Frost, Sexton. And, if you will, my personal favorite, Raymond Carver."
So far the one "Librarians" episode I didn't care for was the rip-off of "Live Die Repeat" (originally released in theaters as "Edge of Tomorrow"). I like Ezekiel and Eve, but they're no Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt. Actually, Rebecca Romijin is pretty great in action movies, so she could substitute for Emily Blunt, but not in this role.
I watched one of the classic movies I got for Xmas: "The Bachelor Mother", with David Niven (who reminds me of Tom Hiddleston for some reason), and Ginger Rogers. It was wonderful. Sometimes these screwball comedies trip some kind of lever for me, and my brain rebels against all the stupid misunderstandings. But this one was perfect, I think because the Ginger Rogers character is also rebelling against the stupidity. And it's set around Christmas and New Year's.
A few weeks back, I had less fun watching "Jupiter Ascending", which I thought would be great fun based on the enthusiastic review of jimhines. I got about halfway through and was enjoying it a lot (I mean, how can you not love a werewolf with flying skates?). And then I suddenly realized the character we were watching was Elena fucking Gilbert, just in a different setting. I think Kunis is adorable, but I was just done at that point.
I've given up on "Gotham". The Man showed me about half of the first season. It has exciting plot twists. Everything with Alfred is great. Young Selina Kyle is annoying, but they did an amazing job of finding a tween who looks just like Michelle Pfeiffer. But the thing I can't get past is that Gotham is a bad place where everything is doomed to turn to shit.
Based on Connie Willis' recommendations in the prologue to The Winds of Marble Arch, I've started reading the Lord Peter Wimsey novels. They're lovely, although clearly meant to be savored, rather than my usual breathless page-turning. I'm going to try the audiobook of Gaudy Night to see if that slows me down appropriately.
I recently started watching "The Librarians" again (having bailed on the first season), and decided it was worth showing to the kids. They love it. N is old enough to get a bunch of the jokes. K mostly likes watching with us, although she gets scared about the monsters sometimes. The writers have been giving Jacob some great lines lately. Paraphrased from And the Infernal Contract:
"Get ready for chupacabra jerky!"
"Ew, you're cooking him?"
"No, he's makin' it! He's awesome!"
And the classic moment (in "And the Image of Image") where two guys can't get a the nightclub, so the burly one's going to cause a distraction while the slender one sneaks in. But the fight that Jacob starts with the bouncer is a literature throw-down.
"Name me one poet or writer who can measure up to the best of Britain."
"You want 'em alphabetically or by century? -- tell you what, we'll just start with the twentieth. E. E. Cummings. Allen Ginsberg. You got William Carlos Williams, that’s a good one. I mean, you got Lowell, Sandburg, Plath, Frost, Sexton. And, if you will, my personal favorite, Raymond Carver."
So far the one "Librarians" episode I didn't care for was the rip-off of "Live Die Repeat" (originally released in theaters as "Edge of Tomorrow"). I like Ezekiel and Eve, but they're no Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt. Actually, Rebecca Romijin is pretty great in action movies, so she could substitute for Emily Blunt, but not in this role.
I watched one of the classic movies I got for Xmas: "The Bachelor Mother", with David Niven (who reminds me of Tom Hiddleston for some reason), and Ginger Rogers. It was wonderful. Sometimes these screwball comedies trip some kind of lever for me, and my brain rebels against all the stupid misunderstandings. But this one was perfect, I think because the Ginger Rogers character is also rebelling against the stupidity. And it's set around Christmas and New Year's.
A few weeks back, I had less fun watching "Jupiter Ascending", which I thought would be great fun based on the enthusiastic review of jimhines. I got about halfway through and was enjoying it a lot (I mean, how can you not love a werewolf with flying skates?). And then I suddenly realized the character we were watching was Elena fucking Gilbert, just in a different setting. I think Kunis is adorable, but I was just done at that point.
I've given up on "Gotham". The Man showed me about half of the first season. It has exciting plot twists. Everything with Alfred is great. Young Selina Kyle is annoying, but they did an amazing job of finding a tween who looks just like Michelle Pfeiffer. But the thing I can't get past is that Gotham is a bad place where everything is doomed to turn to shit.