Consortium of Seven: Year 4

        A daunting Friday ahead of me, I live partially in the hope it'll go smoothly, but there's too much in play. I'm stressed, but am trying to stay as relaxed and distracted as I can, recognizing that often I'm the greatest danger to myself. I've plenty of other things I need to get done in the meantime.       Anyway, another scattered post this week, with a growing stack of potential items still waiting for me to get to them... but not right now.       I've been enjoying Bob Odenkirk's Lucky Hank , and am already tired of running across people in social media who cannot allow him to play anyone but Jimmy McGill/Saul Goodman, and so just show up to complain about it.        I'm enjoying the unpacking of William Henry Devereaux, Jr's life. An English professor at a smallish college, who's never gotten past his first novel, and who lives in the shadow of a far more famous and esteemed fathe...

Happy Thursday, everyone!  It's opening day for Major League Baseball here in the States, the single most hopeful day of the year.  Every team has a winning record, you can hope your team is improving from a disastrous season (*cough* White Sox) and the weather is warming up.  So let's see what's going on that I've found recently! __________________________________________   Genndy Tartakovsky is kind of an interesting animation figure to me.  He created The Powerpuff Girls , Dexter's Laboratory , Samurai Jack , Star Wars: Clone Wars  and this, Primal , an incredibly bloody-looking take on pre-history humans with things like dinosaurs.  And a lot of blood.  Genndy does really cool action work and this one is new for me and I was really happy run across this whole series in a set. All 20 episodes of Primal  were originally on Adult Swim and are now on HBO Max and Hulu.  __________________________________________ Absolute blind buy.  ...

Hello, My Lovely Readers! My journey to this book spans twelve or thirteen years, and as it plays into my rating, y'all are getting that first. If you are not interested in how I found this book, you might want to skip to paragraph 6 for the review. Early in our relationship my husband stumbled on a paperback copy of Herman Wouk's The Winds of War.  As several of my in-laws were Wouk fans, Hubby had to have it. Absolutely no problem. That paperback was the snowball at the mountain-top. Now while I would say I liked Jimmy Buffett's music, I wouldn't call myself a Parrothead, but i know all the words to "Margaritaville"... my husband on the other hand... has a collection of Jimmy Buffett music and books. When he wants to go to his happy place, those 20+ year old CDs come out and we just groove. On a trip to Half-Price Books we stumbled on a rare find. A Jimmy Buffett album called "Don't Stop the Carnival." The back had something on it about Herma...

 All episodes to date for this audio tale of modern suspense can be found at the Facebook Page "Freedom Island, modern suspense."  

  Travel has relaxed me. I needed that. Work has been a struggle this year, and one week in the beautiful southwest refreshed my flagging spirits. I find myself feeling okay about going back to work, dealing with the difficuties I will encounter there. It, travel, must be very good medicine, because I'm not even running through expected problems and how I'll deal with them. Instead I'm yawning about it all. I tell myself, I don't need to think about that. I'm taking my own advice. I'd love it if my state of refreshment could last until summer break. Maybe it will, maybe it won't. I don't have to know, and I don't have to think about it. I like this. I call this photo, Ride ‘em.  That cheerful buckaroo just might be me. 

In which we look at an image, I keep quiet & you can make up your own mind about it.   Man In Armour (Achilles) by Rembrandt, 1655 In memory of  Irene Emslie Green (15th June 1944 – 21st March 2023)  who always loved this painting in particular & Rembrandt in general.

      We've officially wandered into spring since last time, though how much the experience outside your window matches that is likely to vary widely.       This past weekend - another of those thanks to a friend situations - I got to see Cocaine Bear (2023 R 1h 35m). A bloody action comedy, only remotely based on actual events. It's not even so much a case of "print the legend" as write the screenplay based on what a few, likely drunk writers imagined might happen if an air-drop of cocaine went awry, a bear found it, and decided she definitely wanted the rest of it.        A period piece, it's set in the mid-'80s, so no cell phones, and the War On Drugs was making life worse for pretty much everyone. An entertaining cast and over-the-top violence by men, women, and bear, along with players on each side of the drug war, make for a brisk, often funny (providing the violence and blood doesn't muffle that for you) li...

 Happy Thursday, everyone!  This is going to be a short one, as there's honestly not a lot of difference between and the original The Invisible Man , but there's some interesting differences to look at. The main difference is that this time, the Invisible Man (here played by Vincent Price) isn't a scientist, but Sir Geoffrey Radcliffe, a man wrongly sentenced to death for the murder of his brother.  Dr. Frank Griffin, the brother of the original man, injects him with a recreated formula and he uses it to escape from prison.  The really  interesting difference is that Radcliffe has been warned that the formula can cause madness the longer he stays invisible and if he's going to find the truth about his brother's murderer he knows he needs to do that as soon as possible. Radcliffe does have a possible ally in Scotland Yard inspector Sampson, who has already been suspicious of the murderer charges and has been investigating on his own.   Toss in a to...

In the midst of a recent  three-part series on S. S. Van Dine's The Benson Murder Case and its mention of the Robert Hichens novel The Green Carnation , I'm sorry to say we let Van Dine slip away from us.  Van Dine, whose actual name was Willard Huntington Wright, was an artist, art expert and collector. He did very well with his mystery novels but the money really came in with star-studded movies based on the character of amateur detective Philo Vance.  For instance, big-time 1920s film star Louise Brooks appeared in "The Canary Murder Case." Here's comic actress Jean Arthur in a fun publicity still for "The Greene Murder Case." Rosalind Russell added some life to "The Casino Murder Case." (Not her in the headshot photo, obviously.) Then, for S. S. Van Dine, the gravy train screeched to a halt with his new twist in the mystery series: The Gracie Allen Murder Case . One can see why the idea of writing a celebrity into the series would seem ...

 Getting ever closer to the end of this audio tale of modern suspense set in Indianapolis. All episodes to date can be found at the Facebook Page "Freedom Island - modern suspense."

I’ve written a few times here about what I call “Time & Place” tunes, tracks that remind me so strongly of another, usually long gone, place and time. I’ve mentioned a few of those tracks here, but there’s no way I could ever catalog them all.  First of all, there are too many. Second, there’s no way to know: A record that might have no impact on me in, say, February might trigger an entirely different reaction were I to hear it in August. And that summertime reaction to that record might happen once and never again.  Now, there are likely records and tracks that I like that will probably never have a time and place component; the jump blues of the late 1940s and early 1950s, for example, are good listening, but I doubt I’ll ever attach any memories to them. One can never know, though.  Anyway, one of the most potent of my time and place tunes popped up the other day, and, after digging into my files, I was startled to learn that not only have I never mentioned ...

The week long spring break is over. I find myself back in Florida with a 102 degree fever. I’m trying to decide if I should go to Urgent Care today, or see my doctor tomorrow.  I don’t feel like leaving the house but my lungs may need antibiotics. The trip was amazing and beautiful, and without much ado, here are some photos of Santa Fe and Albuquerque.  Right outside our casita.  In the courtyard of our hotel Casa De Suenos.  Old Town Albuquerque.  St. Philip Neri Church.  On a Navajo reservation.  Reservation dogs. Running free.  Dusk in a pretty neighborhood in Albuquerque.  Breakfast at our hotel.  A painting called El Pastor, by William Penhallow Henderson In Madrid, NM on the Turquoise Trail to Santa Fe.  I Our room at the La Fonda.