Category Archives: books

2024, books, History, Movies, TV

Tudor Anniversary

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When I was a freshman in high school, PBS aired The Six Wives of Henry VIII – a one-hour segment for each wife over the course of six weeks.  I do not remember why I watched the first one – it could have been because one of my folks turned it on, although neither of them were big history buffs.  It could also have just been a happy accident – by the end of the first episode, I was completely hooked.  That was the day that my interest in the Tudors was born.  About a year later, Masterpiece Theatre showed Elizabeth I, another six-part series.  Glenda Jackson was fabulous in this. It was also about this time that I saw Anne of a Thousand Days. Any time I think of Anne Boleyn, I also see Genevieve Bujold in my minds’ eye. Even when I hear this:

I would not call myself an expert in Elizabeth or any of her Tudor relatives, but I’m pretty sure I know more than your average Joe.  I remember being amazed when one of my Metro State professors, who I’ve always thought was just the smartest guy ever, didn’t know the order of the six queens.  Didn’t everybody know that.  Guess not.

Six, a musical that is currently playing on Broadway hasn’t piqued my interest yet – I still have to get around the weirdness of having a lot of singing and dancing based on what are almost all pretty tragic stories.  Truly, Anne of Cleves (#4) was the only one of the six who managed to come out ahead of the game.  I know a few people who have seen the musical and they say it definitely is good but I’m not ready yet.  Maybe one of these days. 

Yesterday, in 1558, Queen Mary passed away and Elizabeth came to the throne.  I thought I’d mark the occasion by reading Elizabeth I CEO: Strategic Lessons from the Leader Who Built an Empire.  It isn’t a new book but I’ve avoided it because “CEO” and “strategic lessons” aren’t on my favorite words list.  For some reason this week I’m thinking I might enjoy this – maybe give me some insights that I haven’t considered before.  We’ll see.

When was the last time you pushed yourself to read a book you weren’t sure about? And how did that turn out?

2024, Art, books, History, Movies

Sistine Chapel

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A couple of weeks ago, we hit the 512th anniversary of when the Sistine Chapel was first opened to the public for viewing; Michelangelo Buonarotti spent seven years working on that ceiling between 1508 and 1512.

The story of his work on the Chapel and his relationship with Pope Julius II is pretty well documented by Irving Stone’s The Agony & the Ecstasy, which came out in 1961.  I haven’t read it but reviews have always said that it’s a fairly well done biography, using mostly primary sources including a lot of Michelangelo’s letters and writings.

I’ve seen the movie several times – it got hugely good press when it came out in `65.  I think it portrays a pretty accurate look at the times although modern reviewers wish that the movie had been more “spicy” and suggest that Michelangelo’s life was more passionate than shown– that he wasn’t just a roboton with veins of paint (a great line by Rex Harrison in the movie – “What runs in Michelangelo’s veins is not blood – it’s paint”).

I’ve been lucky enough to visit the Sistine Chapel and it IS incredible.  However I can’t help but wonder at how Michelangelo could have labored for seven years on the project.  In fact, it turns out that a couple of decades later, he returned to work on The Last Judgments of Popes paintings.  So technically MORE than seven years.

A project taking that long would make me crazy.  My “all flowers, no grass” program in the front yard was a 20-year endeavor, but it was short spurts each year, nothing in comparison to hand painting an entire chapel.  The front porch project took four years but except for the two LONG days that tim and I spent sand-blasting the old stucco off, it didn’t seem like an overwhelming to-do.

I’m not sure how I would keep up my motivation for such a big job that would take so long.

What’s the longest project you’ve worked on?

2024, books, education, Movies, Music, Uncategorized

Excuse Me?

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I’m re-reading Fried Green Tomatoes for Sunday – not sure the first time I read it but it was quite some time ago, before the movie.

In the chapter about Stump and his friend Peggy taking a picture of the dead Harold Pinto, Fannie Flagg writes that “Peggy screamed … and Stump squealed like a girl.” I did a double-take and re-wound the CD a bit to make sure I’d heard it correctly. Ticked me off.

That made me think about the end of Sahara, a movie that I adore even though it has so many plot holes that you could strain rice through it, when the Matthew McConaughy characters says “you do throw like a girl”.  This pisses me off every time I watch the movie.  Since it’s the very end of the movie, often I just turn it off at the beginning of that scene.

Guess I have trouble with phrases ending “like a little girl”.  I don’t even like the Bob Dylan song although “she breaks just like a little girl” isn’t quite as derogatory as the usual “like a girl” comment.

Run like a girl, cry like a girl, squeal like a girl, throw like a girl, drive like a girl (one of those Allstate Mayhem commercials) – these all drive me crazy. 

I guess don’t really have anything else to say – just ranting today.

Any words/phrases that make you nuts?  Anything you need to rant about?

100 Words, 2024, books, home

Getting Through

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There was absolutely nothing useful I could think of to say today – my stomach has been roiling for days.  Despite Linda’s exhortations, I did not get around to voting early so I’m expecting I will be in line for a while this morning.   My plan is to go early and have a good book.  And if the forecast is correct, an umbrella.

My to-do list for the rest of the day is to take it easy.  Some time in my studio.  Some tv, but not coverage.  Make some waffles.  Read, but something very light.  Go to bed early as possible.  

What are you doing today?  Any good way to keep our minds from blowing up? 

2024, books, Fantasy, Movies, Music, Mysteries, Uncategorized

Wicked. Really?

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I’ve said before that I’d love to have been in the room when someone first proposed the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  My guess is that everybody in the room dismissed the idea; the one who didn’t laughed all the way to the bank.

It’s fascinating to me how certain decisions get made and the decisions that Hollywood makes are the most mysterious.  You all know that I often get worked up by the changes that Hollywood makes to good books.  Shining Through by Susan Isaacs, Dune by Frank Herbert, Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton.  And I’m sure I’ve ranted before about The Hunchback of Notre Dame made into a Disney musical for kids.  Truly that meeting would have been legend.  “Let’s take a long, bleak historical novel in which every single major character is dead by the last page, add some peppy songs and make a happy ending for everybody.” 

So why am I ranting again?  A couple of weeks ago I saw a commercial for Wicked, a movie coming out this winter.  I had never actually read Wicked by Gregory Maguire but I knew it was quite long so assumed there were some differences between the book and the musical (which I HAVE actually seen). You all know me well enough to know what came next; I went and got the book from the library.

What a shock.  Without really giving anything away, here are the only similarities between the novel and the musical.  There is a green gal.  She goes to school, meets someone who becomes a friend and is taught by a speaking animal.  Some flying monkeys.  That’s about it… while some of the characters in the book show up in the musical, it’s in name only – they aren’t really the same as in the book.   The book is incredibly detailed and political although certainly not satire.  It is not even remotely light hearted and the ending is not happy at all; it’s a bit like Hunchback – a lot of bodies have piled up by the end.

Of course, the initial Wizard of Oz movie differed from the book but the jump from Wicked to the musical is such a leap that I’m still a little stunned, even a week after finishing the book.  Once again, I try to imagine the conversation that got the book transformed to a musical that is so different.  Somebody in that room must have laughed all the way to the bank.  And it wouldn’t have been me.

What’s the most incomprehensible movie you’ve ever seen?

2024, books, Media, Movies, The Future, Uncategorized

Curated Batman

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As part of my rabbit-holing this past week, I stopped at the Southdale Library to pick up a DVD on Monday.  My local library is Washburn and I don’t visit other libraries too much but occasionally if there is something I want RIGHT NOW at another library not too far from me, I’ll go pick it up.

The Southdale branch does a fun voting game at the entrance on the second floor.   They set out a small displays with a question (usually favorite books or authors) and then you bot by putting a little piece of paper into a can.  It’s a silly bit of fun so I always vote.  I don’t know how often they change out the game and I don’t even know if they ever “publish” the results anywhere.

On Monday, the game was “Who is your favorite Batman”.   I wasn’t sure why but of course I voted for Adam West with no hesitation.  I went in search of my DVD and wasn’t thinking too much about it until I was leaving the library and noticed a big Batman display on the wall.  The photo above is half of the exhibition.  Then I understood why the Batman voting.

Washburn library displays books on a theme every few weeks on the big display table right as you come into the library.  Upon asking once I was told that it’s up to each individual library to curate their own special exhibits.  I always look at the books and usually pick one up every few weeks but I’d have to say we never have anything quite as fun as Batman!  It almost made me want to pick up one of the books but since I’ve never really been that interested in Batman (I haven’t even seen all the movies), I didn’t need to add to my obsessions this month.  But it did make me think how much work and hopefully fun goes into making these displays. And I sincerely hope that after the big Southdale Library renovation beginning in 2025, they will still have these fun interactive exhibits.

If you were to curate a display somewhere, what would it be and where?

2024, Baboon Achievers, books, Family, Media, Movies, TV

Thanks a lot you all!

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Going down a rabbit hole isn’t anything new for me but this week I’m down two different rabbit holes and it’s all your fault!

The first is my Alan Bennett rabbit hole.  For those of you in Blevins, you may remember that Bill recommended one of our last books, An Uncommon Reader, which we all liked enormously.  Since then I’ve read several other Alan Bennett titles.  That has led me to a few movies that have been made from his plays/books.  Luckily so far the movies are pretty close to the plays/books; it’s clear that Bennett was closely involved in the various productions.  I had not realized before this rabbit hole that Alan Bennett is the author of Madness of King George.  He also wrote the screenplay when they made the movie from his play.  Bennett is unbelievably prolific; the list of his credits from television, plays, books, films and even radio broadcasts is remarkable.  I’m pretty sure that I’ll be down this rabbit hole for awhile yet.

The second rabbit hole is thanks to Barbara.   Last week I picked up a book at the library, an older volume of something called Lisa & Lottie.  I had no memory of why I had requested this title but that’s not actually uncommon.  In the reference column of my reading spreadsheet the notation “O&A” is the most common and stands for Out & About, and almost always means I don’t remember where I got the idea.  Within about 10 pages I realized this was the book that The Parent Trap was based on which we talked about on the trail a couple of weeks ago.

The original German title was Das Doppelte Lottchen, (The Double Lottie) and was published in 1949.  Disney got his mits on it and the first Parent Trap movie came out in 1961 with the enormously popular Hayley Mills along with Maureen O’Hara and Brian Keith.  The movie is actually much closer to the book than I had expected.  The biggest difference is that there is not a camping trip at the end during which Brian Keith realizes that his new fiancée is not the woman for him.  (In Lisa & Lottie, the new fiancée just gets mad about the twins/mother of twins issues and stomps off into the sunset.)  And, of course the names and jobs of all the characters are updated in all versions.  I’ve re-watched the Hayley Mills version again; probably won’t watch the Lindsey Lohan version again.  It’s actually fairly well done but YA liked the movie a lot and as a consequence I’ve been it A LOT! 

I’m actually really glad that I’ve already read both the Blevins selections for this month because I’m not sure how I’d fit them in!

What’s taking up your time this week?

2024, animals, books, Family, Kids, Travel, Uncategorized

Travelling Oma

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I am driving to Brookings, SD tomorrow for a week to look after my grandson while his parents work and the elementary schools haven’t yet opened and his usual child care center is closed for the week. Husband is staying home to look after the garden and the dog. He will meet us in Detroit Lakes for Labor Day weekend at a lake cabin we have rented.

I bought a crate of peaches yesterday to bring along. The local fruit man had some lovely looking freestone peaches from Utah, of all places, He usually has Washington peaches this time of year, but the orchard he goes to was busy with the apple harvest. Grandson loves to cook so we will make peach pie fillings to freeze and maybe make peach sorbet or ice cream. His parents have requested peach crisp. I am also bringing pesto and home canned tomato puree. We shall eat well.

In a continuing effort to declutter our home I am bringing all the children’s books we have to our grandson. These are books that our son and daughter had as children. Grandson and I can sort through and keep the ones he likes and discard the others. I also expect I will do leggo construction and we will visit the public library and the wonderful local children’s museum. It will be a nice break for me. I will even have a terrier to care for since Son and DIL have a Westie.

I have very fond memories of the times I spent with my grandparents on their farms, and I want my grandson to have some fond memories of us, too. I am glad Husband can meet us at the lake next week.

What activities would you plan for a week with a 6 year old boy and a terrier? What are some favorite memories of your grandparents or older relatives? Ever had peaches from Utah?

books, Media, Movies, Uncategorized

To Catch a Thief

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Spoiler Alert Possibility.  If you are anything like me and can easily seek out rabbit holes to throw yourself down, be aware that there may be some spoiler alerts coming up.

To Catch a Thief if one of my favorite movies.  How can you go wrong with a Hitchcock film starring Grace Kelly and Cary Grant?  It’s one of my go-to movies if I wake up during the night and my brain won’t let go (I own it via my cable company).  It’s also what I play in my head if I need to pass some serious time (think MRI kinds of things); the last MRI of my ankle took 45 minutes and I got almost all the way through to the final scene.

Considering how many times I seen the opening credits, I’m not sure why I just realized a few weeks ago that the movie is based on a novel of the same name by David Dodge, who wrote quite a few books back in the fifties and sixties and was quite a success, especially after Thief got picked up by Hitchcock and turned into an Academy-award winning film.  Well, you know me – I had to find the book.  I read online that they made quite a few changes to the book while filming and that just ignited my desire to find it.   Inter-Library Loan to the rescue!

This is backwards for me.  Normally if there is a movie made from a book, I try to get the book read before I see the movie.  (Sometimes this backfires – having read The Martian before the movie was out, I realized that I NEVER want to see the movie.  What I have in my head is all that I want.)  Occasionally though I see a movie and eventually read the book.  This doesn’t happen too often although a couple of times it’s caused me heartache.  Both The Natural and Suspicion were movies that I really liked and had seen multiple times.  Then I read the books and now can never see those movies again.  It’s one thing to make changes to a book, but oh my goodness.  Neither of those movies even began to keep true to the heart of the story or the characters.  And this is really sad because Suspicion is another Hitchcock/Grant pairing.  Just can’t do it.

Anyway, back to Thief.  Having prepared myself for a book quite unlike the movie, I was pleasantly surprised.  The main story lines match up closely, although the book has way more moving characters than the movie.  The bad guy is the same, although the motivation of that character is different between the book and the film.  The insurance guy isn’t nearly as interesting a character in the book as John Williams played.  The final denouement had a similar twist but I preferred the movie version – especially since it involves a drop-dead gorgeous gold gown (designed by Edith Head).  There were also a few places where dialog from the book was dropped into the movie.  The main differences that I could see were some of the shifting morality/ethics in the book that were not present in the movie.  In the movie, even the thief was a good guy; in the book things were much more loosey goosey.  In fact, the strictly upright best friend completely flip flops in the end and decides to protect the bad guy – nobody goes to jail in the book.

I knew going into this that the book probably wasn’t going to mar my enjoyment of the movie, but it was nice that the two actually fit together better than I expected.  I’ve decided that I prefer the movie – the plot line is a little cleaner and, of course, the cinematography is stunning.  Guess I’m safe to keep playing it in my head when I need to!

Do you any favorite movies?  Are any of them adapted from books?

2024, books, Fitness, Games, Mysteries, TV

Sweating it Out

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When I went to the gym last week, I turned on the tv attached to the stationary bike.  This doesn’t sound like front page news, I know, but it’s extraordinary to me for two reasons.

First, I have never turned on the little tv EVER.  I joined my gym about 30 years ago.  A franchise of a California company was opening and they sent representatives to BIW to scrounge up some memberships.  I’ve spent most of my life trying to get myself to exercise; if there were a vitamin I could pop that could replace exercise in my world, I’d be all over that.  When the reps offered up an extraordinary rate for BIW folks, I signed up.  (And not only was it extraordinary but the price never went up in all the years I was a paying member.)  And I went to the gym like clockwork because for most of those years I got money back from my health insurance company and from BIW – for about 15 years the amount of payback was actually a couple more than I paid the gym.  It was like getting paid to exercise. These days I do mostly stationary bike and occasionally laps in the pool.

The second reason it was extraordinary was that when I turned on the tv, I searched for the Olympics.  You all know I am not a sports fan of any kind.  I only follow gymnastics a smidge because YA follows and I hear things from her. Other than that, I know nothing. When I play Trivial Pursuit, I always make sure there is a sports person on my team because I am useless in that category.

But that day, there was an intersection of my issues.  I didn’t have a book; I’d had a bunch of errands, including meeting YA for lunch and I completely forgot to grab a book even though the gym was on my to-do list.  And no stray books skulking around in the car either, which is also unusual.  I thought about stopping at Southdale library (between BIW and the gym) but I just didn’t want to.  I figured I’d just fart around on my phone for 30 minutes while I cycled.

When I jumped onto the bike, it occurred to me that I could turn on the little TV and watch THE OLYMPICS!  I’m not sure why I am not a jot interested in sports/athletics but I can watch Olympic coverage for hours and days on end.  I was in Madison for several days and my friend and I had the games on pretty much full time if we were at home.  That’s how it always is; I don’t expect to watch any Olympics and then I watch, follow specific athletes, text a couple of friends who I know are watching.  When the games are over, my interest will disappear, pretty much overnight.

So there I was – the person who hates to exercise — watching sports on the gym television.  When Leon Marchand was trailing in second place for most of his 200M Butterfly and then poured it on the last 5 seconds to take the gold, I raised up my arms and cheered (quietly)! I feel like a different person lives in my skin during the Olympics.

Do you have/have you had a go-to exercise?