To celebrate, I’m posting my hiking highlights of the past year.
I got a cheap drone December 2021 and most of the clips are from the drone.
My favourite music of 2022 was by Odesza — so it’s appropriate that the soundtrack is one of their songs: Wide Awake.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
It’s very good. One of my favourite TV series of 2022.
Of course there are many things that fans of the books will criticize, especially the cast.
Too few francophones for a village in Quebec.
Most miscast was Tamara Brown as Myrna Landers. Myrna should be bigger, happier, and older.
Initially, I was disappointed in British-American actor Alfred Molina as Chief Inspector Armand Gamache. Too anglo. And he doesn’t look how I picture Gamache — BUT I was wrong.
Molina really does convey the unique philosophical approach to solving murders that we read in the books. Warmth and gravitas.
As many agree, Sarah Booth as Yvette Nichol is BETTER on screen than the character in the books. Comic relief.
Yes this TV series has absurd, ridiculous plot lines. There are no grizzly bears in Quebec — but that’s my main complaint with the books, as well. The book plots are absurd. The show consistent with that.
If you are generous, you could say there are traces of magic realism.
Of the many insights I’ve seen into the horrors of the Canadian Indian residential school crimes, this was the one that moved me most.
Of 150,000 children placed in those by the Canadian government over 100 years, estimates range from 3200 to over 30,000 who died there.
Many more lived having been abused. During a penitential pilgrimage to Canada in July 2022, Pope Francis reiterated the apologies of the Catholic Church who administered many of them, including the fictional one in Three Pines, Quebec.
First Nations Canadians are still suffering from that evil legacy. And that’s spelled out in this show.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
After 18 months retirement — DC Smith felt obliged to return to investigate a charge against a friend’s son.
Fact is … DC Smith is by far the best part of the entire Kings Lake investigation book series.
When DC Smith is not there, the books are far weaker.
DC Smith is glad to be back. His partner Jo is glad he’s back.
And now he has some kind of phoney Private Investigator card.
Thank God!
This is a very good debut novel.
Already picked up to be adapted for screen.
The author IS a corporate attorney in ATLANTA. She’s writing what she knows.
Family. Secrets. Murder.
When Atlanta lawyer Ellice Littlejohn discovers her boss dead in his office, she walks away instead of calling the authorities.
Why?
Because she has been keeping a cache of dark secrets including a small-town past and a kid brother who’s spent time on the other side of the law.
Also, she’s had a long term affair with her boss. And doesn’t want that coming to light.
After that, her life gets … complicated.
The Capture is a British mystery crime-drama staring Holliday Grainger.
Perhaps my favourite TV series of 2022.
The ending is superb, something rare to see in television.
Holliday played Robin Ellacott in Strike, another excellent recent British TV series.
If you are worried about deep fake video, this show will terrify. The hackers seem to be able to change whatever they like, whenever they like.
Paapa Essiedu is excellent as Isaac Turner.
Ron Perlman is superb too.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Both books and TV series are excellent.
Season 4 is based on the book Lethal White.
Robin Ellacott (Holliday Grainger) finally leaves her husband. Thank God.
Her one-legged partner, detective Cormoran Strike, doesn’t know how to react. He’s hopeless.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
The 4th book I’ve now read by Nora Roberts I’d say was the weakest.
Still good.
Still a sprawling, multi-generational tale well told.
The first time she met her father was the day he tried to kill her…
Fantastic Fiction
Adrian Rizzo didn’t have the easiest childhood, to put it mildly, but she’s worked hard to put it behind her and to the outside world she is a beautiful young woman with a successful, high-profile career and a wonderful family and friends.
When, out of the blue, she receives a death threat in the post, she is shocked but puts it down to someone’s jealousy of her success and tries to forget about it. But Adrian doesn’t realise that it’s more than just spite. Someone is very, very angry about her happy life and will stop at nothing to bring it all crashing down. …
Mark Critch (born May 14, 1974) is a Canadian comedian, actor, and writer.
He is best known for his work on the comedy series This Hour Has 22 Minutes, initially as a writer and then as a regular cast member beginning in 2003. …
In 2018, Critch announced the release of his early life memoir, Son of a Critch.
I found it hilarious. Funnier than Rick Mercer’s early memoir. Also in Newfoundland.
Next I watched Son of a Critch, a Canadian television comedy series, created by Mark Critch and Tim McAuliffe, based on the book. I watched it for free online, on CBC’s streaming platform, CBC Gem.
11-year-old Mark is growing up in 1980s Newfoundland, where he navigates starting junior high school, making friends, and connecting with the small collection of people in his limited world. Mark is a nerd.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Mark Critch plays Mike Critch, Mark’s father and reporter for radio station VOCM.
Malcolm McDowell plays Patrick “Pop” Critch, Mark’s grandfather.
Season 2 launches January 2023. I’m sure I’ll watch it too.
Son of a Critch is a good addition to the CanCon SitCom genre, easier watching even than Kim’s Convenience and Corner Gas.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly written by American chef Anthony Bourdain, was first published in 2000. …
… the book is both a professional memoir and an unfiltered look at the less glamorous aspects of high-end restaurant kitchens, which he describes as unremittingly intense, unpleasant, hazardous, and staffed by misfits. …
Bourdain has cited George Orwell‘s Down and Out in Paris and London (1933), with its behind-the-scenes examination of the restaurant business in 1920s Paris, as an important influence on the book’s themes and tone. …
In 2005, the book was adapted into a television show of the same name, starring Bradley Cooper as a fictionalized Bourdain. The series was cancelled partway into its first season, and only 13 episodes were produced. …
Very entertaining. Laughs on every page.
Rick McCharles 