Austin-based artist Dayglow. LOVE it.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
The Cold Millions by Jess Walter
I really like the setting of this 2020 book – Spokane in the early 1900s.
The author is from Spokane.
Homeless workers, railway tramps and union organizers.
A mix of real and fictional characters makes it more entertaining.
Rye Dolan and his older brother, Gig. Orphaned and penniless. Trying to make their way.
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, a teenage, pregnant firebrand western Joan of Arc. She’s based on an actual historical character. A founding member of the American Civil Liberties Union and a visible proponent of women’s rights, birth control, and women’s suffrage.
Ursula the Great, a striptease artist who sings in a cage with a cougar.
The bad guys: mine owners, violent police, unsympathetic judges and conservative newspaper editors.
It’s not all that well written. But the story does keep moving.
Criminal UK (TV series)
Criminal is a series of four Netflix police procedural anthology TV series set in 4 countries. In 4 languages.
All 4 language series were shot on the same set in Madrid,
Each episode is a stand-alone psychological drama, consisting of the interrogation of an individual by a team of police investigators. Every scene is confined to just three areas in a single location; a police interrogation room, a darkened viewing room that looks into the interrogation room through a one-way mirror, and the hallway and stairwell outside the rooms.
Dialogue is the story.
Very cool.
I watched 7 episodes of the U.K. series.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
A Minute to Midnight by David Baldacci
Book #2 in the Atlee Pine series.
I enjoyed this one more than the first book – Long Road to Mercy.
Badass FBI Agent Atlee Pine finally returns to her Georgia hometown while on forced leave to investigate her twin sister’s abduction when they were just 6-years-old.
Consumed with survivor’s guilt, Atlee believes solving that mystery might help her get her life together.
She stumbles on to a weird serial killer.
I like her unexpected sidekick Carol, who has at least a dozen grandkids.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Nemesis Games by James S. A. Corey
Nemesis Games (2015) is the 5th book in their The Expanse series.
The best, so far, I’d say. (None of the book titles, however, make much sense to me.)
A simpler plot. Our 4 heroes go their separate ways while the Rocinante is down for long-term maintenance.
I new and engaging BAD GUY.
The Expanse TV series is better. Season 5 is based on this book.
Click PLAY or watch the trailer on YouTube.
It’s a PAIN having to wait a week between episodes. Season 6 will be the last.
Paparoa Track, cycling New Zealand
The Paparoa Track is officially New Zealand’s 10th GREAT WALK.
They really bungled that designation as one of the walks is actually a paddle.
Looks awesome for mountain biking.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Falling Glass by Adrian McKinty
Audible selected Falling Glass as a Best Mystery or Thriller of 2011.
It is very good.
But the highlight for me is the reader Gerard Doyle. Irish accents are easy on the ears.
And McKinty is one of my favourite authors these days.
Richard Coulter is a man who has everything. …
But then, for some reason, his ex-wife Rachel doesn’t keep her side of the custody agreement and vanishes off the face of the earth with Richard’s two daughters.
Richard hires Killian, a formidable ex-enforcer for the IRA, to track her down before Rachel, a recovering drug addict, harms herself or the girls.
As Killian follows Rachel’s trail, he begins to see that there is a lot more to this case than first meets the eye and that a 30-year-old secret is going to put all of them in terrible danger.
The Glass Castle by by Jeannette Walls
Fantastic. I recommend this book to everyone.
The Glass Castle is a 2005 memoir by Jeannette Walls.
The book recounts the unconventional, poverty-stricken upbringing Jeannette and her siblings had at the hands of their deeply dysfunctional parents.
The title refers to her father’s long held intention of building his dream house, a glass castle.
Sounds like I don’t need bother see the film.
I can see Woody Harrelson in the role of the father. A charismatic loser.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Limitless – season 1
Limitless is an American comedy-drama television series (2015) based on the 2011 film of the same name,
It stars Jake McDorman as Brian Finch, burnout and struggling musician, who discovers the power of a mysterious nootropic drug by the name of NZT-48.
This drug unlocks the full potential of the human brain and gives its user enhanced mental faculties.
Though it only lasted one season, I thoroughly enjoyed every minute. Very funny. And great special effects.
Bradley Cooper has a small role, so he must have thought it had potential.
To tell the truth, it was Jennifer Carpenter who I likde best.
I watched all 8 seasons of Dexter. Jennifer played the serial killer’s sister. And later married him in real life.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Rick McCharles 