Blast from the past.
Charlie Dore is my age.
An English singer-songwriter.
Pilot of the Airwaves went on to become an enduring radio favourite, reaching No. 13 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, earning Dore the Record World New Female Artist of the Year, an ASCAP award and charting in Canada, Australia, and Europe.
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Mick Herron is the genius behind the Slough House series.
This Is What Happened (2018) is a standalone novel. Quite different than the Slough House books.
I enjoyed it for being so different.
In London, Harvey Wells, an MI5 agent, recruits lonely 26-year-old mail room employee Maggie Barnes to spy on her firm.
What at first appears to be a tale of spycraft and intrigue turns out to be something entirely different.
Very well written. I recommend the book.
Paul Giamatti is always good.
Reviews were great.
Sideways director Alexander Payne reunites with Giamatti.
The Holdovers is a 2023 American Christmas comedy-drama film set in 1970.
I wouldn’t say this film is as good as Sideways, but it has something of similar feel.
A cantankerous, unpopular teacher, Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti); a bright, abrasive student, Angus (Dominic Sessa); and Mary (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), the school’s head cook and a recently bereaved mother, find themselves forced to spend the winter holiday together in an otherwise empty New England elite academy …
… it’s about finding family where you least expect it.
Da’vine Joy Randolph won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress, and the BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actress.
That’s a surprise to me. She doesn’t have nearly the same screen time as the other two stars.
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Someone Else’s Shoes by Jojo Moyes is an excellent book. A super popular best seller.
The premise sounded unlikely to me.
Sam’s day takes an unexpected turn after she picks up the wrong bag in the changing room of her local gym. The bag, a genuine Marc Jacobs unlike Sam’s designer knock-off, belongs to Nisha, an American in London and pampered second wife of billionaire businessman Carl. Sam, who works for a printing firm and who is the sole breadwinner in her family, has meetings straight after her gym visit and so has no choice but to wear Nisha’s red crocodile-skin Christian Louboutin heels. The shoes seem to have a hypnotising effect on clients and lead her to land a series of new contracts.
Nisha, meanwhile, declines to wear the tatty flats she finds in Sam’s bag, and leaves the gym in flip-flops and a robe. When she arrives at her hotel for a lunch date with her husband, she finds two men at the door of her room who inform her she is not welcome. Carl, it transpires, has called time on their marriage, cancelled her bank cards and begun a romantic relationship with his assistant. –
Weirdly, it works. The oddball plot somehow believable.
A feel good book.
Moyes became a full-time novelist in 2002. She had many novels rejected before finally making the jump to NY Times Bestseller lists.
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I liked her historical fiction, The Giver of Stars, even more.
“Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”.
Bhagavad Gita
Initially, I wasn’t all that interested in either the long non-fiction book, nor the film.
BUT finally got around to both.
The movie is better. Not perfect, but a fantastic job telling a difficult story.
I streamed it on Prime over 3 nights as it is LONG.
Cillian Murphy would seem to be the best possible actor to play the brilliant, complicated J. Robert Oppenheimer.
Robert Downey Jr. is excellent.
Matt Damon as Gen. Leslie Groves, as well.
Kenneth Branagh as Niels Bohr is perfect. He has the gravitas to bring depth to Oppenheimer’s hero.
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I read American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer (2005) by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin.
Surprisingly, I was quite engaged in his early years. The beginnings of the theoretical Physics that would lead to the nuclear bomb.
Once it got to his downfall due to his security hearing in the McCarthy era. The efforts by Lewis Strauss and the FBI to undermine Oppenheimer — I got restless.
Always conflicted, I wished Oppenheimer had simply walked away from the controversy.
I also read The Oppenheimer Alternative by Robert J. Sawyer, the author being a friend of my brother.
It’s an interesting alternative history of the Manhattan Project historical figures.
I didn’t watch Snowpiercer (TV series).
But finally got around to the 2013 post-apocalyptic science fiction film.
Weird.
Why and how did a billionaire build a train that could run around the world?
I can see why some consider it a cult classic. It is philosophical.
It does have a terrific cast.
Rotten Tomatoes reports that 94% of critics gave the film a positive rating.
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Flights are expen$ive in 2024.
BEST deal I could find Vancouver to Europe one way this summer was $498.16 CAD ($364 USD). Includes one piece of luggage, cancellation insurance, and seat selection.
BEST deal was NOT to London, for a change.
Years ago I typically flew Air Transit, a charter. But for the past 4 years WestJet has had the best options to Europe.
Arriving Edinburgh June 1, 2024.
A fun tourist city. I was there in 2009. And in 2018 for Fringe.
I’ll be staying at Castle Rock Hostel under the ramparts of Edinburgh Castle. It’s considered one of the best hostels in Europe.
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Nobody calls James Patterson a great novelist.
BUT he has a lot of books. They’ve sold more than 425 million copies. And he’s helped thousands of people earn a living through the book industry.
Not to mention the dozens of author’s he’s promoted by co-authoring.
James Patterson is one of the good guys.
He calls himself a left-leaning political independent — but is disgusted with his neighbour, 4-time-loser Trump.
His 2024 nonfiction title, The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians takes us inside the lives, and livelihoods, of the everyday heroes surrounding us in the literary trenches: booksellers and librarians.
In a collection of profiles that includes professionals of all types, from school librarians to independent booksellers to big box chain employees, Patterson and his co-author, Matt Eversmann, delve into how these reading gurus inspire young and old every day.
Publisher’s Weekly review – James Patterson’s ‘The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians’
In November 2015, Patterson received the Literarian Award from the National Book Foundation.
Patterson has donated millions of dollars in grants and scholarship to various universities, teachers’ colleges, independent bookstores, school libraries, and college students to promote literacy.
In 2013, Patterson took out ads titled “Who Will Save Our Books? Our Bookstores? Our Libraries?” in Publishers Weekly and The New York Times Book Review, which employed the text “If there are no bookstores, no libraries, no serious publishers with passionate, dedicated, idealistic editors, what will happen to our literature? Who will discover and mentor new writers? Who will publish our important books? What will happen if there are no more books like these?”
Pub Choir in Australia. Awesome.
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“Creep” was the debut single by the English band Radiohead, released September 1992. …
It was reissued in 1993 and became an international hit, likened to alt-rock “slacker anthems” such as ”Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana and ”Loser” by Beck. …
According to the journalist Alex Ross in 2001, “What set ‘Creep’ apart from the grunge of the early nineties was the grandeur of its chords—in particular, its regal turn from G major to B major. No matter how many times you hear the song, the second chord still sails beautifully out of the blue. The lyrics may be saying, ‘I’m a creep,’ but the music is saying, ‘I am majestic.’ …
The chord progression and melody in “Creep” are similar to those of the 1972 song “The Air That I Breathe“, written by Albert Hammond and Mike Hazlewood.[82] After Rondor Music, the publisher of “The Air That I Breathe”, took legal action, Hammond and Hazlewood received cowriting credits and a percentage of the royalties. …
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The Gentlemen is a big hit on Netflix.
Guy Ritchie a super skillful creator.
I wish he’d do something without having to rely on the shock value of ultra violence.
Casting is excellent.
Theo James carries the show and almost makes the absurd story believable.
Michael Vu as James “Jimmy” Chang, Susie’s chief weed grower is my favourite.
Edward Horniman has unexpectedly inherited an estate of 15,000 acres (6000 hectares) and the title of Duke of Halstead at the reading of the last will and testament of his deceased father.
He learns that the land has become part of a weed-growing empire run by Susie Glass.
He must navigate a world of eclectic and dangerous characters with nefarious agendas, whilst also trying to protect his home and stay alive.
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Rick McCharles 