Category: TV

Tidy Tidbits: Mostly TV

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SMALL SCREEN

The Vietnam War by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick  (PBS)

With all the advance publicity, it’s hard to imagine any viewer is unaware of Burns and Novick’s monumental documentary about the Vietnam War.  The range of viewpoints and interviews from all parties (Viet Cong, North Vietnamese Army, South Vietnamese Army plus civilians, American soldiers, generals, diplomats, and anti-war activists) is impressive while the visuals are graphic and mind-numbing.

For me, this is an especially meaningful viewing experience as I came of age during that era.   Also I visited Vietnam only two years ago.  Having been to Hanoi, Saigon, Danang, Hue, and Hoi An and having met several under-40 adults, I came to better understand that war’s destruction and devastation.  I greatly admire the Crockers, mother Jean and sister Carol, from Saratoga Springs who so movingly shared the story of their son and brother, Denton, “Mogie” Crocker, an early casualty.

There is a lot of information to absorb and I find that having closed captioning turned on helps me better focus on the narration.  I also like the use of 1960’s popular songs (think Dylan, Bryds, Simon & Garfunkel and others) as added color and texture to the action.  Definitely worth the investment of time!

The Dr. Blake Mysteries  (Netflix)

I find that Australian television has produced some very fine programs.  Lately, I’ve become immersed in the Dr. Blake series.  Set in the late 1950’s in a small town in Australia, the main character returns home after a long time away to take over his father’s medical practice and to function as the local police surgeon.  In this latter role, he puts himself center stage in trying to solve suspicious deaths that are often murder.  Lucien Blake is arrogant, sure of himself, and very outspoken, so much so that he makes life difficult for Police Superintendent Lawson.

Add in young, still green, constable Danny, district nurse Mattie who is smart and attractive, and Jean, Blake’s inherited housekeeper cum receptionist (she worked for his father), and you have a set of engaging and well-developed characters.  What makes this series more than just the usual mystery-solving, though, is the depth and complexity of Lucien Blake himself.  He was a prisoner of war in Singapore, lost his wife and child there, and is something of a solitary sort who yet can be compassionate.  The relationship between him and Jean is a complicated one, and you can feel an undercurrent of intriguing tension in their interactions.   I highly recommend it!

 

DINING OUT  

One of our favorite local eateries on Cortez Road, Village Idiot Pizzeria (or VIP), is back in business making very good pizza. They took a timeout and focused on smoked sausage and smoked fish and no pizza so their return is most welcome!  And they’ve added some new tacos (beef brisket with kimchi) and a very spicy red curry coconut kingfish soup to the menu.  They offered us a sample of the soup and it was excellent.  I know we’ll become regulars again. Either eat in or take out.

BOOK REVIEWS

Inside section one, the New York Times has added some new features.  Some people think using up space here is a waste of valuable real estate, but I disagree.  I like doing the fast, and usually easy, Mini Crossword, and I glance at the list of most read, discussed and shared articles.   But what I enjoy most is “Inside The Times,” a short interview with a Times reporter about the back story behind an article or review in that day’s paper.  This one, “How a Critic Opens a Book,” provided some intriguing insights into how new daily book reviewer, Parul Sehgal, approaches her job.  I particularly liked this quote:

“I don’t like when book reviews feel hermetic.  I always want to open things up—to say that this is a book, but it’s also just a stage for certain ideas.  So, what else is happening in the culture that’s related to it?  What other books does it speak to from the past?  What other debates does it recall?  I want to prove that books aren’t enclosed, immured objects.”

 HOMEGOING: ANOTHER VIEWPOINT

Some months ago, I commented on this first novel set in Africa and shared that I found it an exceptionally moving and important novel.  Here’s a longer, thoughtful review by a fellow blogger who also found it noteworthy.

Photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved)

 

Maine Coast: Reflections

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GENTLE PACE OF LIFE

One of the most appealing aspects about being here is the relaxed, slower pace of daily life.  I indulge in reading in bed before arising, we spend as much time as we like over the newspapers at breakfast, then perhaps head into town to re-stock the larder before lunch, followed by an afternoon of reading, reviewing photos or transcribing.

In my head, I’m currently re-living the events of 1990 (a family reunion we hosted in Swarthmore; our son’s first visit to his orthodontist; visits from out-of-town friends; adjusting to living with a dean), and simultaneously recalling where we were in 1970 as I explore the food revolution in the book, Provence, 1970.  Evenings we often gather with friends, be it for the annual oyster or lobster fest, drinks before dinner at the island inn, or a trip into town to explore the shops and galleries, then dinner at Ports of Italy or The Thistle Inn.  I am not keeping up my usual regime of exercise, but life is good.  There is much for which to be thankful!

PARISIAN MYSTERIES

If you like mysteries and are familiar with the streets of Paris, you might enjoy the Aimee Leduc series written by Cara Black. I just read the first one, Murder in the Marais, published in 1998 and set in 1993. Detective Leduc supposedly specializes in crimes related to corporate security and the internet, but she gets pulled into investigating a woman’s death related to the neo-Nazi movement and former Nazis.

I found it took me a little to get into the book, but then I got hooked. Aimee reminds me a little of Lisbeth in The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo given her unconventional clothing, many disguises, and physical daring (into the sewers of Paris, e.g.). But she is a more social person than Lisbeth and works with her partner, Rene, a double amputee and whiz computer hacker. The city is a character in its own right too. I enjoyed this neighborhood in particular since years ago we stayed in the grand Pavilion de la Reine in Place des Vosges. (~JW Farrington)

IN WITHDRAWAL

We finished bingeing on The Americans with the completion of season 5. Now we have to wait for what I believe will be the last season. They tied up a number of loose ends this year so I hope there really is a season 6. The focus on teenager Paige as well as on Philip and Elizabeth’s increasing doubts about how much longer they can do what they do made for a fascinating season.

And we watched the last episode of Grantchester. Another superior series that managed to bring love and harmony or at least the promise of rapprochement to everyone except Sidney.   With so many knots tied up, it’s possible this is the end, but, I want more.

Note:  All photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved)

 

Maine Musings: Books & More

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ON THE MAINE COAST

After the humidity and heat of Florida, the Maine coast is a welcome change—even when you have several days of gray skies, continual fog, and temperatures that don’t climb out of the 60’s.   We’re on an island here and that means it’s more susceptible to foggy, misty conditions. Sometimes just going across the bridge into town brings one into sunshine. The other day town was foggy too, but farther inland in Damariscotta we were plunged into warmth, even heat. There it was bright sun, humid and 85 degrees!

Our days here are punctuated by hours of reading, dinners with friends, bingeing on The Americans, and the occasional special activity such as a craft fair, the library’s annual book and bake sale, or the house and garden tour, an always enjoyable peek at how others live. The Chief Penguin and I each have projects. We’re both spending time weeding our online photo collections and deleting both duplicates as well as lesser photos. I also brought with me one of the many handwritten journals I’ve kept over the years and am transcribing it on my laptop for posterity—or at least for our son and granddaughters. It’s a jaunt down memory lane for sure. This one is from 1990 and although that sometimes seems like recent past, it’s actually more than 25 years ago! 

Finally, I’ve been tracking the box of books I mailed from Florida on July 8th. It’s been to Jacksonville, FL twice, three times to Springfield, MA, and now is on its second stop in Jersey City, New Jersey, all while supposedly on its way to Maine!

Frustrated, I belatedly put in an e-mail query about it and then I talked to an authoritative woman in the local post office. She said the address entered (I’m assuming this was done by the woman at my local substation) was my home address, not Maine! She and another postmistress are trying to get it out of its loop-de-loop travels and delivered here. Fingers crossed! Update—it finally arrived at the local post office after its two week journey and I am delighted to have my lost books.

ON THE SMALL SCREEN

Crime in the Shetlands

I’ve recently been immersed in an excellent crime series set in the rugged Shetland Islands, appropriately titled, Shetland. Detective Inspector Jimmy Perez is a widower with a teenage daughter who works with Tosh (Alison McIntosh) and Sandy, two junior detectives. Also starring in this thoughtfully produced series is the stunning scenery. Cliffs and peat and simple shingle and stone buildings against a backdrop of serious sea and gray skies. Most episodes are two-partners and you get the flavor of the culture and a sense of life in this isolated rural environment with the ferry the lifeline to the mainland. I find the character of Perez in particular to be very well drawn. He’s a detective with a mission to solve the latest murder, but he’s got a compassionate soul.

RECENT READING

Mishap in Saudi

Thanks to the extensive mystery section at Bookstore 1 Sarasota, I picked up this first detective novel by Zoe Ferraris published in 2008. Entitled Finding Nouf, it’s set in Jeddah and the nearby desert. Desert guide Nayir ash-Sharqui is asked by the wealthy Shrawi family to help locate their missing teenage daughter, Nouf. He knows the family quite well and is friends with Othman, one of Nouf’s many brothers. What is most fascinating about this mystery is its depiction of this segregated Muslim society where women’s lives are cloistered and separate from the world of men. This is a challenge for Nayir in his investigation which is somewhat overcome as he becomes acquainted with lab technician, Katya Hijazi, an independent career woman, who can provide entrée and insights. Author Zoe Ferraris was briefly married to a Saudi man and lived in Saudi Arabia for a time. This was a Washington Post Best Book of the Year and is the first of three mysteries set there.  (~JW Farrington)

The Muse by Jessie Burton

This novel was on a display labeled beach reading at Longfellow Books in Portland. I was aware of Burton’s earlier novel, The Miniaturist, so decided to take a chance on it. Like other historical novels, it links characters from two different time periods, in this case London in 1967 and Spain in 1936. Olive Schloss is a young English woman living in Spain who becomes friendly with Isaac Robles, a painter and a political activist and his sister Teresa, who adopts the Schloss family and works as their housekeeper. Like Isaac, Olive also paints, but is extremely reluctant to share her art.

Odelle Bastien is from Trinidad and has been in London for five years. She gets hired by a prestigious art institute and is mentored by a quixotic older woman named Marjorie Quick. Odelle brings to the attention of the institute a painting thought to be by Isaac Robles and finds herself immersed and enmeshed in a net of secrets and deceptions.

Well researched, and intricately plotted with a myriad of relationships and liaisons, The Muse explores questions of creativity and ambition midst tangled love and desire. Why is Olive so determined not to have her name on her work? Is it simply her reluctance as a woman at that time? What price does she pay for her love for Isaac? Can Teresa be seen as evil? I found this an engrossing book even though I sometimes found it hard to accept the characters’ motivations.  (~JW Farrington)

Note:  All photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved)

Manhattan Musings

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MANHATTAN MUSINGS. It’s been a week for rainy weather, TV, a fine film, and re-visiting some favorite West Village restaurants.  

After what seems like months of no rain in Florida, we are getting re-acquainted with the wet. Toting umbrellas and slogging through the puddles, we endured or enjoyed, depending on your perspective, two solid days of serious rain, gray skies, and temperatures scraping sixty. The day in between the soggy ones was cloudy with a brief showing of sun and somewhat warmer. It’s perfect for quiet hours reading or catching the latest film—that’s when we are not with the bundles of energy known as our granddaughters!

COMPASSIONATE CONFLICTED VICAR

We’ve been watching some recent episodes of Grantchester, and I’m continually impressed by the depth and complexity of this series. Yes, Sidney inserts himself into police business with his friend Geordie, the detective, and is seen as helpful by the crime victims’ families and as a hindrance by the local constabulary. He seems to have an inordinate amount of free time to devote to solving murders and to dancing attendance on one woman or another, be it his current love interest Hildegarde, or his longtime friend, wish-she-was-my-flame, Amanda.

Cosseted, cared for, and fussed over by his junior curate, Leonard, and by the bossy, but soft-hearted, Mrs. M., Sidney’s strongest relationship is really his deep friendship with Geordie. Older than Sidney, Geordie also served in the war, and, like Sidney, has memories of it he’d rather not recall. Although their approaches to daily life are quite different, the two men spar and josh, but when it matters most are each other’s staunchest supporter. First rate viewing!

FILM FARE

Their Finest is both a film about war and a love story. I found it moving and witty. Making a film that includes the making of a film is a challenge often not successfully met. Their Finest (with a title that is hard to remember and seems to ask “finest what?”) is a delightful exception. Here you have the Ministry of Information in 1940 London trying to bolster the morale of its citizens and simultaneously encourage the Americans to join the war. Their documentary assignment must be accurate and yet lively and thus you have the making of a film about the supposed actions of twin sisters helping evacuate soldiers at Dunkirk. The two male writers are joined by Mrs. Cole, a former secretary, who gets to write “slop” (dialogue for the women characters). As a backdrop to the levity of film production is the ongoing destruction and death wrought by the Blitz.

The cast is excellent: Bill Nighy as the consummately egocentric aging actor, Ambrose Hilliard; Gemma Arterton as Mrs. Cole, a quiet young woman with backbone and determination; and Sam Clafin as Buckley, her co-writer and an ordinary looking guy with a steadfast presence. Jeremy Irons has a cameo appearance as the Secretary of War. These are hard times and emotions are mostly kept in check. Besides Mrs. Cole, other women show up in the work place in expanded roles and one person questions what will happen when the war is over. Definitely worth seeing!

FAVORITE DISHES

We have been returning to some of our West Village favorite restaurants and ordering both new and old dishes from the menu. Last evening we got the last table at Meme Mediterranean (pronounced “may, may”), a cozy Middle Eastern eatery on Hudson Street. It had rained all day long and was still drizzling so the outside seating was not available. Midst a general din, we were squeezed in between two tables each with a pair of boisterous young women.

Despite the cacophony, our palates perked up at the tasty offerings. The Chief Penguin ordered the fried artichokes, always a pleaser, which come with two dipping sauces. My new favorite dish was four large spiced (not spicy) shrimp each one atop a cool cube of watermelon served on a narrow rectangular plate. It was the perfect marriage of piquant and cooling and, in its pinkness, oh, so pretty!

Credits:  Header photo and wet sidewalk JWFarrington (some rights reserved); Grantchester characters copyright ITV, Meme interior from their website.