Category: TV

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.

Tidy Tidbits: Viewing and Vittles

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We attended a fun concert of Cole Porter songs, explored new dining options locally, and I’ve been sampling a number of different television series.

MOTHER’S DAY FUN

We four were sans our mothers, but we enjoyed very much the Hot ‘n’ Cole concert at the Sarasota Opera House that afternoon.  Featuring six undergraduate musical theater majors from Penn State and two pianists, this was a lively celebration of Cole Porter’s songs.  It was nicely choreographed and the singers were both exuberant and talented.  An audience favorite was Sarasota hometown star, Maria Wirries.  To cap off the day, we had dinner across the street at Bijou Café.  Elegant and gracious, this restaurant always pleases.

SMALL SCREEN

I’m guessing that the image most of us have of Albert Einstein is of an older man with a frizz of wild white hair shooting out in all directions.  This is not what you see in Genius, a new TV series from National Geographic based on Walter Isaacson’s biography.  In Genius, we get Einstein as a young man, brilliant, but frustrated by his inability to get any scientific notice for his work.  And as a harried husband and father who depends upon his wife, Mileva, for her scientific knowledge and insights, but fails to credit her publicly.  It’s an extremely well done, fascinating series! 

I’ve also been sampling a variety of Netflix and Amazon offerings during my treadmill time.  Nothing has truly captivated me and earned an A.  Mostly they are B’s.  They run the gamut from Z: The Beginning of Everything about Zelda Fitzgerald’s coming of age and her tumultuous marriage to hard-drinking novelist Scott,  to Longmire,  to When Calls the Heart.  Z is an Amazon production which I found slow going initially.  It picked up a bit and I did watch the entire first season.

Based on a recommendation, I watched the first season and a bit more of Longmire.  Set in remote Wyoming, it’s a modern day western crime series.  Sheriff Walt Longmire and his two deputies deal with murders and runaways all the while doing a delicate dance in their relations with the nearby Indian reservation.  I was engaged for quite a while, but then decided I’d had enough of the west–at least for now.

Lastly, I’ve gone back and forth between a very wholesome drama set in the Canadian Northwest about a Mountie and a school teacher.  I thought it should be a Hallmark offering which it didn’t seem to be at first, but the second season opening shot credits the Hallmark Channel.  Set in the mining town of Coal Valley, When Calls the Heart brings together wealthy Elizabeth Thatcher, who leaves her upper class city life for adventure in a rustic town, and Jack Thornton, a handsome Mountie, son of a Mountie, who isn’t sure marriage fits in with his life plan.  Add in a host of townspeople (mainly women) and the “bad guy” mine owner and troubles and conflict ensue.  I’m now well into season 2 and I find that the narrative has gained in complexity over the first season.  It’s diverting entertainment.

CASUAL EATERIES

In our dining around, we lunched twice at Chicken Salad Chick and once at Judy’s Restaurant.  Chicken Salad Chick is a chain (headquartered in Alabama) new to this area and very pleasant and attractive.  We’d had one of their many varieties of chicken salad as takeout, but these times we ate in their dining room.  And calling it a dining room is not a stretch.  The front area, in particular, with big windows is light and bright.   We tried the jalapeno chicken salad, the barbecue chicken salad, and the lemon basil version.  We had them over a green salad with a choice of dressings and several packets of wheat crackers.  Each bowl came with a dill pickle and a frosted sugar cookie on the side.  Good value and quite tasty!  My favorite salads thus far are classic and jalapeno.

Judy’s Restaurant, in a small strip mall in Cortez, is run by locals and popular locally.  Lunch here offers up all those good things you aren’t supposed to eat along with some healthier salad options.  Our waitress stated that they had the best Reuben around which the Chief Penguin promptly ordered (with fries) and devoured.  I had a yen for a burger, something I don’t indulge in too often, and found it hit the spot.  Overall, Judy’s was more appealing both in terms of décor and menu than I anticipated. I’m told they serve a mean breakfast!

 

Credits:  Header photo (jacaranda blooms) and Chicken Salad Chick ©JWFarrington; Einstein photo from web via Daily Mirror.

Tidy Tidbits: Friends & Family

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Being socially engaged with others is a key to good health and perhaps a longer life.  We entertained very good friends recently and I spent several days inhabiting J. D. Vance’s head in his disturbing and engrossing memoir of growing up in Appalachia.

FRIENDS

As is certainly evident in Vance’s memoir (noted below), we don’t get to to choose our parents or our grandparents.  Some of us are luckier than others.  But, we are able to select our friends.  One of the greatest pleasures of retirement is the gift of time and with that the opportunity to spend more time with good friends Last week our good friends, Mary and Joe, came for an overnight visit.  We’ve known them probably twenty years and, although we hadn’t seen them since the end of last summer, we picked up where we left off and had an easy, delightful time.  We’ve met and are acquainted with each other’s children and grandchildren and we share a common interest in good food, good books, and being by the water.  Conversation flowed effortlessly, and we parted knowing more time together awaits us come summer.

FAMILY

Hillbilly Elegy:  A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J. D. Vance

This is a remarkable book.  Remarkable for its unflinching candor and remarkable for the story it tells.  How J.D. Vance was able to escape from his family’s cycle of poverty, violence, and instability is amazing and riveting.  He describes hillbilly culture:  its mores, values, and attitudes, and both defends it and then holds it accountable for the ongoing problems experienced by this segment of society in Appalachia.  What enabled him to succeed at all was the relative stability provided by his grandparents.  They were strict and, to some of us, would come across as mean, but they loved him and, his grandmother in particular, instilled in him the value of education.  Also key to his survival (and he was surviving rather than thriving) was the protection his older sister Lindsay offered.  For a long time, they were a team, and Lindsay more the adult than his drug-addicted mother with her series of live-in boyfriends and, eventually, five husbands.  

Studies have demonstrated and Vance is evidence that constant disruption in childhood and daily exposure to loud arguments and violence leave scars that carry over into adulthood.  Vance was not only socially and culturally out of step when he went to college, but he lacked the necessary skills for developing a loving, long-term relationship.  He occasionally cites from the literature on poverty, but it offers few solutions.  Ultimately, he believes the answer lies not with the government, but with hillbillies themselves re-evaluating their conduct and facing the fact that it is harmful to their children.  His is a success story fueled by resentment and anger, but success none the less.  He had advantages many children from Jackson, Kentucky and Middletown, Ohio do not.

Published in June 2016, Vance’s memoir has been singled out as describing individuals most likely to be Trump supporters; read with that in mind, it offers an up-close look at lives most of us have little familiarity with.  The book jacket states that after law school, Vance became a principal at an investment firm in Silicon Valley and lived in San Francisco.  I thought this was one of the unlikeliest milieus for him and was puzzled.  My wonderment was partially answered by his op-ed piece in the March 16 New York Times in which he writes about deciding to move back to Ohio, but Columbus, not Middletown.

DIVIDED LOYALTIES

On the small screen, I just finished watching the five-part Netflix series, Rebellion.  Set in Dublin, it focuses on the Easter Rising of 1916 and three women who are caught up in the Irish rebels’ fight against the British government.  While these young women, a government employee, a doctor in training, and an activist, are all involved, two brothers are fighting on opposite sides while an upper class husband and wife have sharply different views on how they should participate or not.  I found it totally engrossing and well done and hope that there will be a second season.

Notes:  Header photo and coloring ©JW Farrington; downtown Middletown, Ohio from Pinterest.

Tidy Tidbits: Mostly Books

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ROYALS—WATCHING AND READING

qe2  I read so much about the Netflix series, The Crown, while I was in London, I couldn’t wait to start watching it once I returned home.  And now, I’m enthralled!  It is so well done, elaborate, lavish even, and the family dynamics (exiled Duke of Windsor, Prince Philip’s role in their marriage once she’s queen) and back stories are fascinating.  Claire Foy as Elizabeth is mesmerizing too.young-victoria

I also just read Victoria by Daisy Goodwin.  It was for sale in the UK in paperback and just was published here in the U.S.  I believe that Goodwin wrote the script for the upcoming “Masterpiece” TV series before she wrote the novel.  In any case, the two are linked.  The novel is about Victoria’s first years as queen.  She was only 18 when she ascended to the throne and had been protected and managed by her mother, her mother’s special friend, John Conroy, and her uncle, the Duke of Cumberland.  They were all seeking power and influence over her.  Victoria, if this account is to be believed and questions have been raised, became reliant on, and perhaps even developed a tendresse for her prime minister, Lord Melbourne.  Whether all true or not, it’s an absorbing and enjoyable read.  And one realize politics always exists whether in the foreground or background!

OTHER RECENT READING

The Past by Tessa Hadley

This novel has been much touted.  Initially I wasn’t sure I liked it.  The writing was lovely, full of imagery related to the English countryside, but there didn’t seem to be much of a focus.  And I wasn’t fond of Alice, the first of the four siblings to be introduced. She seemed too diffuse and scatterbrained.  She and her sisters, Harriet, the eldest who never married, and Fran, mother of two young children, plus their brother Roland are to spend three weeks at a summer cottage that belonged to their grandparents.  They are gathering partly to decide whether or not to sell the cottage.

Roland arrives last with his third wife, the Argentinian Pilar, who is different and definitely an outsider.  The other sisters both want and don’t want to like her and her very difference gives her status.  Roland brings his 16-year old daughter Molly, and Alice has included Kasim, the son of her former boyfriend, who is in his early 20’s.

It’s a novel of shifting relationships, more than action, full of undercurrents and nuanced encounters.  These now middle-aged adults engage and assess and disagree with one another all the while observing or not the attraction between Molly and Kasim. And ignoring to some extent what the children, Arthur and Ivey, are hatching.  In three sections, the first and last are the present and the middle section is The Past.  It focuses on Jill, the adult siblings’ mother, long since deceased, and is to me that which links everything together.  I liked this section best and it made it possible for me to re-appreciate the first part and to really enjoy what Hadley does in the closing section.  img_0062

Orchestrated Death by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles

I have been working my way through Harrod-Eagles’ Morland Dynasty series, but have just discovered her police detective series.  Where the Morland series is measured, detail-laden prose steeped in English history from the 12th century on (there are 30+ volumes), this first Bill Slider mystery is contemporary, fun, and romantic, all at the same time.  Middle-aged Slider is on the cusp of burnout when he is assigned the case of the murder of young violinist Anne-Marie Austen.  Her death haunts him personally more than most cases although he soon discovers that she was unlikable and had few friends.

Slider is well-drawn and appealing while his partner and friend Atherton, O’Flaherty, the desk sergeant, and Joanna, Anne-Marie’s colleague and Slider’s love interest, are also well fleshed out characters.  Harrod-Eagles here writes with a verve and feeling which outshines her other series.  I’m looking forward to Bill Slider’s future adventures.

Note: Queen Victoria photo–www.yareah.com