Sunday!
It’s been one of those weeks where I had to work a couple of 12s and I’m sure you know how *THAT* wreaks havoc on such things as “stuff I can handle doing when I get home and have 5 minutes to myself” and so reading has fallen behind, Babylon 5 has fallen behind, everything has pretty much fallen behind.
That said, I did get to watch one episode of B5, the one where Bester visits again and we learn why psychics wear gloves. Hey! They should get a group of psychics together and hold hands with Kosh in the room!
Anyway, what are you reading and/or watching?
My media PC in the upstars started giving me fits right as I was finishing Season 2 of House of Cards. Most frustrating. I watched the last episode on my computer downstairs. Now I have a different media PC installed upstars.
I managed to finish Season One of the UK version of House of Cards in time for the Leaguecast.
I’m a few episodes behind on Arrow and other new shows.
Then Breaking Bad. Finally.Report
So, no Leaguecast today. Maybe next week.Report
Decided Light and the Cave was a bad book and stopped reading it.
I am still on the Third Movement of A Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell and just started Pages from The Goncourt Journals by Edmond and Jules de Goncourt. It is a great primary source document for 19th century life in France and also for artistic/cultural life specifically with some juicy details of course.Report
Tonight I will find out who will go last in the Oscar Death Montage.
The leading contenders are Shirley Temple, Peter O’Toole, and Philip Seymour Hoffman.
I’m going with PSH because of his relative youth, but none of the three would surprise me.Report
I think it will have to be PSH. The other two were very old, and lack either his recent stature in the industry or the tragic element.
/buries hatchetReport
I wonder whether Sid Caesar will appear at all.Report
I was surprised that Peter O’Toole, in spite of being nominated eight times, never won an Oscar* for a specifc acting role. He lost to Gregory Peck in To Kill A Mockingbird in 1962 when he starred in Lawrence of Arabia.
*He was awarded an Honorary Academy Award in 2003. Shirley Temple also received an Honorary Academy Award in 1934, not for a specific role.Report
@mike-schilling
Hmmm, by all rights, I would say no. But he is iconic enough that they might try to squeeze him in.
Of course in September he will be in the Emmys Death Montage.Report
Bester visits again and we learn why psychics wear gloves
Wasn’t that theory demolished?Report
Wrapped up the first season of House of Cards, about to dive into the second.
Also started watching Downtown Abbey (which, by the way, takes place out in the country — nowhere near downtown). I’ve been chatting about it with Russell*, and noting to him that it is so very British. And not just in its setting, but in is very soul — in much the same way that the Harry Potter books are. Even in DTA and HP’s modern criticism of traditional class structures, who is what so comes down to bloodlines and breeding in a way characters don’t in American stories. Although maybe as I work my way through DA, that will change? In either case, it’s a pretty wonderful show, and all of the elements — writing, acting, directing, cinematography, etc. — are top notch.
I finally finished Bloodlands, which I highly recommend to anyone with all the obvious caveats about how offing depressing it is. I have been reading books on board management for work, which could not be drier and less interesting. I need to jump into a new book or two for fun, and if anyone has suggestions please feel free.
*were you aware that Russell, too, watches Downtown Abbey?Report
I finished watching Sherlock and then remembered I missed Bones. Went back to it on Netflix and saw that I basically didn’t remember season 7 because there was so much awful going on in my life while I was watching it. Rewatched it. I’m about a third? half? way through season 8 now.
Readingwise: 2 best americans (essays and science / nature), redefining realness (janet mock), and a very weird but appealing comic book called the incal.
The most exciting cultural thing that happened to me all week was seeing Zadie Smith read 2 as-yet unpublished works (one of which she’d just finished that morning)… about an hour of her reading and the audience appreciating in hushed silence. I was 4 rows back and Rawi Hage (who is the only person who can write stuff like The Stranger that I actually *dig*) and Madeleine Thien were in the 3rd row, a couple of feet away from me. (He was pensive, she was rapt.) It was pretty epic.Report
I’m not a Bones fan, but I did watch (and kind of enjoy) S8E16 because the son of an old friend of mine was a guest star.Report
I will keep an eye out!Report
I am most envious of your ZS experience.
Which reminds me, I need to mention to zic that this Tuesday night I will be hearing the Yarn Harlot read from her new book.Report
I remember stumbling upon a Zadie Smith reading/signing in 2000 or 2001, and not having ever heard of her, thinking, “She is very attractive” (I was in 25 or thereabouts!), and buying the book for that reason. It was one of the few times in my life that I have been rewarded for being completely shallow.Report
I started The Guild with Felicia Day last night, because she’s hot and it was recommended by someone who appreciates how hot I think she is.
A friend promised to lend me a book. I’ll have to follow up on that ASAP.Report
I finished Crown of Swords. I am not sure what I will read next, whether continuing The Wheel of Time or going on to something different.
WWE Network came out last weekend, so I have started my chronological viewing of all the Wrestlemanias. No, I do not plan to finish before 30.Report
Does X still hold up as the best one?Report
So far, I have only made it half-way through 2.Report