Category: What We’re Watching

Holding on, loosely, not letting go

It’s been over a month since my last blog post so I thought I’d give you all an update on what I’ve been up to.

5-foot, 7-inches still. Ha.

But really, still the same…in a holding pattern (with work mostly, but also some personal), holding on – loosely? Like REO Speedwagon. Yeah. Sure, let’s go with that.

This morning I finished my first book in forever with The Silent Speaker, the 11th in the Nero Wolfe series, by Rex Stout. I’m now starting the 12th, Too Many Women. I’ve read most of them over the years, but a year or two (or three or more, I don’t know) ago, I decided to start over and read all of them eventually. I’ve been reading them via Libby at the Free Library of Philadelphia.

Other than reading (and work…

), Kim and I also have been watching this and that. Recently, we’ve been enjoying Reboot on Hulu more than we thought we would…or maybe more than I thought I would. And we go down YouTube rabbit holes and shuffling through Robot Chicken on HBO Max.

Because my bandwidth is limited after working six days in a row this past week, I’ll leave you with what I’m listening to today as I journal, read and even writing this blog post:

How have y’all been doing?

Where I’ve been

Really, nowhere.

But my mind has been all over the place.

Mostly, my mind has been unfocused because of changes at work, but also the national, international, and even local news that has gone national. The borough mentioned is less than 20 miles from where I live. Of course, with the news, I have zero control; with work, I have a little control, mostly with how I respond or if I respond at all.

Which is why I haven’t been here on the blog or on Instagram, the last social media platform I’m on (at least for now).

I’m reading very little, finishing two books in the last couple of weeks:

  • Angelica’s Smile by Andrea Camilleri, which is part of the Inspector Montalbano series, and which I’ve been trying (and not trying) to finish for the last six months.
  • The Art of Living: The Classical Manual on Virtue, Happiness, and Effectiveness, a new interpretation of Epictetus’s Manual (or Enchiridion), by Sharon Lebell.

The Manual, as described by Lebell, is “a pithy set of excerpts selected from his multi-volume Discourses that forms a concise summary of Epictetus’s essential teachings.” Last year and the year before, I read a modern translation of Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations by Gregory Hays and this year, I selected Lebell’s interpretation of Epictetus’s Manual, which I’ve been reading since January. Next up, I’ll seek out a translation of Seneca’s Letter from a Stoic — to complete the trilogy? the Stoic triumvirate?

I’ve been watching this and that, with the only movie of note that I’d recommend being The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent with Nicholas Cage. It lives up to its trailer:

Well, and Paddington 2, which Cage mentions as one of his favorite movies, and is one of our favorites too. No, really, watch it.

My Top 10 Summer Movies

On Friday, Erin from the blog Still Life, with Cracker Crumbs… shared her top 10 summer movies. It got me thinking about what mine would be. I also looked at two articles, one from Town and Country Magazine and Pure Wow, to trigger some ideas.

I share two with Erin with Stand By Me and The Parent Trap, sort of, except it’s the 1998 version with Lindsay Lohan. My other eight are, in alphabetical order:

  • 500 Days of Summer
  • Breaking Away
  • Crazy Rich Asians
  • Do The Right Thing
  • Field of Dreams
  • Forgetting Sarah Marshall
  • Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle
  • Moonrise Kingdom

My wife Kim shares five with me, Do The Right Thing, Field of Dreams, Moonrise Kingdom, and Stand By Me. Her other five are: Jaws, A League of Their Own Own, Mystic Pizza, Rear Window, and…one other to be determined, that I’ll add here later. She didn’t want to be pressured into a decision.

Instead of sharing the trailers from all of them, I think I’ll just share one of my favorite parts of Do The Right Thing, which probably is my favorite summer movie:

How about you? What are some of your favorite movies set during the summer?

(Birthday) Party like it’s 1999

Earlier in the week, I talked about my serious plans for my birthday, which is today and I’m celebrating with a four-day weekend. In that post, I said I’d talk about my fun plans for my birthday later in the week. This is that post.

The main two events that we have planned are tomorrow night, starting with the premiere of Episode 5 of Season 13 of Mystery Science Theater 3000: Doctor Mordrid. That will be followed by the airing on PBS of Prince’s live concert from The Purple Rain Tour at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, N.Y. from March 1985:

I also have a YouTube playlist of a few hours of DJs spinning dance tunes on the turntables and mixing boards. I’ve already started listening to that. I have another playlist of music to wind down the party or the after party.

Other than that, we’ll see, as they say, where the spirit takes me.