Tag: Bon Iver

Pushing Forward Back August/September 2019

August was full of mostly medical appointments for me, 10 in all, among them, doctor appointments, physical therapy sessions, and a community multidiagnostic blood analysis. But I was able to…

Read

  • The Dark Vineyard, the second Bruno, Chief of Police mystery, by Martin Walker
  • Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay
  • Travels with Charley: In Search of America by John Steinbeck
  • The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware

The first three were with the help of Dewey’s 24 Hour Reverse Readathon on the first weekend of the month. The best of the four, far and away, was Gay’s memoir, although I enjoyed a reread of Travels with Charley and a first read of The Death of Mrs. Westaway.

Watch

  • The Orville: I decided to give it a try and was so pleasantly surprised by it that I convinced my wife to start watching it with me.
  • What We Do In The Shadows (the TV show): We binge-watched the first season last week and loved every minute of it. If you haven’t seen the movie on which it is based, see it first. If you like that, you’ll love this.
  • This Way Up: A short British show, from Irish comedian and writer Aisling Bea, about a woman recovering from a nervous breakdown.

We watched all three on Hulu, with our favorite far and away What We Do in the Shadows. We still have to get back to more of The Orville.

Oh, yeah, we also watched Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace and Music, The Director’s Cut, on August 15, the 5oth anniversary of the start of Woodstock. We were going to go to a local venue where they were going to show it, but then opted to just watch it at home, via streaming, on Google Play Movies. It was great.

Listen To

  • the new album i, i by Bon Iver, which “dropped” early on Aug. 9 instead of being released on Aug. 30 as initially scheduled.
  • the first album from Raphael Saadiq in eight years, Jimmy Lee, named for a brother who overdosed in the 1990s. I first discovered Saadiq as a member of Tony! Toni! Toné! and then his last album, Stone Rollin’, and am glad I’m rediscovering him.
  • the new album, Norman Fucking Rockwell, by Lana Del Rey, which dropped yesterday.

I’m still deciding which I like best, but because I’ve listened to it so much already, it’s probably i, i.

We were supposed to go on a day trip to Three Brothers Winery on Seneca Lake, but that didn’t work out for August. But we were able to visit with my parents, sister, brother-in-law, nephew and niece one Saturday for a picnic before they went to a Southern Gospel concert. And on my own, I had a day in a nearby town, where I had a cheesesteak from a local food truck and got several pairs of shorts and some shirts at Goodwill, with all of the clothes for under $20.

September should be less medical appointments for me as I am done with physical therapy. However, I still have at least two. I have a six-week follow up for my left knee after getting three gel injections at the end of July and start of August. I also have a colonoscopy as I just turned 50 in June…and a test for my prostate.

I am starting the month off with a four-day holiday weekend as the library is closed Monday and I took off Tuesday as a vacation day during which we are going to take that day trip to Three Brothers Wineries on Seneca Lake that we didn’t in August.

The week before I went on my 50th birthday wine trip in June, Three Brothers sent me a private message on Instagram that they’d send me a free gift since I had tagged them in a post that the winery was one of the wineries we were going to go to. Unfortunately, I didn’t see the message until that weekend, but they mailed me the following week a gift of two free flights for each of their three wineries. If we don’t go this weekend, I have a feeling we won’t go this year so we’re doing it.

As for the rest of my plans for not only this weekend, but this month, here is what I want to…

Read

  • Born To Run by Bruce Springsteen, which I started last weekend after committing to getting real during my #fakereadathons and will be continuing this weekend.
  • Becoming by Michelle Obama
  • We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy by Ta-Nehisi Coates.
  • The Lord God Made Them All by James Herriot.

I think I’ll keep it to that short list, although I might get to more, but we’ll see.

Watch

  • The Middle, which I just discovered via IMDb TV on Amazon Prime and my wife and I are enjoying watching even with the commercials.
  • Good Omens, which we still have yet to watch. We both loved the book by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett.
  • Mindhunter, Season 2: Even though my wife doesn’t like shows like Criminal Minds, she did like this one in its first season and so did I, so hopefully we’ll get to this this month.

Listen To

I’m not really sure yet, beyond delving into Lana Del Rey’s new album, from which I’ll leave you with this track:

How was your month of August? Read any good books, seen any good movies and/or TV shows, listened to any good music? What was the highlight of your month? What are you most looking forward to in September? Share in the comments.

Another post on a little bit of everything

Last month, someone made this declaration here on this blog:

I’m doing away with the bullet point list posts. I will focus on one topic: reading, for example, with my Sunday Salon posts, and if I do other posts on TV, movies, music, or my personal life, they will just be on that topic.

Er, yeah, me

And then I ended the month with a bullet point list post as I usually do: Pushing Forward Back July/August 2019. And now, I’m reverting again to a bullet point list post, because…well, I’ve had a long week and I’m too tired to write a single-minded post. So here goes:

What I’m reading

On Friday, a day off from work, I finished a reread of Travels with Charley: In Search of America by John Steinbeck that I started during Dewey’s 24 Hour Reverse Readathon last weekend. As I wrote on Goodreads after finishing the book, “On a reread, maybe close to 30 years later, I still love this book, but in the time we are in now, it is sad too. As a nation, we have, and haven’t, changed that much.” Next up, well, at least in pieces, is the book at right:

I picked it up from the donation bin for our library bookstore and sale.

Incredible as it may seem, every entry in this book, even the most ludicrous, has been accepted a s a formal or legitimate English word by at least one major dictionary. Mrs. Byrne’s Dictionary brings into view thousands of little-know curiosities that lie buried in specialized dictionaries and unabridged works too bulky for browsing. Although Mrs. Byrne’s dictionary has enough comedy in it to reward casual browsers, it is intended to serve as a supplement to a desk dictionary. A word not listed in either place is not worth having at your fingertips, unless, of course, you are an institution, a library, or a governmental body at the federal, state or municipal level.

from the introduction by Mr. Byrne

This afternoon I probably will continue with the Chief Bruno series by Martin Walker, with the third one, Black Diamond, especially since it is due back in only a couple of days.

What we’re watching

On a whim, I thought I’d try The Orville even though I’m not always a fan of Seth McFarlane’s other endeavors. However, I was so pleasantly surprised that I now have convinced my wife to watch with me. I also convinced her to watch Shazam, which she didn’t want to watch because she said she’s “done” with comic book movies. I really wanted to like the movie, but like my wife, I might be “done” with comic book movies too…yes, even Marvel (GASP!). This one, though, was DC and was horrible, at least from as far as we could get in it. It was a rollercoaster from dark to light and unlike Marvel, DC movies don’t seem to know how to balance the dark and the light. They go from one extreme to the other so awkwardly that it’s offputting, to say the least.

What I’m listening to

In that Pushing Forward Back July/August 2019 post, I mentioned that I was looking forward to the new Bon Iver album i, i, which was to be released on Aug. 30. However, it “dropped” early on Friday and it’s been on my virtual turntable almost non-stop. I love it.

On a personal note

  • I had my third gel shot for my left knee, which has a degenerative meniscus, and continued with physical therapy this past week. I think I’m improving, but some days it is hard to tell since I am in a bit of pain from the exercises. It might be just muscle pain, but I am to check back with the orthopedic physician assistant in six weeks, or a month if the knee isn’t improving significantly. I’m holding out hope.
  • As mentioned above, I had the day off Friday and in addition to finishing Travels with Charley, I also was able to pick up four pairs of shorts and three shirts for under $25 at thrift stores in a nearby town.
  • Yesterday, after work, my wife and I got together with my parents, my sister, brother-in-law, nephew and niece, for a picnic in a park before they were going to a gospel concert last night, also at a park. We didn’t go because my wife had to work last night (8 p.m. to 8 a.m. this morning), but it still was good to see family, especially with my mother just celebrating her 75th birthday last Saturday.

So how has the beginning of August been for you? Any good books, movies, TV shows, music? Share below in the comments.