Ron

I watched all three episodes late last night. And, just what is up with the Queen of Andor’s consort, Gaebril? In the books I remember him as a strong figure with good looks. Of course Matt was written as being a downright pretty man and that is definitely NOT the case in this series. While speaking of appearances, Perrin strikes me as having a freshened up look and Egwene seems to have a darker skin tone in the newest season, and still not a beauty. Is it just me, or is there a lot more jumping around with the facts and timeline in the books this time around? Also, I’m not sure that the episodes are shorter or the jumps in the timeline (and poetic license being exhibited) are throwing me off.

Consort! What consort?! Sshh, no more spoilers, dude. 🫢 Ignore that. You said ‘Queen’ of Andor. I was thinking of the daughter, because up into the most recent episodes I don’t recall having any memory of the actual Queen on screen. Of course, you’re speaking of him from the books (hopefully).

While it had been a long while since I’ve read the books, like with yourself they have been lined up and waiting. So I took the plunge.

Saturday, March 1st, was the beginning of meteorological Spring in the northern hemisphere. We hit 50* and today we will lose 25*, you win some you lose some at this time of the year.

@wildone Steve… that otterly unbelievable depiction of an endangered species of animal acting in an otterly undefensible (or is that indefensible) manner, is otterly unbelievable! You must be channeling from an entirely otter dimension if you think that is true. Wait … what are we talking about?!

A peanut butter sandwich with chili is absolutely the way to go. Firstly you must use two pieces of white sandwich bread and slather both sides with the butter of your choice — then you add the peanut butter (preferably sweet and creamy) to one piece of buttered bread and slap the other piece of bread on top. Eat with chili. 👍🏻

Interesting, I believe that I’ve watched this movie a couple of times with excellent subtitles. Once on Amazon Prime and and… well, maybe twice on Amazon Prime.

Wow, trying to figure out the where and whereabouts that I’ve been is a lot. Let’s see: I grew up in Ohio and I lived in various cities thereof. Then I moved to Toronto, Canada before moving to Boston, MA and then moving up north to Swampscott, MA. In between I’ve lived in Singapore for more than two years of time (though officially I was a visitor). Although I visited Hong Kong back in the late nineties and flew into the city when you could look outside of the windows of the jet and watch the city go by on either side of the plane as one landed (both frightening and exciting), I’ve had the privilege and pleasure to have visited Hong Kong several times before the transition to the Chinese overlords. I’ve been to Sydney, Australia (where I spent three days in bed after acquiring a food bug) and to Melbourne afterward. I’ve also had the pleasure of visiting Indonesia where I spent a day in Jakarta (the hotel had a very loud after-hours karaoke bar, you can guess how much sleep I got) before moving on to Yogyakarta and the former capital of Solo and the surrounding countryside where I had the immense privilege and pleasure to visit Borobudur and Prambanan. Afterward, I spent time on Bali. First on the beach, which was even in the late nineties overrun with buskers and hustlers aggressively trying to sell you trinkets and other things; that lasted a day. Then it was on to Ubud in the upland hills where rainforest and rice paddies existed among Hindu temples and shrines. It’s hard to describe the food in depth here because it would take too long, but suffice to say I have many memories. Now looking at the UK, I’ve been to London on many occasions and visited the surrounding countryside… Stonehenge (on a dreary day (you expected differently] was an experience that was very much more than I expected), Hempstead Heath (what a wonderful place to walk in the countryside), Oxford (a brilliant time spent with a friend from Toronto and his girlfriend, who then lived in Gateshead), and Gateshead where I walked across the Gateshead Millennial Bridge over the River Tyne as I did across the London Millennium Footbridge (True story: I accidentally walked over the bridge during a film starring Liam Neeson and thusly I became a part of the movie, albeit just one of many people. The internet is unclear as to what that movie was, so maybe I didn’t exist.). I was also in Paris where I slept at 1 St. Sulpice (after all these years I still remember the sloping mattress that shuffled my former partner and I to the center of the bed; we couldn’t escape one another no matter how much we tried and you need some distance when traveling together, even in bed) Of course we visited the Lourve and Notre-Dame Cathedral, etc. and outside of the city the Palace of Versailles. It was in Paris that I first ate Blanquette de veau a dish that I relish to this day, and one that I’ve made on special occasion to the rave of friends. A Parisian friend insisted that I enjoy the cheese plate afterward despite that I was feeling stuffed already. I am grateful to this day that I was convinced because French stinky-cheese is among those great things that one must indulge in after a meal, no matter how stuffed you are after a meal — there’s always room! When in Rome and Florence and Venice and Pisa and Padua and Mantua and places in between it’s just best to eat your way through them. Ha! I can’t even remember all of the great restaurants and meals I had in Italy, although if prompted… A special time was in Florence during an event to celebrate the release of a book for Italian furniture at the Gardner Museum in Boston investigated and curated by Fausto Calderai. I was invited to the festivities at the Comune di Firenze (the Palazzo Vecchio which overlooks the Piazza Della Signoria which holds a copy of Michelangelo’s David.) which is City Hall to celebrate the occasion of the book launch. Afterward I spent the evening at the Frescobaldi palazzo where I was one of the guests along with other American, UK and Italian friends. I will add that I had an absolutely wonderful time up in Spoleto in Umbria. It is the birth home of a good friend and he and his UK husband (a friend of many years) own a small house in the countryside. Spoleto is also the home of Spoleto Festival USA, a festival of music, dance, opera and theater that nurtures young artists. The food and the locals (new friends and old) and the remnants of Roman architecture and influence are pretty spectacularly and wonderful as well. There you have it, I’ve covered most of my travel history for you. Of course I’ve barely touched upon most things as one must do with summaries. Just as I failed to mention that one night in Heaven (in London) where I saw Jean Paul Gaultier hold court in one of the alcoves of that subterranean club, where later everyone was holding space on the immense dance floor after rumors that Janet Jackson was going to be a surprise guest… well, that didn’t happen!

Yes.

Aren’t we all…

I am what I am that is what I am today.

I was watching a movie mostly unconnected to the Creature Feature anthology theme when suddenly, like a voice from the outer world (lol, I know), a first line of a story popped into my head and —- voilà. Now comes the hard part.

Please don’t!

Since you’re not great at poetry I’ll use your A & B example here to say that there’s no reason a Creature Feature couldn’t also be a Suspense Thriller. If you consider that most Creature/Monster books/movies/stories have both a level of suspense and thrills/scares. And there’s nothing that says your creature need be a monster either since the anthology only needs to be loosely connected to the title but, you know… who doesn’t like a monster or two to shake things up.

I want to read about an army of New York State penguins attempting a circumvention of the takeover of the city of Buffalo by Canadian otters. Now that would be something! Go Steve!

I read that Kitt Williamson of Eastsiders will have a new series set to run on Revry next year. It was the first time I’ve heard of Revry so I downloaded the app for the service to take a look at it. I saw that the British Queer as Folk was there, so I started watching it. I was bored. For a gay themed video service it was weird that the show was censored — curse words cut out and shots showing any nudity were subject to a blur edit. What purpose did that serve?

I know it's Friday night, but it's Monday somewhere, isn't it?

@Cia I do believe you have somehow achieved time travel. Please tell us how you got to December 2025?

Listening to Masterpieces by (Duke) Ellington (Uncut concert arrangements released Jan 1, 1951) (digitized by Sony 2004) via Tidal through HEOS app on my Marantz AVR. This mono recording is fantastic. If you have the chance, it's well worth a listen on a decently good system. I got my exercise in when dancing around to Tattoo Bride. It may not have been pretty, but it is what it is.

I get what you’re saying. But then you’re basing your feelings on a subjective relationship that you have with the story, the author and what you believe is best for the story. If you feel that your efforts aren’t in keeping with your values, interests, belief system — even belief in the story itself — then you’re within your rights to request that you are not connected to the work, and not cited with the work. Beta-readers provide a valuable resource. I don’t believe anyone would equivocate the need for them. I get, also, that a beta-reader is invested in the author’s work. In the end it’s a choice of making a case for your efforts (if you disagree) and if rebuffed you either bow out or accept that you will be attached to the work. And… thank you for your service. Taking on being a beta-reader is no easy task.

I think that I may have introduced this album before; it bears repeating. Music for a Sushi Restaurant. Holy crap, what a title for a body of work and the song of the same name is great (imho). The whole album works.

For us old fuddy duddy's ... I present David Gilmour, with the addition of Romany Gilmour, which should offer an update for younglings and present audiophiles to sample (and resample) artists of the past. This album is a brilliant work of artistry for Gilmour. So enjoyable and highly recommended! Edit to add: I clapped my hands at the end of this complete work. It was so good! The eleventh tract just sealed the deal for me... with its harking back to the earlier work of Pink Floyd.

But... but... if the spider is just sucked up and put into a bag... won't it just crawl back out again?

@wildone Definitely visit the Getty Museum, both the old and the new. At the new museum is a favorite of mine: Bacchante with an Ape by Hendrick ter Brüggen. In the space this painting occupies the subject just glows, and she invites you in — Won't you have a sip of wine with me? Just remember, although admission is free you do need to reserve a time to visit both of them. As I was leaving the new Getty Museum on my last visit, Robert Englund of A Nightmare on Elm Street fame who played the iconic character Freddy Krueger, and his smallish entourage were arriving in the main lobby. Also, on that trip, as I was coming down from Nichols Canyon after having visited a friend, I was stopped at an intersection at the bottom of the hill leading into West Hollywood... Walking along the crosswalk right in front of my car was Nicolas Cage and someone with him. And... oddly, enough... when my former partner and I sold our townhouse in Toronto (leaving for Boston), none other than a body-double for Mr. Cage bought the place. Coincidence?

I went into my kitchen to get something to drink. Unfortunately, upon the wall by the refrigerator a tiny, medium sized, gargantuan black spider was crawling DOWN the wall (headfirst) thereby defying gravity... I think. It should have been falling! I didn't want to kill it (I didn't!) but I had to. It was in my home!!!