Dancing Around the Four Sides

1) Between my Chronic Kidney Disease acting up and what seems to be bronchitis (or maybe walking pneumonia), my health is kicking my ass these days. The symptoms of both include deep fatigue and loss of appetite, so I've been eating like a bird. (Yes, I am seeing my doctors.)

2) Chernobyl, on HBO, is one of the best mini-series I've seen in a long time, and holy shit, Stellan Skarsgård deserves all the awards.

3) Watching the Stanley Cup playoffs and cheering for the Boston Bruins. Apparently I like teams with giant assholes on them? Looking at you, Brad Marchand! :D

4) Currently reading Esi Edugyan's Washington Black, which is pretty good.

5) Got a haircut this week, which I really needed. The kid who cut my hair was named Kevin, and I was legit old enough to be his grandmother. We talked about how much we both like the John Wick movies. LOL

I was just out on the deck and there was a honeybee buzzing from flower spike to flower spike in our small pot of lavender.

Finally finished Kim Stanley Robinson's The Years of Rice and Salt, and omg kittens, I was so glad to be done with it. What was I glad to be done with? The info dumps. The endless exposition. The lecturing. The "I Am the Author and I'm Here to Tell You What the Best Form of Religion Is." The "I Am the Author and I'm Here to Tell You What the Best Form of Government Is." The ending, which is a fizzle. The overwriting, which I think reached its apotheosis on page 520 of my paperback edition, when a character asks what kind of trees is he looking at and receives an answer listing TWENTY-FOUR VARIETIES OF HERBS, GRASSES, SHRUBS, FLOWERS ... and trees. Twenty. Four. Oh my god. This is a 763-page book. Did Robinson feel a need to PAD HIS WORD COUNT?

"Oh my gosh!" you must be saying! "Nightdog, you must've hated this book!"

But ... y'know, I didn't. This is a fascinating story, and while some of its parts are maddening filler, other parts are eerily beautiful. Plus it's a refreshing twist to see all of history from an Eastern perspective. I think the book would've been better overall if about 200 pages had been cut OR it had been a series, but as it is ... yes, I would recommend it. It's different enough from anything else out there to be worth the effort.

Currently reading Ben Aaronovitch's The Furthest Station, and so far (about halfway through) it is 100% delightful. (It's a novella so it's VERY short and could be read through in one sitting, but I started it too late at night.) :D

Also on a side note, we have been watching the TV version of What We Do in the Shadows (the small band of absolutely hapless vampires living in Staten Island) and enjoying it tremendously. It is really hugely silly, but I like it. *g*

1) Watched the first episode of Doctor Who with Jodie Whittaker as the Doctor, and liked it a lot. I didn't recognize Bradley Walsh as Graham at all -- we used to see him on Law & Order: UK as the older detective. Looking forward to the next episode!

2) Finished Kate Atkinson's Transcription, and in the end, felt kind of meh about it. I didn't think it was as good as her last two, and honestly I thought the twist ending was a cheat. Anyway, now reading a novel by an Irish writer -- Red Dirt, by E.M. Reapy. It takes place after the Irish economic crash, so sometime around 2008-2009 or a bit on from there, and follows some young Irish migrants in Australia who are making progressively bad decisions. It's kind of like reading a film noir version of On the Road. There also may or may not be a ghost from one of their (very) bad decisions.

3) I had something else to write about but now I don't remember what it was. I have been in a CRANKY, CRANKY mood lately -- have just not been sleeping well. :-P

1) Beautiful here today -- bright blue sky with not a cloud to be seen. It was like this yesterday too, so I took the violas (Johnny-jump-ups) and a small French lavender that I had bought and potted and watered them. Layla helped by trying to eat the potting soil. :D

2) Watched the first episode of Counterpart on Starz and liked it a lot. Stories like this, of parallel worlds right next to ours, inevitably remind me of China Miéville's The City & the City (I thought the same thing about the movie Midnight Special). I always enjoy seeing J.K. Simmons, but I thought Harry Lloyd was also terrific as the bureaucrat Mr. Quayle. Looking forward to the next episode.

3) Watched the first episode of The Alienist on TNT and ... was not impressed. I thought it was okay, and I'll watch the next one, but I didn't think the characters of Kreizler and John Moore (Daniel Brühl and Luke Evans) had any chemistry to speak of and were bouncing off each other instead of meshing. I mean, according to the show's exposition, they're supposed to be friends, or at least acquaintances, and I just didn't get that feeling at all. I was also fairly unimpressed by the guy playing Theodore Roosevelt (Brian Geraghty), although apparently he's been very good in other stuff so IDK. Otherwise, this was a big meh for me.

4) Watched Wings of Desire on Turner Classic Movies the other night for the first time in years, and it was just as exquisite and talky and enthralling and goofy as I'd remembered. So much love for the angels in their big woolen overcoats! I know now that this film was the source for my idea that public libraries are sacred spaces, which I later used in the WIP of a post-apocalypse Housefic in which people worship inside the ruins of an abandoned library. It also intrigued me that Wim Wenders (and Peter Handke) were asking the same questions Terrence Malick is asking today in his films --

Why am I me, and why not you? Why am I here, and why not there? When did time begin, and where does space end? Isn't life under the sun just a dream? Isn't what I see, hear, and smell just the mirage of a world before the world? Does evil actually exist, and are there people who are really evil? How can it be that I, who am I, wasn't before I was, and that sometime I, the one I am, no longer will be the one I am?

5) And I was going to say that I'm three-quarters of the way through The Nix, but I think that quote is a good place to end. Five things make a post. :D

It was chilly, grey, and damp all day here, and it is supposed to do nothing but get colder. (I will pause while my Canadian friends exhaust themselves laughing. :D)

We had a nice, quiet Christmas. We didn't do much; it's just the two of us (three, counting Layla) so we exchanged gifts (books and warm slippers and fleecy pullovers) and roasted a (store-bought) duck and drank champagne. Sadly, the duck was pretty sub-par this year (old?) but the wine made up for it. I think I'll get a smoked chicken for New Year's Eve.

I am reading my 58th book of the year -- Mary Berry's Recipe for Life: The Autobiography. Yes, we are Great British Baking Show fans, and this book is just an absolutely delightful read. I don't know if I'll get to squeeze a 59th book in before the end of the year, but I also don't want to feel pressured to finish something.

Watched the Doctor Who Christmas Special last night and really liked it, although I fell out of love with the series this year and didn't watch very much of it. I'm very interested to see what Jodie Whittaker will do with the role. Oh, and I also watched Logan the other night, and holy shit. I had gathered that it was not a run-of-the-mill X-Men movie, but I was very surprised by the film's themes of aging and loss, and by what a dark story it was.

It is still way too warm here, but we're supposed to have a real cool front either Tuesday night or Wednesday, I can't remember which. In the meantime, Layla has been enthusiastically enjoying her encounters with the young opossum I've written about previously, who apparently DOES live in one of our neighbor's yards and has been making an appearance almost every night. Layla barks joyfully, the possum freezes on top of the (wooden) fence, great noise and jumping about is had, I tell Layla to come inside NOW, Layla is pleased as punch at having done her job.

We have been watching the new Ken Burns/Lynn Novick documentary, The Vietnam War, and oh my god I will be glad when it is over. It is a brutal, brutal series, brilliantly done, packed with eyewitness accounts and video. I know the broad outlines of the war, but I was only 10 years old in 1968 so almost all of the details are new to me. Something that did make me smile just a little was the discovery that Robert McNamara's son Craig essentially ended up becoming an organic farmer. Swords into ploughshares, indeed.

I am almost finished reading Lev Grossman's The Magician King. As soon as I'm done I will order the last volume in the trilogy. Reader, I am loving this series so much. :D

1) Ugh, a very blah day today. Mostly sunny and humid, but looking forward to tomorrow because our local Calloway's will have marigolds for 99 cents. Our two big flowerpots out front are empty and some bright, happy marigolds will look nice up there.

2) Still reading the Walter Winchell bio, and was amused to learn that his first job as a "real" newspaper columnist (as opposed to working for an industry organ) was for a publication (the New York Graphic) widely regarded as the worst newspaper in America, if not the world. In covering one crime story involving a killer named Carillo, the editors found that they didn't have a photo of the man, so they used a picture of the actor Leo Carrillo (note spelling) instead. :D

3) Layla may be two and a half years old, but she proved last night she still has some puppy in her when she stole one of Mister Nightdog's running shoes and neatly bisected one of the laces.

4) Still watching Doctor Who and Class, but right now I think I am getting the most enjoyment out of American Gods. Crispin Glover as Mr. World in the last episode was just a walking Ball of Sheer Crazy and was absolutely terrifying. That smile omg.

5) Working on a fic but it is going very slowly.

So I read Kij Johnson's The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe and really liked it. It's basically sort of a fanfic remix of H.P. Lovecraft's The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, with the protagonist changed to a middle-aged lady professor of mathematics. Reader, I loved her. Vellitt Boe was smart and sensible, and I could've easily read another hundred pages of her adventures (my paperback copy was only 165 pages, so it's a very short book). I know she could easily have slipped into Mary Sue-dom, but she really didn't ping my Sue-dar at all. Okay, I did think the Quest went on a little too long, but that was my only complaint. Two thumbs up, 9/10.

Also I have been watching Class on BBC America and enjoying it, especially Katherine Kelly as Miss Quill. I also watched the first episode of American Gods and thought it was pretty good (I read Gaiman's book years and years ago but don't recall a great deal about it). I am amused to see that Ricky Whittle (playing Shadow Moon, the main character) is a Brit -- I thought he was an American. :D

Weather has turned cool and windy again. This is an up and down spring.

The windows are open because it is 76 degrees here (24.4 Celsius). Just this afternoon I've seen chickadees, house finches, and bluebirds in our backyard. The bluebirds are especially pretty. I actually thought I might see Early Girl tomato plants for sale at Sprouts yesterday.

Finished reading Michael Chabon's Moonglow, and yes, I liked it a lot. But (is there always a but?) Chabon's narrative device kept me from being fully immersed in the story. What we have is something along the lines of Big Fish, where a father tells the story of his life to his son, except in Moonglow it's a grandfather telling the stories. And ... that, for all intents and purposes, is the character's name. He's my grandfather, and the other characters are my grandmother and my mother. Some of the secondary characters have names, but the main triad is nameless for 99% of the book (I think we learn the grandmother's name very late, but to me it wasn't clear if that was her or not). Anyway, this kept tripping me up. I mean, I guess I shouldn't have had a problem, but I did. Also there were a couple of points in the narration that seemed to be either bad editing or plot holes or Chabon indicating an unreliable narrator -- one of them was explained near the end, the other wasn't (a character who had two eyes, about 10 pages later, only had one). ANYWAY. It's a good read (some of the writing is just exquisite), but I think I liked Kavalier & Clay better.

Now I am reading Iron Towns, by Anthony Cartwright, and it is short and pretty good.

And because I am a Tom Hardy fan, I watched Taboo last night on FX. I like dark, gritty, and silly, so I thought it was great. :D

Had to turn the a/c on AGAIN because ffs it is almost 90 outside. >:-[

Finished the new biography of Shirley Jackson (by Ruth Franklin) and really enjoyed it. Was sad to realize that she died at such a young age (48) in 1965 -- she could've lived well into the 1970s and '80s and even the 1990s, and written so much more. Am now reading Entry Island by Peter May, which I am liking although I think the narrator/protagonist is a bit of a Gary Stu. :D

Also have been watching Westworld on HBO and Timeless on NBC. The former has exactly the kind of gritty, dark story that pulls me in; the latter is ... not that. *g* Timeless is a goofy series about three time travelers in pursuit of the bad guy, trying to keep him from changing the past. There are so many plot holes you could drive multiple trucks through them, but it is an endearingly silly show and the actors are giving it all they've got, so I keep tuning in.

That's it, ( but here's a poem by Philip Larkin ...  )