The Sunday Post - a chance for a catch-up - is hosted by Kimberly, here: https://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/ and It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn, here: https://thebookdate.wordpress.com/
You know when you come home on a Friday night and you just want something short, fun and stupid but you want to watch a movie?Right here. This is the one. Actually any of the Bill & Ted movies would work but this is what Netflix suggested so I went with it.
Uh ... something something, music. Something something time travel.
Dave Grohl and Kid Cudi are in it for some reason?
Lower your expectations. Lower than that. Lower. Lower. There you go. Bill & Ted Face the Music is nothing but a good time. :)
And now, for a complete shift in tone. The Happy Prince was, apparently, a passion project for Rupert Everett. He stars as Oscar Wilde in his last, fading days in Paris.
There are flashbacks to previous times and the narrative of Mr Wilde's incredibly sad fairy story is woven throughout the narrative. There are a couple of surprising cameos from the likes of Colin Firth and Tom Wilkinson, but it's really Everett's film.
Colin Morgan takes on the rather thankless role of Bosie, and manages to restrain himself from chewing the scenery.
The heart of the movie - for me - was Edwin Thomas as Robbie Ross, a long-time friend of Oscar Wilde's who stuck by him through everything. Definitely worth watching.
I'm trying to show Son of Mine some fun/classic movies he may not have seen.
Last week .... work set the same trap for me it always does, so I had to go to the office.
Vet: "Her heart is beating way faster than it should be. I want to test for hyperthyroidism.
Me, who is ALREADY paying out of pocket for Lily's hyperthyroidism (internally) NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Luckily, Freya does not have it, she just has bad teeth which are making her feel unhappy. She already had teeth out about three years ago, but now her back molars have to go. I have tomorrow and Tuesday off work (pre-arranged, nothing to do with cats) so I'll be taking her in for surgery in the morning.
We came fourth at quiz on Wednesday, and I got drafted for a fundraiser quiz on Thursday. They're always for a good cause, but I hate fundraiser quizzes because they take so long and it's a gamble for how well they're organised. This one .... was not. I got dragged into it because a friend was one of the people organising it. I think we came third, but I left early as I had work the next day.
Friday night I completely powered down. I watched TV I think.
Saturday morning Son of Mine and I went to the library, and we re-watched some Good Place, and Golden Girls. Saturday night I went to my friend's as usual. We finished a show, so watched The Happy Prince, a Rupert Everett movie about the last days of Oscar Wilde.
Today Son of Mine and I watched National Treasure and I worked on a couple of blackwork projects I have on the go.
I had to DNF A Curse Dark as Gold - I was struggling with it more than I was enjoying it and life is too short. So now I'm reading Pet by Catherine Chidgey and I think I'm going to re-read an Agatha Christie, as I finished RuPaul's memoir.
How about you? How's your week? What are you reading?
Let me see... work happened to me again somehow as I was not the lucky winner of the $30 million Lotto powerball at the weekend. I worked yesterday as well, filling in for a workmate who was on holiday. Six day weeks are no fun but the overtime will certainly disappear into bills and Son of Mine's birthday as soon as I blink. He'll be 17 next month, somehow.
We came third at quiz on Wednesday night, so we're not having the greatest run but at least we placed.
My work bestie who moved away in February was down this week to visit her family and gather more of her stuff so we had a dinner date on Thursday night. It was absolutely the best to see her, but now I miss her even more.
Friday night I watched Bill and Ted Face the Music, which was exactly the 90 minutes of stupid fun I needed.
Today I was feeling a bit ... ehn. I think because of working six days, and Son of Mine had a friend over last night for a sleepover. I just needed to get out on my own for a bit. So I went and bought myself some new pillows and went to the library. It was exactly what I needed.
I didn't do much this afternoon, some stitching while trying not to fall asleep.
I'm still reading RuPaul's memoir, and A Curse Dark as Gold. My endeavour this week is to make time for more reading and stitching, and less for Instagram reels which are my Achilles heel.
Anyway. How about you? How's your week? What are you reading?
Sam Vimes just wants to do his job, and go home at the end of his shift.
But - somehow - he gets dragged into the war.
Mr Sir Terry Pratchett had a wonderful knack of highlighting the absolute absurdity of aspects of the human condition. In this case, he turned his laser gaze on the absurdity and tragedy of war.
Jingo is hilarious, while also making some very, very savage points.
The trouble with reading a new-new book, that's the first book in a series, and is very, very good, and was published in January ... there's no book 2 out yet.
I have to admit, I have not kept up with the Marvel multi-verse.
There's just too much. I haven't watched Ms Marvel, and I'm sure there are others that feed into this, but it didn't really matter.
I went into The Marvels with VERY low expectations, but I ended up enjoying it very much of a lot.
I mean, to me, the plot is something, something, something aliens, but what the movie hinges on is the forming bond between Captain Marvel, Ms Marvel and Captain Monica Rambeau.
They all find out accidentally that they can swap places with each other, and everything just descends into chaos from there.
Also there are alien kittens.
Super fun, full of heart and honestly a great watch.
I have a weakness for heist stories. And found family stories.
Often, these two things seem to go together, and that's the case with Lift.
Kevin Hart leads a crew of thieves who specialise in "lifting" works of art to liberate them from private collectors.
After they've "lifted" a Van Gogh, the crew gets tangled up with Interpol, who are trying to bring down an international terrorist who profits off natural disasters.
He's expecting a delivery of $500 million in gold bars, which is where the crew comes in. Because Interpol hires them to steal the gold.
Is the premise ridiculous? Yes. Was I entertained? Also yes. It was fun.
Nicolas Cage as Dracula, and Nicholas Hoult as the hapless Renfield, set in modern-day New York. This movie is not going to win any awards for greatness, but it's the kind of stupid fun that's entertaining for 90 minutes.
Not ideal if you have a weak stomach though, as it is also VERY gory.
Fun, but gory.
My question here is - why. Why Road House. The original is fine as it is, and honestly - go watch that instead.
I sat through the whole movie (the new one) and honestly I was mostly just ... bored. And confused.
It's set in modern-day Florida for some reason? Like, that doesn't make sense to me? And Dalton has a backstory, which I don't like. Mysterious drifter? Yes. Former MMA fighter with a Dark Past? Meh.
And - I don't know - the antagonist was mostly just annoying rather than deeply, deeply evil. He was an awful person but I did not care what happened to him.
One of the things that drove the original - for me - was the soundtrack. This time around a different band plays every night and I just couldn't connect to it.Stick with Patrick Swayze.
Sir David Suchet's portrayal of Agatha Christies Hercule Poirot is possibly one of the most recoginsable TV characters of the past 30 years or so.
One of the reasons, I believe, is the thought and effort David Suchet put into bringing Poirot to life.
It's easy to play Poirot as a caricature or entirely for humour or indeed to miss the point of him entirely (looking at you, Kenneth Branagh) but David Suchet dove into the character himself - before he even brought him to life on screen.
Poirot and Me dives into that transformation, and the consideration and thoughtfulness brought to bringing him to life solidifies the little Belgian detective as a truly great fictional character.
David Suchet has written a truly fascinating memoir centered around the TV show, the character, and how Poirot impacted his life in some very unexpected ways.
Summer and Leo are con artists, living in Summer's van and travelling around California, looking for the next grift.Ah, 1980s Patrick Swayze. So handsome. Riding the success of Ghost and Dirty Dancing.
And then. Road House. Look, I know Road House isn't a good movie. You know Road House isn't a good movie. But here's the thing. As terrible as it is objectively, it's also great. It just is, and no correspondence will be entered into.
Swayze is a bouncer, or a "cooler" who's hired to clean house at the Double Deuce - the type of Road House the band plays behind chicken wire (which, side note, always reminds me of the Blues Brothers.)
So Dalton (Swayze) rides into town ready to kick ass and take names and set the world to rights. Which, of course, he does.There are some unintentionally funny moments - and some intentional ones as well - but overall it's just pure entertainment.
Do yourself a favour - if you haven't heard them before, look up the band from the movie - The Jeff Healey Band. So good.
My week was fairly uneventful, except of course for the heavy chains of capitalism.
We won at quiz on Wednesday night by one point, but a win is a win, no matter how narrow the margin.
We got talking at work about some of the "reboot" movies that are coming out, and Roadhouse came up. So, of course, on Thursday night I had to dig into the vaults of TV Land and watch the original. The original Roadhouse is both great, and also terrible. This remains true. The soundtrack, however, still slaps. (Is that what the kids are saying? "Slaps"?)
Friday, Spawn had a friend over for a sleepover, so I retreated to my room and told myself "I'm not going to watch the whole Eras tour movie, it's over three hours long." Reader, I watched the whole Eras tour movie. I don't consider myself a "Swiftie" as such but I do like quite a few of the songs, and I admire the work ethic. And honestly - it's a great show. One of my workmates went to see Taylor Swift in Sydney and declared it the greatest night of her life.
Saturday a friend of mine and I went to the library, and after Spawn's wee friend had gone home and he had tidied up the debris of their sleepover, we went trawling some secondhand stores. Spawn bought a couple of books, and I found a photo frame for 50cents, which I've used to frame a Monet print card.
Saturday night I went to my friend's place as usual and we stitched and watched reality TV. We're off to the movies later today to see Wicked Letters.
I finished Poirot & Me, and also You Can Trust Me, both of which I did enjoy.
Currently I'm reading The Labours of Hercules, short stories by Agatha Christie featuring the little Belgian detective, and I started The Principle of Moments by Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson, first book in the Order of Legends series, which is shaping up to be very promising.
How about you? How's your week? What are you reading?
This popped up on Netflix, and I thought it looked interesting, so I dived in.
Pain Hustlers is based on a true story about a small, start-up pharmaceutical company trying to push a new painkiller for cancer patients.
Emily Blunt is down on her luck single mother Liza who talks her way into a job with the company, and Chris Evans is the slightly skeevy rep who recruits her.
It's always fun to see Chris Evans play against the Captain America stereotype and it's the same with this movie, although the front and centre star is without a doubt Emily Blunt.Her character is motivated by the right things - she's trying to make a better life for herself and her daughter who is prone to seizures due to a tangled bundle of nerves in her brain. Catherine O'Hara also shows up in a great supporting role as Emily Blunt's character's somewhat chaotic mother.
The drug starts to take off for cancer patients, and it's not long before doctors are prescribing it for all kinds of pain. The kicker is - it's fentanyl. Which I don't know a lot about, but I do know it's incredibly addictive. There's a lot of other dodgy dealings and kickbacks as well which did largely go over my head.
But the story and the acting were engaging enough to keep me invested.
When the husband of one of her friend's dies from an overdose, Liza realises she needs to do something, and turns whistleblower, which brings the company crashing down.
Pain Hustlers is definitely worth watching - great cast plus a solid story make for a good night in.
Why is it when you cut yourself, it's always in the most inconvenient place? I cut my finger yesterday and it's right at the tip, so when I'm typing I hit the cut every single time.
Anyway.
My week was much more uneventful.
I went to work because capitalism and I didn't marry rich when I was young and skinny.
We won at quiz on Wednesday night which is always nice.
Son of Mine had a sleepover at a friend's on Friday night. It's funny - both his dad and I are pretty introverted - his Dad moreso than me - but somehow we've created this extroverted social butterfly who can make friends with anyone.
So I parked up on the couch with some stitching and had planned to watch The Bourne Supremacy but could not find it on any of the streaming platforms we have. After a bit of browsing and false starts, I watched Pain Hustlers on Netflix, which is about a pharmaceutical start up with Emily Blunt and Chris Evans. Review to come later in the week.
Yesterday morning I arose from the depths, got myself settled for some uninterrupted TV and watched episode 2 of The Fall of the House of Usher. I'm greatly enjoying it but I can only take one episode at a time, and I need to wait until Son of Mine is out and about.
Then I went to pick him up from his friend's and took Lily to the vet for her regular blood tests.
I did some reading in the afternoon and ferried Son of Mine and another one of his friends about for a bit. He went to that friend's last night for another sleepover. He's going to come home and crash VERY hard I think.
I'm still reading Poirot and Me by David Suchet which I'm enjoying. I also rented a couple of the Poirot seasons from the library, so I've also been working my way through those.
I'm also still reading You Can Trust Me by Wendy Heard which is still great.
How about you? How's your week? What are you reading?
Bookshops & Bonedust by Travls Baldree is a prequel to Legends & Lattes, which I absolutely loved. And, I have to say, this one had me grinning like an idiot as well.
Viv is a young, brash Orc, just starting out as a mercenary with Rackham's Ravens when she's badly injured by the minions of necromancer the crew is chasing.
She's forced to take downtime and finds herself settling into Murk - a sleepy beachside down to rest and recuperate.
Viv doesn't take the enforced rest very well to start with, and things start to stack up for her.
Luckily, she meets some friends along the way, including Fern who owns the town's only bookstore, and Maylee, the dwarf - and romantic interest for Viv - who owns a bakery.
Unfortunately, the necromancer is still out there, and she's heading for Murk...
This was just. Lovely. I don't know how else to describe it honestly. I loved it so much.
After the book of Miss Marple short stories by modern writers didn't work out, I decided to go back to the source material.
I mentioned in my Sunday Post that I'm trying to watch more movies this year. I've set a goal of ... 55? I think? and I've watched about 10 so far.
My bank account cried out to me in dark despair, so I went back to work on Monday after my break. To say I was reluctant to go back to work is an understatement. Reader, I did not want to.
Reader, I had to.
Anyway. We came second at quiz on Wednesday night, which is fine. Generally I'm happy if we place.
Thursday, Son of Mine had gone on a field trip to the Waimumu Field Days with his school - https://www.southernfielddays.co.nz/ It rained on Thursday and he ruined his sneakers. So after work on Thursday night the two of us had salad - I mean burgers at McDonald's and did a spot of shopping for new sneakers.
Friday night my department was supposed to go out as a group but one of our team leaders ended up going home with a stomach bug. So that event was cancelled, and some of us just ... went to the pub. It was fun, and I was home by 9 but I was definitely peopled out.
Yesterday my friend who is leaving soon came around and we watched The Emperor's New Groove, which is her favourite movie.
Today, Son of Mine woke up with a completely blocked head, and youuuu guessed it. He has COVID.
The guidelines now state you don't have to isolate, and your household doesn't but I am keeping him home from school for the week, and I picked up my hard drive from work in case I need to stay home as well. So far I've tested negative but COVID is a sneaky bastard.
Saturday night friend and I went to the library, and did a few errands, which definitely included a bakery. I restrained myself to just some lemon cupcakes so I'm proud of myself for that.
I'm still reading Foundryside, and I finished Bookshops and Bonedust, which was very cute. I also started Marple, an anthology of Miss Marple stories by modern-day writers. I'm not very far in as of yet though.
How about you? How's your week? What are you reading?
Fourteen year old orphan Mona works in her aunt and uncle's bakery. She bakes, she sells to customers ... she can also create magic through dough.
However, when Mona literally trips over a dead body in the bakery's kitchen, things start to get bad very quickly.
A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking - apart from having the greatest title - is a fun fantasy novel. The magic system is a lot of fun, and there are some truly memorable characters. Not just Mona - there's Bob, the sourdough starter, Knackering Molly and Spindle, the thief.
It's so much fun to read.
The Scottish Play, by way of Terry Pratchett's endlessly creative imagination.
Featuring Nanny Ogg, Granny Weatherwax, and Magrat, the newest witch, who has definite ideas about How Witching Should Be Done. Unfortunately, she's stuck with Nanny Ogg and Granny Weatherwax, who just sort of .... get on with it.
The old king of Lancre is murdered, and a new one sits on the throne. A bad king. What are three witches to do?
Well, not interfere, certainly ...
Whenever I don't know what to read next, I have three go-to authors. Agatha Christie, PG Wodehouse - and Terry Pratchett. You really just can't go wrong with Discworld.
Let's see ... capitalism unclenched its jaws slightly, and I'm halfway through two weeks off work.
I didn't do a lot last week - some reading, some stitching. I watched the first series of Reacher (Large Man Hits Things A Lot) which I enjoyed, and Son of Mine and I have started watching Fool Me Once, on Netflix, which is very good.
I did errandy type things on Wednesday and on Friday went to my friend's place for a bonus stitching/watching session. We watched a couple of episodes of the Traitors UK, and then finished the series last night at our regular Saturday night session. It's So. Good. It's honestly my favourite show, I think.
Son of Mine had a couple of friends over on Friday night for a sleepover, so I threw some pizza to the wolves, and retreated to my room to do some stitching and watch some Voyager.
Yesterday was a quiet one though I did get some reading done.
I had coffee today with a friend/workmate of mine. She's leaving at the end of this month and I am very sad about it - she's one of my people at work. We started about the same time and have pretty much been friends ever since. But she feels the need for a change, and while I'm happy for her, I'm sad for me.
I finished The Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking, and was highly entertained. I'm still reading Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett, and I also started Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett, which is sort of ... industrial fantasy? If that's a category. That's what it feels like.
I'm also reading The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. I want to watch the series, but wanted to read the book first.
How about you? How's your week? What are you reading?