Side 1: While I do not intend to jump into the political discussion any further, I encourage you all to do so. I will not seek any federal injunctions to cease discussion just because I may not like the way it's going. Ok sorry, I said no more politics.
Side 2: While there were winners and losers yesterday (and today) I awoke as the new biggest loser of my own selves in 2020, at 208.
Side 3: Did the original Zwift climb today. Did not hammer it because I just wanted to ride it at a good pace. Ended up 9th of 27 total attempts of this. I have to say I am surprised I have only ridden it 27 times.
Topic: October Movies & Books
I'll be honest that I do not have anything specific to write about today so I'm going to change gears from the last 24 hours and talk about TV and books.
As I spend more time indoors burning calories and going nowhere, it's the time of the year when I spend some quality time with the TV. I really do enjoy television as much as the next guy, but I've moved into the camp where I feel like I'm wasting my life away if I watch too much. This allows me to be a television glutton while I get some exercise. Here's some of what I watched last month...
(movie)
Costal Elites. This was mostly entertaining but it was a bit on the heavy-handed side, and I can see why some of the reviews of this were a little harsh. I will say Bette Midler was f*ing fantastic in her skit. From there I think it was a little all over the place. I would say that the title of the show describes the target audience, intended or not. As precise as that might be, it sort of limits the audience.
(series)
Fargo seasons 1, 2, & 3. Thanks to
@capedoc for pushing me over the edge on this one. Loved the original movie and have been curious about this for a while. Season 1 is excellent, with Billy Bob Thornton doing an amazing job in his role. Season 2 is good, with solid performances by Kirsten Dunst & Ted Danson. Season 3 is decent, with nothing especially notable in terms of performances IMO - ok actually the Brit is pretty good but not as good as Billy Bob. I would highly recommend this one. I will pick up the 4th season when it is all out. They are releasing it weekly.
(series)
Schitt's Creek season 6. The finale. We love this show and are sad to see it go. I'm not going to tell anyone anything they don't already know about this. So I'll move on.
(movie)
Real Steel. Family-friendly movie about robots that box. Hugh Jackman and probably a bunch of B actors. Worth the watch if its on. But I wouldn't go out my way to see it. Enjoyable.
(series)
Breaking Bad season 1. Still waiting for the hook. That is all.
(movie)
Unbreakable. This is a slow mover by that guy with the name like Shama-lama-ding-dong - M Night Shamalayan or whatever. Bruce Willis and Samuel L operate in this one, and I think "operate" is the right word here. Pretty solid movie but also pretty slow moving. That's fine by me as action-explosion movies are not my thing. I enjoyed it, though I'm not sure I would say it's a must-see. I will watch the sequel eventually, whatever it's called.
I watched a few more movies, but those will be part of another 50 Movies list I found and am currently working my way through. I am not watching all of them.
(book)
Crazed, by Ha Jin. I really enjoyed a different work of his,
Waiting. That book was an excellent read but it's been so many years ago I don't recall anything about it. This book was pretty lame in comparison. These Chinese fiction works are often times loaded with a pretty heavy cultural hand that Western readers have trouble relating to. While this was not specifically the case here, I never felt a connection with much that was going on in this story. I feel that Haruki Murakami (yes I know he's Japanese not Chinese) does a much better job making you feel like you care about the characters.
(audiobook)
The Splendid and the Vile, by Erik Larson. Disappointing. As excellent as
The Devil in the White City was, this was less so. The story is about Churchill and his war between becoming the PM and American joining the war. While it's an interesting story, it doesn't really capture you like Devil does. I found the other work really riveting while this was a story that we have all heard facets of over the years. So in reality, there's not a lot of new, eye-opening material here. Some of this reads like a Victorian drama at times.
Like I said - topic shift. For those of you who read this I would love to hear what 1 movie I should see, what series I should check out, and what book (both paper & audio) I should give a try.
