The French Ingredient

I feel somewhat ambivalent about this memoir. I very much enjoyed the cooking lessons and market tour I took through La Cuisine Paris, the business run by the author. The memoir is ostensibly about her move to Paris for a different job and eventually opening La Cuisine. And yet it felt a little…elementary, maybe? Very much about her mid-western “can do” ethos vs French culture, and less about the specifics of building the business. The French culture was mostly things I already knew from reading and school and basic research in advance of being a tourist there, so maybe I wasn’t the right audience for the memoir or had misplaced expectations. I will say that the tour of the king’s kitchen garden at Versailles was absolutely a highlight of my trip to Paris a decade ago, although I’m not sure it is offered any longer. The macaron lesson was fun, too, though, would recommend.

Finished watching Black Sails. I found the change in costuming for Flint to be fascinating. And the morphing of Silver, both the legend of Long John Silver and who he became and how he manipulated basically everyone. Same for Billy Bones. The pacing was a little slow for my taste but the cinematography was lovely. I am fascinated by how fandom (including academia) has interpreted the various sexual relationships – poly, queer, hetero. I’m kind of curious about whether there is word of god on them, but I haven’t gone looking.

Black Sails and a nope

I started watching Black Sails last week when it was added to Netflix. I had no expectations plot-wise, beyond general knowledge of the age of piracy. Its pacing is a little slow and I’m somewhat impatient with Eleanor Guthrie and Charles Vane, but I’m definitely going to keep watching, in part because it’s beautifully shot and the sets look amazing. I find the pervasive female nudity irritating, not out of prudery but because there’s so much full frontal for women and almost none for the men.

A social media algorithm suggested The Summer Proposal to me. (Not BookTok, thanks, I have Opinions about that app and do not use it.) I find a lot of recent hockey-set romances to be terrible but it had a bunch of positive reviews, so I downloaded a sample. It failed the 20 page test. Did the author do any hockey research? I couldn’t say because I didn’t get that far. Had they ever watched a game? Or even done a web search for game day schedules? Seems unlikely, which is unfortunate because there is SO MUCH information out there. Most players start arriving at least two hours before puck drop. Warm ups on the ice start 30+ minutes before puck drop. I am sorry, but a starting player is not going to be in a bar down the street from the arena 30 minutes before puck drop unless they want to be healthy scratched. Maybe in the 1980s but not in the 2020s. Or maybe if it is a Very Different book, not a romance. Nope. Could the rest of the book be awesome? Maybe, but the lack of basic accuracy in the opening erased any credibility for the author for me. Deleted the sample. Next.

(Shout out to Lexi Lafleur Brown for her commentary as a former player and spouse of a former NHL player. Her reviews are terribly funny.)

Now reading The French Ingredient by Jane Bertsch.

Happy Stab Caesar Day

If you celebrate it. Or belated Pi Day.

I have not seen all of the Oscar nominees or winners still. But I did see American Fiction, which I liked very much. And The Taste of Things, which was absolutely gorgeous: the lighting, the setting, the acting, the food. I may need to find a copy of The Passionate Epicure.

Reading-wise, I just finished Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide by Rupert Holmes. The writing was fine and I liked the concept, but I didn’t particularly care for or about any of the narrators. I liked it enough to finish it, but I’m not sure I would pick up a sequel, which seemed to be signaled by the afterword. Before that I read the newest Penric and Desdemona novella: if read as a book end to the series (which I have no idea if it is), it’s a little predictable, but I enjoyed revisiting that fantasy world.

Next up is the new book by Juan Gomez Jurado, Black Wolf, the second in a series. I’d read the first, Red Queen, in translation. But I’ve also borrowed the original Spanish version from the library. I guess I’ll see how terrible my reading comprehension has become.

2023 in review

On the reading front, I finished 28 books in 2023 which was equivalent to recent years but nothing close to the early 2000s when I read 150+ books per year. The best books of the year for me were Patrick Stewart’s memoir, Making It So, and the English language translation of Juan Gomez Jurado’s Red Queen.

In terms of other media, I don’t keep track of movies or television as well as I do books (thanks, LibraryThing!). But here’s what I remember off hand:

• Foundation – hit or miss.
• Ted Lasso – not impressed with S3.
• Only Murders in the Building – liked the two episodes we watched at Thx, on my list to subscribe to Hulu for it when I pause other streaming subs.
• GBBO – I always enjoy it, I’m predictable that way.
• Deadloch – I finished the first series but am not sure I would watch the second series.
• The Fall of the House of Usher – really enjoyed it.
• Queen Charlotte – ambivalent about it.
• The Diplomat – some of it was cringey but I liked the PM and his sister.
• Glass Onion – yes, please, more Benoit Blanc.
• Hijack – I have professional opinions about parts of this that I will keep to myself. But Idris Elba.
• Klaus – friend recommended this holiday movie and I really liked it.
• Last Christmas – only good things about this movie were the music and Michelle Yeoh (who I assume did it for the paycheck), otherwise it was painfully written/plotted and acted.
• Dungeons & Dragons – enjoyed, would watch a sequel set in the same universe.
• Last season of Escape to the Chateau – it was time for a variety of reasons.
• Mafia Mamma – it was terrible, I can only hope that Toni Collette got a huge paycheck because otherwise there is no excuse for it.

Rewatches: Persuasion, While You Were Sleeping, The Grinch (Original), The Expanse

Theater/BCS: Tiny Beautiful Things, Life is a Stage, Flamenco by the Royal Opera of Madrid

Hockey: a lot? Games in PGH vs the Bruins, the Flyers, opening night against the Next Next Next One, VGK, the Rangers, the Blues, and the Islands. And Chicago vs. the Leafs in Chicago.

Live music: Frank Turner and the Sleeping Souls, The Eagles, Stevie Nicks, Billy Joel.

Travel:

• Pittsburgh (does it could as travel at this point?)
• Chicago
• Portland (Maine)
• Cape Cod
• Portugal – Lisbon, Porto, and Sintra, with road/day trips to Evora, Aveiro, Braga, Guimaraes, Azeitao, Setubal, Arrabida, Tomar, Obidos, Fatima, Nazare, Batalha, Queluz, and Cascais.

As an aside, I cannot express how much I do not care for the upgrades/updates to WordPress. As someone who does a lot of writing in Word, I find its formatting to be clunky and the hovering box to be irritating. I don’t blog much, although I would like to do it more and get back into the habit, but I’m not sure it will be with WP/JP.

Borrowed from the library

When I was in Cape Cod in August, I stopped at The Mystery Bookstop in West Dennis. It has a lot of mysteries (as one might expect) along with a fair amount of new young adult fiction and some beachy-type reads. I bought two books (Winspear mystery and a ~meh~ romance or chicklit type), and made note of two YA authors whose books looked interesting – Namina Forna and Jasmine Wargo. My local library had one of the books (Forna’s The Gilded Ones) and a different book by the other (Here We Are Now by Jasmine Warga). I could appreciate the craft and narrative style in both books, but didn’t really love either: it’s me, not them.

Next book up is a biography of Rosalind Franklin.

Watched The Fall of the House of Usher online. Now I need to go back and re-read Edgar Allan Poe.

Went to a bunch of open houses. Two possibles…I’m just cringing at interest rates right now. But I’m balancing that against having fewer immediate neighbors, which would be a relief.

Flu shot and Covid booster scheduled for next week. Had delayed it due to a potential labor strike at my HCP.

Wondering if there will be a government shutdown in November. I’ve got travel planned and selfishly wonder about TSA agents and FAA controllers, especially over Turkey Day. (Based on other shutdowns, I would likely be excepted and have to work, too, but can do so online.)

Don’t really know what to say (or do to help) with things going on in the world. Have so many things been so bad all the time, or was I just not paying close enough attention?

Recent music

It’s a shame that paper tickets and ticket stubs are no longer a thing. I used to collect them and then put them in a scrapbook of sorts at the end of each year. I very often forget what live performances and even movies I’ve seen now that I lack the physical reminder.

So I’m reminding myself here.

Flamenco by the Royal Opera of Madrid – seen at the Howard Theater. Really enjoyed it, although as usual I could only make out about 10% of the lyrics. Which is to be expected since I can’t tell lyrics in English half the time. (Looking at you, FOB)

The Eagles on their farewell tour. Steely Dan opened, but due to a complete meltdown by Amtrak (a 3:10 delay) I missed it. Got there just in time to hear the full show by the Eagles though. Don Henley has aged very well. Joe Walsh looks pretty dessicated and sounds like a crotchety old stoner when he talks but he still kills on the Stratocaster. Vince Gill did well on some vocals, as did Deacon Frey. The set list was about what you’d expect, I think, and didn’t miss any of the biggest hits. My personal favorite was Heartache Tonight. (I refuse to acknowledge the Michael Buble cover. It’s just wrong.)

Stevie Nicks and Billy Joel. The pre-show PA music could have been a set list lifted straight from a high school dance in 1990. Seriously. I forget how much I like Stevie Nicks and how many of her songs I know…until it’s pointed out to me. Loved the Free Falling cover with video of Tom Petty and Billy Joel coming out to sing his part in Stop Dragging My heart Around. Closing with Landslide and a montage of Christie McVie photos seemed appropriate. Billy Joel’s set list was what you’d expect, I think, plus a bit that you might not: the first verse of Start Me Up, part of an Italian opera aria sung by backup vocalist, etc. His intro of Vienna was something like, “This next song is from an album I did in 1977. It has a lot of hits. This song isn’t one of them.” My favorites were An Innocent Man and We Didn’t Start the Fire, the latter mostly because of nostalgia. (Shout out to Mr. R., the history teacher who used the song as a lesson and made us add lines/lyrics with historical updates.)

Today’s musical inquiry – Carin Leon, who was in town last night also. (There should be acute accents over the I and O but once again I fail at the keyboard command for that.)

This and that

I DNF’d both Six of Crows and Hell Bent. I’m sure Leigh Bardugo is a good storyteller, but I think she is not for me.

This weekend was the Flower Mart. I wandered around and admired all of the plants for sale at the various stalls – potted herbs, starter kits, hanging baskets, planters large and small – but did not buy anything. Because I kill plants. Even ostensibly unkillable plants like airplants. Seriously.

Saw a preview of Life’s A Dream at BCS. I think I need to read the play, because I liked the plot but did not love the set decoration, costumes, and directorial choices.

Was asked to sign a petition to get the Baltimore Baby Bonus onto the ballot for a city charter amendment. It would give parents at least $1,000 upon the birth or adoption of a child. How would this be funded, I asked: how the city would fund it would be up to the city council. And hey, that’s like, less than 1% of the city’s annual budget, so why not? I believe in UBI, but this ask kind of made me cringe. I need to unpack my hesitation. Some of it is financial, given how many basic city services have been reduced or removed over the last three years. And some of it is not: who is behind/funding this initiative?

Watched Queen Charlotte. I have some unsorted thoughts about the nonfictional queen and the British monarchy and the weekend events in the UK. Setting those aside, I feel pretty ambivalent about how the series handled marital rape and female autonomy (both bodily and otherwise). The juxtaposition of the unhappy marital lives of Queen Charlotte and Lady Danbury for vastly different reasons was striking. And I’m reminded of what I quoted from Lady Danbury from S2, “After passion cools and fate intervenes, who else is a woman left with but herself?” It very much applies to all of the older generation ladies of the series so far, the queen and both ladies.

Why? Why would Netflix do that?

I just watched the trailer for the new Persuasion adaptation. No. Nope. Nein. Nyet. Não. Nunca. It’s not even worth watching for the costumes or the Bath setting or Henry Golding. I need brain bleach. Did the director ever actually read the book?

I need to dig out my rant from the last adaptation abomination.

I just…why?

They completely do not get the tone or theme of the book, based on the trailer.

I shall continue to pretend that the only adaptation that exists is the 1995 Root/Hinds edition.

Bridgerton S2

I liked it? I liked the inclusion of Southeast Asian characters via Sheffield to Sharma, but I will defer to other whether it was done with sufficient nuance – it didn’t seem offensive to me but how would I know if they’d done something awful? I thought the nod to pre wedding activities and the inclusion of patterns (paisleys) were lovely.

I did not love some of the writing for Edwina Sharma, who was inconsistent about practical marriage vs love match. I also do not love the Penelope developments.

Loved the reflections of P&P adaptations, and to Bollywood’s non-kisses.

Loved the clothes, even if they were not necessarily historically accurate. Admired the ladies’ dresses, lusted for the waistcoats.

Also: worth watching for Adjoa Andoh’s Lady Danbury. Her clothes. Her cane. Her curled lip. This line kills me: “After passion cools and fate intervenes, who else is a woman left with but herself?”

Bridgerton – what to think? – SPOILERS

I read Julia Quinn’s The Viscount Who Loved Me years and years ago, and loved it. Then I went back and read The Duke and I and despised it. Like rip the book apart at the seams and set it on fire hated it. I hated the marital rape – that’s what it was and flipping gender didn’t change that. I hated the whole true love changes people’s minds about wanting children. Hated it. I think I read a couple of the other Bridgerton books that followed but couldn’t say for sure – this all happened before I started using LibraryThing to track my reading, and I can’t find anything on my old LiveJournal (which is imported here to WordPress and dates back to 2005 o_o).

So I’m maybe not the target audience for Shondaland’s Bridgerton on Netflix. I was iffy about it based on the first 5-10 minutes, but a couple of people in Romancelandia Twitter were saying good things, so…

It works as historical fantasy, emphasis on the fantasy. The costuming and sets and all are…not really accurate but are lovely. The actors playing Daphne and Simon have amazing chemistry, and Simon (played by Rege-Jean Page) is smoking hot, with amazing waistcoats and a voice and a gaze to die for. Lady Danbury’s casting is A+. A bunch of things were added or changed in ways that presumably aid in the visual nature of television storytelling, but which were kind of ~meh~ otherwise. [I’m looking at the change in Anthony’s character, and the added Featherington family subplots.] The director clearly watched earlier Austen adaptations with all the restraint and unresolved sexual tension, and decided to resolve it here. Repeatedly. And leave NOTHING on the cutting room floor.

And I was enjoying the series. Until episode 6. With all of the other things that were changed, why was the marital rape not changed? With an added layer of grossness due to a white character ignoring a stated lack of consent by a Black character. It’s just…ugly. I have mixed feelings about Daphne generally, and about the ignorance she went into marriage with, and the way Simon took advantage of that – he knew she had no idea what he was doing. And his wordplay – cannot have children is not the same as will not – is disingenuous and deceptive at best. But she clearly did what she did intentionally, and didn’t bother to understand why until after the fact.

Part of me wants to go re-read the book, to see if the aftermath is handled better there. Because watching the remainder of episodes, all I could think was that if they were a modern couple they would need so much therapy and to actually talk to each other, but my expectation for an HEA for a historical couple was low. I didn’t really buy Simon’s jump from no children ever to happy to be a dad without some kind of exposition about how he and Daphne talked to each other about how abusive his father was and the damage it did to him as a child. But I don’t have the book and am not inclined to buy a copy since I wanted to set it on fire the first time around.

ETA: one of the added subplots involves a very sympathetic WoC who is wedged into an ugly, semi-villainous position. I felt sorry for her, and thought she deserved better from *everyone* around her, and completely understood the choices she made. I don’t really know what to say about it and defer to readers and watchers of color.