I was supposed to play golf today, but we abide by the 50 degree rule: if it’s not over 50 degrees, we don’t play. Golf is supposed to be fun in the sun, not shivering in the damp. Oh, well. We haven’t played yet this year, but I did take a whack at a few balls on the range a couple of days ago, so when we finally do get out there, I’ll be marginally warmed up and ready for action. Meanwhile, if I can’t play golf, there’s always blogging.
Books (audio division): After dumping Bleak House, I went for Jim Butcher’s Dead Beat, which is #7 of the Dresden books. As always, it did the job. In aid of changing the mood entirely, after finishing off the wizard in Chicago, I then went to Judi Dench’s Shakespeare: The Man who Pays the Rent. I found this to be different from what I was expecting, which was some sort of memoir. Instead, it’s an exploration of Shakespeare by a noted player—not, btw, narrated by said noted player—and as such it’s really interesting and, at the same time, a pretty lousy audiobook. With audio I am on the lookout for fast-paced narratives. I listen while I’m walking, which in its own way sets the parameters of what works or not. Slow-paced simply doesn’t make it; one needs the beating of the drum to keep the galley oars ploughing the waters. (And, as noted previously with Bleak House, some idea that the end is in sight before one shuffles off the Mortal C). So Dame J only got an hour before I turned to The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door by H. G. Parry, which got off to a great start. I loved her The Magician’s Daughter, although I didn’t much care for her A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians, which just goes to show that you can’t win them all. She’s quite prolific, and I’m hoping that in the long run I’ll be falling on the like side more often than not.
Television: My general evening viewing usually includes an episode of an hour-long series, followed by an episode of a half-hour comedy. This means that I have watched a lot of half-hour comedies. Now, if you’re watching something that is allegedly funny, it is not out of the realm of possibility that you might expect to laugh out loud on occasion. But, sadly, no matter how good a show is, the idea of LOL is way more likely than the reality. But in the immortal words of the Wizard of Oz, “Not so fast. Not so fast!”
Enter “Vicious,” stage left. This is truly a laugh-out-loud program. It may be one of the funniest shows ever. This week I finished the first season with their Christmas show, and watched the most droll and perhaps longest double-take ever, to which the whole season was building up. Ian McKellen is a gift to humanity. His costar, Derek Jacobi, is no slouch either. I’m mildly reminded of “The Thick of It” as far as the writing here is concerned. The show is available on Prime, and if you don’t start watching it now, you deserve to watch every Trump speech in hell for all eternity. (For that matter, you have watched “The Thick of It”, right? The source of the phrase “as useless as a marzipan dildo”? I mean, seriously, if not, you need to catch up.)
And I don’t think I mentioned that I finished the first season of “The Punisher.” I know I’ve mentioned these second-tier Netflix Marvel shows in general before. They are now part of Disney+, and I’ve been working my way through them methodically, and while I don’t think they’re for the ages, they are perfectly entertaining (if slightly drawn out). I’m now watching the second Luke Cage series (I’m doing them in order, and for the record, already watched Jessica Jones season two out of order before I cottoned to the fact that all the different shows were a set.) I hope to catch up to the recently released Daredevil seasons sometime before the second J. D. Vance Administration.
Gaming: Having given up on Indy and the Great Circle, I went on to the highly rated Astrobot, which is cute but not compelling unless you’re in the mood for that sort of thing. I had fun with it for a little while, and then went on to Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii. I’ve made it as far as having to assemble a crew and collect money by traversing Honolulu regularly fighting, as the game announces boldly, “ASSHOLES!” I got it at a good discount and I might or might not stick with it. I find that if I play daily, games work well for me. If I take too much of a break, they’re hard-pressed to bring me back. But overall, I feel that I get my money’s worth out of them. I know that my granddaughter will enjoy Astrobot when she visits this summer. And I’ve been pointed to a good two-person game for her age group, to wit, Lego Voyagers. This means getting a second controller and, jeesh, they’re not giving away those babies away anywhere. But one seldom weighs the price of amusing a grandchild versus the value.
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