Yeah, a good movie was seen by Carol: "Amelia" with Hillary Swank and Richard Geer. I think the first part of it was a little slow moving, but it really turned interesting and ended AOK.
And the new Meryl Streep movie with Steve Martin and Alec (?) looks good.

OK so I haven't written on this blog for a month so here goes. I am planning on going to Thailand and will be up dating this blog, so you can check in with this when I am gone and then you can see what I am up to, which will probably be not too much. Carol

Good news, movie fans. Looks like several new movies coming out this fall will actually be watchable. Meryl Streep and Steve Martin have one coming out, as well as a Nicholas Cage end of the world deal. Those looked OK. Sandra Bullock had one about adopting a homeless boy that might be OK. Also, Jud Law is in a new movie as Watson in "Sherlock" and Hillary Swank will play Amelia Earhart. Looking forward to seeing these.

Yeah! I went to the movies this afternoon. I saw "The Informer" with Matt Damon. Great movie. It is based on a true story of a guy who "blows the whistle" on food giant ADM, who was guilty of price fixing. But in the mean time, the individuals involved were not without fault.
But the best part of the movie, besides it being funny, was the character development of the may character, Mark Whiteker, played by Matt Damon.
Recommended for sure.

I just finished ANOTHER really good book. It is "Await Your Reply" by Dan Chaon. It is about identity theft, and while that is the plot, it is really about people. As usual, I like a book with good character development. Boy, does this one have that, plus a "keep you guessing until the last page" plot. It is actually three inter woven stories.

And the other interesting thing to me was the setting. The base is western Nebraska, where I used to live. It was a bit of memory lane to talk about some of those old places.

Other than that, it is turned into a new season, fall. And it seems to be happening overnight.

I just finished reading a really good book by E.L. Doctorow. "Homer and Langley" It is about two brother, one who was gassed in the trenches in WWI and one who is blind. It tells about their lives with the background of the 20th century.
I like the place were they tell about banks buying out other banks. They say the banks become new banks and never improve.

I feel like this is new years eve. I have been thinking about all the things that have happened in the last year. I became a grand mother to two teenagers and a baby.
I traveled to Boston. I am going to Thailand.
I get to help do day care for my little Evelyn.
I have my health including my eyesight and my hearing.
I have friends and family who love me.
I have old friends and new friends.
I have plenty of money for my needs and some for my wants.
Somethings have made me sad. The worst was seeing a dog being given away at a garage sale because the owners were losing their house.
Last week, I tried to help the dog catcher catch a dog who was scared and running around because the owner had dumped her out.

So these are the things are not so good. I have closed three banks in the last year: my insurance agent has retired: my car dealership has closed and three people I know have lost jobs there.

I was almost struck by lightening and my plants got hailed on. I had to go to the dentist and I hated it. My car needs some work on it and my doctor is no longer seeing patients.

I think my good list is so much better and LONGER than the changes list.

Besides, except for the lightening and hail, all these things are changes for me and we had a minister who always said, "change is a chance for growth" even though I hated it when he said that.

This last year, since last July, 08 has been a time of change for me.

I have become a grandmother of a baby and last May 08 became a grandmother of two teenagers. )

I just finished reading a powerful book, The Snakehead, by Patrick Raddon Keefe.
It is specifically about the smuggling of human beings into the US for profit from China and generally about smuggling people all over the world.
It is very upsetting to me to think how some people exploit others, but it also helps me understand Grandpa Lew and some of his attitudes that I didn't understand before.
But since it is upsetting I don't want to write about it right now. I need to digest it a little.

I want to add from the Roadshow: the picture of the men with swords was a scene from Kabuki theater.

antiques roadshow

Wow, what fun. My sister and I went to the Antiques Roadshow in Denver. We didn't make it on TV, but had a good time and did get to see some of the celebs. I took two pictures that Jon and I had bought when we went to Japan. I bought the pics in the Gion district of Kyoto. The appraiser told me the picture of the samurai warrior was definitely from the 19th century and was of the utagawa school. She said it was probably once a part of a set of three. She said it was worth about $75. It does have some mildew damage. She was not familiar with the artist. On each picture, the artist's name is in the letters with a red circle's. The other picture is from about 1910 and she was familiar with the artist. It is worth about $110.Both pictures are original woodcuts. She said the framing was really good.
I also took a poster that I bought in a poster shop in Prague. The appraiser asked me if I was Cheque and that he was. He wanted to know what I paid for the poster ($3) and said that was good as it was a copy. He was familiar with the work and said the original would be worth about $300 and the copy I had about $25.

I was writing about a book I am reading "Paul Newman, a life." I wrote that I was writing about Paul Newman, but I wasn't. I was only writing about the book I am reading.
chimera: a fire breathing female monster with a head of a lion, body of a goat and tail of a serpent.
segued: proceed.
anomalous: irregular'

Now I am starting to read a book about Paul Newman. He has been a favorite actor of since I was in high school. So far I have learned he was really old, even by my standards and he was a WWII veteran. Also, he was Jewish and many members of his family are as successful as he was. I'll write more when I read more. It is pretty easy reading. So far, I haven't run across any words I don't know, which isn't good. I want a book to have at least a few new words for me.

I had better finish my "book report" on The Mulberry Empire by Philip Hensher before I forget the whole things.

The historical facts of the book are that from 1838-42 the British were involved in a war (the first Afghan war) against Afghanistan, or maybe it would be more accurate to say IN Afghanistan. OK. The British were established in India and they wanted an alley to the west. So they decided to take over Afghanistan. Well, they supported a has been ruler and tried to put him back on the throne and over throw the ruling ruler. It all gets rather complicated.
Now for the fiction part in the book. The author put real characters and fictional ones in the story. Then he fictionalized lots of things the real characters did and apologized for all that at the end of the book.
Now it sounds complicated (482 pages) and it is, but by reading the book, you get an idea of the situation.
I think the Brits didn't understand the Afghans and somehow thought they could just walk in and tell them how to do things. Well, that didn't work.
I like Philip Hensher books. I have now read two of the four he has written. The other two are not in my library, but I am trying to track them down.
Hensher does a wonderful job of making his people seem so real, with real FEELINGS and real work to do and REAL lives.
I see in his picture in the back of the book, that he looks quit young, 30s maybe. I am glad because I hope he writes a bunch more of these really good books and I also hope the I can talk my library into buying them.
I wonder if anyone else reads these books.

costermonger: a person who sells or hawks fruits or vegetables from a barrow

I am reading "The Mulberry Empire" by Philip Hensher. Overall, it is about British colonization in the early to mid 19th century.
vocab: taranass: Russian carriage, pulled by horses. In summer it has four wheels and in winter the wheels are removed so that it is a slay.

Ok, I am trying to learn to add pictures to my posts, so here is a sample of my iris from this spring.

I had a good garage sale day yesterday. I bought a book of Ibsen plays. I learned last summer that he was originally Norweigen, but the Norweigens got fed up with him so he moved to Germany.

OK so I have learned to add photos to my blog so I am going to practice. Hope I can find some good pictures and "stuff."

Last Friday evening, I had the pleasure of attending my first roller derby. It was at the Douglas County Fairgrounds. The reason I ended up there was that my daughter Rosie was a skater in the event. Her team won 199/186. It was kind of a family event, as Rosie's boyfriend, two of her friends, Jon and Rachel, myself and Jon's friend Chris Dura all attended as a block. At one point we were asked if we were "
Rosie's family." Guess we were her fan club also.

Last evening I went to see "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum." It was at the Union Colony Dinner theater and was the last of their fifth season. It was OK. It really didn't have any socially redeeming value, except that it was good for a laugh. I guess in this world, that is good. The company was fun, my friends the Zumbrums. The food was also OK. But the acting was wonderful. There is something about live theater done well that can't be beat, even if the material is marginal. Same for the music. It is just kind of an insult to see really great actors/ musicians doing a great job on crumby material. But it was an enjoyable evening.

"The Northern Clemency" by Philip Hensher was a long (over 600 p) about Enland in the 70's. It has great character development, something I really like in a book. It also told about life in England, but many of the characters could be anywhere. It told about two families who were neighbors and how their lives were affected by the times and each other. Probably this book would bore most people to sleep, but I like it.
Pantechnican-moving van

I better up date this blog, as someone actually read it.
I read "Blood print" by Kitty Sewell. It was branded a "psychological thriller" not my usual read, but it was set in two places, Key West and Bath, England. These are two places I have visited and I really enjoyed them. Therefore, I was interested to read about them. It actually was a very good read. The book talked about children given up for adoption, as well as Cuban culture.
A recommend for anyone actually reading this paragraph.

I am reading a very good historical novel "Figures in Silk" by Vanora Bennett. It is a historical novel set in the time of the ascension of Richard III to the throne of England. The author uses a lot of historical fact and people and included a good reading list.

While in Boston, I went to see the movie "The Soloist." It is about a man living on the street and his talent and his mental illness. I thought it was pretty good, and sensitive, but I didn't feel like I really learned anything I didn't already know. And what did the raccoons have to do with it?

The trip to Boston was Great, actually better than I thought. I saw all the history stuff (most of which has been turned into commercial enterprises like Starbucks) Harvard, Salem, Fenway Park, Boston Garden, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and enjoyed some live music called Barn Star at a restaurant called BeeHive.
Food in Boston is great, with lots of local sea food, but also a lot of international flare.
When we got home, I read a little book called "The Uncommon Reader" by Alan Bennett. It is a little book about how reading and then writing can change our lives and how we view others.

I am off to Boston for a few days, so I better finish writing about "Fieldwork" before I go.
The story ends tragically with a battle between two conflicting gods. My conclusion is: delving into other cultures can let you know about your self and others, but there are parts of us that we simply can't change.

More on the book FIELDWORK
My last entry I eluded to the fact that I had started to read this book. It has become a rather complicated story. It is a contrast, compare type story between two types of foreigners in Thailand. One group are Christian missionaries, who have been spread the work and word of the Christan god in Thailand for 4 generations and the other group are anthropologists studying the natiave people.
On page 257 is a quote, which I think so far is what the book is about. "unless we understood our own culture, we cannot understand ourselves-----and we simply cannot understand our culture from the inside." We cannot reach the wisdom of knowing ourselves unless we leave the narrow confinement of the customs, beliefs and prejudges into which we are born.
To me, that means we must expand ourselves, and not be afraid of going a little (or a lot farther) figuratively or literally.
This doesn't mean we need to reject our culture, but we should take a good look at it in an objective way.

Yeah, I am so happy. I have finished King Lear and related reading and have started "Fieldwork" by Mischa Berlinski. It is about an American living in Thailand, researching a story.
More on that later, but I want to quote something from this book.
As he looks at pictures of college professors who were linquists, he comments, " All the ghosts nod companionably. They know how diffiuclt it is to discipline oneself in the afterlife, now that time is no longer an issue and tenure is no longer guaranteed."
My comment on that is, I believe that is how retirement should be. We should not worry about tenure of any kind and should enjoy the time we have earned.

OK, so I finally finished reading King Lear. Then I read A Thousand Acres, by Jane Smiley. This book is based on King Lear, but in the current time, in the USA. It is set on a farm in the heartland of America in the 70's.
This book was really hard for me to read. Families are safe places that have to take you in no matter what, but they can also be exclusive to those on the fringe, like inlaws, meaning those married to children. And family members can be so mean to each other.
And much of it is based on what happens in childhood or old age. We should care for each other at those times, not try to grab for as much individual power and control at those times.
Anyway, I have had enough of King Lear and his daughters (may I saw three daughters). I am moving on the the story of Marconi, the inventor of the wireless. He was compulsive and weird, but not so mean.

King Lear: I had never read or seen King Lear. PBS advertised a showing, so I decided I would read it and then watch it. So I did. It is quit interesting, which I guess is a really stupid thing to say of a play that has been around for 400 years.
King Lear had three daughters. It is about his old age and the things that happened to him and the girls. It is also about his friend Gloucester, who had two sons, one legitimate and on illitimate. Talk about a TRAGEDY. It was so sad. Well I guess families can have problems.
Otherwise we had a major snowstorm and neither the garbage man nor the mailman showed up. I don't blame them. Carol

I had a very busy day, church this mornng, the gym, lunch with the girls, a trip to visit my aunt, tea with Patti, and then I picked up the car from the dealership and picked up dog food for Quince.
I wonder what I will be like if I make it to 93, like my aunt.

I am re-reading "Gone With the Wind." It is one of my favorite books and I am reading it with I HOPE new insight.
I was watching an old show on tape last evening. A news cast came on. Clinton was president and the DOW was around 6,600. Interesting.
I am starting to have flowers in the yard.
I want to finish all things important early in the week as I am superstitious about the Ides of March.

wow, it is March 1 and I am glad. Perhaps it is the end of "the winter of our discontent."
Last night I went to "Pops and Pasta" presented by the Greeley Choral. The did a song "senza catene" which I think is The Unchained Melody. beautiful

John Mortimer is dead. He was one of my favorite authors, as the creator of Horace Rumple of Rumple of the Baily. I didn't know much about Mr. Mortimer, but now I do. He was a lawyer himself, always taking the part of fighting for free speech and other social issues. He wrote fiction about this later. He was well know in England.
Another institution is tumbling.

Last evening I went to a program presented by the Greeley Museum on the history of water in Greeley. Now the element of interest in that to me is that the area of Greeley was a high plains desert but by irrigating it, the area became a really important agriculture area.
The fellow giving the program was an engineer. I think he was a water engineer and he works for the city. His movie was made by artists and he was a little concerned about that. He apologized for that before he started, which I thought was sort of interesting. The movie was pretty good with lots of photos and movies of old pick up trucks traveling down dusty roads at sunset and kids and animals playing in water.
His presentation was dry as dust. Here is what he told us. The city of Greeley's water has four parts 1) the infrastructure, pipes and stuff like that, 2) water itself, 3) storage including gravel pits and reservoirs and 4) conservation.
I guess water is very important. I know it is. It has been a way of life for many people, the people here, but also all over the world.

Yesterday I watched a couple of Saturday evening travel shows on PBS. One was on Edinburgh and one on Wales, both places I have visited. It brought back some nice memories and some new info I didn't have when I was there. But that is the fun of traveling, to expand your world.
Alexander McCall Smith writes a series about Edinburgh people. He also writes the Number 1 Ladies Detectives series, which I found out will be made into a TV series, beginning March 29 on HBO. I am very excited. The only problem is that, I don't get HBO. Maybe I can get the shows off of my computer. I have done that before.

And now I have spent another snowy day finishing another book "Fall of the Templer" by Robyn Young. I found it quit informative about the end of the Knights of the Templer, who had fought in the Crusades. It was a lot of intrigue and history, but I think I am a little tired of the Crusades. Now I need to tackle General Sherman and finish the book I have about him and his march to the sea in the Civil War. Carol

At last, I finished one of my books, "Miracle at Speedy Motors" by Alexander McCall Smith. I love his No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency Series. They always make me feel like there is still love and good in the world, and the books make me want to be a better and nicer person.
And it is off to the library today to recycle my used printer cartridge and pick up a new book. Now I just have three books to finish, until I pick up the new book and then it will four again.

So I went to the movies today. I saw "Coraline." I loved it. I think it too scary for anyone under 11, but maybe I am wrong. It is part Alice in Wonderland, part Wizard of Oz and little bit of Secret Garden. Yeah, 3D.

wow, I am in trouble. I started this thing to keep track of movies I see. Also to note books I read. I am now reading 4 books at a time. I need closure in my life. Oh, well, what the heck.
I got the brand new book from the library "The Knights Templer." I got this book when Amazon tried to sell it to me pre-publish, like, so I quickly ordered it from the library before they bought it. That means, I have it before anyone else. Yeah! But I really must read it so that I can get it back to the library because, I bet others want to read it.
So if I read 100 pages a day for 4 days, I will be doing so good, but I need to get busy. I am on page like 25 and it is 5pm. Carol
Word: piebald-different colors-spotted or blotched. Quince in piebald

stillwater

Hi. I like to read books and go to movies. I thought I could write me ideas about the books I read and the movies I see on this blog. If my friends are interested, they can see them, and it will be a record for me also.