![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
not exactly reviews
Nov. 29th, 2018 12:12 pmThis has been one of those mornings of hours-long neighborhood leaf blowers (9 AM until noon. I hope they don't come back after their lunch break). Possibly inspired by the idea, but now avoiding the noise, a different neighbor is raking. It would have made sense for me to get away from the noise pollution by leaving the house to do my Lexington Center errands, but I wasn't ready. I need to box up the toy for a dog acquaintance who is recovering from an attack before going to the PO. I also have several things to do at the library.
One of those library tasks is returning John Scalzi's "The Consuming Fire," second of the Interdependency series. I liked it a lot. The first book in the series, "The Collapsing Empire," was OK, but in many ways was just setting up for the second book. One of the things I found notable about it was the sex-positive bits throughout. I am aware of sexual activities, and participate in some, but I tend to skip pages in books or fast forward in videos when there is a sex scene. In this case, nothing is the slightest bit graphic, but sex is happening as part of daily life, approvingly. I think it's just the right amount for me - acknowledging existence of people's sex lives and the relevance of sex in some relationships (some of which are based on sex), but not telling us much about what went where. Like the old style of movies showing a visitor's shoes under the bed, but not what happened above shoe level.
I am still watching the TV show "A Million Little Things." It is supposedly set in the Boston area. From time to time there are brief establishing shots of places like the Zakim Bridge, or Joy Street, or a Bruins' game, but it's filmed in Vancouver. Aside from the Bruins fandom of some of the characters, there is no reason for it to be set in Boston. What was the thinking behind this? Last night, the newly separated guy was about to rent a two bedroom apartment near his son's school. We have seen the school before, and I think it's supposed to be in a well-off suburb. This character has mostly been a stay-at-home dad, who also gives guitar lessons. How in the world could he afford to rent the lovely place he was looking at? According to zillow, a place like the one he was viewing would be about $2500 a month, minimum. That's a lot of guitar lessons. Of course, he probably couldn't afford to live in Vancouver, either.
I was not/am not a fan of "Friends," but I understand that one of the objections many people had was the comfortable if quirky Manhattan housing of people who were not making much money. That was one of the good parts of the movie "One Fine Day" (1996). Michelle Pfeiffer played an architect. She and her daughter lived in a cramped one-bedroom apartment, with a tiny kitchen. She was presumably well-paid, but that was what they could afford in NYC.
Added, because I forgot earlier:
Last night I watched the last fifteen minutes of the new episode of "Vikings." (it has some actual historic or at least saga-attested characters, but is not based on any kind of reality otherwise). During the time Bishop Heahmund was talking to Aethelred, they were speaking in Old English. I understood a little of it, but the subtitle effect might have come into play.
One of those library tasks is returning John Scalzi's "The Consuming Fire," second of the Interdependency series. I liked it a lot. The first book in the series, "The Collapsing Empire," was OK, but in many ways was just setting up for the second book. One of the things I found notable about it was the sex-positive bits throughout. I am aware of sexual activities, and participate in some, but I tend to skip pages in books or fast forward in videos when there is a sex scene. In this case, nothing is the slightest bit graphic, but sex is happening as part of daily life, approvingly. I think it's just the right amount for me - acknowledging existence of people's sex lives and the relevance of sex in some relationships (some of which are based on sex), but not telling us much about what went where. Like the old style of movies showing a visitor's shoes under the bed, but not what happened above shoe level.
I am still watching the TV show "A Million Little Things." It is supposedly set in the Boston area. From time to time there are brief establishing shots of places like the Zakim Bridge, or Joy Street, or a Bruins' game, but it's filmed in Vancouver. Aside from the Bruins fandom of some of the characters, there is no reason for it to be set in Boston. What was the thinking behind this? Last night, the newly separated guy was about to rent a two bedroom apartment near his son's school. We have seen the school before, and I think it's supposed to be in a well-off suburb. This character has mostly been a stay-at-home dad, who also gives guitar lessons. How in the world could he afford to rent the lovely place he was looking at? According to zillow, a place like the one he was viewing would be about $2500 a month, minimum. That's a lot of guitar lessons. Of course, he probably couldn't afford to live in Vancouver, either.
I was not/am not a fan of "Friends," but I understand that one of the objections many people had was the comfortable if quirky Manhattan housing of people who were not making much money. That was one of the good parts of the movie "One Fine Day" (1996). Michelle Pfeiffer played an architect. She and her daughter lived in a cramped one-bedroom apartment, with a tiny kitchen. She was presumably well-paid, but that was what they could afford in NYC.
Added, because I forgot earlier:
Last night I watched the last fifteen minutes of the new episode of "Vikings." (it has some actual historic or at least saga-attested characters, but is not based on any kind of reality otherwise). During the time Bishop Heahmund was talking to Aethelred, they were speaking in Old English. I understood a little of it, but the subtitle effect might have come into play.
