Battleship – the movie

MrC chose it…I wasn’t expecting much, but it was fun. And what wasn’t to enjoy… LiamNeilson, AlexanderSkarsagr, Rihanna, AC/DC “Thunderstruck”, littleleaguebaseball, romance, US Navy, aliens, explosions, “FortunateSon”, USS Missouri, actual military veterans in a film, …did I mention explosions?

recently snow

A bit before Xmas we had some snow… that night me, MrC and MsS went to local park and made a snowperson. Later, me and MrG went to kick the soccer ball around in the snow.

“Avatar 2” and “Hustle”

last week, watched two movies that MrG chose.

Family movie night, he chose “Hustle” – Adam Sandler plays down-on-his-luck NBA scout. It was alright.

Yesterday, we went to see “Avatar 2” – which was beautiful, but was long. It was alright.

Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy 2021

Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy 2021, edited by Veronica Roth.

This series is so very good. Of the twenty stories, my favorites were:

• “Tiger’s Feast” – KT Bryski, great hook of an opening line “Every day after school, Emmy feeds the tiger with her sin.”
• “Crawlfather” – Mel Kassel, a coming of age, family hunting tradition, horror
• “Our Language” – Yohanca Delgado, transformation story.
• “And This Is How to Stay Alive” – Shingai Njeri Kagunda, new perspective on time/story. The pasts stretch out from now. Difficult to explain.
• “The Beast Adjoins” – Ted Kosmatka, a parent tries to keep their child alive from hunting robots.
• “The Long Walk” – Kate Elliot, forty pages, bit longer than I was expecting but beautiful world building. Ends with “What if I want wings?”
• “One Time, a Reluctant Traveler” – A. T. Greenblatt…is about stories…
• “Skipping Stones in the Dark” – Amman Sabet… computer, that runs the spacecraft that has last remnants of humanity, tries to teach a teen a lesson.
• “The Plague Doctors” – Karen Lord. Title says it all.
• “Two Truths and a Lie” – Sarah Pinsker, remembering a scary TV show
• “Brother Rifle” – Daryl Gregory, marine vet deals with brain damage

A Psalm for the Wild Built

A Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers was a quick fun read. I picked it up because it has a robot and a monk as the main characters.

Prey

Prey is a coming of age movie, about a girl and her dog, her relationship with her brother, and where she fits in society.

AND I WISH I HAD SEEN IT ON THE BIG SCREEN!!! Dude, I assume it would’ve been beautiful, with the backdrop of Alberta landscape. Allegedly much filming happened during “the golden hour” and would have been beautiful on the big screen. And the action, sure would be nice to see in a theatre. Grumble.

Fun movie. I recommend. I’ll watch again, but next time in Comanche!

Tchaikovsky and the Blue Angels

the other day, MrC’s BFF’s mom asked “when did MrC get interested in planes?” I’m not really sure, within the past year. This year…

• when visiting NYC, we convinced the fam to visit the Intrepid, he and I had to be dragged out.
• when visiting the in-laws at start of the summer, ( their cousin-Mo’s baby-shower…maybe born, and OMG she is so beautiful and cute!!!) MrC and I convinced our fam to go to the Heritage Flight Museum in Spokane. He and I had lots of fun looking at all the WW2 era planes. We even got to sit in cockpit and nose gunner seat for a B-25.
• Visiting CWU flight training airport, and an instructor showed MrC around a couple of planes, while his siblings sulked.
• Future of Flight in Everett last week, he wasn’t too gripped by it, but the flight deck had a good view, but not many flights on a Sunday. He wanted to buy some models, but decided they are kinda pricey.
• today, he and I went to SeaFair to watch the airshow. Got their early, and had good spot at Seward Park. We enjoyed.

I ever tell you about when playing in the Youth Symphony we played Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture”? It was a fun piece to play, end of the season, we were on. AND… the conductor got a shotgun for our lead percussionist. ( “Shotgun will sound much more like a cannon than a rifle would.”) We didn’t rehearse with the shotgun, so we in the orchestra jumped every time it was fired, but we were on, we knew when the “booms” would happen, and played on, rockin’ it. Funny thing, evidently the shotgun blasts set off the alarm next door and the police showed up.

Pyotr knew the importance of powerful noise. Impresses the audience.

• The F-35 was LOUD. Feel it in your chest as it flies past, loud.
• The BlueAngels were Loud, and impressive with the synchronized formations.

Best American Short Stories 2016

I liked the following

• “The Great Silence” – Ted Chiang, from the point of view of a parrot
• “The Flower” – Louise Erdrich
• “Cold Little Bird” – Ben Marcus, a young boy decides he doesn’t love his parents
• “The Prospectors” – Karen Russell, previously read in her collection Orange World & Other Stories

Nope

Beautiful, great music (Michael Abels), great acting, fun story. I recommend.

I don’t know if it was scary…which makes me nervous, because in all likelihood seven weeks from now I will remember a scene from the movie and be absolutely terrified. Which is what happened after I saw “US”, not so scary that night, but later…

The Memory Police – Yoko Ogawa

….recently walked into a local bookstore in Spokane, the proprietor asked if she could help, I replied “I love Kelly Barnhill” and left with three recommended books… The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa, (pub 2019) was one of them.

Not really my cup of tea.