You know it’s going to be a hot day when it’s 85° at 8 a.m. The weekend was typical Texas summertime hot, too, but I didn’t mind that too much. What I did mind were these flies that appeared, thick as thieves, any time we had anything that looked or smelled like food (or alcohol, these flies seemed to be lushes) in the back yard. I’m not sure exactly what they are. If I was back in Canada where I grew up, I’d call them house flies, except they’re not in the house here, only outside. They don’t seem to bite, so they aren’t horse flies, which I remember as being larger, anyway.
We watched a couple of movies this weekend. First up was Dan in Real Life with Steve Carell and Juliette Binoche. Also John Mahoney (the guy who played Frasier’s father on Frasier) and Diane Wiest. I’m not a big Carell fan, but this film I liked. It’s about a widower with three daughters going to the annual family get-together. On his first day there, he meets an interesting woman in the bookstore (Binoche) only to discover an hour later that she’s his brother’s new girlfriend. Much awkwardness ensues. It’s a sweet family dramedy. If you want to see the very definition of an actor putting himself out there as vulnerable, wait for the scene where Carell plays the guitar and sings late in the film.
Yesterday we saw Atonement, which has a lot going for it. It’s the sort of movie where you sit down at the end and discuss what was real and what was fabrication. If we believe the story to be a retelling in the voice of a much older Briony, how much of it was real and how much wishful thinking? Even the scene in the library, for example? The war scene went on a tad too long for my tastes, but it featured another of those terrific extended camera shots that seemed to go on for five minutes, like the one during the dance scene in Pride and Prejudice. I read the novel shortly after it came out, and it compares well to the source material.
I watched the episode of Fear Itself “Sacrifice” from last Thursday, based on a Del Howison short story, and thought it was quite well done. Nicely shot, nicely acted, creepy, moody and tense. Hope the show keeps up the good work.
I’ve been bitten by the genealogy bug. I’ve been extending the known branches of the Vincent family tree, and have managed to add a few limbs and leaves here and there. I’ve learned a lot more about the famed Panormo luthiers in the process. I’m pretty sure that it is George, son of Vincenzo, who is in my direct line, and not his son George Lewis, based on the dates. Every time I find another document or fill in another blank, it feels like I’ve uncovered another clue in a great mystery.
Speaking of mysteries, I’m reading Still Waters by Nigel McCrery. The main character, a DCI, has an unusual condition called synaesthesia, which means that he tastes sounds, often disruptively. (He was driving once when a Beatles tune came on the radio and he almost crashed because the sound made him taste rancid meat. (Reminds me of my own story, “The Smell of Fear” from Corpse Blossoms. The DCI has been off on extended leave because he couldn’t work in the office any more, and his condition’s sudden worsening broke up his family because the noise was driving him bonkers. The mystery in this case involves a body accidentally disinterred when a reckless driver crashed in the woods. The elderly victim had been in the ground for the better part of a year, and the fingers of one hand had been lopped off with shears. Alternate chapters tell the story of the killer, a woman who preys on elderly, lonely women and assumes their identities. Pretty good, so far. Due out in July from Pantheon.
