Cross Town Thoughts
A fight for the working class has emerged with dueling barn-burners yesterday. Trump v. Bernie. Queens v. Brooklyn. FOX v. MSNBC & CNN. Both targeting class rather than party affiliation. This will be the most clear cut battle in the 2020 campaign. On the same rural lawn.
– Hatfield, Massachusetts 2016
Meanwhile best SNL in a long time. Hader with the see-through white Jim Jordan shirt spot on. Stiller as Cohen New York perfection. John Mulaney funny and smart. Well done fun.
A tilt in the winter air. Lunar eclipse could be seen by West Siders on a clear night. Yet. Nothing seems right.
Super Bowl teams decided by a bad call and a coin toss. HBO’s excellent Brexit with Benedict Cumberbatch sheds chilling light on what happened both there and here in 2016. The Mercer’s and Cambridge Analytica are responsible for it all. Steve Bannon, too. A must see.
True Detective music. Season three.
NFL Conference Playoffs set. Youth be served. Mahomes at 22 and McVay at 32. Yet. The experience of Belichick and Brady and their arsenal cannot be denied. The Pats look as sharp as they’ve ever been.
Ray Donovan’s season finale took on a grisly Fargo-esque end. Chainsaws and shovels were involved. Bridget earned her place in the family. Vengeances dealt. Rule of play. Never mess with Ray’s kids.
William Barr takes questions in his confirmation hearing to become AG in a most crucial time. He seems a perfect QB for the DOJ of today.
The final season of House of Cards is a pathetic celebration of stereotypes. With a little ridiculousness added. Claire Hale Underwood. The first woman President schemes to become Vice President before she inherits the job from a complicit murder of Frank Underwood, her President husband. Then she spars with her bff mean-girl rival born of old prep school jealousies. Random. Lame. Finally. She becomes hormonally psychotic in the Oval Office. Even Hillary seems sane compared to this. Sorry feminists. Claire makes you all look so bad! Sad.
Robin Wright v. Diane Lane. The latter better in The Romanoffs.
Here’s to all the UWS sufferers who lose parking spaces for the sake of TV shows. Amy Sherman Palladino gave you your due (Dr. Husband).
She acknowledged those who make the frequent sacrifice on tonight’s Emmy’s. Her brilliant Amazon Marvelous Mrs. Maisel was the street sweeper. A blinking light in an otherwise dismally dim show.
Killing Eve robbed. SNL loser. But. Yay. Henry Winkler. Peter Dinklage. Claire Foy. Bill Hader. Game of Thrones.
– Photo: Rachel Brosnahan voting in character on West 84th. September 13. West Side Rag.
Killing Eve. BBC America’s mesmerizingly unique love story. Assassin pursued by a British agent. Vice-versa. To dub this a feminist trope would be soul-less and silly at best. It’s an intimate sensuous cold look at raw characters. Sandra Oh. Jodie Comer. Acting, writing uncannily different. In a similar spirit, HBO’s Barry has an edgy ensemble, with laugh-out-loud Russian caricatures. Violent. Ironic. Startling. Jaundiced. Captivating. Both. Must see.
Warlight. A new novel by the brilliant author Michael Ondaatdje. Not as good as one of my all-time favorites The Cat’s Table, 2011. His table metaphors continue, nonetheless. It is a melodic poetic post-WWII tale of a boy abandoned by his parents and left to the care of loving Dickensian rascals. His mother, Rose, worked with one of them on the roof of the Grosvenor House Hotel in London during the war, intercepting enemy communications.
Mansour Ghalibaf of the Hotel Northampton in Table’s Edge, happened to be partner with owners of the Grosvenor House consortium, descendants from those days. As an aside.
Trump
Petulant Adolescent President
TTSD (Traumatic Trump Stress Disorder) worsens
Investigations
Comey’s covert agenda
Media overreach
Russia obsession
Democrats
Shallow bench
Lack of message
Sexual Perps
Reining men
Politicizing harassment
Weather
Snowflakes against free speech
Hurricanes & Fires
Television
Twin Peaks redux sucked
Sports
NFL violence cripples players & loses fans
Covfefe
Pets overrunning public places
GOOD
Dr. Husband’s great photos every year
TV–
Schitt’s Creek
Big Little Lies
October on the Forks
Lots of Fun Theater-
Liev Schreiber- Les Liaisons Dangereuses
Cate Blanchett- The Present
Amy Schumer- Meteor Shower
Uma Thurman- The Parisian Woman, liaisons undangerous
Mark Rylance in Farinelli & the King
BAD
Petulant Adolescent President
Media’s Russia obsession
Democrats shallow bench & lack of message
Snowflakes against free speech
Hurricanes & Fires
Twin Peaks redux sucked
Pets overrunning public places
Sinterklaas Eve. Dutch tradition. December 5th. Putting carrots out for Sint Niklaas so he will fill the wooden shoes with candy for the children. No chimneys involved. Nor toys. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could leave it at that? Done! Kids can get toys & games all year long now anyway. On Amazon. Not only is bricks & mortar retail on its last gasp. So soon is consumer Christmas! Back to families, carols & food. Yay.
Larry David & Lin Manuel Miranda’s Fatwa! the Musical. Please. Broadway!
btw Deutsche Bank isn’t Dutch.
9 hours of Stranger Things. An allegorical sci-fi thriller with an exorcism thrown in. Kids are good actors. Weekend diversion. Another season assured. Follow the Three Musketeers wrapper to Dustin’s buddy d’Artagnan crashing an upside down Snow Ball dance. Now-memories.
Downside up. As discussed, the #MeToo movement may have unintended consequences. Sheryl Sandberg agrees. Men may eschew women in the workplace. Dating done?
Upside. Claire Underwood lives! House of Cards continues. Frank killed off?!
And. Christiane Amanpour. Replacing Charlie Rose on PBS.
Holiday photo by G. Levine: Shelburne Centre, Western Massachusetts.
Side Trek . NYC 