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BlackberryJam

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    S21.E07: Sausage Race

    in Top Chef

    4 hours ago, dleighg said:

    I can't help but think of the infamous challenge at some ballpark where Jamie managed to avoid serving her disaster of a dish and lived to see another day.

    Oh yeah...she practically hid to avoid having to serve a dish. 

    • Like 1
    • Angry 1

    Cozy Mysteries: Plucky Heroine Moves Home and Finds Body

    in Books

    12 minutes ago, sugarbaker design said:

    Well, the plots are weak, and the villains one-note, but Barr writes beautifully about nature.  YMMV.

    What's a MC?

    Barr's descriptions are great. She does great scenery. Anna's internal monologue is just annoying. I'll keep reading them though.

    MC = Main Character. Sorry. 

    Just started The Princess of Las Vegas by Chris Bohjalian. It's about a Princess Di impersonator with a residency in Vegas and the hotel co-owner gets murdered. So...kinda ridiculous, but why not? It's a beautiful day for an audiobook. 

    • Thanks 1

    Cozy Mysteries: Plucky Heroine Moves Home and Finds Body

    in Books

    27 minutes ago, blackwing said:

    I just finished the latest Jane Wunderley as well.  I didn't like the Scottish island setting as much as I did the settings of the previous books, but overall it was still well done.

    Just finished the third Gethsemane book.  Since there's only five, I've been pacing myself.  I thought I read somewhere some pages and pages back that the author is working on a new one.  Or am I making that up?

    I'm curious as to where the next Benjamin Stevenson book will take place.  On a cruise ship?

    The only Door County mystery I read was the first book in the series by Patricia Skalka.  I've been to Door county a handful of times and I remember thinking that her book could have been set anywhere, I thought she didn't use the location well at all.  She seemed to avoid actual recognisable place names like the names of restaurants or shops.  I've often wondered if I should give her another chance.

    But I've not heard of any Door County mystery by Annelise Ryan.  Will have to check that one out.

    I was tired of hearing Jane complain about Scotland. Yes, it's cold and windy. We get it. 

    I plowed through the Gethsemane books before I knew they were ending. I hope the author is writing more, but I haven't seen her active on SM or goodreads since 2022. Bummer.

    The Benjamin Stevenson books seem like they'd have a limit. Ski resort, train, maybe cruise ship is next. Then what? Also, I suspect Ernest will get on my nerves.

    Here is the blurb on the Ryan, Monster Hunter/Door County mysteries.

    Quote

    Morgan Carter, owner of the Odds and Ends bookstore in Door County, Wisconsin, has a hobby. When she's not tending the store, she's hunting cryptids--creatures whose existence is rumored, but never proven to be real. It's a hobby that cost her parents their lives, but one she'll never give up on.

    So when a number of bodies turn up on the shores of Lake Michigan with injuries that look like bites from a giant unknown animal, police chief Jon Flanders turns to Morgan for help. A skeptic at heart, Morgan can't turn down the opportunity to find proof of an entity whose existence she can't definitively rule out. She and her beloved rescue dog, Newt, journey to the Death's Door strait to hunt for a homicidal monster in the lake--but if they're not careful, they just might be its next victims.

    So the first one was a Loch Ness-type monster. The second deals with Bigfoot. They aren't supernatural mysteries though. More, "murderers hiding their murders by making people think..." but still leaving open the possibility of the existence of the monsters. I think the MC does a good job of debunking myths while still being hopeful. I also like the fact that she's not pushed around by her family and isn't poor and being saved by a male lead.

    I might try the Skalka books, because I'm always looking for a new series.

    I had been reading the Anna Pigeon books because the National Park settings are great, but the writing is weak and just how many times can scrappy Anna physically beat the bad guy? Ugh.

    I DO NOT recommend I Only Read Murder by the Ferguson Brothers. Just a horrific MC. 

     

    What Are We Currently Reading?

    in Books

    Books I’ve read lately:

    What Happened to Nina? By Dervia McTiernan. I have some feelings about this, but I’m not sure I enjoyed it. A bit of a condemnation of wealth, the use of social media, and true crime obsessions laid over a boring murder.

    Amina Akhtar books. Kismet. Not a cozy. Very weird. Multiple POVs, including the POV of a flock of ravens. So…weird. But in a good way. Enjoyed it and recommend. There is another, Almost Surely Dead, not a sequel, which really leans into the obsession with true crime, but I didn’t feel like the ending resolved that. 

    Family Reservations by Liz Palmer. An interesting book about family dynamics and horrible parenting. Three daughters of a super successful chef who have always been pitted against each other. There are a couple characters in the beginning that I wanted more of, and they just got dropped. This is one of those books where I can’t recall any male characters, which is kind of nice.

    A Season of Monstrous Conceptions by Lina Rather. I love this author. I guess this book is queer, feminist, historical, science fiction. Maybe? Main character is a midwife in training. Many women are giving birth to children with tails and other “deformities.” 

     

    • Like 2

    Cozy Mysteries: Plucky Heroine Moves Home and Finds Body

    in Books

    @blackwing

    We read a lot of the same books. I just finished the latest Jane Wunderly, love the Gethsemane Brown books, and have made the Anthony Slayton books a purchase and not just wait from the library.

    I enjoyed the second Benjamin Stevenson, Everyone On This Train Is A Suspect, more than the first. Still not great, but enjoyable.

    The Launch Party  by Lauren Forry had a lot of enormous plot holes. I mean, if you’re going to put a mystery on the moon, research the science.

    I am enjoying the Door County mysteries by Annelise Ryan. The sleuth is a cryptid hunter, which is interesting. Really good use of the Wisconsin setting.

    I am recommending Mark De Castrique series, starting with Secret Lives. The protagonist is Ethel Crestwater, a septuagenarian retired FBI agent who runs a boarding house. It’s a bit of a spy series crossed over with mystery.

    I enjoyed The Busy Body by Kemper Donovan which is thinly disguised Hillary Clinton solves a murder fanfic. 

    • Like 1

    S21.E06: Chaos Cuisine

    in Top Chef

    I get that the challenge was confusing, but neither of them made good food, and that's the real sin. There were a couple of dishes that the judges called too safe, but those people weren't up for elimination. I think grace for not understanding the challenge was definitely given. Michelle was up for a food that didn't taste good and pork that was poorly cooked. Rasika was up because her food was flavorless with a gross texture. Neither of them was up for elimination because their food didn't fit the challenge. 

    • Like 21
    • Love 1

    S21.E06: Chaos Cuisine

    in Top Chef

    26 minutes ago, Suzn said:

    Add to that - it was an ugly plate of food.

    It looked like a slab of blubber on top of whipped cream. Really unappetizing. 

    • Like 10
    • Applause 1

    S21.E06: Chaos Cuisine

    in Top Chef

    · Edited by BlackberryJam

    I haven't really been wowed by the food except really Michelle's and...Soo's. His LCK food looked amazing. I know Rasika was doing well, but I felt no mouth-watering hunger looking at the things she made. That makes it hard for me to care that she's gone. 

    I don't know if it's the chefs or a change in production, but the food just doesn't sound incredible and amazing when they describe it. I used to watch TC episodes and just crave the food. That's not happening in the same way this season. The LCK food has looked so much better to me. 

    • Like 7

    Season 21: Last Chance Kitchen

    in Top Chef

    Doesn't Soo have a Michelin star? It may be rigged for him to get in, but damn if he isn't a ringer. At this point, Michelle and Soo are my favorites. I like the Power Bottoms, but their cooking hasn't risen to the level of their cuteness. I also think Rasika is making good food, but I'm not excited about what she makes. 

    • Like 4

    Season 21: Last Chance Kitchen

    in Top Chef

    On 4/7/2024 at 10:40 AM, HappyDancex2 said:

    It’s hard for me to get behind a guy who gets in from LCK since he’s not subject to 5 weeks of the regular competition.  If he loses before that then the actual cheftestants will never know he existed which would seem odd.  They would be out plotting their own plot twist.  He’s schroedingers chef LOL.

     

    If the first contestant eliminated made it all the way through LCK and got back into the show, then they would have only competed in one quick fire and one elimination challenge prior to coming back in. So he's not missing 5 weeks of competition, he's only missing one.

    I understand feeling like he's a ringer which he might be. However, the person coming in isn't going to have participated in 5 elminations and 5 quick fires, unless the person that comes back in is the one most recently eliminated.

    • Like 6

    Season 21: Last Chance Kitchen

    in Top Chef

    I don't care about David or why he's not there. I'm just thrilled he's the fuck off my TV.

    I'm pretty excited about Soo. Valentine was totally out of his league on the show. He seems like a good chef, and a nice guy even though he has this perpetually confused/shocked look on his face, but the time/ingredient constraints are not a format where he was going to shine.

    Kenny's egg pizza looked revolting, and I really like Limburger. I thought Soo's eggplant looked so amazing that I ordered eggplant parm for dinner last night. Too bad it didn't have that sharpness Limburger would have given it. 

    I think Soo's real advantage is that he isn't coming off an exhausting QF and EC challenge and being thrown into something else, but that's always an advantage for the incumbent on LCK.

    • Like 13

    Season 4?

    in Blown Away

    I finished the season and loved it. 

    I liked Arthur’s personality so much, but he was clearly cannon fodder. His had no where near the skill of the other artists. I also enjoyed him staying over, “I’m going to just ignore the brief and do my think and I should stay because I am the best” guy who made the smoke/skid mark.

    I loved both final installations, but one was clearly more modern and moving the medium forward. 

    • Like 2

    The 96th Academy Awards

    in The Academy Awards (aka The Oscars)

    LV should be shamed for eternity for the poorly sewn zipper in Emma Stone’s dress. I wanted a Lily Gladstone win.

    I am beginning to despise hosts knocking the honorees. People loved the 5 presenters system for the acting awards for a reason: they were beautiful tributes to the nominees. Much of the Oscars is a bunch of super pretty rich people patting themselves on the back. We get it. How about lean into it and talk about the good rather than the host ripping on people for 15 minutes? It’s a waste of time that could be used for the technical and behind the scenes award winners to give speeches. They’ve earned their moments. 

    • Like 1

    Dune: Part Two (2023)

    in Movies

    Discussion of book differences.

    Spoiler

    I get why the Spacing Guild and Guild Navigators were cut because it’s so tough to visualize, but damn, I love me some freaky mutant space folders.

    I love Charlotte Rampling and she had me even behind that veil.

    Rebecca Ferguson was excellent. Love her! Zendaya‘s best scenes were with Josh Brolin. 
     

    Not an Austin Butler fan after Elvis, but he was a revelation in this. He completely steered into the freaky and owned. I can see a supporting actor nomination for him. Those scenes on on Giedi Prime were amazing.

    This film was an achievement.
     

    • Like 3
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