aghst

Didn't they get married recently?

I recently watched The Best of Youth, which explores the lives of two Italian brothers and their families over a 40 year period, from the mid '60s to the early 2000s. It feels in many ways like My Brilliant Friend or rather, it may be possible that the directors and writers of MBF were influenced by The Best of Youth, which won all kinds of awards when it came out in 2003. It's a 6-hour movie but I believe it was broadcast on Italian TV as a mini series. Maybe it's just to American viewers that two different Italian works seem similar. Well MBF has just started covering the era that The Best of Youth starts with but the main characters in the latter are from a middle-class family. The brothers are finishing up university when the film opens yet they end up pursuing rather modest careers for reasons that are shown in the movie. It also happens to feature some precocious young actresses, who had to carry close-up shots and show hurt and other emotions. Highly recommended while waiting for season 3 of MBF. It's hard to get at but there are DVDs (ridiculously expensive on Amazon) but my local public library had them.

The first village though was like 40 minutes away? With kids, they'd want space and they don't want a noisy city center anyways. Probably all for show. But why was the realtor taking a separate car than the couple and they were on speakerphone? I would have said maybe it's during the pandemic but would have been difficult for the couple to fly to the UK, though if the husband had a job there and documentation, maybe he would have been allowed in.

BTW, I mentioned they should be allowed to use phones to navigate. So on the food delivery task, they give them two phones but instead of using a navigation app themselves, they had to be given directions by an operation, who was using a navigation app! Not much of a mission. It would have been tough to use GPS even if they had it, being in an unfamiliar city with names of places probably difficult for them to enter correctly.

Bangles thing had to be luck of the draw right? Or maybe Gary and DeAngelo just aren't as strong. So all the Yields are 20 minutes? I thought there were a few 20-minutes but most of them were 10-minutes. In any case, that second yield didn't really matter because the fifth team was almost done or already done by the time that yield ran out. They don't show how long the blond spent on the place settings but there's probably a learning curve. The beards say they like boyfriends and Asian couple the best, hanging out with them. If that's really true, that's a dumb reason to for that alliance. They'd be better off trying to eliminate what they see as their strongest competitors. The brother and sister are the worst of the remaining 5 teams. Then the fourth team is probably Gary and DeAngelo or Hung and Chee. So the beards should have tried to eliminate the boyfriends and Hung and Chee or Gary and DeAngelo. Then in the last three, they'd be way superior to the brother and sister and Hung and Chee or Gary and DeAngelo. Unfortunately the most despicable team is probably going to win it all, the boyfriends. Blonds as usual smiled throughout and still enjoyed their race.

Essex, UK — young couple moving to England. The wife talks about losing her young brother and that loss being impetus to make this move. That makes at least 3 episodes in this new batch of episodes in which the house hunters reference loss of family or loved ones as a reason for them to move abroad. Or family members going through a serious illness or injury. Or supposedly escaping death in a big tsunami as was the case with one couple. Is this going to be a new HHI trope now, like wanting kids to be exposed to the world or wanting to travel? I’m sure the hunters are being genuine when they show pictures of their lost loved ones and talk about them but maybe the producers are prodding them or encouraging them to come up with reasons for why they’re making a big life-changing move and they cite examples including loss of loved ones. She talks about it a lot more than the other house hunters and it seemed heartfelt so maybe that really drove her than other reasons. FOr a change it’s the husband who wants a home with charm. He must have lost the coin flip. None of the choices seemed great give their wants and budget. Maybe that little dog is going to have to deal with the gravel or she will walk it in the cemetery, though the loved ones of those interred there might object to the dog trodding on the graves and sniffing around the headstones or worse.

If they had family there it might make sense, though I think dad was planning to work at Boston hours so Spain would be 6 or 7 hours ahead. That would mean he would be working from around 2 to 10 or 11 PM in Spain. Or maybe he would have to be available during those times for phone conferences and email exchanges. Egypt would be 3 or 4 more hours further ahead. Maybe the wife was really that serious about being able to see the Alhambra. Granada is great though, as good as or better than any other Spanish or even European city. The bars there, you order one drink and you get a free tapa. It's not as varied or the choice of gourmets as the tapa scene in San Sebastian but it's a great place to visit. Only thing is it gets cold there in the winter but that means you see the snow-capped Sierras in the background when you look at the Alhambra from panoramic points in the Albicin.

Harper takes a little initiative and causes a rampage on the trading floor, which is under pressure after losing a major client. But she makes a crucial save when the client won’t go for her idea so she comes up with some FX trade that he goes for. That placates Eric because he doesn’t care as long as they make money. Yasmin also tries to take initiative but becomes a pawn in a turf war. Wining and dining a client is one thing but now Richard and Gus has to get Usman, the protege of the client, laid too? The grads have been put in situations where there are sexual transactions involved on more than one occasion. They no doubt get paid well and have a chance to be on a path to make a lot of money but it seems to be no different from other high-pressure sales jobs. Any minute now, you expect Eric to channel Alec Baldwin screaming about coffee privileges. This is a group of “grads” so they don’t seem to be in relationships or in love. Harper certainly isn’t looking for anything special with “Will Hunt,” just the first of a parade of uncut dicks or that seems to be her plan at least. Girl is ambitious but she also has her needs. Yasmin is living with a guy but she’s playing games with Richard, who seems to be into her but isn’t going to wait around for her if there’s a hookup available. Maybe Gus and Theo are catching feelings after starting out as hookup buddies, maybe since their days as school mates.

According to Google Maps these Gardens are nowhere near Oxford?

The beach picnic is a staple of the BD shows, just to show the cast dealing with a pointless task. Kind of like teams on The Apprentice setting up a lemonade stand, though I've never watched that show. I doubt the guests cared about going to the beach at all. They would have been content to eat on the yacht and then sit in the jacuzzi by the looks of them. They got so hungry from waiting that they wolfed their food down and wanted to go back as soon as they could. But the goal seems to be to make certain members of the crew look bad so they can be dressed down and told to shape up or they will be shipped out. They did miss a lot of things. You'd think they'd have a list to go over before packing the boat. But some of the things are stupid like the sunscreen. You'd think the kids would have applied that on themselves already though they could stay away from the sun on the yacht and they did have that tent over the table. So the stewardesses forgot the sunscreen but they packed the golf clubs and balls? That beach wasn't even that great anyways. I think the views from the yacht were better, not to mention the tables and chairs were probably more comfortable. The charter guests are suppose to be paying all this money to be on a luxurious super yacht and they really wanted to eat on some beach sitting on rickety chairs instead? BD needs to give up this fiction.

I’m still not clear how Mrs. Coulter can be openly defiant of McPhail and the Magesterium. She implied blackmail I suppose, since McPhail had a key role in letting the previous Cardinal die. What power does she have though? She was responsible for that lab to separate children from their daemons so she’s interested in some of the same things Asriel was interested in. Not clear where Boreal fits into all this. He works for the Magesterium yet he’s traveling in between the two worlds regularly and neither Coulter nor the Magesterium knows. Certainly not Macphail either, because the Magesterium wants to suppress everything about dust and about alternate worlds. So what’s his agenda, other than to try to find his Will’s father traveled through worlds? He had a shit-eating grin as he asked Coulter about her daughter after he had met “Lizzie” at our Oxford — which looks glorious. The witches watched the airships bombard their world. They can fly around and zip like the Flash around and through men. So why didn’t they at least attack the airships? How is it that Will didn’t even know his grandparents exist? His parents must have been estranged from them. They seem to have been fed misinformation by Boreal’s henchman posing as a cop. Grandfather was already cynical about why Will would go see them — and Will was preoccupied about getting access to funds. Grandmother wanted what was good for Will but she also had been misled. Lyra could have really blown Mary Malone’s mind by introducing her to Pan.

Yeah the other house made way more practical sense. The Albicin is on a hill opposite the Granada, which is on a different hill. It has very narrow streets or more like alley ways so difficult to have a car to go to and return from the main city. If they have to walk down to school or the markets or whatever and then walk back up, especially in the summer, it could get old. I think many residents own scooters up there. There was an older episode in Granada where one of the choices was well away from the city center but had stupendous views below — no views of the Alhambra but still beautiful. But they’d need a car and would probably need to drive the kids to school. Beautiful city but they could raise their children as Muslims in the US just as well. In fact some would say that Muslims are better integrated and better treated in the US than in many European countries. There is not so covert discrimination vs. Muslims there. Kids sounded so Americanized, maybe they will miss their friends and classmates after the initial excitement of moving away from the only life they’d known.

Maybe she realized she didn’t have to go to a cafe every day. Or you can only go to the museums so many times. Yeah they might have kept their CA property because if they sold it, they can certainly afford way more than $1600 a month. The more ambitious Americans with money go buy up farms in the Tuscan countryside. But regardless of how much they could afford, it’s a good way to dip their toes and see how they like living there without a huge commitment. They could have waited until their son was older or at least out of high school.

Utah family going to Qingdao, China, seemed like a real move. The couple had fond memories spending time in China during college and she referred to living long term there. She also said she wanted her daughters to experience diversity, which they didn’t experience themselves growing up in Utah. But probably a lot of it is based on what’s good for the husband’s career, which may have been a primary reason for the move. She was batting down all his complaints about the long commute and told him to get over it, it was 3 vs. 1. The girls were adorable with each other.

Bologna is really known for food. Well all of Italy is but they should budget for going out. Ferrari is in nearby Modena but Parma is nearby, though you can get prosciutto and Parmesano reggiano everywhere. I think you can get to a lot of cool places within a 1-2 hour train ride, though she probably wouldn’t want to take those day trips without her bf/fiancé. They showed the arcades but that’s also a big attraction there. Prosecco is much better known but Lambrusco is a nice sparkling wine there.

Shows the kind of seedy underworld of London, taking place largely in some casino. Not the glamorous London or tourist brochures or the historic London but some random casino, which is nothing like Monte Carlo. Briefly the Jack character goes to a big department store to meet his gf Marion or comes out of a Tube station at Picadilly Circus. Initially Jack takes on the croupier job recommended by his father who's back in South Africa in order to have material for writing a novel. He sets out to absorb, make some money so he can help pay the bills, plans to observe all the rules imposed on him by his boss. But almost immediately, he sees that other dealers don't bother with the rules, such as not talking to punters, not socializing with other dealers, not gambling. One of his co-workers undresses right in front of him in the dressing room -- how is it that it's a co-ed dressing room and it's mostly meant for dealers to change into their uniforms, not strip down? Jack decides that Matt, who steals from the casino, gambles and fraternizes with one of the regular customers, would be the model for his novel because Matt's credo is that he wants to "fuck over everyone." Marion, the gf, is a former cop who's a department store detective. She doesn't want Jack to work at the seedy casino so he promises to quit soon. He calls her his conscience. But apparently not so passionate about her as he just grabs Bella, the other dealer who undressed in front of him, and sleeps with her. Then he starts seeing Jani, whom he recognizes as a savvy gambler, after she keeps trying to come on to him. They don't sleep with each other but she parades in front of him naked then later tells him she's in trouble with "creditors" who will hurt her if he doesn't help her stage a robbery at the casino. Jack calculates the odds of the robbery working and agrees to help with the heist, taking a big stack of cash as advance payment for his role. Jack has become Jake, an alter ego who doesn't have any of the pretensions to be above any of the underworld ethos he's surrounded by. Jani tells him that all the casino customers get their money through crime so why should he care if they want to rob the casino. Marion finds out about the heist and foils it, alerting the police or the casino. She gets killed in a hit and run. Jack/Jake goes on to publish his novel called Croupier anonymously. It's a big bestseller, with his casino boss enjoying it. Jack doesn't quit and doesn't spend any of his bestseller money. He accomplished his original goal but he's become the thing he'd despised, which was to also be like his father, a lowlife who leads a similar life around casinos back in South Africa.

But they bought expensive homes or they look it. I know that parts of Jersey and NY which have direct transport links to NYC cost more than those which don't, so I don't know if they live in such areas. But property and other local taxes are high in NY and NJ too, so if their spouses have average incomes, it might be tough to cover the mortgage and property taxes on more expensive homes. Looks like Ronnie got a bigger home in CA than the one he had in Vegas. If he's in a popular area like West LA, it would cost a fortune. If they managed to keep the original JS run going with 10 million viewers or whatever it was at its peak -- I think it matched what that Osbornes reality show got at its peak -- then some of them probably would have gotten MTV to pay them at least $5 million a season for the show, not to mention al the appearances money. But IIRC, it peaked (Snookie appearing on the Tonight Show) and then fell off pretty quickly. I'm surprised at Pauly's success too. I know big star DJs can make a lot of money but the people who go to those clubs with the star DJs, they would have been little kids at most when JS was airing. Or do twenty somethings watch old reruns of JS and come to idolize these people?

She does love her mother but she’s at an age when she’d be socializing. And giving her a name like Narges could be unconsciously sabotaging her ability to socialize. Is the mother taking her away from that? Seems like empty nest syndrome would be devastating to her. The mother has a genuine affinity for Galicia though sounds like nostalgia from her youth exchange experience and the health scare has pushed to make this move though maybe I missed it, it wasn’t clear if this was a permanent move or just a second home. She certainly articulates her interest in the place she chose than most house hunters on this show.

I just watched the first episode. The thing that stood out for me was how they all have signs of different levels of wealth. They didn't show Pauly but he seems to have the highest income outside the original show. Jenni's house is way out there, a McMansion palace. I liked the home gym in Mike's house. Seems like he lived in that modest condo through his incarceration and then he moved into a giant home. Now does he make more money from this Family Vacation show than Deena and Angelina, who have pretty modest homes in comparison? Because he had all these tax troubles so while he would have made a ton of money during the original run of the show and all the extra money from appearances, did he have any of that left by the time he started doing Family Vacation? Or do they just pay him more and maybe gave him a big advance? Ronnie has a nice home in CA but it seems small. Yet he had some fancy Mercedes and it looked like a Bentley? They showed him doing some appearance to promote some CBD product but that can't be generating that much income. Snookie, whom they're not talking much about in the first episode, would have made a lot of money doing that show with Jenni. I searched about why she wasn't on the season and she "retired" in December, a month after Angelina's wedding, because of the supposed drama. She is trying to get some other shows on MTV and do those instead. Meanwhile she has a podcast and runs something called a Snookie Store. Saw also that she and Jionni bought a $850k beachside home near the original location of the Jersey Shore. So they're rolling in money and it may not all be from TV. I know during the original run they could make a lot of outside income doing appearances and such but I can't imagine they're getting much appearance money now, can they? Are they in such demand from twenty somethings now that they could make big appearance money? As for the show itself, the whole "I won't film with her" is so contrived. They're going to end up settling the supposed beef. If Deena and Jenni walk off the show, that would mean they have plenty of income outside the TV show. Maybe Jenni does or has a lot of money saved up but Deena probably doesn't? The big gimmick this season is that they all go with the extended family to a Hilton resort or hotel in Vegas to film most of the show. Do they keep up the feud? It would be kind of dumb then, that they'd only be shown sniping at each other through social media posts.

Kind of a general overview of the series from VF, alludes to the show finally coming to terms with "unexamined racism": https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2020/11/southern-charm-bravo-season-7

That's a good sign, they are still filming or planning to film, to keep the pipeline of episodes going. But France imposed measures recently to decrease coronavirus infections so maybe they're just trying to line up things. Oh that's a wonderful part of the Riviera too.

The Lucca couple, they said surviving the tsunami in Asia made them want to travel more and work less? Sounds like they were already traveling and they replaced work with biking and writing. Great atmospheric town. The residents do their passeigiata on the top of the walls. Seems like ideal place to get away from the rat race, though with the airports nearby, they can go elsewhere. The Cotswald episode was nice but as much as the wife went on about English charm, she caved to the husbands demand for more practicality and short commute. Either that or she really played along with the script about English charm, which Richard has seen too often on this show. Noosa couple the wife seemed to be the dominant one but in the end the husband got the more roomy place that he wanted. Even though English is not their native language, she was good at being sardonic, mocking him about who would cook and clean in the big palace home, threatening to file divorce papers if he chose the too big and expensive place.

Nice guys finish last. Leo and Alana are gone and the blonds probably next. I hope that it wasn't the Yield that eliminated Leo and Alana. That is, they were more than 20 minutes behind the 6th place team. It seemed like it because in the Great Khan thing, they did it 10 times before they got it whereas the blondes appeared to get it the second attempt. Yeah the alliance teams are lousy people, particularly the boyfriends and the beards. They talked the blonds into yielding. Again don't know if that Yield saved either the blonds or the brother and sister team or not.

Montpelier, France - Choices were kind of drab but the one they chose was the only one that provided the space they needed. Family deserves a gap year after what their young son went through. But this part of France must have been uninspiring to Adrian for her not to do it? She's done Nice in addition to Paris. I thought she also did a Bordeaux episode as well? They've have a few episodes in the Languedoc but Adrian didn't do those. Besides Nice and Paris, you'd think they'd have some more in Provence.

Nope, it stinks way of producers thinking it's some brilliant idea. The "guests" are playing along. The chef was annoyed that using exotic ingredients was lost on the kids. Of course it was. The kids would have been content just with Jello shots and jalapeño poppers for the whole charter. I don't think these kids bring quite the drama potential of the previous guests but they do look nice in bikinis, which is probably why they were chosen. That and the crew could roll their eyes at their rich parents paying for entitled brats, except the producers just chose them so the crew could again be put upon. So the idea that real guests pay for these charters and tip generously is by now a big fiction.