PurpleKnight

Hey Weekenders!!

Settling in on my Sunday evening, watching the international soccer, N.Ireland is playing Finland, currently winning 2-0, though thinking of having an early night I think, sat up way to late watching the Cricket last night!!

This week at work is a short one, Easter next weekend sees some much needed holidays!!

Let's keep it Sober!!

kzaug2014

Just checkin in! Hope everyone is having a great wkend!
This wkend has been more of a rollercoaster ride than a pleasant bus ride, but I'm here & I'm still straight!

MidnightBlue

Hi, weekenders) Still with chicken pox, but feeling better.

Oh, you guys discussing Russia here. I see - Russians and vodka.


LBrain - sorry, I failed to read 20 pages back to find why on Earth you are going to Crimea. I was there twice - last time about 15 years ago, when it was still part of Ukraine. NO idea what's look like now, probably not worth the trouble after all the turmoil they have been having there recently.

As for House of Cards - though I really liked how that Danish actor (don't remember his name now) performed Putin, the scene with toasting and ***** Riot kind of pissed me off - so cliche.


"lazy winter last summer"

Ha, reminded me an anecdote when a teacher shows a little boy a picture which obviously shows the autumn - trees covered with yellow-purple leaves, raining, etc. And asks him "What season is it?"

- Summer.
- Why summer?
-Just...such a lousy summer.

Have a great rest of the weekend all)

Weasel1966

OK folks... had my card reading. Not a tarot card but just a regular set of cards. It was quite amazing. Many interesting things commented on that blew me away.

But... here it the odd ball thing... She told me about someone I used to work with that she said lives in my apt complex. I mentioned where I was at. He left his wife and has a partner now. (He, ex and kids all get along well and nothing bad there) but I was like that great! I will have to find out where he is at.

Well.... There is this big ass white Mercedes that I always see with a guy that I found not very friendly. But I see the car and someone getting out. I figured its this guy. Nope... The guy I know. I was like hey!!! I just came from so and so. She said you lived here. Come to find out he lives the apt directly under me. They have been there for about 7 months and I NEVER saw him. Only his partner.

Go see her and suddenly the first person I see arriving home is this guy.

The reading and this have nothing to do with one another but super odd how we can be so close and never have it timed so we meet. Needless to say we will catch up at some point.

I better not stamp my feet. these walls are thin. Kinda nice to have people I know around.


BTW... Money came out on top!!!!

Weasel1966

Glad you are feeling better MB!!!!

KZ... sometimes things go zig zag... but fasten that seat belt. Always know we are right here for any tough spots. Congrats on a sober weekend!!!

biminiblue

*cue Twilight Zone music* for the eerie card reading story.

MesaMan

In da Zone...

Twilight Zone Theme Opener
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Ruby2

Hey everyone! Sounds so cozy on here and cozy is what we need. We did get to Chinatown but no dim sum, just regular restaurant. Dim sum said 15 to 20 minute wait so when we checked back a half hour later they said another half hour. Weather rotten. 39, raining, sleet and windy. Yuck. I was grateful for sobriety. My dad's had an ear infection and been dizzy and asked me to drive and I could say yes without reservation. Immediately upon getting back to my parents my niece and I grabbed lap blankets.

MB, I'm glad you're coming along with healing the pox. Frustrating.

Kzaug, glad you are hanging in there. Some weekends are like that.

Weas, that's a wacky tale and it always odd how things that happen. Big ass white Mercedes cracks me up. I hope your visit with your friend goes well.

Basketball on here. I haven't watched a lick all weekend. But my mother.

Time to visit with family.

EndGameNYC

Lars Mikkelsen. Danish actor and brother of Mads Mikkelsen who played the villain, Le Chiffre, in Casino Royale, as well as Hannibal Lecter in the American TV series, Hannibal.

I consider both to be outstanding actors. Lars played a major role in the Danish version of The Killing/Forbryldelsen, so much better than American version that succeeded it.

If you look up their filmographies, you might find something that you like. I was able to obtain subtitled versions of some of their work in TV and films and, as I suggested, I thought The Killing/Forbryldelsen was outstanding.

I haven't watched American crime dramas in years. In European crime dramas, cops and criminals speak like cops and criminals -- cursing and swearting, e.g. They also drink, smoke, do drugs and have sex. Imagine that? And they don't solve murders in forty minutes. American TV is like watching chidlren's shows to me in comparison to their European counterparts such as Braquo and Spiral/Engrenages (both French), The Bridge (Swedish/Danish production), Those Who Kill (Danish, with Lars Mikkelsen), and Wallander (Swedish). Americans just don't like reading subtitles.

There's also at least one decent British series, Wire in the Blood, in which an "unorthodox" clinical psychologist helps to solve bizarre crimes. Simone Lahbib, who shows up later in the series, is my ex's doppelganger.

Ruby2

EndGame, I don't really watch much of anything but I agree American TV sanitizes police and criminals.

Pouncer it's great you played Barbie's with your daughter. I still don't have much patience to play Barbie's.

Back to conversation

:

trachemys

Midnight Blue, when you get over the pox ask your doctor when you should take the shingles vaccine.

EndGameNYC

I watch them while on my stationary bike. No way I could cycle for sixty-to-ninety minutes, five days a week without it. Maybe ten or twelve minutes at the most.

The subtitles help because I have to pay attention.

The other thing I like about the European crime dramas? Most characters are off-center, and they feature strong, shaky -- but terribly human -- women in a lot of the lead roles. Lots of strong and shaky male leads as well.

saoutchik

Endgame there will be a 3rd series of The Bridge later this year thank goodness.

I am love with Saga Noren (Sofia Helin). If I'm ever arrestep let it be by her.

Agree with what you said but in defence of USA you did make The Sopranos, The Wire, Homicide Life on the Street all of which I enjoyed. I suppose none of those are recent though.

PS another good Euro cop show is a Belgian series called Salamander - not quite as good as the Nordics but very nearly as good

EndGameNYC

True. I loved The Wire. Homicide was pretty good too. I'm one of a few people who never got into The Sopranos. Also happy to hear that there will be a third series of The Bridge. At the end of Series 2, there was talk that no additional series would happen.

Long before I discovered Europe, I couldn't watch any of the Law and Order franchises or CSI, or Criminal Minds, or anything that resembled them, though I did like Dexter, which is very different from the ones I've listed. (My secret specialty is serial killers.) The formula for shows like Law and Order, though it seemed to draw in viewers, became much too pat. Someone finds a corpse, the person they want you to think committed the murder didn't do it, and they stumble upon clue after clue all along the way ("Oh look! There's the murder weapon!"), every once in awhile throwing in a superficial moral dilemma.

I'm now forever spoiled. My favorite author for the genre is Jo Nesbø, a Norwegian, and his Harry Hole series. Harry is a sometimes active sometimes recovering alcoholic with an extremely jaded view of people and life in general. Clichè? Maybe, but not in the hands of such a skilled writer. Another good book that I finished a couple of months ago is The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins.

saoutchik

Oh and a French one called Spiral (how could I forget) That is made by Canal+ so should be easier to get hold of. It is excellent. Totally different to the Scandinavian stuff but superb nonetheless.

Thinking about it there have been no good British cop shows either for ages.
Some good dramas that involve cops (Broadchurch?) but not a cop show as such

saoutchik

Never read any Jo Nesbo -seen his books in the library so I'll have to try it. Read lots of Henning Mankel, but never the Wallander books as, having seen a screen version I don't want to spoil it (there is a British version with Ken Branagh as Kurt Wallender)

Still like some Americans too - Walter Moseley (me and Bill Clinton) James Lee Burke and George P Pelecanos

That list makes me sound like a misogynist as there are no women in it. Maybe I should make an effort to read some female crime novels (not Agatha Christie though yuk!)

EndGameNYC

Yeah, I mentioned Spiral/Engrenages in a previous post. Just finished Series 5.

For a female author, you might try the book I also mentioned in a previous post, The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins. After a couple of chapters -- probably sooner -- it was hard to put down. One of the characters is a woman who struggles with alcohol.

saoutchik

Endgame - yes you did mention Spiral - sorry

saoutchik

This thread is titled rejuvenation - I just read that Daphne and Celeste are to reform

About time too

EndGameNYC

Certainly no need to apologize.

I liked Spiral better when I-think-you-know-who was still an active drug addict, and when there were more sinister characters in the police and in the judiciary.