Silver fox of the week

Brown sugar of the week

Jameela Jamil.

After all the ugliness of last week, here's something beautiful to start the week

Nathalie Emmanuel, a perfect women.

My new British intellectual crush

What is it about Professor Amanda Vickery that I love so much?  

Is it her beauty?  Her adorable bob haircut?  Her accent? 

Her understated fashion sense?  Her brains?  Her TV presence?  The way she makes everything seem so engrossing? 

Is it the way she runs her hand through her bob as she tells us what she wants us to know?  Is it her hypnotic cleavage?

It's all that and the fact that she is so passionate about whatever she's talking about.  I'm smitten with you Ms. Vickery, you intellectual vixen.

Happy Sunday!

Keep reaching for the stars

Paget Brewster makes everything better.

Current Nordic literary crush

Norwegian crime writer Karin Fossum.

Kings, queens, legends, and the voice of an angel

That beauty in the above photo is Heather Dale.  Ms. Dale is a Canadian performer who writes and sings songs based on medieval legends and other tales.  She's a terrific singer with an angelic voice and her songs are moving and inspiring.  I can't say enough good things about this gal.

I discovered her through the music service called Freegal, which is available through most libraries, but if yours doesn't have it, ask for it.  I downloaded about 10 of her songs and I was so captivated by her music and her voice that I bought more off her website.  She was kind enough to 'friend' me on Facebook and since then she's been super nice and a pleasure to know, even if only digitally.

I doubt she'll make to east TN where I live, although she will be in Nashville, which is about five hours west of me, in March.  She's also working on crowd funding a multi media touring project and you can read more about it on her website.  But if you're not inclined to go there now, here she is talking about her project:



I'm going to kick in a few bucks in a week or so because I think it's a worthy project and I was one of those nerdy kids she talks about in this video.  I grew up in a small town and I thought I'd never meet anyone who was into the 'nerdy' stuff I liked, sci fi, fantasy, medieval and other historical stuff.  As time went on I did find others and I'm glad I did.  I'm also glad Ms. Dale is out there bringing her talent to the masses and trying to connect with other 'nerds' like me.

I also like it that she likes pie and that she's the most adorable Canadian since Sarah Polley.  Do yourself a favor, check her out and if you can donate five or ten bucks to her project, then have at it.  You can also hear more of her music on You Tube.

Brunette of the week

Karla Crome.

What I'm watching

Nothing much happens in this sweet little show about the goings on at a cafe in a seaside British town.  People come and go and they interact and go about their lives, yeah, I know, it sounds boring but it's really cute and sweetly humorous.  We watched the first series on HuluPLUS and are currently catching the second on KPBS Presents on the Roku PBS channel.

I confess, I'd watch James Corden in about anything.  I find him to be funny and he's got an every-man quality that I really empathize with, although I will say I fucking hated History Boys.  This series is about two ordinary blokes who get drawn into international intrigue and sexual and financial shenanigans when one of them picks up a cell phone that fell out of a car after a nasty wreck.  It's all very good and well done.  And Croden and Matthew Baynton and both excellent in it.

I'm catching this show on Netflix and it took me a few episodes to get into the rhythm of it.  But now, midway through the third season, it's funny as hell.  I love Katie Aselton and the guy who plays her brother in law.  And the character of Rafi is pure fun.

I'm also watching this show on Netflix, I'm two episodes in and it's pretty good.  I'm hoping it gets better because there's so much there to work with.  A cop who works for a fascist corporate state in the future goes back in time accidentally with a bunch criminals.  Will they get back to the future?  Will she catch them in the past?  So many questions.  My only problem with this show is the bland lead.  She's pretty, but she's pretty dull too.

I watched the first episode of this BBC import the other night.  It's about a man and a woman in their mid 30's who hook up one night and how they deal with the consequences of their having had sex with one another.  The first episode was painfully funny and to be honest, I'd watch Sharon Horgan in anything.  She's cute and funny as hell.

I quite like this police procedural that's playing now on HuluPLUS.  As you can tell from the publicity photo, it's a female centered cop show and that's where it's strength lies.  I really like the two leads and the messy back-stories they've concocted for them. Sometimes the episode is more about their lives than the crime du jour.

I am over the moon about this Australian import that's currently running on Netflix.  Essie Davis is strikingly gorgeous in her role as the self confident and wildly sexy Miss Fisher, a semi private detective in 1920's Australia.  It's hard to notice anything else when she's onscreen, and thankfully, she's on screen most of the time.  The show is well written, well acted, and well produced.  And I love the fact that Miss Fisher doesn't hide the fact that she likes having sex.

I watched a couple episodes each of UFO and Space 1999, a pair of sci fi TV shows from my youth in the early 1970's, that are currently running on HuluPLUS, but I had to bail on them both.  They were so bad that I wanted to punch everyone involved with making them.  If you're into nostalgia for cheesy sci fi from the 1970's then these shows are for you, but for me, there's too many other TV shows and films on Netfilx and HuluPLUS that are way better than these two.

Antipodean of the week

Essie Davis.

Brown sugar of the week

Gina Torres.

Sales people of the week

I'm buying whatever they're selling.

Brunette of the week

Lydia Leonard.

Afro of the week

Annie Ilonzeh.

DVD reviews

Martin Clunes plays a brilliant socially inept surgeon who has developed a minor phobia about blood so he leaves his successful surgery career behind in order to become the GP of a tiny town in Cornwall. It's a classic 'fish out of water' premise that's done incredibly well. Clunes is fine in his role as Doc Martin and Caroline Catz is not only easy on the eyes, she's super great in her role as the teacher who is also Clunes reluctant love interest.

Caroline Catz, my new imaginary British celebrity girlfriend. Hubba hubba!

The thing I love about this show is that it makes no attempts to make Clunes's character lovable. He is what he is, and what he is is an irascible cranky doctor who has been thrust into a small town full of oddballs and eccentrics. I just finished watching the first series and I can't wait to see it over again. I'm also looking forward to seeing the rest of the series of this fine comedy.

Oh by the way, if you're watching this show on a local PBS station, you're missing part of it because most PBS stations cut this show down to fit in a 30 minute time slot.

Years ago, in the dark ages before I had cable, I saw part of an episode of The Flame Trees of Thika on PBS. I didn't see any of the other episodes but that one part of the one I saw stayed with me. I was mesmerized by it and when I finally this that it was out on DVD I wanted to buy it but I didn't want to pay$30 for it. Then the other day before Giftmas I saw that my local super corporate book mega store had it in sale for half off so I bought it for Sparky. And I have to say that after finally watching the whole thing, I loved it.

It's based on the Elspeth Huxley book of the same name and it's about a Edwardian family's life in Kenya right before World War 1 breaks out. Yes, it's racist at times, the British were horrid racists and classist, but it's a good story full of fine performances by everyone involved. Holly Aird, who plays young Elspeth, is one of the most expressive actors I have ever seen and it doesn't hurt that was as cute as a button when they made this series. Hayley Mills is adorable in this production as well.

I recommend this series because it's a good look at what life was like in colonial Kenya under the British. And it's a good look at the cost of empire to a world super power.


I haven't finished watching the third and final series of Clatterford (if one more person tells me that the name of this show when it airs in Britain is Jam and Jerusalem, I'm going to punch them in the face) but I've seen enough to tell you that I love it and it's possibly the best one yet, with the exception of Maggie Steed's hair do.

Nobody does 'small towns full of eccentrics' shows better than the British and this one if one of the best. Jennifer Saunders is brilliant in this edition of this series, as are Sue Johnston, Dawn French, Pauline McLynn, Suzy Aitchinson, Salima Saxton, and David Mitchell. I'm sad to see that this is the final series of this show because I like these characters so much and because this is the type of show you'd never ever see on youth and tit obsessed American television. Oh well, at least we can watch it over and over since we have all three DVDs.

Brunette of the year

Jessica Silas.

I found her through STFU Conservatives. They posted an epic smackdown of hers on a bigoted intolerant Christian. She also has a Tumblr blog and it's pretty epic too. Even though she's half my age, in many ways she's wiser and smarter than I'll ever be.

Congrats to you Ms. Jessica Silas! You're this blog's Brunette of the Year!

Brunette of the week

Imani Coppola.

Movie and music review

This film is a look at the dark side of celebrity worship here in the USA. Patton Oswalt stars as a mid 30's sad sack nebbish who still lives at home with his shrewish mother, works a dead end job, and has love for only two things, the New York Giants football team and calling in to a sports talk radio show. When he gets the chance to meet his football idol in a strip club he gets beat up and suffers some brain damage. And his love for his team clouds his judgment when he decides not to co-operate with the police investigation of the incident. When the inevitable mockery starts, he decides to redeem himself in one of the worst ways possible.

It's a sad kind of depressing story but it's brilliantly told and brilliantly acted. Oswalt is terrific as the deluded pathetic football nut and Kevin Corrigan is also great as his equally socially inept buddy. The two play off of each other really well and they capture the aging man child awkwardness so well it's almost scary.

The rest of the cast is a bunch of virtual unknowns, with the exception of independent film darling Michael Rapaport. Don't get me wrong, just because the rest of the cast is a bunch of virtual unknowns that doesn't mean they're bad, they aren't, in all cases they turn in great performances. But the best thing about them is that they all look real, they all look like they come from the Staten Island/NYC area. And the director doesn't shy away from making them look plain and or ugly, he lets them be who they are and that's a good thing.

This film could have been about any obsessed fan of football, hockey, European football, or baseball. It could have just as easily been about someone who idolizes a politician, a singer, an actor. The point is celebrity worship deprives of us being who we really are and it fills our lives with fake fulfillment. I know I've made this film sound bleak and depressing, and it is at times, but trust me, it's a darn good movie and it's well worth your time, even if you're not a sports fan.

For many years I resisted Tori Amos because she was, in my opinion, too obtuse and overly dramatic for my taste. But I relented a few years ago and I got Sparky one of her CD's for Christmas and I liked most all of it. So when I saw this CD
at one of my local libraries the other day, I checked it out and gave it a listen. I'm happy to report that she's still obtuse and overly dramatic but in this case, she knocked my socks off.

On this CD she deconstructs and mashes up traditional Christmas carols and then she stitches them back together to make entirely newish songs out of them. There's also a few new compositions on this CD as well but the stand out songs are the reinterpretations of the traditional Christmas music. Her musical arrangements are stellar and her voice never sounded better. And the photos of her dressed as seasonal goddesses, and yes I choose to interpret them in that way, are also something behold. Ms. Amos is a stunningly beautiful woman and this CD is a stunningly good piece of work. I like to think as modern medieval music for the masses. It's odd but engaging and I recommend it highly.

Brunette of the week (double dip)

Suzanne Malveaux