Archive for film review
France Inter turns into France Resserre
Posted in Books, Kids, pictures with tags book reviews, film review, France Inter, France Télévision, French government, French politics, journalism, le Masque et la Plume, Libé, national public radio, Parti Socialiste, political interference, wokism on September 15, 2025 by xi'an
a journal of the chaos, war, winter, wood chore, and cure year
Posted in Books, Kids, Mountains, pictures, Running, Travel, Wines with tags album, book review, cabin fever, Canada, car parts, COVID-19, Daniel Defoe, fig-tree, film review, Folio, forest fires, fragile environment, George Martin, House of Dragons, jam, Journal of the Plague Year, Kerala, Leamington Spa, London Grammar, maintenance, Montana, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, preserve, Russian invasion, survivalists, The Cure, travel literature, Ukraine, wildlfires, winter, wood cutting, Yaak on October 14, 2024 by xi'an
Read Winter: Notes from Montana by Rick Bass, 
which I found in the book exchange area on PariSanté Campus. In a French translation, within the travel Folio collection I usually enjoy (incl. William Fiennes’ Snow Geese). But not this time, despite my relating to the appeal of cabin life in a remote location (provided it is spared by wildfires)! The reasons are multiple, from unceasing self-glorification for choosing to settle in Yaak Valley, Montana (on the Canadian border), without acknowledging the huge privilege of being able to have the choice, to a very low-level form of environmentalism that verges on the “not in my backyard” version rather than addressing societal issues, while investing in oil drilling in Texas and bemoaning on the time it takes to ship [his] car parts from Japan, to the huge chunk of time and space dedicated to wood cutting and the subtleties of maintaining a chainsaw in subzero temperatures, with again a lack of perspective on the tiny percentile that can afford this way of living.
Made several kilos of fig jam and compote—testing for a difference when peeling the fig, which is not so much about taste as with a more liquid outcome and hence a longer cooking time—, besides delivering daily to the department and the neighbours! Also had a fabulous dinning experience in Leamington Spa in a Keralan restaurant, forecasting a fantastic food scene for the next IISA conference in Kochi!
Watched Season 2 of House of the Dragon (for which Winter is not yet coming!), which is very uneven in pace, appeal, acting, and scenario. Especially the scenario (possibly missing input from the author)! But the lead actresses are running the show most convincingly. (And much more than their male counterparts….) And listened to three new albums by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds (Wild Dog), London Grammar (The Greatest Love) and… The Cure (Alone)!
a journal of the chaos, conquest, war, abundance, and death year
Posted in Books, Kids, Mountains, pictures, Running, Travel, Wines with tags Alaska, Barnes & Noble, book review, COVID-19, Daniel Defoe, fig-tree, film review, First Nations, Iñupiat, Iceland, jam, Jodie Foster, Journal of the Plague Year, long night, MacGuffin, octopus, preserve, Prudhoe Bay, Russian invasion, Seattle, True Detective, Ukraine, varieties of radishes, zucchini flower on September 21, 2024 by xi'anRead The Daevabad Trilogy by S. A. Chakraborty within a few weeks, after I started the first book in a NE Seattle Barnes & Noble on a bookstore long stop between two Airbnb‘s. A suitable choice to read out the sleepless bouts induced by the jetlag. Some original ideas around a Middle East djinn kingdom, a compelling enough central character, and a page-turning scenario, but also too much info-dumps, a syncretic mismash of religions, and a terrible tendency to find excuses for mass-murderers…
Made heaps of fig preserve and jam (with honey, lemon, maybe too much lemon, and chia seeds) as our fig tree delivered an outstanding harvest, at the end of a particularly wet summer (even the tomatoes more than survived our three week absence!). And radish leave pesto (while waiting for my own radish harvest to come out). Also cooked an octopus for the first time, which proved much easier than I feared (no freezing, no beating, just a long enough boil) and delivering! And zucchini spaghetti every other day or so, since large late season zucchinis have now appeared in the local markets.
Watched the entire True Detective Season Four, featuring Jodie Foster and Kali Reis as the detective duo (and mostly women as the leading characters). It widely differs from earlier seasons for so many reasons… It is set in coastal Alaska (if shot in Iceland), during the long night (as in Prudhoe Bay where it lasts close to two months). It seems to involve supernatural events, connected with First Nations myths and traditions. Possibly overdoing it. It does involve First Nations, quite forcibly, as Foster’s character’s step-daughter is a Native Iñupiat woman, searching for her roots. And many other characters are from that community. A major environmental pollution by the local mine leading to still-births (ghastly moment when Foster visits the storage with coffins waiting for thaw to be buried). Scientific MacGuffin very weak and further scenario impossibilities. (Also an orange wool hat turning green. Or blue.) The end is not that satisfactory, from the resolution of the scientists disappearance to the duo escaping consequences of their actions. But this is a great show, almost par with Season One.
a journal of the chaos, conquest, war, famine, and death mid’year
Posted in Books, Kids, Mountains, pictures, Running, Travel, Wines with tags BD, book review, Brussels, censorship, COVID-19, Daniel Defoe, Don Quixote, film review, frijoles, gangster movie, graphical novel, Guatemaltec cuisine, Journal of the Plague Year, maze, Netflix, ospedale, Paris, Paris 2024 Olympics, PSG, rhubarb, Russian invasion, time travel, tortilla, Ukraine, ze kitchen galerie on August 24, 2024 by xi'anRead a third of (a physical copy of) T.J. Klune’s In the Lives of Puppets before giving up. Unbearably boring, predictable, dripping cheap sentimentality and cheaper robotic humour. Worse than the earlier House in the Cerulean Sea. That I already did not much enjoy. (I bought the book in Edinburgh while at SMC 2024, as a 3-4-2 deal, along another one I had to return because it was volume 2 of a series I had not yet started!, not so much of a deal in the end!!, even though I manage to exchange it for Naomi Novik’s The Golden Enclaves) Also read the silent BD Béatrice, by Joris Mertens, set in the same imaginary city as Nettoyage à Sec, a mix of Paris (mostly) and Bruxelles/Brussels (partly), except with a fantasy side. The 1960’s atmosphere, the asphyxiating weight of the city, the isolation of the young saleswoman, the large scale boxes make both BDs outstanding. And I started Don Quixote (in French), which reads surprisingly well (possibly thanks to the translation) and layered with many levels of irony and pastiche, never too late to discover classics I had not yet read!
Made heaps of rhubarb preserve and jam (with honey, lemon, maybe too much lemon, and chia seeds). And learned from friends how to make Guatemalan maïze tortilla and frijoles. Had a great meal with them at Ze Kitchen Galerie, on the eve of the Paris Olympics, which meant entering a maze of barriers installed along the Seine river (and Xing paths with the president of the local football club, not that I would have had the slightest clue of who he was without the excitement of passerbys). Alas missed a chance-in-a-decade opportunity to have dinner at Da Franz, due to my ospedale days.
Watched the first season of Travellers, a 2016 Canadian TV series about time travel agents arriving in the current era to save the future and the many paradoxes it induces. Soon spiralling into homely concerns and out of the slightest plausibility, if with enticing characters.
a journal of the chaos, conquest, war, [not] famine, and death year
Posted in Books, Kids, Mountains, pictures, Running, Travel with tags blueberries, book review, COVID-19, Daniel Defoe, fantasy, film review, French literature, guacamole, Journal of the Plague Year, Netflix, Roald Dahl, Russian invasion, Ukraine on August 17, 2024 by xi'anRead Le Tournoi des Preux, by Jean-Philippe Jaworski (author of the fantastic and fantasist Gagner la Guerre), a medieval fantasy in the same universe than Gagner la Guerre), but more intricate and with more magics. I had not realised the book was part of a tryptic, with close to 2000 pages total, so I am unsure I will undertake the remaining reading marathon! Despite an enticing scenario, great characters, the same fascinating universe, and a more than decent writing style. which I hadn’t realised was only the first tome of a series. As for the fabulous Gagner la Guerre, which I read during the first COVID lockdown, I appreciated very much the flowing style, the complex characters, and the compelling scenario, set in a pseudo-medieval society with magical aspects (at the right dose). If I remember correctly, the author started working on role-playing games, before embarking on writing books, which explains for his great story telling skills. But also the propensity to long and branching novels, with two more volumes to go! (I do not think any of his books have been translated into English.)
Made [a while ago!] half a dozen blueberry jam jars, along a blueberry pie, as a stall at the local market was getting rid of crates of them (with a 20% damaged percentage, but at 1/8th of the initial price!). And [again a while ago] a few litres of guacamole to freeze, as the same stall (but another weekend) offered crates of avocados at 1/6th of the standard price).
Watched some episodes of Military Prosecutor Doberman: another Korean series on the hardships of military service in Korea, with little realism if any, a strong lack of ethics, repeated violence and sadism, hence not worth pursuing, just as I got very quickly tired of The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Three More (Roald Dahl’s stories), which carries the same absurd humour as the original, but is somewhat too pretentious for my taste.
