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Your Friday Night Entertainment Report
Apr. 2nd, 2021 09:17 pmWe're leaving out events of the actual day- good for me, pretty good for us, bad for Eleanor- because, late.
Sabres' win streak ended at one, but that was Thursday, and you probably expected that.
So here's what we've been watching the past few nights into tonight:
- The Snapper. Second of the "Barrytown Trilogy" of novels by Roddy Doyle turned into films- first, The Commitments, directed by Alan Parker of Fame fame, with Star Trek's Colm Meaney in a supporting role. Miles gets top billing in this second one, where the directorial baton is turned over to Stephen Frears. Here, he's da to a large Irish fam, the oldest daughter of which has been found to be with child. The whodunit and howshehaveit of the film makes it the wondrous thing we remember- and for the Trek fans, there's this callback toward the end. The third of them, also with Colm Meaney and also directed by Stephen Frears, is The Van. This one appears only to be available streaming; we found the first at a local library and the second via Netflix DVD. Neither had special features beyond the films proper, so we've got the streamer in queue once we finish udda thingza here.
- A Previous Engagement. Juliet Stevenson and Tchéky Karyo are the previous engagees. We knew the former from Truly Madly Deeply, an Anthony Minghella film also starring Alan Rickman that does a better job of Ghosting things than the Swayzee thing did; and the latter from Saving Grace, a too-unheralded UK film that explores the very current topic of How To Succeed At Weed Growing Without Really Trying. Daniel Stern and Valerie Mahaffey play the alternative love interests, but the film struck my eardrums before anything else when THIS turned out to be the first sounds heard in the film itself:
We know the song, of course, although we somehow seem to be missing the one GBS album it's on; the film's soundtrack from 2008 is full of other gems, including a cover of Steppenwolf's "Born to be Wild" by a group called Stars of Stage and Screen, a couple by Phil Ochs, and at least one composed by Barrington Pheloung, composer of the theme and much other music from the Morse/Endeavour franchises.
- And since this reminded us of TMD, I tracked it down and a DVD of it is on its way to us. It's criminally unavailable on streaming or readily accessible video platforms.
- Tonight, we began Irresistible on the Home Box; Steve Carrell as a DNC operative sent to turn Chris Cooper into the savior of the party that we've been looking for in midwestern diners lo these past eight years.
- And not both of us or on film or video, but earlier today I said farewell to a longtime friend. For almost all of the past 40 years, 36 of them within my earshot, Dave Kane held down the midday slot at Rochester's WCMF-FM. We’ve never met, but I’ve spent more Thanksgivings with Dave (through his annual servings of "Alice's Restaurant") than anyone in my family except Eleanor. . His bits and blocks and knowledge of rock are Hall of Fameworthy- which is good, since he’s already enshrined in at least one of them. He announced Monday that he was retiring after his recent 40th anniversary milestone, and that today would be the final assembly of his Workforce. He finished an hour earlier than usual today; I could hear the tears as he paused during his final farewells. Now you can see mine. He went out with Dead’s version of "Not Fade Away,: the full version of Abbey Road's "Golden Slumbers," and one final Friday song. Dave's Not Here, but I hope our paths will cross in his retirement, if not mine.
Sabres' win streak ended at one, but that was Thursday, and you probably expected that.
So here's what we've been watching the past few nights into tonight:
- The Snapper. Second of the "Barrytown Trilogy" of novels by Roddy Doyle turned into films- first, The Commitments, directed by Alan Parker of Fame fame, with Star Trek's Colm Meaney in a supporting role. Miles gets top billing in this second one, where the directorial baton is turned over to Stephen Frears. Here, he's da to a large Irish fam, the oldest daughter of which has been found to be with child. The whodunit and howshehaveit of the film makes it the wondrous thing we remember- and for the Trek fans, there's this callback toward the end. The third of them, also with Colm Meaney and also directed by Stephen Frears, is The Van. This one appears only to be available streaming; we found the first at a local library and the second via Netflix DVD. Neither had special features beyond the films proper, so we've got the streamer in queue once we finish udda thingza here.
- A Previous Engagement. Juliet Stevenson and Tchéky Karyo are the previous engagees. We knew the former from Truly Madly Deeply, an Anthony Minghella film also starring Alan Rickman that does a better job of Ghosting things than the Swayzee thing did; and the latter from Saving Grace, a too-unheralded UK film that explores the very current topic of How To Succeed At Weed Growing Without Really Trying. Daniel Stern and Valerie Mahaffey play the alternative love interests, but the film struck my eardrums before anything else when THIS turned out to be the first sounds heard in the film itself:
We know the song, of course, although we somehow seem to be missing the one GBS album it's on; the film's soundtrack from 2008 is full of other gems, including a cover of Steppenwolf's "Born to be Wild" by a group called Stars of Stage and Screen, a couple by Phil Ochs, and at least one composed by Barrington Pheloung, composer of the theme and much other music from the Morse/Endeavour franchises.
- And since this reminded us of TMD, I tracked it down and a DVD of it is on its way to us. It's criminally unavailable on streaming or readily accessible video platforms.
- Tonight, we began Irresistible on the Home Box; Steve Carrell as a DNC operative sent to turn Chris Cooper into the savior of the party that we've been looking for in midwestern diners lo these past eight years.
- And not both of us or on film or video, but earlier today I said farewell to a longtime friend. For almost all of the past 40 years, 36 of them within my earshot, Dave Kane held down the midday slot at Rochester's WCMF-FM. We’ve never met, but I’ve spent more Thanksgivings with Dave (through his annual servings of "Alice's Restaurant") than anyone in my family except Eleanor. . His bits and blocks and knowledge of rock are Hall of Fameworthy- which is good, since he’s already enshrined in at least one of them. He announced Monday that he was retiring after his recent 40th anniversary milestone, and that today would be the final assembly of his Workforce. He finished an hour earlier than usual today; I could hear the tears as he paused during his final farewells. Now you can see mine. He went out with Dead’s version of "Not Fade Away,: the full version of Abbey Road's "Golden Slumbers," and one final Friday song. Dave's Not Here, but I hope our paths will cross in his retirement, if not mine.