The New England Patriots (8-4) clash with the Buffalo Bills (7-4) in a battle for the leadership of the AFC East. The Bills, surprisingly, are 3-point favorites.
Rain, wind, cold, and snow are in the forecast for this Monday Night Football game on ESPN. With the weather conditions so dicey, I suspect this will be a close, low scoring game. What do you think?
The Buffalo Bills, coming off their 31-6 victory over the New Orleans Saints on Thanksgiving night, prepare for their biggest game of the year: the suddenly potent 8-4 New England Patriots. More about that game tomorrow. For now, how is your favorite NFL team going to perform today?
Diane, our niece Elise, and I saw Tina: The Tina Turner Musical at the Lunt Fontainne Theatre during our Thanksgiving trip to New York City. The show was sold out.
I’ve always loved Tina Turner’s music. I saw the movie What’s Love Got To Do With It back in 1993. This musical covers part of the same group–growing up in poverty, abused by a heartless mother, and abused by her talented but frustrated husband, Ike Turner. After 16 years of abuse, Tina finally split with Ike Turner. Ike took all of Tina’s money and the rights to the songs she sang. Tina had to start over and reinvent herself.
Act II centers on Tina’s career without Ike. It was a struggle for a forty-something “washed up” soul singer to get a record contract and find a new audience. Leandra Ellis-Gaston played Tina with plenty of zest and energy. Daniel J. Watts played Ike Turner as a gifted musician who was ground down by the music business and took his frustrations out on Tina.
If you’re a fan of Tina Turner and her music, you’ll enjoy this musical. I’m sure it will be touring the country next year or in 2023. Are you a fan of Tina Turner? GRADE: B+
Reading a book that’s over 50 years old presents some surprises. In the first chapter of The Case of the Talking Bug (1955) there’s talk of the polio epidemic (no vaccine yet!). And the “talking bug” referred to in the title of the book is “new” technology: wiretaps!
Detective Greg Evans, a recent graduate of the FBI Police Academy, is working on a number of cases that he later learns are related. The first is the death of a young girl who was found dead wearing a snorkel. The second case is a money laundering scheme worth millions of dollars. Evans suspects the victim, Jan Logan, may have told vital information to her sister, Cokie. But, Cokie can’t be found! And, unknown to Cokie and Evans, a killer is on her trail to eliminate a “loose end.”
The Case of the Talking Bug was nominated for the Edgar Award in 1956 (a condensed version was published in American Magazine). The Gordons were crime fiction authors Gordon Gordon (born March 12, 1906, Anderson, Indiana – died March 14, 2002), and his wife, Mildred Nixon Gordon (born June 24, 1912, Kansas – died February 3, 1979, Tucson, Arizona). Although mostly forgotten now, The Gordons produced some successful books. Check out the list below. GRADE: B
I was both saddened and elated while listening to this concert CD. The major stars, Sharon Jones and Charles Bradley, died; Sharon Jones in 2016 and Charles Bradley in 2017. But, we have this wonderful new album to enjoy and remember how great they were.
Performed and recorded over three nights in front of a sold out crowd at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, NY (December 4th – 6th, 2014), this album brings electrifying performances featuring live sets from Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, Charles Bradley and his Extraordinaires, Naomi Shelton and the Gospel Queens, Antibalas, The Budos Band, Menahan Street Band, Saun & Starr, The Sugarman 3, as well as em-cee, Binky Griptite. There’s a nice mix of Soul Classics and new music to delight your ears!
If you love Soul Music, you’re going to love this 2-CD set full of great songs and high-voltage music. And, it would make a wonderful Holiday Present for that Soul Music enthusiast on your Gift List. GRADE: A
Diane and I flew on jetBlue to New York City on Thanksgiving (the flight was super discounted!). The cab ride from JFK to Patrick’s new apartment in Brooklyn took an hour and a half! But, Patrick, Katie, and their friends cooked us a delicious Thanksgiving feast: scalloped potatoes, turkey, cranberry jello salad, green beans, lasagna, and squash soup. Desserts: apple pie, pecan pie, and pumpkin pie.
Patrick now works out of the Chelsea GOOGLE office so he decided north Brooklyn was the best option for him for apartment living. The apartment building Patrick lives in is only five years old and very nice. Grand view of the City!
Katie took the train down from Boston and our niece, Elise, took the train up from Washington, D. C. Elise is a lawyer for the National Labor Relations Board. This was her first trip since the Pandemic. Diane, Katie, Elise, and I stayed at the Marriott Renaissance hotel in Times Squire since we had tickets to TINA (the Tina Turner musical), The Rockettes, and SIX (a musical about the six wives of Henry VIII).
By the size of the crowds in Times Square, you’d have no idea a Pandemic was raging here and abroad (watch out for the Omicron Variant!). NYC demands both ID and a vaccination card for admittance to restaurants and plays. And…masks.
The highlight of our visit to NYC was brunch at the wonderful Clinton Street Baking Company with Jeff and Jackie Meyerson. The food and the conversation were delightful!
If you put Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Pirates of the Caribbean (only the first one), Romancing the Stone, and The African Queen in a blender, you’d get Disney’s Jungle Cruise. Yes, this movie is based on the legendary Disney ride and stars Emily Blunt as an intrepid scientist named Lily Houghton searching for a mythical cure-all called “Tears of the Moon.” The action is set in 1916 with World War I raging. A German Prince also wants the “Tears of the Moon” for evil purposes. So, the race is on to the Amazon to find the mysterious magical MacGuffin.
Dwayne Johnson (aka, The Rock) plays a riverboat captain called Frank who has a lot of baggage in his Past. Johnson’s character is perfect for his slapstick wit and proclivity for action. Lily can’t stand Frank, but ends up hiring him to take her down the Amazon with the fiendish German Prince chasing them.
There’s plenty of action and silliness in Jungle Cruise. But, I’ll watch anything with Emily Blunt it in. And, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen a High Adventure movie. Enjoyable and fun! GRADE: B+
Kelefa Sanneh’s Major Labels: A History of Popular Music in Seven Genres sets out to map the development of Rock, R&B, Country, Punk, Hip-Hop, Dance, and Pop music over the past 50 years. All the major groups and solo performers face Kelefa Sanneh’s analysis. The result, a least for me, is a list of music I need to re-listen to. And, of course, buying more music CDs that I somehow missed!
I liked the chapter on R&B music the best. Sanneh traces the origins of “Black music” as it morphed into Motown music. Barry Gordy’s vision of making groups like The Supremes and The Temptations mainstream worked. I did not know the story of Smokey Robinson’s A Quiet Storm album that not only created a “Quiet Storm” radio format, but also fostered the development of “Smooth Jazz.” In the 1970s, “Smooth Jams” became popular and I’ve been one of the eager listeners to that genre.
Even if you’re not a fan of Country & Western or Punk or Hip-Hop music, you’ll learn a lot about the trends that made those genres popular.
Major Labels offers insights, historical perspectives, and great information about music made over the past 50 years. It’s very readable and consistently clear and concise. What’s your favorite type of music? GRADE: A
After defeating the New Orleans Saints on Thanksgiving night 31-6, the inconsistent Buffalo Bills are off until the Monday Night Football game a week from now against the suddenly potent New England Patriots. How will your favorite NFL team perform today?
I finally caught up with watching SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS on Disney+. Director and co-writer Destin Daniel Cretton (Just Mercy and The Glass Castle) stresses family connections in this unusual MARVEL movie. A young Asian man, Shaun (Simu Liu), emerges from his self-imposed exile after an explosive incident on a San Francisco bus. Shaun’s best friend, Katy (Awkwafina), discovers Shaun has been hiding from his powerful warlord father. Shaun and Katy travel to Macau to warn Shaun’s sister, Xialing (Meng’er Zhang), that her life is danger.
Shaun’s father, Xu Wenwu (Tony Leung Chin-wai), wields The Ten Rings which give him superpowers. Xu is determined to “rescue” his dead wife and plans an armed incursion into a neighboring dimension where he believes his wife is held hostage.
Shaun, Xialing, and Katy embark on a strange journey that brings both enlightenment and death. If you’re looking for an off-beat MARVEL movie that expands the MCU, I recommend SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS. GRADE: A