Old Wine Shades by Martha Grimes

After reading aforesaid book, I loaned it to a neighbor who handed it back soon after, practically spitting: "I hated it!"

I was not surprised. I think Grimes has very idiosyncratic appeal. She is whimsical. Romantically whimsical, despite the ugly things that happen to people in the course of her books. Some people prefer Ian Rankin and don't get Reginald Hill. That is OK. I don't care if some people hate her books, just as long as she keeps writing them for her devotees, like moi.

Yes, I noticed that Carol Anne was reading fashion magazines Yet Again, and that reference to Wiggins' disgusting charcoal drink, and that there were kids and dogs yes again and that Melrose had a star turn and complained of Aunt Agatha Yet Again. Grimes repeating herself is not annoying--she is soothing. Those are all old friends, including Aunt Agatha, after all. If they don't change, that is not a minus. Everything else in life is changing, but we can sit down to a mystery by Martha Grimes and experience the familiar, and bask in the care she lavishes on characters we like every bit as much as she must do.

I wonder if it was Mungo's antics with the kittens that put my neighbor off?

Drunken Master

Just watched Drunken Master. From the sublime to the ridiculous? I dunno. Between packing for a short vaca and beading new necklace for said event, the movie went down a treat. One long cowboy saloon brawl, with Jackie Chan as the rude, crude and impudent son of a Kung Fu master who misbehaves all the time, sort of like the proverbial preacher's son. The complex Kung Fu choreography gave him opportunity for many comedic moments, as for example when he pretends to be Miss HO, one of the drunken Kung Fu goddesses. Perfect! What a talented ham! And, what's not to like?

Two old movies

Yesterday I watched Annie Hall, with many interruptions--such as four hours of work. I have not seen it for decades so I was surprised at how much I had forgotten. It is still an amazing work. Brilliant. Very funny and inventive. Few films yank in the viewer the way it does--with the street interviews, the scenes from Alvie's childhood, and his stand-up bits. The throw-away lines were hilarious--for instance, their dividing their buttons and his being all 'Impeach Nixon, Impeach Reagon, etc.'

I recall someone criticizing Keaton's acting as not "really being acting," when she won her Oscar. Hah!

What a sad surprise, too, how moving the ending was--Alvie's loss of that wacky girl was so typical of losses of that period. Any period?

Annie Hall evoked a time and a style so familiar....We stood in line to see Zelig and were just as annoying, for sure, as that guy in line for The Sorrow and the Pity, discussing of course Woody Allen's oeuvre.

The other movie which I saw today, is Say Anything. I missed it when it first came out, though I was always taken by the emblematic scene of him with the getto blaster, in the previews. The film was not predictable and it was memorable. I loved the ending that left me--and I would assume most viewers--wondering if Lloyd Dobler's and Diane Court's romance lasted even as long as Alvie's and Annie's.