Wassup, cheese bags?
Not much new at Casa Pablo. Waiting to see how Donnie wriggles his way out of the latest scandal, not that there’s much doubt he will.
Made breakfast for my beloved this morning — scrambled eggs with scallions and linguica, sliced honeydew melon and an English muffin on the side. No photo? What was I thinking?
Daughter Polly reports for work at a nearby Goodwill donation center this morning: not as much per hour as In-n-Out but full time with regular hours & benefits (that’s the part they never tell you with fast food, that’s it’s always part time and you have to be available 24/7), so at least she’ll be able to contribute to her upkeep while she looks for something better. She’s also signing up for a couple of online classes with Pima Community College. We’re working it.
Donna’s Mexican bird of paradise plants are beginning to bloom, thanks to monsoon rains. So is it birds of paradise or bird of paradises? Dictionary.com says birds of paradise, which is what I thought it should be but didn’t trust myself enough to commit. I love these plants, by the way. Donna put the two big ones in when we landscaped the yard 21 years ago. The smaller one off to the side grew naturally from a seed dropped by a bird, and there’s another young one with red flowers, but it’s hidden behind its parent.
Getting the beak over Amazon Prime. We used to enjoy a British crime show called Hinterland, part of our AP subscription. A friend recently mentioned seeing it listed on Britbox and sure enough, AP has moved Hinterland and a couple of other series we used to watch over to Britbox, which requires a separate monthly subscription. Then this morning the same friend recommended Dark Skies Dark Winds on AP, an American show about tribal police set in the Navaho Nation, and it turns out AP’s charging $2.99 per episode — to its own subscribers!
People talk about now Netflix is changing, but when it comes to fast, frequent, and unwelcome changes, I give you Amazon Prime. How long will it be before streaming TV and movies are completely cut out of AP subscriptions? Even though free shipping was all you got with your subscription before the company got into the streaming business, I think AP members today have a different set of expectations. And I, for one, am pissed to see them charging extra for show after show that was either part of the deal originally, or new ones that should be.
Speaking of good shows to watch, though, HBO Max has V for Vendetta, which we re-watched last night. This one holds up. The Wachowskis got a lot right about our authoritarian future, but their imaginations could not conceive of a Trump, so they gave us Chancellor Sutler instead, more of a 1984 Big Brother type (maybe that’s how deSantis will turn out to be, so who knows). As always with a re-watch, we picked up on new details and made new connections — a rewarding experience. And since we already pay for HBO Max, we weren’t asked to pay extra to watch it.
Stay fresh, cheese bags!
I believe I’m the only US resident who’s never used Amazon. In the first place PayPal is an unregulated illegal bank. In the second place it’s owned and run by evil Lex Luthor. Thirdly they exploit their labor like a company store. And finally, you can’t buy anything without signing up for an ‘account’. Since they bought Whole Foods and deny bargains to non members I’m boycotting them too. I hate Amazon and everything they stand for. I even hate that they’ve besmirched women warriors and the biggest river in the world. Thanks for letting me get that off my chest. Next time I won’t sugarcoat it.
I feel similarly to cable teevee so it is cheap antenna broadcast networks for this skinflint. And they burned me in like manner to you. By getting me hooked on ancient Midsomer Murders and the fabulous architect George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces and The Restoration Man. Then the Brit channel, Digi-TV, folded! I’m bereft with only Toon In With Me cartoons at 0700, and the fabulous 1970s Rockford Files three times a day. That Angel Martin, what a crook. It’s a consolation.
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I did a quick edit. The name of the new Amazon Prime show is Dark Winds, not Dark Skies. It’s based on the work of author Tony Hillerman, and damn, I really want to watch it!
I read most of Hillerman’s Jim Chee/ Chief Leaphorn Navajo mysteries. Well crafted and soothing rather than gripping. Rather like Dick Francis. Some son or daughter took over the waiting franchise post-mortem but you know that never works out. Well, maybe for Pliny the Younger.