May 23 Round Up
A collection of wood carvings at my local planetarium.
Took a while but we eventually got some good weather by the end of the month. This meant a few more outdoor activities, and I even took my book to the park one sunny afternoon. Dare I say Summer is here? Too early to say, but haven’t seen rain in a couple of days and that’s good enough for me. Enough meteorological chitchat.
The King of England did visit my back garden but I had a chiropractors appointment so our paths didn’t cross. If he gives me some notice next time, I’ll be sure to clear my calendar and take the day off work. Maybe.
Books
As I said last month, I decided to tackle a few longer books, which meant fewer titles completed. It’s about quality not quantity yada yada but I did enjoy immersing myself in these longer narratives, even if they both examined the opioid epidemic. I would say that I’ll probably restrict myself to one long book at a time going forward, and probably not about pharmaceuticals.
‘Demon Copperhead’ by Barbara Kingsolver was a modern updating of David Copperhead in Appalachia. A vivid and moving epic of a book that has plenty of dark places but you get swept away by the exuberance of the storytelling and the richness of the characters. Deserving of all the plaudits it’s currently receiving.
I didn’t know that ‘Demon Copperhead’ was about the opioid crisis before I started it, but I did with this one. Meticulously researched, ‘Empire of pain’ is written by Patrick Radden Keefe with a ‘controlled fury’ that astounds and infuriates. I got so angry with this book but yet couldn’t put it down - a modern non-fiction classic.
‘The last days’ by Ali Miller was our bookclub pick, a raw and honest account of the authors life as Jehovahs witness. Fascinating but a bit grim at times.
‘Anam Cara’ by John O’Donohue was the first book in my ‘Voyage of the dawn reader’ early morning series. I found a great deal of solace amongst the pages of this book, which is a mixture of Celtic mysticism and spirituality, Old Irish ways, literature, poetry and philosophy. O’Donohue has such a clear and erudite writing voice, he was a poet philosopher and his warmth shines through in this book.
‘The wind knows my name’ by Isabel Allende. Readers familiar with her work will recognise the sweeping storytelling, which starts on the kristallnacht and ends up in modern day detention centres. Allende draws parallels between refugees through the years, from ww2 to Central America to modern day, and makes some great points, but I never quite got into this.
Music
Just the one outing for me this month, and that was to see Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh, accompanied by Gerry O’Beirne and Donal O’Connor at the Aonach Mhacha. I’ve got stuck in a rut recently, not getting out and about enough, so this was the perfect opportunity for me to get some live music in.
The Aonach Mhacha is a social, arts and educational centre in the heart of Ancient Ard Mhacha, what you would call a cultural hub. I’ve attended classes in it, and I enjoy practising my dodgy gaeilge in the wee cafe. It’s great to have it close by, and I’m intending to use it a lot more in the future when I take up some more language lessons.
Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh is a traditional singer and musician from County Kerry and I’ve seen her countless times on TV over the years, so was delighted at the opportunity to hear her playing live. She has a wonderfully deep voice, and is an accomplished flautist. The songs were a mixture of Gaeilge and English, and some I recognised, most I didn't, but I enjoyed them all. There were a few Polkas and reels thrown in as well as some ballads, so a lovely mix. Really enjoyed my evening and would recommend Muireann and the lads if they are passing through your town.
Lots of YouTube to choose from but I’ve went with this one, the opener to her set. It’s an old song, and Muireann thought that the river it relates to is the Blackwater, which is just a lock of miles out the road from where she sang it. In fact, it’s a river that runs close to where my own father was born and reared, so I’ll go with it. It’s the sad story of a girl who has her heart broken after a man tricks her into believing he’ll marry her, after getting what he wants of course. The bad get, as we say around here.
Television
I discovered an Australian show called ‘Colin from Accounts’ during May. It’s a rom-com about a couple who meet after Gordon knocks down a dog when he is temporarily distracted by Ashley flashing a part of her anatomy at him.
Rom-Com’s are not my thing, but this works because it isn’t overly sentimental, and the characters reveal themselves slowly over the eight short episodes. But it mostly works because it’s just bloody laugh out loud funny, something of a rarity these days.
The two leads (real life couple) have a great chemisty, and likeable Gordon (Patrick Brammall) sometimes has a resemblance in his delivery to David Brent (I’m ok with that) whilst Ashley (Harriet Dyer) is funny and endearing and I loved her accent when she swears. Aussies are second only to the Irish at swearing, in my book.
It’s got some genuine funny moments in it, with a great supporting cast, but I think what I liked best was the script. The dialogue was snappy and felt real, as did the characters, who weren’t cliched. It’s a slow burner, with a good heart, and there ‘s a lot of joy there. Enjoyed this.
!!!!!!Succession Spoilers Ahead!!!!!!!
There. I can’t be any clearer than that. If you watch the show and haven’t got to the last episode, read no further. If you intend on watching it at a future date, leave this blog and get on with it. If you have never watched it, nor intend to watch it, you’ll probably find this bit boring. If you do watch it - Please let me know in the comments below as I’m dying to discuss it with someone. Phew. Think that’s everyone covered.
Firstly, to me it was an apt ending to a pitch perfect series. Satisfying, moving, funny, but mostly you could imagine the characters going on with their respective lives, which to me is important when a series end. I want the main plot lines tied up, and I want to imagine them later. It’s just where we leave them. Mad men was perfect in this regard.
Firstly Shiv. I think she did what she had to do. After Kendall put his feet on the desk, treated Stewy like an underling etc she saw the future. And she could not stomach him, no matter how much she loved him. I think she would eventually end up as the proverbial bird in the gilded cage. She would have a bit of influence as Tom’s wife, but it would be curtailed. The dynamic had shifted and he had the power.
Tom, hiding in plain sight, the man in the empty suit. With his high pain threshold and ability to, ahem, suck it up, he would be a perfect yes man for Mattson. It’s the sort of corporate ascendancy that’s easy to imagine and obvious in hindsight. And he now ‘owned’ Greg, who had learned from the best, getting what he wanted by trading information, a sort of jester who knew his limitations but worked well with what he had.
Ah, Roman. From the smile on his face as he drank a martini, he knew that he was never a ‘serious person’.As he said in the last showdown with Kendall:
“We are bullshit. You are bullshit. I'm fucking bullshit … It's all fucking nothing.”
He could never have been CEO and I think he would rediscover his earlier playboy lifestyle. He was more distraught by his fathers death than any of the siblings, and you feel he has a lot of trauma to work through.
What to say of Kendall? Jeremy Strong is such an incredible actor, nobody does a doomed walk like Ken. Of course his last scene was by the water, which played an important part in his backstory - the Chekov waiter really came back to bite him in the bum. I’m not sure if there was any hope for Ken, it’s hard to imagine how he would put himself together again.
The last scene with the siblings showed I think that Logan had successfully played them off each other, as he did for four seasons. They couldn’t bear to see the other succeed - the ultimate in sibling rivalry.
So farewell to the unhappiest, most selfish, power grabbing family on TV. Such perfect scripts, wonderful acting and beautifully shot television for over four seasons, I’ll miss it. But they’ve went on a high, wrapped up the characters story arcs and delivered an ending that felt right. Can’t say fairer than that.
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Farewell to Gordon Lightfoot, who’s back catalogue I’ve been enjoying this month. There are many songs I could share (‘Early morning rain’, ‘Sundown’ or ‘If I could read your mind’) but for some reason this one stuck in my head this month. I always thought ‘Daylight Katy’ was a about a tragic figure who walked the roads and stayed out all night, wasting her life by sleeping through the day.
I discovered today it’s actually about his cat. Daylight Kitty indeed.
Anyway, that's it for May. Thanks for reading and any opinions, please share below. See you in June.