27 Wednesday Aug 2014
Posted in Escapes and Pleasures
Tags
"A Most Wanted Man", "Abuse of Weakness", "Frank", "Get on Up", Catherine Breillat, Chadwick Boseman, Isabelle Huppert, Kool Shen, Maud Schoenberg, Philip Seymour Hoffman
I enjoy movies as readers of MillersTime no doubt know. Of late, however, there haven’t seem to be too many ones to recommend for your consideration.
Here are three, however, that on various levels I found enjoyable:
26 Tuesday Aug 2014
Posted in Articles & Books of Interest
A friend sent me the article linked to below.
Since many of you who ‘read’ MillersTime are (have been) teachers or have worked in education and many more of you are involved with schools in one way or another, I thought I’d pass along this wonderful example of what one individual is doing in her classroom.
It should only take you a few minutes to read.
Feel free to pass it on to others.
One Teacher’s Brilliant Strategy to Stop Bullying, by Glennon Doyle Melton.
23 Saturday Aug 2014
Posted in The Outer Loop
Tags
"A More Perfect Union", Ferguson, Hilary Clinton, Polarization, President Obama, Race in America
My daughter asked me last weekend, “Don’t you think {President} Obama should go to Ferguson?”
I immediately said, “No. I don’t think he should.” And I talked briefly about the issue of local and state control. Although there was increasing tension and violence (on both sides), I didn’t believe it was the President’s role to go to the scene of the turmoil in that city.
But I also felt that Pres. Obama could not go, even if he wanted to.
For a variety of reasons, he has become a polarizing figure in our country. (See Why Obama Won’t Give the Ferguson Speech His Supporters Want).
20 Wednesday Aug 2014
Posted in Escapes and Pleasures, Family and Friends
Tags
"Abuse of Weakness", "Beautiful", "Frank", "Kinky Boots", "Once", Broadway Theater, Central Park, Family & Friends, Garry Winograd, Lincoln Center Films, Metropolitan Museum, New York City, Nom Wah Tea Parlor, Pace Gallery, Peter Luger's, The Astor Court
It was Ellen’s idea.
“Let’s plan a trip in August to NYC,” she said. “It’ll be similar to our one-week-a-year trips to a foreign city.”
I was skeptical: “NYC in August?”
But then I”m a married man, and so we headed to NYC last Friday, returning home today, five nights, six days later.
03 Sunday Aug 2014
Posted in Escapes and Pleasures
Tags
Thank you to friend and MillersTime reader Elliott Trommald for his Comment (which I only just saw this morning) on my post on the film Life Itself. He wrote:
01 Friday Aug 2014
Posted in Go Sox
Tags
Andrew MIller, baseball, Ben Cherington, Bill Beane, Boston Red Sox, John Lackey, John Lester, Red Sox, Sox, Yoenis Cespedis
Twenty-four hours ago I asked my wife Ellen to lock up all the sharp knives and put a barrier across the stairs to the third floor.
It was clear to me that the Sox were about to explode, that GM Ben Cherington was about to cast off, minimally, our two top pitchers and one of our top relievers.
For what? A bunch of prospects?
My well being was threatened, and I needed protection from acting impulsively.
This morning I told Ellen she could unlock the knives and take down the barrier to the third floor.
For the moment at least, things didn’t seem so dire.
31 Thursday Jul 2014
Posted in Escapes and Pleasures
Tags
"MillersTime" Film Reviews, 2014 Film Reviews, Best Films in 2014, Documentaries, Films, Foreign Films, Movies
Compiled below is the list of films I saw between Jan. 1, 2014 and July 31, 2014 that I rated from three and a half to five stars.
These categories are somewhat arbitrary, but generally the five and four and a half star films are pretty close, and I enjoyed those tremendously. The four star ones were all good, but I had some (minor) reservations. The three and half star ones were more problematical films but still worth checking out.
If a film did not make it into one of these categories, I did not write a review.
The ones listed below I recommend for your consideration.
29 Tuesday Jul 2014
Posted in Escapes and Pleasures
Tags
Bakery, BBQ, Bread Furst, Fat Pete's BBQ, Mark Furstenberg, Sushi, Sushi-Keiko, Thai Food, Thai X-ing
For those of you who live in the DC area, as well as those who come here on occasion, here are mini reviews of three local restaurants and a bakery that might have some interest for you.
Fat Pete’s Barbecue, Est. 2014:
25 Friday Jul 2014
Posted in Escapes and Pleasures
Many of you know that each year readers of MillersTime succumb to my pleading and endless reminders to send in the titles of books they’ve most enjoyed reading in the past year, not necessarily new books, just ones that have been their favorite reads of the year.
If you are looking for something to read as the summer moves into August, click on the link below, and I’ll bet you can find some good reads.
The Books Most Enjoyed by “MillersTime” Readers in 2013
PS – I’m also taking this opportunity to remind you that I will again seek your favorites come December, 2014. So be warned.
Finally, if you have a particular book you have read recently that you would like to suggest now (and not wait until the end of the year), please put the title and perhaps a one or two sentence reason in the Comment section. You could also send me an email with the title, etc., and I can add it to the Comment section.
21 Monday Jul 2014
Posted in Escapes and Pleasures
Tags
"Boyhood", Elijah Smith, Ellar Coltrane, Ethan Hawk, Lorelei Linklater, Patricia Arquette, Richard Linklater
Boyhood ****
The reviews of the new, independent film Boyhood have been almost exclusively positive, and, in most instances, the film has been acclaimed as one of the year’s best movies.
21 Monday Jul 2014
First, a few of Ellen’s pictures from the only MLB All Star game I ever attended:
20 Sunday Jul 2014
Posted in Escapes and Pleasures
Life Itself ****1/2
Often, a movie, particularly a documentary, sends me to the book upon which the film is based.
And usually, almost always, I find the written work better than the film version.
In fact, I don’t think I can name more than a handful of films that I found superior to the written ‘version.’
The current documentary, Life Itself, about the life and ultimately the death of Pulitzer Prize (1975) winning film critic (Chicago Sun-Times) Roger Ebert, is one of the instances in which I’d choose the film over the memoir.
30 Monday Jun 2014
Posted in Escapes and Pleasures
Chef ****
I was skeptical about this film before we saw it, but it was much more enjoyable than I expected.
27 Friday Jun 2014
Posted in Escapes and Pleasures
Tags
" J.K. Rowling, "Casual Vacancy", "Cuckoo's Calling", "The Silkworm", Harry Potter, Robert Gailbraith, Whodunits
If you’re looking for a book or two to add to your summer book bag and travels, and if you enjoy thrillers/mysteries/crime/detective/whodunit stories, Robert Galbraith, who is actually J.K. Rowling, has a new one just out.
Yes. That J.K. Rowling, the Harry Potter lady.
If you missed it, Rowling has turned her pen (computer?) to detective stories, and The Silkworm is the second in a series (reported to number seven). I reviewed her first one, Cuckoo’s Calling, earlier on MillersTime and wrote:
It’s good.
Maybe not as good as an Agatha Christy mystery, but if you’re looking for something along the line of a Steig Larsson book, you’ll probably like it, tho it’s not quite as good as Larsson’s first one, The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo.
The Silkworm is perhaps a bit better than Cuckoo’s Nest, but then when one races through one of these page turners, I’m not sure it’s about good literature, but more about entertainment.
16 Monday Jun 2014
Posted in Family and Friends
1. Grandson Eli starts the Memory game with me. (He likes to go first. And to make up the rules too.)
2. Eli, legitimately, crushes me in the first game.
3. In game two, Eli (barely) loses. Has minor ‘meltdown’ (formerly referred to as a ‘tantrum’).
(OK. The pictures aren’t as good as Ellen takes. But you get the point.)
My question is about winning and losing.