Becky's Greatest Hits Vol. II

 After hearing several people, including my boss, talk about how awesome this show is....I finally had to give it shot.  And I was hooked. Within minutes.  I think I didn't expect to like it because I wasn't really a fan of Yellowstone, another well-known Taylor Sheridan joint.  But dare I say, this show has more heart?  It's more relatable?  The characters are move endearing?  I mean.....honestly.....that's all mostly true.  In Yellowstone, I really didn't think I had anyone to root for.  Well, besides Kayce of course.   It was also all the hub-bub of Sam Elliott's speech about aging and the breakdown of the body.  I kept hearing about it again and again so I had to look that up first.  After that short snippet, like any good first-time user I needed a bigger hit.  So I downloaded the entire first season. I did not realize this show has very nearly every goddamm thing I love about life: strong family ties, gorgeous a...

 Oh, Adam.....you majestic whiny delicate artist of a man.  If I had known you, I know I would have dated you and then hated you. I did and still do love Counting Crows and Adam.  I love how this documentary really takes you back to the 90's......the time of sensitive, intelligent bands and singer-songwriters.  I like how Adam is willing to make fun of himself and the time we all lived in because it did generate it's share of jokes.  I love that he talks about his dreadlocks and his old romances and how different celebrity culture is now.  It makes me glad that the culture, by and large, has stopped punching down, takes mental health more seriously and looks back with nostalgia at what was truly a very, real and sincere time of creativity in America.   My favorite part of this doc on former First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson, is that it is told in her own voice from her recorded audio diaries.  What a gift her lovely Texas voice is!  I love h...

I really dug his first book with James Patterson , and I like this one pretty good too.  The only problem with this one is that I'm listening to it as an audiobook, and I don't dig all the voices.  A real first-world problem, I know.  And it's always kind of interesting to see how Bill is kind of spelling out how he sees himself in the world, or rather, how he wants to be seen.   This book by Rax King, on the other hand, makes it quite a joy to listen to her lovely voice as she reads her own, sometimes boring sometimes scary, escapades as a teenager and young adult.  Her full chapter on Creed makes the entire book with the read. For television viewing, I did enjoy the History Channel series of Thomas Jefferson, but got a little bored by the FDR episodes.  And that shocked me as I love FDR!  Something about the presentation and the actor portraying him looking a little too much like Kevin Spacey methinks. And even though I didn't see ANY of his mov...

 I know you're all very busy living your best fabulous lives in the summer, but don't tell me you don't want to crash on the couch with your dirty hair from time to time and watch some informative tv! When you're chilling in the domicile, why not learn something? Painkiller: The Tylenol Murders will remind you of that scary time back in the early 80's when we thought Tylenol was just the beginning.....soon all of our medicines would be poisoned!  This documentary gets into an interesting conspiracy I had no idea about and only vaguely remember, and it is FASCINATING!  It also introduces a very creepy man that will haunt your dreams and explains why we now have tamper-proof packaging.  The Paul Reubens documentary, Pee-Wee as Himself, touched my heart so much. As a child of the 80's I was too old for the Saturday morning show, but I loved his ridiculous Pee-Wee Herman movies.....even the circus one!  Seeing him as a young actor and performer, his self-enforced se...

 The Elizabeth Holmes/Theronos scandal is fascinating to me.  The idea that someone could take a simple idea and con millions of dollars in funding, start a company without perfecting technology and then wiggle into a reputable pharmacy like Walgreen's to set it up?  That's friggin amazing! I've watched several news pieces and docs about Elizabeth Holmes herself, but to see Amanda Seyfried tackle this multi-faceted persona is a whole other deal.  Is she a psychopath or a sociopath?  On the high end of The Spectrum?  A pathological liar?  It's hard to tell. Holmes' idea was a fantastic one, had it worked.  An invention that would only need to take one finger prick of blood to perform all kinds of lab tests for diagnosis was meant to be a medical savior for folks undergoing treatment that had received multiple blood draws for years.  It would have been wonderful, had it worked.   The thing is, the invention didn't work.  It never...

 So I recently survived pneumonia.  And survived is the correct word to use.  But I'm not quite ready to talk about that.  Yet.  Right now I want to talk about what I watched while I was in and out of consciousness on my couch and shuttling between doc appointments.  Running Point was so good I've watched it about 3 times now.  It's funny, warm, empowering and strangely reminded me of Ted Lasso.  I've loved the beautiful Kate Hudson since "200 Cigarettes" and basically just loved the way this show kept me guessing throughout.  When you're sick, you need something that's going to make feel good....give you hope.....make you feel less alone.  This did that.   The Residence is brilliant, fast and witty.  I started with it and had to stop because, honestly, my brain fog was too great to follow during the height of my illness.  But once that cleared, I was all in for Uzo Aduba and company.  This show is like a modern ...

 Late Winter/Early Spring had me sequestered in a way I never had been before.  I literally had no voice.  And I don't know if y'all know this, but it's hard to socialize in this world if you can't speak.  So I settled in and enjoyed a bit of telly. This could have been great, but it got bungled in the end. It's set up to be light and sexy, but how sexy can it be when a person who's actually loved and a part of the social circle is murdered?  This isn't Mr. Body being wacked in a gloomy mansion!  This is a bff.....a lover......a friend......the lack of concern and grief is yuck.  Other than that, the mystery is still fun to follow until it gets to the very end and is completely smashed up to end quickly and and neatly. I wonder if the novel plays the story out more gracefully?  To be fair, I was only really there for Liev Schreiber, and darling, he NEVER disappoints.  Babes is funny and ridiculous and still manages to be relatable. Let it be ...

 Winter is the perfect time to snuggle in with some entertainment.  Even though I haven't been reading much lately, I have managed to binge some good shows and catch a few new films.  What are your thoughts on my hot takes? I saw "Wicked" the week it came out and I was in love!  Being a lover of the novel from way back, I was intrigued to see how this was adapted from the book to stage to theater and all of it is wonderful!  The songs are lovely and fun and even though the film is long, I never wanted it to end.   I caught "The Greatest Showman" at home on a streaming service and loved it too.  Just like Wicked, the songs and overarching story guide a principle of love and acceptance and in the creation of a world inhabited by creativity and brilliance.  And there's Zendaya!   I wish I could say I loved "Juror #2" but I just didn't.  The cast was wonderful, but the story felt plodding and ham-fisted.  And was I the only on...

 Hoo boy.  Baby Reindeer.  It's a tough one.  It left me feeling heartbroken, angry, confused and with an even more heightened degree of how scary the world of interpersonal relationships can be.   I could say a lot about this, but there are several articles by Vogue, Esquire and others that unpack it way better than me.  Check those out. I will say this though.....all through the series I couldn't help wondering if the stalking situation would have been different if Martha were thinner, younger and more attractive.  And before you judge me, give it some thought and do some more reading.  And I also know there are tons of pieces of media about a femme fatale, sexy stalker type of woman who is bad news.  I get it. The one very painful thing that Baby Reindeer made me think about is how I have handled the support role to friends and family that have been sexually assaulted.  I wondered if I had said the right things, been kind enough,...

 I will readily admit that I have really gone back and forth on my feelings about the S&TC reboot, "And Just Like That".  I absolutely HATED the first season.  I was so shocked when Big died, that I honestly cried out "goddamm!" And at first, I was really mad about this unexpected plot twist.  Until I remembered what Carrie is all about.  Carrie is about chasing love and finding herself.  Carrie is about self-reflection.  Carrie, like the infamous Don Draper, is about ennui.   (Quick aside, do you think Don Draper is a little bit like Mr. Big?  Discuss.  Then imagine Carrie with Don.  It's not a tough leap if you think about it.) But on with our story here.  Carrie is a thinker.  She's always up in her head.  If she's happily married, that's hard to do.  What kind of content do you have to play with?  Carrie chasing after something she can't have is all we know.  Even in the S&TC movies....

  Okay, so y'all know I'm always late to the party.  This series originally debuted on the History Channel in 2018, but I only just discovered it on Hulu.  Look.....I never claimed to be John Fremont, okay? I don't know what it was about school history back in the 80's and 90's, but I don't remember much about what happened in America after the Civil War.  Or in the period between the American Revolution and the Civil War.  Especially if it happened on the West Coast. Geez.  My history education is pretty poor now that I think about it.  Most everything I've learned has been through reading and documentaries.  All I know is the voices of Campbell Scott and Peter Coyote sound like old friends at this point.   And I'm as shocked as anyone to realize I am now enamored with Kit Carson. Kit Carson.  A man known for his aggressive violence and fearlessness.  Also known for his intelligence and skill as a trapper and trail finder....