Monday 11 April 2022

Time For A Read And A Sherry,

Sunday has raced around again,


and the new book, 

 Jaguars & Electric Eels by Alexander Von Humboldt, so far is a enjoyable read,

we did not have a starter, so straight in with a leg of lamb, with gravy for Diana,

sans gravy for myself,

'Cheers!',

for dessert,

strawberries and a tiramisu, then time for Sunday afternoon and evenings films, we started with an old favorite,

from 1960 though set in 1941, Sink the Bismarck!, full of stiff upper lip, it was a interesting film from my point of view if for no other reason one of the Swingate kids had a Dad who was on one of the ships in the sinking of it, 

in those days there was a naval base H.M.S. Pemboke in Chatham, where one side of my fathers family originally came from, also I spent more than a few days there when the faculty was open to the public on Navy Days, this is a 1954 example of a typical 'Navy Day' for the public, I seem to remember my first day to watch the spectacle I must have been about 8 or so four years after the article, but back to the battle to sink the Bismarck, for a more factual account of the battle have a look here,

 we followed that with Ice Station Zebra, we had watched the film before, but way back in 2016, very enjoyable to watch again, 

we followed that with Philadelphia, a great movie and a great soundtrack, based on a true story, Andrew Beckett, a gay lawyer infected with AIDS, is fired from his conservative law firm in fear that they might contract AIDS from him, at the time of its release 1993 it was considered by many to have come at just the right time to make the public aware of what AIDS was and how it affected people in real life,

as it happened in real life the man the story was primarily about, lawyer Geoffrey Bowers, had already died, but in 1984 his family launched a $10 million lawsuit against Hollywood producer Scott Rudin, TriStar Pictures and the creators of the movie "Philadelphia," charging that the film is substantially based on Bowers' story,

the family said they have received no acknowledgement or financial compensation for the information they provided, despite what they said was an oral agreement with Rudin to provide such recognition, "Philadelphia," the first mainstream Hollywood movie about AIDS, it had grossed $36.6 million so far at the time the lawsuit was instigated, 

we rounded off the evening with another great favorite of mine, Rare Birds, Dave is down, his wife lives in Washington, D.C.; his restaurant, the Auk, in an out-of-the-way Newfoundland inlet is dying, his neighbor, Phonce, contrives to keep Dave in town by faking and reporting the sighting of a rare bird, I really liked this conversation when a photo was published of the rare duck and Dave was worried some one might blow up the picture and find it was a fake,

Phonce: 'Dave who is going to blow up the picture? the International Bird Police? Interbird?' 

a great music soundtrack makes this feel good movie even better, and as an aside it is this film that I often quote by saying, 'always have a plan B Dave', and with the end of that we were off to bed.


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