Johann Georg Hainz’s Cabinet of Curiosities, circa 1666. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons During the Renaissance, cabinet of curiosities came into fashion as a collection of objects that would often defy classification. As a precursor to the modern museum, the cabinet referred to room(s), not actual furniture, of things that piqued the owners interest and would be collected and displayed in an aesthetically pleasing manner. Collectioun of Cunnynge Curioustes is my 21st century interpretation of that idea.
Dear Internet,
You can follow me on Pinterest on what I’m reading, watching, and listening.
Johann Georg Hainz’s Cabinet of Curiosities, circa 1666. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons During the Renaissance, cabinet of curiosities came into fashion as a collection of objects that would often defy classification. As a precursor to the modern museum, the cabinet referred to room(s), not actual furniture, of things that piqued the owners interest and would be collected and displayed in an aesthetically pleasing manner. Collectioun of Cunnynge Curioustes is my 21st century interpretation of that idea.
Mark Williams plays the titular character, a wily priest who solves crimes in his Cotswald parish. Three seasons are now out and I’ve been bingeing on them during down time.
Mr. Selfridge
Jeremy Piven plays the titular(I like this word, okay?) character that’s now starting its third season in the UK (to be shown in the US later this spring). Lots are going on now that we’re at the end of WW1, but I won’t divulge due to spoilers.
Billie Piper plays Belle, a high class sex worker, who starts at the beginning of the series with a nice flat that she splits between work and play, who navigates her way through the private sex worker world. I binged the entire series in a week and I really liked it. I liked how they had her slowly progressing over her rather humble beginnings and ends up being one of the best sex workers in London. Some things were never really addressed such as her relationship with her family and several main characters came on and were then, within a season, gone. All in all, I would definitely recommend if you need something fluffy to take the edge off a hard week.
BBC’s lavish production based on Hilary Mantel’s best selling book about the rise and fall of Thomas Cromwell. This is also going to show up on PBS later this spring, so again, no spoilers. Overall, the production may be sumptuous but I’m finding it slow and rather boring.
An Amazon original that’s winning awards, I am torn about this show. Many of my trans* friends are unhappy with the production because a trans* person is not playing the main character. I get that, but this is about the beginning of their transformation, so it makes sense to me that it’s a non-trans* person in the role. The show does have trans* characters played by trans* people and there are trans* folks also act as consultants for the show, so that does mollify it a bit. Overall, there is no one character that is likeable and everyone seems to be pretty dreadful (seems to be the new thing in H-wood) with no redeeming characteristics. It’s simply, “okay.”
Another Amazon original, Gael Garcia Bernal plays a wild yet genius conductor who is hired by the New York Symphony to make it more relevant. There is conflict, passion, and absurdity abound, but it feels a bit staged and formulaic. But I really liked it, despite it’s pretentions. Produced by Jason Schwartzman, same dude who did Bored to Death, it’s got some dark humour sprinkled in which I do adore.
Justified
Boyd Crowder is baaaaack. ‘Nuff said.
Galavant
It’s four week, eight episode has ended. For a musical, I really, really liked this show. Like a lot. I loved the modern interpretations of the costumes, I adored the pop culture references, and how the show was one giant ball of satire. I cannot wait for the second season.
10 episodes of what was essentially a Warehouse 13 meets Night at the Museum, it was neither serious but wasn’t really that great either. I know it raised the heckles of some librarian friends because no one apparently had a MLIS, but for what it was, it was good background watching.
Johann Georg Hainz’s Cabinet of Curiosities, circa 1666. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons During the Renaissance, cabinet of curiosities came into fashion as a collection of objects that would often defy classification. As a precursor to the modern museum, the cabinet referred to room(s), not actual furniture, of things that piqued the owners interest and would be collected and displayed in an aesthetically pleasing manner. Collectioun of Cunnynge Curioustes is my 21st century interpretation of that idea.
Speaking from Among the Bones (Flavia de Luce #5 ) by Alan Bradley
(Amazon | WorldCat | GoodReads) Last year, I was skeptical about carrying on with the series, but I am delighted that book #5 has picked up from the mistakes of book #4 and has been vastly improved upon. The plot twist at the end was definitely not one I was expecting, but considering it has been building up over the course of the series, it was not a major surprise. Flavia is still a delight and her unabashed love for the inspector and his wife, the parental units she never really had, is pushed to the side of the story rather than taking a random, “Oh let us talk about it when I need filler” back seat. But considering what Bradley is setting up, it seems more reasonable we should be discussing this more than not. There are other matters that need to be addressed, which weren’t, but hopefully that and the twist will be the set up for book #6.
P.S. Just found out that there is a movie coming in 2015 of the first book! That is kind of exciting.
Watching
Stella
Christmas special and fourth season confirmed, Jones’ is in talks for a fifth season of this brilliant show. At the surface, it’s a show about a young grandmother (Jones), trying to make it in the world her own way while handling her still young family, her career, and her love life while set in the adorable Welsh town of Pontyberry. But dig deeper, and it’s a show purely about relationships, personal, familial, and intimate, and how there is no one size fits all to any of them. It’s also about being true to you, even it means going against the grain. Stella is not a flash show — it’s not a procedural, it’s not wiz bang, it’s not even really much of anything but a slice of in medias res but the writing, the characters, the side stories endear the fuck out of this show to me. Friday nights are the best nights when this show is on.
Mr. Selfridge
Now beginning its second season in the US, I won’t reveal much other there the show seems to be picking up in terms of story and appeal. Lots is going to happen this season, some of it seems predictable and others, not so much. This show is very much still finding its feet, but it’s going much further then its counterpart, The Paradise, ever hoped to go mainly due to the wealth of side stories happening, making it much more entertaining and enjoyable to watch. Season 3 has been commissioned, so we’ll very much be hearing more of the world of Selfridge’s.
W1A
Never let it be said that the Auntie is not immune to poking fun at herself — picking up where Twenty Twelve left off, our hapless hero Ian Fletcher is now the head of Values at the Beeb and well, hijinks ensue. It’s a short series, only four episodes, but because it’s not centered around an event like Twenty Twelve was, there is a lot of potential to keep it going. Well, as long as Hugh Bonneville can fit it in between his tenure as Lord Grantham.
Honest
A one off series of six episodes from ITV, Honest is available on Acorn until April 7. I banged this out over a few days and was surprised to learn it was not renewed for additional series. You’ll definitely recognize many, many of the actors from various current shows, the send up of it being a criminal family going straight was not badly handled (it had a few gaffes, but what show is absolutely perfect its first time out?), and it was what TV should be – entertaining. If you have Acorn and are looking for something to watch this weekend — this is it. It is also available for on Amazon Instant Prime.
The Walshes
Only three episodes for the entire series, the tales of a close-knit Dublin family alllllmooost made it, but not quite. Written by Graham Linehan, he of Father Ted, Black Books, and other fine television shows, it should be funnier! Punchier! Quotable! But The Walshes, the family, came across as creepy losers rather than loveable rejects.
Blandings
At some point, I am going to do a piece on my love of drawing room comedies, and especially on my old buddy Plum, but it is sufficient to say that another season of Blandings has ended and for that, I am sad. But the wealth of new quotes and such I’ve picked up will forever live on, guv’nor.
Top Gear
Everything I know about cars, I’ve learned from Top Gear. This season felt shorter than usual, but it was still highly entertaining. Carry on, my bridge building friends.
Johann Georg Hainz’s Cabinet of Curiosities, circa 1666. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons During the Renaissance, cabinet of curiosities came into fashion as a collection of objects that would often defy classification. As a precursor to the modern museum, the cabinet referred to room(s), not actual furniture, of things that piqued the owners interest and would be collected and displayed in an aesthetically pleasing manner. Collectioun of Cunnynge Curioustes is my 21st century interpretation of that idea.
Dear Internet,
Watching
Doc Martin
Finally finished up season 6. While on one hand I love the curmudgeonly doctor, the plot lines each season are exactly the same.
The Musketeers
Nice retelling of Dumas’ story, that also expounds on the story. It’s coming to BBCA this spring.
Mr. Selfridge
Season 2 of the hit show returns
The White Queen
I just finished the BBC version and then found out the Starz version was edited to INCLUDE more sexy times! Argh! But that aside, while the slow pick up, it got really interesting and started ramping up as the moves happened across the throne.
Moonfleet
Based on a beloved children’s story as a retelling of Blackbird, but the movie adaptation was bor-ring.
The IT Crowd
THE INTERNET IS COMING! The last episode of the benevolent geek show.
The Bletchley Circle
QI
K series has now ended and we’re ever more sad for it.
Black Sails
Starz’s new show about pirates and it’s slow going. Choppy editing and writing. It’s pretty to look at, but kind of vaccus to listen to.
Johann Georg Hainz’s Cabinet of Curiosities, circa 1666. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons During the Renaissance, cabinet of curiosities came into fashion as a collection of objects that would often defy classification. As a precursor to the modern museum, the cabinet referred to room(s), not actual furniture, of things that piqued the owners interest and would be collected and displayed in an aesthetically pleasing manner. Collectioun of Cunnynge Curioustes is my 21st century interpretation of that idea.
Dear Internet,
This week I was in Minneapolis for Library Technology Conference, which turned out to be a pretty awesome thing. I presented on, How I Stopped Worrying and Learned To Love Institutional Repositories and got to meet a lot of awesome people. Before I left, I wrote about my packing list, which turned out others were into the packing list idea like me. The follow up is coming soon. TheHusband threw his back out when I came home, so we’ve been taking it easy around here though I have a lot of work to do over the weekend.
Writing
Last weeks Collectioun of Cunnynge Curioustes included nearly 20 entries from The Lisa Chronicles, mainly from 2008, that I was able to get online. The wonkiness of the site issues prevented me from putting up an intro, so consider this to be it.
Reading
I Am Half-Sick of Shadows (Amazon | Local Library | GoodReads)
By Alan Bradley
While at LibTechConf, I observed something I had always suspected to be true – even the most techiest of people prefer print books.
In a conversation with a friend, we were rationalizing the difference of an ereader and a paperback while traveling, namely that for most of the flight (if the flight is relatively short), the ereader has to be turned off and stowed. It also has to be unpacked when going through security lines and there is always the danger of cracking the screen. None of this is a problematic with paperbacks. While I had my iPad and my laptop with me on this trip, both were too cumbersome to read in bed, while using public transportation, and obviously while in an airport and on the plane. After passing through security on my way to my gate to get home, I slipped into a bookstore and picked up the fourth Flavia de Luce mystery, I Am Half-Sick of Shadows.
I loved the first three titles of the series and I’ve been waiting forever to get this book via the library in print and eBook form, but the wait was always too long. While I swore I would not buy a book this year, I was desperate. By the time my flight landed several hours later, I was more than half-way through the book. I inwardly chuckled as people on my flight struggled with their ereaders and laptops during the flight while I happily read my paperback. A proper review will be forthcoming.
Watching
Formula 1
Lewis Hamilton has left McLaren for Mercedes – how will McLaren fare this season? Will I have to shred my tshirt in disgust? Will I get up at at 4AM to watch the Pan-Asian runs? How is it possible all the drivers are inhumanly beautiful?
Top Gear UK
The seasons ended with a bang, almost literally, as the boys were sent to find the source of the river Nile, which had them driving all over Africa. The views, as to be expected, were breathtaking.
Mr. Selfridge
Staring Jeremy Piven playing the titular role loosely based on the life of American Harry Gordon Selfridge, who opened up the eponymous department store in London in 1909. Mr. Selfridge walks the viewer from the opening of the store to all the trials and tribulations of the Selfridge family, key store employees, and other people of the era. Much more palatable than The Paradise, BBC’s version of similar story, ITV seemed to waste no money making the store, the set, or the storyline luxurious. It’s coming to PBS in a few weeks.
Chicago Public Schools ban Marjane Satrapi’s Perseopolis from the classroom, but state copies can stay in the library. Except, most of those schools don’t have a library.
Why I’m changing my tune on paywalls
I’m a big fan of Open Access, but for content that isn’t, I’d rather pay a monthly/quarterly/yearly fee to gain access rather than be bombarded by pop-ups, link bait, badly placed and designed ads when I go to read an article.
Bamboo DiRT
A collection registry of digital research tools for scholarly use.
Speaking from Among the Bones (Flavia de Luce #5 )