Goodbye Burt

Today I heard that Burt Reynolds had passed away.

Last weekend, Smokey and the Bandit was on TV, and we watched part of it. It was weird to have only seen it just last weekend, and now to hear of his passing.

This is Us

Netflix put the first season of This is Us on a few months ago. During my vacation in October, I started watching it. I've been watching Season 2 on TV ever since I got caught up.

They say that you will laugh, and then you will cry, with every episode you watch. "They" are not wrong. It is a very touching series, tackling some very real issues. And I'm surprised when each episode I laugh out loud, only to burst into tears a few moments later. I'm especially in love with the acting ability of this man...

His name is Sterling K. Brown, and he plays the character Randall Pearson. He won his second Emmy for this role, and his performance on the series is proof as to why he deserves it.

RIP David Cassidy

A few days ago, it was announced that David Cassidy was in the hospital with organ failure. Today, I got the word (thru Twitter) that he passed away awaiting a liver transplant.

I'm sad to see one of my teenage crushes pass on. He died at only 67. And that makes me feel old.
What was most annoying though was when I mentioned his passing to my co-workers. Two out of the three girls I was speaking to, say "Who's David Cassidy?". *sigh* That makes me feel even older.

Josh who?

Have you heard of Josh Gates? He used to host this show called Destination Truth.

 

It was a show where he would take you around the world hunting for strange creatures and paranormal phenomena. They often interviewed local residents, researched the history of the creature and/or the area and searched for physical evidence using various types of cameras and recording devices. It was an interesting show. Made even more funny and interesting to watch because of the Josh Gates' great sense of humour. His witty running commentary on everything made watching the show even more hilarious and interesting. Not to mention, that he's not hard to look at... if you like the Hugh-Jackman-ish-manly-man-kind-of-look...

But Destination Truth got cancelled, or maybe it was the SyFy channel that is was on went belly up. Either way, it's been a few years since I've seen the show. So, imagine my surprise when channel surfing the other day, I came across a show called Expedition Unknown.

It is very similar to Destination Truth, with Josh Gates as the host. I ended up watching a couple of hour long episodes. And got hooked all over again.

RIP Stuart McLean

Stuart McLean passed away today.

If you don't know who he is, I would encourage you to listen to his stories online, on YouTube, or read one of his books. He's a Canadian radio personality who told really good stories. Canadian stories. His Vinyl Café series revolves around a family that live back East. And are very "Canadian" in nature. I got one of his Vinyl Café audio CDs around the middle of November, and have been listening to his stories on my long commute home. So, I'm a recent fan. And I'm a little upset that he passed away so soon after I "found" him.

Oscars 2016

We watched part of the Oscars last night. Sorry to say, I wasn't impressed. I kept thinking that if I took a drink every time they said the word "black" on the show, well I would be completely drunk in the first 1/2 hour. I did keep tuned in (somewhat) in order to see Leo win his first Oscar though.

And all that talk about the movie - well, I decided to start reading The Revenant before we see the movie. I did that with The Martian, and I'm glad I did. While the movie was great, the book was infinitely better.

close encounters

She looked a lot shorter in real life.
She looked a lot older in real life.
She's very thin and looked very fit.
But she wasn't very nice.

Her name is Jamie Lee Curtis. And we ran into her at the airport on the way to Portland last week. In her defense, it was like 6:00 in the morning, and I guess I would be a little grumpy if some stranger tried to talk to me. But I did speak to her. And she spoke back. So, now I get to blog about it!

Pillars of the Earth, and other coincidences

As part of my Project 52, I wanted to watch the Pillars of the Earth movie. It is a 10 part miniseries done for Showcase or HBO about a year or two ago, based on Ken Follet's novel. It did air in Canada, but I missed it. Well, I was going to rent the DVDs, but then CBC decided to rebroadcast the series. Every Tuesday night, for the last 10 nights, at 9:00pm. I watched each episode including the finale which aired last Tues night.

What did I think? For a mini-series, it was pretty good. Lots of good actors, and suspense, and twists and turns in the plot. As a reproduction of the book, it paled in comparison. The book was just so full of details and character development, that the movie didn’t have a chance of repeating. As a result, the movie did not follow the book 100%. The writers obviously took a lot of liberties with the story line, as a lot of the stuff in the movie just didn’t happen that way in the book. But, that’s not to say it wasn’t a good movie. It was, and I did enjoy it. It was, in its own way, entertaining…. Just different from the book is all.

What really twisted my noodle was this guy….

His name is Matthew Macfadyen, and in Pillars of the Earth, he played Prior Phillip. I spent the better part of 2 or 3 episodes, trying to pinpoint where I had seen him before. And then, I looked him up on the internet (what would we do without Google?) I knew I recognized him!! He also played Mr. Darcy in Pride and Predjudice (one of my favourite movies... it's the one I have on my iPod, and I watch it all the time when I'm travelling)

In Frost/Nixon, he played alongside one of my other favourite actors, Michael Sheen. (that’s Matthew on the right).

AND… he played the Sheriff of Nottingham in the most recent Robin Hood movie (with Russell Crowe). What a coincidence, but we have that movie on DVD, and we recently watched it again too!!

He’s an interesting actor to watch. He definitely gets into each role, and portrays each character with a style that you don’t find in many mainstream actors. I think I find him intriguing because he’s a fellow Scorpio. Or, maybe it’s because he’s British. But, his style and versatility do remind me of another British Actor, who recently won an Oscar for Best Actor… Colin Firth. Who, by the way, is also one of my faves (loved him in Love Actually) and who also played Mr. Darcy in a version of Pride and Prejudice. Don’t you just love coincidences?