Tidy Tidbits

MUSICAL TREAT

Chanticleer (Singers.com)

When we lived in San Francisco, we were fans of and Chanticleer subscribers.  We heard them perform in large and small venues and felt as if we got to know some of the singers a bit.  This men’s acapella choir tours around the U.S. and has even sung abroad.  It was delightful to hear them locally in their Christmas concert at the Sarasota Opera House.  None of the guys were familiar to us, but it was a wonderful evening of medieval songs, traditional English carols, and even a few popular tunes.  For a taste of their exquisite harmonies, here’s a link to a 2021 rendition of “I Wonder as I Wander.”

VIEWING

The Chief Penguin and I finished watching The Crown last week which, despite the opinion of critics, we thought was well presented.  And yes, we know it isn’t a documentary and the filmmaker has taken creative liberties with some scenes.  In the later episodes Charles, now king, is portrayed quite positively, while Imelda Staunton is a convincing Queen Elizabeth.  

Extraordinary Attorney Woo  (Netflix)

Attorney Woo in court (Study Breaks Magazine)

Thanks to my sister Sal, I am enjoying this legal series.  It’s a South Korean series about a high-functioning autistic young woman who is a newly hired lawyer at a prestigious firm.   Although she struggles with everyday tasks like walking through a revolving door, she has a superb memory and is a creative thinker.  Her portrayal is sensitively done, and one sees her colleagues gradually accepting her oddities and her abilities.   The cases and clients are challenging ones for the firm, and Woo’s insights are often key to a successful resolution.  

There are 16 episodes, each an hour long, and I’ve now watched three of them.  As a side note, I read that several years ago, the state of Florida hired its first autistic lawyer, also a woman.   

BOOK NOTE–MARGOT

I subscribe to BookBrowse, an online newsletter highlighting new publications.  There are reviews, author interviews, and suggested titles for book groups. Some content is free to anyone. As a subscriber, I have the occasional opportunity to request an ARC (Advance Reading Copy) with the understanding that I will either share my impression of the book in a short review or participate in an online discussion of the book by formulating and posting a series of questions.  I much prefer to do a brief review.  

I just finished reading and posting a review of a novel to be published in Jan. 2023. It’s entitled Margot by Wendell Steavenson.  I had mixed feelings about it as you will see if you read my First Impressions on the BookBrowse website at:  https://www.bookbrowse.com/reader_reviews/details/index.cfm/ref/rr50935

Holiday cheer in Winter Park, FL

Note: Header poinsettia photo and snowman ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)

November Interlude: Dining Out in North Carolina

We spent Thanksgiving week in North Carolina enjoying relaxing times with family, but also dining out with my sisters and brothers-in-law. Chapel Hill and Greensboro offer a range of choices; here are several we tried. I also admired the last of the fall colors, here and there spectacular red and blazing yellow foliage.

IN GREATER CHAPEL HILL

Tarantini

An inviting casual Italian restaurant in the Governors Club development. The menu offers pasta, pizzas, and both veal and chicken dishes. The house and Greek salads were good, and, our table had several orders of lasagna and one of the beef short ribs. I had their chicken piccata with capers in a nicely thick lemony sauce. Service was very friendly, but our waitress was too eager to clear the plates.

Flair

Flair Fusion Restaurant (TripAdvisor)

Flair is a sister restaurant to Tarantini in the same complex and somewhat more elegant in its décor. It is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner with a menu that has some Asian touches. We had dinner and the food was delicious.

The entrée menu runs the gamut from sophisticated salmon and chicken dishes to shrimp and grits, lobster ravioli, and lamb osso bucco with risotto. There are also burgers, Asian noodle and rice dishes, and a wide range of starters including a tasty duck confit egg roll which I ordered. For my main course, I opted for rice vermicelli with veggies and shrimp in a scallion ginger sauce. A pleasant vibe and professional service make this appealing for a return visit.

PITTSBORO

The Modern Life Deli & Drinks

We always look forward to lunch and shopping in historic Pittsboro, just down the road from Chapel Hill. Our usual place is the S & T’s Soda Shoppe, but they are often closed around Thanksgiving. They were this time too, so we returned to The MOD for their good sandwiches, salads and pizzas. Noteworthy were the grilled cheese and bacon sandwich and the soft pretzels accompanied by mustard and an addictive queso which we all dipped into.

CARY

Academy Street Bistro

Exterior & courtyard of Academy Street Bistro (The Triangle Explorer)

Located in old downtown Cary in Ashworth Village, Academy Street Bistro is an attractive casual place serving both lunch and dinner. For summer days, there’s lovely patio seating. We had lunch here and appreciated the warm welcome and the delicious salads. My Caesar salad with grilled chicken was just perfect; the thin strips of chicken did not overwhelm the greens. Others in our group had their salads with a tasty crab cake on top. 

Ashworth Village is a charming set of shops including an olive oil and vinegar store and a gallery featuring works by local artists. This part of Cary is very walkable. We checked out the impressive new regional library and a grand red brick elementary school that is now a performing arts center.

GREENSBORO

Green Valley Grill

Located in the same area as the Proximity Hotel and its Printworks restaurant which we have enjoyed, the Green Valley Grill is adjacent to the O. Henry Hotel, Proximity’s sister property.  The dining room is spacious and attractive with dark wood and high ceilings. The menu is creative, and the chef has upped the ante on some standards with intriguing twists.  We began with za’atar spiced crispy cauliflower for the table.  

The Chief Penguin and I each ordered chicken salads; he the peasant variation with a tomato vinaigrette and I, the grilled chicken Cobb with Gorgonzola dressing.  A and P sampled the farro salmon salad and the white flatbread topped with several cheeses, mushrooms, and broccolini.  Everything was very good. I’d be happy to explore the menu further!

BACK HOME IN SARASOTA

Bijou Garden Café

Under new ownership for a about a year now, the formerly named Bijou Café revamped and redecorated and became the Bijou Garden Café.  Recently, we came to celebrate our anniversary. The new décor is lovely, even elegant.  One of the dining areas, which we liked, has been given over to the bar and bar seating and seems to be very popular. 

Swordfish

The menu has been streamlined, shortened actually, and a couple of my favorites like the chicken paillard and the trout are among the missing.  The entrees emphasize meat—beef, lamb, and duck, with prices ranging from $38 to $43.  I ordered the grilled swordfish on orzo with spinach which was delicious and less expensive at $30.  The Chief Penguin’s chicken Provencal with roast potatoes was a bit under seasoned.  This was our second dinner here, and we still miss the old Bijou.  I don’t think we’ll hurry back.

Fall foliage in Cary

Note: Photos of fall color in Cary and swordfish photo ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)

Tidy Tidbits: TV, Novel, & Meal

RECENT VIEWING

FLUFF FOR FUN

Love and Gelato (Netflix)

Lina promises her dying mother that she will spend the summer before college in Rome.  In this bonbon to Italy, she falls in love with the city and the people.  Along the way, she has several romantic interests while being under the protective care of Francesca, her mother’s longtime friend.  It is a summer of firsts for Lina as she wonders about her unknown father.  The movie is based on a young adult novel of the same name.   I happened on this when I was looking for some treadmill viewing.  It’s cute and sweet, and less predictable than I expected.  

LASTING TRAUMA OF WAR

Causeway (Apple+)

James and Lynsey in Causeway (Slant Magazine)

I had just read a review of this new movie starring Jennifer Lawrence when the Chief Penguin and I were settling in to watch something else and up popped a link to Causeway.  It’s a slow measured film about returning Afghanistan vet Lynsey who suffered a brain injury from an exploding IED.  

Returning home after rehabilitation, she struggles to put a life back together.  She meets car mechanic James who lost a leg in a car accident, and the two hesitantly gravitate toward spending time together.  They are about as dissimilar as can be, one white, one Black, one straight, one gay, but both broken in some way.  The performances are moving, Brian Tyree Henry’s as much as Lawrence’s.  It’s painful viewing at points, but a meaningful film.  

UNUSUAL HEROINE

The English (Amazon Prime)

Blunt in The English (FilmBook)

Emily Blunt stars and is an executive producer of this western set in 1890 on the plains in Kansas and Oklahoma.  Based on the review I read, I was predisposed to like it, but I’m finding it hard going. 

Blunt is Lady Cornelia Locke, an English woman bent on revenge for the killing of her young son.  On her journey, she encounters and is rescued by Sgt. Eli Whipp, a now retired Pawnee scout, played by Chaske Spencer.  His goal is to file a land claim for an allotment in Nebraska.  They are an unlikely pair, but slowly they begin to accept each other, and a fragile trust is born.  It’s a lawless time out west with every man out for himself.  

The scenery is stunning, the violence gruesome and gory, and the pace is deliberate and slow.  I’ve watched almost three episodes of the six while on the treadmill, but it’s so slow, that I may return to it when I am not moving. 

NEW FICTION

FAMILY SAGA

French Braid by Anne Tyler

Tyler at 80 (Sydney Morning Herald)

Tyler’s most recent novel, French Braid, was my book group’s pick for November.  While I didn’t love this book, most of the group didn’t care for it at all.  We grappled with whether Mercy, the mother, was the focal point and if she was a typical woman of the 1950’s and 60’s, frustrated in middle age in her attempts to have a career. 

Over 60 years, the book follows the Garrett family of Mercy, her husband Robin, and their three children, Lily, Alice, and David. It begins with their first family vacation in 1959 through the children’s marriages, Robin and Mercy’s 50th wedding anniversary, and the arrival of several grandchildren.  They are a diffuse collective who are often detached and aloof from one another.  

Mercy, an aspiring artist and unfulfilled mother, effectively leaves her husband for her art, but neither she nor the other family members publicly acknowledge that fact.  David, the youngest child, seldom communicates with his parents or sisters and quietly marries a work colleague.  In later years, a grandson doesn’t socialize with relatives believing they are unaware that he is gay and has a partner.  

Tyler’s writing is always engaging even if you don’t care for the characters.  You can appreciate what she is doing and how she demonstrates that common personality traits or actual gestures persist through the generations. They connect these seemingly disparate individuals like the kinked strands of hair in a French braid.  (~JWFarrington)

DINING OUT

Scuderia Italian Cuisine, Bradenton

Located next to the Oakmont Theater on Cortez Road West, Scuderia is a new addition to Bradenton’s dining scene.  It specializes in pizzas and pasta in an open space with an industrial feel to it.

We dined here recently with friends and found the service friendly and welcoming and the food very good.  The portions are generous, and several of us had some to take home for the next day’s lunch.  Among us, we sampled the penne pasta with meatballs, clams with linguini, and several of the chicken dishes.  I thought the chicken franchaise with spinach was particularly good.  Side salads came with a wide choice of dressings.  Good for casual dining.  Next time, we should try a pizza.

Note: Header photo is a scene from the film, Love and Gelato (Netflix Life).

Tidy Tidbits: Reading & Watching

Although it is still warm and summery in Florida, November ushers in a season for looking inward and spending time inside. With that in mind, here are thoughts on some of my recent reading and viewing.

RECENT READING

SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC

Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout

If you’ve read other novels by Mainer Elizabeth Strout, you may be acquainted with Lucy Barton.  She was introduced in My Name is Lucy Barton, and readers learned about her marriage to first husband William in the most recent work, Oh, William.  I’m a big fan of Strout’s work and have read almost all her novels.

Illustration from The New Yorker

This one, I found especially poignant and meaningful.  Lucy by the Sea takes place from the beginning of the pandemic until the vaccines become available.  The first part is hard to read; it brings back so many memories of the uncertainty and then fear, many of us felt about this deadly new virus.

Lucy’s second husband David has died, and William comes to New York to take Lucy to Maine—initially she thinks for just a few weeks.  They are in a rented house by the water and the changing weather, and the roll of the seasons, play a role in the story.  Lucy is a novelist but also a fearful person, whose deprived and neglected childhood has made her feel inferior and not special.  

The novel is told primarily through Lucy’s voice.  It’s a strong voice on the page as she muses about William’s quirks and lacks, reflects on past events in her two marriages, and worries about her grown daughters, Chrissy and Becka.  Given that she and William are in lockdown away from all but a few new friends, it’s a time for contemplation and assessing one’s life.  

For me, this book was a meditation on love of all sorts: marital, maternal, friendship—and on grief.  Grief over the losses of spouse and friends and grief over the troubles and trials of her daughters’ marriages.  It’s a beautiful novel, and I highly recommend it! (~JWFarrington)

RELIGION IN AN ENGLISH COUNTRY HOUSE

Ashton Hall by Lauren Belfer

Lauren Belfer came onto the scene in 1999 with her wonderful historical novel, City of Light.  Subsequent books include A Fierce Radiance about the invention of penicillin and After the Fire, a quest to learn about a long-hidden music manuscript.  I thoroughly enjoyed all three novels. Her latest novel, Ashton Hall, is set in the present, but in an old English country house with secrets in its attic.  

As usual, Belfer’s latest work is thoroughly researched, so much so that at times I felt the history she wanted to share slowed down the narrative.  One of the contemporary characters is a boy who suffers from autism.  His behavior is challenging and yet, he is the one who uncovers the initial secret.  Creating this character and making him a focus were obviously important to Belfer.  I read the novel through to the end, but overall was disappointed.  There was too much going on and too many disparate strands for it to be a satisfying whole.  

VIEWING

CRIME OFF SCOTLAND

Shetland Season 7 (Amazon Prime)

Jimmy (Henshall) & Tosh (Alison O’Donnell) (The Sun)

This is Douglas Henshall’s last season as detective Jimmy Perez, and it’s an excellent season.  A young man, a graphic novelist, is reported missing.  His mother is distraught and his father, an ex-policeman, has skeletons in his past.  When there seem to be possible links to eco-terrorism, the search for Connor becomes more complex, and there are more bodies.  

Perez is dedicated to his job, but the strain of it is beginning to tell.  He is both burying and fighting his feelings for Meg, a nurse.  Meanwhile, his team of Tosh, Sandy, and Billy, are as engaging and effective as ever, making for some great ensemble acting.  There are seven episodes encompassing one overarching storyline.  Highly recommended for fans of complex crime series! Season 8 with a new, yet-to-be-named lead will be filmed and released in 2023.

CROSS CULTURAL LOVE STORY

From Scratch (Netflix)

Lino & Amy (BuzzFeed)

From Scratch, a Netflix original series, is the story of what happens when a young Black artist from Texas goes to Florence and meets an aspiring chef from Sicily.  Against her parents’, particularly her father’s, wishes, Amy leaves home to take a painting course in Italy.  Lino, estranged from his farmer father, is working as a cook in a Florentine restaurant.  They both have dreams of greater success, and they resolve to make a life together.  Initially, it seems that bringing their respective families to acceptance of their relationship will be the greatest challenge.  But not so.

I thought the first few episodes were overwritten and overplayed in terms of racial and cultural stereotypes.  Amy’s father was particularly egregious.  Later episodes are tamer, and I’ve stuck with the series (eight episodes), having become fully immersed in Amy and Lino’s story.  It’s a passionate, at times heartrending, drama, based on Tempi Locke’s memoir of the same name published in 2019.  

Note: Cover photo of a November sunset ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)