Post Veterans Day/Pre-Thanksgiving

It’s that time of year… when calories might become a problem.

Also, I’m not sure whether to give any credit of any kind – extra or negative – to the house a few blocks away for putting up Christmas lights since Veterans Day.

This week, the bunch of us had a birthday dinner for FC/celebration for the 72 Hour Shootout (celebrating our making the top 35 this year).  See the links here: watch the video and all that. We ate a lot at Hill Country BBQ Market, in Brooklyn. Meat. Dessert. Whoa.

The passing of director Mike Nichols.  I remembered watching, years ago, the documentary, “Nichols and May,” on PBS’ “American Masters” – about Nichols’ career as a comedic duo.  (nice tribute from PBS).  Watching the documentary was great – Nichols and Elaine May were neurotic and hilarious, with ridiculous chemistry.  Their famous Mother and Son skit was smothering (of course), a little incestuous (uh…), and laugh out loud funny (oh, boy).  Embedded below – you should see this!

I looked over the list of Nichols movies and realized that I’ve probably seen more of his dramas than his comedies and not realized that those were his movies (that’s a compliment – while he was the director, the movies seemed to be actor-oriented – so that made those movies that rich in viewing for me, anyway), and I keep saying I’d watch more of those movies in the Nichols list (but… never enough time!).  I was reading how Nichols wasn’t the kind of stylistic director as a Steven Speilberg or a Martin Scorsese, but I admire Nichols’ versatility and interest in characters.

While I’m at it, I’ll also link to NPR’s Linda Holmes’ commentary on the career of Mike Nichols. Good stuff worth reading, on a varied and fascinating career and what Nichols’ storytelling really does in grappling on the what it means to be human question.

Also, glad I’m not in Buffalo.  A winter’s worth of snow… in a week. The lake effect is nuts.  Gothamist posted photos from Buffalo, with the cute dog in the snow (hopefully safe).  Gothamist linked to the news about NFL moving the NY Jets vs. Buffalo Bills game to Detroit because of the snow in Buffalo. According to Gothamist (in one of those laugh out loud lines): “The minute Detroit becomes the preferred weather-friendly destination, you know shit is real.”

That’s kind of funny: some Bills players had to snowmobile themselves to the airport to get the plane to Detroit. And, really, who in Michigan is going to watch the Jets and Bills? And, it’s not like people in Buffalo who aren’t Bills players or coaches or significant others will make the trek (well, free tickets). Jets fans, maybe? (umm, yeah, I’m not really a Jets fan)…

I’m apparently the only one proposing to sell Buffalo’s lake effect snow to California. True, it’d be expensive to ship, but hey, it’s a win-win idea. Help out people in Buffalo and California, and get money moving…

Behind on a lot of tv stuff this week. Bit of a Doctor Who withdrawal (might have to resort to watching Peter Capaldi’s other stuff). And I’m reminding myself that writer’s block is an illusion this month… Back to NaNoWriMo writing.