Old So What

  The Veil on Hulu. This is a very convoluted series of 6 episodes.   If like me you are left with questions, I suggest you go on-line and do a little research.   Or you can stress yourself out trying to figure all the plot twists and turns by yourself. Is it worth the effort? In a word: YES! This show is excellent. It’s sharp, it’s edgy. It’s keeps you off balance, not knowing what will happen next. It has an international cast, most of whom are extremely attractive, and more than that, they are talented. Elisabeth Moss is not one of my favorites, but the fact that she was one of the executive producers who put this show together, speaks well of her. It should be mentioned that the writer for this project and another executive producer is Steven Knight. If you like spy thrillers, interesting characters, and a production (except for the music which is peculiar at best and jarring at worst), that is well done on a professional level then this series is for ...

  Maybe I’m taking a proprietary view here in that this successful series, which ran on HBO, from June 1998 to February 2004, should remain part of its time, without an appearance in 2021. Talk about a fish out of water! This is not good. Leave Sex and the City alone.   You have tortured and abused the original enough. It was in, its time, for the viewers of that time, a very enjoyable show. As one of those viewers, now I can no longer look at it. It has been distorted beyond all meaning...beyond all redemption. What are you trying to achieve here? I think what you have created is an unrecognizable Frankenstein.   And an unlikeable one at that.  

  An Internet personality for our times. Cash is in real estate:   leasing apartments in New York City.   He likes some questionable properties if you ask me, but maybe it’s because he is the most optimistic person on the planet. Not that there is anything wrong with that. He also dissects the neighborhoods that the properties are in. He speaks of relevant issues such as:   the safety of the location, available transportation, and local places he can personally recommend. Cash also takes trips outside the boroughs of New York.   He takes his wife (Japanese born) and his two very sweet children to Japan occasionally.   Whether this is business or pleasure I don’t know, maybe a little of both. Wherever he goes for his videos, people seem to know and like him.   Why not?   Cash is a likeable guy, and sometimes his comments are really funny, but his thoughts are always original.

  Delivery services always deliver what you want most… last.

  You will enjoy this 2015 film I’m very sure. It has everything:   good script, good director (Steven Spielberg) good producers, (one of whom is Steven Spielberg)   good actors. Based on a good story. A true story.   It grabs your attention and holds on in no small measure to the acting ability of its star, Tom Hanks.   He should be called:   Mr. Believable. You find yourself so caught up, so captured by the story and actors that you end up rooting for everyone, even a communist villain. Warning:   This is a feel-good film!

  We used to learn this stuff in school. So here goes… George Washington was the first president of the United States of America. The most important fact about him to me has always been that at the beginning, the founding of this country, he was offered the title and role of “king,” but declined.   He didn’t view this title as appropriate for the American soul, mind or spirit. Bravo to him. The world had had enough kings and queens.   This was a new chapter and it deserved a new beginning, a new title. President Washington was a hero! Period! He served as President from 1789 to 1797. He is known as the Father of Our Country.   Born on February 22, 1732 in Virginia (One of the original 13 Colonies.), President Washington commanded the Continental Army, which fought for independence from England during the Revolutionary War (1775-1783). Because he was so trusted, he was asked to preside over the  Constitutional Convention,   which was responsible...

  Zsa Zsa Gabor If you don’t know who she was then why are you reading this blog? Ms. Gabor was an actress and celebrity, known for her many marriages, approximately nine (though I don’t think she counted one as an actual marriage), and her many humorous, inciteful quips. (I used to see her in New York City when I lived there as a child/adolescent.   My family and I seemed to run into her often right outside the entrance to Saks Fifth Avenue. Not that we knew her, we did not, but after every encounter my mother would embarrass us, her children, by doing her imitation of Zsa Zsa ad nauseum.) Zsa Zsa was an actress, mostly known for her style, beauty, sense of self-deprecating humor, inside stories about fellow celebrities, wealth and most of all her vulnerability. That last characteristic was what people liked most about her. We felt as if we knew her, personally.

An internationally, well-respected actor is now appearing in a film on a YouTube channel. I won’t say his name… I won’t name the other stars or cast… Because I want to shield him. Why? Because he was a rare talent, a one-of-a-kind, and one of everyone’s favorites.   Now deceased, when he was young, he was truly beautiful…OK, then, handsome complete with a charming accent.  (Maybe most accents seem charming to us, Americans, I admit.) Now, as an older actor, he was still charming, but clearly should no longer be playing romantic leads. When a close-up view of the back of his head appeared on the screen, wearing a large bald spot, really large, toupee-style large, then I became angry. The following scenes had the toupee in place, that’s how we know for certain that this lapse was a giant mistake. It’s clear that no one on-staff at the film or in his employment had looked out for his interests, for his dignity, which I am certain included concealing missing hair. There is us...

  you have not been absent from the planet, or living on the very fringes of it, so, therefore you are acquainted with the actors (meaning actresses, too) that I’ve written about so far.  If this is of no interest to you, please let me know through this blog, I don’t wish to waste your time. However, if you do find this topic valuable, please let me know that, too. SO, since this may be my last entry on the subject, I feel free to add my favorite actor, and that’s saying a lot! People just adore this man. Johnny Depp One of the most gifted actors of our time. Go see the film, “Minamata,” starring and produced by Mr. Depp as the American photo-journalist, W. Eugene Smith.  Go see the film, “Minamata.”   It’s so much more than just a motion picture.

  Brian Dennehy, an American actor with a beautiful Irish name. To say he was an award winner is to put it mildly with two Tony Awards, An Olivier Award, a Golden Globe and six Emmy nominations. He also had one of the most beautiful, polished speaking voices with a friendly face and manner that made you think, “Here is a nice guy!” Mr. Dennehy died in 2020.   He made over 180 films and performances on stage and television.   And, as very rarely happens, he was a gifted character actor who fit in equally well as a leading man.  

  If you haven't viewed the movie, “Moonstruck,” it may be because you’re too young to have seen it when it arrived in 1987, because this was a BIG, BIG Movie.   If you travel back to that time, you’ll notice there are no cell phones. Time has stood still in a very good place.   But this is a movie bursting with good things!   Great things, including the director, Norman Jewison. It’s-A-Feel-Good and Leave-The-Theater with a Smile-On-Your-Face Celebration! The cast is topped off with:   Cher, Nicolas Cage, Olympia Dukakis, John Mahoney, Danny Aiello and Vincent Gardenia.   Everyone in this production is la crème de la crème. Described as a “Romance/Comedy,” it’s more like a slice of America at a poignant moment, an America very proud of its family traditions and ties to each other.   It gives us just another reason to appreciate our country. Here is a movie as they used to make movies. Alongside the main plot are other stories, and other char...

  I had my mother-in-Law with me by the hand; we were by ourselves; we were up to no good. My husband always claimed that he couldn’t take us anywhere; we were an embarrassment.  We laughed at all the wrong times: weddings and funerals were our specialties. That day, mom and I were headed for Lit’s Department Store and the best tasting, but bad as could be for your teeth, peanut brittle in a can.   It must have been before 1977 because that’s when Lit’s closed their doors for good. We took a short cut behind an historic building in Philadelphia, named Congress Hall. There was a back entrance to the building, I don’t recall if there was a single or double door.   Not that it really matters except that out of this door (or somewhere near it, I didn’t see this part) around 12 Noon came Queen Elizabeth II all by herself.   You can’t make this stuff up. No MI-5, MI-6, palace guards or whoever is supposed to be with the Queen to protect her.   No one, just ...

  If you don’t know the work of Michael Keaton, then Hulu is giving you the opportunity. “Dopesick” is produced by Mr. Keaton, who is also the star. He is gifted, believable and (in a time of overuse of this word): charismatic!   You always root for Michael Keaton! He captures your attention as soon as he enters the screen.   I literally cannot take my eyes off of him. I know that whatever he is doing it will be interesting and capture my thoughts, my imagination, and, probably, my heart. (Mr. Keaton has made many amazing films. You can look them all up, of course.   My favorite is one from 1994, a comedy/drama named, “THE PAPER”, which also stars Marisa Tomei, Glen Close and Jason Robards. You simply cannot go wrong with a cast like this.)