Category Archives: Television

An Aspidistra [blooms] in Bethesda

Obsessions, Plant, Television, , ,

When I was still living with my parents I used to live for Sunday nights when I could settle in front of the TV and watch Masterpiece Theatre with Alistair Cooke on Channel 11, our local PBS station. One of the mini-series’ I remember watching was Country Matters, a dramatization of stories by H. E. Bates. The one dramatization I remembered most of all was An Aspidistra in Babylon. Actually I really only remembered the title and because of that I wanted an aspidistra, or cast iron plant, of my own.

I found one, years ago, at a yard sale in Savannah, Georgia. I bought it and foolishly planted it in the yard. The person having the sale said it would do well in our yard, but perhaps she didn’t understand we were from a state quite a bit north of hers.

For my birthday this year Andrew and Alex gave me an aspidistra after hearing me mourn the fact that I’ve never found one. It’s spindly and only has two leaves, but it seems to be thriving.

Before we left for our trip to Southern California for Christmas I noticed a new green bump near the soil and was overjoyed, thinking I was getting a new leaf. I’ve checked it regularly — usually when I water it (rarely because it hates wet feet) — and there never seemed to be any change. Yesterday was watering day and I noticed that it had developed some markings, not unlike a demogorgon with a closed mouth.

Today I took another look. The demogorgon’s mouth opened! It wasn’t a new leaf after all, it was a flower!

Found Items: Dark Shadows Memories

Memories, Obsessions, Television, , , ,

A while back I cleared out part of the kneewall and pulled out my suitcase of teenaged memories. It’s mostly packed with Jeremy’s letters, but I found other memories inside. One of which was a stained manilla envelope labeled Dark Shadows’ Memories. Inside the envelope were pages I’d torn out of 16 Magazine and perhaps Tiger Beat too.

Stained manilla envelop labeled Dark Shadows' memories

I am not sure exactly when I first saw Dark Shadows, but I know that I watched it when I was in 6th grade. I think I’d heard about it and remember watching one episode alone in a dark room and was terrified.

It could have been Eugenia Mack who really got me into watching Dark Shadows. I remember running to her house after school so I could watch it. She lived a little closer to school than I did. It began at 3 pm so we always missed a little bit of it. Her parents worked, so no one was there to interfere with us watching a soap opera about vampires, witches and werewolves.

I stopped going to Girl Scouts, and therefore was not allowed to go on a camping trip.

I guess it was my first obsession, and a gateway to many related obsessions. Based on the last photo it looks like I still enjoyed watching it in late 1970. Or at least I still liked David Henesy.

My two favorite characters were Barnabas Collins (played by Jonathan Frid) and David Collins (played by David Henesy). Barnabas was such an empathetic vampire. You couldn’t help liking him. He was soft-spoken and gentle.

Dark Shadows by Frenchy. Drawings of many of the DS characters including Barnabas in the foreground.
Photos of Barnabas and Quentin with songs from the show.
Photos of Jonathan Frid getting ready for work

As for David Collins — it wasn’t so much his character, but the actor himself. I was madly in love with David Henesy. In fact, I remember that when I was in stressful situations at school I would imagine David was my boyfriend and living in New York. You see, we had a long distance relationship.

I mean, look at that face. I bet you are a little infatuated with him too!

I was so jealous of Doreen.
My brother took this photo of me at my request. See how much I loved David?
I must have cut his face out of the third photo in the first row. Maybe for a locket

I didn’t like all the characters. In fact I thought Quentin stank, at least in 1970. I guess I just didn’t like handsome werewolves.

Escape

Entertainment, Reading, Television

I’ve been filling my time lately with books and videos. I’ve been either reading or listening to books or podcasts about books. I’ve been watching whatever will take me away from the thoughts in my head.

Reading

Other than current book group books, I’ve decided to read books I own: hard copies, e-books or audio books or books I can borrow from the library. I’m starting with the book group list of books that Diana sent out a few months ago. I’ve gone through the list and highlighted what I read (or remembered reading).

I began with A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra. This book was one I was pretty sure I would not finish. Our book group met to discuss it in September of 2017 and I’d not gotten very far in it. It took place during the Chechen wars and I could not handle the background. I don’t think I even noticed how beautifully it was written because of the atrocities that were described. I tried to read it again, a few years ago, but ended around the same place I stopped the first time. I finally decided I was going to read/listen to it or make the decision it would never be for me. I am glad I did because it turned out to be one of the most beautiful, haunting, sad books I have ever read. I’ve recommended it quite a lot since I finished reading it last month.

The next book I read was our current book group read, Have You Seen Luis Velez? by Catherine Ryan Hyde. I liked it, but I really like books about friendships between young and old. The young man in this book was 17 and the older woman was 92. The book was light and pure escapism. It was about fitting in and the kindness of strangers. Just what I needed.

Then I moved onto another book I had trouble getting into: The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery. The book group met to discuss this in February of 2009. I don’t remember if I went to that meeting or not. I did want to read it but I remember feeling it was too heavy to read at the time. I’ve since picked it up a couple of times, but never long enough to get into it. I finally finished it last week — reading some via my KIndle and listening to some via the library’s Libby app. My thoughts are that if the whole book was as good as the last quarter I may have finished it long ago. I reviewed it on Goodreads.

I finished Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah yesterday. I would not have read this had I not seen the Netflix series based on it and if the series had not ended on a cliffhanger or three. I was compelled to finish it, but it left a bad taste in my mouth once I read the author’s note at the end. I felt like a fool spending my time reading this and having my emotions played with when it was basically a public service announcement. I reviewed it on Goodreads which includes a hidden spoiler.

Yesterday I went back to the bookgroup list and started The Secret History by Donna Tartt. This book was a book group read before I joined the group, I believe. I am not sure I like it, but I am going to give it a couple more days.

Watching

Dean and I are watching the remake of All Creatures Great and Small on PBS. It’s good. I expected to feel nostalgic for the actors from the original series, but the actors in this remake are quite good. It was a little jarring to see Mrs. Hall played by someone young and attractive. And I admit that I missed Peter Davison as Tristan at first, but I might like Callum Woodhouse even better.

I binge watched Emily in Paris over a couple of nights. Fun, funny, escapism.

I also binge watched Bridgerton and Firefly Lane. Loved Bridgerton and thought Firefly Lane was good, except that it ended with several loose ties.

I need something to watch now. Any ideas?