Finished the first draft of the essay that’s due in a few weeks. 5000 words, though who’s counting? I wasn’t given an upper limit. I suspect it’s going to grow a bit on my first round of revisions, then perhaps shrink on subsequent rewrites, so it could end up pretty much where it is right now in terms of length.
I missed the first few episodes of Blue Bloods, since it airs on Friday nights, but it’s not a bad program. Tom Selleck is solid as always, and I like Bridget Moynahan, who I wasn’t familiar with before. Donnie Wahlberg is very good, though I’m still not sold on his character’s partner, played by Jennifer Esposito. Good to see Nick Turturro (NYPD Blue) again. I never made the connection between him and his brother John before.
A neat episode of Fringe this week, flashing back to the aftermath of Peter’s abduction from the other side. I loved the 80’s pop version of the opening credits. It’s funny that one of the most reliable throwbacks people use to invoke the 1980s is the failed Betamax. The whole bit made me think of the Dharma years on Lost. I found it interesting to learn that Peter met Olivia when they were kids. He doesn’t seem to have any memory of that now, does he? “The beguiling Olivia Dunham beguiles.” She trusted him immediately, telling him a secret she wouldn’t even tell Walter, though she does later and Walter comes through to her defense. The scene where she gets caught between the two Walters was a little disorienting at first. Looks like there’s a break next week: two weeks until the next new episode.
We watched The Right Stuff last night. I’d never seen it before. For a 25+ year old film, it holds up well. Interesting to see all these well established actors all those years ago: Ed Harris, Randy Quaid, Sam Shephard, Barbara Hershey, Jeff Goldblum, Kathy Baker. Donald Moffat made an excellent Lyndon B. Johnson, having a hissy fit in the back of his limo when John Glenn’s wife, who suffered from a debilitating stammer, refused to let him into the house with the network camera’s during Glenn’s flight. Saw Levon Helm’s name in the credits, too. He was the narrator. The scenes during the culling of the 100+ candidates down to the seven with the right stuff were the most interesting parts of the film, but the whole thing was good and the 3+ hours flew by.
