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Sunday Selections Week 36

15 Comments Posted on September 6, 2015September 6, 2015 by Snoskred

I had zero plans to garden this year. Three Sydney Funnelwebs have been found on this property since Autumn. For those of you not familiar with this creature, it is extremely venomous and quite aggressive. Never fear, there are no spider images here. I would not do that to you! Arachnophobes know better than to post certain pics as a surprise to other people.

But then, I saw these gorgeous gloves at Aldi, and I re-thought my zero gardening plan. Maybe I would feel more comfortable wearing a pair of substantial gloves. We tried them on – The Other Half got large ones, my hands fit perfectly into medium.

My zero plans were quadrupled into “no *#@!&*%$ way am I gardening this year” when two absolute nitwits posted images on a local community group of Sydney Funnelwebs they had found out and about after the floods. UNSUBSCRIBE ME URGENTLY! I left both groups. Life is way too short for spider images on my Facebook feed. The damage was done, though. My skin crawled for an entire week. Not cool at all!

These people had put these creatures into plastic containers with sawdust, which implies keeping the creature long term. That freaks me out. Plus I feel like it is a bit cruel to the spiders. Not quite as cruel as what my chickens do to them which is dead them and eat them. But if they are found on my property, I’m backing the chickens 100% – dead them and eat them, girls!

Gardening this year was back on my agenda despite the images, because the chooks have been getting plenty of free range time and they have been spending a lot of it in the garden bed. I’ve compromised with a – sort of – gardening plan.

I decided to put some baby spinach, silverbeet, and brussel sprouts into the large planter box. I’m not sure how it will go because last year the kale was a massive failure in there – many moths laid eggs on it and they never grew the way they should have. I might end up screening this planter box in, if that happens again this year.

Into the large garden bed, I planted two Nasturtium plants. There is already one Nasturtium down the back and when the chooks are in the garden bed they mostly leave it alone. There are bugs to dig for, ain’t no chook got time to be eating plants! If I pull some out and throw it into the chook pen they gobble it up with great glee, because they have usually already eaten all the bugs in there before midday. I will buy any new varieties that I see of this plant because I love the flowers *and* humans and the chooks can eat it.

The chooks are on the lay again – on average I am getting 3-4 eggs a day. When I make my snacks, I sometimes mix a Manning Valley egg in with the girls small eggs, which are the largest ones they sell.

If I were *not* an Arachnophobe, I would post a picture of this little orb weaver which I see every single day when I check the chook coop for eggs. It has found a tiny home in a small screw hole on the chook pen and every day when the sun rises, it folds itself into this teeny spot.

I’m ok with certain kinds of spider making a home around the chook pen – they help with catching mosquitos and flies. Once I know where the web is, I am not likely to walk into it by mistake. The only thing that spider has to worry about is the chooks, who will eat any spider they see. Luckily they cannot reach where it is, nor could they see it unless he moved. It is well camouflaged. My little friend will find many tasty treats this spring and summer.

If I see one of those scary aggressive venomous creatures, I’m probably going to want to be on the next flight to Antarctica. I’m certainly not going to be putting it into a plastic container, nor will I be trying to kill it myself, and there will be a lot of screaming.. You’ll hear it, wherever you are.. :)

Would you like to join in with Sunday Selections? The rules are very simple:-
1. post photos of your choice, old or new, under the Sunday Selections title
2. link back to River at Drifting Through Life, somewhere in your post
3. leave River a comment so that she knows you’ve joined in and can come over and see what you’ve posted.

Weekly Wrap Up –

Loads of goings on here at home, but nothing especially exciting that has not already been turned into a future blog post. My readers who have zero interest in Mr Robot can skip this next bit because it is a Mr Robot Finale Festival! ;)

The Mr Robot finale was awesome in some ways, but also slightly disappointing in some ways. I think the extra week of waiting meant that my expectations were very high..

Alan Sepinwall said “What a fascinating, off-kilter, 100% “Mr. Robot” way to end this season” and on reflection I have to agree with that concept. I have not re-watched it yet purely because I did not feel ready to – I’m letting it sink in first. One thing I do know, that scene in Times Square was an enormous explosion of colour in a usually quite muted show colour palette.

I’ve collected up a roundup of interviews and linkage for you. SPOILER ALERT – there are spoilers in these interviews. You do not want to click unless you have seen the entire 10 episodes of Mr Robot.

Interviews with Rami Malek

‘Mr. Robot’ Star Rami Malek on the ‘Emotional’ Season Finale (SPOILERS)
Rami Malek of USA’s ‘Mr. Robot’ | ‘The Andy Greenwald Podcast’ – This interview is older but was deeply excellent. Grantland has a lot of Mr Robot content – Grantland – Mr Robot
Rami & Twin Sami on Jimmy Kimmel – Having a twin is a great way to figure out what you would look like with a beard and a different hairstyle.

Interviews with Christian Slater –

Christian Slater weighs in on Mr. Robot twist and season finale
Mr. Robot Speaks: Christian Slater on ‘Mr. Robot’s’ Shocking, Roanoke-Delayed Finale and Season 2

Interview with BD Wong –

BD Wong on Why Mr. Robot’s Portrayal of a Transgender Character Is Radical

Interviews with Sam Esmail –

Sam Esmail Joins Andy Greenwald To Discuss ‘Mr. Robot’ First Season This is an hour long video interview – it was brilliant
Mr. Robot’s creator ‘did everything in my power’ to telegraph the big twist
Mr. Robot finale: Creator Sam Esmail answers burning questions
‘Mr. Robot’ Boss Talks Finale and Season 2: Elliot “Is Past the Point of No Return”
Mr. Robot Creator Sam Esmail on His Plans for Season Two and What the Show Is Really All About
‘Mr. Robot’ Finale: Series Creator On White Rose, The Wellicks & Elliot’s Memory Dump In Season 2
So… what did you think? – Sam Esmail asked what people thought over on Reddit and he also replied to a few of the comments.

Opinion re the finale –

How the Mr. Robot Finale Tumbled Backward into Its Most Piercing Social Message Yet
How Mr. Robot Killed the Centerpiece of Prestige Television: Capitalism
How Mr. Robot Became One of TV’s Most Visually Striking Shows
Mr. Robot had a perfect season on Rotten Tomatoes

About the mail program Elliot uses –

‘Mr. Robot’: How A New Product Feature Was Incorporated By ProtonMail After Discussions With The Producers

Over To You –

Anything interesting happening in your world? :)

Chickens, garden, Happy Snoskred, Mr Robot, Sunday Selections, weekly wrap up

Ten Years Ago Today

10 Comments Posted on August 21, 2015June 15, 2015 by Snoskred

The TV show Six Feet Under aired their final episode.

Even ten years later, with a multitude of shows that have since ended, I still believe that Six Feet Under has one of the best ever endings to a show.

The show was uniquely placed to create an amazing ending because it was a show about a funeral home and it had a certain style, each episode began with a death and the show was essentially about the funeral of that person. I’ve never seen anything like it, and I’m not sure we will ever see anything like it again.

You can read the oral history of the ending here – ‘Breathe Me’: The Oral History of the Six Feet Under Finale’s Death Montage

If you never saw it or you want to revisit it, here is a link to the youtube video. I do warn you, BYO tissues, even if you don’t know these characters.. it is so sad and yet beautiful at the same time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNwARV9tPUw

looking back, television shows

Mr Robot First Episode airs on 7 this Friday

11 Comments Posted on August 20, 2015August 19, 2015 by Snoskred

Another quick heads up re Mr Robot, which I have previously written about here and here.

Seven will air the first episode tomorrow – Friday 21 August – sometime after the AFL game finishes. Click here for more info.

Yes, I know, you cannot trust the free to air channels in Australia to air something on time, when planned, or when they say they will air it. I would rarely recommend viewing something via free to air tv, purely because they shaft their viewers on a regular basis.

And they wonder why people torrent and pirate?

However, I love this show so much – in particular the first episode and that amazing ferris wheel scene – that I am telling you about this, so you can attempt to see the first episode and decide if you like it enough to *ahem* source it via alternate means. Whether that be via Presto, or other means, that is down to you. :)

When it will appear, nobody could actually tell you. Unfortunately you can’t rely on your episode guide to tell you. Shows routinely begin 15-30 minutes before or after they are scheduled to begin. Usually after.

Check your local guide, then tune in half an hour before that says it will air just in case they start it early which does occasionally happen just to mess with the viewers minds, and plan to see it about half an hour to an hour after the guide says it will start.

If you are going to try and record it, record the entire football match and the rest of the scheduled shows that evening. Hopefully somewhere in there, you may catch the show.

The good news is, they are only showing the first episode, so no need to try and rely on them to show you the same show in order during the same time-slot for 10 weeks running, which they almost *never* do.

If you catch it, drop back and let me know what you thought in the comments on this post. :)

Mr Robot

Sipowicz Says #1

8 Comments Posted on August 19, 2015August 5, 2015 by Snoskred

What would benefit you, somebody smacking you in the back of the head for about six straight hours, but we got homes to go to – Andy Sipowicz, NYPD Blue.

NYPD Blue

Mr Robot Available in Australia on Presto

Posted on August 15, 2015August 15, 2015 by Snoskred

This show, you guys. This is by far the most amazing show I have experienced in 2015. We just saw episode 8 this week and it was a total mind explosion.

It is rare for me to feel a level of trust for the people who are behind a show this quickly. I’m someone who usually needs a good couple of seasons to believe things which have been excellent will continue to be excellent long term.

But here, I have a level of faith that things will continue to be excellent and wherever this show is going, *we* are on board for the ride.

The things I most love about it –

– the weird camera angles they are using

– Rami Malek as Elliot. If this guy is not nominated for an Emmy next year, I will be incredibly surprised and disappointed.

– Christian Slater as Mr Robot. I’ve always been a big fan of Christian Slater and that is not going to change anytime soon.

– The epic levels of mind bending and twists as a surprise. You really need to be mentally alert to watch this show and make sense of it, and some of the episodes require more than one viewing to try and catch everything that is happening.

– In episode 8, BD Wong makes a guest appearance. I will not even show you screenshots because they would spoil the awesomeness of it. You can tell that he is having a great time and I have to say I love it when that enjoyment of a role is apparent so clearly to the viewers.

I said in my previous post re this show that I would let you know if and when it becomes available in Australia, so here is a heads up.

The first 7 episodes are now available in Australia on Presto, for which you can supposedly get a 30 day free trial, though you need to provide a credit card on signup and I’m not sure what the deal is myself or when the remaining 3 episodes would appear, so caveat emptor and check things out fully yourself.

Remember, Snoskred is on holiday at the moment. Comments are turned off.

Mr Robot, television shows

Television Tuesday Reminder – Bosch on SBS

6 Comments Posted on July 29, 2015July 26, 2015 by Snoskred

The first episode of Bosch airs tonight – Wednesday 29th July at 9:30pm. If you tune in at 8:30pm you can catch 24 Hours in Emergency as well! ;)

Here is the trailer for season one of Bosch-

If you catch it make sure to let me know what you think. It is a slower paced show, at least to begin with.

television shows

Television Tuesday – Vet Shows

2 Comments Posted on July 28, 2015July 27, 2015 by Snoskred

This is one kind of television show which is guaranteed to bring forth tears in Snoskred. They tend to be happy tears, though sometimes there are sad tears.

The Supervet

On every Wednesday night for the past few weeks, I’ve been tuning in to watch The Supervet on the Lifestyle Channel on Foxtel. . The operations and innovations that Noel has invented to help animals are mind boggling and quite incredible.

On a recent show there was a cat having hydrotherapy – they put a little life jacket on the animal and two people get in and support the animal in the water. This cat was meowing very loudly the whole time, as if telling the world that swimming was Not Especially Awesome, or perhaps to say that swimming is awesome fun!

The recoveries animals can make as a result of hydrotherapy can be quite incredible. And that is when the happy tears arrive – when healed animals are reunited with their owners.. In the case of the cat I mentioned, the cat meowed very loudly and quite a lot on meeting the owners, as if telling the story of what had happened in their absence.

And sometimes things do not turn out as hoped, and owners have to make difficult decisions. The show does not shy away from showing that, because that is something that happens in life. That is when the sad tears appear.

On the very odd occasion, owners arrive expecting to have to make that difficult decision to say goodbye only to discover that there has been a development which means they do not have to euthanize their much loved pet. That is when sad tears turn into happy tears.

Here is one clip from the show –

And here is Noel explaining the concept and ethos of his vet practice. He has a fantastic Irish accent. :)

Village Vets Australia

These vets live in Berry which is only a short drive from me. Because they are in the country, the range of animals they see is quite huge – they see everything from horses, cows and alpacas, plus your standard cats and dogs, plus birds and reptiles, plus many animals in between.

I enjoyed the first season of this show last year, and I’m looking forward to season two which starts this Thursday on the Lifestyle channel on Foxtel. The website for the show can be found here.

television shows

Planning A Caper

6 Comments Posted on July 27, 2015July 26, 2015 by Snoskred

Aaron Paul as Jesse Pinkman celebrating the awesomeness of magnets.

One of the reasons I am such a fan of Breaking Bad is the fact that so much of the show is what I like to call “Planning a caper”. As in, making crime plans.

While 99% of the capers shown on the show are things I would never, ever, not in a million years attempt, there are two local capers I would consider planning, if I were at all inclined towards being a criminal.

Of course, the fact that I am sharing them here tells you everything you need to know about whether I would actually do any of these things. I’d need a personality transplant, plus, installation of a more criminal bent of mind, plus, for one of the capers, I would need to be more physically fit.

If I could commit a caper, these are the ones I would attempt.

Caper One

Within 2km of where I live, there is a field where they do athletics. They have a speaker system there. It is very, very loud. Starting around 8am on weekend mornings, an announcer starts making announcements. This goes on all day. One of the two regular announcers has taken to calling the races, like you’d hear if you were watching a horse race. It is disturbing to everyone who lives within earshot. That is a lot of people!

To fix this, I would need to plan a caper. It would likely involve “casing the joint” first – then some climbing of fences in the middle of the night – never going to happen! – and then, if possible, the cutting and removal of speaker wires. Sadly, my feeling is this would not disrupt the noise for very long.

Caper Two

They installed a new roundabout here recently. It is the only roundabout in town where you can turn right from two lanes. The amount of times I have seen someone nearly get themselves killed turning right from the left lane..

One day someone will get killed there, and then I’m gonna kick myself for not actually going ahead with this caper – which would involve going out in the dead of night and painting the turn right arrow out with black paint. Like this –

I’m thinking summer would be the better time to do this particular caper so that the paint would dry faster, however, there are some major problems with this – most problematic would be the fact that the roundabout is on a high traffic road, even in the middle of the night. I’d need some witches hats, and maybe a yellow flashing light, a high vis vest, and a ute type vehicle.

The Breaking Bad Caper

So what is the 1% of caper from Breaking Bad that I would attempt? Magnets. In the first episode of the 5th season, a laptop has been impounded by the police as evidence. That laptop happens to contain some incriminating evidence, so Walt, Jesse and Mike plan a caper. And thanks to Sony posting two videos on youtube, you don’t have to watch the whole show to see it. Here is a discussion of the possible caper –

Here is a test of the caper, which features one of the most epic Mike Ehrmantraut lines of all time, including Miller time.

And here is the actual caper itself. The music makes this all the better.

bitches, country life, television shows

Television Tuesday – Old Shows

6 Comments Posted on July 21, 2015July 20, 2015 by Snoskred

In among the new shows of late, I have been revisiting some old shows, and also watching some Emmy Contenders Interviews.

NYPD Blue

As time has gone by, I have concluded that NYPD Blue is my favourite show of all time. Once every six months or so, I start a re-watch. I usually start from season 2 episode 5 “Simone Says” which is the first episode Jimmy Smits appears in. I am not a big fan of the David Caruso days.

I am however a huge fan of Alan Sepinwall thanks to his reviews of the show, all of which you can find here. Alan now writes about TV over at Hitfix and you can find his present blog here.

The show is often on in the background while I am doing other things, and I have it in my headset while I do household chores. I know the show so well by now I do not need to see it with my eyes, I can picture all the scenes in my head. I have a lot more to write about this show but I will save it for a separate post.

The West Wing

The Soho channel on Foxtel constantly plays The West Wing, and if I happen to be flicking around and spot it, I will usually tune in if I am not watching anything else. So it could be said I am constantly re-watching the show. It is one of my favourites and it always will be. :)

Breaking Bad

This is another show which regularly plays on Foxtel – on the FX channel – so it can be said I am regularly rewatching this show as well. I was thrilled to see both Bob Odenkirk and Jonathan Banks were nominated for Emmy awards this year for Better Call Saul, the Breaking Bad spinoff show.

Emmy Contenders

There was a series of Emmy Contenders chats done by the LA times, many of which I viewed. The standout chats for me were these chats – Jonathan Banks – Titus Welliver from Bosch – Jamie Dornan – sadly the latter two were not nominated. You can click here to see all the Emmy Contenders chats for 2015.

The Fall

I’d watched season one probably 3-4 times in full previously but I had only watched season two twice and I felt like it was time to revisit the show..

In revisiting season 2, I discovered that my most favourite episodes are episodes 4, 5 and 6 in season two. I love the police procedural stuff they put in, the following of Spector, plus the moment when Stella and Spector finally are face to face, that is an acting masterclass right there.

I will also like to mention that I *love* Stella Gibson as a character. I love everything about her. I love that they gave her a BMW hatchback to drive – it suits her character perfectly. I can see Stella owning that car.

There is going to be a season 3 of The Fall and I can honestly state, if Spector vanishes, they could still continue on and have a truly great show with the characters they have created, in particular the Stella character and the medical examiner Reed Smith played by Archie Punjabi are stand outs.

Fifty Shades Of Grey

Knowing how amazing Jamie Dornan is in The Fall and being a huge fan of his work, I also felt like I had to watch the movie *gulp* Fifty Shades of Grey. This is a movie, not a TV show, but it follows on from The Fall.

The two roles – playing a serial killer in The Fall, and playing Christian Grey are similar in some ways. And in fact, there is a moment in Fifty Shades where they kinda make fun of it – here is a video clip, it only goes for 1:37 and do not fear, there are *zero* sex scenes in this video –

With that said, there are a LOT of sex scenes in the movie, but nowhere near as many sex scenes as there are in the book. Yes, I’ve read all four of the books. For the most part, they are badly written smut, but underneath that is a love story. If I had to choose between reading Twilight and reading Fifty Shades, I’d pick Fifty Shades every time.

I’m not someone willing to criticise things without having experienced them myself, which is why I read the books to begin with. They made a pretty decent movie out of it and I am guessing a lot of that is down to the director who seemingly had a lot of fights with the author over the material. The music in the movie is fantastic, they picked some great songs.

I thought Jamie was brilliant in the movie with one small caveat – I wish they had just let him use his Irish accent, or if they had spent a little more money and time on a voice coach. A little too much of his accent came through. The Irish accent is a really strong one as far as accents go and it is quite a lot of work to remove all traces of it. It is the vowel sounds.

I did not expect to become a fan of Dakota Johnson but she is truly amazing in Fifty Shades of Grey. She really puts herself out there in so many ways. The casting could not be any more perfect re Jennifer Ehle – who played Lizzy in the 1995 Pride and Prejudice miniseries with Colin Firth – playing the mother of Dakota Johnson, too, they look so alike!

movies, television shows

Television Tuesday – New Shows

9 Comments Posted on July 14, 2015August 15, 2015 by Snoskred

Lately I have been watching a couple of new shows and some of them are truly excellent viewing, so I thought I would tell you a little about them, in case you are looking for something new to view.

The first series listed below, I did not know anything about until I read the Emmys Performer Ballot. That lists every single human being who has put their name forward for consideration. Plus it lists all the names of the shows they have asked to be considered for. There are a *lot* of names on this list – 348 pages of names! How anyone can possibly narrow it down, I have zero idea. There are multiple performances on here that are Emmy worthy.

If you want a little behind the scenes look at what goes on for the people who vote, check out this post from Ken Levine.

Bosch

Titus Welliver plays Harry Bosch

I am a huge fan of the Hieronymus Bosch & Mickey Haller books by Michael Connolly. So when I saw the name Bosch on the Emmy list, I had to do a little digging to find out if this was related to the books at all – turns out not only is it related, the author is quite involved with the show.

Bosch is an Amazon Prime show. You may have heard of another show Amazon Prime are responsible for – the incredible Transparent.

Anyway, I decided Bosch was a must see. I was expecting good, but what I saw was *amazing*. The cinematography of the opening credits is absolutely stunning and not something I have ever seen before. The look and feel of the show is very high quality. The writing is excellent and the cast is fantastic. Here are the opening credits for Bosch –

And here is the trailer for season one –

I should not be at all surprised at the high quality of this, given Michael Connelly is involved and there are some big names on the cast. Titus Welliver is brilliant as Bosch. I also deeply love Jamie Hector as Jerry Edgar and Lance Reddick as Irvin Irving.

Sometimes when you read books you build a picture of the characters in your mind. Though I could not have drawn you a police identikit of the Harry Bosch residing in my brain, I would now find it difficult to picture any other person than Titus as Harry.

Bob Odenkirk as Saul Goodman

Previous to seeing The Lincoln Lawyer, I would have given you an Identikit of a slightly better looking Saul Goodman as Mickey Haller.. but then I saw the movie, and now Matthew McConaghey is Mickey in my mind. He was so fantastic in that role.. :) Would I love to see Matthew and Titus working together? You bet! It is probably unlikely to happen, and I am sure at some point we will see someone else playing the role of Mickey Haller given that Bosch has been renewed for a second season.

Good news for Aussies – you can watch Bosch via SBS One starting 29 July at 9:30pm. I’ll remind you a little closer to the start date.

Mr Robot

Rami Malek as Elliot

In the pilot episode of this series, there is a scene that I just want to watch over and over again. It involves the two main characters – played by Rami Malek and Christian Slater – talking while on the Wonder Wheel at Coney Island. This scene must have been a total nightmare for editors and the sound techs, but it is a glorious and beautiful feast for the eyebulbs.

There is an element of Dexter in this show, though nobody is getting murdered (yet anyway!) plus there is quite an element of some former characters Christian Slater has played, in particular I see a lot of call backs to Pump Up The Volume, where his character was a pirate radio DJ.

The main character – Elliot – is played by Rami Malek and he is doing an amazing job with this role. His performance is mesmerizing. When he is on screen it is difficult to take your eyes off him however the cinematography is so incredible I do recommend giving it a try.

The pilot episode was directed by Niels Arden Oplev who also directed The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and they have tried to keep a similar look to the show in the following episodes. Some of the scenes are gorgeously framed, especially anything filmed out at Coney Island.

The home of the hackers contains Skee Ball machines and various other amusements. It is a beautiful set.

How much of what we are seeing is real? What is the plan? What happens next? Will Elliot join in with Mr Robot? Or will he decide to become one of the “normal” people, watching Marvel movies and drinking Starbucks? So many questions, how many answers will we get? Nobody knows!

Wherever the show goes, we’re along for the ride – yes, both of us. The Other Half and I are watching this show together which is a pretty amazing feat in itself, we do not often like the same things. There are 10 episodes in the first season, plus it has been picked up for a season 2 as well. Here is a preview of the show.

It is presently airing on the USA Network. I do not have an air date or any info on which TV channel might pick this show up here in Australia. I do expect it will get picked up soonest, given the amount of positive reviews this show is receiving. If and when I hear of an air date, I will let you know, because this show is incredible and worth tuning in for..

In a somewhat bizarre coincidence, Jim McKay, the director of Episode 3 of Mr Robot also directed the pilot episode of Bosch.

Speaking Of The Emmys

The nominations announcement is coming up. It will be held July 16th at 8:30am LA time, which is 1:30am Thursday morning AEST. If you want to see when this is for your timezone, click here. You will be able to view the announcement online via Emmys.com, if you so desire.

Over to You –

Have you been watching anything new? Something I might enjoy? Leave me a comment and let me know about it. :)

Mr Robot, television shows