books, hitchcock and vera

Just back from the New York Antiquarian Book Fair, where I volunteered at the The Rare Books and Manuscripts Section of ACRL (Association of College and Research Libraries) table for a couple of hours. I was able to view the show for free and drool over lots of amazing books, the treasures of the world seemed to be here. Booths I was told start at $7,000 which should give you an idea of the kind of books and things that were on exhibit here. All I could do was look and dream but it was fun anyway but somewhat draining looking at thousands of fantastic things. It was held at the very beautiful Armory on Park ave and 64th street, came back loaded down with many nice catalogs.

I stumbled on this series Vera at the Library and its quite nice. It stars the great Brenda Blethyn as detective chief inspector Vera Stanhope. There is the usual plot devices that we've come to expect from this kind of show, she has a hubba hubba young colleague, who she treats like a son and the stories are good and compelling on the whole and Vera is a complex character who has doubts and problems and carries her loneliness, vulnerabilities and her caustic wit and temper on her sleeve. Blethyn gives a superb performance.

 Hitchcock. This movie should be avoided at all costs. A piece of junk that should be put in a shower and stabbed to death and then flushed down the toilet. Anthony Hopkins continues his long and sad decline as an actor who should be taken seriously and Helen Mirren should be forced to watched this movie over and over until she screams Mommy. The only decent work is done by Scarlett Johansson who actually pulls off her channeling of Janet Leigh. Unclean, unclean.