Ed Asner 1929-2021

 

New Piece August 2021. Mixed

 

The Chair Netflix 2021

 

Short series about a newly appointed chair of an English dept. at a university who happens to be a woman and an Asian. This is the set up we are presented with and it’s acted by the wonderful Sandra Oh who brings the perfect blend of flair and annoyance to the role. The problems started piling up for her from the first minute of the show when she actually falls off her office chair. Heavy meanings and metaphors come knocking at her door. Smartly written and acted by a good cast but a little too pat and predictable especially in the writing. Well it is a sit com after all so I should just accept it for what it is and move on. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it. The main thrust and crisis of the show is a mess caused by one of the professors, a sloppy but popular guy played by Jay Duplass who teaches well attended classes with the usual smart ass students and flirty flirts that are always part of movie universities and universes. Duplass usually arrives late hung over or drug over and dishelved, and is generally out of control and ripe for discipline and removal. He’s up against the dean and the usual tenure factory and their workers that inhabit these places of higher education. Oh is torn between affection and disgust for him and the final encounter between them rings hollow with everything else all neat and tidy, maybe ready for additional seasons, its seems to be popular with folks and critics so who knows. There are also sidebars with conflicts concerning a well qualified African American woman who is pushed aside for an important position that is given to a celebrity actor that pushes all serious thoughts of reality out the window. Also around is some over the hill professors including Bob Balaban and Holland Taylor who are fighting for their careers and both are lively and fun to watch. Wish I could say the same for Oh’s nasty spoiled young adopted daughter who might be the worst child I’ve ever seen on screen. No excuses for her and she left a nasty after taste for me.     

Summer August 2021

 

Don Everly 1937-2021

 

Voice. Netflix

 

Another wild and woolly Korean ride through hell. Influenced by American cop and thriller television series that I never watch, and the only reason I jumped on this was because it was Korean and they don’t hold much back. This one takes place in an emergency call center which is called the “Golden Time Team” and is lead by a spunky young woman who has psycho acoustic skills that she honed in America. She can hear sounds including voices that only she can hear and offers the team clues on where to find not only the victims but the perpetrators as well. As you can imagine this special skill doesn’t sit well with the higher ups and she is constantly in battles with them to prove her skills and worth in solving crimes. Her main sparring partner is an argumentative detective who is intense and very good looking. The spunky young woman is also attractive and they have a combative relationship and a common thread in that two of their family members were slaughtered by the serial killer whose deeds take up most of the 14 hours running time of the first season. It moves for sure, and a lot of it can be confusing especially trying to keep all those Korean names straight. There are sidebars to the main serial killer story, including mothers trying to kill their children, buses crashing, crazy landladies, demented drag queens, kidnappings and lots of corruption  but it’s the serial killer who by the way is movie star handsome  that takes up most of their  time and effort as they try to catch him if they can. Its also gory and graphic, so much so that Netflix or someone blurs some of the more graphic gore and even takes the color out of some of the more graphic remains of the murders. Nice of them. Netflix is showing 2 of the 4 seasons.    

Chuck Close 1940-2021

 

August 2021 mixed on paper

 

Otoliths

 
Otoliths has posted 24 of my works on paper. You can view them all at this link. 


https://the-otolith.blogspot.com/2021/08/ira-joel-haber.html

Patricia Hitchcock 1928-2021

 

Another August work on paper 2021

 

Jane Withers 1926-2021

 

Another Summer August 2021

 

Some photos

 

Summer Landscape August 2021