I’ve become obsessed with Moment lenses. I’ve stepped up my photography game in recent years, and with the iPhone cameras being of such high quality these days, I’ve elected to limit my photography solely to the iPhone. Moment is a company that manufactures photography and video equipment, including lenses specially designed for the iPhone. You have to buy an specially-designed…
I was a Mets fan in the ‘80s and ‘90s, and David Cone was always an interesting character. He’s won 20 games a few times, pitched for World Series Champion teams, has won a Cy Young award, and pitched a perfect game. He’s seen a lot in his career, so there’s a lot of source material for a good book. …
When I decided to step up my iPhone photography game by purchasing Moment lenses, I was drawn to a deal that was offered on their website – their two-lens starter kit. I knew I wanted the fisheye lens. I didn’t think I needed the ultra wide lens, since the iPhone 11 Pro already has an ultra wide lens (I’m reconsidering…
I was a big fan of the original Queer Eye for the Straight Guy back when it aired almost 20 years ago. I had no interest in watching the reboot, but I caught an episode one day, and I got sucked in and ended up bingeing them all over the course of a month or two. I do like the…
One of the great joys of retirement is to be able to pursue interests that you’ve always had to put on the back burner. I’ve always liked and have had a great appreciation for photography, but all of the technical details – ISO, shutter speeds, aperture, f-stop, the different lenses, etc. – made my head spin. It felt to me…
The 60s are my favorite decade. I was born in 1960, however, so I was too young to really understand a lot of what the country was experiencing at that time. As I grew older, I came to appreciate the 60’s much more. I’m drawn to books about the 60’s – the music, the politics, the culture – and I…
This novel follows the life of 49-year old Arthur Less, a not-very-famous writer whose much younger boyfriend of the past 9 years is about to marry someone else. Although Arthur is invited to the wedding, he decides instead to accept all of the invitations to second-class literary events across the globe. In each chapter, we join Arthur in Berlin, India,…
I’ve always been a fan of comedy, and the 1980s were a golden age. This is a well-researched book about many of the groundbreaking comedians of the era, and how they made the transition from television to film, changing the face of cinematic comedy forever. Filled with juicy stories about Chevy Chase, John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, John Candy,…
Convenience Store Woman, by Sayaka Murata. A short little novel about a young Japanese girl, Keiko who, as a child, was pretty weird. At the age of 18, in an attempt to be more normal, she gets a job at a convenience store, and the store becomes her entire life. She mimics the speech patterns and clothing style of her…
A juvenile book with clichéd subject matter, boring characters, and an idiotic premise and plot. The big plot twist halfway through the book was unimpressive. The main character, Flynn, became more irritating as the book progressed; by the end, I really didn’t give a damn about what happened to him. The quality of the writing was just abysmal. After I…
I’m a huge Monty Python fan, and Cleese has always been my favorite (just edging out Michael Palin). Last year, I read his autobiography, and I loved it. In 1999, Cleese became a professor-at-large at Cornell University, and was so popular that he secured a permanent position as the provost’s visiting professorship. In this role, he has given talks and…
Last year I read Chee’s book, How to Write an Autobiographical Novel, a collection of essays. I enjoyed some of them, and wasn’t crazy about some others. I thought I’d give him another shot and read his first novel, Edinburgh, which received good reviews. The book was pretty intense, tackling the heavy topic of pedophilia and sexual abuse and the…
I go through phases where I don’t think about the movie Harold and Maude very much, and then I become obsessed with it again. It’s my favorite movie; I find the humorous bits hilarious and the philosophical bits poignant and uplifting, and whenever there’s some kind of crisis (like 9-11 or the current corona pandemic), I find myself immersed in…
Harold & Maude is my all-time favorite movie. Every ten years or so, I get nostalgic for the film and I watch it again and obsess over it. (I have it on Blu-Ray, of course.) I knew the movie was based on a screenplay written by Colin Higgins, a UCLA film student. Higgins sold the screenplay, and then wrote a…
A well-written and detailed account of the intertwined lives of four prominent, larger-than-life fixtures of the folk music scene of the early 60s. The book very effectively transports you back to those heady, exciting days of the Greenwich Village music clubs and cafes. I really knew nothing about Joan Baez’s sister Mimi, nor anything about her enigmatic, fascinating husband, Richard…