Couple-up or it’s a mighty curious or-else in the wonderful The Lobster

Remember all that talk about your spirit animal a bit back? Well, Yorgos Lanthimos beats that animal kingdom by then-some in The Lobster, the writer and director’s first English-speaking film of his Film-Fest darling career. It’s a thoughtful satire on our society’s rush to pick somebody — anybody, really — to declare as The One.…

Polish Fest pride

As I worked a Saturday morning for the library, I tottered back and forth about plans for my dear wife Karen and I to meet my terrific daughter Elisabeth and wonderful significant George Three at Polish Fest. Dash down James Street to Channel Three in the rain to a morning newscast interview for Outreach Clerk…

Done for one day

The peak is covered again. I’m a pro at piecing our increasingly old vinyl siding back up there after it falls down when a big wind blows past the Little Bitty in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood. It’s been, oh, seven or eight years now since that contractor Patrick put in our “new’ windows…

The peak and the porch

You don’t own your house, your house owns you. Or something like that. Anyway, the darned peak of our vinyl siding fell off the top of the front of the Little Bitty again. Damn, I wish that phone number of the contractor who put the stuff on the house worked. That guarantee he sold us…

Me Before You Carries Much More than Romance to the Table

Love stories should come in all shapes and sizes. I’m glad when we get one that dares to stray from the oh-so-popular, inspired-by Nicholas Sparks and The Notebook formula, trickling down for 20 years now. Me Before You brings its share of stereotypes, yes. Scripted by Jojo Moyes from her own novel of the same name…

Peony gone, roses step in

The peony season indeed went fast in front of the Little Bitty in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Syracuse. When I got home from the board of trustees meeting at the Liverpool Public Library on Wednesday night, my dear wife Karen had even picked up all the fallen blossoms from our lawn. Two weeks, not…

Good dog, you

Normally when Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle comes across another canine in our walks around our Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood, she goes at least a little off the center stripe. But not when the old dog above crossed our path. Or didn’t bother to get in our way, rather. And I don’t know if…

Peony couplets

When I came home to the Little Bitty in the Syracuse city neighbor of Eastwood after a good day at the Liverpool Public Library Tuesday, two of our powerful peony flowers had deemed it time to pop into existence. It was a powerful sight to welcome me around 4:30 p.m. When I pulled the Chevy…

The Nice Guys are and they aren’t, but they’re always interesting

It’s 1977 in Los Angeles, and folks are having a fine time dancing their way through the smog, sort of, until a car carrying porno star Misty Mountains crashes down from the hills through the living room of a wide-eyed but somehow still respectful young teen. Thus start the mysteries of The Nice Guys, a…

With George Clooney, Julia Roberts hitting Jodie Foster’s marks, it’s easy to believe Money Monster

In true life on a slow day, one might hover over a cable network show such as Money Monster for a couple of minutes for sheer shock value. In the movie by that name, producer Patty Fenn seems fully aware of this notion. So the veteran show-maker allows host Lee Gates to ham it up…