Tuesday 23 January 2018

Nordic gems

Keaghan loves to watch youtube and over the past five, six or maybe seven years he has got himself a huge education quite apart from  his formal one. He watches most of it alone but the few things he has shared with me have covered the US electoral college, things on vaccination, British history, how an epidemic works etc. A number of years ago I was in a shop with him and saw the chromecast gadget. I immediately saw the implications of having this gadget: watching any youtube (or other online video) on the large screen tv and from the comfort of the couch. I tell you this because I am so. darned. proud. of myself. for understanding the possibilities of chromecast.
My technologically advanced offspring, who would have benefited from the purchase more than anyone else, couldn't see why we would want it so with a wave of self doubt I gave up.
Somewhere in the meantime, chromecast has become popular and said technologically advanced offspring bought himself one. It has been just as revolutionary as I had first thought!

My most recent chromecast offering was a series delightfully promoted with the illiterative description Nordic Noir, a murder mystery/ psychological thriller called  "Modus".

It may be a throw back to my Nordic ancestry or just my appreciation of subtlety but another recent favourite was Swedish film  "A man called Ove"

If you are at all interested, I found them on the Australian site SBS/OnDemand.


30 comments:

  1. I loved the book A Man Called Ove. To the extent that I bought both his other novels.
    I am not technologically aware. Or even competent. Glad that you and your family are benefiting though.

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    1. I should try to get the book. It's probably better to read it after seeing the movie

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  2. I read Ove first and then saw the film. I hope Hollywood does not make it and ruin it like they did The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

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    1. clearly everyone but me has read this book!

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  3. I read it too, on EC's recommendation, I believe. It was superb. I'm not much for movies so the book will have to do me!

    You must feel so good that you were right all along about the possibilities of chromecast. It's nice to be vindicated, especially with our kids as they get older and tend to roll their not-quite-adult eyes at us :) heh

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    1. haha yea! I've seen a bit of eye rolling as I try to get used to my smart phone

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  4. Who is Keaghan? What is Chromecast? I don't know about the eye-rolling, but there is much sighing from others about my attempts to use my smartphone.

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    1. Keaghan is my son, he is 21 and newly engaged, soon to graduate.
      Chromecast is a gadget you connect to your tv and it allows you to use your tv like a nice big screen for the internet. There have been other methods of doing the same thing but we never had them and this is cheap as well as portable

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  5. Chromecast? What the hell is that Kylie? Are you referring to items cast in chrome? I guess they are pretty shiny. How often do they require polishing?

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  6. Chromecast is certainly a new one on me. I don't think we could use it as our TV is a 17 year old cathode ray job and probably totally incompatible with a lot of modern technology. We've seen a lot of Scandi dramas but haven't come across Nordic Noir. And no, I've never read A Man Called Ove!

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    1. I think Nordic Noir is just the way the broadcaster promotes all the Nordic stuff?
      Cathode ray TV wouldn't work with chromecast, you must have got that just before the flat screens took off?

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  7. There's some damn fine TV and movies from Scandinavia, including The Bridge, the Girl With The Dragon Tattoo trilogy, Rita, and many more.
    These countries seem to have a knack of producing wonderfully atmospheric, well acted stuff.
    Always a shame when the US tries to remake and inevitably ruin them.

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    1. I agree totally Dave, I thought Dragon Tattoo was brilliantly done and then Hollywood got its hands on it. I hope they leave Ove alone.

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    2. Dave,
      After you talked about watching Rita I thought I might try it.
      I h ave never seen the girl with the dragon tattoo, hollywood or scandi versions.

      Anne, I can't imagine what Hollywood would do to Ove!

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  8. I don't watch TV at all. If I am sometimes caught unawares, the children play something on it and if it is interesting, I will watch otherwise, simply go off to read. We get Netflix and Amazon Prime here. Our hundreds of channels cater to all our languages and tastes.

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    1. The internet has certainly revolutionised in-home entertainment. I expect it's fabulous for smaller language groups

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  9. "A Man Called Ove" rings a bell with me but I'm certain that I haven't read it. I must remind myself what it's about.

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    1. It seems to be well known so I'm not surprised it rings a bell. I missed it completely until now

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  10. Being technically challenged myself I had to go google chromecast! It looks like a handy gadget. You should be proud of yourself for recognizing it's usefulness!

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  11. British History is a good subject. I tried some of the films on sbs but they’re not available for us, in Britain, to view which is a shame because the website looks like a good one.

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    1. It's a great website, Terry! I thought you might not have access but it was worth a try. You might get a lot of the same stuff on the BBC

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  12. I hadn't heard of chromecast, and had to do some research to learn that the photo is of Ove--I had thought it might be Keaghan. I noted the daffodils in the photo; they must flourish in nearly all parts of the world. Ours have reached four inches in height, it being a very warm winter in western Oregon.

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    1. We have some jonquils that do well year after year but no daffs.
      Do you have many flowers in your garden?

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    2. "We have some jonquils that do well year after year but no daffs."

      I've tried to figure out what the difference is, but I still don't know. All I know about daffodils, jonquils, and every other flower I can think of is that if I grew up with it, old is gold, and I don't want to see it in a newer variety.

      "Do you have many flowers in your garden?"

      My pride and joy are five large clumps of Miscanthus sinensis var. condensatus ‘Cosmopolitan’ (Japanese Silver Grass). They reach eight feet in height every season, and in the fall, the leaves turn tan, and they and the flower heads endure until February if it's not too windy. I also have a rose bush that was here when we moved into this house 28 years ago. A lot of plants here go by japonica, so I have Fatsia japonica (Japanese fatsia), Euonymus japonica variegata (Japanese Euonymous), and Farfugium japonicum (Green Leopard Plant), and Pieris japonica (Japanese andromeda). I also have a Nandina domestica ‘compacta’ (Heavenly Bamboo), two large clumps of Fargesia dracocephala ‘Rufa’ (Sunset Glow Bamboo), a bed of daffodils, and a bed of periwinkle. Then there are the seasonal flowers that vary except for the ornamental kale that we plant late in the fall because nothing else looks good during the winter. Oh, yes, two blueberries that Peggy bought but--like every plant she ever bought--doesn't take care of. I'm actually more of an inside plant man, so I got up to 44 houseplants at one time. As my health problems grew, my insistence upon bathing them in the tub every two weeks made it an unwieldy number, so I'm down to 20. Since I kept all but two of the 44 in my bedroom, getting rid of plants enabled me to go down to one plant stand and one growlight (I also have a long window shelf), which is kind of nice actually because it's not a big room. By the way, Peggy wrote to you a few weeks ago, and has been wondering if her mail got lost in the shuffle. She has never been one to write letters to ANYONE, but of late, she has written to you, All Consuming, and my older sister, Anne. Anne's probably a poor choice, but you and All Consuming, I had hopes for as possible penpals for Peggy. Unfortunately, she gets her feelings hurt when she writes to someone and doesn't hear back. I tell her that the best way (for me anyway) to carry on a correspondence is to not get too invested in who wrote last or how lost it has been she heard from someone, but to instead write anytime she feels like it, and to bear in mind that it's not too hard to get penpals (of course being a blogger helps, and she'll never be a blogger). Sad to say, Peggy being Peggy, my advice and consolation don't much affect how she acts and feels. So, just do whatever works for you, but I wanted to let you know--one time and one time only--where she's coming from. I don't know if I thanked you personally for supporting her during her surgery, but it meant a lot to me that you did that. You're a good person, and I hope you will pardon my shortcomings. I know I'm blunt at times, but it's very hard for me to know how strongly I come across. I fancy that I'm getting better at hearing myself and with reigning myself in, but I'll probably never excel when it comes to knowing how to express radically different feelings from someone on an important subject without making their hackles stand up. There's a verse in the NT that goes something like, "I wish you were either hot or cold, but since you're lukewarm, I'm going to spit you out of my mouth." I suppose we could each be thankful that the other of us is not lukewarm.

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    3. Snow,
      I will need to look up a lot of the plants you mention but I do know the Nandina domestica. The place we rented before we bought the house had Nandina domestica all over the place. It was beloved by the people in the block because they viewed it as hardy and pretty. I viewed it as the ultimate old people's plant, cut into squat bushes devoid of personality or imagination. Of course, I was overlaying the plants with my feelings about the residents in that block and I am sure they are a perfectly lovely plant when used properly.
      I got Peggy's mail, now that you have explained it's importance I have replied. I always intended to but didn't realise that time was of the essence. If I fail to reply as she would hope, it is more about my inability to think of anything interesting than my disinterest in her and she should never take those kinds of things personally (not from me)
      She can take it for granted she has a pen pal in me despite my short comings. And you Snow, don't need to apologise for your differing views or your bluntness or any other thing. I take your correspondence as a gift and engage with your big questions where I am able to. When I can't engage I think about the things you say. You don't get my hackles up, just make me aware of how many things I know nothing about :)

      I think your writing is always considered and respectful and there is nothing wrong with that!

      Bless you both
      xo

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