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Firstly, I am pleased to report that after 3 years of trying and failing to eat one of my favorite meals (pot roast), I was successful last night!  I still have to be careful--small bites, lots of chewing, drink between bites--and the meat was very very very very soft, but that is a big boost to me right now!  I am still struggling a lot with my limited food options, and having one more thing in the mix is always so helpful.

Secondly, I must bring to your attention the excellent musician Kaleo.  I discovered the group last summer and bought their A/B album.  I tried listening to it in the car on a trip and I wasn't impressed.  The first track on the album is a super hard hitting rock song, and I didn't like it.  (I had found them on a pandora station and the songs I liked were more indie rock type--think Mumford or Lumineers).  I revisited the album recently and realized that about 2/3 the album is what I was looking for (coffee shop style indie rock) and the other third is that hard rock sound I don't care for.  So I put the songs I liked into iTunes for my ipod shuffle; I have been enjoying them for the past week.

Thirdly, I have a manuscript!  131,000+ words, 292 typed pages, and lots of holes that still need filling, but it is printed out and ready for revision and editing.  It feels momentous.  I blitzed through a few working sessions, focusing on putting all the text I had typed/transcribed in narrative order and integrating the flashback sections. (Until now, I've been toggling between four documents: writing, editing, revising, and trying to put things in narrative order all at the same time; consequently, it felt like I was trying to wrangle a spaghetti monster).  There is a YouTube channel that has alpha wave music for studying and I found it so helpful while I was working.  It certainly helped me stay on task.

Lastly, it is time for my epic watch list of the last six or seven months.  I've been compiling, but I just need to post it already.  I left out the ones I've already written about previously.

1. Spiderman: Homecoming: I enjoyed this film so much.  Lots of fun, great humor, excellent (and believable) villain (played with panache by Michael Keaton)

2. The Last Post: Great amazon series set in Arabia in the 1960s.  Very well done.

3. Complete Unknown: interesting and weird at the same time.  Thought-provoking.

4. Britannia: very uneven.  some weird casting choices and an odd mix of "period" and modern.  I don't recommend it for a number of reasons.

5. Beguiled: Sophia Coppola's Civil War gothic set piece.  Super weird.  I don't recommend it.

6. Tulip Fever: I know the reviews on this one are mixed.  I liked it, but I didn't love it.  The costumes were quite good, and there were some good performances.

7. Secret Scripture: this was a great film, although I found the ending a little unsatisfying.  I really enjoyed the story and the performances.  The main plot twist really did keep me guessing until the end.

13. Breathe: Andrew Garfield and Claire Foy are AMAZING.  I loved this film so much.

14. Closed Season: I rewatched this German WW2 film again this spring.  It is so good.  And I want Brigette's wardrobe.

15. The Battle for Sevastopol: about a famous Soviet female sniper in WW2.  Really well done, I highly recommend it.  It reminded me a little of Enemy at the Gates (which I also loved).

16. Swept from the Sea: this is an old favorite of mine that I rewatch from time to time.

17. The Promise: another favorite, in German about the Berlin Wall and two people who spend the entirety of the wall separated from one another.  It is a fascinating look at the two sides.

18. Bitter Harvest: this one was very uneven.  I like Max Irons, but I didn't buy him (or anyone else for that matter) in this period piece about the Soviet subjugation of Ukraine in the 1920s.  That said, I think it is an important movie to watch for the history, which isn't well known outside the region. 

19. Atomic Blonde: I wanted to like this movie but I just didn't.  It was too over the top with everything. 

20. Man from U.N.C.L.E.: this was a super fun watch and made me an instant Armie Hammer fan.  I had no idea he was such a large man (6'5").  I already liked Henry Cavill and I thought this movie was just a good old fashioned spy story in the best sense.

21. Oscar: another old fave; saw in the theater the first time!  It was a fun entertainment one night when my parents were here.

22. Walking with the Enemy: uneven but good; second half was better than the first. 

23. Murder on the Orient Express remake: I thought it was good.  I enjoyed the first one, but I only vaguely remembered the details, so I was able to enjoy the mystery and suspense in this version as well.

24. Red Sparrow: I was prepared to like this, because I loved the book, but oh man.  This film has so many problems I don't even know where to begin.  If I hadn't read the book, I don't think I would have understood one thing that was going on in the film.  That said, Jennifer Lawrence acted her heart out.  It wasn't her fault that the script was a bad adaptation and half the actors were miscast.

I still haven't seen Black Panther (I know!  I'm getting to it), and I am still in season five of The Americans.  I intend to finish it, but that show is pretty intense, so I need breaks.  I just finished season 3 of TURN: Washington's Spies, but needed a break before starting season four because of how the third one ended. I also want to watch the second season of The A Word (the first season was wonderful) and finish the Russian series The Red Queen.  I also want to see Aardman's Early Man and series 2 of The Hollow Crown which covers the second set of Shakespeare's Henry plays.