Can't tell if it's me or the room that's moving

[sovay]

While many more pressing problems exist in my life, e.g. I have some kind of exhausting cold (because the pandemic is not in fact over, multiply tested with different brands of test and no confirmed or even suspected contacts) and I still can't tell how many upstairs neighbors we have because a seemingly infinite number of people of various ages have been clattering in and out of the apartment with accessories and furniture and then dragging it around the floors over our heads all day (at some point it would be nice if they put down rugs), I just wish to complain about the fact that it seems increasingly likely that I will end up watching at least a selection of Peyton Place (1964–69) after years of total indifference to its cultural phenomenon because I have discovered the third and fourth seasons contain a major arc with Dan Duryea. Fortunately it does not appear to be readily available to me, but this is a problem I did not foresee when I discovered Duryea in 2015.

Comments

[gwynnega]

I am sorry about the exhausting cold.

I did not know that about Dan Duryea! Some years ago I watched the first episodes of Peyton Place on DVD (back when I was still getting DVDs from Netflix).

[sovay]

I am sorry about the exhausting cold.

Thank you. It just feels like cheating. Sometime I want to start the year in a moderately undamaged state of health, just to see what it's like.

I did not know that about Dan Duryea! Some years ago I watched the first episodes of Peyton Place on DVD (back when I was still getting DVDs from Netflix).

I have been more than casually interested in Duryea for eight years and I missed it! I found out from Mike Peros' Dan Duryea: Heel with a Heart (2016/2020), which my parents gave me for Christmas. It was not just his last major role, it was almost the last thing he filmed.

What did you think of the first episodes of Peyton Place? Beyond what I read in the biography and spatch has told me about the film, I am unfamiliar with any of the formats of the story.

[gwynnega]

That book looks great!

I remember enjoying the first episodes of Peyton Place, but I have a high tolerance for the glacial pacing of 1960s soap opera storytelling.

[sovay]

That book looks great!

I recommend it! It has the normal problem of an artist's biography where the reader is unlikely to concur with all of the author's critical assessments, but I agree with Peros on the important ones, he's insightful about Duryea's screen persona, and the personal information is invaluable. (Jeff Hartnett icon standing in as the not very closest thing I have to an icon of any of Duryea's film noir characters. I really should have one of Bill Cannon or Marty Blair.)

I remember enjoying the first episodes of Peyton Place, but I have a high tolerance for the glacial pacing of 1960s soap opera storytelling.

I was enjoying The Forsyte Saga (1967) with my mother before it had to go back to the library, but I don't know how its pacing compares. I just still don't watch that much television.

[alexxkay]

If your ambivalence about Peyton Place resolves, I Know a Guy. I could even lay my hands on specific episodes...

[sovay]

If your ambivalence about Peyton Place resolves, I Know a Guy. I could even lay my hands on specific episodes...

So noted. I have the numbers of specific episodes, if it comes to that. Thank you.

[selkie]

I cooked today and that is literally it. I am sitting here hoping for a second wind by which I might reach down the big skillet, as I'm out of breakfast burritos. What is this health thing you're driving at?

Also, I paid $4.59 for a dozen eggs this morning. I don't know how people are living.

[sovay]

Also, I paid $4.59 for a dozen eggs this morning. I don't know how people are living.

Well, at the moment, I am listening to the Zoom of the memorial concert for Dick Pleasants currently taking place at the Somerville Theatre, which I found out from spatch just about half an hour ahead of time. I had no idea that Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis had a child who is a legendary bluesman, but his name is Guy Davis and he opened his set with "Kisses Sweeter Than Wine." It helps.

*hugs*