CultureWatch: Amsterdam, A History of the World's Most Liberal City; The Virgin of Bennington; DVD Tips: Foyle's War & Doc Martin

CultureWatch Reviews: Amsterdam, A History of the World's Most Liberal City; The Virgin of Bennington; DVD Tips: Foyle's War & Doc Martin's Return

The promiscuous, drug-ridden scene and lives with virtually no sleep, it would seem, gets a far less sensational treatment here than what we’ve all become used to in recent books. To one over 20 years ahead of that generation, it looks nigh physically impossible. Norris, however, makes it appear that she stood just one layer above it all. She writes like one who was more an observer than a participant.

When Norris achieved a signal success with her own first book of poetry, she reacted as apparently many authors do, with a sort of stoppage, as if success shocked her into the sudden cessation of the talent that led to it. She describes how she was plagued by self-doubt, thinking she would not be able to write any more.

Always with a bent towards the spiritual, she eventually decided to move away from the city. Fortunately, her husband was willing to go with her to a place as nearly antithetical to the big city as even she could imagine. South Dakota and her grandmother’s house have become her comfort zone, and there she continues to produce literature and do good works.

The beginnings of the Academy of American Poets and the Poetry Foundation are an interesting good story as told by Norris, whether poetry is your passion or not. You will meet a thoughtful and unusual personality, even as she extols that of another. Well worth your time.

And Consider These DVD Tips

Like other favorite fictional heroes of ours on television, Michael Kitchen has agreed to another season — albeit shorter than we in the US have become spoiled by — of Foyle's War. Filming of the three new episodes has begun and will be inspired by real events in the early Cold War. Instead of World War II profiteers and other dark villains, uncovering spies is at the heart of Foyle's probings as a Senior Intelligence Officer for MI5.

With each episode scripted by Anthony Horowitz, Kitchen's character will explore powerful American and German industrialists, the latter from the chemical giant I G Farben*, accused of fueling Hitler’s War Machine, and reflect on the tangled web of promises to the Jews to create a state of Israel in British Palestine. The major blight of post war Britain, the Black Market, will also feature with the focus on some of the darkest secrets from operations conducted by the British secret service during WW2.

And yes, Foyle will be assisted by Samantha Stewart as Honeysuckle Weeks, who, in last season's episodes, assumed a larger role than ever before in the series. Michael Kitchen as Foyle

(Editor's Note: I worked in Frankfurt's I.G. Farben building for the US Army as a civilian in the late 1950s. The installation has since been renamed the Poelzig Building for the original architect and is now part of Goethe University. Its famed elevators are nick named paternosters for the length of time it would take to say the Lord's Prayer while traversing the floors. A paternoster or lift is a passenger elevator which consists of a chain of open compartments as depicted by the animation. I once found myself on the basement level as I had been reading when my floor appeared and then passed into darkness, forgetting to jump off.)

Doc Martin is returning for US audiences for his newest series of the immensely popular program, now imitated by other countries with their own casts and adaptations. Aunt Ruth remains brilliantly acted by Eileen Atkins, now accompanied by the equally talented Claire Bloom, who lives up to her reputation as Martin's ghastly mother.

In Series 6, the 'Doc's' patients include a hypochrondriac, a hoarder and two elderly tattoo artists. A disasterous honeymoon ensues and Martin and Louisa have to also endure the return of Mrs. Tishell, the druggist and oh-so-ardent admirer of Martin. The well-known character actor Ronald Pickup also has a prominent role in the endlessly entertaining series as a rude neighbor to Ruth, thereby challenging the Doc's renowned reputation for antisocial behavior in the fictional town of Portwenn.

Spoiler Alert and Update: The 6th season ends with a cliffhanger by letting the viewer wonder if a Season 7 is in our future. We've just learned that a Season 7 will be filming in the future, but beyond that, we're not assured it will continue. Clunes worries that plot originality about the seaside village may suffer from too long a series.

In The New York Times of January 26th, Clunes is quoted as saying, "The show will shoot a seventh season in 2015, but Mr. Clunes said that is likely to be the last one, given the challenges of not repeating story lines. 'As much as I’d love to keep on doing it, I just don’t know if we can. It might become a soap opera.' "

Acorn TV carries all the episodes of these immensely popular series as well as being accessible on the streaming player, Roku, as well as computers, through iPhones and iPad browsers as well as and other portable devices.

Pages: 1 · 2 · 3

Culture and Arts, Relationships and Going Places, Theater and Film, Literature and Poetry, History, Culture Watch, Entertaining, Shop for Home, Shop for Yourself, Travel, Senior Women Web, Articles, Joan L. Cannon, Book Reviews, Julia Sneden, Tam Gray, Authors, What's New Add comments

CultureWatch Reviews: Amsterdam, A History of the World's Most Liberal City; The Virgin of Bennington; DVD Tips: Foyle's War & Doc Martin's Return

And Consider These DVD Tips

More Articles