Sunday, July 12, 2020

Television and Memories

Television

Our recent television viewing has been almost entirely based on Agatha Christie.

I have always been leery of Poirot because he's more than a bit eccentric, but I found that I got to appreciate his character, and I think the episodes were really well conceived and executed.

From Poirot, we went to Miss Marple and then to Marple. There are two Marple series, an older one that uses Miss in the title and a newer one, or perhaps I should say, less old that is just Marple. To add to the confusion, the Marple actor changes halfway through the newer series.

Whatever the case, I likes both Poirot and [Miss] Marple, and I think you might too. Although we watched Poirot and Miss Marple on Britbox, we found the newer Marple series on YouTube. Oh, not every single episode but enough to keep one entertained for awhile. I saw that at least some of the other two series were also on YT, and YT is free, or at least these are.

After all of this viewing, I was tempted to read Agatha but was surprised to see that most of her work is in short story form. No wonder they were able to find so many plots to televise.


Memories

On our family messages, kids music came up when we learned that our youngest relation, still less than 1 year old, rather likes Raffi.

This brought to mind the music that we played for ours grands when they were little. We had trouble remembering the name of the musician that we really liked but eventually figured out that it is Markus. There's very little of him online, but he seems to be a Toronto-based, children's entertainer.

I cannot find his music online except for a snippet or two, but the CD that we had was very good: I Like to Dance. I still have it in my iTunes library and uploaded my favourite song to Google Drive, so I could share it. Unfortunately, it has to be downloaded rather than streamed, but it doesn't take long. Yippie Yi Yippie Yo.

I would dance it with the kids although we probably danced more to Waltz Across Texas.

I couldn't find an old blog of me and the kids dancing to that particular song, but I did find many videos that took me down Memory Lane. What precious times we had. I don't suppose that anyone will want to sit through everything, but you might get a kick out of watching for a few seconds. Or not.

In this first one ↓ I do actions while JJ mostly wonders what the heck I am up to. But he does try on occasion.


Dancing with Danica to Zydeco Lady, a tune that Sue and I used to Line dance to.


Both kids rocking to Jungle Book in their Halloween costumes.


14 comments:

Marie Smith said...

Those videos are precious.

We dance with the kids to Great Big Sea jigs. Not as quiet as your dances but we have fun.

Barbara Rogers said...

Oh how sweet you all look with your dances. I think I missed doing this with my grands. They almost never stayed with me (I lived in different towns mainly.) But I love the sense of nostalgia. I loved Poirot, who doesn't seem to be on reruns any more...I'll definitely check out YT for some. And Miss Marple has some of the best plots out there, which are copied in many other shows.

Margaret said...

Wonderful videos! I hope to dance around with my grandson in the near future. He likes John Denver. I will have to check out Marple since I'm not sure how to run the TV in this Airbnb. I've read everything by Dame Christie and enjoy both those detectives for different reasons.

Marcia said...

Treasure those videos!
As to Agatha Christie she has tons of full length novels. I had a mission several years ago to read them all. I went in order of publication for Poirot then Miss Marple. There are others that stand alone. They are worth reading and so well done. Current reading a mystery that is not well done but have nothing else to read so will slog through it.

MARY G said...

Nothing quite so precious as an old video. I have one of the grandkid's first mouthful of solid food. Man, if I ever need to blackmail her....
Love your dancing.

Vicki Lane said...

Miss Marple is my favorite, both in the novels and on television-- the older series with Joan Hickson is absolutely faithful to the character in the novels.I haven't been tempted bu Marple.

Thickethouse.wordpress said...

I am a fan of David Suchet's Hercule Poirot and Joan Hickson as Miss Marple. There are two newer Miss Marple series and I didn't care for either. The acting might have been ok but they changed the plots and background so much I was a bit angry! In one, they made Miss Marple have an affair with a married WWI soldier. Ridiculous. I am not sure about Christie writing more short stories. She certainly did a lot of novels.

What a wonderful grandfather you are! I had a very close relationship with my mother's parents and I think that kind of closeness is a treasure in anyone's life. You've give your grandchildren a great gift.

gigi-hawaii said...

I used to sing Rock a bye baby when I put the kids to bed. That was a ritual at nap time after lunch and in the evening.

Mara said...

I have never really been into Agatha Christie. I watched the most recent incarnation of Sherlock (AC Doyle) and liked them a lot, yet not enough to start reading the stories. Yet.

Joanne Noragon said...

Any Pirot is a good Pirot. Marple, too. I'll have to see what Netflix has on offer.

Terra said...

Poirot and Marple are very captivating TV, for me. David Suchet loves the character I can tell. That looks like a lot of fun dancing going on.

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

We have watched many of the Poiret mysteries with David Suchet on Acorn TV streaming and some of the Miss Marple ones. All have been very entertaining and lately we have been watching Alfred Hitchcock Presents available on YouTube and The Internet Archive. These programs are better than most current shows, which we never watch anyway. It was fun watching your Memories videos. You have some great ones with the grands, AC.

DJan said...

What fun! I love your sweet videos. They do capture something that shows us how much we change over the years. Time flies. :-)

Rita said...

Those are just the sweetest videos!! Priceless!! :)