Shortest month of the year, but I was not short-changed on the media tip.
Movies, Shows, etc
A Cook’s Tour, season one
As I said last month, I recently discovered these were on YouTube. Which is awesome because I’ve never seen them.
Anthony Bourdain’s first TV show, and you can see the seeds of what No Reservations and Parts Unknown would become. You see a host with a clear point of view trying to establish his voice but being a little off what we got used to later in his career. The production is pretty rough; portable video equipment was apparently not great in 2000–01? And the film crew tried a few too many “Hey look what I can do!” techniques.
Still, cool shit. Especially in some of the later episodes when, other than the production values, it really begins to feel like Bourdain’s classic work.
A-
Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy, season one
I had heard of this show, and even recorded a few episodes before we went to Italy last fall. But since none of the episodes our DVR slurped up were about the cities we were going to, I never watched them.
I came across a recommendation for the show a few weeks back and checked to see if it was available. Turns out it was free to view on-demand, so that first night I watched four episodes of season one and was hooked.
What a great show! Just about every episode leaves me smiling thanks to Tucci’s good humor and easy interactions with the Italians he runs into during his travels. Makes me want to go back.
A
Minions: The Rise of Gru
We watched one of our nephews one night and this was how we kept him occupied for a bit. Not as good as the first couple movies in the Minions universe, but still good for some laughs. And the six-year-old enjoyed it.
B for me, A for him
Austin City Limits – The War on Drugs
A high quality hour of modern rock.
A
2023 Grammy Awards: 50th Anniversary of Hip Hop
I did not watch the Grammys, since I tend to think they suck. Several friends told me I needed to check out the 50th anniversary of hip hop performance. So I did. It was indeed outstanding. Lots of notable folks weren’t included, but several of my all time favs were. Jump the the 1:46.00 mark to see it.
A+
Triple Frontier
One of those “some good people know where some bad people have stashed their money and try to take it, succeed, but then it all goes wrong” tales.
In this case ex-Special Forces soldiers rip off a South American drug lord to the tune of $250 million. By the time they reach safety, it’s pretty much all gone along with one of their partners.
Nothing special, but I’ve wasted two hours watching worse.
B
Reservation Dogs, season one
I’ve heard great things about this for awhile. I finally watched and all those exceptions were met. Just a great show about teenagers in general. Add in the additional layers from setting (rural Oklahoma) and cast (Native Americans) and it is truly one of the most original and enjoyable shows about growing up I can recall. I hope season two lives up to the first.
A
Inglourious Basterds
Typical Tarantino fare. Parts were brilliant. Fantastic casting and performances. Great writing. But there were moments that lagged and sections of the story didn’t make sense. And there’s so much over-the-top violence, which I don’t mind but can be a lot to take.
B+
Jack Ryan, season three
I liked season one. Season two infuriated me and I swore future efforts off. Then I read some decent reviews and figured it was worth a shot.
What a mistake. Despite a compelling structure to build the story around – the Russians are reviving a Cold War-era plan to goad the US into war – it fell flat once again.
Seriously, I can watch dumb shows, especially if their dumbness is offered up with a wink. But dumb shows that pretend to be smart drive me nuts. And this one got dumber with each episode. I spent more time counting up the insanely illogical/implausible elements of the plot that paying attention to where it was headed. In fact, that’s the only reason I didn’t stop watching; I wanted to see just how stupid the show could be.
Answer: pretty fucking stupid.
Trying to salvage things by almost directly ripping off The Hunt For Red October didn’t help.
C-, only because I can’t admit I spent nearly eight hours watching something that I give a D
Edge of the Unknown with Jimmy Chin
A bit of the old bait and switch here. Chin follows extreme athletes to show how they push beyond the limits that stop normal folks. Episode one focuses on climber Alex Hannold, and how he prepared for his epic free solo climb of El Capitan. The climb that Chin followed in Free Solo. But after the Hannold episode, it goes a different direction. Instead of following athletes who face challenges, we watch a big mountain skier tumble head-over-heels down a 1000’ foot run. We see a kayaker get pinned under the water for over 3:00, his limp arms clearly displayed in his GoPro video. A snowboarder starts an avalanche and rides down a mountain in the midst of it. And so on. Luckily all of these people survive, although there is one episode that does include the death of a subject.
But it is a very interesting look at how these failures affected each athlete. Almost all are embarrassed, as they think since they are “experts” they shouldn’t have made the minor mistakes that turned into big ones. Some ended or altered their careers after their accidents. Others rededicated themselves, but in new ways.
What really makes the series is the camera work. In most cases there is gorgeous, hi-def video of majestic mountains or water falls. And in almost every episode the athlete has a GoPro strapped to their body or tools and we can see inside the avalanche, or have our view spin wildly as the skier tumbles down the mountain.
It’s hard to watch at times, but always beautiful.
A
Shorts, YouTubes, etc
The Mysterious 30 Year Journey of Apollo 12
Yet another amazing story from the Apollo program. The title is a little dishonest: the journey continues today.
Demolished NFL Stadiums Then and Now
These are fun to look at, especially the really old baseball fields, which had strange contours because of the spaces they were crammed into.
Shoegaze and Grunge Compared
I don’t agree with all of this guys points, but it is interesting to compare/contrast the two sounds, which had their peaks at about the same time.
10 Things Stanley Tucci Can’t Live Without
The algorithm is always paying attention, and spit this out after I watched Searching for Italy.
B–1B Lancer Pilot Cockpit Tour and Take Off
The B–1B is the coolest military jet the US has ever made.
DIRT Episode 1 — Seattle
DIRT Episode 2 — New Orleans
DIRT Episode 3 — The North
DIRT Episode 4 — NYC
This can be a little Urban Bro-ish, but I dug the result. A great example of food bringing people with very different backgrounds together.
Why everything you buy is worse now
Spoiler alert: it’s a nasty combination of capitalism and FOMO.
Road trip through KANSAS
I stopped watching The Adventures of A+K when they completed their Alaska journey, although their newest vids still hit my timeline. They made a stop in Kansas on their way back to Texas so I had to check that out. Eating at Joe’s Barbecue was smart. Driving past the Center of the Universe was dumb. Shame the Cosmosphere was closed because I would have liked to see how much that has changed since the last time I was there in 1984.
Cape York, 1972
I’ve been getting a lot of old travel videos in my feed. This one was cool, since I love Australia. I also wondered how different this journey would be today.
Pedro Pascal’s Top 10 Movie Picks
Pedro has been on a bit of a heater the past few years. So, yes, I am interested in the films that influenced him.
The Foreign Legion, another French exception
I’ve known the term “French Foreign Legion” since I was a kid. I didn’t really know what it was about, though. This video shows the modern legion in action.
Christian Braun is a basketball enigma
CB is having a solid rookie year. Love that some random NBA YouTuber has made multiple videos about him.
National Geographic: Polynesian Adventure (1969)
This was so awesome! I want to go to French Polynesia in 1969. I looked him up and the dad of this group, Stan Waterman, is still alive! If he can last two more months he’ll celebrate his 100th birthday.