Periodic losses of power, some pool gatherings, and three weeks of travel basketball cut my list a little short last month.
Movies, Shows, etc
They Shall Not Grow Old
I’ve been waiting for this to hit a streaming service for a couple years. Peter Jackson took footage from World War I, colorized it, and overlaid it with interviews given by British veterans of that war to offer a limited view of what that conflict was like. It is amazing and brutal. While we have a few modern WWI movies that are hyper-realistic – 1918 and the updated All Quiet on the Western Front the best examples – there’s something about seeing real pictures and film that hit harder.
I also learned for the first time about the world these veterans came home to. I had never heard that much of the British public thought the soldiers had been away on a bit of a lark, and had no understanding of the things they witnessed and lived through. Nor how the British economy, which had adjusted to operate without millions of people who were off to war, struggled to find ways to integrate those workers upon their return.
A
The Clash: London Calling
I thought I had seen every documentary about the Clash, but this one was new to me. Not a lot of things in it I didn’t know, although I had never seen their appearance on the Tom Snyder show.
B+
Football’s Most Dangerous Rivalry
A fascinating, if dated, look at one of the most bitter and unique rivalries in any sport, Celtic-Rangers in Glasgow. I knew it was, basically, a Catholic vs Protestant rivalry. But I never knew its roots were deep in the same divide in Northern Ireland. Pregames at the pubs look like fun.
Glad this came with subtitles already added, because the Glasgow accent is damn near impossible to understand.
A-
Tour de France
I wrote about this here.
A
Community, season two
I went back and re-watched season one a year or two ago. Season two was the show’s peak, a nearly perfect run of episodes that were criminally under-watched on their initial run.
It’s fun going back and watching a show like this so long after its original air date. While The Office has become timeless, watching this definitely took me back to that moment in my life, when my kids were still young and a half-hour of good comedy was an escape from my parenting responsibilities.
A
Primo
The story of a high school junior in San Antonio and his life with his single mom, five crazy uncles, and new neighbor he is crazy about.
Shea Serrano, one of the funniest people alive, and Michael Shur, one of the best writers of TV comedy over the past 20 years, were the creative forces behind this. So it had to be good. And it was, but it was more sweet than funny. Which is fine, but I was hoping for belly laughs like Serrano’s writing often gives me.
B+
The Diplomat
Not what I expected at all. Keri Russell is a US diplomat pulled at the last moment from her dream assignment in Afghanistan to become the new ambassador to the United Kingdom. Which happens just as the Brits are the subject of an attack that could lead to World War III.
It starts off as pretty standard, if high quality, TV politics stuff. But it adds just a touch of camp to veer it towards Shonda Rhimes territory. And for the second time in her career, Russell is in the middle of a fascinating exploration of marriage on the small screen. Her relationship with her semi-estranged husband here has a lot of parallels to Elizabeth and Phillip Jennings in The Americans. The dynamic between Wylers is equally engaging and fascinating.
Entertaining but not too heavy, and split the difference nicely between my tastes and S’s (although I watched it first then recommended it to her). I’ll watch season two for sure.
A-
Shorts, YouTubes, etc
Michael McDonald Was EVERYWHERE In The 70s and 80s
The patron saint of Yacht Rock.
Ayo Edebiri Ate Props On Set Of ‘The Bear’ & Spills Celeb Crush
More The Bear content.
Why We’re So Obsessed With Costco
Always interesting to see how very successful businesses often do very simple things to separate themselves from their competition.
Renovating a canoe while running a marathon
Beau Miles bullshit!
I Applied HIGH VOLTAGE to Kids Toys!
This is SO AWESOME! And it gets better on each item.
Can a Lego Car Roll Downhill Forever?
More fun with toys and power. If M had gone to Purdue, she could have met a nice boy who can do engineering stuff like this.
Scott Hutchison Acoustic Pop-up at Boston Calling 2017
No idea why I had never watched this before.