D's Notebook

Tag: media (Page 3 of 15)

February Media

March 4, 2024 /

Movies, Shows, etc

The Greatest Night In Pop
The funny way to sum up this look at how “We Are The World” was recorded would be to say it was outrageous. Some of you will get that joke.

I’ve read about that night several times, but there were still some terrific little tidbits in this film. I’m on record as not being a fan of the song, but I liked how Bruce Springsteen described his experience: no matter what you think of the song, it was a tool for helping people. That’s probably the best way to remember it. (Chuck Klosterman was on Bill Simmons’ podcast last week and said something along the lines of, “Bruce said the song sucked in the nicest way possible.”)

We still don’t know why Dan Aykroyd was involved. And it kind of ignores Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder singing back and forth to each other near the song’s end. Otherwise very much worth your time.

A

Ed, season two
Year one was better, but I didn’t complain about re-watching 22 more episodes featuring my old pals from Stuckeyville. A few observations. The season premiere was in early October, so a matter of weeks after 9/11. The persistent NBC peacock logo in the corner of the screen included a waving flag graphic for the first half of the season. America! A punch line for many jokes continued to be the word “homosexual” or “gay.” I don’t think the writers were anti-gay, but 20 years ago that kind of stuff was considered normal. I wish these VHS transfers weren’t so grainy because there were some fetching guest stars. Whoever posted these videos also corrected the biggest error of season two. The creators dropped Foo Fighter’s “Next Year” as the theme song. This person put it back in, which is kind of brilliant. On to season three at some point.

B+

Perry Mason, season two
Season one was very good. Everything about season two was better. Despite terrific reviews and decent ratings, it is another victim of mis-management at HBO and there will be no season three. Idiots.

A

Goodfellas
This aired on Super Bowl Sunday afternoon, and I watched the whole (edited) thing. Still the best.

A+

Lethal Weapon/Lethal Weapon 2
One night I came across these and watched a decent chunk of each. Say the last 90 minutes of the first and the first hour of the second. These were high rotation flicks for me back in the early 90s. Parts hold up. Parts are kind of fucking stupid. No grades since I didn’t see the entire movies.

Incomplete

Mr. & Mrs. Smith
I thought this had some terrific high points, some slow points that dragged a bit, and then some bits that were just odd/confusing and distracted. Much like The Americans, it is a spy show that is far more about being in a marriage than being a spy. Unlike Phillip and Elizabeth Jennings, who we met nearly two decades into their relationship, we see John and Jane Smith come together and try to navigate a new, forced relationship as they kill people. And, like The Americans, Mr. & Mrs. Smith does a great job at demonstrating that marriage is a tough task to begin with. Throw a bunch of super stressful stuff on top of it, and it gets even harder.

I think the strength of this show became more obvious after completing it, when I had time to contemplate and connect those broader observations about marriage together. I wish it had maintained the trajectory of my favorite episodes, but the less successful ones did not cancel them out.

B

True Detective: Night Country
Most disappointing show I’ve watched in some time. It arrived with the promise of calling back to season one, one of the best years in recent TV history. And there were some connections, but they often felt forced. The bigger problem was the story fell apart as the season progressed. Through much of the final three episodes it felt like the writers were meandering, looking for ways to make the story compelling but always falling short. Much of the dialogue seemed lazy and couldn’t be saved by the fine actors asked to speak it. And then the resolutions to the various mysteries? Some of them seemed flat-out dumb. From what I’ve read this was a highly polarizing season, for a variety of reasons. I’m in the camp that was not convinced.

B-

Help! I Wrecked My House
We got sucked into this one Sunday and watched it for approximately 153 consecutive hours. I like that the host isn’t all over-the-top about things. California chill works for me.

A-

Curb Your Enthusiasm, season 10
Spite store! RIP Richard Lewis.

A

Shorts, YouTubes, etc

I haven’t been using the YouTubes as much lately. Last month I had a goal of watching a little more so I could get my algorithm back to recommending cool, random stuff.

Japan’s Most Terrifying Bridge: Eshima Ohashi
I would never ride a bike or run across this bridge.

The ONE thing keeping this iconic vintage laptop from working…
I love the concept of videos like this, tinkering with old tech tools and getting them to work again. I always question the utility of them, though. How much can you really accomplish with a vintage computer. I guess, like so many hobbies, it’s all about spending time doing something you enjoy.

NA1SS Voice Contact Astronaut
The radio geek in me thinks this is pretty cool, contacting the international space station from your backyard with a handheld radio and antenna.

I knocked the bastard off – Retracing the footsteps of a murderer (Ep 3)
Beau Miles wraps up his hike.

DIRT Episode 7 – Atlanta
I didn’t like this one quite as much as the previous ones in the series. Seemed to lack a bit of focus.

Experience a Recording Studio On the Edge of Iceland’s Arctic Circle
How This Photographer Manifested His Dream Home on the Oregon Coast
An Exclusive Look Inside The Explorers Club’s Members-Only Clubhouse
Inside This Green Beret & Entrepreneur’s GORUCK Home Gym
Explore An Austin Musician’s Bohemian Bungalow
After watching DIRT, I dove into some of Huckberry’s videos about cool homes/hangouts. The recording studio and Oregon house are my two favorites.

Secret cafe in Kyoto
This is very cute and very Japanese.

LiMu Emu & Doug
This was some quality SNL-ing.

Finally, my EV content, which took over my life the last two weeks of the month. Rather than share every video – which would probably make you worry about my mental health – I’ll ID the feeds I spent the most time in.

The Out of Spec community has a bunch of feeds, but I watched their Out of Spec Reviews and Out of Spec Dave ones the most.
Ryan Shaw
Gjeebs

There were lot of other randoms I watched in addition to deep dives in those feeds.

This Is the Biggest Problem With EV Adoption
Actually news related to EVs rather than reviews or road trip vids.

January Media

February 6, 2024 /

Movies, Shows, etc

Fargo, season five
I loved this season, it is right up there with season two as my favorites in Fargo’s TV run. There were a couple small moments that bugged me which kept it from being a straight A, although after listening to an interview with creator Noah Hawley they made a little more sense.

As always, almost every performance was spectacular, but Juno Temple and Jon Hamm were the clear stars. Temple’s Dorothy was filled with an uncontainable energy for survival. Hamm was brilliant as the evil “America’s Sheriff” Roy Tillman. He radiated pure rage. It’s also amazing how an accent done properly can elevate an actor’s work.

A-

Love Notes to Newton
A quirky film about one of the quirkiest products Apple ever made. I didn’t love some of the production choices but it was still a fun look at the life, death, and semi-resurrection of the Newton.

B

Emily the Criminal
I’ve been thinking about ways to spend my free time. Light credit card fraud was one idea. I’m moving it to the top of the list after seeing how well it worked out for Audrey Plaza in this movie. It was fun to see her play a different kind of psychopath.

B+

Barbie
Family movie night. Delightful, hilarious, both overtly and subverted political, skewers modern society yet is a strikingly positive movie, and is surprisingly touching at times. Plus almost every scene has Margot Robbie in it. Not many complaints.

A-

The Falcon and The Snowman
An 80s spy movie about the 70s. I remember this being released to a lot of hype then kind of being a dud. Turns out ticket buyers didn’t like it but critics did. It was one of the first times Sean Penn played a truly unhinged character. Timothy Hutton is a little over the top, but his performance fits the kind of old-timey vibe of the film. Lori Singer is stunning in her brief moments on screen. It’s an interesting story, based on a true tale of two friends who sold US intelligence to the Soviets. It feels very dated, though, mostly because of the technology of the actual film. The sound and lighting seem primitive compared to today. The colors are muted, and not because of artistic choices. Times have really changed.

B

Curb Your Enthusiasm, season nine
Fatwa!

B

Kingsman: The Secret Service
I pulled up a list of movies to watch if you are into James Bond and this rated pretty highly. I didn’t know until about an hour into it that the movie’s roots are in a comic book series. That might have eased some confusion I had in that first hour. I ended up enjoying the bawdy, sarcastic, satire-ish, escapism but it took me awhile to get there.

B

Once Upon A Time In Hollywood
I’d been meaning to re-watch this since last summer, when I read Tarantino’s novelization of it. I finally did, and in maybe the worst way possible: I stumbled across it on FX one night, recorded it, and watched it in bits and pieces over the next three weeks. FX doesn’t edit much, by the way.

Like my first time, B+ for the movie, A+ for Margot Robbie.

The Super Mario Brothers Movie
We watched our four-year-old nephew one night and chose this to keep him occupied. He loved it, but he also told us about his day at daycare and all about his basketball team during the show, so I wasn’t super focused.

B-ish?

Skyfall
Last month was Casino Royale. This month the other contender for best Daniel Craig Bond movie. I feel like I’ve gone back and forth a couple times, but I’m sticking with CR as #1 for now, with this close behind.

A

Only Murders In The Building, season one
A slow, wacky build to a delightful ending. Since our family was in the midst of its Disney Channel days when Selena Gomez first became a star there, it’s really hard for me to view her as an adult. And would she really hang out with Steve Martin and Martin Short? I dig those beautiful New York apartments, though.

B+

The Outpost
When the last roughly 45 minutes depict a single firefight with the Taliban, I think it’s safe to call a movie “intense.”

B+

Shorts, YouTubes, etc

Sears 1982 Christmas Holiday Season
A bunch of B-roll and a bit of an ABC news report about shopping during the 1982 holidays. I love the shots of the kid playing Intellivision in the department store. In the early ‘80s us video game degenerates always knew where the Ataris, etc were hidden in the Jones Store, Dillard’s, etc and you could sneak a few games while your mom shopped. On the good days no one else was around and you might knock out half an hour of play before you had to leave.

Atari Home Computers – Kiosk Presentation
Coincidentally I came across this via another source. It is a truly amazing look at the world of 40-some years ago. As a fellow computer enthusiast said, this feels more like it’s 200 years old.

Cologuard – SNL
Funny shit, literally.

Building the ultimate Tudor BB54 Big Crown
I’m pretty sure I’ve talked a little about how I’ve gotten into watches in recent years. A feed I follow suggested this vid, where for some reason they take a roughly $4000 watch and make a few changes so it resembles a different watch.

Running 220km in the footsteps of a murderer, part 1
Running 220km in the footsteps of a murderer – Part 2
A new Beau Miles series!

Felicien Kabuga: The man behind Rwanda’s hate media
The Rwandan Bishop Who Incited Genocide
After reading Charles Cumming’s Kennedy 35, I fell into am internet rabbit hole reading, and in some cases re-reading, pieces about the Rwandan genocide. Which led to watching videos like these.

Friday Playlist

February 2, 2024 /

“Real Doll Time” – VR SEX
I’m not sure exactly how to describe this song. It harkens back to the earliest days of punk with its aggression and hint of nastiness, but sounds thoroughly modern at the same time. No matter how it ends up getting categorized, it 100% rips.

“Lagunita” – Lizzie No
Lizzie No is primarily a folk artist, but when she decides to plug in and rock out, I dig the results. Not sure if this is a true Country or Not song, but it certainly has some CoN-esque vibes.

“Alibi” – Hurray For The Riff Raff
This, on the other hand, is a definite Country or Not entry. If you have a moaning peddle steel guitar in the mix you will always get that label. This seems like a big departure from HFTRR’s previous catalog, or at least from their songs that I’m familiar with.

“Vanishing Point” – Tanlines
I was trying to narrow down who/what this track reminded me of. There’s a lot of New Romanticism in there, so Spandau Ballet, Bryan Ferry/Roxy Music type pop. Certainly Bowie. A hint of late era Police? Most of all I hear coked-up, pasty white people trying to slow dance sexily.

“newrules” – Sjowgren
I can find almost no info about either this band or song. So I guess just listen and enjoy.

“That’s the Joint” – Funky 4+1
Props to Brother in Music E$ for sharing this with a few of us this week. It is one of the most sampled songs in the history of hip hop. If you’ve never heard it in full before, I have no doubt there are dozens of little moments within that you’ve heard in dozens of other songs.

“Girls Just Want To Have Fun” – Cyndi Lauper
This week’s 1984 track is one of the most memorable of that year, and of the entire decade for that matter. Cyndi Lauper’s first solo single had been bubbling under the Top 40 for nearly two months before debuting at #31 the last week of January. The first week of February it was up to #21. By mid-March it would reach its peak of #2 for two weeks. Why did it struggle and then suddenly race up the chart? The video, of course! The stunning visuals combined with Lauper’s catchy-as-hell track grabbed America’s attention and launched one of the most remarkable years in pop music history.

Wednesday Notes

January 24, 2024 /

NFL

Because of basketball (KU and CHS) and some other activities, I didn’t get to see much of the four playoff games last weekend. San Francisco is very lucky to advance, and does not seem like the same team that ran roughshod through their opponents during stretches of the regular season. Jordan Love’s final pass for Green Bay might have been the worst choice/throw in a big moment in a long time.

Good for Detroit for advancing again. A damn shame the NFC title game won’t be at Ford Field. That scene would have been wild.

I’ve written many times that no team, player, coach, or fanbase deserves success because they’ve had years of bad luck and tough breaks. That’s not how sports work. You can play hard, follow the rules, be a good teammate, etc and sometimes the other team is just better and/or luckier.

But, man, Buffalo losing because their kicker pushed a field goal wide right seemed like an especially cruel ending to their game. That wasn’t the real reason the Bills lost – they lost because of a couple bad throws, a terrible drop, and their defense wilting – but it was the final gut punch you kind of knew was coming.

Of course I, like about a million other people, said even if the Bills made that kick, the Chiefs still would have found a way to win, either in regulation or overtime. As cruel as having to watch a postseason game end on a kick sailing wide-right again, maybe it was better than losing at the final gun, or in overtime.

Poor Buffalo.

Pacers

Hey, the Pacers made a trade! And it was a big one, grabbing Pascal Siakam from Toronto for a bench player and three first round picks. At first glance three picks seemed like a lot for a player on an expiring contract. Those picks – two this year, the third in two years – will likely be in the 20s, though, so the Pacers likely aren’t giving up franchise-changing draft opportunities. And most NBA insiders suggest that Siakam is open to re-signing with the Pacers this summer.

It’s tough to gauge the trade since Tyrese Haliburton has only played one, injury-affected game with Siakam so far. While he isn’t perfect, and isn’t playing quite as well as he did three years ago, Siakam is a terrific match for what the Pacers do on offense, and a big upgrade on the defensive end.

It’s tough to get top tier players to come to Indiana. In the last three winters they have traded for Haliburton and Siakam. That’s pretty good.

Even after that trade the Pacers remain in good position to make another move, should the right opportunity arise. Or just play out this season, re-sign Siakam, and tweak the roster over the summer to make a real run next season.

Now Haliburton just needs to get healthy again.

Media

A rough week for people who write for a living.

First, Pitchfork got absorbed into the GQ brand. No one is sure what that means short term, but long term you have to think it signals the end of one of the most important music journalism outlets of the internet era. I’ve always been more of a Stereogum fan, but I’ve read plenty of pieces on Pitchfork over the years.

The next day it was announced that all of Sports Illustrated’s staff had been laid off. SI has been a joke for a long time, and hasn’t covered itself in glory recently. People of my generation longed for it to return to its prime, when it was a vital element of being a fully-informed fan of sports. That was never going to happen. With the NFL exploring buying into ESPN, and the NBA and MLB likely to do so soon after, SI could have carved out a new niche as an alternative to ESPN’s online presence, a home for sports journalism that was free of constraints put in place by one league or another. Instead the private equity ghouls that run it chose to strip it to the bone and let it fade into obscurity.

Finally, the Los Angeles Times laid off a large chunk of its workforce, including some great sports writers with national reputations. The Times seemed like one of the last big papers that would be able to thrive in the current climate. Once again, ownership is more interested in squeezing profit from the paper than viewing it as a public necessity.

As a former member of the media this is just more very sad news. There are fewer and fewer independent media outlets that create original and interesting content. Major media outlets are focused on conflict and who is winning/losing. Local media often seems more like advertising than informative news. AI is going to dramatically change news in the next decade.

I never had great illusions about being able to match the money I made in the corporate world as a journalist, not that that was all that much. As the avenues to make a reasonable wage writing dry up and more and more experienced journalists get thrown out of their traditional jobs, I don’t think there is any chance I could ever get back into the semi- or fully employed writing game.

Which I guess means more blogging, so good for my loyal readers I guess?

December Media

January 1, 2024 /

Holiday Stuff

Most of the usuals are in here. One thing missing, though, was The Office Christmas episodes. This is the first time in a few years we haven’t subscribed to the streaming service that allows you to watch the episodes of your choice. Maybe they’ll be back somewhere real (i.e. not Peacock) next year. Or I’ll just record them all off Comedy Central over the course of 2024 and save them for next holiday season.

Elf, A
Christmas Vacation, A
A Christmas Story, A
A Christmas Story Christmas, B
Die Hard, A
Home Alone, B-
SNL Christmas Skits – Once I again I picked-and-chose my favs from YouTube rather than rely on the stale NBC special. A
Seinfeld, “The Strike,” A

Bojack Horseman: Sabrina’s Christmas Wish
I only watched a couple early seasons of Bojack so had never seen this. Fit what I knew of the show perfectly: in some ways very funny, in others just didn’t fit my flavor of humor. B

Pee-wee’s Playhouse Christmas Special
A newly restored version of this 1988 special hit the YouTubes this holiday season. This was the first time I had seen it, which is probably the best way to see it, as it is outrageous and full of surprises. Hopefully it remains available online for future screenings. A

Holiday Baking Championship
A key part of our Decembers every year. I ruined the end, though. As we were watching the finale I looked up how long they actually take to film the show – the entire competition takes place over roughly ten days – and while doing so found multiple articles that prominently mentioned the winner. Oh well, still worth our time.

A-

Movies, Shows, etc

Wind River
I started watching this a year or so ago, maybe on a flight somewhere, and the Netflix app glitched and would only play the opening minutes. It got the red, Netflix, Leaving Soon tag in early December so I decided to finally knock it out. A pretty good, emotionally tense thriller about the exploitation of Native American women.

B+

Fargo, season five
When I started this, I didn’t realize Hulu is going old-school and releasing it one episode per week. I likely would have waited a month to start it had I known that. Through seven episodes, it’s pretty good. We’ll see where it ends up.

Incomplete.

The Killer
This was weird. It had all the stylish trappings that David Fincher movies often have. But when we reached the conclusion, I wondered what the point had been. I mean, I figured it would be about a psychopath based on the title. But this guy was especially psychopathic. That poor cab driver… I later listened to a podcast that discussed the movie and suggested if you are really into Fincher the movie might make more sense. And multiple viewings seem to help. One was enough for me.

B

Casino Royale
Last Christmas night I believe we watched Glass Onion as a family. This year L had her boyfriend over and they were watching Community together. M and C were doing their own things in their rooms. S had reflux and went to bed early. I decided to keep it Daniel Craig with this modern classic.

A

Pearl Jam, Live From Safeco Field 8/8/2018
This was free on Amazon for the week between Christmas and New Years. Like so many of their shows, it was fantastic. Still bummed Covid wiped out their Indy show in September. Maybe I’ll see them in 2024?

A

Shorts, YouTubes, etc

John Krasinski & Rainn Wilson making each other break for 8 minutes 21 seconds
Steve Carell’s Best Bloopers from The Office
Seinfeld Bloopers Season 3
Classic sitcom fun.

Turning a 9kg pumpkin into a 100km adventure
I planted a forest two years ago
Is this the worst filmmaking I’ve ever done?
A triple shot of Beau Miles bullshit.

The Insane Engineering of the Space Shuttle
This got too technical for me but since I’ll watch about anything related to space travel I stuck with it.

Music/Podcasts

The Rewatchables: Christmas Vacation
The Trap Draw: Home Alone
A couple pods about classic Christmas movies. I need to go on one of these because it drives me crazy when the hosts/guests get little details wrong. Which would probably make me a terrible guest. Also hated that one guest on The Trap Draw – who to be fair was born in 1995 – didn’t know that John Hughes wrote other movies until she did some research for this pod. 🤦‍♂️ How old does that make me?

Wednesday Notes

December 13, 2023 /

A good, old fashioned notes dump like the old days.

CHS Lockdown

There was a lockdown for about an hour at Cathedral yesterday. Apparently someone called 911 claiming to be inside the school with a gun. About a million cops showed up and no person with a gun was ever found. We live in wonderful times, friends.

Our girls seemed more annoyed that they had to stay and finish the day after the all-clear than worried/scared by the threat.

Visitor/College Break

M’s roommate from UC came for a quick visit Monday and Tuesday. She lives in Toledo and M visited her last summer for a weekend. Because of her holiday schedule she was only able to come down for about 24 hours. But M showed her around our area and introduced her to a few high school friends, although they mostly hung around with other UC kids.

A funny thing about M’s friend group at school is one of her best guy friends grew up less than a mile from our house. He went to the rival high school and never knew each other, but they had mutual friends. The past several days their local group has been gathering either at his house or ours.

It was a little weird getting M home last week. My first thought was, “OK, it’s Christmas break!” Then I realized her sister had almost THREE full weeks of class left before they were done for the semester. M did a lot of sitting around that first week, but most of her friends are back in town now and her social activity has started to pick back up. She’s also done some babysitting and has several days blocked off to watch either nephews or other kids between now and her return to school next month.

Holidays

M’s arrival has messed up my mind regarding the holidays in more ways than one. I was a little surprised to realize Monday we were two weeks from Christmas. The first half of the Christmas season seems to have raced by. I think a lot of that is because of L’s game schedule, which has kept us very busy the past two weeks.

Anyway, it was a bit of an alarm to make sure I am focused over the next two weeks to get all my holiday movies and shows knocked out. I haven’t watched Elf or Christmas Vacation nearly enough (one full time each, several partial viewings thrown in as well).

Sports Illustrated

Man, what a mess. An American icon that has been crumbling for years likely had its final downfall a week ago when it was discovered that the magazine was using AI to both write articles and labelling those articles with AI-generated writer names and headshots.

SI was an integral part of my childhood, and then remained essential deep into adulthood. The arrival of each week’s new volume on Thursday was one of the biggest moments of your kid week. My copy remained in the folder I carried to class until it was dog-eared and nearly memorized, not replaced until the next one came.

Magazines everywhere are dying. It feels like SI could have survived as it was generally more of a high-level view of sports, one which can still be relevant in the Internet age. The magazine, and its publishers, have made about a million bad choices in the past 20 years, though, and it was already an insignificant blip on the sports journalism map before this scandal.

And then they gave the Sportsman of the Year award to Deion Sanders, which seems absolutely asinine on every level. Given how ultra-commercial his whole deal is, my first thought was that he, or his publicists, paid for the honor. Or exchanged it for access. Something classic SI would not have engaged in.

Should he have been in the issue somewhere? Absolutely. But whatever waves he made this year were more because of the work his handlers did to create his story and image than anything he actually did. Many people had a bigger impact on the sports world than Deion.

As one college football expert said recently on a podcast, Deion deserves immense credit for what he’s already done at CU. But the fact is that team got worse each week of the season, there was all kinds of internal turmoil in the program, and Deion proved that if he really wants to deliver on all the promises he’s made, he has a lot to learn about coaching and running a power conference program. That expert has confidence that Deion is capable of making those jumps. But you can’t give a student an A+ for a project that was turned in incomplete missing required elements.

Memorial Stadium

The first phase of demolition at KU’s Memorial Stadium started on Monday. I loved all the people who made comments long the lines of “It was a dump, I watched a ton of bad football there, but I also have a lot of great memories there.” Very true.

In my first game there in 1980 I saw Dan Marino. I was there for the Tony Sands game. For Monte Cozzens. For Eric Vann’s 99-yard touchdown run.[1] Two wins over Oklahoma. I also sat through ice storms, bitter cold, blazing heat, and gusty winds while the Jayhawks were getting housed by Nebraska, OU, and others. When I lived in Lawrence, I was there damn near every home game.

The rumors last week that KU is looking to play some of their home games at Arrowhead in Kansas City next year are interesting. I think they realize the team has a chance to be even better next year, and don’t want to play games in front of 20,000 in a stadium that is under active renovation. Sell a bunch more tickets to bring more money in. Maybe rope in some new fans, or re-energize KC-area fans who stopped making the drive to Lawrence at some point during the Lost Decade. And potentially get the stadium renovations in Lawrence done faster than expected and be ready for the 2025 season. I don’t think you move all the games to Arrowhead, but it makes sense to play a few of them there if the Chiefs are open to the idea.

Andre Braugher

Such sad news that Andre Braugher has died. What an amazing career. His two biggest roles, as Frank Pembleton on Homicide and Raymond Holt on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, were two wildly different characters. It was shocking to see the same actor who portrayed the hyper-intense Pembleton make amazing comedy as Holt. He made it work.

  1. Never understood why these announcers called it a 98-yard run.  ↩

November Media

December 3, 2023 /

Another pretty light month.

Movies, Shows, etc

Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland
An amazing five-part documentary about The Troubles in Northern Ireland. It is a balance of archival footage and interviews with people who lived through the worst years of the conflict. One of the most moving aspects of the series was seeing these people interviewed in the 2020s and then again in newsreels from 30 or 40 years ago, in a moment of grief when a loved one had been killed. It was also fascinating to see how some of them have changed their views while a few, it seemed, had not. Which seems baffling to me, a non-religious person who lives in a society where we generally don’t kill people because they might pray to the same god in a different way. I know there was more to the conflict that religion, but that was the biggest dividing point between the Republicans and Unionists.

A

Arrival
The inspiration for these monthly posts came from Jason Kottke, who began doing his own periodic media posts awhile back. In his most recent he mentioned that he re-watched this, and it is one of his all time favorites. This was my first time watching it. It is the kind of sci-fi I can get into, where it’s more speculative than world building. Also dig the little clues that first-time viewers will miss but become apparent as the story wraps up. I may have to go back and re-watch it at some point to track those moments.

A-

Reservation Dogs, season three
A fitting finale season for an extraordinary show. Episode nine, “Elora’s Dad,” is on my list of best shows of the year. I’ve said this before, but this program was a true gift to viewers.

A

Barry, season four
Hmmm. A pretty bizarre final season for another one of the best shows of recent years. There were still plenty of moments that shared the dark humor of the first three seasons. But this one had too many connective moments in between that didn’t work, which kept it from being great. Of course that was because the bar was set so high by seasons one-through-three.

B

Shorts, YouTubes, etc

Key & Peele
I spent a lot of time last month watching random sketches from K&P. They never disappointed.

Prince ’91 Special Olympics Rehearsal
What a wonderful piece of music history.

El Estepario Siberiano
A friend bombarded me with a bunch of this dude’s videos one day. I don’t play drums but he seems pretty bad ass.

October Media

November 1, 2023 /

I’m clearly not wasting enough time watching TV or stuff on my computer as this month’s list is again rather lean. Don’t worry, with colder weather arriving and the holiday TV season beginning, I expect to get this back where it should be soon.

Movies, Shows, etc

Halloween Baking Championship
It’s holiday baking show season, bitches! The kids don’t watch anymore, but S does. And I’ve cut Halloween Wars from the rotation so start with just this. From the first episode I was sure Ryan would win. He slipped up in the finale and Hollie was a worthy champion.

A-

Searching for Italy, season two
It’s a damn shame CNN decided not to do a season three, because this was one of the best things on TV. It made us want to go back to Italy soon.

A

Ed, season one.
See here.

A

Seinfeld, random episodes
I hit a streak where I watched at least one episode each weekday for something like two weeks straight. There’s not a bad season, but when they are in the midst of seasons two-through-four, just about every episode is terrific.

A

The Big Short
Another film that I, inexplicably, had not seen. I’ve reached the age where I get suspicious of any traditional motion picture that attempts to explain some cultural, political, or economic phenomenon via drama, even if I agree with its perspective. At least in how I evaluate it as an “explanation” for said event. But you can’t argue that this isn’t a compelling movie to watch. I love all the little sly notes throughout that remind the viewer that the people who are ostensibly the Good Guys of the film are, with one or two notable exceptions, not really worthy of our admiration. They still profited massively off the economic meltdown that ruined so many regular people’s lives.

A-

Pearl Jam – Ten Revisited (2009 TV Special)
Love both the interviews and live performances from the band’s early days.

A

Stranger Things, season one
For some reason this jumped into my mind a couple weeks ago. It is my favorite season of the show, and the finale is one of my favorite single episodes ever. It takes place around Halloween, might as well watch it again!

Only my memory was wrong. Season one begins on November 3, 1983. It is season two that takes place over Halloween. Oh well. It was worth the re-watch for the fall, Indiana vibes alone.

A

American Experience War of the Worlds
It had been a couple years since I logged a Halloween-time listen to Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds. After I knocked it out on Halloween day I came across this PBS documentary about the alleged panic it caused. I found it interesting that this counters the widely accepted argument that very few people were actually fooled by the broadcast. Which is kind of fun. I like there being some mystery and/or controversy about what really happened. I think Welles would approve.

B+

Nile Rodgers & CHIC: Tiny Desk Concert
First off, Nile Rodgers is an American treasure. Second, this is one of the most delightful, joyous, magical performances you will ever watch. There is a massive surprise in the middle.

A+

Shorts, YouTubes, etc

A 20 Mile Backpacking Trip to the Heart of the Cascade Mountains
It’s been awhile since I’ve watched one of these hiking+photography videos.

The Inconvenient Podcast
Beau Miles gets asked to appear on a podcast about parenting. So of course he turns it into an adventure for both him and his daughter and the podcast host and his kids.

Best of Colin and Che “OFFENSIVE JOKES”
Sometimes you have to watch what the algorithm spits out to you.

Music/Podcasts

Plain English with Derek Thompson
I’ve blurbed this show before. Thompson’s current series about the Israel-Palestinian conflict has been excellent. As an American, liberal Jew, he has mixed feelings about the situation. I really appreciate how he and his guests do their best to examine events with as little emotion and as much respect for the people directly affected as is possible.

A Return to Stuckeyville

October 19, 2023 /

It’s weird how random things can trigger memories and send you down a path that brings a surprise ending.

Last week I was watching TV and saw a commercial for the new Goosebumps series, which features actor Justin Long. I chuckled, thinking back to the time I first encountered Long on the small screen, as Warren P. Cheswick on the NBC show Ed, the “dramedy” about the bowling alley lawyer. Well, the lawyer who owned a bowling alley. They were two separate things. Some of ya’ll know that was one of my favorite shows ever, and I’ve long mourned that due to various licensing issues it had disappeared, never turning up on either DVD (when that was a thing) or a streaming service. I used to follow the drive to get the show released again, but gave up hope long ago.

After seeing that commercial I started reading up on the actors from Ed and digging around to see if it had ever popped up on one of those random channels buried deep in the cable lineup.

Suddenly I was struck by a thought and went to YouTube, where I typed in a search for Ed. Sure enough, some of the episodes seemed to be available! I had never thought of looking for it on YouTube, which kind of makes me an idiot. In my defense, the shows I found have only been available for three years, which was long after I had concluded the show was lost forever.

I was very happy. Hell, as I said in last Friday’s playlist, my heart was full. Twenty-ish years of searching had come to an end and I would finally be able to watch Ed again!

Over the past week I knocked out all 22 episodes of season one, which aired during the 2000-01 TV season. Was the wait worth it, or was finally seeing the show again a letdown?

As you would expect, while there were plenty of small moments that came back to me immediately, for the most part it was like watching a brand-new show. It’s been 23 years, for crying out loud!

It still holds up pretty well, although perhaps not as good as upon my original viewing. I think a lot of that is simply because when it first aired, I was in the exact same phase of life as the main characters, and it was maybe easier to buy into every aspect of the storylines. Looking back as a middle aged man, the life and times of 30-somethings doesn’t resonate the same way. It also seems like Ed’s take on comedy was unique at that time, where there is a whole swath of shows that landed in the same general neighborhood of humor that have aired in the years since.1

I believe a criticism at the time Ed aired was that it was sometimes too cute for its own good and too self-satisfied in its cuteness. I was aware of that back in the day, and it was obvious upon the re-watch. It didn’t bother me at all, but I understand the knock.

I think this is a good point to mention the David Letterman influence on Ed. Show creators Jon Beckerman and Rob Burnett both came from The Late Show. David himself received an executive producer credit and, according to an article I found last week, he would pop up on set occasionally and make some script suggestions. There are numerous wacky little moments that I was sure were Dave’s work. Even when he didn’t directly touch a script, you feel his comedic POV baked deep into them.

Obviously it was kind of wild to see the clothes the actors wore. Everything was sooooo 2000. The men’s clothes, especially the suits, were a little baggy. I’m pretty sure my casual wardrobe at the time was quite similar to Ed Stevens’. And the women? Seeing what the ladies of Ed wore took me back to every happy hour and party of that era.

One of the big reasons the show disappeared after TBS ran re-runs for a few years was because it used so much music by real musicians. Foo Fighters, Marshall Crenshaw, the Dandy Warhols, and Toto, to name a few. As the landscape shifted and shows began getting released on DVDs and eventually showing up on streaming services, the rights for all those songs had not been secured for anything but airing the show on traditional TV. Between the number of songs used and the lack of wide popularity of the show, there was no great push to do all the paperwork required to clear all that music.

That is notable because of how one of the YouTube channels I found Ed on presented the show. When a song was featured as more than background music, they somehow filtered out all the audio except for the dialogue. It suddenly felt like I was swimming as the bulk of the audio came through super muffled, then when an actor spoke it was like they were far, far away and their voices barely could barely make it to me. It was an odd sensation.

I think that’s purely because of YouTube rules. About 10 years ago Rob Burnett spoke about the show’s status and said that music licensing rules had changed and that was no longer the holdup to releasing DVDs. Instead it was because two different studios shared the production rights to Ed, and it was again unlikely they would put in the time and money to give the show a second life. Who knows, maybe that will change and properly mastered versions will appear on a streamer someday.

Which would be cool, because the YouTube versions stink. They are all transfers from VHS tapes, so they look and sound terrible. Sometimes there were errors because of issues with the quality of the tape that made me laugh. Kids today don’t know how volatile VHS tapes were! Here are a couple screenshots to both show the overall quality of the videos and one of the errors that popped up.


The main channel I watched did not have episodes 20 or 21 uploaded, so I had to look for another option. The poster who submitted those episodes did not cancel out the songs, which gave me a little auditory whiplash.

Both channels I found taped the shows off of the San Diego NBC station, which is a little random. On a few episodes they left in promos for other NBC shows, or Ed-specific promos. I tried to go to the website listed for a contest to bowl with the cast of Ed – http://nbci.com/bowlwithed – but sadly the website doesn’t appear to be functional any longer. Surely I signed up for that back in 2001.

I was wondering if this was one of the first hyper-caffeinated shows on TV that featured spitfire-rapid dialogue. That became the norm in the 2000s, but still seemed new at the time. Ed and his pals were always drinking coffee, hanging in a coffee shop, etc. while having these crazy-fast conversations. The characters on Friends hung out in a coffee shop, too, but that crew seemed a lot more chill than the Ed cast. Perhaps a clue came late in the season when Carol Vessey brings Ed a coffee and ensures him there are five sugars in it. Holy shit!

Now we get to the nut of the show: The Ed & Carol “Will they or won’t they” story. Julie Bowen is a national treasure and most folks know her way better from her years as Claire Dunphy on Modern Family than anything else she’s appeared in. She’s probably right below Julia Louis-Dreyfus if you talk about comedic actresses who have had the best and longest careers. But Julia is one of the greatest comedic actors, male or female, in the history of TV, so being #2 isn’t a bad spot.

That said, I forgot how devastatingly hot 30-year-old Julie Bowen was. I mean, Good Lord! I laughed at myself because my impression from 23 years ago very much held up. She was hot enough to challenge the paradigms I lived my life by. When the also very attractive Rena Sofer arrived as district attorney Bonnie Hane, who Ed dated briefly, both now and in 2000 I would have picked Vessey over her, and I’ve almost always been a brunetttes-over-blondes guy.

I feel obligated to point out that Bowen is a fantastic actress as well. She’s enthralling to watch not just because she is beautiful but also because she does such a fine job of using her physicality and her facial gestures to enhance the words her character speaks. I should also point out that I was on Team Bowen way back when she appeared as Roxanne Please on ER. Someone, somewhere still has my emails to prove it.

As much a I loved Ed back in the day, I did not start watching it until a few episodes into season one. I don’t think I ever saw the pilot, even in reruns. The YouTube channel had a copy of the original, un-aired pilot, which featured several actors that were re-cast between when it was shot and NBC picked the show up. It was very weird to see Donal Logue playing Phil Stubbs instead of Michael Ian Black. Those scenes were all reshot with Black and the other replacement actors for the episode that NBC actually aired.

Speaking of Black, there were several other guests who cycled into the show who would go on to become famous appearing on the same VH1 shows that he did. It was extra funny that there is a late-season storyline about Stubbs trying to get onto a VH1 prank show.

The primary actors were all quite good. I think it was the secondary actors that made the show really shine, though. And you certainly felt the Letterman influence in them. They were all a bunch of oddballs, although certainly entertaining and harmless oddballs. Long was listed as a member of the main cast, but I feel like he was a connecting point between them and the oddballs. His bumbling, stumbling, overwhelmed by nerves high school junior was brilliant.

So my quest to find Ed is finally over. I would call it a satisfying resolution. There were certainly some flaws to the show, but overall, it held up pretty well and I was very glad to find it. Given the dates on these uploads, they may have popped up during the Covid lockdown. That would have been a good time to re-watch them.

There were 83 total episodes. I don’t know if all of those are on YouTube, but I’m going to dive into season two soon, just in case someone decides to pull them all down and bury the show once again.

1. Scrubs, Parks and Recreation, Community, The Good Place all, in some way, have stylistic/thematic connections to Ed.

September Media

October 3, 2023 /

A pretty slow month for some reason. I guess tennis took up time at the beginning of the month, then I never really got into a groove? I was also listening to football on Fridays and watching a lot on Saturdays and Sundays, with the occasional Thursday and Monday game thrown in. Still kind of weird I watched zero movies.

Movies, Shows, etc

US Open
Watched more of the women than the men, but still tuned in most nights over the tournament’s run.

A

Hijack
Kind of like 24 but on a seven-hour plane ride. Lots of action and tension, there were plot holes big enough to fly an A350 through, but it mostly hits the right notes. Having Idris Elba spend a decent part of the show in an airline seat straining to look down the aisle was a perfect setting for his “Idris Elba Lean” look.

B+

Reservation Dogs, season two
I’m so happy a show like this exists. Some general wackiness, some truly heartbreaking moments, and a glimpse at a part of our country that most of us don’t know enough about, even if this is a fictionalized version.

B+

Seinfeld, Parks & Recreation
I watched a lot of these reruns during late afternoons and weekends. I wish P&R was in higher rotation on Comedy Central and not left to Saturdays and Sundays. I would love to rewatch more of it. Plus S likes it more than The Office.

A, A

Shorts, YouTubes, etc

Turning The Titan Missile Key
“Turn your key, Sir.”

“ll Capo” (The Chief): a striking look at marble quarrying in the Italian Alps
As Fab Five Freddy would say, this is kinda incredible.

World’s fastest talking man sings Michael Jackson’s BAD in 20 seconds
I remember this guy. This bit seems like a uniquely 80s thing, doesn’t it? I love that there was a controversy around who really was the fastest talker in the world.

Trying Out for the US Open Ball Crew | Ball People
Kramer did it better.

Huge Lego Salmon fish Cutting
I think we still have some Lego boxes stashed away. There’s no reason I couldn’t do something like this and launch a lucrative YouTube career, right?

Rafting the most polluted river in Australia
Beau Miles’ videos have been getting more serious lately. I need to stop calling them bullshit, even jokingly, as they are quite the opposite of BS.

I picked up 10,000 bottles and cans because of Seinfeld
“We were indeed idiots.” OK, sometimes they still lean to the bullshit.

72 Hours Road Tripping through Oregon
It’s been too long since I’ve been to Oregon.

My family teaches you how to speak Baltimorese
Fun with regional accents!

NLU Film Room: Machrihanish
If someone paid my way to Scotland or Ireland, I would find a way to fight through my arthritic hands and play a few holes.

Music/Podcasts

Bill Simmons Podcast
After years of not listening, I’ve gotten back into Simmons’ pods. I feel bad that I missed so many Parent Corners, as I feel like I could have related to a lot of what he and Cousin Sal talk about since they have kids about the same ages as mine. A good way to get an audio overview of the NFL, too. Since he leans hard to the NBA and I’ve been leaning more that way over the past year, I’m looking forward to continuing to listen to him as the NBA season begins.

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