Tag: movies (Page 3 of 12)

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.

Movies, Shows, etc

Wednesday
This was on constantly in our house over the holidays. I think the girls and S all watched it on their own, then we had several episodes on the main TV while we had guests. I sat and partially watched a few of them. I thought it was funny, clever, and generally good. Doubt I’ll check out the entire series on my own, though.

B+

The White Lotus, seasons one and two
I probably should have taken some time between these seasons, and then written down my thoughts separately for each. However, I knocked them both out in about 10 days and loved just about every second.

It is a genius show for many reasons. You hate the bulk of the cast, who are mostly terrible people, yet are compelled to keep watching. It tackles and critiques so many elements of society: class, wealth, and privilege; parenthood, marriage, and sex; race relations; colonialism. Some of these, and others, are just brushed upon. But there’s some seriously good commentary about the bigger issues.

I think what makes it truly brilliant, though, is you don’t have to dive into any of that if you don’t want to. You can just let the exceptionally compelling and funny mystery captivate you for the six and seven episodes that make up each season, guessing and re-guessing about who that body we see in the first episode will end up being.

Great writing, great acting, great scenery, great show.

A, A

All Quiet On The Western Front
I’m pretty sure I either watched the original 1930 film or read the 1928 novel. Both are pretty heavy accountings of what life was like for German soldiers in the later days of, and time after, World War I, and considered classic anti-war works.

Remaking the movie with modern techniques makes for an even more haunting experience. All war is brutal, but World War I was especially terrible as tactics had not yet caught up with technology, and men were sent running into sure death quite often. My assumption is that no cinematic experience can recreate the horrors of war. After all, if your life isn’t in danger and you can’t smell, hear, feel death all around you, you can’t understand what it is like to be in war. This film pulls no punches and has some of the most brutal images of war I can recall in a movie.

While this updated version fails to follow the soldiers after war, an element of the original that emphasized the isolation that came with serving, it is still a powerful experience.

B+

Gone Girl
I read Gillian Flynn’s book when it first came out about a decade ago, but never saw the movie. So I knew what happened, but couldn’t remember the exact details, which always makes for an interesting viewing experience as I try to remember the book and wonder what, if anything, has been changed. Seems like this was pretty faithful to the book, and I certainly enjoyed it.

A-

Perry Mason, season one
I never watched the original Perry Mason, although I remember seeing its black and white reruns on local TV as I flipped past when I was a kid. The only thing that got me interested in this was it being Matthew Rhys’ first big part after The Americans.

This season was a little slow, especially in the middle episodes. While I enjoyed some of the more modern political/societal angles that were included in the story, I wondered how well they fit the times (1931–32). Still Rhys was very good, as was Stephen Root, and the supporting performances were almost all excellent. When the momentum finally picked up in the final three episodes, it became pretty good TV.

B+

Shorts, YouTubes, etc

Frightened Rabbit – ‘The Full Session’ | The Bridge 909 in Studio
Figured I had watched just about all the FR content that is available until I found this. It kicked off a big change in my music listening habits I’ll detail in the next section.

THE VIEW FROM 12 BARRELS AT 12 DIFFERENT WAVES IN ONE YEAR
Nathan Florence is a bad ass surfer. He takes it to the next level by surfing some of the best waves in the world with a GoPro clenched between his teeth to share an unreal perspective.

Slow Lane
It had been awhile since I watched an arty surf video. The second half of the CFP national championship game seemed like a good time to break that slump. As always in Need Essential films, the music is pretty amazing too.

Mach Loop 2022 Highlights!! USAF F–15Eagle V F35Lightning Low Level through the Mountains of Wales
I’ve watched some of these before. Seems like a pretty cool spot to hang out and watch some military jets roar right by you.

The Greatest Low Flybys & Airshow Moments
Others have said it before, but I’ll add my voice to the chorus: if you want medium quality airshow videos, Bobsurgranny is your best source.

The Offensive Action Taking Over Basketball
Zoom zoom.

Why Switzerland Has 374,142 Bunkers (and likely more)
I think I knew a little bit about the concept of Swiss bunkers, but I had no idea they were this common, the logic behind them, and how they are becoming relevant again.

Dropping a GoPro Under a Popular Fishing Pier
Great, my YouTube recommendations are probably going to be overrun with fishing videos since I watched this.

Making Of ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT
Anytime I watch a war movie, I’m always thinking about the logistics that go into filming complex battle scenes. How much planning there is, how many moving parts there are, and the coordination to takes to make it all work. I would have preferred this be a more technical explanation of how things were done.

How were Roman roads made? Roman Road-Construction
Those Romans were crafty.

Alvvays – What’s In My Bag?
This kids are soooo Canadian.

Inside the 40 Year-Long Dungeons & Dragons Game
I got into a little D&D content binge for a couple weeks, both reading articles and watching videos about the game. This was the most interesting of the several vids I watched.
Can You Play Dungeons and Dragons with only things found at the Dollar Store?
I watch a lot of weird stuff, not all of which makes this accounting each month. But I figured since I already outed myself for dabbling in D&D content, I should go ahead and include this one.

Dhaulagiri
I very much enjoyed the perspective of this climbing film, more about the courage to accept when a summit attempt won’t be safe than the courage to climb in the first place.

Anthony Bourdain A Cook’s Tour: Season 2 Episode 5: Elements of a Great Bar
Have I ever seen A Cook’s Tour before? I don’t think so. This popped into my feed and looks like the entire series is on YouTube, so I’ll be checking it out soon.

What Army Snipers Go Through At Sniper School
I figured sniper school would just be a bunch of shooting. Looks like it gets kind of nutty.

Music/Podcasts

90.9 The Bridge
I’ve written about this elsewhere, but it was seeing that Frightened Rabbit video above on New Year’s Day that had me checking The Bridge’s stream, on which I discovered their Z-to-A countdown that I listened to with great frequency over the next couple weeks. I’m still checking in with them, just not as often.

Year-end charts can produce upsets.
Chris Molanphy broke down how Billboard’s Song of the Year is selected, then ranked all the songs of the year in this two-parter.

Holiday Shit

The Classics
Dr. Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas, A
Christmas Vacation, A
Elf, A
Four Christmases, B+
SNL Christmas Special, A-
I did not watch this the past two years, instead catching my favorite sketches on YouTube. That was a good decision. They’ve made some updates and a couple of the new adds were quite good. Still say “Consumer Probe” needs to be dropped.
SNL – Christmas in Australia, A+
This is the perfect replacement for “Consumer Probe.” I showed it to my sister-in-law who lived in Australia for a few years. She had never seen it before. I think I made her holiday season!
The Office Christmas episodes, average of A
Seinfeld “The Strike”, A

Was not able to squeeze Die Hard in this season. Although I can really watch it any time, right?

New(ish)
Holiday Baking Championship, season nine
A weird season. It started off kind of slow, and there were several contestants I actively hated. But once that dead weight was cut away, it rounded into a really solid season with a lot of good bakers. The champion, Dru, was very good but his absolutely ridiculous man-bun infuriated me for the show’s entire run. He was not my first choice, but he certainly deserved the win.

B+

A Christmas Story Christmas
While there was an official sequel, it never gained any cultural traction. In this new-for–2022 sequel, adult Ralphie returns home to Homan, IN after The Old Man dies just before Christmas in 1973. Things go wrong, then a little Christmas magic makes everything right. It was fun seeing so many of the original actors reprise their roles from 40 years go. And there were lots of call-backs to the OG. Very sweet, with a hint of sadness. Not a new classic but a perfectly fine way to spend 114 minutes in December.

B+

Regular Shit

The Office/Seinfeld
Good Lord I still watch these a lot. One day I’ll get sick of them. Probably not soon enough for S, although at least most of the Seinfelds are unfamiliar to her.

A

The Nice Guys
I was told this was funny. It was only mildly funny. I read there was a Christmas angle. That was true only for the last three minutes of the film. The story was so dumb/confusing I wondered if I had fallen asleep and missed a few scenes. Worst of all, for a movie that made pains to plant itself firmly in 1977, there were a number of songs from the pretty great soundtrack that were from well after ’77.

C-

Apollo 11
While watching this I was sure I had seen it before. But it’s only three years old and I can’t find a record of watching. I don’t know if I’m just confusing it with other Apollo videos I have watched, or I saw previews of it. Regardless, another excellent entry into the list of documentaries about the space age.

A

Ava
Things that work: Jessica Chastain as a bad-ass assassin. Things that don’t work: pretty much everything else in this movie.

C

Glass Onion
We actually got two of the three girls to watch this with us Christmas night. I really enjoyed it, especially Janelle Monae’s big role. Not quite as good as Knives Out, but still fun.

A-

Band of Brothers
I’ve been putting this off for, checks notes, 21 years; was time to get to it. A spectacular and very moving way to end the year. I really enjoyed how it wasn’t just ten episodes of insane battles. We got to see the full scope of the war experience. The final two episodes were especially impactful, first with the American troops discovering a concentration camp as the war neared its end, and then how they dealt with the period between the Nazi surrender and them getting word on if/when they would be shipped to the Pacific. You spend over a year in the killing zone, you can’t just turn off all those instincts.

A

YouTubes, Shorts, Etc

Nest Zero – Murder Hornets in Washington State
Remember Murder Hornets? Apparently we have stopped them! Or at least that’s what one article I read last month said the data seems to indicate. In that article was a link to this piece from the early days of the Great Murder Hornet Panic.

12 Days of Newness
Oh hell yes! Beau Miles’ Christmas gift to us all!

Cheap, renewable, clean energy. There’s just one problem
There are a lot of things in nature that create massive amounts of energy. Harnessing that energy often isn’t as easy as you would think.

Fantastic Cockpit Views AIRBUS A380 Takeoff | 8 Cameras
We flew on an A350. I don’t get how these big boys get/stay in the air.

This Blue Angels Cockpit Video is Terrifying and Amazing
To quote Jeff Spicoli, “Awesome! Totally awesome!”

Barbie trailer
I recently read a profile of Margot Robbie, mostly focused on her latest role in Babylon. But there were some references to her next big film, Barbie, and how it will not be what people expect. I love her already, but this awesome trailer makes me want to talk the girls into being my excuse to go see this next summer.

Behind the Scenes of Elf.  Part 2
How did I never see these before Christmas night, 2022?

How accurate was Band of Brothers Carentan
Easy Company Assaults the Crossroads in Holland, 1944
I had to watch of few of these while/after watching the series.

Sip and Feast
This guy’s Peposo video randomly popped up in my feed. I watched it, made it, ate it, loved it, and began watching more of his videos. The family better be ready for a lot of his recipes in the new year.

I think I broke my media consumption habits in October and have yet to get them right. A lot of basketball (on TV and in person) and another week away from home didn’t help. Thus, another rather short list of things to share this month.

Movies, Series, Shows

Halloween Baking Championship
I wrapped up the most recent season on November 2. Blayre was a deserving winner in a season filled with super-talented bakers. Seriously, any of six bakers could have won and I wouldn’t have been mad. Also I forgot to mention last month that L no longer watches these shows with me. Sad.

A

My Next Guest Needs No Introduction
I think I watched 4–5 of these early in the month, skipping around to watch guests I was most interested in. As expected, really good stuff.

A

Goodfellas
The Godfather
One weekend A&E was showing these and The Godfather Part 2 on an endless loop so I popped in several times. I’ve always been a Goodfellas >>> Godfather guy, so I made sure to catch more of it. Still, two American classics.

A, A

Molly’s Game
Although I loaded by iPad up with a lot of content for our trip, I only ended up watching two movies, and both on the way back. Seriously, I’m not sure how I managed the flight to Europe so easily.

Anyway, I thought this was quite good. I think Idris Elba could have been used more, but it wasn’t his character’s story. Jessica Chastain was mesmerizing.

A-

Operation Mincemeat
My other airplane movie, I thought it was also well done, if given a few dramatic turns I figured were probably added just to make the story more interesting. One big one – the love triangle – was confirmed to be manufactured for the screen. There were some other elements I have not found anything to confirm or deny they were added by the screenwriters, but I’ll assume they were.

A-

’Tis the Season: The Holidays on Screen
I stumbled onto this one night as it began and ended up watching for all two hours. I’ve watched a few other shows that are about Christmas movies and this was much better than them, less a clip show that an exploration of what makes holiday movies resonate with us.

A-

Shorts, YouTubes, Etc

Gateway Astro: $800 All-In-One PC from 1999!
I don’t remember these at all, but if I did I bet I thought they were pretty dope.

One Hour of 80’s Video Game Commercials
Not sure what was worse: the Atari games or their commercials. Of course I watched every minute of this.

Audi S8 v Porsche Panamera Turbo: DRAG RACE
For some reason the Audi videos haven’t been showing up in my feed lately. I’m glad this one popped up.

Seinfeld Bloopers
A few pretty good ones in this compilation.

Everyday Carry Essentials and Travel Setup | Erik Anders Lang Founder of Random Golf Club | Gear Lab
This guy’s golf videos annoyed me when I used to watch them, but I am always down to listen/watch people talk about the stuff they use on a daily basis.

A light month thanks to reading The Stand and being out-of-town for a week.

Movies, Series, Shows

Halloween Baking Championship
I have two episodes left, so no final grade yet. Interesting that the baker that seemed to be clearly the best took herself out of the competition early by taking an unnecessary risk.

Incomplete

The Patient
I watched the first two episodes of this one night and then never got back to it. I’m not sure if I’ll go back or not.

Incomplete

Seinfeld, The Office
When I did watch TV last month and I wasn’t watching sports, I watched a ton of reruns of these shows. A’s all around, obviously.

Shorts, YouTubes, Etc

Cathedral Traverse
No big deal, just some dudes casually climbing some ridiculously steep and jagged rocks.

All Quiet on the Western Front | Official Teaser
I might watch this when it comes out.

Hávamál
Amazing surfing in Norway? Who knew? And who knew there are surfers who did tricks like skateboarders on top of gnarly waves? Clearly lots of people knew, just not me.

Is Apollo 11’s Lunar Module Still In Orbit Around The Moon 52 Years Later?
Pretty sure I’ve watched this before. Doesn’t make it any less cool.

SIX MINUTES OF WAR (One-Take WW2 Short Film)
Lord help me. Watch a couple World War II videos and soon they start taking over your feed.

The Making of Arrested Development was a Sh*t Show
A great, 20-minute look at all the things that kept Arrested Development from getting the due it deserved during its original run.

Best Unscripted Moments – The Office
My monthly Office video.

Bob Mould talks about Hoover Dam song
One night I fell into a Sugar/Bob Mould hole on Spotify. I looked at a few Mould-related pieces on YouTube and this was the only one I watched all the way through.

Pearl Jam Is Like a Great Sports Dynasty
The analogy here seems like a stretch to me, but I still watched it.

I Watched Top Gun: Maverick in 0.25x Speed and Here’s What I Found
A few interesting tidbits in here, but also a couple of factual errors and then several things that I’m not sure needed to be explained.

I went on TV and gave away presents made from junk wood
Beau Miles, taking his bullshit to the masses!

What Happened To ‘80s R&B Group Guy?
I will watch anything about Guy. I made the mistake of watching the Aaron Hall video referenced late in this. A total disaster that changed the way I look at him. I did laugh at one comment under the Hall interview that said it set Black people back 60 years.

Mt. Saint Helens from space! Before and after eruption – 1973 to 2019
I’m a sucker for stuff about Mt. Saint Helens.

WWII Rescue Buoys – Secret ‘Floating Hotels’ of the English Channel
These seem kind of crazy.

Movies, Series, Shows

US Open
Probably watched as much of the tournament this year as I’ve watched in several years. It was time well spent.

A

30 for 30: Shark
I LOVED Greg Norman when I was a kid. He was my first favorite golfer and until Tiger came along I was all-in with the Great White Shark. Over time I’ve come to think he is kind of a douche, a view that has been affirmed this year as he has spearheaded the new LIV tour.

This piece looks at his entire playing career with a particular focus on his most famous failure: the 1996 Masters. Even not being a fan of his anymore, it is a little uncomfortable seeing him sit down and watch his meltdown. I still think he’s kind of a douche, though.

B+

Commando On The Front Line
I came to this series in a roundabout way, but enjoyed it. It is a 13-year-old look at both the training process and then the deployment of Royal Marines Commandos during the war in Afghanistan. The series follows recruits through their training in Britain and then as troops that fight the Taliban. The series creator was embedded with the recruits/Marines, and there seemed to be very little censorship of what he was allowed to record/share.

What I found most interesting was how their training differs from American forces. I think that the British troops go through a combined basic training and special forces training, thus it takes 32 weeks (plus a three-week summer break) to earn their commando berets. While in the US you go through basic training and then go through special forces training separately if so inclined. Of course I could be totally wrong on that. It’s not like I’m an expert on these things.

Anyway, compelling show.

A-

Heat
In preparation for reading Heat 2, I went back and watched the original movie. I think I had only seen it all the way through one time. I think that’s because I didn’t like it as much as a lot of people did. I wondered if re-watching it would change that. It did not. It’s classic Michael Mann: great to look at with some amazing action sequences, but much of the dialogue and story have painful issues. Even at nearly three hours, it feels like big parts of the story have been skipped over in the name of brevity, which leads to several, “Wait, what?” moments. But that bank robbery scene is a classic.

B

Cobra Kai, season five
Solid but unspectacular. This season seemed to lack the highs that the first four each had. It also suffered as so many shows that stick around suffer: the cast is getting bigger, which means it is a tougher to get everyone on screen and develop deep storylines. This season also was less funny than any of the four that preceded it. It also lacked any real “Oh shit!” moments. The finale was good, but it felt like a season in which not a lot happened.

B

The Bear
I’ve written about this.

A+

Shorts, YouTubes, Etc

Every Piece Of Gear In An Army Cavalry Scout’s 72-Hour Bag
You watch enough travel packing and gear videos, plus a series about British commandos, and eventually The Algorithm starts spitting content like this at you.

Conan & Andy Help Freshmen Move Into College
Useful pointers for next year when we move M into her dorm.

Adventures of A+K
They are just about done with their Alaskan adventures.

Kara and Nate
The Algorithm finally decided to start suggesting other traveling couples to me. This was the first one other than A+K I checked out. They are funnier, a little more polished, a little less goody-goody. But they are also more capitalistic in their vlogging. Not sure I’m going to deep-dive into their old stuff but I will follow their new videos for awhile.

LPGA Skills Challenge at the Queen City Championship
Lots of really smart people in golf keep trying to figure out ways to “grow the game,” and their plans generally involve the Saudis and/or giving rich people even more money. But it is stuff like this, which is low in budget but high in fun, that makes the game more interesting.

WHAT IT’S LIKE FALLING AT GIANT MAVERICKS WITH IAN WALSH
Dude! Also, drones have made surf videos even more spectacular.

Peru’s Geography is CRAZY
The Algorithm has been bugging me about this for months. I finally cracked. Peru seems kind of dope.

Black Diamond Presents: Behind the Lens with Chris Burkard
The monthly “Sure, it’s a commercial, but it looks amazing” entry.

Norway and Sweden Compared
Not sure this really clears anything up. He should have thrown Finland and Denmark in to really confuse matters.

Big Sur, California: 1 Day Road Trip to Beaches, Waterfalls, Bridges and Elephant Seals
We went to Big Sur once when we lived in California. All I remember are lots of trees. We must not have hit the good spots.

One last run for the best hat ever made
Beau Miles bullshit. Watch your knackers!

Restorers Try to Get Lunar Module Guidance Computer Up and Running
I could have used a lot more detail but this is still a fascinating project.

GERMAN VERSION OF THE D-DAY INVASION FILM MADE BY O.S.S.
Fascinating. A film made by the Germans for people in Germany and occupied Europe to spin the Allied invasion of Europe as a moment of German strength. Then the US OSS took it, added some English voice overs, and showed it to American factory workers to motivate them to keep cranking out war supplies.

Omaha Beach From the German Perspective
The above video caused this to land in my feed. I’ve watched a couple of this guy’s videos and have decided I don’t like his style very much. I can’t put my finger on why, but something about them just doesn’t mesh with my preferences.

How We Survive LONG HAUL FLIGHTS!
We have a long haul flight coming up soon. I’ve been collecting tips anywhere I can.

(even more) season 6 bloopers | The Office
Always good stuff.

Audio Streams

93 WXRT
I learned in this breakdown of The Bear that the VoiceOver in episode seven was from the beloved alt/indie rock station WXRT in Chicago. I’ve added it into my Sonos favorites and listened to it a few times. It reminds me of Bloomington’s WTTS although with more new music and a more indie lean. I’m spoiled so the commercial breaks bum me out, although I understand their presence makes the existence of a station like this possible. I still wish there was something similar to Cincinnati’s WOXY out there for us music heads. As much as I love Spotify, there’s nothing like having a good DJ spool out the songs for you rather than relying on The Algorithm to do it.

Booth Review
I can’t find a link specific for this podcast/stream, but Kent Swanson and Scott Chasen’s breakdowns of KU football are really, really good. I don’t know much about the specifics of football, but they dive into the details in a way that should delight both football geeks and casual fans. This was their instant reaction to the Iowa State game.

Movies, Series, Shows

Better Call Saul, season six
I wrote about this here.

A for the season, A+ for the series.

The Queen’s Gambit
It took me awhile, but I finally got to this. Not sure if it was better or worse to watch it well after its initial buzz had faded. While I enjoyed the story, I felt it had some big holes and ended a little too cutesy. But Anya Taylor-Joy was dazzling and delightful in the lead role. I could watch her in about anything.

B+

Breakfast, Lunch, & Dinner
Of the food/travel shows I’ve sampled, this comes the closest to Anthony Bourdain’s oeuvre. But it still falls short. David Chang, who was a close friend of Bourdain’s, doesn’t appear to have the same touch with people, or at least it doesn’t come across on video. There are moments in each episode where I wondered if there was any true chemistry between him and his guests. But that often seemed to be a result of decisions the producers made more than their interactions.

B

The Gray Man
The near non-stop action was nice. The story seemed like a bunch of bits picked up from other movies. I’m always happy to watch Ana de Armas. Chris Evans was a great villain. But Ryan Gosling brought zero charisma to the lead role.

B-

Untold: The Girlfriend Who Didn’t Exist
Oh man, the Manti Te’o story gets the two-hour, documentary treatment! And it’s even crazier than I remembered. Although clearly set up as a Te’o rehab piece – it focuses a little too much on his desire to help others and forgive those who wronged him – it is still an absolutely enthralling watch.

A-

Pearl Jam – 2022–05–12, Oakland Arena, Oakland, CA
I don’t want to speak ill of a member of my favorite band, but I’ve never been a huge Matt Cameron fan. He is a great drummer, technically precise as any drummer of his generation. But he is so locked in that he can come across as boring. While he may be a great match for the band in terms of personality – he is the longest tenured drummer in the band’s history – I think the band also lost some of their edge when he joined them. When he was laid out with Covid last spring, the band pulled in some friends to fill Cameron’s seat so their shows could go on. This was one of those shows. This is a great performance, fueled, I think, by the presence of drummers who are a little less precise yet more wild than Cameron. There is a terrific energy that harkens to the band’s earlier days.

A

Shorts, Etc

Bad River
This month’s Beau Miles joint. I think this may be the most impactful of his videos that I’ve watched. The moment when he arrives at the point where hundreds (thousands?) of plastic bottles, balls, and general trash are blocking the river really struck me. Mostly because I know there are dozens of locations just like that in every major urban area. Pick your shit up and recycle it, fools.

Eddie Vedder in Conversation with Bruce Springsteen
What a fun chat. Eddie is so interesting to listen to, especially in settings like this when he is relaxed and comfortable.

Adventures of A+K
Alaska looks pretty dope.

Return to Vietnam, 45 Years Later
An American Special Forces officer back in Vietnam for the first time since his tours during the war. Some powerful moments for sure. I enjoyed his perspective, especially at the end when he encounters the local family at the Hanoi Hilton about no matter what our history is, we are all sharing the same planet.

DJI Mavic 3 – Flying Over Mount Everest
While basically a commercial, this footage is stunning.

M and I are off to Bloomington for campus visit number five today, so it is a perfect day to drop this list on you.

Movies, Series, Shows

Somebody Feed Phil, season one
Crap, I forgot to include this in my June entry. After watching the Anthony Bourdain film, I tried to find something similar to his classic shows to scratch my food/travel/culture show itch. This came pretty close.

The show is far funnier than any of Bourdain’s and never tries to be as arty. Phil Rosenthal isn’t a chef – he’s an actor/writer/producer – and he doesn’t try to break down food the way Bourdain did. But he is equally as good at finding interesting people along his travels and telling their stories. He doesn’t always connect with them the way Bourdain did, but their stories still shine.

Another big difference is that Rosenthal seems like a far sunnier and more optimistic person than Bourdain was. That’s why he can do an episode in Israel and focus on how there are areas where Arabs and Jews live in peace and harmony and suggest that gives hope for the entire country. I can’t say that Bourdain would take that same positive angle.

A-

Stranger Things, season four
Expectations and experience. That sums up how you evaluate a popular, returning show like Stranger Things.

The issue here is that the first season of ST was as good as any season of any show. And, to me, seasons two and three fell well short of its mark (my daughters disagree).

Season four doesn’t match season one; I’m not sure that’s possible. But I found it much better than seasons two and three.

The big issue, and I knock it down a notch because of this, was the sheer length of episodes. There was absolutely no need to have the final episode last nearly two and a half hours. Or have several others stretch beyond 90 minutes. Come on, Duffer Brothers, edit yourselves!

I also thought the Hopper timeline in the Soviet Union was, largely, a waste of time until the finale, when it was shoehorned it into what was going on back in Hawkins.

Those issues aside, the story was better and more interesting than it had been in three seasons. I don’t think the magic of season one can be recaptured, mostly because the kids aren’t really kids anymore and they can’t show that wide-eyed innocence and belief that came with being younger. The strongest part of the season was when the kids were together struggling to battle Vecna. The scene where Lucas held a (assumed) dead Max was maybe the most powerful of the entire four seasons, and a tremendous acting performance by Caleb McLaughlin.

I think a lot of fat could have been stripped from the script, the focus kept on the kids, and you would have had a much tighter and better season.

B+

30 For 30: Once Upon A Time In Queens
I’ve read Jeff Pearlman’s book about the 1986 Mets. This expands on that and is filled with great footage and interviews. I never knew the thing about Roger Clemens shaving after he came out of game six. Or that the Red Sox had 16 pitches they could have won the World Series on before Mookie Wilson and Bill Buckner had their moment.

A

Norm McDonald: Nothing Special
A fascinating show. Shortly before undergoing surgery to treat the cancer that eventually killed him, McDonald sat down in front of his computer and recorded the set he was working on, just in case he was never able to perform it. Which turned out to be the case. It is strange watching a comedy set without an audience that the performer built in moments in which he would react to/interact with the crowd.

The set is followed by a roundtable amongst David Letterman, Dave Chappelle, Molly Shannon, Conan O’Brian, Adam Sandler, and David Spade in which they discuss both the piece and their experiences with McDonald.

The whole thing is very interesting if a little unsettling.

B+

Better Call Saul, season six
I waited until about a week ago to start the final season of BCS. I made it up to episode nine and had to take a breather. That episode was a nearly perfect 90 minutes of TV. In reality, not much happened. It was more about how the surviving characters dealt with the aftermath of some massive developments in episode eight. It was so expertly written, shot, and acted, though, that it didn’t matter that there wasn’t much action. It was brilliant high point of one of the best shows ever.

At the end of season five there was a scene between Lalo Salamanca, Kim Wexler, and Jimmy McGill that I called one of the greatest I had ever watched. That scene was carried by Rhea Seehorn, who plays Wexler. She may have topped that with her performance in S6, E8 when she makes one of the coldest ass speeches her character has ever made, and then finally cracks under the pressure of everything she and Jimmy have been doing. Give her the damn Emmy, cowards!

Most importantly it seems like, in the final moments of that episode, we crossed over from the gravitational pull of Better Call Saul into the more direct influence of Breaking Bad. Maybe I’ll be surprised when I watch episode ten that there is still “BCS* territory to navigate but that was my impression when the final scene faded from the screen.

Incomplete

1917
I tried not to read much about this when it first came out, but was aware of the tricks Sam Mendes used to make the film appear to be a single, continuous shot. So it was fun to catch the little breaks that allowed him to build that illusion.

I was more fascinated by the sheer genius that went into filming the scenes themselves. How did they build a massive trench complex and battlefield filled with craters and barbed wire and faux corpses that the actors could stumble through for minutes at a time? And then how did they film traveling, close up shots when the actors were struggling not to fall on their asses in the mud? Just an amazing act of photography.

The story was also great, although I kept feeling the influences of Saving Private Ryan and Dunkirk.

A-

Shorts, Etc

The Office Season Four Bloopers
I laughed. I bet you will, too.

Adventures of A+K
My millennials made it to Alaska!

Kansas Beats Soviet National Team
I remember watching this game live, and am bummed only these bits seem to be available on YouTube. I was also convinced KU was going to win the national title that year after they beat the Soviets. I was only a year off…

“A Slice of Paradise” – A short film by Liam Tangum and No Laying Up
I am a native Kansan, with roots deep in the central part of the state. But, let’s face it: since I mostly grew up in Kansas City there’s a lot about my home state I don’t know. Like this aspect of high school golf, for example.

24 Hours Alone on the Washington Coast
Everything about this is gorgeous.

Still As It Was
I could do this for a weekend. But people who choose to live like this strike me as slightly mad.

Mad Scientist BBQ
My man Coach Hebs hipped me to this guy’s videos. I made his ribs recipe and they turned out faaaaaantastic.

We have a few trips planned over the next nine months, so I’ve dived into videos about packing, travel bags, etc. It’s really kind of disturbing how much time I’ve spent watching them, and plotting how to buy new gear when already have a lot of perfectly good travel gear in the house. Rather than share all the videos I’ve watched, I’ll share a few of my favorites.
Pack Hacker
I’m a little addicted to both the Pack Hacker website and their videos.
Carryology
I’ve been getting Carryology’s emails for years, but now their videos are part of my obsession, err, research process.
Packing Tips for Men – What to Pack & Wear in Europe
This video has nearly cost me thousands of dollars in new purchases.
Peak Design
I have a bunch of PD camera gear already. I have my eye on their travel gear now, too.

One Shining Moment | KU Edition
As a KU super fan, I quibble with some moments that aren’t in here. But there are some pretty cool random ones, notably Calvin Rayford straight picking Damon Bailey in the 1993 Elite Eight.

Movies, Series, Shows

Tokyo Vice
I heard mixed things about this, but when I realized Michael Mann was involved, I decided to give it a try. It’s classic Mann: visually stunning with some high highs and low lows.

My favorite part about the show was Ansel Elgort, the actor who plays main character Jake Adelstein. The real Adelstein is from Missouri and attended Mizzou. Elgort has a slight resemblance to, and sounds a little like, Charlie Tahan, who played Wyatt Langmore on Ozark. Wyatt, of course, was trying to get his shit together so he could go to Mizzou at one point. I liked to imagine that the shows were flipped chronologically and Tokyo Vice was an Ozark spin off that showed where life took Wyatt if (spoiler alert) he hadn’t gotten killed by Javi Elizondro.

B

Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain
This was exactly what I expected it to be. The first hour or so is a wonderful recounting of an amazing life lived by one of the coolest people ever. Then the last hour should totally fuck you up if you admired Bourdain and his work, and/or have had someone you were close to commit suicide.

A-

Top Gun
If I was going to see the new Top Gun flick, I figured I better watch the original again. Even if I watched it approximately 8000 times between the summer of 1986 and the fall of 1987. Just good, clean, cheesy, 1980s fun.

A

Barry, season three
I believe I’m obligated to say, HOLY SHIT!!!!

Barry spent the first two seasons balancing laugh-out-loud humor with often intense violence, and that balance always made the show work.

Season three lost some of that humor as the show veered into much darker territory. At times I wondered where it was headed. But it all came together amazingly in the final two episodes. The season finale is one of the most intense, disturbing, yet fulfilling half hours of TV I can recall. It was brutal to watch but, afterwards, I couldn’t help but admire how the season arrived at its ending and how many absolute powerhouse acting performances it took to get there. I don’t know where the show goes from here, but I will certainly watch as Bill Hader and his compatriots have yet to disappoint.

A

No Time To Die
First home viewing. Still good, although Léa Seydoux’s performance struck me as not great this time.

A

Shorts, Etc

Inside Demolished Ukrainian City
Inside Underground Bunker During Bombing in Ukraine War
Inside East Ukraine War Zone
More of Indigo Traveller’s trek through Ukraine.

Adventures of A+K
My (sometimes) favorite Millennials continue their trek to Alaska. They’re into Canada now, so making progress.

The Last Ski Maker in Scotland
A beautiful little film about an amazing craftsman.

Homewrecker
Beau Miles’ videos are usually filled with humor (or “humour” to him). This one has some bits of that, but it’s far more about his obsessions, what causes them, and what he hopes to accomplish through them. We need more people like him in the world who view a moment of destruction as an opportunity to repurpose rather than toss aside materials that still have functional value.
Searching the bush for my cameraman’s wallet
And then here is some of his normal bullshit. I’m going to start using the term “rice bubbles.”

Solo Camping in the Rain
My outdoor video viewings have led me to this: a combination camping and ASMR video. I watched this after 11:00 one night and it nearly put me to sleep. Which was kind of cool.

NLU Film Room: Soly 2022 U.S. Open Local Qualifying
Take a really good “regular” golfer and put him in a US Open local qualifier with a film crew following him and fun ensues.

I watched an NBA game from every decade
This was dope.

J. Kenji López-Alt
The algorithm suggested one of this guy’s food videos and I quickly got hooked. Informative, not too complex, and the results all look delicious. I had a Barnes & Noble gift certificate lying around and used it to grab one of his books. I might finally use our 19-year-old wok more than three times a year.

Podcasts

Plain English
This podcast is part of The Ringer’s network. I listened to a couple of his episodes about our current economic situation and got hooked.