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Posted

I watched during the run but never thought of acquiring DVDs. I think the two episodes I liked the best were the Cops rebroadcast, and the one where Catalina is back in her hometown and Randy is trying to prove his love or something and we got "Eye of the Tiger" on an acoustic guitar. That cracked me up.

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Posted

Hey!  Trumpeter Wayne Bergeron got about 10 seconds of unintended free publicity during one of Seth Myers' "A Closer Look" bits the other night.  I won't imbed the video since most of it is political in nature, but this link here will take you to the point where Mr. Bergeron gets mixed up in it.

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Posted

While I didn't learn guitar or even banjo, and I didn't brush up on my French, I decided I could actually watch a few of the Great Courses now that Toronto is going into extended lockdown.  It turns out that the library has quite a few of these courses on DVD (and they still do a kind of curbside pick up for the moment at least).  I've gotten most of the way through Understanding the Quantum World: https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/understanding-the-quantum-world

Super interesting (and spooky as Einstein said), though I wouldn't say I "understand" it much more than before.

Next up is Black Holes, Tides, and Curved Spacetime: Understanding Gravity, which might be of a bit more use to my son as he heads into high school physics.  (Somehow I don't think he'll need to know quantum physics for the time being.)  It's even on sale, though I was happy just borrow it from the library.  https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/black-holes-tides-and-curved-spacetime-understanding-gravity

  • 3 weeks later...
Posted

The longstanding and ongoing Netflix series "Grace and Frankie," in which Grace (Jane Fonda) and Frankie (Lily Tomlin)) are women who have been divorced by their law partner ex-husbands (Martin Sheen and Sam Waterston) who are now married to each other after 40 years of concealing their mutual love. Grace, a rather uptight age 70 former cosmetics company owner, and Frankie, same age, something of a perpetual counter culture figure, are now contentiously living together in an attempt to make the best of things. Fonda is surprisingly (to me) good, and Tomlin is out of sight. The scripts are very witty at best (one feels that Tomlin writes a fair number of her own lines), and the episodes average about 35-40 minutes, which is ideal for watching several at a stretch. Supporting cast is excellent -- Grace has two grownup daughters, Frankie two grownup adopted sons. Setting is San Diego. The tug-of-war chemistry between Fonda and Tomlin is increasingly delicious and often rather salacious. Grace's daughter Briana, explaining to her young sister Malorie why she's been spending time with a male escort who charges her $300 a pop, says, "His penis has abs." 

 

Posted
37 minutes ago, JSngry said:

Thoughts? I tried to get started, but there was no traction there for me...maybe I gave up too soon?

We thought it was an original take on fifties sitcoms. Watched both episodes & plan to continue.

Posted
On 1/18/2021 at 10:31 AM, jlhoots said:

We thought it was an original take on fifties sitcoms. Watched both episodes & plan to continue.

I think it's interestingly subversive. There are elements in it that remind me a little of "Pleasantville,"  a movie I've always liked, but of course, this is the MCU, so it will presumably veer hard into sci fi before too long!

 

 

gregmo

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

I've been watching a lot of various episodes from

hitch1.JPG

While I saw a lot of the Alfred Hitchcock Presents half-hour shows in syndication as a kid and have the first three seasons of that on DVD, I haven't seen many of these hour long episodes.  They didn't get syndicated as much, perhaps because it lasted only 3 seasons (1962-65) in that format.  I saw a few episodes on a local PBS station many years ago, but that's about it.  Some of the stories are a bit slow-paced, some you can see the ending coming a half-hour away.  Most of them hold one's interest.  The acting is always top-notch and the list of actors who appeared on the show is impressive, from genuine movie stars (James Mason, John Carradine, Lillian Gish, Ray Milland, Christopher Lee, Gloria Swanson), future movie stars (Robert Redford, James Caan, Gena Rowlands, Bruce Dern, George Segal)  and several soon-to-be familiar faces on TV (June Lockhart, Lee Majors, Bob Newhart, Pat Buttram, Martin Landau, Robert Culp, Angie Dickinson, Peter Graves, Peter Falk, Ed Asner, even a pre-Goober George Lindsey).

It appears Mr. Hitchcock directed only one of these hour-long episodes himself, the rather pedestrian "I Saw The Whole Thing".  One of the best episodes I've seen so far is "An Unlocked Window" starring Dana Wynter.  A very suspenseful and scary story which holds up well (if one is willing to overlook some plot holes) -- for best effect, watch it alone on a dark & stormy night!

Posted

Exploring some of the bonus features in the Monty Python Blu-ray set.  On the Season 4 disc, there are some commercials that the Pythons did including a 25 minute industrial film for Birds Eye Peas!  This was shot during Season 3 so it has John in it.  It really is not that far different from a full-length show but with a very narrow focus on making peas "younger."  As far as I know, no one has interviewed anyone from Birds Eye Peas to see if they got what they thought they were getting.

Other random thoughts -  the Most Awful Family in Britain sketch from "Party Political Broadcast" seems very much the template for The Young Ones.  Maybe the next time through watching The Young Ones I will feel that it is somewhat derivative.

Also watching The Oscar Wilde skit from Season 3 I misremembered that as being from Black Adder.  

 

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