What are you watching?

[ozduck]

Today was the monthly "Classics of the Silver Scree". The movie this month was "Deep in My Heart" the 1954 lavish biopic of Sigmund Romberg starring Jose Ferrer in the titular role. As usual in these types of movies the plot of the movie has only little in common with real events. However, the singing and dancing was first class with people like Tony Martin, Cyd Charisse, Anne Miller, Rosemary Clooney, Jane Powell etc popping up in musical cameos. This is also the movie where Gene Kelly joins with his brother, Fred, in performing "I Love to go Swimmin' with Wimmen"'. Most of the musical cast were MGM contract players and the colorful sets and costumes were also apparently re-used from other MGM productions.

Jose Ferrer does a fine job of bluffing his way though his singing and dancing duties and is quite charismatic in his role. The standout though is Helen Traubel as as a, fictitious , long time friend. She obviously had great fun playing her part and singing Romberg songs - after spending nearly 20 years on and off, as a Wagnerian Soprano at the New York Met.

[pzkpfw]

Just saw Deadpool 2.

Very good. (Preferred it over Infinity War, for sure.)

[The Backroad Astronomer]

Just watched episode 7 of from the earth to the moon, the one about Apollo 12.

[Solfe]

Just watched episode 7 of from the earth to the moon, the one about Apollo 12.

That's weird, my son made me watch that this morning. Is today the anniversary?

[schlaugh]

That's weird, my son made me watch that this morning. Is today the anniversary?

Alan Bean died on Saturday.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[The Backroad Astronomer]

Tonight AGT, and Frontline.

[Gillianren]

Finished all the Death in Paradise that Netflix has available. There's a show with the Cabot Cove problem, though at least they can have a lot of the murders being tourists' killing other tourists.

[jamesabrown]

My wife and I finished binging Death in Paradise last month, looking forward to the next season.

Our only complaint with the show is the high turnover of major characters, sometimes in mid-season with barely a mention.

[captain swoop]

Danny John Jules is leaving after the next series as well.

[Gillianren]

Well, he is about sixty.

[Torsten]

I started watching Altered Carbon on Netflix but cannot be bothered to finish the series because the audio is just awful. There's only so much re-watching a scene in order to understand the dialogue that I'm willing to do. And often, after three tries to understand what was said, I still couldn't figure it out.

[The Backroad Astronomer]

Watching Prince of Persia and unbreakable never say them before and doing a few other things.

[Trebuchet]

Danny John Jules is leaving after the next series as well.

Well, he is about sixty.

Wait what? The Cat is 60? I'm feeling old.

[pzkpfw]

I started watching Altered Carbon on Netflix but cannot be bothered to finish the series because the audio is just awful. There's only so much re-watching a scene in order to understand the dialogue that I'm willing to do. And often, after three tries to understand what was said, I still couldn't figure it out.

I get that a lot. Sometimes I wonder if it's because the audio is mixed for surround sound and I've only got my regular TV sound on. (So maybe dialogue that's meant to come out of a centre speaker is mixed into the left and right channels, and the mixing isn't great). Either way, often is a problem.

(edit: and that's not even including excessive background music.)

Netflix does good captions, but I start getting eye strain if I watch a program and have to keep up with the reading also.

[ozduck]

Wait what? The Cat is 60? I'm feeling old.

He still moves well though.

[CJSF]

Catching up with The Expanse, one episode behind now. I have heard several people that are disappointed with the direction the show is going vs. the books. I've still not read the books, so I fail to see the problem with Holden some of you are having. I'm amazed how we've managed to root for and forgive Avasarala for her back-stabbing and spook-politics from season 1. Bobbie Draper is my favorite character, maybe closely followed by Alex.

Also, Who Do You Think You Are? has been good to catch up on again. My one beef with that show is that it can almost perpetuate the idea that famous people somehow have more colorful or meaningful ancestry or family history than "the rest of us." I kind of wish they'd do a treatment of "ordinary" people and their ancestry, too. There are amazing stories and shocks in everyone's family trees, I bet.

CJSF

[Gillianren]

Also, Who Do You Think You Are? has been good to catch up on again. My one beef with that show is that it can almost perpetuate the idea that famous people somehow have more colorful or meaningful ancestry or family history than "the rest of us." I kind of wish they'd do a treatment of "ordinary" people and their ancestry, too. There are amazing stories and shocks in everyone's family trees, I bet.

There's an episode of one of the Henry Louis Gates shows (which I frankly like better, but anyway) that has an ordinary person for just that reason. I think it's African American Lives II, and after the first one, people raised the "do not-famous people have interesting ancestry?" objection. And then, as I recall, she turned out to be the cousin of someone else on the show!

[captain swoop]

57, two years older than me.

he is busy though, Red Dwarf has a new series in production and he has another series of his Motorbiking travelog show coming as well.
It's a good show, the only biking show that has proper sports bikes rather than 'classics' or hipster bikes.

[Gillianren]

I watched the whole of the first season of Waiting for God yesterday, about two rebellious people in a retirement home. I enjoyed it.

[grant hutchison]

I watched the whole of the first season of Waiting for God yesterday, about two rebellious people in a retirement home. I enjoyed it.

Ah, the late, lamented Graham Crowden. I never saw him in Waiting For God, but he delivered his rendition of the scabrous Dr Jock McCannon in A Very Peculiar Practice with such obvious relish, it was a joy to behold.

Grant Hutchison

[The Backroad Astronomer]

Watched civilization which is series on PBS about art and civilizations.. Tonight the episode about landscapes which ended with the pale blue dot and images from Hubble.

[CJSF]

I just watched a repeat of the Julie Bowen episode of Who Do You Think You Are? In in, aspects of the WWI "American Protective League" came to light, and I have to wonder even more at the sad state of affairs in the USA and wondering again, how great we ever really were.

[Veering from that edge]

Forged In Fire is still enjoyable, though it seems to be tough for them to get away from white dudes, who dominate blacksmithing. They've had women (one whom did win!) and minority contestants in past seasons, but it's been a while. Still, a good show. There's a subtle thing they do, that I admire. The prize for winning the challenge is a check for $10,000 (US), but they don't say, "You will win $10,000". They say, "You'll be the Forged in Fire champion, which comes with a check for $10,000". It's a subtle shift of the emphasis of the championship, but I like it.

CJSF

[grant hutchison]

Solo: A Star Wars Story. I'd already terminated my engagement with the main narrative sequence, but that's me finished with the spin-offs, too.
(Thandie Newton knew what she was doing - I should have done the same.)

Grant Hutchison

[Gillianren]

Season twenty of Time Team is on Amazon Prime. One of these days, I'll sit down and watch it with the friend who's actually an archaeologist, for the commentary track.

[ozduck]

Solo: A Star Wars Story. I'd already terminated my engagement with the main narrative sequence, but that's me finished with the spin-offs, too.
(Thandie Newton knew what she was doing - I should have done the same.)

Grant Hutchison

I am someone who saw the first film in at the cinema on initial release and loved it and the next two. And, I had pretty much the same disappointed re-action to the 3 prequels as everyone else. The Force Awakens was watched on a 14 hour plane flight so it passed the time.

Even trapped in a plane for 12 hours I couldn't watch past the first 10 or 15 minutes of Rogue One so, unfortunately, I have pretty much come around to your point of view.

[grant hutchison]

I am someone who saw the first film in at the cinema on initial release and loved it and the next two. And, I had pretty much the same disappointed re-action to the 3 prequels as everyone else. The Force Awakens was watched on a 14 hour plane flight so it passed the time.

Even trapped in a plane for 12 hours I couldn't watch past the first 10 or 15 minutes of Rogue One so, unfortunately, I have pretty much come around to your point of view.

I saw the first one in the cinema, too. Twice, back to back - my friend and I just stayed in the theatre and watched it again (something you could do in those days).
I haven't actually liked any Star Wars movie since then, apart from Rogue One - which made enough references to the original to be interesting for me.

(Oh, there was a moment at the end of Solo that I enjoyed, for the same reason. Distinctly subversive, too - I wonder if Ron Howard told George Lucas about it before he shot it.)

Grant Hutchison

[Jim]

... Thandie Newton ...

I love Thandie Newton! She is doing such a good job in Westworld.

Spoiler: Her character got majorly shot in a recent episode. It looked like she would die, which made my heart sink. But - I forgot - she's a machine; they can fix her. So, more Thandie.

[ozduck]

Last night we went to the theatre (a well maintained 1930's one) to see the latest production put on by the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts - I have mentioned this Academy before as being the training place of Hugh Jackman, among others.

We saw a production of "Carousel" - the 1945 Rogers & Hammerstein show. Earlier in the week an unfavourable review of the production had been printed in the local paper. This was the only poor review any of these annual shows that I can remember. We went in with an open mind but things didn't start off well as there was about a 10 minute delay and restart of the performance as they couldn't get the theatre lights to dim.

In the end it was an enjoyable night out but certainly not up to the standard of the previous three shows we have seen. For some reason the Director decided to update the "time" of the piece to the 1960's/70's Vietnam War era. However little to no changes to the dialog or actions of the characters occurred. For example someone was described as dastardly and a masher - the sort of language I certainly don't recall hearing in my youth in the 1960's/70's. The only noticeable effect of the change of period was that the female cast members mostly wore short skirts. And a, meaningless to the rest of the play, anti-war demonstration blocked out the beauty of the "Carousel Waltz at the shows opening. As regards to the cast, they were fine but, to me at least, the principals struggled to hit the high notes in the big show stoppers like "You'll Never Walk Alone".


Carousel has never been a favourite of mine, even though it does have some lovely music and songs. The big problem is that the main male protagonist, Billy Bigelow, is basically a nasty piece of work with a habit of hitting his wife and eventually his daughter. Rogers & Hammerstein gave the show a happy-ish ending but his redemption does not ring true. The source of the show was a play by Molnar which ended with Billy being sent to purgatory - which he well deserved.

[Jim]

... I have mentioned this Academy before as being the training place of Hugh Jackman ...

Hugh Jackman had training?

(I'm sorry, but if you deliver a set up like that, how can I resist? I like Jackman, as an actor and a person.)

Come to think, Jackman would make a good Billy. I think the performance pivots on the "likeability" of the character. Yes, he's terrible, but there's something about him that makes you want to see him redeemed. So when he is, you buy in fully.

But, I haven't seen the play or movie in years, so my memory could be clouded.

[ozduck]

Hugh Jackman had training?

(I'm sorry, but if you deliver a set up like that, how can I resist? I like Jackman, as an actor and a person.)

Come to think, Jackman would make a good Billy. I think the performance pivots on the "likeability" of the character. Yes, he's terrible, but there's something about him that makes you want to see him redeemed. So when he is, you buy in fully.

But, I haven't seen the play or movie in years, so my memory could be clouded.

Jackman probably has the presence to make you like Billy against your inclination.

Like you I haven't seen the movie in a many years so I can't really recall Gordon MacReas' performance. In the production I saw last night there was never enough to make you like Billy - except for when he learnt about Julies' pregnancy. That may be because of the Directors choices or the relatively inexperienced performer playing Billy. Actually, releasing my inner critic, there was also nothing to really explain why Julie fell in love with him in the first place.

When Billy comes back for his one day to make amends and slaps his daughter you could hear a sharp intake of breath around the theatre and, to my mind, also feel any sympathy for him dissolve. Interestingly in last nights production he slapped her face but in the movie he apparently slapped her hand.