Modern Vespa

I'm watching an old classic, "Breaking Away ". Forgot there was a bicycle/scooter scene where Dave is chasing the girl of his dreams on a Vespa. Vespas, bicycles, and racing all in one movie. No wonder it's one of my favorites! Ciao! Cinzano!

Netflix Death to 2020. It's a bit polarizing but I liked it. Put Samuel L Jackson in pretty much anything and I'll enjoy it.

TV: Schitt's Creek, Counterpart, The Expanse, Carnival Row, Long Way Up.

Movies: Greyhound, First Man, A Star Is Born.

Waiting for the new season of American Gods.

Reading "The Good Shepherd"......the 1955 book by C.S. Forrester which is the basis for the Tom Hank's WWII movie, "GREYHOUND".

O.S.

Binge-watched The Flight Attendant, Raised by Wolves & the 3rd season of Cobra Kai. WW84 was a disappointment and the only reason I finished it was Gal Gadot and Hans Zimmer (although the "highly" used Adagio in D Minor from Sunshine was too much). Also watched, for a "millionth" time one of my favorites, Better Off Dead...

I want my two dollars!

What exactly is this "reading" thing you are referring to? I've heard stories of it but have always thought it was a myth lost to the annals of time.

Just rewatched Smoke Signals. It's aged well. Just read it was the first all Native American movies produced. Great story. For some reason the obvious theme of healing father-son relationships got overlooked the first time.

Randomly, as multi-quoting would take forever.

Smoke Signals: filmed a couple miles North of here.

Netflix:

Words I never thought I'd write: Teenage Bounty Hunters! I usually hate second seasons but these guys needed more that one for sure.

And obliquely in the same vein (woke but self aware and hilarious), currently watching an episode of #blackAF a-night to wash down whatever grim crap we keep getting roped in to.

I'm Sorry. Actually, a whole lot in the same vein, as well. Larry David (Curb Your Enthusiasm) as a woman but less cringe and more sass.

Like Parks and Rec, I just don't get Schitt's Creek, much to my wife's frustration. Cute. Nice. ...but where's the wit?

Felt the same way about Queen's Gambit but muscled thru simply because I'm obsessed with chess. Still, Disney for adults or The Hallmark Chanel for progressives...?

Everyone definitely needs to watch The Night Manager! And if you liked that: Bodyguard.

Spanish:

Elite Season 1 was the last great Spanish series we watched. Bunch of the same cast from The Money Heist, but this is waaaay better. Super smart, but you need to have a high tolerance for beautiful Spanish people taking off their clothes. This tolerance can be built up with assiduous practice and attention.

Prime's new format has killed all CC translations on our old "smart but not smart enough" TV, so there's a long que of Spanish stuff we can't watch, like El Cid with frikken dubbing. Dubbing, seriously?

Street Food: Latin America. Like Anthony Bourdain at his best, this is much more about culture than food, and it is one of the only shows in the past, say, 70 years to really give working poor women the attention and respect they deserve.

YouTube:
This Czek dude self shoots and produces the best adventure moto travel films ever. Period. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTwK6V6rf6xnUo6CAApcE3w

Last edited by tdrake on Tue, 05 Jan 2021 03:42:00 +0000; edited 2 times

Interesting option on Queen's Gambit as I thought it was well done and I'm one that can't stand Hallmark type shows. It actually renewed my love of chess and my wife and I now play every evening. Downside is we are both very methodical thinkers and defensive players so games can take about 3 hours.

Schitt's Creek - wife is on here 2nd time watching it but yeah not for me.

Not sure why your Smart TV would have issues with CC. We have one very new TV and one of the original OLED LG's that is I guess 5 years old maybe. On the LG I use a current gen Apple TV and I would recommend that (or a Roku) to you.On the new Samsung (The Frame) we watch most of the stuff using the built in apps but still have an Apple TV on it. I really like the ability to quickly search and skip forward/back etc using Siri. The Apple TV app is also really good at offering content from your services but the bummer is Netflix will not allow access to or from the app.

Latest guilty pleasure is Whitechapel on Prime.

André & his olive tree was a beautiful documentary if you are in to cuisine.

Subscribed. Looks like he's done some India. Remembering bumping into an Italian guy at a temple that was touring solo by motorcycle. At the time PTWs weren't on my radar, but I'm betting he had some good stories. Unfortunately my Italian sucks....

I won't poop further on The Queen's Gambit because I know I'm in the minority there. But analyzing what I do and don't like these days, I realize I've sorta become hooked on being somehow surprised, on weird plot twists or new ways of staging plots...or just the constant ironic twists in comedy, as well. If I can figure out where a story is headed before it gets there, I just seem to lose interest, unless there's something else strange going on.

Yeah, the CC issue with the tv is bizarro and I've wasted way too much time trying to figure it out....
. EDIT: After reading your response, the more I thought about it last night, the more I realized it had to be user error, so I sat down and really worked thru it, and sho nuff I just couldn't figure out the new control formatting.

Ask me how it went teaching online this past year!

Very cool you two are playing chess together! When we were still dating, about a week into our relationship my first wife threw a chess board in my face. Shoulda seen the writing on the wall right then and there but I'm a slow study.

Anyway, that might be why I've been reluctant to teach the current wife to play.

Last edited by tdrake on Tue, 05 Jan 2021 16:21:15 +0000; edited 1 time

You married my older brother?

Just started Detectorists. Looking good.

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Last edited by Max6200 on Wed, 06 Jan 2021 19:23:35 +0000; edited 1 time

I don't watch movies or TV shows based on comic books or magic. I definitely don't watch if the story includes a person who's seriously screwed up, and is trying to be somewhat less screwed up. If the goal is to foster political correctness, no thanks. If I wouldn't spend time with the characters in real life, no point in watching them on the screen.

On TV, I mostly watch motor sports (Supercross is in 10 days), Dakar (currently running), reruns of Two and a Half Men and Big Bang (DVR'ed) along with car shows, a few cooking shows, and some home-improvement shows. If I ever find a comedy where the people are at least half as funny as they think they are, might watch.

Have a Roku and Netflix, have tried a few movies and series suggested by my daughter, just don't find them entertaining. Maybe I just have better things to do with my time.

Even without covid, had stopped going to the theater a couple years ago, as there have been few if any movies worth my time or money. Have a limited library of good, old movies on DVD and Blu-ray, tend to rotate through them.

Maybe need to pick up an Ultra-Blu-ray player and a 4K TV when the price/performance hits a sweet spot, and start upgrading my library.

Fortunately, in late summer, the local public library re-opened. So I read between 5 and 10 books a week. Mostly fiction, mostly adventure. Almost no woman authors. I don't especially care what people are feeling or thinking or why they are doing the things they are. I want something to happen, and someone to do something about it. Comedies are fine too. Some of them are actually funny, witty, clearly well-crafted.

Glad you have interests that keep you entertained, but maybe this thread isn't for you...

Yep, I suppose a "what are you reading" thread could be started as well if someone is so inclined.

I'm watching the coverage of the idiots that stormed the Capitol building.

Yeah, me too.

I think we all are!

we all know what's going on. we're all watching it.

HOWEVER

this is not the place to talk about it.

toe the line and face repercussions. y'all done been warned.

-g

(also i'm watching snowfall and bosch)

^^^
That...&
<-----Starsky and Hutch reruns.

Heard MV-bot is watching Logan's Run repeats.

just sayin'

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Watched Bridgerton because I am a fan the Brit-type stuff. I still have seasons of New Tricks to watch. Don't know what direction to head next. Maybe back to space shows, or murders. I was real amused by The Good Place and Umbrella Academy and it will be a while til Outlander has anymore seasons. I may have to go to my other alternative and that is to learn how to decently crochet (beware Christmas exchange). My other option is to work on our rentals...

Actually, I was hoping for suggestions about grown-up entertainment. Enjoyed the PBS "Sherlock" series , although they became increasingly comic-book-y. And I was a little disappointed that Sherlock allowed himself to be changed, over time, and found that aspect less than credible. Hardly the behavior of a high-functioning sociopath. I suppose I should check out the Bosch series, since I enjoyed the books.

The Jesse Stone series on Hallmark was pretty decent too, watch those reruns from time to time. And I always try to catch selected episodes of "Dirty Jobs" when they rerun.

But in general, no recovering drug addicts, alcoholics, or people setting out to find themselves. No identity crises or gender confusion. Vampire and zombie movies are out. Most of the latest cop shows are farcical, they ought to hire a consultant who know something about guns, how they work, and how they should be handled. Maybe not produce them in tints of blue and green as well. And hire actors who don't get their game faces by emulating Mr. T.

I download old black and white movies from YT, i like war and adventure movies. Too bad that dubbed in Italian are few, the english ones in english i understand them a little but those in american ... I don't have enough ear ...
Should I come and live in the USA for a few months? (Not now... )

Mr mayor.

I still get a kick out of the old Clint Eastwood spaghetti westerns. Not sure, but I'm guessing they are available with Italian dialog. The Dirty Harry series doesn't have a lot of dialog.

I just saw the first two episodes. It was surprisingly entertaining. The character reminds me a bit of his character in Bored To Death.

Agreed. I just find it amazing that he never seems to have any gap in time where he isn't starring in a show on TV. He was good in the Good Place as well.

add into that his turn on fargo. just incredible.

and check this:
https://www.theringer.com/tv/2021/1/8/22220323/ted-danson-longevity-mr-mayor-premiere

-g

if you haven't checked out Bosch, it's def. worth a look see. no blues and greens and low talking, tricky or cute camera work. just solid all around. snowfall was good as well. and i liked the fact that you had to pay attention to who all was getting. same with killing eve if you haven't gotten after that.

alone and life below zero are interesting. along with naked and afraid, but you gotta be in that mindset. some forged in fire is always good.

like you, watching the car shows is the same for me... with me yelling at the screen: WHERE IS THE TORQUE WRENCH!?!?!?? or... nahh... nahhh... that's not how that works.

but embrace the guilty pleasures of the masked singer and hells kitchen, cutthroat kitchen, master chef, or total wipe out. sometimes you just need to turn your brain off.

but above all that. homicide hunter. My, my, my i'll tell ya. Kenda is the man.

i'd throw down some cartoon recs here too, but i'm guessing that you're not into that. but, don't discount them... there's some good animated stuff out there.

-g

ETA: i've a soft spot on Bosch because it's all shot on my home turf, so i'm all i know where that is, i've been there, oh hey that's around the corner! and, most importantly, it looks RIGHT. like, that's how LA looks.

Just streamed Mary and Max, a bittersweet animation from Australia that's in turns poignant, funny and outrageous. If you have a soft spots for misfits, it's even better.

Did watch "Forged in Fire" for a while, but it became repetitive. Even my granddaughter got to the point of "Don't quench it in the water!". And most of the competitors didn't seem to have much of a handle on metallurgy, as most of the fabrication and hardening was hit-or-miss.

Most of the engineering shows stretch out a 10 minute program to an hour. Even DVR'ing and fast forwarding can't keep them interesting.

They had an explosives show on for a while, which was pretty interesting, but I think they ran out of things they could show on TV.

I watch most of the guns shows,but none of the hunting shows. Quite interesting, some of the new technology, like radar chronographs, that allow tracking ballistic performance out to 1000 yards. Always good to see reviews on new guns.

Disaster shows aren't my gig. Well-done crime is fine. I'll definitely check out Bosch.

Kinda interesting that many of the 'reality' and performance shows are variations on the variety shows, like Ed Sullivan, back at the dawn of TV. Didn't watch then, don't watch now.

Always liked "Stupid Pet Tricks" and "Stupid Human Tricks" on Letterman, because they were admitted to be stupid. Don't care about dancing, and some of the singing shows are actually painful to listen to.

Even during the pandemic, I have enough human interaction in my life. So I don't crave more in my media. And I don't have massive amounts of free time to spend binge-watching, even if I found the subject interesting. Mostly, I don't care what happens to the characters. Especially when most are deeply-flawed from the start.

Lately I've been catching Young Sheldon reruns. Can't get enough nerd humor, I guess. Was kinda glad to see Big Bang come to an end, as the original premise had largely run its course, and they were spending more time on relationships than humor.

Finished watching: Murder on Middle Beach (HBO), then "The Ripper" (Netflix), and most recently, "A Teacher" on HULU. Pretty good so far.

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Battle of the V-1, British film shot in 1958.
Title gives you a clue as to what it's about.
They incorporate what appear to be real training films about the V-1 and a lot of other stock footage. The giveaway that it's not a docu is that all the tedeschi (your italian word for today) sound like they went to Eton and have bad teeth.
Antifa wins.

Death in Paradise, new season, less funny than the last. Trying to stretch a gag too far. David Tenant needs work, hire him or come up with a plausible reason to bring back Ben Miller. Joséphine Jobert is the best reason to watch this season.

Last edited by Motovista on Sun, 17 Jan 2021 04:20:47 +0000; edited 1 time

For whatever reason I just stumbled into this thread and I was pleasantly surprised by your comment. I'm going to pass this along to Sherman. I'm sure he'll be tickled.

The Real McCoy - the true story of Bill McCoy, a Rum Runner (a Bootlegger), during Prohibition (1922-1930), in the USA. He outsmarted the government officials, and, he always delivered undiluted alcohol; hence, in the USA why most of us know and understand the term, "the real McCoy." The irony of it - Bill McCoy was a teetotaler.

This 75 minute documentary can be viewed, online, or streamed to television, from the website link: The Legend of Bill McCoy and the Rum War at Sea. It originally aired on PBS, at some point.

One thing, I learned, in this documentary, the USA had a female Assistant US Attorney General, Mabel Walker Willebrandt, during this time of Prohibition. She was the nemesis of Bill McCoy.

While producing this documentary film, founder and CEO of Real McCoy rum, Bailey Pryor, came up with the idea to make The Real McCoy Rum.

Last edited by Big_Boys_Mother on Thu, 21 Jan 2021 14:52:47 +0000; edited 1 time

Been watching an Australian tv series that ran from 2013-2018 called Rake. It is about a very smart but self destructing barrister in Sydney and is very amusing and twisting story lines. Great characters and character development. We are watching it on Netflix.

The Expanse - Sci-Fi done right and 5 seasons to binge.