Author Topic: A random thread for small entertainment things not warranting their own thread..  (Read 284526 times)

We’ve just started watching Attenborough’s latest. Good grief, the musical score is intrusive.  >:(
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
The last lot MrsT wanted to watch it was St. David's voice that got my goat.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

ian

In the US versions, they used to replace him with Oprah, which results in an unpleasant bit of mental re-ordering, because really if anyone should be commenting on the bedroom habits of various animals it's him. Several entire species have restraining orders against him, he can't go within 25 metres of a tiger and he's banned from Malawi.

Lovely programmes but I can't watch them any more, every scene with some majestic slice of nature ends with a fateful and now we've nearly killed them all. It's just depressing.

The last lot MrsT wanted to watch it was St. David's voice that got my goat.

That too.  Far too much anthropormorphising  with the emotional voiceover.
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

Lovely programmes but I can't watch them any more, every scene with some majestic slice of nature ends with a fateful and now we've nearly killed them all. It's just depressing.

I think this is the first Attenborough we've watched (well, my wife has watched, I was surfing on the iPad throughout) since before Blue Planet. 
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Lovely programmes but I can't watch them any more, every scene with some majestic slice of nature ends with a fateful and now we've nearly killed them all. It's just depressing.

And even when he - sorry, He - doesn't say it you can hear it anyway.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight


I'm currently working my way though "The Great War",  a 1964 BBC account of WW1.  Of it's time, but surprisingly un jingoistic & covering more than the Flanders trenches.   Well worth the watching.  It appears to be mostly available on YouTube.    The episode below is about the contribution of women to the war effort.




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1WjRG6ot5Y
Not fast & rarely furious

tweeting occasional in(s)anities as andrewxclark

Tim Hall

  • Victoria is my queen
The other day I was watching an American man on YouTube talking about rifles, specifically modifications to the SMLE rifle by the Australians into a jungle carbine. Don't judge me.

Mods included shortening the barrel, which meant there was no, as he calls it, stacking swivel.

Or as Henry Reed would put it:
"And this is the piling swivel,
Which in your case you have not got"

This made me very happy.



There are two ways you can get exercise out of a bicycle: you can
"overhaul" it, or you can ride it.  (Jerome K Jerome)

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
 :)
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Reliving my childhood I've been watching the 1977 BBC adaptation of Rosemary Sutcliffe's "The Eagle Of The Ninth".  I remember the credits & the music, but had far more recollection of the book than the TV series.  Excellent stuff though, and freely available on Youtube, though poor picture quality.   A great pity they never made "The Mark Of The Horse Lord".
Not fast & rarely furious

tweeting occasional in(s)anities as andrewxclark

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
That was a grand story - I first heard it on Children's Hour in the 50s.  There have been several remakes since.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eagle_of_the_Ninth
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
  • Custard Wallah
    • Mr Larrington's Automatic Diary
In case you en't watched the denouement d’Engrenages yet:

(click to show/hide)
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

Mrs Pingu

  • Who ate all the pies? Me
    • Twitter
I was half expecting an ending a bit like this film
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Me_If_You_Dare_(film)
Do not clench. It only makes it worse.

The BBC has announced the leading cast members for a forthcoming adaptation of PTerry's Night Watch books.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/bbcstudios/2019/the-watch-cast-richard-dormer

Varying mileage has ensued: https://twitter.com/BBCAMERICA/status/1171786597504888833
...

More cast members for BBC America's The Watch have been revealed. Expect more varying mileage....

https://www.terrypratchettbooks.com/bbc-announces-watch-tv-cast/
"He who fights monsters should see to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." ~ Freidrich Neitzsche

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
  • Custard Wallah
    • Mr Larrington's Automatic Diary
 :facepalm:
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

Andrij

  • Андрій
  • Ερασιτεχνικός μισάνθρωπος
The other day I finished watching The Man in the High Castle.  I enjoyed it - until the conclusion of the last episode.  How hokey! 

I know the series is based on a book, and departs significantly from said novel, but I think I shall pick up a copy just to see if the ending is any better.
;D  Andrij.  I pronounce you Complete and Utter GIT   :thumbsup:

Basil

  • Um....err......oh bugger!
  • Help me!
'Hokey'?
Admission.  I'm actually not that fussed about cake.

Andrij

  • Андрій
  • Ερασιτεχνικός μισάνθρωπος
'Hokey'?

USAnian slang: mawkishly sentimental, noticeably contrived.
;D  Andrij.  I pronounce you Complete and Utter GIT   :thumbsup:

Basil

  • Um....err......oh bugger!
  • Help me!
'Hokey'?

USAnian slang: mawkishly sentimental, noticeably contrived.

Ah, thanks.  Like most tv and films, then.  ;)
Admission.  I'm actually not that fussed about cake.

Wowbagger

  • Former Sylph
    • Stuff mostly about weather
I have just returned from our choir's concert. We started with Haydn's "Te Deum", which we have sung before. Then we had 5 soloists, hired from Trinity College, who all did arias from Haydn or Mozart. One of the tenors didn't finish his as he was feeling faint. Tiny, tiny lad. looked about 14, but was (presumably) an undergraduate.

After the interval, we sang Schubert's Mass in E flat. This is quite a tough work, and I felt a bit "samey". I thought we sang it better than we ever have in rehearsal, and Colin, our director, was very pleased when I chatted to him briefly afterwards.

Thi idea behind the concert was that we were singing works from two composers who were influenced by Beethoven and one whom Beethoven influenced. 2020 is the 250th year of Ludwig's birth and our April concert will be one of his masses, IIRC Op 86, in C major.
Quote from: Dez
It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.

Just back from a live broadcast of Akhnaten , from the New York Met.   Absolutely fantastic in every way.   I'm a fan of Phillip Glass's music anyway, and to have it paired with the singing & stunning visuals was overwhelming. 


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1XKqZRLXQQ



https://operawire.com/metropolitan-opera-2019-20-review-akhnaten/


https://www.facebook.com/MetOpera/videos/201920-season-philip-glasss-akhnaten/576814316170638/


I think that Picturehouse Group are running Encore performances over the next couple of weeks.  Well worth 3 1/2 hours of your time  :thumbsup:
Not fast & rarely furious

tweeting occasional in(s)anities as andrewxclark

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
I've just discovered that one of my currently favourite Polish songs, Długość dżwięku samotności, exists in an English version.
https://youtu.be/XdmbuDD2hEE
It sounds so wrong! The translation of the lyrics is decent – I especially like what they've done with the first two lines of the first verse, though the refrain leaves a bit to be desired IMO – and the English title makes more sense than the Polish (literally "The length of the sound of solitude/loneliness") but making more sense isn't necessarily more appropriate. Of course translating lyrics is the art of choosing what to lose: rhyme, rhythm, meaning, intonation? If you're lucky you'll keep one! But his voice is just wrong! It's expressive and varied in Polish but in English, well, it's a bit like karaoke.
The original is here: https://youtu.be/qCIyK3ec4kE
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

I just watched a random episode of "Space:Above & Beyond" (1995) in which a fascist government has just taken France out of the EU.    Suspect they got the date & country wrong  :(
Not fast & rarely furious

tweeting occasional in(s)anities as andrewxclark

The BBC has announced the leading cast members for a forthcoming adaptation of PTerry's Night Watch books.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/bbcstudios/2019/the-watch-cast-richard-dormer

Varying mileage has ensued: https://twitter.com/BBCAMERICA/status/1171786597504888833
...

More cast members for BBC America's The Watch have been revealed. Expect more varying mileage....

https://www.terrypratchettbooks.com/bbc-announces-watch-tv-cast/
Oh FFS!

Cheery is female. A female dwarf. Half the point of her character is that she is:
A) one of the first female members of the watch
B) a female dwarf when nobody is really sure they have seen a female dwarf
C) she brings her own, female, aesthetic to traditional dwarfish wear.

Lady Sybil is large and not so young. A lovely, large character. One of the few in fiction and beloved by many.
So they have some young and slim playing the part?
<i>Marmite slave</i>

Found another new Tiny Desk, Sheryl Crow - turns out she's 57 -how did THAT happen? I've always thought of her as the anthem  voice of the new generation. Jeez.