Drink Rum

It's rare that I find something on broadcast television that I really like. Most of the shows that I do like, I don't watch on TV, I just Netflix them on DVD later. I do have to admit that I have the guilty please of being addicted to Judge Judy and Judge Alex. While I was laid up, I spent a lot of time watching court TV shows and I find them very interesting. Anyway...

A couple of weeks ago, PBS launched the debut of its latest mega-miniseries documentary called "The War". It's a Ken Burns piece. For those that don't know... Burns is probably the one of the best known/regarded documentarians in the business. His new piece is about World War II and is focused on its effects on four cities in different regions of the US and the effect of the war on the inhabitants... some who went off to war... and some who stayed home.

I watched the first 2 1/2 hour episode and was very impressed. As are many people based on the reviews that have been coming out.

Everyone except the Hispanic watchdog groups. They are (were) angry that there was not a significant focus on the impact or contributions of Hispanic Americans to the war effort. Burns spends a lot of time on black americans and japanese americans, but only about 20 minutes of the 9 hour piece is dedicated to hispanics. That angered the people who have nothing better to do than to get mad about that sort of thing. They argue that if blacks and japanese get their moment, why not the hispanics? After all, there were hundreds of thousands of hispanic americans in uniform over the course of the war.

There were also women. There were german americans too. There were rich people. There were poor people. There were people from all walks of life who served. Except Japanese americans. They were not allowed to serve in the US armed forces during the war out of fear of their loyalty. And that Japanese citizens on the west coast were rounded up and sent to camps. Many had their lives completely destroyed. They were destroyed by a government that was going to war to promote freedom. Appreciate some irony.

Then there were the blacks. The could serve in the army. Just not in the white man army. They were still segregated. They would fight against racism abroad while having to accept it in their homes. Look... irony.

Those stories are compelling. Those stories are important to the nation identity (not all roses) of the United States in the 1930s-1940s.

The hispanics weren't segregated. They weren't sent to camps. They represented about 2% of the fighting force of the US might in the war. I don't deny them that they contributed a deep personal sacrifice. The film even states that in the beginning. The film is about a country at war. It's not about race. There are stories that talk about how the country treated people of different races. Those are important.

The fact that the hispanic legion has grown into a political entity today doesn't mean that a documentary has to cater to their desires. I noticed that there's nothing in the film about Australian Americans in there... my grandfather fought and served the US Navy in the war... where's his story? There's nothing telling the story of my other grandfather and his tales in the skies of the Pacific... where's his story?

It's not about people. It's about a country. It's a shame that people are so stupidly divided these days and so self absorbed that they can't see it for what it is.

Posted by Monty at 1:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last night was rather interesting. Not interesting in so much that this post will be anything substantial or impressive, but it was interesting that in that I spent a lot of time working on manual dexterity.

As you know, I recently aquired a PS3. It's quite addictive. Last night I got started playing the video game Call of Duty 3. It's your standard shooter, world war II game. I shouldn't say that, it does go beyond "standard" but the basics are the same. I was Johnny Buttonmasher for a couple couple of hours last night. Things were going swimmingly. It also helped me practice my German. Now, when I go to Germany I'll be able to say several new phrases... such as "The enemy is in the house", "Shoot over there", "Grenade!", and "Kill the American". I will do so well overseas. At one point in the game I had to drive a jeep around France. That was very cathartic. Important note for dictionary lovers out there... I'm referring to the emotional release definition of cathartic... not the laxative version. But yeah... I spent a good 45 minutes running over pedestrians in the jeep. Before you judge... they were jay-walking... and shooting at me. And the game alternative is far better than the "drive into DC with a plow" alternative. So yeah.... vroooom!

At one point in the game, the story switched me from being an American soldier to being a British commando helping the French underground. It took me many restarts before I got it through my head that I wasn't supposed to shoot all of the Frenchies. I couldn't help myself.

Eventually the game took away my jeep and supply of French targets so I quit.

I then picked up the guitar and practiced for a while. My fingers are still sore. I should mention that I'm double jointed in my fingers so it's harder for me to keep pressure on the strings. I can't use leverage because my fingers will just bend backwards... about 15 degrees at each knuckle. It's creepy really, although there are some benefits. I had to stop that after a bit because it was just killing the fingers. The new strings are taking more time to get used to than I'd hoped.

I then decided to watch "Snatch". Since I was in a Brit-alt music frame of mind anyway, it seemed like a good idea. I do so enjoy that film. After it was over I just felt like going to bed, so I did... at the early hour of 2am I think. That was an early night.

I reaped the reward of 7 whole hours of sleep... double my usual. I actually feel more tired now though than if I'd had less.

I can't win.

Oh well. It's not whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game. That's a stupid line. If you lose the game, then you obviously played it like a loser... otherwise you'd have won. So basically... if you lose... you've lost... because you play like a loser... and you've got bad breath.

I'm sure I had a point when I started this...

Posted by Monty at 11:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm finally happy to see that Blu-Ray is finally starting to pull ahead in the contest for what will be the next HD media for movies and to a lesser extent video games and data.

For a year now Blu-Ray (Sony) and HD-DVD (Toshiba) have been fighting like VHS and Beta of old. The video industry was split down the middle with major studios committing to only one version or the other. It was a suck fest because no one would buy machines for fear of picking the "beta" and wasting money.... so studios have been slow to release titles, etc.

Things have changed. All but one major studio (Universal I think) will offer their films in Blu-ray and HD-DVD. There are 4 majors (I think Buena Vista/Disney, Fox, New Line, and someone else) are only making discs in the Blu-Ray format. Microsoft is still backing HD-DVD, but that's because they're trying to hurt Sony's game market and they can't push into the "total home entertainment solution" race if Sony's Blu-ray PS3 because a standard platform.

The nail in the coffin has to with the recent announcement by Blockbuster that they are only going to stock Blu-ray discs. They ran both in 250 test stores, but over the next year are expanding the HD films to all stores and only Blu-ray discs will be used. They made the determination based on the fact that test rentals of blu-ray vs HD-dvd were 75% to 25% in favor of the blu-ray. Starz made a similar announcement today.

I'm really stoked about the impending death of HD-DVD. With one format that the world can get behind, prices drops will happen and HD video will be everywhere.

The video upgrade from DVD to Blu-ray (or HD-DVD) is ok, but not awe inspiring. There are some mid-range DVD players that do an up-convert and look nice. The real win is that the sound is using an uncompressed, lossless format. DVD, which has great 6.1 sound via DTS or Dolby is compressed. Some times moreso than others. With the new massive disc space available, the blu-ray format is allowing for individual channel, uncompressed audio. A guy who works for THX labs apparently wept on hearing the difference. Now all of that tweaking and positioning and such can produce even greater results with the new scenario.

Neat

Posted by Monty at 2:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've been having a great time watching the Riches on FX. I can't say enough to completely do it justice... but I can say this. Eddie Izzard on crystal meth. Yeah. Pilgrims were involved.

Posted by Monty at 2:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've long desired a new television channel that didn't make me ol' butt pucker. I don't like the reality television. I don't like the Idolotry of America. I don't like anything with Regis Philbin. He's just creepy... like uncle Bad Touch.

My DirecTV satelite company of wonderment has added a new channel. Not the promised HD channels that I've been waiting a year for, but this one's good enough. It's the Chiller channel. It's about all things spooky. The movies they show are edited and mostly cruddy. They've also got some films in their line up that confuse me... like Transylvania 6-5000. OK, yes there's a wolfman and a vampire... but it's Geena Davis. The stars are Jeff Goldblum and Ed Beagley Jr. OK, that's scary. Nevermind.

I like the channel for the fact that it rehashes all the old creepy television shows like Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Tales From the Crypt, Darkroom, etc. Those shows were awesome. Sadly, they also have Freddy's Nightmares and Friday the 13th the Series.

There sure was a lot of big hair going on back then.

That's scary in and of itself.

Posted by Monty at 2:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I had an idea for a film last night. I decided that someone should write a script about the life of LtCol Bill Kilgore... the fictional air cavalry commander in Apocalypse Now.

I figured a story about him growing up and going off to war would be highly entertaining if told correctly. I think I'm going to write it.

That should be fun.

Posted by Monty at 1:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I've only watched a few episodes of Bravo's Celebrity Poker Showdown this season, but the ones I saw I enjoyed. The celebrities for the most part are lame with a few exceptions. I enjoyed Dave Foley and Phil Gordon's commentary.

Sadly, next season the show is moving to New Orleans and leaving Phil Gordon in lovely Las Vegas.

Replacing Phil, will be another Phil... a lesser Phil. Phil Hellmuth.

His personality is as appealing as his name. He's easily my least favorite poker personality. He's the biggest damn crybaby ever.

Dave Foley's the whiney personality on the show... whiney but funny. Hellmuth is whiney like a spoiled brat in a mall whiney.

Ugh.

I'm curious as to whether the move has to do with tossing business towards the area formerly known as N'awlins or because the Palms in Vegas stopped caring.

Either way, it's a flop of a flop now.

Although if Foley beats up Hellmuth each week... I'd watch.

Sadly, I imagine the show will spend at least half of the televised time with Philbert discussing why he's better than everyone else. Pyucky.

Posted by Monty at 2:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

So UPN and WB are going to close down and turn into a new network... The CW. Like the O.C.? I dunno.

UPN and WB are probably the two worst channels on television. So who approved the business plan to take the two crap channels and merge them into one crap channel? The only group that'd benefit from that would be Dish Network and DirecTV... because it frees up a spot to broadcast something else on their satelites.

UPN was home of all the Star Trek shows... which were crap. I think the one with Picard and that turtle head guy was fun to watch drunk in college, but everything after that was weak. WB has, what? Moesha? I actually farted typing that. Maybe WB doesn't float my boat because I'm not black.

Not a racist comment, WB is self-described as targeting minorities with their programming. I always roll my eyes when I see various special interest groups that shout about the unfairness of Hollywood and the lack of roles for minority actors. Here's a station full of them... a failing station. Activists, take note... television... all television, is about making money through advertising... if your show doesn't draw people... it won't draw advertisers. Network executives would put turtles killing midgets on TV if they thought it'd sell ad space. If you want to see more minority actors given roles, you need to get people to watch the shows.

Anyway... I give the new channel 26 months. Then flushed.

Posted by Monty at 12:05 AM | Permalink