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Television & Radio
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TV TALK (PART ONE) (2011) (ongoing thread for 2011)
Jackie wrote: "... Maybe he's appealling for help in the only way he knows how. ..."Jackie, that could very well be. Charlie Sheen may be trying to tell the world his side of the story... or at least the way he sees it in his present state of mind.
Now that he's lost his right to see his children, he's facing an even heavier burden than the loss of his job. I wonder what will bring him to his senses. I hope he doesn't do anything rash.
Sometimes it takes losing almost everything in order to get help.
Yes, sometimes that's true. I hope Charlie Sheen gets help soon.
Jackie wrote: "Sometimes it takes losing almost everything in order to get help."Yeah, that's what hitting bottom is for an addict/alcoholic. I've known quite a few that did lose everything. They wound up in jail, hospitals &/or morgues. Very few make it back out of that abyss for any length of time. Hopefully he'll be one that does.
Jim wrote: ".. Very few make it back out of that abyss for any length of time. ..."Looks as if Robert Downey, Jr. has succeeded in getting his life back on track. At least he looks and acts OK when he attends the award shows. He's also been making some hit movies. I'm happy to see that.
RDjr is definitely clean and sober, you can tell by looking at him now and compare it to when he was in crisis. Big difference. And with his history, if he wasn't clean, he wouldn't be working. I admire him for getting his life back.
Yes, Jackie, I'm sure it wasn't easy for RDjr. I wonder what helped him get back on track. He could give some advice to Charlie Sheen. But I don't think CS is open to advice right now. Charlie thinks he himself is right. It seems there's no way to change his attitude.
RDjr lost everything, his career and his freedom. Lots of arrests, rehab and jail. No one would give him a job, he had to prove himself sober first. I'm pretty sure he was tired of the life he was leading and made a conscious decision to change that. I'm so glad he did because he's an extraordinary talent.
Former Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, was interviewed on the Piers Morgan show tonight. He said he uses a stand-up desk. When Piers Morgan expressed surprise, Rumsfeld said that a sit-down desk is strange to him (or words to that effect. He said that Thomas Jefferson had a stand-up desk too. This is the first time I've heard of a stand-up desk.I didn't realize that Rumsfeld had such an engaging and pleasant personality, at least that's how he came across during the interview. Rumsfeld has a new book out called Known and Unknown.
Tonight I watched an HBO special, The Making of Mildred Pierce. It is an inside look into the filming of that mini series. Just to see the amount of care that went into the locations, sets and costumes is amazing. It was a nice way to preview the TV show.HBO on Demand now has it available and it will probably be aired a few more times before the premiere. This series is one that I don't want to miss.
I also learned that Mildred Pierce is a book written by James M. Cain. I'll
have to put that on my to-read list.
Cain also wrote 2 others from which successful and classic movies were made: Double Indemnity starring Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwick, and The Postman Always Rings twice with Lana Turner and John Garfield.
Katherine, thanks for telling us about this. I don't get HBO but perhaps some others do.Below are the GR links to books you mentioned:
Mildred Pierce
Double Indemnity
The Postman Always Rings Twice
BTW, when I was a young innocent teenager, I started reading _The Postman Always Rings Twice_. I was so shocked when I came across the spicy parts that I stopped reading, ripped the book up and threw it in the garbage. (lol) I don't even remember where I got the book in the first place. Sweet innocence!
PBS will be airing the Ken Burns documentary miniseries, The Civil War next week, Sunday - Thursday. This is be a great opportunity to see it again, or to watch it for the first time. Highly recommended.
Thanks, Katherine! I watched the Civil War documentary a short time ago by streaming it from Netflix. It was excellent. I loved the way they dramatized the quotes from historical figures. The quotes were read by some famous performers.Sam Watkins was a Confederate soldier from TN during the Civil War. He wrote a memoir called: Company Aytch, or a Side Show of the Big Show.. Burn's documentary quotes him a lot. An actor does the reading. Very dramatic as it describes the suffering of the soldiers. Below is a link to my review of Watkin's memoir:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
PS-The doc also quotes Mary Chestnut who also lived at that time and kept a diary.
Reminder for Jackie:The Kennedys on Reelz TV starts Sunday.
I watched "The Making of the Kennedys" as a preview to this miniseries, and it looks pretty good.
Thanks, Katherine. I'm interested in that show too.Here's the website:
http://www.reelzchannel.com/article/1...
"REELZCHANNEL today announced the highly anticipated drama series The Kennedys will make its world premiere on the network beginning Sunday, April 3, 2011."
PS-It's here too:
http://www.reelzchannel.com/kennedys/
(with trailer)
PPS-Here's the IMDb page:
"The Kennedys" (TV Series 2011)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1567215/
The REELZ Channel is #429 on my TV.
My gosh, Greg Kinnear strongly resembles JFK!
I'm so please to hear it looks good. People in my TV Group are saying it's no good because they read it somewhere. How can anyone make that assumption when it hasn't even aired yet? I put it on my DVR and it's got new episodes on Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. I read the guide's info on each one and they're all different.
Jackie, I guess that on Monday they'll have repeats. The webpage linked below says: "Monday: (4/4)Encore Showings"I guess "encore" means repeats. :)
http://www.reelzchannel.com/kennedys/
PS-The entire schedule for "The Kennedys" (shown at the webpage linked above) looks like this:
* Sunday (4/3) 2-Hour Movie Premiere Event
* Monday (4/4) Encore Showings
* Tuesday (4/5) Episode 3 Premiere
* Wednesday (4/6) Episode 4 Premiere
* Thursday (4/7) Episode 5 Premiere
* Friday (4/8) Episode 6 Premiere
* Saturday (4/9) The Kennedys Marathon
* Sunday (4/10) 2-Hour Movie Event Finale
I watched the first 2 episodes of The Kennedys on Reelz from Sunday night and it was really good.The Killing, which also started this past Sunday on AMC, was a really good one. The characters were so realistic, it was impressive.
Unfortunately The Borgias was a snorefest...utter boredom. I deleted it off my DVR.
But I'll keep The Killing and The Kennedys. I'm not sure why they aired The Kennedys this way, so close together, rather than weekly episodes. Just as well, one of my favorite shows just started up again, The United States of Tara, about a woman with multiple personalities played by the talented Toni Collette. And A Game of Thrones starts on Sundays in 2 weeks. Camelot also started last Friday, it was OK. Has potential.
Tonight's episode of The Kennedys included the Bay of Pigs fiasco against Cuba. From the way it is dramatized, one wonders why Kennedy's advisers ever thought it would work. Kennedy trusted his advisers. At least he had the wisdom not to follow it up with American armed forces going in.Robert Kennedy is portrayed as being a very strong man... perhaps stronger than JFK himself. Well, who knows how much of the drama is true. I wonder.
So far I haven't seen any of reviews of the show.
If these are the actual facts, then his military advisors were idiots. Definitely a wise move not sending US troops in, but anyone could see that. With our precarious diplomatic relations with Russia, it would have pushed things over the edge and into an all out war with Russia. There really was no other way. I think Bobby was stronger than his brother in many ways, yet neither was strong enough to stand up to the father. If they had, neither would have opted for a life in politics. Imagine how different both their lives would have been.
Good point about the father, Jackie. I really can't believe he was as forceful as he's portrayed in the show. But who knows...
It's common knowledge that he was grooming Joe Jr. for a life of politics, and just switched sons when Joe died. I think it's more the truth than not.
Yes, he was grooming them, but do you think he spoke to JFK in that commanding way when JFK was president? It's so unbelievable.
Why not? It was Joe Sr.'s dream. People were different back then, towards their children and how children respected and listened to their parents.
It's frightening that the country could be under the influence of man so full of such obsessive personal ambition like JFK's father.
Absolutely. Probably one of the contributing factors to JFK's death.
Ironic, isn't it! Like a Greek tragedy.
It is. What tragedy that family has been through.
Joy, Did you see tonight's episode of The Kennedys?I'm shocked at the amount of narcotics JFK was taking. I understand he was in a lot of pain but he had to be somewhat impaired. Demerol and methadone are similar to morphine. And he was taking phenobarbitol and amphetamines and a whole bunch of others I can't remember or know what they are for and what they do to a person.
And JFK had Addison's disease, of which two symptoms are irritability and depression. Both can easily affect judgement.
This begs the question: As voters, are we entitled to know what disease our potential president has and what drugs they are taking?
With the privacy in medical care, would it violate the candidates rights for us to know?
But at the same time, wouldn't it be negligent for us not to know?
I would want to know what disease a candidate had and if it would affect his judgement. And I definitely want to know if they're on drugs, prescription or otherwise.
Another question: Should our elected officals submit to random drug testing like in other jobs? It's not a violation of rights to ask a member of the military or a medical professional for a urine sample, as well as any other job, so why not elected officials or candidates for these most important positions in government. After all, they are making critical decisions.
Now I'm wondering if most of our government officals are on drugs, with the poorly thought-out decisions they make.
Jackie, you've brought up some very valid concerns. Well said! Yes, I did see last night's episode of "The Kennedys" on the Reelz Channel (#429 for me). Those thoughts went through my head although they weren't fully formed the way you have put them.(In other words, I had "inchoate" thoughts... great word but I'm not sure of the pronunciation. I never hear it used).
INCHOATE: http://www.wordsmyth.net/?ent=inchoate
(I clicked for pronunciation.) (g)
I wonder if we'll see or hear any fall-out in the news along those lines you describe. Please let me know if you do.
I will. It would make sense to address these issues. I admit, I never thought about it before. It never occured to me that our elected officials would be on drugs/medication, but now that I think about it, it's a real concern.
Anyone watching the Civil War series on PBS? I recorded the 5 or so episodes so far and finally got around to watching the first one last night. I was very disappointed. They regurgitate what was in my high school history books, quoting the talking heads of the day. I was hoping for some canny historian who could delve into the whys and wherefores, dissect motives etc. I think it would have been better to have BBC do the show. Even a British slant would at least have been more objective. I may not even watch the rest of it.
BBC does the best historic and documentary programs.I didn't even know it was on. But now after reading what you thought, I'm glad I didn't.
Earl, in March I streamed "Ken Burns: The Civil War" from Netflix and thought it was excellent. I believe that's the same one PBS aired this week.Here's the link to its Netflix page:
http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Ken...
I couldn't find it at IMDB but here's the PBS website on the documentary:
http://www.pbs.org/civilwar/?gclid=CP...
In our movie thread on 3/3/11, I posted the following about the doc:
=================================================
"I've been reading Gone With the Wind and it sparked my interest in the Civil War. I found a wonderful documentary about the Civil War at Netflix:
"Ken Burns: The Civil War" (1990) (9 episodes) (streamable)
"The photographs bring it back so vividly. I was surprised that they were able to take such great photos back then in the 1860s.
"It goes into great detail about the battles and the strategies which were used. Even though that part doesn't interest me, there are many other parts which did. Shelby Foote offers some interesting background information.
"There are wonderful quotes throughout all the episodes; some of them are read by many current celebrities who have wonderful voices.
"Also read aloud are the evocative letters written by the soldiers to their folks back home. There must be quite a collection of those letters kept in archives. I was surprised that so many have been preserved and then used in this documentary.
"The entire documentary is a great piece of work. It's astounding to think of the research which must have gone into it."
======================================================
Here's the Netflix description:
"This documentary masterpiece from Ken Burns depicts the strategies and action of famous Civil War battles, and relates the stories of generals, field soldiers, politicians, heroes and a beleaguered president. The Emmy-winning miniseries begins by looking at the factors that led to the firing on Fort Sumter, and covers specific notable battles, climaxing with Gen. Robert E. Lee's surrender and Pres. Abraham Lincoln's assassination."
Also see my review of Company Aytch, or a Side Show of the Big Show. by Sam Watkins at:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Sam Watkins was a civil war soldier and this is his book. He's quoted quite a bit in Ken Burn's documentary.
Thru poor vcr-ing I managed to miss an episode of The Good Wife (CBS) and an epi of Surpernatural (CW)in late Sept and early Oct. I know you guys with the fancy TimeWarner added channels can pick up re-broadcasts of the missed show, but I don't have that luxury. Neither channel are 'cable channels' (I don't know the difference exactly but practically it means they WON'T rebroadcast shows). So, today I started poking around the internet and found I could stream both these shows to my computer monitor. What surprised me is that I could also get captions! I recently had to replace my old 19" computer CRT monitor with a 27" LCD flat screen, so the picture was even better (and brighter!) that my tv, albeit a little smaller.
The difference is 'cable' or 'network', network being the main channels we've always had, long before cable. And they air their shows only once, regardless of fancy Time Warner. It's the networks choice, not Time Warner on what gets rebroadcast. I love the cable stations for their extra viewings. Missing a show or having a conflict on the DVR is never a problem with cable stations. Network has gone downhill in a significant way.I'm glad you found a way to see these shows in a manner that works for you. I know how the darkness of some shows and no captions on some shows make TV viewing difficult for you. This sounds like the perfect answer. Good luck and have fun with it.
Are you going to watch any other shows?
Earl, glad to hear you found a way to get captions via your streaming. I know what a big help they are.Jackie, thanks for your explanation of the difference between "network" channels and "cable" channels. Interesting about how cable does repeats. Sometimes I wish they would do repeats of "The View" talk show. But then again, they often talk about things that are of no interest to me. So I guess I'm not missing much.
I hate those hags on The View, I'm glad they don't repeat, lol But that's a network station. ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, CW are network. Other stations like USA, Syfy, Discovery, A&E, TNT are all examples of cable channels, channels you cannot get unless you pay for basic cable.
Jackie wrote: "I'm glad you found a way to see these shows in a manner that works for you. I know how the darkness of some shows and no captions on some shows make TV viewing difficult for you. This sounds like the perfect answer. Good luck and have fun with it.Are you going to watch any other shows?
"
No, though the technology fascinates me, I'll go back to watching my vcr tapes on my tv from across the room, rather than my computer monitor from 24". I have a building accumulation of recorded tapes already this fall. If Netflix ever incorporates captioning into their streaming devices I just might opt for one.
Interestingly, when streaming, they allow you to move back and forth 'in time' in the display. BUT not when the commercial is on. They're made it so you can't skip the commercial!
Jackie wrote: "I hate those hags on The View, I'm glad they don't repeat, lol But that's a network station. ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, CW are network. Other stations like USA, Syfy, Discovery, A&E, TNT are all exampl..."We pay for basic cable but that's all. Thanks for clarifying the way it works.
Earl wrote: "... Interestingly, when streaming, they allow you to move back and forth 'in time' in the display. BUT not when the commercial is on. They're made it so you can't skip the commercial!"Gee, we can't win, can we. At least there are no commercials when streaming directly from Netflix. However, I don't enjoy watching movies on my laptop's computer screen. For some reason, it's just not enjoyable. I guess the larger screen simply has more appeal.
I looked into getting one of those devices that lets us stream onto our TV screen, but that method doesn't allow the benefits of the Netflix personal queues, as far as I know. You can choose Netflix movies but not from your personal queue. I like having a queue with movies I've especially chosen already. Also, Netflix keeps a history record of what we've watched in the past so we don't waste time watching something we've already tried watching.
As I understand it, in order to get the full benefits of Netflix (personal queues and viewing history) and also watch the movie on our TV screen, we have to access Netflix via a separate computer that is attached to the TV (i.e., the TV screen serves as the computer's monitor screen). Streaming devices do not give us the full benefits of Netflix (personal queues and viewing history). That's my understanding, anyway.
Earl, I don't like watching on my computer monitor either. I get too distracted with other things to do on the computer. When I'm at my TV, I'm all there.I noticed the forced commercials online but they're only about a minute long, or they were when I last watched that way. Better than the 3 to 5 minutes per break on TV.
I don't want to watch commercials, I have my set brands and I'mnot changing them. The only commercials I watch are new movies coming out, but I only need to see it once, not during every commercial break throughout the entire program. The DVR is worth paying for, as I can skip the commercials as I choose.
My TV is the monitor for one of my PC's. Now it's a 47" LED LCD, but I've done it since we had a 27" CRT. I ripped all of our DVD's & put them on to a USB drive connected to this PC that I'm typing on now. (That USB drive is sync'd to another for backup purposes.) When we want to watch a movie, all I do is flip the TV input to the PC in there & open up the shared directory & play it. Works great.The new TV has streaming apps built into it, too. We can't use them because our wireless Internet is too slow, though. Anyway, it's easier to navigate with a wireless keyboard & mouse rather than the TV's remote.
While I don't have it setup, a lot of people now connect both their cable box & their TV to their PC. Windows media makes it easy (especially in Windows 7) to set your PC to record your shows & play them back. The PC's I have here at home are pretty old - maybe 7 years old - with XP on them & old video cards. I hate fiddling with computers much at home.
Jim wrote: "My TV is the monitor for one of my PC's. Now it's a 47" LED LCD, but I've done it since we had a 27" CRT. I ripped all of our DVD's & put them on to a USB drive connected to this PC that I'm typi..."That all sounds complicated to me but I'm sure that if I had to make use of a system that was all set up for me, I'd eventually learn to use it. But, of course, I could never set it up by myself.
I have an input button on my remote. It changes the input to whichever source I'm using. At least I've learned that.
Same here, someone would have to set it up for me and show me how to use it.
I'm sure your kids could set it up so the TV is a monitor in both cases. It really isn't hard. It's just 2 cables, one from the monitor card & the other from the sound card to the TV inputs. We've been doing it since the days of Pong.;-)
You know that's been most of 30 years now since Pong came out? Wow, time flies, but look at how far we've come, too. It's amazing.
Jim wrote: "I'm sure your kids could set it up so the TV is a monitor in both cases. It really isn't hard. It's just 2 cables, one from the monitor card & the other from the sound card to the TV inputs. We'..."Jim, I'll mention this to our kids and see what they say.
Monitor card, sound card? Yeah, I'd need some help with that since I have no idea what they are, lolEric moved to Saugerties, about an haour and ahalf away, so no help from him. As with most electronics, I have to learn it myself.
Joy, Pong is a early version of video games. I never had played it but I'm sure Jim could elaborate.
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Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group
Books mentioned in this topic
Company Aytch; or, A Side Show of the Big Show: A Classic Memoir of the Civil War (other topics)Company Aytch; or, A Side Show of the Big Show: A Classic Memoir of the Civil War (other topics)
The Postman Always Rings Twice (other topics)
Mildred Pierce (other topics)
Double Indemnity (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Sam R. Watkins (other topics)Lawrence Sanders (other topics)
Henning Mankell (other topics)
Jonathan Ames (other topics)
Michael Chabon (other topics)
More...
I feel sorry for Charlie, he's obviously got problems. Maybe he's appealling for help in the only way he knows how. I hope he gets help for his problems soon.