Tag Television

Some Notes on a Saturday

robertjames1971

How long does a modern TV last? This morning Jen started thinking about a new TV. We don’t need a new TV, I said. When did we buy our current living room TV, she asked. Off to the blog I go!

The blog holds all the answers. The new TV was purchased on September 28, 2014. Just shy of six years ago. The blog is wise. The blog knows.

So then we asked how long do TVs tend to last these days? Off to Google Jen goes! 5-7 years. Well, that settles it then. Conspicuous Consumerism dictates that we need a new TV. We’re going to hold off until Christmas… I think. We agreed to that, but Jen is hovering around BestBuy.com which means maybe she won’t be able to wait.

Second Saturday note: UPS again… oh boy. Just when I came to grips with the fact that I was going to have to file a claim with GuitarCenter.com over the amplifier that will never be shipped, UPS updated the tracking number to say that once again (take three) it is on a truck and out for delivery. The estimated delivery date/time is today by 9:00PM. I’m taking bets on what time this afternoon they change that date to Monday. Anyone?

The third Saturday note is the only actually important one. There is a story suggesting that Russia paid bounties to the Taliban for killing American soldiers. It is also being said that trump knew about it and did nothing.

I don’t know if any of it’s true. I’ve only seen it on Twitter. I haven’t read any of the source articles. I don’t know if it is true or not. I just know this:

Marvel Crossover

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When Marvel’s Agents of Shield first premiered the kids used to chant the name of the show when a new episode was available to watch.

Agents of Shield!
Agents of Shield!
Agents of Shield!

After a season or two they got tired of it and stopped watching it. I didn’t. I’ve stuck with it all the way through.

Now that the show has begun it’s last season I should have expected them to throw in easter eggs like they were going out of style. This week’s episode has a good one. No spoilers, but let’s just say that there is a reference made to the show Agent Carter.

It was a nice touch, but it also pissed me off a bit. We watched both shows and I think that Agent Carter might have been the better of the two. That pretty much guaranteed it was going to get cancelled, and it was after two seasons.

It’s available on Disney Plus. I’m one episode in.

Quarantine TV

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Quaranvision…
Quarantv…

I guess I don’t have a good pun for a name. Oh well.

The binge watching continues. My step son saw a subscription deal for HBO Max and signed up, even though he hasn’t worked a day in almost three months. We put an end to that and took over the monthly payments.

So now on top of Netflix and Hulu and Amazon Prime we have HBO.

Harry, Jen, and I are working our way through Silicon Valley. I am correcting a mistake I made when Game of Thrones ended. I had a deal with Jen that I would cancel HBO when Game of Thrones was finished, and I did. Unfortunately I forgot to finish the second season of Westworld before I did. I don’t know where I left off so I started season two from the beginning.

Breaking Bad is back in the picture (pun intended). I tried to watch it once and got a few episodes into season two. Bellana was recently binging the crap out of it at world record pace. When she finished I felt inspired to give it another go. I found where I left off and started watching. After a few episodes Jen said she wanted to watch too so we started from the beginning. the last season two episode I watched was the first to have Kristen Ritter in it, so I had to start season one of Jessica Jones too.

As for current broadcast shows, there are only two and I’m getting them both from Hulu. What We Do in the Shadows is hysterical. Also, the final season of Agents of Shield started two weeks ago. So far it’s really good.

And that is the state of the quarantine TV binge watching nation. YippeeSkippee.

May the 4th

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I’ve always thought the idea of a Star Wars day based on a really lame pun was kinda… dumb.  This year is a little different.  This year May the 4th gives us the final episode of The Clone Wars TV series.  The last Star Wars project that George Lucas worked on has now ended.

I don’t remember the whole back story.  The show ran for six years on… Cartoon Network?  I think?  It was canceled with a major story line left hanging.  I can’t remember if it was the network that shut it down or Lucasfilm itself, but I knew the seventh season was written and ready to go when the show stopped.

Season seven has now been released on Disney+.  The first few episodes were the normal sort of storyline where a Jedi is working with a squad of clone troopers.  Next they picked up the unfinished story line from season six for a few episodes.  All of those were decent enough, but nothing to write home about.

The final four episodes, including the finale which was released today, are almost like a separate story.  They do pick up where the previous arc left off, but instead of just running a new story they actually mirror Revenge of the Sith.  There is one scene from the movie that is reproduced in the show from a different point of view, and some actual sound is used as well.  Also, spoiler free, they are just fantastic.  Go watch them.  So good.

Happy Star Wars Day, indeed.

Well… given that it’s the end of the Clone Wars, maybe not happy per se.  You know what I mean.

Quaran-TV-ine

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Jen and I have been watching Travel Man with Richard Ayoade who is ridiculously funny.

Jen and Harry have been watching The Great British Baking Show which includes Noel Fielding who is so funny it’s nuts.

I have been watching What We Do in the Shadows which stars Matt Berry who might be the funniest person ever.

What do all three of these people have in common?  They were all on The IT Crowd.  Off to Netflix I go!

It Feels Like Quarantine

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Today is the first day since this all started where it feels like we’re quarantined, and the introvert in me is kinda pleased.

We’ve spent most of the day just hanging around and doing our own thing.  Harry’s playing Minecraft, Bellana’s doing logic puzzles, Jen’s been tweaking her computer setup, and I’m on my laptop alternating between mixing RPM music (three songs in the can, babie!) and trying to find a new TV show to binge.  There’s Lock and Key, Altered Carbon, You, Brews Brothers, and a rewatch of The Walking Dead.  I also thought about starting Smallville from the beginning, but I just couldn’t do it.  Sadly for originality, TWD is kinda in the lead at the moment.  Oh well.

We had a Zoom with Jen’s folks earlier.  We’re having another one with my siblings and their families.  I thought about making some Tewksbury Tweets today (if you don’t know what they are then you are unworthy and should suffer an eternity of wondering about it) but Jen was working on lunch and I would have been stepping on her toes.  Maybe after dinner I might look into it again.  Probably not.  Not tomorrow either, as Jen is going to cook an Easter dinner for us.  She’s… what’s the word I’m looking for here… starts with an A, I think… Amazing!  Yeah, that’s the word!  She’s amazing!

I still need to take my photo-a-day picture today.  Don’t forget about that, dumb ass.

Random Boring Quarantinie Thoughts

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Three weeks down… still going… no end in sight.

It’s okay.

I’m all caught up on the three CW DC Comics shows that I’m still in to.  I finished Bojack Horseman, Picard, and Discovery.  Now what?  I watched the first five episodes of Altered Carbon something like a year or more ago.  I just started episode six… if I can remember what’s going on I’ll try to run with it… I don’t have a lot of optimism on that.  I want to watch Lock and Key too.  You is also out there unfinished.  I don’t know.  Part of me wants to just do a full Walking Dead rewatch.  I don’t know.

Over the last year or so I have sort of rediscovered King Crimson.  Big time.  Listening to the 1981-1984 line up is making me think… is it time to start playing with guitar synthesizers?  Back then you needed to buy a whole new guitar to do that.  Later you could do it with just a new pick up.  Now you can do it with pedals alone.  I’ve been watching demos.  It’s a major rabbit hole.  I don’t really want to go there.  I mean, Albert King never used a guitar synthesizer, right?  I don’t know.

The weather has been shitty for a week.  Rain rain go away and all that shit.  April showers bring May showers and everything.  Next week we might hit the 60’s.  That would be nice.  I very much want to go outside, even if it’s just to sit on the patio.  If we’re all going to be stuck at home for… ever… then I want the weather to be nice enough for me to take my conference calls outside.  I want to cook on the grill… at least until it runs out of propane.  Not sure how we’ll replace that.  Gas stations are essential, right?

I’m gonna play some guitar today, I think.  It’s not much, but it helps.

The kids are at their father’s this weekend.  I wish they were here.  All of this crap is somehow easier to deal with when all four of us are together.  It’s easier to worry about how they are holding up when I can actually see them.

I got them mean old quarantine blues.

The Stir Crazy Files – Episode 12

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I was just watching TV and some commercials came on.  One was for some diaper brand and the background music was a song that Lizardfish covers.  I tried to play along but it was only 30 seconds long and I didn’t get my guitar case open in time.

I think I need a band practice.

The next commercial used a David Bowie song.  I don’t know if it was the original version or a cover/sound alike deal but if it was the original it means I just heard Robert Fripp in a television commercial.  It made me kinda throw up in my mouth a little bit.    There was a lawsuit recently where the Bowie estate tried to remove Fripp’s name from the rights to the song.  I wonder if this is the reason, or just a result.

One last thing about TV commercials.  I am getting a little sick (furious) over companies trying to market to the quarantine.  Burger King… really?  A tax prep company that made their add look like it was shot on a web cam?  They are so the same as us, right?  I guess all that federal bailout money gives them all the money they’ll ever need to use people dying as a marketing plan, am I right or am I right?

The Stir Crazy Files – Episode 7

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It’s been a week and a half, can I get used to this already?  Come on, this is stupid.

My normal-life telecommuting day is Thursday.  New episodes of Star Trek Picard come out on Thursdays.

A few minutes ago I was shaving… why?  I don’t know.  As I was shaving I thought to my idiot self, I’m working from home today so there is a new Star Trek Picard to watch before work.  Sweet!

Wrong.

It’s Wednesday.  It’s my eighth consecutive telecommuting day.  Why the hell can’t I stop thinking every single effing day is Thursday?  Brain, would you get on this please?  I’m tired of being disappointed over no new Picard every single solitary day!  Enough already!

And what the hell am I gonna do when Picard is over?  I should have three more weeks of The Walking Dead followed by the premier of the new spin off.  Wrong.  It’s two more weeks and then nothing.  The season finale of The Walking Dead isn’t finished and it won’t be until after this all clears up.  It has been delayed indefinitely.  The new series is also still in post production so they are pushing that off indefinitely too.  Same with (at least some) of the CW DC Comics shows.  The final episodes are being delayed until it’s all over.  Bloody hell!

That’s all right though, our schmuck of a president say’s all of the restrictions will be lifted by Easter.  He said it would be so great to see all of the churches full.  When I heard that I realized what his goal was.  He doesn’t want to be remembered as a nazi.  He wants to be remembered as a great nazi.  Therefore he is going to arrange for the death of millions of Americans.  He’s going to go down in history as the first great mass murderer of the 21st century.  Why should hitler have all the fun, right?

Our president is evil.  He’s going out of his way to demonstrate it each and every day.

Okay, so this goofy post about feeling stir crazy got a little heavy right there.  It’s okay.  It needed to be said.

British Actors

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There are only like 10 British actors at any given time. I think, at least.

We are spending some of our social distance time watching Downton Abby. It good. I mean, the world was obsessed with it for a reason.

It’s confirmed my suspicion that, while television in the UK can be excellent, they all have the same cast.

So far Downton Abby has had Ygritte and Ser Jorah “Sir Friendzone” Mormont from Game of Thrones, and both Daredevil and Legion from the Marvel TV universe. I expect at some point we will see the cast of Absolutely Fabulous and Monty Python’s Flying Circus as well.

On a side note, I saw one scene where Rose Leslie, aka Ygritte, was standing in a crowd of people and I thought to myself, gee Robert… wasn’t she was taller than that? That’s when I remembered her real life husband, Kit Harrington, aka Jon Snow, aka you know nothing, is supposed to be tiny in person. I guess I thought she was tall because next to him she looks like some kind of comic book rendition of an Amazon warrior or something.

And that, kids, is the ridiculously tall guy making a short joke while stressing out over social distancing. You’re welcome.