TODAY I WATCHED... (Movies, TV) 2019

The Goldbergs
Schooled
Modern Family

Just watched a kewl documentary on Randy Castillo.

Good Day to Die Hard

Supernatural

Finished up Break Bad and moved on to Better Call Saul. It's great as well! Have watched the first 2 episodes. Tuco!

Scoping out some more episodes of "The Expanse", and late last night I tried out "The Originals".

"Death By Metal" (2016)

A cool documentary examining the life and career of extreme metal pioneer Chuck Schuldiner of Death fame, whose early records put death metal on the map while his later work pushed the boundaries of the genre's often-rigid "rules." Sadly, his battle with an aggressive cancer took his life just as he was poised to make a new breakthrough with his Control Denied project. Commentary by former band mates and associates incl. Gene Hoglan, Rick Rozz, Chris Reifert, Jim Morris and many others is surrounded by lots of vintage live clips and photos. A cool trip down memory lane for Death fans and metal trivia nerds in general.

Black Hawk Down and Widows

The Enemy Within
Blacklist
Blindspot
Seal Team

Wargod60

Austin City Limits with Norah Jones and Angel Olson

I watched the new episodes of The Simpsons and Family Guy tonight.

Required Fields wrote:

I watched the new episodes of The Simpsons and Family Guy tonight.

Same here.

The Walking Dead

James B. wrote:

Just watched a kewl documentary on Randy Castillo.

Where? I would like to see this! I met him on the "No More Tours" tour and he was the nicest of the bunch. Such a down to earth guy he signed my CD.

Finished up Disc 3 of "The Vietnam War".  What a lying sack of sh*t LBJ was.  They talk to a former Green Beret who was there and he says that's what pisses him off most.  It's one thing to make policy mistakes like LBJ's predecessors did but to try to cover it up and lie about it is what makes him angry.

Cool doc on Netflix last night. The Miami Showband Massacre.



It gets a little muddled towards the end as I couldn't determine who was the good guys or the bad guys. Still interesting.

Spider-Man:Into The Spider-Verse (2018)




Origin story for Mile Morales , the Spider-Man of his reality. He ends up teaming up with 5 counter parts from other realities to stop a threat to all realities. Surprisingly good animated film with plenty of easter eggs for comic book fan boys.

tohostudios wrote:

Finished up Disc 3 of "The Vietnam War".  What a lying sack of sh*t LBJ was.  They talk to a former Green Beret who was there and he says that's what pisses him off most.  It's one thing to make policy mistakes like LBJ's predecessors did but to try to cover it up and lie about it is what makes him angry.

You should talk to Manny about some of this stuff. He really knows his shit when it comes to 60's politics and LBJ/JFK in general. Gave me some fresh perspective on LBJ, whom I'm still not a fan of but can see him in a more human light at least.

There's an acclaimed doc on Nam, Hearts and Minds (1974) that I lost sleep over when I first saw it. It left me with a sense of rage and fear.

I do love Burns' material. Just wish I had more time for it.

Started Disc 4 of "The Vietnam War" today.  It opened with a pre-credit interview from Army adviser Sam Wilson.

Quote :

“We are prisoners of our own experience. And many of the things that we learned in WWII were not applicable to the war in Vietnam. We simply thought that we would go in with a sledgehammer, knock things down, clean them up and it would be all over. And it’s very, very difficult to dispel ignorance if you retain arrogance.”

That last sentence speaks volumes and is applicable to life in general.

tohostudios wrote:

Finished up Disc 3 of "The Vietnam War".  What a lying sack of sh*t LBJ was.  They talk to a former Green Beret who was there and he says that's what pisses him off most.  It's one thing to make policy mistakes like LBJ's predecessors did but to try to cover it up and lie about it is what makes him angry.

Its a bit more complicated than LBJ being a lying sack of shit, LBJ like JFK, Eisenhower and Truman believed in the dominion theory, also LBJ inherited a deteriorating situation in Vietnam, keep in mind that South Vietnamese president had been assassinated just a few months before JFK. LBJ had no love for what he called that 'bitch of war'.

Anyway this would be discussion best had over a few beers, wish you cats lived closer.

Oh yeah, it's obviously very complicated and lots of blame to go around across multiple countries and multiple US presidential administrations.  But so far in this doc they've used phrases like "America must not know" or "...to be kept from the public..." a lot more in conjunction with LBJ than the JFK or Eisenhower administrations.  Granted that could be Ken Burns' bias but it sure comes across as LBJ worrying about covering his ass more than others did.

tohostudios wrote:

Oh yeah, it's obviously very complicated and lots of blame to go around across multiple countries and multiple US presidential administrations.  But so far in this doc they've used phrases like "America must not know" or "...to be kept from the public..." a lot more in conjunction with LBJ than the JFK or Eisenhower administrations.  Granted that could be Ken Burns' bias but it sure comes across as LBJ worrying about covering his ass more than others did.

I think there is some truth to it being Ken Burns bias on his part, but if I grow up during that era, I am sure I would share some those same bias but also LBJ looking for political cover. LBJ had just ended segregation with the Civil Rights Act of 1964, passed a Voting Rights Act of 1965, created Headstart, Public Television,  and he was about to put in the first African- American to the Supreme Court, so he purposely down played the cost of the war, because he was afraid the war in South East Asia was about to collide with his domestic agenda.

The doc actually brought that point up; that LBJ was afraid the public would focus more on the war in Vietnam than his domestic agenda.

What I'm finding most interesting about watching this series is that I really have no ax to grind in this at all; some of what I'm learning happened before I was even born and almost all of it happened before I was 10 years old so I don't remember very much about the Vietnam war at all.  That's why I wanted to watch this series; it happened during my lifetime but I knew next to nothing at all about it and I feel like I should. 

So basically I'm watching this as a blank slate, a sponge. The only agenda I brought to the whole subject was the shabby treatment Vietnam vets received upon returning home; that's just plain wrong in my book.  Other than that I really had no opinions whatsoever going in because I have no recollection of any of it.

So any counterpoint you can provide is welcome Manny.

tohostudios wrote:

The doc actually brought that point up; that LBJ was afraid the public would focus more on the war in Vietnam than his domestic agenda.

What I'm finding most interesting about watching this series is that I really have no ax to grind in this at all; some of what I'm learning happened before I was even born and almost all of it happened before I was 10 years old so I don't remember very much about the Vietnam war at all.  That's why I wanted to watch this series; it happened during my lifetime but I knew next to nothing at all about it and I feel like I should. 

So basically I'm watching this as a blank slate, a sponge. The only agenda I brought to the whole subject was the shabby treatment Vietnam vets received upon returning home; that's just plain wrong in my book.  Other than that I really had no opinions whatsoever going in because I have no recollection of any of it.

So any counterpoint you can provide is welcome Manny.

I did not think you had any axe to grind, and personally I was moved by the documentary, because it gave you a point of view of some of the politics of the time, but also it focused on the solider's stories. I found those stories moving, admired their bravery and made me wonder what the whole point of that damn war was.

Yeah so far that's my biggest takeaway from this.  The whole way the US got involved was basically a big CF.  Mistakes in foreign policy, Cold War/Communist paranoia, bad intel...each mistake just compounded previous ones until the US was in too deep to get out. But what was the point?  There was none.

And I still blame France.  If they had just given up the idea of global colonization a decade before they did, none of this would have happened.