Well, yesterday, I watched the Roger Corman Classic Battle Beyond The Stars but that’s not what we’re here to talk about today.
There’s a Superbowl a’brewin. Whether you watch it for the commercials (the first commercial is always for Bud Light and it’s always not funny), for the opportunity to make Ray Lewis jokes (“I heard that Manti Te’o’s girlfriend died because Ray Lewis stabbed her”), or just because you lucked out and got 0-7 and 7-0 as your squares in the office pool (REPRESENT!), today is the day you have been waiting AT LEAST a couple of weeks for.
But maybe you’re Superbowl impervious.
So… what are you reading and/or watching?
I am Superbowl impervious.
I have a few “Portlandia” to catch up on; and if you people aren’t watching “Justified”, well, you should.
I also hear good things about “The Americans”; I recorded the pilot but haven’t watched yet. Maybe tonight.
Reading “The Unwritten” vol. 6.
And listening to “m b v”, duh.
I heard that Manti Te’o’s girlfriend died because Ray Lewis stabbed her. With his antler.
Or maybe Obama because he thought she was a skeet. (No politics!)
It’s been a week. So, just like last week, I have been reading 1491 and watching the first series of Land Girls.
Oooh, I am also reading Between the Gears, which is a nifty college-journal comic done by Natalie Nourigat.
I watched the first episode of Downton Abby this weekend to see what all the buzz was about, and now I think I’m a socialist (no politics).
(They also didn’t believe in the whole Support Our Wounded Warrior Troops thing back then, it seems)
The first episode of Downton Abbey takes place in 1912 with the sinking of the Titanic. WWI is still two years away.
You might have started with the first episode of the second season.
Julie Andrews taught me to start at the very beginning; it’s a very good place to start.
(in a very overly sanitized depiction of European aristocracy)
But really, I liked the premiere episode of DA, exactly because (like I think a lot of people have already noted), it doesn’t take an overly sentimental view of life at the dawn of the 20th century, but it also doesn’t make the characters caricatures either (unlike say, Cameron’s Titanic, like Plinkett pointed out). And it’s not overtly trying to send a message, either.
Is there any downside to skipping ahead to the second season?
The seasons are short enough. Watch them. I was just confused by your WWI line because most of Season II takes place during the War years. Most of Season I is pre-War.
I liked Downton seasons I and II but eventually it became too soapy and IMO too rosy in its depiction of the class system.
Now I realize you are talking about the Boer War and Bates.
And now I realize your statement (‘you might have started..’) was an observation, not a suggestion.
Did some laundry and errands.
Also I just bought a new beer from my favorite brewery:
http://www.dogfish.com/brews-spirits/the-brews/occassional-rarities/olde-school-barleywine.htm
New to me anyway.
I also bought one of their ancient ales that is quite tasty:
http://www.dogfish.com/brews-spirits/the-brews/occasional-rarities/birra-etrusca-bronze.htm
Still deciding if I should watch the superbowl or not. I am not a Football fan but feel some San Francisco fondness for the Niners.
I recently started reading Ghostwritten by David Mitchell. It was recommended by a friend, but I am not sure what it is about yet.
I watched Dragonslayer this afternoon. I am not sure how I never got around to watching it before today.
My son and I watched Under the Red Hood this evening after dinner.
Have recently started watching the violent noire TV show, Banshee. It’s a kick.
Started in on four books: Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore, Lawrence Wright’s Going Clear, Middle Men, and Inventing the Enemy by Umberto Eco.
You wild man, you!