NFL Films Theme song - Classic Battle

Some great old images along with this theme song - Terry Bradshaw with hiar (well, a little).

NFL Theme Song

In case you are getting antsy for the game, at least you cn listen to the NFL theme song.

MG Student Competes in Cable Contest - You Vote

Andy Hagen of the Monona/MG community cable sent this message:

Hello Everyone,

Connor Stevens, one of my students/employees from the Cable Department is one of five finalists for the Fox 47 MSG2TEENS video contest. He produced a 30 second commercial to warn other kids about texting and driving. You can watch all of the finalists and vote for your favorite at this website:

http://www.fox47.com/sections/contests/msg2teens/

If his video wins, the commercial will air on Fox 47 early next year, Connor gets a new laptop, AND the school district gets $2,500! If you have a few minutes, please watch his video, and vote. Connors is number 3.

Thank you,

Andy

I am not suggesting that you cram the ballot box, but after you watch you won't hesitate to vote for Connor. Watch all five. It takes about 3 minutes and they are all really well done.

TV Stuff: Post-War England, War in the Pacific, and the War on New Orleans

There are several excellent series running on TV right now. Of course, I only mention it now that two of the three series are all about to conclude.



The first - and now concluded - series was the surprise (to me anyway) sixth season of Foyle's War. Foyle's War was a detective series set in Hastings, England during World War Two. I had thought it was finished when the war ended, but they decided to carry on. I previously posted about the series (second best tv show ever). Michael Kitchen is great, but the show struggles not so much because the war is over, but because they broke up the old team of DCS Foyle, his sergeant Milner, and his driver Sam.


Still, the series is not to be missed (now that you've missed it, look for it on DVD). Hokey smokes, Bullwinkle, you can watch the sixth season's episodes online for a limited time. See Foyle's War Now

Foyle's War was shown in the US on PBS's Masterpiece Mystery. Miss Marple takes over tonight.

The other two series are on HBO: Treme and Pacific. I have more ambivalence toward these shows. Treme is set in the eponymous New Orleans neighborhood, post-Katrina. Treme features generous helpings of jazz (New Orleans style) and mouth-watering food (one of the main characters owns a small struggling upscale restaurant. I find some of the characters to be highly annoying, but find I can speed through those parts thanks to TIVO. And New Orleans post-Katrina is an ongoing catastrophe; worth remembering, but it can be depressing. On the other hand, the show also features excellent writing (David Simon of the Wire) and acting (including a couple from the Wire - the best show ever).

Pacific is the attempt by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg to do for the Pacific theater of WWII what they did in Band of Brothers for the American war in Europe. The story of that war hasn't been told as often or as well as the European war (The Longest Day, A Bridge Too Far, and Saving Private Ryan are three from Europe that immediately come to mind).

The ten episode show is excellent in many ways with the same high production values as BOB. The story follows several different men (based on memoirs they wrote of their experience including the outstanding With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa by E. B. Sledge. As I watched the series, it occurred to me that it is the nature of the subject matter that has caused the story of the Pacific theater to be under told.

The war in the Pacific was just unrelentingly grim and terrifying with similarly persistent extreme physical discomfort, not to mention fighting an extremely experienced and determined enemy (OK, determined is a bit of an understatement). To their credit, the show's writers and producers did not shy away from some very disgusting behavior by Americans brutalized by their war (cutting out gold teeth of dead Japanese soldiers - and even one still living Japanese soldier. It makes for uncomfortable viewing and having read Sledge's book, I knew it happened. But more than that, the Pacific war was just about as godawful an experience as anyone could imagine.


In fact, it was beyond the imagination. Oppressive heat and humidity, bugs, bad water, mud, rain, nothing familiar and take-no-prisoners fighting. War is hell, but this war was one or two rungs worse than anything Dante cooked up. And there's very little to offset it - there's nothing remotely equivalent to the liberation of Paris.

One episode featured the charming whirlwind romance and wedding of Medal of Honor winner John Basilone. Basilone performed truly heroic deeds at Guadalcanal and was sent home to sell war bonds. Tiring of that work, he talked his way back into action. It is at this point that the courtship and wedding take place. In the next scene, Basilone again performs heroically at Iwo Jima - and then is gunned down, dead. By the sixth or seventh episode it became a struggle to watch (once I get started on an episode, the excellence of the production draws me.).
 

“What a wonderful modern age we live in!”

- So said Jack Aubrey (he - or rather Patrick O'Brian - was paraphrasing someone else, but I can't find the original quote.)

The world of watching movies at home is moving toward direct download. If you subscribe to Netflix ® Official Site, you can already download and instantly watch about 12,000 movies (out of their total inventory of over 100,000). If you have the right gizmos, you can watch them your TV.

(Netflix lists some specific devices you can use to watch these movies instantly:
http://www.netflix.com/NetflixReadyDevicesList?lnkce=nrd-l&trkid=425738&lnkctr=nrd-l-m)

Microsoft's XBox is one of the listed devices. However, I also learned yesterday that with some inexpensive software called PlayOn, you can use your PS3 (PlayStation.com - Home) to watch Netflix movies on your TV.

I tried and it works. The download, install, and setup were easy and trouble-free. It did take an hour or so, but mainly because I first updated the PS3 software. (Note: Your PS3 must be connected to the Internet and to your PC.)

Get the software here: Netflix on PlayStation 3

The software also allows you to watch Hulu, YouTube, CBS, CNN, and ESPN for free and Amazon Video On Demand (not for free). (Not sure yet what the deal is with ESPN, CBS, or CNN - I mean who cares, I can already watch them on plain-old-TV.)

Netflix may also be adding PS3 to its lineup: Kotaku - Netflix Interested In The PS3 - NetFlix

But now you don't have to wait.

Second Best TV Show Ever

I think I have mentioned that HBO: The Wire is the best TV show ever (after watching a few episodes of Gunsmoke on TV Land I find that memory has played tricks as to the quality of that classic).

I have also mentioned my Anglophile fondness for BBC detective series. Absolutely Nothing Happening. I recently came across a phenomenally good series called Foyle's War. The show stars Michael Kitchen as Detective Chief Superintendent (DCS) Christopher Foyle, a frustrated detective in the backwater of Hastings who would rather be serving more directly in the war effort. Things have been quiet in Hastings for the past millennium since the Invasion of England, 1066.

Fortunately for us, the British government turns him down and he goes about solving murders in East Essex on the southeast coast. His driver is a young woman with the unlikely name of Sam Stewart played an actress with the even more unlikely name of Honeysuckle Weeks. His sergeant is a vet who lost his leg in Norway.

Foyle's demeanor and doggedly persistent approach to solving crimes is one attraction. The back story of England during the war and the meticulous attention to detail sets the series apart.

Start here Foyle's war. [Episode 1], The German woman (DVD) [videorecording] / to reserve a copy on LinkCat.

More:

Masterpiece Foyle's War PBS

MYSTERY! Foyle's War

Absolutely Nothing Happening

No, I have not quit blogging, but as far as I can tell, absolutely nothing has happened in Monona in about two weeks. Enjoy.

So, I've been watching British TV shows on DVD's that I borrowed from the Monona public library. Catalogue: LinkCat

MYSTERY! The Inspector Lynley Mysteries are based on novels by Elizabeth George.
Nathaniel Parker and Sharon Small star. (DVD on LinkCat: Inspector Lynley mysteries. A great deliverance (DVD) [videorecording] /).

"House of Cards" (1990) is a mini-series of British political intrigue. Francis Urquhart will stop at nothing - nothing - to become the Prime Minister. His wife is the only person more coldly calculating than F.U. as he is called by one and all. According to Wikipedia: "The House of Cards trilogy was ranked 84th in the British Film Institute list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes." Stars Ian Richardson.

Masterpiece Prime Suspect PBS is British crime series starring Helen Mirren. Mirren heads a group of detectives in London. Each shows focuses one crime. The show takes on racial and gender issues and the characters are far from saints. Prime suspect. 1 (DVD) [videorecording] /

Planet Earth

Fire up the TIVO or settle in a for a marathon this Sunday starting at 8 a.m. as the Discovery Channel broadcasts the amazing series 'Planet Earth'. Narrated by Sigourney Weaver the series features flat-out amazing eye-popping photography.

Watching the mating dance of the Blue Bird of Paradise alone is, I don't know, freakishly fascinating, beautiful, but makes you scratch your head at the same time. Intelligent Design? Try 'jester, wise-guy, screwing-with-us design'.

Fungus that kills ants and then grow bizarre tentacles out of its remains. A brown cloud of smoke arising from the middle of Lake Malawi that turns out to be millions (billions?) of flies all hatching at the same time. A gang of chimps launching an organized attack on their neighbors in order to take their fig tree. You really have to see it to believe it.