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Movies and TCM

August 26, 2023 at 8:28 am by Claudia

Well, it’s Saturday. The weeks seem to go by so quickly!

The rain has left – there wasn’t that much of it yesterday – and I think we’ll be rain-free until Tuesday.

We love TCM – Turner Classic Movies – but we didn’t have it for a couple of years due to our cable company changing their ‘packages.’ It’s too long a story to tell. I wrote about here on the blog at the time. Since we were streaming a lot of series, especially Nordic Noir, it was okay. But we’ve streamed just about everything we want to stream right now and we found ourselves missing old movies, which are our favorite thing to watch. So we added it to our package.

TCM has been purchased by Warner Brothers/Discovery and the guy who runs it – David Zaslow, a corporate guy through-and-through – recently let go of a lot of TCM’s creative staff. TCM already had a small staff. He was talking about letting it go. TCM has very loyal viewers and they were outraged by the cost-cutting. Stephen Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, and others got involved and basically said, “You can’t mess with this channel. Leave it alone.” I know some staff have been rehired, but how many, I don’t know. I’m still nervous about it’s status, especially when the hosts now have to mention Warner Brothers a lot and even had to mention Shark Week on Discovery. Really?

Zaslow, by the way, spoke at Boston University’s graduation ceremony. I’m proud of those students, just as I was when I worked there – they chanted “Pay the writers!” throughout his speech. He earns millions and he somehow can’t pay the writers and actors what they should be paid.

Now he’s messing with TCM. He has backed off a bit since Spielberg, et al, requested a meeting with him.

In a world where Bravo, which used to be about the arts, now airs The Real Housewives of Whatever, and A & E (Arts and Entertainment) has virtually no more programming about the Arts – we need TCM.

Anyway, August has a daily focus on a certain actor and today it’s Doris Day. I’m watching Jumbo  right now and tonight is one of my favorite movies ever – Pillow Talk.

Don just made me a cup of coffee (even though it’s my turn) so I didn’t have to miss this movie, which has always been a favorite, since I was around 12 or 13. Doris Day, Stephen Boyd, Jimmy Durante, and Martha Raye and a score by Rodgers and Hart – you can’t lose!

Now, he’s taking a walk.

I’ve got a great guy.

Hope you have the happiest of weekends.

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.

 

Filed Under: movies 25 Comments

Sunday Morning

August 14, 2022 at 8:53 am by Claudia

I’ve been engaged in prep work for the two shows I’m coaching. Tomorrow, I start working with Jim and Tuesday is the first day of rehearsal for Jane Eyre. I’ll be watching the read-through via zoom and, later in the day, I’ll work for three hours with some of the actors. Wednesday will be another day of coaching.

Some husband news: Don has revamped his personal music site. Here’s the link. He has listed only four of his songs; the ones he thinks are some of his best. If you’re at all interested, give them a listen. They’re on sale for 99 cents/each.

We watched 13 Lives  last night. Stunningly powerful. It’s directed by Ron Howard and is the true story of the rescue of 12 kids on a Thai soccer team and their coach. They were deep within a cave when monsoons came, flooded the cave, and cut them off. The story of the massive rescue effort, the thousands of volunteers who aided in the rescue, and the British divers and Thai Navy Seals who undertook a rescue that didn’t have a hope in hell is riveting. Brilliantly directed by Howard. Brilliant cinematography. An international cast led by Viggo Mortensen and Colin Farrell.

It’s on Amazon Prime. I cannot recommend it enough. I remember the rescue, but had absolutely no idea about the risky chance they took to get those boys out. We stayed up too late watching it, but it was worth it. I’m still thinking about it today.

I started a new puzzle, my reward for finishing my deductions and clearing the kitchen table!

The light is changing. Autumn is coming. I have mixed feelings about that, but I can’t stop it.

Stay safe.

Happy Sunday.

Filed Under: Don, movies 18 Comments

Stream of Consciousness Sunday

March 27, 2022 at 9:58 am by Claudia

In the category of “Things I no longer need to do” – watching the Oscars.

I’ve watched the Oscars for most of my life and you know what? I’m over them. Besides the fact that I often disagree with the nominations or lack of a nomination, the real point is that comparing performances is entirely subjective. It shouldn’t be a contest. I’ve felt this way for a long time, but I guess now that I’m a crabby senior citizen, I’m actually going to put my money where my mouth is. No more.

I have a real problem with all the ‘contest’ shows out there. Instead of showcasing real talent and skill, every one of these shows is overhyped to the point of ridiculousness. Why does every cooking or decorating show have to involve a contest of some sort? It’s exhausting. It’s even entered the miniature world, and while I understand that introducing audiences to miniatures might be a good thing, it takes our hobby or profession and puts a time limit on it so that the end results are rather slap-dash and not at all representative of what true talent and skill there is out there. There’s one on HGTV and now there’s one in England. Sigh.

Exception: The Great British Bake Off,  which is done in a positive, affirming, and classy manner.

Or there are hyped up ‘reality’ shows that try and make every boring thing that happens a BIG DEAL. See Ice Road Truckers, etc. And the genre called reality television is anything but. It’s generally loosely or even tightly scripted. I am proud to say I have never seen an episode of Survivor (how can you really be ‘surviving’ when there is a crew filming you and Craft Services on hand, per the union, to provide food?) or anything to do with Bachelors, Bachelorettes or the Kardashians.

Anyway, back to the Oscars. I know people love to see what the nominees are wearing and all that sort of thing but that doesn’t tempt me strongly enough to watch it. (But if you love that sort of thing, enjoy!)

I’ve never liked theater reviews or movie reviews because they are subjective – they are one person’s opinion that can make or break a show or movie. And I find I like the Tony Awards, Emmy Awards, and Oscars less and less. If you want to salute the work, then stage a show where you highlight performances of the year. But no ‘Best’ award, because ‘Best’ according to who?

By the way, Don and I used to parody the hyped up reality shows. We’d do some mundane thing around the house and narrate it as if the stakes were incredibly high or we’d speak directly to the camera with something like “I went to the kitchen and I couldn’t find a clean knife. Not one. I walked to the drawer, opened it – there wasn’t a knife in sight. Then I walked to the dishwasher. Maybe there was a knife there? There was, but we didn’t run the dishwasher last night. So it was dirty.” Cue sad face.

Okay, I’ll stop. That’s what is on my mind this morning. I’m sort of all over the place, so let’s call this Claudia’s Stream of Consciousness Sunday.

I’m going to watch Gardener’s World  this afternoon.

Stay safe.

Happy Sunday.

 

Filed Under: movies, television, theater 68 Comments

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Welcome!

I live in a little cottage in the country with my husband. It's a sweet place, sheltered by old trees and surrounded by gardens. The inside is full of the things we love. I love to write, I love my camera, I love creating, I love gardening. My decorating style is eclectic; full of vintage and a bit of whimsy.

I've worked in the theater for more years than I can count. I'm currently a voice, speech, dialect and text coach freelancing on Broadway, off Broadway, and in regional theater.

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