How did you like that movie / TV show / book?

[GSGregg]

Ali McGraw...oh, yeah. 'Love is never having to say, "Gawd, I hate Scotch!" '

 

[GSGregg]

EDIT to post #574: Person Of Interest is on back-to-back NIGHTS---NOT back-to-back Episodes. With the time difference, you'll have noticed that already.....

Damn, again!

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

well, this is sad...

after 31 years, the PRI radio show "whad'ya know?" is ending at the end of the month. it was basically a groucho marx-style quiz show, with the host michael feldman playfully interacting with each week's audience. it also directly inspired competitor NPR's quiz show "wait wait don't tell me."

fortunately, the show archives are available for free going back to 2006. that's some juicy goodness that has gotten me through many a side activity, such as tediously updating my entire MAME collection.

i must say it's a bit annoying that a lively, creative, interactive show -- one with routinely fascinating radio interviews and excellent live jazz music -- is being cancelled, whilst a higher profile show such as "prairie home companion" lumbers on, still led by its ever grumpy, self-important host... doing variations of the same show they first did decades ago. :/

 

[LeeVanCleef]

Actually, I think the Prairie Home Companions are all reruns now... I think. I know Garrison said he was going to retire. Fortunately, he kept The Writer's Almanac going. Damn, I listened to this about every day for 15 years on my way to work! Prairie Home Companion has never failed to bore the crap out of me.

http://writersalmanac.org/

I was a big WDYK fan during its '90s heyday. I even had one weird out-of-body experience driving around Wichita and listening to the episode that was being broadcast live from Wichita's own Century II auditorium! (I probably would have gotten tickets for it if I really thought I would have been awake at 9AM on a Saturday morning. It was a freak occurrence). I haven't listened to the show since Jim passed on. It just wouldn't be the same. 34 years is an amazingly healthy run!

 

[LeeVanCleef]

The Cool Kid trophy goes, I think, to CBS. Little tag-team matches like Cannon and the Barnaby Jones spinoff, Jag and its NCIS spinoff (thirteen years plus two additional current series) CSI (fifteen years, concurrent with ten for David Caruso's Miami and nine for Gary Senise's New York)---and don't discount Magnum P.I. and Simon & Simon, which ran for eight seasons each---and of course, Person Of Interest (wink wink, nudge, nudge).

Gregg, I think what you wrote proves, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that CBS is not cool! istoles: Aw, who am I to talk? I don't think there's a single episode of L&O Prime that I saw only once over its 20-year run. Except the very last two or three. I think I was going through the 7 stages of grief at the time over its imminent demise.
Hey, you forgot Gunsmoke, which was on CBS for exactly one millennium. I remember my grandma used to watch that every Monday night. That hour long show seemed to drag on for an eternity.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

Actually, I think the Prairie Home Companions are all reruns now... I think. I know Garrison said he was going to retire. Fortunately, he kept The Writer's Almanac going. Damn, I listened to this about every day for 15 years on my way to work! Prairie Home Companion has never failed to bore the crap out of me.

http://writersalmanac.org/

i just checked, and it's still running. garrison is going to retire in the fall, and chris thile will take over hosting duties. maybe that will freshen things up. maybe!

prairie dog companion was boring at times, but was something charmingly unlike anything i'd heard before. maybe "grand ol' opry" and "bob and ray" had some similarities, i don't know. my biggest problem is that once they'd 'perfected' the format (back in the 80's i think) it pretty much stopped evolving.

I was a big WDYK fan during its '90s heyday. I even had one weird out-of-body experience driving around Wichita and listening to the episode that was being broadcast live from Wichita's own Century II auditorium! (I probably would have gotten tickets for it if I really thought I would have been awake at 9AM on a Saturday morning. It was a freak occurrence). I haven't listened to the show since Jim passed on. It just wouldn't be the same. 34 years is an amazingly healthy run!

it really is. also, i'm curious about how it differed across the decades, since i only started listening full-time around the early aughts. i hope those older tapes can be digitised or something.

jim was definitely a big loss. the woman who first replaced him was pretty grating to listen to, and naturally couldn't come near to replacing any of his iconic touches. he was sort of stern and gentle, warm and professional all at the same time. another big loss on the podcasts is that a few years ago they started cutting out the jazz performances for some reason. a real shame, since the in-house band of thulin and hammond were generally more appealing than the actual musical guests.

 

[LeeVanCleef]

Ah! "Podcasts"! That's the reason right there! Broadcast rights to the songs the band plays when the show actually airs would be easy to afford. In fact, I want to think it's even cheaper if it's a live performance. I'm not positive on that last part, but it sure sounds like something I learned in "radio school" (or "college", as it's also known). But a podcast can be played over and over again, and that can get expensive. Especially if congress is fucking podcasters the way they're fucking internet radio stations. At least that would be my best guess.
Porky Humps O'Banion hasn't evolved since the first episode! And there is this... I'm a lousy singer, but I sing better than Gary. Difference is, I never made people listen to me sing on the radio! I don't think... well, not that much, at least! That being said, I really do love him on Writer's Almanac! When I was a copywriter, I'd usually hit it on my local station right before I pulled up to work. A very tranquil way to start the day. And some good poems!

 

[LeeVanCleef]

I think I stopped listening in the early aughts. Mostly because of a different schedule, but it did seem to sound like it was running on autopilot... especially Mr. Feldman.But, again, being professionally witty every week for 34 years is a daunting task!
Try giving Wisconsin Public Radio a google. I know they have a Know section of some kind on there. I've never clicked on it, so I don't know what's inside. Maybe a vast archive? Maybe a toy compass?

 

[Coil_Smoke]

btw, the space shuttle challenger did not explode. that part is incorrect.

Is that another "Mandela Effect "? That freaky shit pile is getting pretty deep ..

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

Is that another "Mandela Effect "? That freaky shit pile is getting pretty deep ..

no conspiracy THIS TIME, coily...

the various modules of CHALLENGER ruptured themselves at altitude due to a failed O-ring (or some tech shit i don't precisely understand). there never was an "explosion," altho yes it did RESEMBLE an explosion for media purposes.

the crew were actually ALIVE when their module slammed in to the ocean's surface. some of them were concussed and unconscious at the time, but others, not so much.

it was roughly on par with grissom - white - chaffee.

that's bad. :/

 

[LeeVanCleef]

"With Grissom, White and Chaffee
On a rocket ride to heaven"

Thanks, Nic! I haven't thought of this song in 30 years! Aw, it was pretty good at the time, though. Since they're a KC band, I should explain that the part about "The Hyatt House" was when a poorly constructed walkway at the Kansas City Hyatt House collapsed in 1981, killing a lot of people. Let the monkey go and blame the monkey wrench.
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And this is a seriously good movie about the Challenger disaster. A couple of times every decade, William Hurt reminds me of why I liked him so much in the first place.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2421662/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_14
Hey! Movie and a song! I need to throw in a book! How about this one? I haven't read it yet. It may suck. But I am a completionist!
Wheels Stop: The Tragedies and Triumphs of the Space Shuttle Program, 1986-2011 (Outward Odyssey: A People's History of S): Rick Houston, Jerry Ross: 9780803235342: Amazon.com: Books

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

Let the monkey go and blame the monkey wrench.

haha, that's a good line. then again, i'm highly partial to the word "monkey." :D

wow, so they had hurt playing richard feynman, the famoust physicist? i had no idea he had anything to do with challenger! that looks like a really neat (albeit sorrowful i assume) film.

that book reminds me that an old buddy and one of the biggest math / science nerds in our HS graduated with me in 1984 and promptly embarked on a college career specifically in order to become some kind of scientist at NASA. U. of penn followed by MIT, high-achievements and all that shiz.

and then... challenger. dude had to replan a lot of things, find a new direction to go in, and now he's CEO of a successful tech firm, i believe. apparently a lot wealthier but much less fulfilled in life due to that damnable defective o-ring.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

There is no true form for a Star Trek movie, no single blueprint that can explain the architecture of the best adventures of the Enterprise. I hope that this column series is, in some ways, argument against the modern strain of enjoyment that demands all our branded content fall into some prefabricated cinematic style and narrative strategy: that strain of thinking that praises the karaoke achievements of Star Wars 7 and Jurassic Park 4, the sanctimonious originalism that hails superhero movies for doing something “right†instead of doing something new, the sell-out intellectualism that didn’t get furious just now reading the phrase “branded content.â€

What is a Star Trek movie? In the last few weeks, we have watched a dreamy lithium brain burp about consciousness and pajamas, a whimsical comedy about humanity’s unsteady relationship with the natural world, and a testosteronic action farce about whether God exists...

this was a funny and interesting article i read the other day. i barely remember "undiscovered country," the fact that it had the same director as "wrath of khan," or that it was even... a pretty good movie!
http://www.ew.com/article/2016/06/07/star-trek-vi-undiscovered-country-geekly

 

[LeeVanCleef]

Of course it was good! It was even-numbered! istoles: My favorite line from that movie is when Spock says "There is an old Earth saying: it took Nixon to go to China." You know what's weird? The album with that song on it was released about six months after the Challenger disaster... and no one said a word.Well, partly because they were only a very minor album-rock hit... not exactly Wham!. But can you imagine if someone released a song about Grissom, White and Chaffee dying just six months after a deadly shuttle accident in 2016? Twitter would shit a brick! Or maybe I should say Twitter would schedule that topic for its daily brick-shitting.

 

[GSGregg]

You're right, LVC; I actually forgot Gunsmoke---and I watched it as faithfully as my immediate ancestors during the years after the cast became their own parents.....I mean, Marshal Sam McCloud previously limped for a living, Frank Cannon was denied the TV version of his radio personna due to an immense appetite and its long-term effects, and who would believe that the TV Dillon made his first dollar pretending to be a walking head of lettuce?

Garrison Keillor and his Prairie Dog Schooner or whatever? I've had two friends who were avid listeners; one was an Armenian TV repair shop owner who passed at about 82 or so, and soon afterward a neighbor (and connoisseur of Thai food and Appalachian Mountain Music) who thought I needed some 'exposure' to banjo and fiddle. In neither case did I see the point, having been corrupted by guitar, keyboards, and properly wrestled brass-crafted reed instruments.....

Twenty til eight PM, and 110*F in the house; I think I'll call off the jam.

P.S: Person Of Interest Finale Tomorrow Night!!

 

[LeeVanCleef]

and soon afterward a neighbor (and connoisseur of Thai food and Appalachian Mountain Music) who thought I needed some 'exposure' to banjo and fiddle. In neither case did I see the point, having been corrupted by guitar, keyboards, and properly wrestled brass-crafted reed instruments.....

Yeah, that sounds like the typical PHC fan. Screw POI... they killed off Root! I am sick of everyone killing off Amy Acker! They killed her in Alias, they killed her in Dollhouse, they killed her in Angel. Although Angel only killed her character Fred, while Amy got to stick around and play the demon Illyria... but they killed Fred!
Well, at least Suits isn't killing off Gina Torres, another favorite actress of mine from the Joss Whedon/JJ Abrams stable. I really think Suits is one of the best series on TV right now. It would be hard to say that about 10 years ago before TV started sucking again but right now, Suits on USA is a pretty good bet. It's all about very good-looking people playing lawyers and saying relatively intelligent things. And holy cats but that's a cast of very pretty women. I've been catching up with it on Netflix's red-headed stepchild Amazon Prime. Hey, free movies and they send me toilet paper right to my door free of shipping charges! Ain't the 21st century great?

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

...and soon afterward a neighbor (and connoisseur of Thai food and Appalachian Mountain Music) who thought I needed some 'exposure' to banjo and fiddle.

dang, i'd enjoy having a neighbor like that. it's true they do play some of that stuff on the prairie dog show, but unfortunately plenty of the host covering various songs himself. after 35 years or whatever, he never did get the memo that he's a pretty lousy singer.


man, i don't know about all these shows you cool kids are in to these days. so it's a show about interesting people...?


in any case, i recently learned that penn & teller's "fool us" was picked up for a third season, starting in a couple weeks. that's probably the bulk of what i'll be watching for the next couple months, since i'm trying to learn as much as possible from these guys.

 

[Coil_Smoke]

"Still Alive And Well"

no conspiracy THIS TIME, coily...

the various modules of CHALLENGER ruptured themselves at altitude due to a failed O-ring (or some tech shit i don't precisely understand). there never was an "explosion," altho yes it did RESEMBLE an explosion for media purposes.

the crew were actually ALIVE when their module slammed in to the ocean's surface. some of them were concussed and unconscious at the time, but others, not so much.

it was roughly on par with grissom - white - chaffee.

that's bad. :/

There are conspiracies afoot ...
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PxqhU6nEy6c" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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[StevOz]

I really like the OZ rock take on it myself..

Ratcat - Getting away (from this world) - YouTube

Though I'd say it was a engineering o ring failure, none the less I'd be none to surprised if that seconds after such a failure, with a high octane fuel leak, an explosion did occur...certainly looks that way from most footage.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

Though I'd say it was a engineering o ring failure, none the less I'd be none to surprised if that seconds after such a failure, with a high octane fuel leak, an explosion did occur...certainly looks that way from most footage.

and that's why it's generally mislabeled as an explosion... because that's exactly what it looks like, at least to lay people. but you can get the technical details from the WP entry.

i think the real point of the distinction is how it relates to the astronauts. people just assumed that they were killed when the craft disintegrated, but after recovering the crew capsule, investigators realised that some or all of them were still alive until the capsule slammed in to the ocean.

so that's the horrifying thing. at least with a plane that's going down, you can take some comfort that you might be able to glide to some kind of survivable landing. by comparison, those poor souls had only useless buttons to push while waiting 2-3 minutes to die, all while enduring nasty G-forces.

 

[LeeVanCleef]

A big shout-out to the fine folks who came up with "the Challenger crew is still alive" conspiracy theory. They win today's "Crazier Than a Shithouse Rat" internet award!

 

[LeeVanCleef]

Later, Feldman!

http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/lo...n_29b0d179-0171-5ef2-b870-36e326b48b07.html#1

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

Later, Feldman!

http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/lo...n_29b0d179-0171-5ef2-b870-36e326b48b07.html#1

a month+ ago on reddit, i subscribed to /madison, /wisconsin and maybe /monona or something. my plan was to listen in on the wailing of the greek chorus and join my tears with the rest.

turns out, those assholes never made a peep about whad'yaknow.

we live in angry times... angry times for ike savage, i guess.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

well, i just listened to the last eppie. i thought they'd do a special format and bring in more favorite guests, but it was pretty much just a standard show. probably the most 'special' moment was them starting it off with a jim packard tribute in the form of an opening remarks montage.

...

notmuch.com now redirects to whadyaknow.net, which is a blog of sorts he's been running for the past six years. he's calling it "WYK 2.0"... sounds like he plans to carry on in one form or another.

the annoying thing for me is that i still need to work on my podcast collection, and the original site is gone. here's two show archives, but it's anyone's guess as to how long the MP3's will be available for. soundcloud has some shows too, but they're 4x bigger (200mb) than the usual format. :/
https://web.archive.org/web/20160314025540/http://www.notmuch.com/wyk/shows-by-year
http://wpr.net/webcasting/audioarchives_display.cfm?Code=wyk

 

[LeeVanCleef]

Well, if you're looking for wailing and gnashing of teeth, check in with your local NPR station, because with that and Prickly Hoar Contusion ending on the same 4th of July weekend, someone's just thrown a lit M-80 into their weekend schedule. Kablooey! :flush: