davidh777

In case anyone is on VUDU, there are a number of documentaries.

JOE29

Ok. Thanks. I thought it might be cause it wasn't a military, war picture.
I'll remove that part of my comment.

shadokitty

I finished the BBC Documentary series, Africa yesterday, and moved on to finish Season 5 of Ancient Aliens. I have one episode left in that season. I also finished The Life Of Birds a few days ago. I keep forgetting to mail it back, as I’ve been always running around before going to town lately. When I mail it in, the next Netflix DVD will start the original Carl Sagan hosted, Cosmos .

BobO'Link

^You mentioning Africa caused me to pull out my new(ish - purchased the DVD over a year ago, never made time for it, upgraded it to BR before Christmas) copy and start it

I just finished the episode on the Kalahari. That "starlight" camera they have is simply amazing! What an improvement over "nightvision" lenses! I'd like to see more documentary material filmed with that technology!

Before starting Africa I watched The Hunt. It was quite good and has some amazing footage of a Blue Whale feeding.

I watched Cosmos during its original run. I'd not yet purchased a VHS machine (young married - no money) so had to make sure I was at home when it came on. I remember distinctly that the city was paving the street in front of our house and we lost power half-way through one of the episodes. I purchased a copy of the series on DVD a couple of years ago and greatly enjoyed another viewing. The visual effects technology used dates it a bit but otherwise it's still quite good and, IMHO, far superior to the remake done a few years back. It's one of those rare series for which I've purchased a spare copy.

shadokitty

I plan to make time for The Hunt this month too. I bought the series on Google Play a few months back.

JOE29

Had to suffer through Chicago today. The wife wanted to watch a movie. So I picked one that would be good for the challenge that was acceptable for her. Good sounding DVD though. I was happy with my sound system. Be back to my usual picks after this one.

Moved on to The Viet Nam War- Ken Burns. Fascinating. I taped it off of TV, PBS Station months ago. I don't have the whole series taped just a few different episodes so I can't view the whole series for the challenge.
Fascinating and frightening at the same time. I'll have to get the full DVD set at a later time.

shadokitty

While browsing Netflix, I came across a show that looked interesting, Race Of Life. It's a series about the race to survive in the animal kingdom. I just watched the first two episodes, and have to say that it is indeed an interesting and enjoyable show.

shadokitty

I’ve been working my way through Blue Planet the last few days. I’ve already finished all of the regular episodes, and am just about done with the bonus disc. I only have one episode left on that disc.

shadokitty

Grit has a lot of good movies and television shows that work for this Challenge. I just finished watching a good episode of Zane Grey Theatre, that starred Howard Keel and a young Michael Landon. Keel played a gunman who wanted to retire.

BobO'Link

Today marks the 73rd Anniversary of the start of Operation Overlord. 74 years ago today the Allies began Operation Neptune (aka D-Day), the invasion that would mark the beginning of the end for The Third Reich.

The Battle of Midway was in its 3rd day and would end on June 7th with the sinking of The Yorktown.

davidh777

I should watch something for that.

I finally caught up with Spotlight and made it a "good-guy journalist" double feature with The Post. Coincidentally, John Slattery's character in the first is the son of Tom Hanks' character in the latter. Spotlight seems like the better film, but I liked both.

BobO'Link

I'd love to watch The Longest Day as I have a new(ish) BR of that one. Downer is I don't get home from choir practice until ~7:30, don't usually get to sit down for a movie until 8:00-8:30, and that's a 3 hour movie! I don't know if I'd be able to stay awake long enough.

Maybe I should start Band of Brothers tonight. I should be able to get in the first two episodes, which mostly deal with D-Day.

Doc Moonlight

My Blu-Ray copy of THE GREAT SILENCE arrived yesterday and I watched it last night. Finally a version that does the film justice! The new restoration is great!

shadokitty

I was browsing Google Play on my tablet and noticed something new. At least on the Android version, Google Play has free content listed. Items are either free episodes right on Google Play, or also shown is links to free content on other apps, such as movies and other television shows with free episodes. I just watched a Season 7 episode of Expedition Unknown about the Vikings. An interesting thing to note is that the word Bluetooth actually came from a Viking King. The symbol for it is even a combination of two Nordic runes that spelled out his name.

davidh777

Finally caught up with Dunkirk last night. Not quite what I expected, but good. I guess I was thinking it had less action because last year I watched Their Finest, dealing with the same events from a different (homefront) perspective.

Also bingeing Masters of Sex--I never finished the first season years ago so I started over from the beginning. I love the lead actors.

Man, I started Band of Brothers years ago and never finished, but I'd love to sit down and get to it someday. I'll see if I can fit it in this month.

My choir concerts were last weekend so I'm done with rehearsals till the fall.

BobO'Link

Dunkirk is on my "wishlist" - I'd totally forgotten about it! I need to check and see if the price has hit me sweet spot...

Yes, you need to do that!

I started it again last night (this'll be the 5th viewing). It's a great series. My only complaint is the mix on the BR 5.1 audio track has the music, explosions, gun shots, planes, just about any aural effect play significantly louder than the voices. It's absolutely horrible and forces me to watch with subtitles turned on just to be able to play the aural effects at a reasonable sound level and still know what's being said. I really need to get out my DVD copy and see if there's a stereo option on that one (there's not on the BR) - I don't recall the sound mix being this bad. It's stuff like this that truly makes me dislike multi-channel sound on movies and TV shows.
Congrats! But I find I enjoy rehearsals just about as much as performances. Still... It's nice to have a short break. I'm a Tenor 1 - what part do you normally sing?

JOE29

Just finished up Patton. Took me 3 days to do it. ( had work + O.T.. plus other issues to deal with )
I struggle big time with these epic movies. close to 3 hrs- or more .
There's a lot of them in this category that are 3-4 hours long.
I have to watch them in parts mostly. Wanted to do The Longest Day, of course, on the 6th.
But OT at work stopped that. Going to start another one in a few minutes.. deciding now on which one.

davidh777

Yes, good rehearsals should be enjoyable or you're not doing it right. And I love sight-reading and stuff. But our concerts are pretty intensive, with memorization, choreography, and such, and I also have a lot of administrative work to do, so I'm glad for the break.

Saints be praised for the T1! I'm a B1, which means I've sung a fair amount of T2. I've been in this particular group for many years, but I'm confident that if I decide to try somewhere else, or maybe even add a group in my spare time, I have a much better chance of getting in than a poor soprano or alto.

BobO'Link

Ha! But that holds true for the majority of male ranges. It's always hard to recruit male voices, something I've never understood (but I love to sing so...).

My grandson (almost 15) came in while I was watching the last part of Band of Brothers Episode 2 (I'd fallen asleep on it last night and was picking up where I last remember) and asked what I was watching. I told him, he watched a few minutes, I gave a brief "here's what's happened" and a "But would you rather watch from the beginning? This is a bit over halfway through episode 2 and I absolutely do not mind starting over." I started over. He's very interested in WWI/WWII material and was fascinated by those first 2 episodes. I promised to not watch unless he's here with me. We'll be taking a break from it though - he goes to Band Camp Sunday for a week.

The 2nd episode, which primarily focuses on D-Day and a day or two after, really got his attention. I briefly told him about The Longest Day and he wants to watch that movie as well. Hopefully we'll get it in this month, along with a few other favorites I think he'd enjoy.

shadokitty

I was ready to start a new series, so I decided on the BBC Documentary, Earth: The Biography . It talks a lot about the geology of the Earth, and there is a lot of discussion on global warming. I just binged the first disc, watching all three episodes in one sitting.

davidh777

There's always been a stigma around dudes singing, even though ladies swoon over the stars, and even though you tell them that if they join, they can meet lots of women. Granted a number of male singers may not be interested, but anyway.

My choir has a waiting list of sopranos and altos a mile long, but we can't take them because we have to maintain the balance. That's the challenge when roster composition depends so heavily on physical characteristics.

BobO'Link

That's what I told my son, and then my grandson: "If you want to meet lots of girls, join choir. You'll meet some in band but choir's where it's at!"

My son didn't like the Jr. High choral director so stuck with band. He has a very good voice and will sing but that director just didn't gel for him (she's quite good - I sang under her directing a semi-pro group and had a great time). Even so, I can understand, I had a real "winner" in HS (I'll play some pretty music while you all sing!! - we ran her off in a couple of months and got a real director), but you just push through that... My grandson is in band (plays my trombone ) and has a really nice voice but won't sing in public. I just can't convince him to give it a try. He'll be in 9th grade next year so it's not too late, but I don't see him trying.

davidh777

In elementary school, my kid was in both band (playing clarinet, which I used to play and my wife still plays) and choir (I taught the group for a couple years) but wanted to pick one in middle school. We had some good-natured competition to steer her one way or another but she ended up going with band because it was a full-year class and choir was only half a year, or something like that. She continued with band two years into high school then took a year off from music before returning in her senior year... to choir. And she's continued in choir at college. I think we see who the ultimate victor was here.

(It was also cool that she made the HS advanced choir her first year in the program, but she's a good musician who also plays piano and taught herself guitar.)

JOE29

Having a hard time this week with multiple views. Only been able to watch a few things this week. Very busy with other things. Hopefully I can pick things up a bit in the next few days.
If I can make 30 before this thing ends I'd be happy with that. Anything over that would be a bonus for me.

shadokitty

You don’t need high numbers to do good in this Challenge. Just watch what you can or want and you are as much a ‘winner’ as the next person.

I’m currently working my way through my Blu Ray set of Frozen Planet . Nature documentaries on Blu Ray look absolutely stunning.