Anyone been watching the final season of Curb Your Enthusiasm? The second episode was a classic.
Anyone been watching the final season of Curb Your Enthusiasm? The second episode was a classic.
<sig out of order>
I am, although due to superbowl I still haven't watched the second episode yet. I did enjoy the first though. Feels very classic larry.Originally Posted by Plasmatopia
Please don't ask questions, just use google.
Never let good music get in the way of making a profit.
I'm only here to reglaze my bathtub.
We are just beginning Season 1. It might take us awhile to get there.
RE: True Detective. There's a lot of call backs to the first episode. This breaks it down: https://nerdist.com/article/what-tru...t-really-mean/
I have three quibbles about how the show treats winter. Given the weather these people are supposedly in, they aren't dressing or acting right, not for the subzero shit they are supposed to be experiencing. Generally, if you're going from a vehicle into a building, you can leave your coat open, ignore the need for a toque or a mask. You're going from one warm area to another. BUT if you are working outside, especially with windchills past minus ten or twenty, if you don't cover EVERYTHING you're risking frostbite. Navarro and Annie, out of the ice, that was just nuts. Cover any exposed skin, that's a hard and fast rule. I get that you don't want to cover the actor's faces but it makes me cringe watching it. Second, it's always snowing in Ennis but there's no goddamn accumulation. They are right on the sea. They should be getting freaking hammered with snow, not just the half a foot or so we've seen. And last, you don't drive into a blizzard that has almost zero visibility like you're flying down a snow free interstate. YOU CRAWL because you can't see anything but the shoulder of the robe and your lights do next to nothing. Damn. Hollywood always gets this shit wrong.
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
^ Haven't seen the show, but everything you're saying is right in a general sense.
Yeah, I've noticed these things too. What are ya gonna do? Hollywood....
re: CYE It took me a bit to get into the show when I first started watching it years ago. A couple of times I just felt I was cringing so much I had to take a break from it.
<sig out of order>
I've been watching a series on WWII called The World at War. Released in 1973, this 26-part, British-produced series is one of the most comprehensive World War II documentaries ever made. Narrated by Oscar-winner Laurence Olivier, the series focuses on 15 of the war’s most significant military campaigns as well as the conflict’s profound impact on the individuals enduring its horrors. So far I've found the first four/five episodes on YT.
Where is this available?
I've been watching it off YT (Youtube). Here's the first episode. I'm up to the fifth episode, which comes from a different poster (after the first three episodes from the same poster), but just do a search ie. The World At War, episode 4, then 5, etc:
There's another good doc on WWII I'd eventually like to watch called World War II in HD, with voiceover work by Gary Sinise. The producers sourced first-hand stories from journalists, medics and soldiers, and used voice overs by professional actors to bring them to life. You can find it over at Amazon or actually their free channel called FreeVee.
I loved World At War as a kid. Victory At Sea was another good one. Theres a few colorized WW2 series on Netflix at the moment. Some excellent footage , really heightens the impact in color.
IMO , there would have been a completely different outcome if Hitler wasn't out of his mind and constantly meddling with strategy. Bad for Axis , good for us.
Agree, both "World At War" and "Victory At Sea" were both great documentaries. My father even owned the "Victory At Sea" soundtrack on vinyl when I was a kid.
Yup, WWII could have had a very different outcome had Hitler played his cards differently.
There's a incident in the first episode of The World at War, where Hitler had already won over the German people somewhat by restoring the ecomomy. This happens around the middle of the first episode, but then takes some diplomats or some such (I can't remember their titles--it was about six men) and has them shot. No jury, or anything. I wondered if that was kept secret from the public tho I can't imagine how--surely someone would have to know they were missing. But I wondered if the public knew about that and just turned a blind eye to it? I find that bizarre.
Anyone mention the new season began with Yes?
They turned a blind eye toward the concentration and extermination camps.
There's old footage of when a US general ordered the townspeople outside Buchenwald to tour the camp. It's kind of harrowing and it's obvious the people didn't know what was actually happening there. What made them culpable isn't that they knew and ignored it, it's that they didn't care to know, because it didn't affect them.
To answer your question, I doubt they knew. The Gestapo, who I'm sure was responsible, was good at hiding things. But the civilians also didn't care. As long as they were comfortable as part of the "chosen race", their Führer could do no wrong. Don't forget that civilians participated in Kristallnacht.
“The red zone is for immediate loading and unloading of passengers only. There is no stopping in the white zone."
The younger me devoured all things WWII . It was on a huge almost fictional scale , the conflict for all the marbles. I was fascinated by the breakdowns of the war strategies , that major turning points were decided by gambles or just plain luck. What always was a puzzle , how could the population of a major industrialized educated nation follow an obviously power mad lunatic down the toilet? Its less of a puzzle these days.
On another note , late to the party as usual , I reentered Resident Alien. I watched 1 or 2 episodes when it came out but for some reason dropped it. But this time I'm halfway through the first season and enjoying it. Wife likes it to.
My coworker's father was part of a group of soldiers who were tasked with scouring the landscape as WWII was winding down looking for Nazis who were hiding out. He was involved with going into one concentration camp and witnessed US soldiers having to be restrained by their commanding officers from lining up the German guards and executing them as they were so disgusted by what they saw. They dragged local townspeople to the camp and made them bury the dead (Jewish) prisoners since they had looked the other way and there was no way they could not have known what was going on.
Another story I remember him telling was his father coming across a couple guys with a huge pile of land mines and they were systematically diffusing them all. They stopped a while and got trained on how to diffuse land mines and helped out for a while. At some point they left and they didn't get very far before before they heard a huge explosion. They ran back and found a huge crater where the guys diffusing the mines had been.
<sig out of order>
My dad was a merchant marine but he never discussed WWII.
What can this strange device be? When I touch it, it brings forth a sound (2112)
Was watching episode 5 of Loudermilk on Netflix last night. It's a fairly funny story of a curmudgeony guy who is a counselor for alcoholics and abusers of all types. He used to be a writer for the music industry and wrote a book listing the 100 songs he would commit suicide to. So he bought a cheap record player for a girl he wanted to impress and gave her a record to play. This woman then went to the record store and bought a bunch of albums for herself.
As you can guess, most of them were on his "worst songs" list. She defended herself saying "even this one" and he replies, "that's an OK record, but it's no Fear of a Blank Planet!" So we got a gratuitous Steve Wilson Porcupine Tree reference.
Now he probably said "Fear of a Black Planet" but I'm going with what I heard and think is best, so don't burst my bubble.
Anyway, I think the show is worth checking out.
Last edited by BobM; 02-15-2024 at 09:59 AM.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A gentleman is defined as someone who knows how to play the accordion, and doesn't.
That's in the footage I mentioned.
I'm not trying to defend German civilians in any way, but concentration and extermination camps were always a few klicks from the nearest town, usually out in a wooded area. For example, Buchenwald was nearly 13 km from Weimar. The civilian population did know about concentration camps prior to WWII, but the Nazi regime toned down propaganda about them. So, the only way for the townspeople to know what was actually going on was to drive past and look in where they would see the signs at the entrances that read "Arbeit macht frei" (work sets you free).
Some of the privileged Germans actually had some of the prisoners work for them in their factories and/or homes. There's an alarming list of companies that used slave labor during this time, many of which are still around, such as Allianz, Audi, BASF, Bayer, BMW, Ford, GM, Krupp, Mercedes, Siemens, and Volkswagen.
And when prisoners were brought to the camps, they were transported via trains in boxcars and the depots were right there at the camp. So even if the townspeople knew of the camp, did they know the magnitude and the conditions.
Again, not trying to defend them but there's no proof to the common cry that "they had to know what was going on." Indeed, when the people in Weimar were ordered to tour Buchenwald, many (or most) thought they were just going on some sort of picnic and even packed lunches. Once there, they were horrified. There is footage of women crying and even some in hysterics having become overwhelmed by what they saw.
So, yeah, they knew of the existence of concentration camps but they typically did not know about the conditions inside nor did they know about the extermination camps. Indeed, the average German had never heard of Auschwitz.
Sidebar: you may have noticed I've made the distinction between concentration and extermination camps. Initially, concentration camps were solely about rounding up "undesirables" – Jews, Roma (aka Gypsies), homosexuals, and intellectually disabled people – and exploiting them as slave labor. It was only later that the SS began working them to death, since there was a steady supply of prisoners. It was only after the Wannsee Conference in 1942, where the Nazis established the "final solution to the Jewish question", that they began constructing extermination camps for the express purpose of killing them (previous methods were deemed inefficient). But it wasn't just Jews that were sent to them. Soviet POWs were, as well, since Slavs were also viewed as "subhuman". In fact, it's estimated that around 5.7 million Soviets had been captured. Germany stated that of those, only 930K still lived, who were released at the end of the war. The Soviet army further freed another 500K during the invasion of Germany. So roughly 4 million Soviets were exterminated.
“The red zone is for immediate loading and unloading of passengers only. There is no stopping in the white zone."
Agreed. I mentioned it in this thread a few years ago. Ron Livingston plays Loudermilk and is perfectly cast.
“The red zone is for immediate loading and unloading of passengers only. There is no stopping in the white zone."
So far the first season is the best IMO, but looking forward to the new season that starts this week.
Actually I see that as human nature to some degree. People want to know, only what they want to know.
I'd agree. There does seem to be a lot of strategy vs. luck, egos, deceit, egos, etc. wrapped up in WWII. It seems many nations had the outlook of, it can't happen here only to find out too late, it would. Others like the Russians were fooled into complacency by the Nazis: We respect you, we won't invade you, let's be allies, only to be stabbed in the back by an invasion. The winter weather in Russia though threw a monkey wrench into that and kicked the Nazi's butts.
On a different note, if you haven't seen Oppenheimer or The Holdovers (I haven't), Peacock will have Oppenheimer tomorrow, iirc, and they currently have The Holdovers. I'll sub for a month then cancel.
Agreed , I liked Loudermilk. Another Netflix series in a similar vein , that is using the recovery community as a back drop , is Flaked. I found Flaked more engaging than Loudermilk. But Loudermilk had more laughs. I would say if you liked Loudermilk , chances are you'll like Flaked.
Hitler basically made the same mistake Napoleon did in trying to invade Russia thinking it would be a quick and easy defeat long before the Russian winter came into play. Both were wrong.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks