A Rugby Celebration

S and I have taken time this quarantine, and even in the months before, to appreciate rugby.

It all started last year, when we attended Ruggerfest in Forest Park, just for the fun of it.  It was a beautiful day, we took camp chairs and drinks, ate at the food trucks, took in some sport, and generally enjoyed the day out in the world in a way that we haven't been able to in a while.  It was all capped off by an invitation to join the teams for a post-tourney party at the Sunday Morning Rugby Club's clubhouse.  (And a dead alternator at 11 p.m., but that's a story for another day.)

That was followed by a trip to Lindenwood to see the St. Louis Sabres crush the Lindenwood Lions.  It was chilly, but nevertheless fun.  And holy cow do they get to play in a nice stadium!  Lights, announcer, the whole bit.

S then stumbled upon the movie Invictus, when searching for movies for me to watch starting Matt Damon.  That led him to Murderball, which I had seen many years ago -- perhaps even before I started this here blog (the only reference I can find to it is here, not coincidentally referenced in my post about Invictus).

That was followed by Pacific Warriors, a documentary about the teams from Tonga, Fiji, and Samoa, and the rivalry between them.  It wasn't stunningly good, but I did get some interesting insights into these teams from the tiny islands, who are so often outplayed and overshadowed by their Maori companions, the All Blacks.


Speaking of the All Blacks, we did watch a lot of rugby on YouTube, including the All Blacks' women's side, called the Black Ferns.  Some great stuff there.

Many, many moons ago, Dad gave me a book called Muddied Oafs: The Last Days of Rugger, which S picked up.  The editing is admittedly terrible, so he didn't make it far, but there's some good background there.  Fun fact: the first rugby World Cup wasn't until 1987.

The book led to the viewing of The Story of Rugby, a six-part look-back at the history of the sport, released in anticipation of the 2019 World Cup tournament.  It's a look at how rugby has grown over time, what it means to the countries which field teams, and generally is a tribute to the sport and some of its best players.  This, of course, includes my favorite English vet, Jonny Wilkinson -- although I have to say he looks terrible in the film.  For some of his playing highlights, check out this (some great kicking, great passing, and a fantastic dump tackle at 9:30) and try this for a retirement tribute from his teammates and coaches, as well as selected clips as they are talking.  And just for good measure, here is the second-extra-time kick that gave England the 2003 World Cup win.


[It's not about rugby, but since we're talking sports history, I have to give a shout-out to the Netflix show The English Game, which is a retelling of the rivalry between the the teams at the heart of football's (or soccer's, if you prefer) shift from a purely amateur (read: aristocratic) leisure activity to a professional sport.  Very well made and fun to watch.]

What I Watched -- Voyeur and You

Gay Talese reports the story of Gerald Foos in Voyeur.  Gerald owned an Aurora, Colorado, motel.  In that motel, he built a specially-designed attic which allowed him to spy through ceiling vents on all motel guests.  I absolutely believe that all this happened.

The moral voice in the film is Talese's New Yorker editor, who shares the audience's skepticism about Foss's intentions and wondering what the value of Talese's interviews with him will be.  In the end, probably the most interesting part of the film was the portion in which the fact checkers are trying to determine how much of Foos's story was true and how much was manufactured.  Psychologically, it was also fascinating to see how Foos changes once his story is made public -- everything bad that happens becomes someone else's fault.

Having watched the movie, I am exactly as creeped out as I expected to be.  I'm sure you have heard the horror stories about AirBnB owners putting cameras around their properties.  I can't say that I wouldn't also be tempted to do that if I were loaning out my own home to strangers, but as a person who has been on the renting end of AirBnBs before, I certainly don't ever want to do it again after realizing how prevalent the cameras are.  For some reason, it seems like reputable hotels (which Foos's was not) should be safer, more secure places, but then when you think about that for just a second, why does it seem like they should be?  Aren't the minimum wage workers at any hotel just as likely to be creepy voyeurs just like Foos?

Our viewing of Voyeur followed on the tail of the first episode of season two of You.  You is a Netflix show starring Penn Badgley, probably best known as Gossip Girl -- in other words, it is not a distinguished filmography.

But this show plays right into so many of my concerns about how easy technology makes it for someone to find out so much about a person.  (Yes, I appreciate the irony that I am complaining about this on a blog.  Perhaps I should stop writing....)

It is truly only coincidental that we are watching both of these things so close of the heels of the implementation of the new
California law requiring certain companies and websites to make it easier for consumers to control the privacy of their data -- but somehow these things all seem connected.

You know what else seems connected?  That a Penn
Badgley meme popped up in S's feed while we were watching You.

As I said: creepy.

What I Watched -- Hello Ladies

Another one of S's recent delightful finds was a show called Hello Ladies.  As with most decent shows, it had a short original run -- an eight-run season on HBO (all of which I watched), plus a movie (which I haven't seen yet).

It stars an awkwardly tall Englishman as Stuart Pritchard, a hopelessly hopeless and lovelorn British expat in LA.  He's constantly on the hunt for a super-attractive and unattainable girlfriend, which is what the whole show is built around in theory.  But really it's about him and his friends.  Stuart rented out his pool house to a struggling actress, one of his  sidekicks in the series.  The one that broke my heart the most was Stuart's best friend Wade, whose wife left him at the start of the series, and he's navigating the separation with little help from Stuart.

Should I watch the movie?  Or will it just ruin the show?

What I Watched -- Don't F**k With Cats

Don't F**k With Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer has gotten a lot of press.  When I first saw the trailer for it, I expected that it would generate chatter, as all true crime stories tend to do, but I forgot about it until I had some time to surf through Netflix when I was on vacation.

It's a bit frustrating to watch because the editing is terrible.  There is so much manufactured drama in the interviews!  I had to wonder how many times the interviewers had to ask the subjects, "Can you explain it again, but slower and with more unnecessary detail?"

***SPOILER ALERT***

It was interesting (and also creepy) to see what a group of computer nerds with time to spare can do, but it all comes to nothing until the killer is caught the good old fashioned way by an unsuspecting witness who called the police.  Only after the police independently identify the killer is there actually any connection between the internet nerds and the actual murder investigation.

It is true that the nerds tried to alert the police prior to the murder that they anticipated something would happen, but they got no traction.  (Comments on this issue reserved for later discussion.)

***SPOILERS OVER***

It was interesting to see the whole thing play out, but -- I'm not going to lie -- it was a bit of a letdown at the end.

The GBBS is Back!

In case anyone else loves it as much as I do, this is a PSA that there are more episodes of The Great British Baking Show on Netflix!

What I Watched -- Mindhunter

S and I often don't have the patience to binge the same things.  We did, however, manage to plow through the first two seasons of Mindhunter on Netflix.

It's the based-on-a-true-story fictionalized tale of the beginning of the FBI's behavioral science division.  The agents used psychological research and profiling to study and understand what drove the 1970s serial killers, in an attempt to get a leg up on the next round of murderers.

It's a bit gruesome, but also fascinating.  And well acted, by a ensemble cast.

What I Watched -- A Smorgasbord of Netflix Entertainment

Zombieland was a pick of S's.  I didn't think I was going to like it at all.  It is exactly what you would expect -- the last few people alive in a world dominated by zombies.

It is, however, funnier than I would have expected.  I sat down in front of the TV to do other work, and ended up enjoying it.  Emma Stone is a girl crush of mine, so she always helps, but Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg both played their roles to a T.

Bottom line: brainless but funny.





The Kindergarten Teacher was a pick of mine.  Maggie Gyllenhaal always does complex stuff, but this one was weirder than most.  She plays -- not surprisingly -- a kindergarten teacher.  She develops an overly close relationship with one of her students who has a penchant for poetry and whose father is questionably interested in his son's abilities.

Bottom line: odd and confusing, but with the heart that Maggie always brings to her work.









I've watched a lot of legit cooking shows.  Nailed It is not that show.  If you need to watch something silly and brainless, but still about cooking, this is the show for you.  All the contestants are total kitchen disasters, and the question is really which one of them is the least bad.  But watching them be so terrible is pretty dang funny!

What I'm Reading Now -- The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

I had a day near the end of January that had potential to be either great or terrible.  Oddly, the whole day was sort of meh.

It started out with a wind child of -40 degrees.  We left the house to head to work (S) and my workout (me), and had to stop for gas.  That all seemed to go fine.  About two miles down the road from the gas station, the engine started to sputter like we were running out of gas.  This isn't good.  We made it off the highway and to the top of the exit ramp before we lost momentum.  (Reminder, it was very cold.)  Potential to be terrible.

Luckily, the tow truck came quickly (though not without a couple of arguments about whether our AAA membership was current and whether AAA would to a truck that didn't have...well...never you mind that part.

In any case, it didn't look like we were going to make it to work.  Potential to be great.  I did have a fair amount of work that needed to get done (terrible), but I had my laptop with me, so I could work from home (not great, but at least acceptable).

I got to watch a lot of my current favorite, The Great British Baking Show (great).  I got to hang out with S (great).  I had to work, and was feeling especially unmotivated (terrible).

As I said, though, the whole day was just meh.  Maybe the combination of all the great and terrible just cancelled each other out, and left me feeling very mediocre.

Due to that mediocre feeling, I was really struggling to get motivated to work out.  I had a couple of options, but nothing was getting me jazzed up.  What I needed, I decided, was a not-too-serious page-turner book.  When I initially had that thought, I was hoping for some real trash.  I took one look at my bookshelf and realized I was shopping in the wrong place if I wanted disposable mass market junk.  I stopped at the closest thing I could find, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, which at least got me on my bike for 45 minutes.

So Many Movies!

S and I went to Cambodia for our honeymoon.  More on that someday, I hope.  But before I get to all the trip details, a little bit about the many, many movies (plus a bit of TV) I watched on the plane rides there and back.  Props to Singapore Airlines for having quite a selection!  We had lots of time in the air with personal TVs: San Francisco to Hong Kong, Hong Kong to Singapore, and Singapore to San Francisco.  Here's a quick summary of what I watched on the flight to Asia:

Ocean's 8: a fun, girl-centric, star-studded version of Ocean's 11.  Totally worth spending a couple of hours enjoying.









Notes on a Scandal: a complete change of pace from Ocean's 8 -- a psychological thriller, dark and disturbing.








 
Dr. Strange: after Notes, I needed something a little lighter.  I turned to the Marvel universe, aided by Benedict Cumberbatch, whom I adore.  It was a good pick.

Tazzeka: I turned to foreign creations for the closing hours of our flights.  Tazzeka tells the story of a Moroccan boy with a talent for cooking, which he learned from his grandmother.  He leaves for Europe, inspired by a girl he met, and learns things he never expected.







The Great British Bake-Off: I didn't have enough time to watch another movie, so I picked up an episode or two of The Great British Bake-Off, which I am now obsessed with.  Two things I love!

And on the flight home:

The Meg: An action movie got the return flight started.  The Meg wasn't a great film, but Jason Statham is always grumpily amusing, and I very much enjoyed Ruby Rose's turn in this one.

Puzzle: It was pretty much impossible for me not to watch Puzzle, once I discovered it in the directory.  It tells the story of an underappreciated suburban housewife who discovers a love and talent for jigsaw puzzles, which take her to some unexpected places.

 
All the Wild Horses: Have you heard about the 1000-mile horse race across the Mongolian plains?  I hadn't either.  This doc will give you the details, and totally engage you for the duration.

Isle of Dogs: I feel about Isle of Dogs the same way I feel about Wall-E -- the first half to two-thirds was amusing and enjoyable, the last bit, I could have done without.

Sharp Objects: To be fair, I didn't get quite all the way through HBO's Sharp Objects; I had to shut it off with about 20 minutes to go.  I had been through the tense bits, though; I don't think I missed much, especially since I had read the book.  For what's it's worth, I liked both the Sharp Objects book and visual version better than Gone Girl.

In addition to all of that watching, we also got through a couple of things that S downloaded onto his tablet.

Black Mirror: we watched two episodes of this Netflix show, which is weird and confusing but somehow engaging.  It's a little bit like watching a train wreck -- you just have to look because you're so horrified by what you might see.

Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable: I don't want to say too much about this for fear of spoiling anything -- but I recommend that you watch it before you google it, or you'll spoil some of the fun.

And this doesn't even cover the slew of movies we saw at SLIFF (although we missed out on several days of it due to my nasty illness).  Those films to follow!

Old TV is New Again

S has discovered a couple of old TV shows on Netflix that have been the source of much entertainment lately.  Most notably, we have been watching Cheers and Star Trek: The Next Generation.  I have been delighted by the humor and good clean fun provided by these classics.

What I'm Watching -- Traffik

My friend L (the same one who turned me on to Prime Suspect, which I've now seen two seasons of, and have 3 and 4 waiting in the wings) has also loaned me Traffik.  It's a 1989 British miniseries (quick, act surprised!) on which the 2000 Steven Soderbergh movie Traffic was based.

The original version has the same general plot, but instead of being a Cartel-based drug war, it's story is of the European nations trying to stop the growth of opium poppies in Pakistan, and the consequent inflow of heroin into their countries.

I wasn't sold on it at first.  I was ready to turn it off after about an episode and a half, but the end of the second episode got me, and now I think I'll finish it.  It's a slow burn, so to speak.

Prime Suspect

My friend L recently loaned me Season 1 of Prime Suspect.  It's a BBC series about Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison, which started in 1991.  The first six seasons ran from 1991 through 1996, and then it restarted again with another season in 2003, then one in 2006.  There has recently been a reboot called either Prime Suspect 1973 or Tennison, which is a flashback to the main character's early days on the police force.

About the main character, Ms. Tennison is played by the phenomenal Helen Mirren, who lives up to her reputation in this role.  The show has the expected issues of sexism from coworkers on the force, skeptical superiors, and a doubting public, but Mirren plays the role of the singularly-focused DCI without becoming too much of a stereotype.

I am looking forward to the remaining seasons, and excited to learn about the reboot.  I hope it matches the quality of the original!

The Fall

You may have noticed my recent Netflix-inspired spate of binge watching.  The latest selection is The Fall, starring Gillian Anderson as a detective trying to catch up with a serial killer.

It's gripping, mostly because Gillian Anderson is cool, collected, and phenomenal.  Otherwise, it's a pretty typical season-long crime procedural, which makes it more interesting than your typical Law and Order type episodic version.  So far, so good!

Sherlock

I ran out of Orange is the New Black, so now I've started on Sherlock as my next binge series.  I love Benedict Cumberbatch, especially his name (see here and here) and sense of humor.

So far, I am loving it, but it requires a bit more attention than Orange, which means there are fewer times that I can actually watch it.  However, my obsession is strong, so I'm sure I'll make it happen!

Orange is the New Black

I have recently been binge-watching Orange is the New Black on Netflix while doing semi-brainless stuff.  Since it's background noise, I'm only partially paying attention to it, but I am finding it quite enjoyable.

If I cared to pay more attention, I'm sure I could get into the deeper, more thought-provoking story lines, but for now it's just a fun distraction, and it serves its purpose.

The Honorable Woman

I've started watching The Honorable Woman on Netflix recently.  It was a bit slow to get going, but now I'm hooked.

Maggie Gyllenhaal plays Nessa Stein, a member of the British House of Lords, a daughter of Istrael, and a lady with secrets who (so far) is trying to do the right thing in her personal life, and professionally trying to promote reconciliation between Israel and Palestine.  She and her brother Ephra inherited their father's company, which may not be quite what they -- or at least she -- thought it was.

What I Watched -- The Ranch

S was killing time on Netflix a couple weeks ago, and happened upon a sitcom called The Ranch.  I'm not much for sitcoms, but this one isn't bad.  It employs a lot of the usual sitcom tropes, but it's made me laugh out loud on several occasions.  I especially like Sam Elliott, who plays Beau Bennett, the father of our main character.  The lead is played by Ashton Kutcher, who is funnier than I had ever given him credit for.  Also stars Debra Winger (yes, that Debra Winger).

All in all, it's way more entertaining than I expected, and I'm very much enjoying it.

Sex and the City

After a recent discussion with my law clerk about the glories of Sex and the City, I have restarted the series.  It has been forever since I watched any SATC, and I am loving it all over again!

The End of Mad Men

I won't spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it, so read on!

I'm not much of an obsessive TV watcher, but I do have to admit that I was a bit sad when I came to the final scene of the final episode of Mad Men recently.  It really didn't have much to do with how the show ended, more that it ended.  I really enjoyed the show, and Don's ups and downs, and the development of lots of the characters -- Peggy, Joan, even Sally.

And of course there were the clothes and sets.  So much fun to soak up all the mid-century (and later hippie) details.

Three cheers for a show well done!

Top of the Lake

Eons ago, I heard about Top of the Lake on one of my podcasts.  It piqued my interest because it stars Elisabeth Moss, who's most famous for playing Peggy Olson on Mad Men, but whom I have always suspected should have her own show.

Half an eon ago, I watched the first episode.  But then life happened (you know how that goes), and I just never had time to get back to it.  This past weekend I finally did.  I watched four more episodes, and I can't wait to get back to it.

Elisabeth plays Robin Griffin, a police detective who heads home to visit her sick mum (it's set in New Zealand).  While there, she finds Tui, a pregnant 12-year-old, standing chest deep in a local lake.  Shortly after Tui is released from police custody, she disappears.  Robin, for reasons that become clear as the show goes on, can't let Tui's case go.

In case there was any question whether Peggy Olson could carry a show on her own (which there shouldn't be, since she has carried some of the seasons of Mad Men), this should put them to rest.