Watches

Playlist of watched movies, television shows, online videos, and other visual-based events
Watched "Ghosts" D&D from Paramount+
D&D: Directed by Nick Wong. With Rose McIver, Utkarsh Ambudkar, Brandon Scott Jones, Danielle Pinnock. After Jay is kicked out of a Dungeons and Dragons game with his city friends, Sam agrees to facilitate a new one between him and the ghosts; Isaac confronts his feelings for Nigel, a ghost from whom he's been keeping a gigantic secret.
This show isn’t good at handling the vast amounts of context that Jay is missing in the conversations with the ghosts. He just sits there not showing how uncomfortable things really must be for himself and it makes him seem so much less human.
Watched "Tattoo Redo" Hot Mess, Spicy Bets from Netflix
Hot Mess, Spicy Bets: With Matt Beckerich, Rose Hardy, Miryam Lumpini, Tommy Montoya. Twig gives a silly chile a spicy makeover, Matt replaces Michael Jackson's glove with a rose, and Tommy vanquishes a quote from "Gladiator."
The second episode isn’t any better. The artists’ work is great, but there’s not any real drama or surprise here.
Watched "Tattoo Redo" Who's Ready to See Some Bad Tattoos? from Netflix
Who's Ready to See Some Bad Tattoos?: With Matt Beckerich, Rose Hardy, Miryam Lumpini, Tommy Montoya. Matt transforms a black blob into a bouquet, Tommy Montoya gives a raunchy quote a skull and 'shrooms redo, while Rose tackles a tribute to an ex.
Lowest common denominator television. Watching out of morbid curiosity.
Watched “Shetland” Red Bones: Part 2 from BritBox
Directed by Peter Hoar. With Gemma Chan, Steven Robertson, Douglas Henshall, Alison O'Donnell. With two murders and no strong leads, can Perez apprehend the suspect before crowds descend on the Shetland Islands for Up Helly Aa, the biggest fire festival in Europe?
The Up Helly Aa could have been used to up the stress and tension even more than it did here.

While a good pair of episodes, I think I definitely liked the book better , especially for building character.

Watched “Shetland” Red Bones: Part 1 from BritBox
"Shetland" Red Bones: Part 1 Directed by Peter Hoar. With Sandra Voe, Douglas Henshall, Erin Armstrong, Steven Robertson. As DI Jimmy Perez investigates the murder of an elderly lady who is shot dead outside her croft, he finds evidence of a massive, bitter dispute between two families.
Finally circling back to watch some of the earlier episodes that I either missed or only caught portions of on PBS airings.

Subscribed to BritBox just for this (and its new season) and a few other things in the coming weeks.

Watched "The West Wing" The Leadership Breakfast from HBO Max
The Leadership Breakfast: Directed by Scott Winant. Toby wants to use a bipartisan breakfast to discuss real issues instead of making it a staged event; Sam floats the idea of moving the press room across the street; Leo wants Josh to apologize to a columnist on his behalf; Leo and Toby realize they need to start thinking about reelection.
Watched "The West Wing" Galileo from HBO Max
Galileo: Directed by Alex Graves. The President and NASA plan a TV event for a probe's landing on Mars; satellite photographs show a suspicious-looking fire in Russia; Leo asks Toby and Josh to decide on the next postage stamp; Sam and C.J. have personal reasons for not wanting to accompany the President to a concert.
Watched "The West Wing" Shibboleth from HBO Max
Shibboleth: Directed by Laura Innes. Dozens of Chinese stowaways are discovered in a container ship in California; Toby looks to pick a fight over school prayer with a recess appointment; Thanksgiving at the White House sees C.J. in charge of turkeys and Charlie looking for the ultimate carving knife.
Watched "Breaking Bad" Felina from Netflix
Felina: Directed by Vince Gilligan. With Bryan Cranston, Anna Gunn, Aaron Paul, Dean Norris. Walter White makes one last attempt to secure his family's future, while also visiting some old enemies, during his final return to Albuquerque.
I’d started rewatching all five seasons this past year, this finally puts the cap on my second viewing of the whole series. Still solid, though it’s not as compelling as watching it the first time. Knowing how things turn out does dampen a bit of the excitement.
Watched "The Great British Baking Show" Episode #12.9 from Netflix
Episode #12.9: With Noel Fielding, Paul Hollywood, Prue Leith, Matt Lucas. It's the Bake Off semi-final, and time to test the remaining bakers' abilities in patisserie. There's a delicate layered slice that demands precision, a regional French classic, and then the bakers must create an opulent entremets display.
A shocking turn at the end of this episode. They should have had all four go to the final.
Watched Field Notes: Reporter's Notebook by Coudal PartnersCoudal Partners from Vimeo

Field Notes: Reporter's Notebook from Coudal Partners on Vimeo.

John Dickerson of “Face the Nation” talks about how he uses a Reporter’s Notebook and how he helped Field Notes make one. ❧

Reporter John Dickerson talking about his notebook.

While he doesn’t mention it, he’s capturing the spirit of the commonplace book and the zettelkasten.

[…] I see my job as basically helping people see and to grab ahold of what’s going on.

You can decide to do that the minute you sit down to start writing or you can just do it all the time. And by the time you get to writing you have a notebook full of stuff that can be used.

And it’s not just about the thing you’re writing about at that moment or the question you’re going to ask that has to do with that week’s event on Face the Nation on Sunday.

If you’ve been collecting all week long and wondering why a thing happens or making an observation about something and using that as a piece of color to explain the political process to somebody, then you’ve been doing your work before you ever sat down to do your work.

I’d love to interview him about his process as well as keeping track of his notes after-the-fact. Does he index them? Collate them? How does he archive them? What role do they play in his book writing processes? Is his system something that he was taught, something which he created and refined over time, or a little bit of both?