What are you watching?

[wheelsup_cavu]

I saw The Gallant Hours a few weeks ago. I thought it was a reasonable portrayal of what I have read over the years about Halsey's service during WW2.

The Gallant Hours
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053849/

The Gallant Hours
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053849/

The Gallant Hours (1960) ORIGINAL TRAILER

The Gallant Hours (1960) ORIGINAL TRAILER
https://youtu.be/SqDKZzMtNNU

 

Wheels

[Snaggle]

On my watch list.

I'm a sucker for a good Navy Movie or that matter bad ones too.

[wheelsup_cavu]

Found Mannix on Pluto TV. Pluto TV only has the first two of the eight seasons.
Mannix: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061277/
This is another Desilu production so several of the guest stars will be familiar.

Mannix Series Intro - Season 1 (1967)

Mannix Series Intro - Season 1 (1967)
https://youtu.be/guJirrydY5A
Uploaded to YouTube on July 16, 2020

The computer room with the reel to reel and punch cards was a gas to see. Our smartphones of today probably have as much computing power as that entire room.

Wheels

[Klaiber]

12 hours ago, wheelsup_cavu said:

Found Mannix on Pluto TV. Pluto TV only has the first two of the eight seasons.
Mannix: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061277/
This is another Desilu production so several of the guest stars will be familiar.

Mannix Series Intro - Season 1 (1967)

Mannix Series Intro - Season 1 (1967)
https://youtu.be/guJirrydY5A
Uploaded to YouTube on July 16, 2020

The computer room with the reel to reel and punch cards was a gas to see. Our smartphones of today probably have as much computing power as that entire room.

Wheels

I always loved the random running in the opening.  It makes me realize how good of a spoof Sabotage (by the Beastie Boys) is.

[wheelsup_cavu]

On 3/18/2025 at 9:01 AM, Klaiber said:

I always loved the random running in the opening.  It makes me realize how good of a spoof Sabotage (by the Beastie Boys) is.

 

Quote

24 Years Later, the Beastie Boys Finally Explain What 'Sabotage' Is About
By Matt MillerPublished: Nov 01, 2018 11:13 AM EDT

When the Beastie Boys released "Sabotage" as the first single off Ill Communication in early 1994, the song became a defining track of the '90s. Much of this is thanks to Spike Jonze's music video, which acted as a parody of '70s cop shows, and gave the song its iconic middle-finger attitude. It's maintained that anti-authority feeling ever since.

Though the uses of the song have remained clear throughout the last two decades, members of the Beastie Boys have never explained the actual meaning of the "Sabotage." Fans have speculated that it's an anti-religious song or, possibly, anti-paparazzi, because at that time the band had gotten into tiffs with photographers.

But, 24 years later, in a story from the audiobook of their new memoir, the Beastie Boys finally reveal that "Sabotage" is actually about an annoying sound engineer.

When Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz yells, "I can't stand it / I know you planned it," he's directing his frustration at their friend and producer Mario Caldato Jr., who was pushing the Beastie Boys to actually finish a track. As the story goes, the group was being indecisive about completing songs on their fourth studio album.

“We were totally indecisive about what, when, why and how to complete songs. Mario was getting frustrated,” actor Tim Meadows narrates in the audiobook. “That’s a really calm way of saying that he would blow a fuse and get pissed off at us and scream that we just needed to finish something, anything, a song. He would push awful instrumental tracks we made just to have something moving toward completion.”

At one point they considered including a scratched Queen Latifah sample as the hook but Horovitz landed on his "I can't stand it" scream directed at Caldato. “I decided it would be funny to write a song about how Mario was holding us all down, how he was trying to mess it all up, sabotaging our great works of art,” he says.

It might not be about cops or religion or annoying photographers, but even if it is directed at their buddy in the studio, the anti-authority message still holds up.

Beastie Boys - Sabotage (Official Music Video)

Beastie Boys - Sabotage (Official Music Video)
https://youtu.be/z5rRZdiu1UE
Uploaded to YouTube on June 21, 2009

 

Wheels

[Klaiber]

On 3/24/2025 at 1:04 AM, wheelsup_cavu said:

the Beastie Boys finally reveal that "Sabotage" is actually about an annoying sound engineer.

I had no idea!

[Razwald]

 

[Klaiber]

18 hours ago, Razwald said:

 

That's a great overview!

[Klaiber]

 

[Vonrd]

Blue Paw Print makes some well done 3D graphics. I do question some of the historical "facts" but still think they are generally well done. Here's the latest on the King Tiger: 

 

[wheelsup_cavu]

Lately I have been watching According to Jim. Jim Belushi is funny but Courtney Thorne-Smith and Kimberly Williams (Paisley) make the show eminently watchable. 

 

Wheels

[Vonrd]

"Incredibly restored footage of WWI battlefields as seen from an airship, one year after the war ended. Filmed by Jacques Trolley de Prévaux, a French Navy officer and a pioneer of French Naval Aviation. He was retrained to fly dirigibles (airships) which were crucial for artillery spotting, detecting sea mines, and anti-submarine warfare during WWI. For his service and actions, he was awarded the Légion d'honneur and the Croix de guerre. In 1919, just months after the Armistice, Jacques undertook a remarkable flight with a motion picture camera attached to his airship. He flew over the war-torn landscapes from the Belgian coastline to the French city of Verdun, documenting the unparalleled devastation. His footage captured the flattened ruins of places like Ypres, the flooded shell craters of Passchendaele, and the miles of zigzagging trenches still visible from the air. The full 78-minute film was lost, but found again in late 1990s.

Footage source:    • 1919: Aerial views of Ypres  

Music: The Sleeping Prophet by Jesse Gallagher

RESTORATION ----------------------------------------

1. Cleaned dust and scratches

2. Stabilized footage

3. Upscaled to 1080p

4. Colourised footage

5. Increased frame-rate to 60fps ----------------------------------------"

 

[Klaiber]

10 hours ago, Vonrd said:

"Incredibly restored footage of WWI battlefields as seen from an airship, one year after the war ended. Filmed by Jacques Trolley de Prévaux, a French Navy officer and a pioneer of French Naval Aviation. He was retrained to fly dirigibles (airships) which were crucial for artillery spotting, detecting sea mines, and anti-submarine warfare during WWI. For his service and actions, he was awarded the Légion d'honneur and the Croix de guerre. In 1919, just months after the Armistice, Jacques undertook a remarkable flight with a motion picture camera attached to his airship. He flew over the war-torn landscapes from the Belgian coastline to the French city of Verdun, documenting the unparalleled devastation. His footage captured the flattened ruins of places like Ypres, the flooded shell craters of Passchendaele, and the miles of zigzagging trenches still visible from the air. The full 78-minute film was lost, but found again in late 1990s.

Footage source:    • 1919: Aerial views of Ypres  

Music: The Sleeping Prophet by Jesse Gallagher

RESTORATION ----------------------------------------

1. Cleaned dust and scratches

2. Stabilized footage

3. Upscaled to 1080p

4. Colourised footage

5. Increased frame-rate to 60fps ----------------------------------------"

 

That's amazing.

[Vonrd]

Started watching this and was blown away:

 

So I then found this and was blown away by the sheer numbers

 

[wheelsup_cavu]

FUBAR Season 2 dropped on Netflix on June 12. I am hoping that I enjoy it as much as I did FUBAR season 1.

 

Wheels

[wheelsup_cavu]

I was watching The Born Losers last night on Prime and I noticed a familiar face that I was not expecting.
The tough cop in The Born Losers (1967) was the same actor, Jack Starrett, that played the tough cop 15 years later in the Stallone movie First Blood (1982). I suspect Stallone knew this when he was cast in his movie. 

 

Wheels

[wheelsup_cavu]

The Long Walk @IMDb
This is a movie adaptation of a Stephen King novel written under his pseudonym, Richard Bachman. Considering they talked Mark Hamill into playing the Major I will likely go see it in the theater even though I do not believe it will live up to the book itself.

The Long Walk (novel)

Code::

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Walk_(novel)

wikipedia wrote:

Set in an alternative, dystopian version of the United States, the plot revolves around the Long Walk, an annual contest in which 100 young men walk continuously along a pre-arranged route. Walkers must keep a minimum pace of 4 miles per hour (6.4 km/h), and are issued verbal warnings by soldiers monitoring their progress if they fall below this speed for 30 seconds. A walker can lose one warning if he walks for an hour without earning another. If a walker takes three warnings and falls below the minimum speed for 30 seconds, he is shot and killed by the soldiers. The Walk continues until there is only one survivor, who can have whatever he wants for the rest of his life as his prize.

I literally read the book decades ago but the instant I saw the premise of the movie it all came rushing back to me.


Wheels

[Vonrd]

 

[Vonrd]

This is what AI is really good for. I hope to see more of this sort of work.

 

[Vonrd]

It seems that this is already a thing. Searches are bringing up numerous sites.

Although this seems like a great tool to bring history to life, I can imagine bad actors using it to alter the truth. Looks like we "live in interesting times" as the supposed ancient Chinese curse goes.

This is IMHO an example of the benign use of AI:

 

[Klaiber]

On 1/20/2026 at 4:19 PM, Vonrd said:

This is what AI is really good for. I hope to see more of this sort of work.

 

This is great

 

[Vonrd]

Beautiful stabilized approach and landing.

[Vonrd]

More proof that AI is not yet ready for prime time.

 

[Labroisse]

That dude is strong!  Lifted that engine out like it was nothing lol

[Stuka]

S! Guys!
I think I´m Experimenting the second generation of digital world. First one was when I had to replace the pencil to the mouse and now we had to replace Hollywood to the prompt...