Legendary roadie Neville Chesters had little good to say about Robert Stigwood, calling him a sexual predator.
There is a Netflix documentary series about various heists. We watched the two-part episode on the Pappy Van Winkel heist. It was interesting, but not very well made. Far too much melodrama getting in the way of an interesting story. My current favorite documentary maker is on Youtube. He goes by the name of Kevin Perjurer, which amuses me, and his channel is called Defunctland. He mainly covers the history of various theme parks, particularly the Disney parks, but also does great work on other various entertainment venues. His video on the history of Coney Island is absolutely brilliant, as is his piece on the Chicago Exhibition. His latest is an hour and a half magnum opus on... waiting in line. His work reminds me of This American Life of old, where they would take a mundane topic and make it fascinating. This is one of those situations. It starts out with wait times being a problem at the original Disney parks, goes into the history of amusement park rides, corporate culture, takes side-trips into manufacturing engineering, psychology, marketing, optimization theory, and computer modelling. It's brilliant.
Watched this last night as I live in the shadows of the facility that is the subject of this documentary.
PBS American Experience's Murder Of A President. It's about James Garfield's brief run as President. I liked it very much.
PBS Passport: "Citizen Hearst". A good overview of the man's life, his personality and influence. Of course "Citizen Kane" comes up... C.
Never Surrender: A Galaxy Quest Documentary Maybe a little heavy on a couple of cosplayers but altogether a significant documentary on the making of the film and why it is so loved. Most of the actors and producers take part in interviews. Although an independently-made documentary, moments from the film were allowed to be licensed to accompany their recollections. But none of the photos of the damage to a set (from a fire) were made available - even though such photos surely exist since insurance adjusters would have documented that. (And there’s next to none behind the scenes footage.) So it is more of an oral history than a deep dive into the archives. And that is this documentary’s strength.
Last night I watched a documentary on the Buick turbo Grand National Regal. Lot of devoted people own those cars. Fascinating that it came from the Buick Division and not Pontiac or Chevrolet.. Really enjoyed it. It was free on Youtube.
New York City's Bowery has a notorious history and is synonymous with hobos, drunks and the downtrodden. This documentary portrays one of the street's last remaining flophouses in a neighborhood transformed by gentrification. The Sunshine Hotel is a link to the Bowery's rapidly vanishing past and home to a fascinating array of characters who tell how they ended up there. Our guide and narrator is the hotel's manager, who introduces us to the residents. Genre: Documentary Original Language: English Director: Michael Dominic Producer: Michael Dominic Writer: Michael Dominic, Nathan Smith Release Date (Streaming): May 22, 2017 Runtime: 1h 36m
Closed For Storm. The Bright Sun Youtube guy with a full length doc on Jazzland in N.O. Thumbs up from me.
I missed this somehow. The entire American Experience series is very well done. I liked The Real Charlie Chaplin. I didn't know anything about him being run out of the US in the big Red Scare. I also didn't realize how popular he really was.
