What We're Watching: Finding Lucy

This 2000 documentary about America's favorite redhead was produced by WNET for the PBS American Masters series, and won an Emmy Award.  I discovered it only the other day, and highly recommend it to all you Lucy fans out there.

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What We're Watching: Petra

A fascinating look at the origins of the mysterious lost city and how it grew:

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No Red Wave, Just a Puddle

The outcome of the midterm elections wasn't great, but it could have been worse. Republicans will probably have a small majority in the House, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed the Dems will retain control of the Senate.

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Election Day 2022

Here is the live stream from NBC News with nationwide coverage of today's elections:

 

And this is the PBS NewsHour live stream, with perhaps some more thoughtful coverage:

FYI, this NBC News graphic shows the current strength of the parties in both houses of Congress:

Blue = Democrats, Red = Republicans.
Click to enlarge.

And here are election forecasts for the House and Senate from Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight.com:

Click to enlarge.

It doesn't look good for the Democrats.  Keep your fingers crossed.

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What I'm Watching: The Crash of 1929

A fascinating PBS documentary about the great crash of 1929.  First aired in 1990, it features film clips of the time and interviews with people who were involved with the stock market then, or their descendants - including the son of Groucho Marx.  Not a textbook history, but a very entertaining film about the fads, fears, frauds, and follies of the human race that are still very much with us.

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Happy Fourth!

PBS will air the annual concert A Capitol Fourth live from the West Lawn of the U. S. Capitol beginning at 8 p.m. Eastern Time.  Along with the U. S. Army Band "Pershing's Own," headliners include Alabama, Barry Manilow, and KC and the Sunshine Band.  Description:

Celebrating 35 spectacular years on the air, A Capitol Fourth will kick off the country’s 239th birthday with an all-star musical extravaganza that puts viewers front and center for the greatest display of fireworks anywhere in the nation. America’s favorite Independence Day celebration is broadcast live from the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol, before a concert audience of hundreds of thousands, millions more at home, and our troops watching around the world on the American Forces Network.

Here's a short interview with Jerry and Michael Colbert, father and son producers of the program:




And here's a clip of KC and the Sunshine Band rehearsing in front of the Capitol yesterday:



Gawd, I can't believe the once-young-and-studly Harry Wayne Casey, whom I saw in concert in 1976 at the height of his fame, looks like a boring old middle-aged man . . . like me!

Where does the time go?


And the White House released this video celebrating a good week for the President, and marking in part the progress of liberty and equality in this our wayward but beloved land of hopes and dreams:

The Boy Who Loved Beauty

Magnolia and Irises, Louis Comfort Tiffany, 1908.

A PBS biography of Louis Comfort Tiffany, the prolific artist and designer - his story about "the boy who loved beauty," starting around the 43:35 mark, is particularly revealing, I think:




If you don't have time for the whole documentary, this brief summary of his work from Tiffany & Co., founded by Louie's dad, may pique your interest:




Also worth a quick look: a small collection of gorgeous Tiffany lamps and windows on Flickr.

Why American Health Care Co$$$ts So Much

There's a documentary on this topic airing tonight on PBS, if any of you fellas want to see it.  Here's a trailer:

Watch Documentary: Why Does U.S. Health Care Cost So Much? on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

Julia's Centenary

My best friend M. P. and I are both big fans of Julia Child, and I just found out that today would have been her 100th birthday. So in celebration of a life well lived, which continues to bring joy to millions through her many cookbooks and videos, here's a delightful little remix made for PBS. Enjoy.



My overseas truckbuddies may not know that Julia was an American institution for forty years, beloved by all. And so much so that her kitchen has been preserved in the Smithsonian. In case you're not familiar with her life and work, I highly recommend the 2009 film Julie & Julia, in which the great Meryl Streep plays Julia in what just might her best performance ever.

Here's an overview of Julia's amazing life from Biography:

I can also recommend Julia's charming autobiography, compiled with the help of her nephew, Alex Prud'homme, My Life in France. And though her cookbooks have never been out of print, I've just discovered that Amazon is now selling videos of her PBS cooking show, The French Chef, which you can download online, either per season or per individual show. A great treasure for generations of cooks to come. Here's a delightful little pastiche that gives you a good idea of Julia's cheerful, down-to-earth personality:

One of my favorite quotes by Julia, responding in 1990 to the criticisms of food critics and health Nazis:

Everybody is overreacting. If fear of food continues, it will be the death of gastronomy in the United States. Fortunately, the French don't suffer from the same hysteria we do. We should enjoy food and have fun. It is one of the simplest and nicest pleasures in life

Exactly. Both Julia and her husband lived to be 92, even with all that butter and cream and cigarettes. And your Head Trucker says: if you're not enjoying your life, what the hell is the point?

Bonus: Here is Julia's very first PBS show in 1962, featuring her famous recipe for Boeuf Bourguignon, which your Head Trucker highly recommends. A year or two ago, M. P. and I - well, mostly M. P., but I helped - followed this recipe to the letter, just to say we had, and the results were magnifique! And here's the printed recipe from her first book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Although we found by researching through some of Julia's later books and videos that as years went by, she simplified and made shortcuts to the recipe, which made it a bit easier but nonetheless authentically French. Still, you ought to try this version: there's nothing at all in the various steps that is difficult for anybody who can peel an onion or slice a mushroom. Allow 3-4 hours for this operation, first and last - perhaps as a holiday or birthday meal. You'll be mighty damn glad you did.

PS - I apologize for the crowded spacing above; lately, having more than one video in a post causes that, I don't know why.