The Flatland Almanack

"The Office" | Recaps for All Seasons

JUST EAT THE DAMN PEACH.    While I modestly feel that I did some kickass recaps of  NBC's "The Office" Season 3, I soon learned that doing a proper recap is one hell of a time-consuming undertaking.  Furthermore, a certain well-known famously snarky television website that watches TV so you don't have to----previously dead set against recapping any comedy----decided to make an exception, and recapped not only Season 4 but all previous seasons.  So that niche was closed anyway.  Find out more here.  And read my recaps.  Even if you've never seen the show, you'll enjoy them!

"Hollywoodland" (The Death of Superman): Movie Review By Nicholas

JUST EAT THE DAMN PEACH.  Hollywoodland, a consideration of the still unexplained death of actor George Reeves, was  an excellent film.  I didn't even remember ordering it from Netflix and my expectations weren't all that high, but I was totally pulled in within the first ten minutes or so.  Ben Affleck was amazing (ditto the always amazing Bob Hoskins).  Nicholas gave it a 5 out of 5.  Read his review here.

"Oh Lady" (Why You Need to Buy the Animaniacs Boxed Set Even Though You're a Grown-Up)

THE FLATLAND CHRONICLES/CROSS-POSTED TO JUST EAT THE DAMN PEACH. I know I go on a lot about The Animaniacs, Spielberg's cartoon tour de force from the Nineties.   If you've closely watched them, you'll understand why.  If not, have a look at this.  Check them out here (or here).

Cool Stuff: British Comedy & Virtual Drums!

ANGLO-SAXON ATTITUDES (cross-posted to PEACH). Prompted by an internet acquaintance, I gave some love to British comedian/character actor Harry Enfield (here).  If you're American, you haven't heard or seen enough of him.  Fortunately, you can do so now on Netflix.  (Harry Enfield, The Indispensable Mr. Cholmondely-Warner (on "Conjugal Relations)," & the Late Great Douglas Adams)

THE FLATLAND CHRONICLES:  ANOTHER RANDOM LINK O' THE DAY! Virtual drums.  Need I say more?  Oh, all right, then:  check out the virtual drums!

Blogcombing: "A Gentleman's Domain"

JUST EAT THE DAMN PEACH.  Nicholas, who knows jazz and the jazz age, has posted a clip of jazz dancing back when the phrase really meant something.  Read more here....

Crock O'Rock: A Tactic for Coping with the Writer's Strike

JUST EAT THE DAMN PEACH.   You know that writer's strike that just won't go away?  The networks are responding by putting on a slough of reality shows, many entertainingly bad.  How to cope with them?  By doing this:  don't watch, read.   This one, recapped by Potes of Television without Pity, is one I'd prefer to watch unfold in the safety of my own brain which---unlike these participants---has boundaries.  Read more here....

The Last Hangman: An Excellent, but Grim, but Humane, but Bleak, Film

JUST EAT THE DAMN PEACH/ANGLO-SAXON ATTITUDES.    If you're American, you probably haven't heard of Albert Pierrepont, Britain's most famous hangman.  As played by Timothy Spall in The Last Hangman, he is not the executioner you'd expect, but a kind-hearted and humane one, whose principle objective was to spare even the worst criminals any unnecessary fear or pain and who firmly believed that by paying the ultimate price, even the worst of the worst (e.g., the Nazis he hanged) reclaimed their dignity.   It is quite an extraordinary film, though not exactly a feel-good movie.

If there really were a Mr. Death, I'd want him to look and behave exactly like Spall's Albert Pierrepont.

Posted here if you just want to read it in the context of diversions and here if you want to read it as a fascinating window on a period of British history. 

Best, Darkest, and Most Complex Police Drama Ever? Now Playing on BBC America...

JUST EAT THE DAMN PEACH. Another reason you need to get BBC America ("Bloody brilliant television") is so you can watch the hit British drama, "Life on Mars."  (It's nothing to do with Martians.)   I discuss it fairly briefly and provide links to other sites that discuss it.  I also include three "fan vids" from You Tubes that provide the requisite glimpse into Sam Tyler's world.  Read more....

Midlife Hotties

Though I'm a woman of a certain age, I haven't lost all awareness of what my grandmother used to refer to as "the opposite S-E-X."  In fact, quite the reverse.  We live in a society that believes that sex is only about sex, and is therefore the province of youth.  For which I have two words:  "Madame Pompadour." 

ANGLO-SAXON ATTITUDES.  I didn't exactly love "King Arthur," but I'll be re-watching it again tomorrow as I so often do.  If you're a woman, you'll want to take a look at this.

JUST EAT THE DAMN PEACH. And this.

Both need to be cross-posted.  I'll see to that eventually. 

Just Eat the Damn Peach

It's cheating a bit, but I want to find a way to get the peach page going without spending so damn much time on it.  The Office recaps were fun, but they took forever---ditto anything approaching a review, such as the ghost story series.  Since Television without Pity is now covering The Office all the way back to the beginning---though I wish they'd got Jacob to do it----it's gone from a task with little point to a task with none at all. 

So I'm trying to decide what to do with "Peach."  Today I published a compilation of my recent comments on "Yellow Ledbetter," "Pink Bullets," and "Son of a Gun."  I need to decide how to divide material between it and Chronicles.

I set up a "jukebox" through Jango that I ended up posting on several of my pages, though of course "Peach is the most obvious place for it."  I have eclectic tastes, I have realized, though within a fairly narrow range. 

The compilation posting is here.