jpelg

Happy birthday!

Bookish (PBS) - getting my Brit-TV fix with this new series starring Mark Gatiss & Polly Walker (#crush!) as store proprietors by day/crime sleuths by night "hubby & wife" (quotes intentional) in this series set in set in post-WWII London. British accents as thick as molasses, using the vernacular of the time, all require intense concentration, but worth it. By the by, young Buket Komur is one to watch as an up-&-comer in the biz, imo.

Happy birthday!

Dunno where Woot is getting these from, but they have new Nikon D800 bodies going for $629. While a couple of notches below the latest D810 model, this has to be the best deal in full-frame DSLRs atm.

Red Eye (UK) - season 2 brings Detective Sargeant Hana Li (Jing Lusi) back, this time substituting the confines of the US Embassy in London as the locale. Lots of twists & turns, and of course you don't know who is really who. Easy watch, especially if you liked series 1:

The Copenhagen Test (Peacock) - A government operative-turned-analyst discovers his eyes & ears have been hacked to transmit what he experiences to an unknown destination. The government agency he works for tries to make his weakness a strength by putting him back in the field. A "Quantum Leap" sort-of feel (to me anyway), and likeable actors make it an easy watch. Bring along a big hunk of your suspension of disbelief & have fun.

Jenny Lewis @Austin City Limits on PBS

Happy Birthday, Ric!

Does Broadway count? New music for this revival by Benny Andersson & Björn Ulvaeus of ABBA fame, with lyrics by Tim Rice.

Happy birthday Thomas!

Abbott Elementary - I know I'm very late to the game on this, but it's now my go-to for a quick, humorous palate cleanse after some other intense watching elsewhere. Quinta B makes a quality comedy show. Eps are easy watches, and the principle is a special kind of hoot.

Posting this here instead of the "Consumerism" thread, as likely only viewers here would possibly find this interesting in any way. I've always wanted a try a medium telephoto on my full-format DSLR, mainly for portraits. So, when an inexpensive Rokinon 85mm 1.4 in the Sony A-mount sat on B&H's used site for a few weeks, in a weak moment I succumbed to the temptation & placed the order: Literally the first snap from my A900, in a dark living room with one lamp lit, at f1.4 yielded this, which shocked me in its [insert typical "medium-format like" or "3D" quality superlatives here], particularly since it's manual-focus with the usual sliver DOF at minimum aperture: Of course, I've yet to reproduce anything since that approaches these qualities. So clearly I got very lucky on my first snap & will have to invest more time to learn how to get the best out of this big chunk o'glass. Also, so far I've only shot in B&W (which is my current favored MO), and yet to play with the color output (and deal with the reported CA at minimum apertures). But it's a beautiful piece to fondle & hear the clicks from the aperture ring.

Task (HBO) - wow, intense watch...

Happy Birthday Dusty!

Happy birthday x3, y'all!