"Favorites"

That's what was listed in my online TV listings.  So yeah, I turned over.

A John Denver special.

I really don't have much of an opinion on John Denver.  My mom had one of his albums.  And I remember that he once hosted The Muppet Show.  That's all I got.  

So what did I learn from the two minutes that I watched this "Favorite"? Sunshine always makes him high.   And that sunshine was at one point on his shoulders.

The Botany of Desire

KOCE reran The Botany of Desire last night.  I didn't rewatch it but I have notes.  Notes that I was going to type up when it originally aired but then was distracted by a capella dudes known as Straight, No Chaser.  So let's see how much I can decipher and write up into coherent sentences...

The Botany of Desire is based on a book by Michael Pollan.  Take a quick peek at his Wikipedia page and at the top, you are greeted with this italicized comment:

This article is about the author and food activist. For the Monty Python actor with a similar name, see Michael Palin.

So really: all you need to know.  Most of his books are about food and not Bicycle Repairman.  However, to throw you a curve, The Botany of Desire is about plants and how they evolved with humans.   The four plants represent four human desires:  Apple=Sweet, Tulip=Beauty, Cannabis=Intoxication, and Potato=Control.

I will know begin an extended "What did I learn...?" segment by trying to figure out my handwriting in my notebook.  So enjoy some random facts!

Apples:  Johnny Appleseed brought Hard Cider to the West.  Trees may not be the same as the trees that gave the seeds.  Apples came from Kazakhstan.  Fruit of Knowledge from The Bible most likely a pomegranate and not an apple.  "The problem is that it's boring. Sweetness. If that's all you get."  Someone likes their women spicy!

Tulips:  A garden in the Netherlands has around 2,300 varieties. Angiosperm means plants that produce flowers (I verified this on Dictionary.com).  Wild tulips came up through Central Asia.  1634-1637 was known as "Tulip Mania" in the Netherlands (Disclosure: I can't remember if that was my term or Michael Pollan's). There are places known as "Plant Brothels" where new varieties of tulips are made.  I definitely can't take credit for "Plant Brothels".

Cannabis:  The only known people who don't have intoxicants are the Inuits because nothing grows in the snow (I find that hard to believe.  I'm sure there's some blubber wine or something that they're hiding from us).  The female of the cannabis species produces the psychoactive resin.  They keep them away from males so that they produce more resin. Yes, growers are keeping their lady plants hot and bothered for our psychoactive pleasure.

Potatoes:  Originated in the Andes Mountains. In the wild, potatoes are poisonous if they turn green.  The potato helped move people north because it did well in crappy weather and soil.  The Irish planted only one kind of potato and then a ship from South America brought a fungus that killed that one variety.  Potato Famine!  This gives Pollan more ammunition in his anti-monoculture stance.  Grow lots of varieties he says.  McDonald's not helping with this: they only use Russet Burbank potatoes.  Those Monocultural Monsters...

Final The Botany of Desire quotes from Michael Pollan: "Get away from monoculture." "Nature resists our control." "I'm Michael J. Fox's brother-in-law."

OK, he didn't say that last one but according to Wikipedia he's Tracy Pollan's brother.  And not, in any way, related to Michael Palin.


Photo courtesy of Amazon.com

French In Action

It's Sunday morning--I'm sorry, I meant Dimanche matin--and French In Action is on. Turns out I've come across it before but it was always when Le Vieux Professeur was rattling off rapid-fire French to the camera. Now I took French in high school and college (I actually "lettered" in French I and II in high school. And they gave me an actual letter patch like you would sew on a varsity jacket. To which I thought, "Oh. That's what that means." For French II, I got a pin...to pin on the letter, I assume. I wasn't sporty so the whole "letter jacket" concept was all Greek to me. And I spoke French. Ha! Comedy is the universal language...) Anyway, back to Le Vieux Professeur. I could only pick out a few words here and there as I admired his hair (I kept thinking of Bugs Bunny as "Leopold!" the conductor). I then immediately felt that I was a poser to own that letter and pin so I switched the channel. Today, however, I sat and watched.

French In Action is described on the KLCS website as:

"A 52-part telecourse introduces the French language and culture to viewers by way of a romantic comedy, filmed in France."

A romantic comedy! That explains a lot...or not really. Today's episode was Mireille and Robert on a date. And Le Vieux Professeur--that is how he is listed in the credits--was explaining the difference between "entendre" and "attendre". He cupped his hand to his ear for "entendre" (to hear) and sat back and crossed his arms for "attendre" (to wait). Even though I already knew those verbs, I thought, "Hey, I'll be able to follow along." It goes back to Mireille and Robert speaking with the waiter. And during that exchange, it cuts to some little girl and her mother sitting on a sofa. And then it goes back to the date. And then back to Leopold putting a cap on a pen. He then puts on a smaller cap that doesn't fit onto the pen. I don't know what the hell is going on. And to make matters worse, a few seconds later, it cuts to a guy in makeup and a bowler cap laughing at someone with the words "se moquer" underneath. "To make fun of" is what it says. Like, "Ha ha, Mandy, French In Action is mocking you."

Well, two can play that game: Hey, Mireille, I know this is 1987 but France had bras back then. Do you "entend" me? 

What did I learn from French In Action?  Robert quit university.  Mireille teased him about it.  Mireille teases her bangs.  Some little girl wants to eat lots of "bonbons" but what does that have to do with Mireille and Robert?  I have aucune idée.

Straight No Chaser: Live in New York

PBS, bless your heart.  Where do you find these random bunch-of-guys-singing acts?  I have never, ever heard of these dudes but here they are with their own PBS pledge special.  And it's still on.  I was actually going to write about the documentary Botany of Desire that was on a few days ago but I can't stop watching these ten guys dressed like Reservoir Dogs singing "Africa" by Toto.  (They did songs like "Stand By Me" that make sense but they also did "Wonderwall" by Oasis.  Now you know why I'm still watching.)

They have a website.  You can check for gig dates.  You can listen to some of the songs off their new album With a Twist.  You know what the first song listed is?  "Tainted Love"!  First, "Wonderwall" and now "Tainted Love".   I think I might like them.  And according to the track listing of their album, they do "Under the Bridge".  Now a capella, to me, is inherently upbeat.  You know, all a capella singers look so, for lack of a better word, chipper.  So "Under the Bridge": a song about shooting up heroin under an overpass.  I just can't imagine--

Sorry for the interruption but they are now doing their theme song:  "We're gonna give it to you straight!  No chaser!"  

--that song being done...chipper.   But, alas, I didn't get to see them perform that one--

Another interruption: the PBS Pledge announcer guy just said, "...and the very special version of Wonderwall."  I love it!

--so I'll never know if taking smack puts a spring in your step.  

What did I learn (or still learning) from Straight No Chaser: Live in New York?  Straight No Chaser will be at the Wiltern in December.  More importantly, there's a singing group called Straight No Chaser.  And PBS loves guys singing.

Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom with Dr. Christiane Northrup AND Elaine Paige: Celebrating a Life on Stage

Tonight I watched two PBS Pledge specials back to back.  I know!  You would think it was Christmas.  Both featured two highly revered ladies with decades of experience in their areas.  One sings and the other talks about menopause.   Can you guess who said/sang what?

1. Don't Cry For Me, Argentina.
2. Menstrual blood has stem cells in it.
3. Most people don't get enough iodine since converting to sea salt.
4. I Dreamed a Dream.
5. Think of your body as a tree.
6. Think of your body as an organic garden.
7. I Know Him So Well.
8. I Don't Know How To Love Him.
9. The umbilical cord can pulsate up to 30 minutes after birth if not clamped right away.
10. Memory.

  (RE: Memory.  In high school, I was a full-time Broadway musical geek.  And yet I fell asleep during Cats.  Just sayin'.  Also, tonight when the intro to Memory started, most of the audience clapped.  After that died down, Elaine Paige sang "Midnight..." and a few more clapped.  Personally, I think those people should be evicted from the theatre.  Because really?  One of the most famous songs ever and you don't know it until the lyrics start? Tsk tsk.)  

So what else did I learn from the Diva and the OB/GYN?  That Elaine Paige can continue performing well past menopause if she follows her inner body wisdom and cuts down to under 15 grams of sugar a day.  

Masterpiece Mystery: Miss Marple "The Mirror Crack'd From Side to Side"

I did not mean to intentionally skip the three Foyle's War episodes of Masterpiece Mystery.  I just got busy with life.  And by life I mean work, errands and the Lost series finale. 

So Miss Marple.  With her and Hercule Poirot and all the other classic sleuths, I cannot help but think of the brilliant movie Murder By Death.  (This and What's Up, Doc? are two of my all-time favorite comedies.  They will both forever make me laugh.)  If you love Agatha Christie, check it out. Bonus! Truman Capote as Lionel Twain.

OK. Back to Miss Marple.  I don't see how anyone cannot enjoy a good old-fashioned Agatha Christie mystery.  They are just so "That's curious", "Something struck me as odd" and "Inspector, you are over looking the obvious!"  And of course, I always try to work out the mystery along with Miss Marple.  I'm usually wrong.  Probably because I don't have the advantage of constantly coming across murders wherever I go like the Miss.  There was a great exchange in The Mirror Crack'd... when the Inspector tells Miss Marple that it was quite the coincidence that the woman who helped her with her ankle is now dead.  And all Miss Marple says is "Yep." (Paraphrase.) 

Perhaps once I watch more of the Marple, I'll be able to catch on better.  Although, I was overdoing it last night:  I was convinced that the movie star's much younger husband was actually her adopted son.  Why?  I don't listen to Miss Marple when she says "Don't overlook the obvious."  Well, in my defense, she had the script and I didn't. 

Quick recap of Mirror Crack'd: Movie star Marina Gregg buys Marple's pal estate. Neighbor dies at garden party at estate.  And then it goes from there.  (Want to know who did it?  Spoiler below!)

Miss Marple is played by Julia McKenzie...from Cranford!  Weird that I saw her as Marple last year and did not make the connection when Cranford rolled around.  But when I watched Mirror Crack'd, I thought, "The lady with Bessie the cow!"  That's yet another thing I love so much about the Masterpiece Theatre shows: you see a lot of the same actors and since they are not famous in America, you feel like they are your own personal discovery.  (Although Mirror Crack'd did have Joanna Lumley as Marple's nosy friend Dolly and Lindsay Duncan as the murderer...sorry, I meant to say the movie star, Marina Gregg.  I would say that between AbFab and HBO's Rome, respectively, they are fairly known in the US.)  But is Hugh Bonneville a household name?  In my household, yes.  He might be recognized from Notting Hill but he was also in Lost in Austen, the Mansfield Park movie and here he plays the Inspector with a bum arm.  Which is never explained.  Maybe he shows up again to explain it! *hopeful clap clap*

To further express my Masterpiece Actor Nerdom, I should confess that I always go to IMDB and look up the cast.  So that I can say to myself, "I knew I recognized the girl who played the photographer!  She was on Foyle's War two weeks ago!" 

What did I learn from Miss Marple: The Mirror Crack'd From Side to Side?  I see these actors more than my relatives.

American Experience: Into the Deep: America, Whaling and the World

Whaling. Would I have ever watched this had I not been reading Moby Dick?  That's easy to answer: no.  I would have read the description, passed judgment and then seriously considered Dancing With the Stars.  But because of The Whale, I actively reminded myself and made sure my snacks were in place for the 8 pm start time.  (A quick moment to explain why Moby Dick since I'm obviously not in tenth grade: NPR's Monkey See blog started the "I Will If You Will" Book Club Dare.  First book was Twilight.  If you read my other blog, it goes without saying that I did not read along with that one.  So Moby Dick is a natural second choice, right? Palate cleanse, I call it.) OK, ready, set, whale.

I took a lot of notes.  And was amazed by how much I've retained so far from Moby Dick.  It's a bit of work to get through some chapters.  But as Into the Deep explained whaling techniques tonight, I impressed myself with the faint ennui of "yawn, I know this already".  Wake me when you have some relevatory spermaceti facts.  (Explanation! Spermaceti is the coveted substance inside the sperm whale's head.  According to the show, it is "clear as vodka" but when air hits it, it looks like semen.  Hence the name.)

All the spermaceti talk, history of whaling, and other details are hung upon the story of the Essex whaling ship that sunk in 1820 as a result of a sperm whale ramming into the side of it.  The survivors took to lifeboats and made a really bad decision.  "Hey, let's not go to the near island because there may be cannibals.  Instead, let's go three times as far back to South America, get off course, and then resort to cannibalism to stay alive!" 

Herman Melville was inspired (or obsessed, more like) by the Essex tragedy to write his whale adventure that he was convinced was his masterpiece.  The general public? Not as convinced.  According to the show, America was all about the West and whaling was "out".  

Celebrity Voice Over Alert!  Willem Defoe narrates and Robert Sean Leonard reads the Moby Dick passages.  He even makes a brief appearance where he looks at the camera and says (and I say simultaneously because I know it's coming), "Call me, Ishmael."  I then grabbed the remote to mute because I'm only on Chapter LXXI.

But prior to spoilers, what did I learn from Into the Deep? 

There was a Golden Age of Whaling.  About 1820 to the Civil War.  After that whaling declined and, towards the end of WWI, whale ships made more money as props in silent movies than in whaling. 

After a whale is harpooned, one of three things can happen: whale smashes boat, whale dives down  deep, whale takes off.  Whale taking off was known as "Nantucket Sleigh Ride" because the boats are dragged by the fleeing whale. 

Another fun whale phrase is "Chimneys Afire!"  AKA multiple-stabbed whale spouting blood out of its blowhole.  Clever. 

Oh, and the fact that the "sperm" in sperm whale actually refers to sperm. I guess I was giving it the benefit of the doubt...