*Do I know to live or what?
Even though we’ve got a ton of tv shows we already can’t keep up with (this weekend we finally finished season two of The Kevin Bacon Show that ended in…April) we have been on quite a documentary kick lately. All three of these are available on Netflix Instant (and also probably available on Amazon or whatever newfangled things you kids are watching tv on these days) if you want to watch them too.
20 Feet From Stardom
I heard about this before it won the Oscar, when some people from the documentary were on NPR Fresh Air, and I put it on my mental To Watch list immediately. It’s about backup singers and it’s really, really good. Great music, of course (think Ray Charles, The Rolling Stones, Michael Jackson), and it also gives some great background into those people who really have a hand in making certain songs what they are but who rarely get credit. Recommend.
Jiro Dreams Of Sushi
This came recommended by my childhood friend and it is SUCH a delight. It has subtitles, so you have to read (ugh, reading), but it’s worth it. Recommend if you like sushi, food, behind the scenes peeks into the restaurant business, cute old men, fish markets.
Somm
I know I’ve recommended my friend Ben’s podcast, Wine 4 Sophisticated Homies, and while I guess I understood what it meant to be a certified Sommelier (both from the podcast and from other Somm friends), I guess I didn’t realize what it meant to be a Master Sommelier (e.g.: there have only 219 Master Sommeliers. Ever. Granted, the MS certification has only been around for 45ish years, but still. 219 ain’t a lot of people.) Anyway, I heard about this documentary not from the wine homies podcast, but on NPR Pop Culture Happy Hour. I like wine and documentaries, so I thought I’d give it a whirl. It’s okay, not the greatest, but worth a watch, for sure, if only to hear the wacky things they come up with during blind tastings. “Rotten animal meat” was a scent descriptor. So. Yeah.
Other documentaries I want to watch: Unhung Hero (about that, yes) and 112 Weddings.
Any good docs you’ve seen recently? My tastes tend to lean toward fun/airy/uplifting/also informative, rather than scary/if you eat this way you’ll die/do you know where your beef comes from/the world is ending/etc.
Switching gears! The Emmy Awards are tonight! On a Monday! It’s “my SuperBowl,” as Chris says, and he is taking it very seriously, cooking steaks and baked potatoes and generally treating it as the holiday it is should be. (I am taking tomorrow off, not because of the Emmy’s, but that certainly is a happy accident.)
I don’t have specific nominees I’m rooting for necessary (except Allison Tolman from Fargo—Molly Solverson 4EVA) but it doesn’t matter, as it’s always fun to watch while simultaneously drinking champagne, texting my parents (who are also dining on steak and champagne, yes of course we compared Emmy menus yesterday), and crying over the In Memoriam. Maybe more so this year with the recent passing of Our Favorite Orkan.
I love documentaries. I liked First Position and Brooklyn Castle, both about school-aged kids (dancers and chess players, respectively). Not “airy,” maybe, but not downers or anything. Have you seen I Like Killing Flies? That’s a good one too.
I LOVED 20 Feet From Stardom. So good. I’ve been really interesting in seeing Somm, but maybe I’ll give it a go when I have nothing better to do/watch one day…I’ve heard good things about Jiro Dreams of Sushi too! I would give you recommendations, but the only docs I love that I can think of off the top of my head are dark twisty ones.