MOVIES AND PHYSICAL MEDIA RECOMMENDATIONS AND INSIGHTS
GREAT MOVIE TRAILERS OF THE DAY
Sports and Competition
AUTO AND HOME IMPROVEMENT NEWS AND INSIGHTS
INSIGHT AND NEWS YOU CAN USE
ART BOOKS AND COMIC BOOKS
guide
Streaming VOD TV Guide for Today 1 April 2020 : Youtube DVD/Blu-ray Edition
All these videos are great. Quick word on this last one. CRITERION, I guess bouyed by the competition from other labels such as ARROW and INDICATOR is really starting to step their game up. I think they are aware that while Criterion has made its name by providing quality curated, feature packed releases of significant titles; today some of these newer labels are really, not just on Criterion’s heels, but have surpassed Criterion in some areas. ARROW has better regular releases, with tons of features, and great books (as opposed to Criterion’s booklets in some cases), INDICATOR has absolutely jaw dropping boxsets. And then you have Shoutfactory and MillCreek and Universal killing it with their line of Steelbooks. There is just a lot of great competition out there in 2020, which is surprising considering how everyone keeps shouting the sky is falling for physical media. I have to tell you, I’ve been in this game quite a while, the physical releases we are getting today, are absolute works of art. Here in 2020 this is the golden age of Blurays/Physical media.
And CRITERION is appropriately stepping up their game. Because this RED RIVER 2018 Blu-ray reissue, of a 2014 release, that Cinema Dave introduces us to… is a must own. Though even here, you can argue that, they shortcut in that none of the special feature are new or original to this release. They use several year old interviews and commentaries, as opposed to ‘new for this release’ features that you do get with companies like ARROW and INDICATOR. Still I do see CRITERION putting out ever more impressive releases to maintain their position, as the most august name in Physical media.
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Currently Listening To – SICARIO and THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING by Johann Johannsson
I am currently listening to the score of the late, great, ‘left us way too soon’ Johann Johannsson.
I absolutely adore the compulsive and propulsive score to SICARIO, and currently listening to his completely different but completely as mesmerizing score for THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING.
What amazes about his score is it does not tread water, it does not overstay its welcome, or pad out the running time with filler. The score gets in, delivers its moments to you, and gets out.
Not a wasted chord, which is incredibly rare. These days a lot of scores feel like they are trying to make a minimum length, they feel padded. Not so with SICARIO or what I’m hearing on THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING. There does not feel to be an extraneous or tired chord,
His style in its surety, and experimentation and power, is reminiscent of the film scores of Quincy Jones at his best, most notably Quincy Jones phenomenal score for his ground breaking IN COLD THE BLOOD, which hands down is one of the greatest scores ever made. And why the EFF almost 60 years later that score is not available on CD, (akin to the way the best films of Ousmane Sembene, CAMP DE THIAROYE etc, are not availanle on DVD or Blu-Ray – I’m looking at you ARROW and CRITERION) is not an oversight, that is a crime.
Click on the image to pick up the album, the only way to hear Quincy Jones seminal work. It is a MUST OWN.
But getting back to the scores of Johann Johannsson, which thankfully are available on CD, if you don’t own his CDs, forget just streaming compressed MP3s, buy a quality $50 portable player, get some decent headphones, enjoy the music as close to the way the artist intended as possible.
Use the links below… and put aside witch hunts and social media bs posing as law, and politicians using fear to further grab power and disenfranchise the masses.
Put aside social media weaponized to remove and demonize those who actually stood up to oligarchs, and fought for you the people.
You, the people, who are so easily stampeded by hashtags and twitter and face-book into eating your own (you butcher the dogs that defend the flock…for being dogs, unaware that they were the only things that kept the wolves at bay)…
Let’s put all that on the back-burner for now, and embrace music, that may just help us…think better, in a world where so few of us think at all.
Enjoy these marvels, from a marvel of a composer. Use Spotify or Amazon Music to try before you buy, then Click on the images to order it in still the best format… CD.
Come back for future installments where we cover the below albums, and much more. And till then subscribe, comment, email, like, and support the links.
It all helps to keep this blog going, and a voice that is perhaps a little different…. out there.
Thanks in advance for your support!
Today’s Deal of the Day – Please click and Support!!!
Today’s 2nd Deal of the Day – Please click and Support!!!
- Black Panther 2018- I hate the fact they only offer the compressed MP3 version on CD, and not a full , wave, uncompressed CD of Goransson’s award winning music. The closest they offer is an LP, and I am not an LP fan, LP does not offer the dynamic range of CD and is a degradation prone medium. I’ll get it for now, but I want a full uncompressed CD! Just for longevity sake. More on this in an upcoming installment.
- The Crow
1994
- Love Jones
1997
- The Sheltering Sky
1990
- Apocalypse Now
1979
- 2001: A Space Odyssey
1968
- The Harder They Come
1972
- Super Fly
1972
Under The Skin
Directed by Jonathan Glazer
Score by Mica Levi
Streaming VOD TV Guide for Today 4 Mar 2020 : Youtube Edition
If you find this guide helpful, please subscribe, like and use the link below and give love to my sponsors. Come back next installment for more!
Streaming TV Guide of the Day : Youtube Shows of the Day!
Streaming TV Guide of the Day : Youtube Shows of the Day!
Or in the words of the MANDALORIAN show… I HAVE SPOKEN! 🙂
So that’s it in a nutshell guys all the must watch Youtube shows for today, the 10th Day of December, in the Two Thousandth and Nineteenth year of a Crucified Lord, if you go by the Gregorian calendar, or the One thousandth Four Hundred and thirty ninth year of the Hijri calendar, or the year Four Thousand Seven Hundred and Fifteen on the Traditional Chinese calendar. Man I love how wacky our world is. 🙂
Anyhow if you love this post guys, give a subscribe, give a like. Takes you two seconds, but it does make a great difference.
Also if you have some disposable income and looking for nifty gifts AND a way to support this Heroic Times blog, in these Heroic… Times, :), then use the link below. We have a goal to move 10 of the emergency bags, quite proud of them, so if moved to, use the link below.
Till next installment… Be Well!!!
Favorite (or if you are British, Favourite) Steelbooks BluRay/DVD! 2019 HOLIDAY / GIFT Ideas! Part 1!
ThE FIFTH ELEMENT and CASINO ROYALE Steel-Books are AWESOME!
That FIRST BLOOD and TERMINATOR II Steelbooks are STUNNING!
That is just a killer STEELBOOK!
WoW! Stunning JUNGLE BOOK (2016) Steelbook!
If you like this post or just want to pick up some great items, use the link below to support this installment’s sponsor:
Support this Blog and get great Items…Here!
Gift – Purchase of the Day / Week : TWO SUN TS102 Knife
I was raised to believe there are a few things every working man needs.
- A good truck.
- A good hat.
- A good book.
- A good shotgun
- A good knife.
- A good goal.
- And a good sense of value to others, before value to just you.
The seven goods I like to call them.
I think they help… not guarantee, but help… set up a young man… to aspire to be a good man, and a man of use, to those around him.
I believe in the seven goods.
Today’s purchase recommendation of the day, revolves around good #5.
I’ve carried a good pocket knife with me for decades. Briefly in the boy scouts, than occasionally in the military, and relatively constantly in civilian life. It’s a daily carry and essential to me in my work and personal life. And I lump multi-tools in with knives.
Anyhow I’ve had a Spyderco knife for years, followed by a Kershaw Clash knife for years. They are both splendid working man’s knives. For me (even though it is out of fashion these days) an old fashioned tip-down, half drop point, half serrated, blacked out blade, remains the height of functionality and usefulness. Open mail, open boxes, strip wires, get out of a stuck seat-belt, removing tie-wraps, even as a prybar in a pinch.
KERSHAW CLASH Get yours here!
I’ll do a list later of my top 5 KERSHAW knives, but click here to browse them yourself.
There is a reason why the Kershaw Clash is one of the best selling pocket knives of all time. It’s not titanium, it’s not on ball bearings, it’s not the metallurgy composition of the moment, it doesn’t have a rad pocket clip, but what it is… is easily one of the best pocket knives ever made.
And no Kershaw is not paying me to say this (Hey Kershaw… Call Me! 🙂 )
In a day where pocket knives are undergoing something of a resurgence, and in large part because of social media, and streaming and youtube knife communities, knives today are being made as sought after collectibles arguably even more so than functional pieces. Knife prices are skyrocketing, as more and more companies, just like car companies, are gearing a segment of their market to those with more money than sense. So pockets knives these days can run hundreds to thousands of dollars.
I personally think once you go over the $150 mark, for a pocket knife, you are paying for the wrapping paper, rather than the product. But each to their own.
As far as a pocket knife for hard use, after many years of hard use, I’ve found no pocket knife related job that a $30 Kershaw can’t do.
But a man does not live by utility alone.
Sometimes you get a thing, because it calls to you, and everything else being reasonable, the cost, the fit, the functionality… you answer the call.
There is no other knife I NEED besides the Kershaw
But I recently found a knife i wanted. Because it was a thing of beauty.
And it is not the HINDERER or THE CHAVEZ or the ABSTRUSE.
I’d no more pay hundreds for those knives, than I would pay hundreds of thousands for a car. Even should I have the disposable income to spend hundreds on knives or hundreds of thousands on a car, it always, being a working man, occurs to me, how you keep money, is by keeping value foremost in your mind regardless how much money you have.
According to articles, some of the people who aren’t just rich, but stay rich, are frugal purchasers. Every purchase has to sustain or keep its value. Very few of the people who maintain wealth through generations, buy without an eye to value.
So, when there is a Kershaw Clash in the universe, paying 10 times what the Kershaw Clash costs for a knife that is not ten times better, and may not functionally be better at all… does not compute.
That $150 limit, kicks in for me. And that limit amount is different for everyone. That price point where acceptable bumps up against a waste of money.
Chinese Knives, as China more and more embraces the benefits of capitalism in a socialist country, and as more and more of American production is off-shored , the quality and status of Chinese Knives has risen, to the point where they are making desirable quality knives at a great price point.
So it wasn’t the multi-hundred dollar Hinderer or Chavez or ZT knives that called to me with a combination of beauty and aesthetics that are beyond the Kershaw Clash, but also at an acceptable value point.
It was a company from China called Two Sun. And it was a specific knife.
The Knife below:
I think the pictures say it all.
And the price on that work of art? Not $700. You can get one today, delivered for around $70.
TWO SUN makes a lot of knives. In my opinion the TS 102 is the finest looking one they make, and the one that called to me.
Get yours HERE!
Please use the links, as purchases made thru them is the best way to keep the proverbial lights on for this blog. Also like this post if you found it useful and subscribe. The 2 seconds it takes you to do that, is really appreciated.
Now the fit and finish on the knife are stellar. Beautiful in person. However it is not without minor issues out the box. It comes over oiled, which will need to be addressed. Also there was a minor speck, scratch on the blade. The one I received had a weak action/deployment, you have to give it a bit of wrist to fully deploy.Because of the extra oomph you have to give it the flipper tab can become rough on your index finger. The pocket clip, while stunning to look at, is so tight that out the box, getting it in to your pocket one handed, not so much, You’ll probably have to work in the pocket clip so it is a smooyh one hand seat and unseat into your back pocket.
The pluses do outweigh the speed bumps, visually it is a showstopper. the feel is solid metal, no plastic here, with a little muscle memory you can get the deployment to work consistently for you. I love the perfect centering and that the blade will smoothly drop shut. And lastly, out the box it is SCARY sharp. It is “you need to respect this knife at all times” sharp. My Kershaw which, functionally, as a pure work knife, EQUALS OR beats this knife in every area, can not hold a candle to the TS102s sharpness.
So report card: In terms of Quality Control, the TWO SUN could use a little work, making sure the blade arrives without any sign of wear, not over oiling it, making sure the action is set properly for reliable full deployment. Those issues taken into account at the $70 price point the knife is a no-brainer of a purchase.
It is today’S and this week’s recommended knife purchase!
Tell em HT sent ya!!!
Streaming Saturdays! Week 17 of 2019! UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Closing out week 17 and entering week 18 of the 2019th year on the Julian Calendar.
This is a list of what is hot and notable in Streaming.Lets get into it:
UNDER CONSTRUCTION COME BACK AT 3PM EST.
Today’s Vetted Amazon Purchases! Gift Ideas!
Today’s Vetted Amazon Purchases! Gift Ideas!
Everyone knows, just like Rotten Tomatoes or IMDB or any other site, Amazon is subject to a lot of fake reviews.A lot of those 4 and 5 star products when you take the time to do the research are junk. Puffed up with scam bot reviews.
This new segment is designed to help you find only the products that have been vetted or checked to have a reliability rating of over 70%. Meaning at least 70% of the reviews are accurate, as well as checking if the company as a whole has an abundance of reliable or scammed/generated reviews.
Without further ado today’s recommended low cost sub $100 tablet. This is for someone who wants a 2nd tablet for non-intensive tasks such as security cam checking or ‘digital frame’ usage or other very casual surfing.
You have lots of mostly Chinese made items in the sub $100 market to choose from. The ones with decent reviews, if you take the time to research, 9 out of 10 are fabricated reviews.
I’ve done the research to find that one out of ten low cost sub $100 tablet that is worth your time (along with the needed memory card). Below is one that has a predominance of reliable reviews:
The HOOZO TABLET 10.
I never heard of this tablet before today. But I was looking for a tablet that would do cellular, that is a lot better than the limited options the cellular provider was offering.
And as I mentioned in this range the market is almost exclusively Chinese made products, due to American big business willingness to dismantle domestic operations to outsource everything to the lowest bidder. And Chinese products are often viewed with a certain amount of dubiousness, and unfortunately when it comes to products China exports there have been numerous documented reasons for this outlook.
Whether it is a matter of varying degrees of quality, sub par build due to making tight margins, or orchestrated malfeasance all of these things have been documented when it comes to Chinese products exported to US shores. And again I’m not blaming the Chinese, I’m blaming short sighted American policy, that has in the last few decades dismantled the idea of local autonomy and creation and putting us at the mercy of the lowest common denominator mentality; unchecked capitalism, being indistinguishable from unchecked tyranny.
All that to say, when it comes to products you are putting in your home, you have to use more than usual diligence. The China made Wyse security cameras that everyone is racing to put in their homes and laud for its features ( which I admit are impressive) has perhaps a glaring issue. The same issue that a lot of devices have, but turned up a few notches. The security camera, may actually be invading your security. But that is an article for another day, but it is in the reviews if you take the time to look.
Anyhow, yes when it comes to products from China, you of course will have great products and great companies. The job is finding them.
That brings us to the HOOZO 10 Tablet.
This one checked all the boxes and was way higher on the reliability scale than the tablets being offered by my cellular provider. And ever since that scandal a few years ago with cellular providers installing hardware back-doors into the devices they sold consumers, I’ve always preferred to bring my own device to a cellular provider.
So this tablet at a sub $100 price, is not going to replace your main machine, but as a secondary or dedicated machine for browsing device or gaming device to free up your main device to be exclusively for more sensitive transactions (if you are using your phone to do purchases,and or banking, or secure email, you should not have game apps, or cooking apps, or puzzle apps, etc on it, that is where this secondary device comes in).
This machine is to help you avoid the ‘one ring that rules them all’ point of failure or security breach.
Get yours here:
I had started my search for 64gb Micro Sd cards, by checking out the usual players first Kingston, Samsung, etc. After digging into the reviews I wasn’t happy with what I was seeing. I then found this unknown to me company AEGO, with a very striking visual design, and much to my surprise they had great pricing AND RELIABLE reviews! More reliable than some of the big names in the field. Add to that there is not often you pick up a micro SD card and give any thought to how beautiful it is, AEGO gets props for making a very utilitarian item such as an SD card, look like a work of art. My vote… pick it up.
Use this link to check it out. If you decide to pull the trigger you will earn a few pennies for this site which I will be grateful for. It helps me to keep producing more content like this. Share the link and spread the word. Without further ado, the link:
Heroic Times 