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It's been a very long time since I've posted a musical obsession.  I'm watching The Blacklist and I cannot tear myself away from this song. frame>

It's that time of year again. With no baseball, and home most nights, even before the lockdown, I spent a lot of time watching. First, my annual recap. (This is killing me because these posts had hundreds of comments.) - Canadian musicians and comedians (2006-07 and 2007-08) - my beverage of choice (2008-09) - famous people who died during the past year (2009-10) - where I'd like to be (2010-11) - vegetables (2011-12) (I was out of ideas!) - Big Life Events in a year full of Big Life Changes (2012-13) - cheese (I'm getting desperate!) (2013-14) - types of travels (2014-15) -  famous people who died plus famous people who died, part 2 (2015-16), - the picket line (2016-17), - movies (2017-18), and last year... I stopped this. I changed to a more conventional 1 through 5 rating system, using ☮ as a meaningful symbol. I'll change symbols every year. This year, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, the symbol could only be 💉. (That's Blogger's syrin...

On my recent post about streaming -- five reasons streaming is still better than cable and etc. -- I alluded to something towards the end of the post that I want to spotlight here. We need a universal watchlist app. Perhaps several universal watchlist apps, so we can choose the one that suits us best. This app would combine all your watchlists, from all the different streaming services you use, into one list. I wouldn't have to look through Netflix, Crave, Prime, and Britbox - not to mention some free services that once in a while have something good. I wouldn't have to wonder, Where did I see that show? Was that Netflix or Prime or Crave? Didn't we see something good on Tubi? Or was Hoopla? All my watchlists across all services would be combined. Reelgood and JustWatch may do this, but it's unclear. I'll try them both and report back. One thing right off the top: Reelgood doesn't include Crave, even on their Canada site. Crave is where Canadians can legally...

If you stream movies and TV series, you know that the proliferation of streaming channels has had mixed results for consumers. Many shows that were formerly on Netflix have been pulled by their media parents, and are now found on different streaming apps. At the same time, Netflix's monthly price has increased -- so you're paying more for less. Those who still want access to the shows no longer on Netflix need to subscribe to an additional streaming service; Disney (which has all the Marvel properties) and Britbox are two big culprits. Two other very popular streaming services, Crave (owned by Bell Media) and Prime (owned by Amazon), have exclusive rights to many enticing shows, including all the HBO and Showtime series. Recently Bell Media made an annoying cash-grab by offering a first season of a given show on Crave, then requiring an additional subscription to Movies+HBO or Starz to watch the rest. Many people have observed that if you want a few of these services, the pric...

Allan and I have been greatly anticipating "Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story", the new film by Martin Scorsese released this week on Netflix. When "The Last Waltz" opened at Radio City Music Hall in 1978, I was a senior in high school. My friends and I skipped school and snuck into the city to see it. About 10 years later, Allan and I saw it together (he for the first time) and it became a touchstone of our relationship. These days, rearranging work schedules to watch a movie is no longer an option, but we waited until we were both available and could watch this film together. I loved it. The film is a joy from start to finish. I'm sure I will watch it again and again, and future viewing will reveal more to delight, enlighten, obscure, befuddle, and entertain. Here are some reasons why. 1. Dylan then. His stage persona is warm, forceful, and passionate. The songs he has chosen are socially engaged. His voice has never been better. He seems relaxed, happy...

Time to change things up. I've (finally) gotten tired of my silly movie award categories , and need a change. I decided to go with a conventional one-to-five rating scale. But I wanted to use a good symbol, something other than stars (too common), thumbs-up (too cliched) or a maple leaf (too patriotic). I'm using a symbol that's very meaningful to me. (To be honest, it was between ☮ and this , but I could only get the peace sign to work in Blogger.) Here are the movies and series I watched between the end of the 2018 World Series and 2019 Opening Day, alphabetically, rated on a scale of five. 45 Years ☮☮☮ This drama featured truly great acting, and a certain amount of tension. Ultimately, though, I didn't buy the premise. Would a lifetime marriage really founder on a revelation about feelings that occurred before the couple even met? It strained credulity. 8th Grade ☮☮☮☮ This movie perfectly captured what it feels like to be in 8th grade and an outsider, struggling to s...

In my most recent Listening to Joni post, I said that I write with my brain, but I listen to music with my heart. A few nights ago in New York City, my music heart broke in pieces, over and over again. I've seen a lot of theatre -- and quite a bit of Bruce Springsteen -- but I'd never experienced anything quite like this. Springsteen on Broadway is one of the most intensely moving theatrical experiences I've ever had. The show starts with humour, both Springsteen's typical self-deprecating humour, but also a satirical bragging -- the guy who has never held a job in his life, singing about the workingman, the guy who has never driven one block singing about cars: "That's how good I am." Sometimes the humour is just a facial expression and a hand gesture -- which plays perfectly for the tiny 900-seat house. But the humour soon gives way to a raw intensity. Springsteen relieves the tension with the occasional laugh, but by that time, the audience is chucklin...

If you're an app developer for MLB, or if you're with Roku or AppleTV, skip down to the final paragraphs! Because Allan and I follow an out-of-town baseball team, we subscribe to MLB.TV, and have done so for ages. As much as I dislike pay-per-TV services, being able to watch any baseball game at any time, with either the home or away feed, is amazing. Once we were able to do this by streaming, as opposed to through cable, the price went down and the quality went up. I've blogged many times about the wonder of the Roku streaming device, and how it solved so many issues for watching baseball, TV series, and movies. Last year, I learned that the Canadian streaming service CraveTV offers lots of Showtime and HBO content. Thanks to exclusive licensing deals, Crave is not available on Roku; it only streams on AppleTV. (You can watch on a computer or mobile device, but we don't like that.) So in order to get the additional Showtime and HBO content, we bought an AppleTV  devic...

The list of movies I want to see gets longer and longer, as I watch more series and fewer films. Even so, the 2017-18 list is impressive. First, the annual recap: - Canadian musicians and comedians (2006-07 and 2007-08) - my beverage of choice (2008-09) - famous people who died during the past year (2009-10) - where I'd like to be (2010-11) - vegetables (2011-12) (I was out of ideas!) - Big Life Events in a year full of Big Life Changes (2012-13) - cheese (I'm getting desperate!) (2013-14) - types of travels (2014-15) -  famous people who died  plus  famous people who died, part 2  (2015-16), and last year: the picket line (2016-17). This year, we go meta with movie awards organized by movies. (Thanks to Allan for the idea.) I've made no attempt to survey all the movies I've seen and find the perfect headliner. I just found films that, for me, represent the level of the award. Annie Hall Woody Allen's 1977 classic is one of my favourite movies of all time. ...

The list of movies I want to see gets longer and longer, as I watch more series and fewer films. Even so, the 2017-18 list is impressive. First, the annual recap: - Canadian musicians and comedians (2006-07 and 2007-08) - my beverage of choice (2008-09) - famous people who died during the past year (2009-10) - where I'd like to be (2010-11) - vegetables (2011-12) (I was out of ideas!) - Big Life Events in a year full of Big Life Changes (2012-13) - cheese (I'm getting desperate!) (2013-14) - types of travels (2014-15) -  famous people who died  plus  famous people who died, part 2  (2015-16), and last year: the picket line (2016-17). This year, we go meta with movie awards organized by movies. (Thanks to Allan for the idea.) I've made no attempt to survey all the movies I've seen and find the perfect headliner. I just found films that, for me, represent the level of the award. Annie Hall Woody Allen's 1977 classic is one of my favourite movies of all time. ...