NewYorkGuy

The problem with our Spectrum boxes is that they automatically shut off after several hours if you haven't sent an external signal to them such as a channel change. So if you've left the house for work one morning you can't program them to record from, say, 3:55 a.m. to 6:30 to ensure capturing a movie that might exceed a 2 hr. 15 min. block like above. You have to set to record the block before and after, and you're going to have a glitch on either side. Oh, well.

I settled down to watch my DVR recording of this well regarded film that was among the network premieres on Ingrid Bergman Day. Listed as having a 2 hour running time in the monthly schedule, in fact it must have been a version with pieces restored because it exceeded the 2 hr. 15 min. block allotted for it on Spectrum. So I'm missing the ending. I'm not here to ask what happens in "Arch of Triumph" -- I'm going to assume they'll program it again someday -- only to say this happens occasionally and it's really disappointing/irritating. I don't know whether the issue is with TCM or the c

Yeah, it's ridiculous, and TCM needs to stop the swoop to no more than one back and forth within one intro or outro. It's already ripe for parody, and we're only on day 3.

Well, the color palette in Ben's intro/outro is very beige/brown -- very 70s. The furniture looks very 50s. I guess there's no room for a bright color anywhere, whereas there used to be at least one accent piece -- a pillow cushion; a vase. Overall it's OK and doesn't call attention to itself, which is kind of the point I guess. But, yeah, the back and forth tracking of the camera does call attention to itself, and I hope that calms down, or stops.

Finally watched "The Road to Hong Kong" on my DVR. Very little about Hong Kong and a lot about outer space nonsense, with Joan Collins as the romance object for both Crosby and Hope. What a stinker.

Well, if TCM has played it many times before, did they play it in letterbox or the way they showed it the other day? Because after the opening letterbox titles it reverted to flatscreen format before switching back to full letterbox only for the end titles. Really annoying.

Carole King's "Now and Forever" was unfairly treated twice. Madonna's contract for "A League of Their Own" entitled her to have the end title song, shoving "Now and Forever" out, and somewhat misused as the opening title where the soundtrack faded it out instead of allowing its last notes to fully resolve. And then Madonna's dirge "This Used to Be My Playground" was Oscar nominated while the Academy overlooked the gorgeous and wistfully uplifting Carole King number. Audio only below.

With only one exception three or four weekends ago when it was in the correct aspect ratio, the Saturday morning Popeye cartoon has been squashed (or stretched; take your pick) since they got into the mid 1950s color shorts. It might have been a programming error the first time, but how it keeps happening week after week seems to be intentional for some reason.

"Rationing," part of this afternoon's tribute to Marjorie Main, starring Wallace Beery. A comedy with a bit of an action sequence at the end, it was a fun satire of small town American life in 1944, with good fun made of the apparently endless government paperwork involved with goods rationing back on the home front to support the war effort. Most everyone dealt with it with some forbearance and a bit of carping, a bit like the social cooperation we're going through to get through today's pandemic. Donald Meek co-stars but it's mostly an underwritten role. Gloria Dickson, who I see died

Watched "Quick Money" this morning on TCM -- a 1937 comedy with only a couple of names still remembered today (Hattie McDaniel and Jack Carson, neither of whom in a lead role here), about a guy returning to his home town ostensibly to build a resort but a small group of citizens suspects something's up. This is the kind of obscure film I love discovering on TCM, this one featuring some great satire on small town American life.

Meanwhile, this morning TCM showed Droopy's "Mutts About Racing," a Cinemascope cartoon, in pan and scan. 🙄

Huh. Just relearned something I didn't remember -- that Peter Firth was in The Double Deckers. 🙂

Friends and I have been surprised that The New York Times has not run an obituary for him.

I DVR'd the 8 p.m. broadcast (eastern time zone). For some reason Jane Fonda's narration is mixed so low as to be barely audible -- none of the other episodes have been like this. Maybe it was fixed in time for the repeat, but I didn't bother recording that.

My company recently unveiled a new invoice input program. None of the administrative staff outside of the accounting department saw it beforehand -- it was just sprung on them. Everyone hates it -- too much wasted white space, too many clicks to get between certain fields and register something as saved. One of the key reasons our old system was changed was that Flash support was ending. I have little to no tech expertise, but for at least the last year every time I logged into TCM -- and I usually access it on my desktop/laptop than on my phone -- the big screen with the promotional g