this review is late but here's a summary of what i was netflixing in january.

"flight of the concords, season 1" - since i haven't had cable tv for years, i just don't keep on shows, especially not ones that only air on cable. i heard some buzz about these kiwis, saw a couple clips on the net, and decided to watch it. you know, it's ok, not great, but still good, but it's kinda slow and boring at times. i think it's just a different style from the usual tv show. that's refreshing. some of the comedy is funny but watching it in its entirety is not as funny as watching a short clip that highlights the best punches. or maybe it wasn't as funny because the joke wasn't fresh as i'd already seen it. this show looks incredibly cheap to produce, which is a good thing. for tv, i say stop spending so much on sets and locations. get back to the raw material of what makes a show good. for these guys, it's the humorous songs. they create some situations and put in a song about it. works great for them. others could learn from it.

"black sheep" - more kiwi humor. this is a comedy horror film. the trailer was hilarious. however, it stayed at the house a long time. we watched the first half hour but never got around to finishing it. by the time i finished it, i was disappointed. it's much better as a trailer. especially if you've been to new zealand! however, i feel like it lost something the more it went on. perhaps it would've worked better as a short film.

"meet the spartans" - this was part of my watching spoof films to get away from the serious side of life and boy was it awful. towards the end i fell asleep for a bit and never went back to watch the bit i fell asleep during. that's not like me at all. tells you how bad the movie was.

"the times of harvey milk" - i got this one to learn more about harvey milk since there's a bio film out on him in theatres and i thought i'd go see it but it's looking like i'll wait until it's on dvd. i heard of harvey when i was living up towards san francisco but never bothered to read about his life. interesting times. i can't imagine living then and going through that era as a gay man but in some ways it seems so extreme, like lots of good times but also lots of hard and sad times. anyway, such things as social issues and politics are just things i need to ponder more.

"the other boleyn girl" - i had no interest in this film but twiddle thumbs wanted to watch it. alright then, let's watch it. wow, it was actually good. they actually made british royalty interesting! then i go online to read about the history behind it and find out the differences in what historians believe and what the book behind this film depicted. that's ok though as it got people like me interested in something they weren't interested in before. watching period films like this just relieves me that i live in modern times and am not being married off against my will for class/political gain.

"lianna" - can't remember why i put this one in my queue. must've read some review or it got recommended a long time ago. it was alright. the protagonist resembled an aunt of mine on at least one occasion during the film and that was a bit weird for me because that aunt is dead. kind of haunting. she resembled a photo of my aunt when i was too small to have memories of those days. so it was like a ghost of a ghost.

"behind the player: john 5" - john 5 is a technical guitarist and sounds like buckethead at times partly because, well, he likes buckethead. they both can play incredibly fast, skilled in various genres, both play guitar and banjo, and i think both keep pushing themselves to learn their instrument and become even better. i'm much more impressed with john 5 in this respect than in any of the bands he's been a part of and written music for. i know marilyn manson the best but his time with them sucked. i haven't heard all of john's solo albums but the ones i do own, like i said, they remind me of buckethead, in a good way, though i'd probably prefer that they were altogether a new sound for me. i was curious to see this instructional video to see if john can teach as well and for more of up an close look at his skills. this video is too short but i liked it for a couple reasons. first, it makes john look like a good guy. yes, he is always pushing himself to learn. he seems humble. that's saying a lot because there are many guitarists with an air of arrogance who have much less talent and not as an impressive rock resume. also, there was a video tab portion and it's something i've never seen before. you really have to check out video tab as it's quite cool. you definitely have to reach a certain guitar skill to do it but it seems like a great way to play along to a song that one might have been trying to figure out.