These are the mad political rantings of one Matthew McNeil, Liberal/Democratic radio host in Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN. The postings are mine, the thoughts are mine. Mostly about politics, but I will occasionally get into raising kids, cooking, gardening, the arts and my favorite sports. Bon Appetite!
This week we start with a weird phenomenon in online video posting, the popularity of mowing/yard clean up videos.
We've all seen that house where the grass and yard are overgrown and it's the neighborhood eyesore. I actually have one a few blocks from my house, a place that was foreclosed on in 2009 and has sat empty ever since. A few times it's been mowed, but for the most part it stays overgrown more often than not.
As bad as it gets, it's still nowhere as bad as some of the houses featured in the videos from SB Mowing. This is a guy who goes around (he started in Kansas but I am not sure if he exclusively mows there or goes around the country), finds the most overgrown yards he can, and then trims them back for free. The transformations are incredible and it is a ton of work. I think the popularity of these videos comes from the idea of bringing order from chaos.
I have enjoyed these videos for a while, but I had not posted them on the Friday Link because I thought this was an old man thing. That was until I found one of my 20-something friends posting one of the videos, telling me they loved watching them too.
Here are two from SB Mowing to get us started.
Two more quick ones for you tonight. The latest season of Fargo is great, but they really do over enhance the accent. Here is a video of the cast talking about having to learn the accent.
And finally tonight a compilation of the best celebrity cousins from Finding Your Roots, the great PBS show that tracks people's DNA history.
Have a great weekend everyone! Please make sure to get vaccinated and be careful with all the different health crisis issues going around.
Let's start with the video this week that got everyone in the world of dance abuzz! This is the University of Minnesota Dance Team 2024 Jazz performance from the national championships. The first video is the preliminary run through, the qualifying round. This one features the music more clearly.
WOW! I'm not a dance person, but WOW! That was freaking amazing. Here's the part I do not understand. They finished 2nd behind a VERY good Ohio State performance. This video of the U of MN team has gone crazy, an undeniable social media sensation, with pretty much most dancers and most dance instructors calling it "historic" "mind blowing" and "ground breaking." Apparently the second set of team spins with the jump and straight into another spin has never been done before, let alone synchronized.
Once again, the Ohio State routine was also quite good, but considering how many intelligent dance people are calling what the Golden Gophers did "unprecedented," how the heck did they finish 2nd?
Here is the post from the finals and this time listen to the crowd.
Impressive regardless.
Finally tonight a fun little Oscar nominated animated short from 2010 called French Roast. It's pretty self explanatory. Enjoy!
Be safe! Get all your vaccinations and if you are in a busy place, like an airport, please wear a mask.
Howdy all! I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend.
The Doctor Who convention is in Minneapolis this weekend and it allows me to revisit my favorite TV show of all time! Quick recap, David Tennant returned as the 14th version of the Doctor and in the finale of his three special run (titled 'The Giggle') he ran into an OLD foe of his from the 1st Doctor's run, The Toymaker, an insanely powerful entity.
In a bit of brilliant casting, Neil Patrick Harris was cast as the new version of The Toymaker and it went spectacularly. Watch these specials and the first episode with the 15th Doctor Ncuti Gatwa on Disney Plus.
Here are three clips from 'The Giggle' to wet your whistle, including the incredible Spice Girl scene.
Also this weekend, how the heck is John Mulaney not hosting every awards show. He turned up to host the Governor's Awards and he was SO GOOD!
Finally tonight is an incredible clip from the British version of Antiques Roadshow. This dresser features a stunning secret. The wood itself is 150 to 200 years older than the dresser itself and it is incredible.
Have a great weekend!
Get vaccinated and mask up if you are traveling or in a large crowd!
Happy New Year to everyone! Let's hope it's a good one.
This week I am going to post the complete series 'The Men Who Killed Kennedy,' all 7 hours and 16 minutes of it! This originally was a much smaller documentary, about 2 hours, produced by ITV in England. The documentary was a deep dive into the allegations that Lee Harvey Oswald didn't act alone in killing John F. Kennedy.
Let me start with what the documentary got wrong. The documentary's original allegations were three men were guilty of the assassination and named all three men specifically. Then one of the men threatened to sue. Upon further review, the men all had pretty good alibis that they were not in Dallas in November of 1963. Nigel Turner who put this documentary together admitted he didn't interview at least one of the men, failing to do even a basic fact check on some elements of the documentary.
Also, the documentary kept getting added to. The original documentary came out in 1988, and then in 1991, it was re-edited and more footage was added. In 1995, another episode was added, and then in 2003, they added three whole new episodes, bringing the total to 7. The later episodes were criticized for their implication LBJ himself was somehow involved in the assassination. Today, the complete episode list is cataloged at 9. I have no idea.
Here's what sent a chill through me in this documentary. Two known facts about the assassination point to Oswald not being the lone shooter. First is the President's head moving back into the shot from the book depository behind him. That is absolute garbage. The physics of force don't work that way. If he was shot from behind, his head would have flown forward. The second is the magic bullet. Bullets don't do what the Warren Commission claimed the magic bullet did. When you present these two facts, skeptics will say "If Oswald didn't work alone, then where is the evidence of someone else shooting?"
A lot of people reported gunshots from the grassy knoll, but a lot of the film taken towards the grassy knoll was confiscated by the government and never seen again. There was one picture that clearly shows the grassy knoll and in the 2nd episode, they have a photo expert analyze the image. What they discover would stop anyone in their tracks. Watch the 2nd episode 'The Forces of Darkness' from 51 minutes in.
The documentary might have laid the blame at the wrong feet, but someone else CLEARLY was involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. That's a conspiracy.
Please get vaccinated immediately, especially for COVID and the flu.