respublica

The most talented HGTV stars

Like many Americans I've been watching a lot of HGTV during this pandemic era. Actually, I have always been a regular viewer of this network beginning back at its beginning. This article has a bit of information on what many viewers think of the current network stars and programming, ending with who we think are the most talented.

Any guesses? I guessed right even though these two guys are my least favorite mainly because they dominate the programming and I'm tired of them. Yes, it's the Property Brothers.

What's good recently is an influx of new HGTV programs with new people.

No Roku HGTV

When I went up to bed last night I turned on the TV to watch HGTV which I normally do. That TV is hooked into Roku and for some reason HGTV would not come on. The title ;page showed up and then it disappeared. This morning I went to our basement TV and tried it there and the same thing happened. I'm wondering if HGTV has cut the cord with this device and am pretty sorry about the loss.

However, I was able to get this channel by going through the Spectrum app, but it still makes no sense. I'm going to try a couple of other channels to see if the same thing has happened.

Missing the Rose parade

It just isn't New Year's Day without the Rose Parade. It's been canceled due to the Covid which itself needs to be canceled.

In any event the Rose Parade people are still going to air a two hour special during the time the parade would ordinarily run. It's called The Rose Parade's New Year's Celebration and will have lots of celebrities and begins at 10 Central time on the Hallmark Channel. I don't know if it will also be on any other channel like other years, but we will look in on it since Dale has twice ridden on the Lutheran Hour float, the last time was 2017 and we took all the kids and grandkids along.

A perfect ending to 2020

We did not stay up to say good-bye to 2020 or ring in 2021. However, we did see midnight arrive thanks to a neighbor one house down shooting off fireworks in his driveway. But that was no big deal. What we are happy to have missed was the Times Square Ball drop and entertainment preceding it. What we saw on the morning news about Cindy Lauper's performance at that event was bizarre. And we are not alone it seems. Many comment on the news site that her gig was the perfect ending to the weirdest of weird years. Said one: "Cindy Lauper's performance has now officially become the worst thing to happen in 2020."

A tribute documentary to The Hill neighborhood

Tonight at 7 Channel 9 in St. Louis will televise a documentary on The Hill. Most of us have been on The Hill at one time or other to eat at one of the many good restaurants. This film spends less time on the eating part and more on how this area developed, its history, and how it is seeing a  renaissance today.

We've been over there many times through the years and it always appears to be a strong, stable place. Homes are not big mansions, but are meticulously cared for, and I always believed I could happily live thee.  I'm looking forward to watching this tonight if I can keep Dale off the remote for a football game or some such.

Better TV watching

I have to say, I am enjoying having a Roku set up on two of our TV's. One in the bedroom and the other in Dale's basement book area. I was reminded of just how much I like the Roku this morning while reading a story on Ina Garten recipe. Ina at one time had a long running show on the Food Network, one of many interesting chefs and average cooks. Now this Network is mainly competitions with people crazily scrabbling together a meal and then being judged against others.

But with Roku, I can get all the old favorites on the past shows. I love being able to see actual chefs cooking and explaining as they go along, often with great humor. These are shows we watched back in the 90's and early 2000's and they are still viable today.

The same holds true for HGTV, such a relief from the incessant renovation shows on these days. Way too much Property Brothers and Love it or List It.

A second Roku

Well, if one Roku is good, a second is better. Right? I am picking up another today for Dale's basement TV. He spends so much time down there working on new bookshelves and a multitude of other things I believe he needs something to watch when he takes a break. We have a tv down there which is not usable without some sort of input and I've read that a second Roku will work with the first. If I enter my original account info, what we have in the bedroom we will have in the basement.

I hope this is true. And, in the basement Dale can watch that horrifying Roman History series he loves. It's just too violent for me, those old Romans were merciless.

Coming late to the movie party

We've had a Netflix subscription for some years but never really bothered with it. For one thing, our main TV isn't a smart TV so it hasn't been possible to use streaming attachments. That is why Dale surprised me, really surprised me, the other night when he went to bed and ended up watching series on ancient Roman history. I asked him how he got that on the bedroom tv which is smart and has Roku. He said, I found it on Netflix.

Frankly Dale is not the most tech savvy person and the fact that he found Netflix on the Roku and this Roman series boggled my mind. I guess we will now be regular Netflix users, better late than never.

What I found on Netflix that same night was this really fun cooking series, The Great British Baking Show. It's very entertaining in a very British manner. This was after Dale finished with the horrendous violence that took place during ancient Rome. It was a nice change of pace.

Too much cable interference at the conventions

We've been attempting to watch each political convention. Last week the democrats, this week the republicans. What has been frustrating is how the cable people have been inserting themselves into the proceedings as though we can't interpret what is happening for ourselves. They have been talking over whatever is being presented on the convention floors.

I about had it last night and found I wasn't the only one bothered by this, many on twitter were exasperated as well. Many began advising to just go to CSPAN where they showed just the convention speakers with no commentary. I'm not sure I even want to bother anymore, cable people believe they are the be all and end all of what is going on for each party.

No volume, he said

We still haven't had our smart tv replaced which was broken by the movers, but having the Roku set up in the bedroom has been very handy. But I had to laugh at Dale's vague understanding of most tech things. He got rather addicted to watching a Netflix series on the history of ancient Rome while we were still at the seminary. Once we got the Roku going this week he was thrilled to go back to watching how horribly the Romans killed each other. That was my impression on the series anyway.

So last night he went up to the bedroom, pulled a chair in front of the tv and watched all this again. Each episode is 45 minutes long and I'd guess he watched two last night. I went up to see how he was doing and was surprised he was sitting so close to the screen and he said, "the sound is really low on this series for some reason, the only way I an hear it is to sit right next to it. He couldn't find the volume control on the actual tv. When he finally shut it down for the night I went up and looked at the Roku remote and sure enough, there was the volume up and down control on the side.

Too late for him, but there is always another day.