Back in the day when I as a kid first played the Wolfenstein 3D demo, I had no idea how influential this game would be. Concepts like first person shooter wasn't in my vocabulary at all. Later titles like Doom and Doom II were massive favorites of mine, and then later on games like Duke Nukem 3D and Blood were likewise games I spent hours playing. This is the start of the entire first person shooter genre.
But where did this all come from? Today's video takes a look at idSoftware and where the 3D first person shooter began. So please enjoy this documentary about old school gaming.
With Midnight, the next expansion for World of Warcraft around the corner, I've been too busy to watch a movie, but I have an interesting documentary for you.
Göbleki Tepe, or Göblekitepe, is an archeological site that was occupied around 8000 BCE in Upper Mesopotamia, what is today the Republic of Türkiye. It amongst other things sports advanced stone work that was presumed to not be possible at that time.
Göbleki Tepe is one of those sites that threaten to upend what we think we know about the past and challenges generally accepted history and archaeology. So please enjoy.
That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great week!
Today I want to share a documentary about historical mysteries. Every now and then I like to watch stuff like this as it tickles the imagination. Whether these are actual mysteries or creative fiction, I leave up to you. I'm keeping it short as my brain is still at leaking out of my nose. Stupid winter flu....
That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great week!
A couple of weeks ago, I posted a documentary about Kruschev, but this time we're turning the clock back to the aftermath of the Russian revolution.
In the aftermath Lenin was the undisputed master of the Soviet Union, but he was ill, seriously ill and soon died. Left behind were the top leaders of the party; Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Bukharin, Pyatakov and Stalin.
Everyone besides Stalin were intellectuals, educated intelligent men well versed in political theory and able to debate on the subject with anyone. Stalin was essentially a thug. Little schooling to speak of, but he had funded the revolution with robberies, extortion and murder (amongst other things) when they desperately needed money, so Lenin was forced to give him something, so Stalin was made General Secretary. On the surface this was a nothing job, but Stalin for all his sins was a survivor and a natural schemer. He cleverly used his position to make himself the master of the Soviet Union, but how did this come about? Especially against the intelligent strategist Trotsky?
This is what this week's documentary is about. This is a decent documentary with mostly French historians translated to English but also some information from Trotsky's grandson. There is also really good film footage from those days, really interesting stuff. I wish it had gone deeper into the subject, but it will give you a good general grasp on the events following the death of Lenin.
That's that and all that. Join me again next time, and until then, have a great week!
I recently watched a good
documentary about Nikita Krushchev, and I thought I'd share it.
I have in my years of
reading history come across his name many times. He is the one who
took power in the Soviet Union after the death of Stalin. The one who
built the Berlin wall, the one who stood behind the Cuban missile
crisis, but who was he as a person?
Was he the funny buffoon
as some saw him? The loyal but dumb peasant who did as he was told,
or was there more to this man who was born a poor peasant, worked as
a miner and eventually rose to supreme power?
He is depicted in Enemy at
the Gates (2001) by Bob Hoskins and in The Death of Stalin (2017) by
Steve Buscemi, both very different portrayals. Turns out both movies
got parts of Krushchev's personality correct.
The documentary is
interesting in several ways, but the inclusion of Krushchev's son and
granddaughter adds a good personal touch many documentaries can't do.
So, if you are interested
in history, do watch it and I hope you enjoy it.
That's that and all that.
Join me again next time and until then, have a great week!
Everyone has presumably seen a picture of the Pontifical Swiss Guard who guard the Vatican and the Pope, both at home and abroad. They have been doing this since 1506, and are they are still going strong, and that is what today's documentary is about; what it takes to join the ranks of the Pope's army.
My only complaint about the documentary is that the voice over is text to speech which gives it a flat tone, instead of using actual voice over actors, but beyond that it is pretty interesting, whether you are religious or not.
That's that and all that. Join me again next time, and until then, have a great week!
Quite by accident I ran across a video by historian Mark Felton, concerning Operation Clockwork Orange, which was a plan for a coup by certain British Military and MI5 individuals. Their aim was to secure the country against a communist take over. I had never heard of this so I went looking for more.
I found a documentary, which is absolutely fascinating. The video quality is abysmal, but the audio is clear.
One of the less talked about wars in history is the Falklands war between Great Britain and Argentina in 1982. Despite being a relatively modern war and happening in my own lifetime, I knew very little about it. I did find a very nice documentary about it and wanted to share.
So please enjoy this excellent documentary and join me again next time. Until then, have a great week!
Today's entry is going to be short. I have a nasty head cold, so my powers concentration are severely limited.
Halloween has come and gone, but some people need more. What I have for you today is The Complete History of Horror Movies, hopefully you'll enjoy it, and maybe find something to watch you haven't seen.
That's that and all that. Join me again next time, and until then, have a great week!
I have previously posted about CIA disguise techniques, but today I have a retired MI6 agent talking about the craft, gadgets (or actually a lack of them), and the evolution of how espionage is handled.
Back in 1997 I saw Donnie Brasco in the movie theater.
This gangster movie features Johnny Depp as FBI agent Pistone who goes undercover in the Mafia as Donnie Brasco, and much longer than anyone should be undercover.. Other stars are Al Pacino, Michael Madsen and many more. It is a great movie and even then I knew it was based on a true story.
Of course, "based on a true story" can mean different things depending on the film. Some follow the events closely while others keep a name or two as well as a few minor events before pulling the rest of the script from where the sun doesn't shine.
Today I have a documentary for you about the real events depicted in Donnie Brasco. What happened and what was fiction
but I turned it off at the
40 minute mark. I went in to this movie blind, knowing only that is
is co-written, directed by and starring George Clooney, with Matt
Damon, Bill Murray, Cate Blanchett, John Goodman and many more.
The movie is based on the
true story about the Monuments Men, a group of art experts, museum
curators and such, who were tasked with not only trying to preserve
important art from the ravages of World War II, but also to track
down and return all the art the top Nazis had looted.
Unfortunately, the movie
is a complete mess. A movie has to be more than a collection of
almost random scenes and up until I turned off the movie, that is all
it is. It jumps around at will, inserting scenes that make no sense
and then blissfully moving on to something completely different,with no sense of location of chronological order. It's
such a shame with the actors involved as they are all really good and
this is a story worth telling.
Since I want to use this
blog to promote things I like, I won't say anything more about it,
just that I do not recommend this movie. This left me in a bit of a
pickle, as I still needed something for you. Then I was struck by an
idea. Since the movie is based on a true story, there might be a
documentary about the subject, and there are in fact many.
So, I present to you
Episode 3 of Raider is the Lost Art: The Monuments Men. So that's
that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a
great week!
Okay, so I've been sick for the better part of the week, so I haven't been able to think coherently let alone watch anything or come up with some original content for this blog.
So to give my poor head a break I give you a documentary about people living under Las Vegas. Enjoy that and I'll see you next week!
This week I haven't watched any movies, but I have a couple of documentaries to share with you.
The first one is The Seven Five, a documentary about some of the goings on at the 75th Precinct in New York back in the late 80's. This movie details exactly how the proverbial Slippery Slope works. How a little skimming turns into a massive crime spree with murders, drugs and massive corruption.
The Seven Five was a fascinating documentary,and well worth the time to watch.
Our second entry is The Shock Doctrine, a documentary based on a book by Naomi Klein, demonstrating how the economic principles of Milton Friedman has led to the dictatorships in Chile and Argentina, how the eponymous Shock Doctrine is used to stun the population and make the really rich ultra rich. I'm not educated enough to be able to critique it 100%, but everything it talks about did happen. I guess you need to make up your own mind.
I was in a bit of a documentary mood and since I wanted to find something to share with you, I went to Youtube and found myself a couple of documentaries about WWII, more specifically Hitler as well as the still ongoing hunt for lost Nazi gold.
The first documentary is The Hidden Side of World War II: Last Secrets of Nazis. This is a horrible title as the film itself all about Hitler, his start, and his rise to power. Most of what is presented here I knew about, but there were a couple of details I had never come across before. All in all, a good watch.
The second entry is The Hunt for Hitler's Lost 'Gold Train'. This is a much better title and concerns the hunt for hidden tunnels, buried trains, gold and even the fabled Amber Room. I liked this one a lot, it has a good sense of mystery without going overboard and making myths into fact.
So enjoy and I'll see you next time. Until then, have a great and safe week!
I started watching a Hammer Horror movie starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, but I didn't have time to finish it, so that is on next week's agenda.
This left me in the lurch for this week, so I'm forced to improvise. Thus I present History of Japan by Bill Wurtz, the same genius that made the History of Everything video I shared a couple of years ago. Then I also have The Fallen of World War II, which is obviously very somber but a very interesting watch.
So, enjoy and join me next time, and until then, have a great and safe week!
This week we're once again putting on our learning hats, and watching some documentaries. I have found one about some of Egypt's lost wonders, one about Tsunamis and one about how the Soviet Union lost the war in Afghanistan. I hope you find them interesting and entertaining.
Beyond that, I don't really have anything else to say, so please enjoy and join me again next week for more eccentricity. Until then, have a great week and stay safe!
