Sunday, September 27, 2009

What to Watch

I finished a PBS documentary called Manor House that was filmed in England in 2001 (I think it was shown in 2002). It's a reality show where these people volunteer to live in an 1800 century Manor House, and some of them live as the "landed gentry" and the other work as the servants. It's a three month project, and it's pretty remarkable. The family that's chosen to be the temporary owners of the home are in hog heaven. I'm honestly not sure why anyone would have volunteered to be a servant - they literally must work for like 18 hrs a day, emptying chamber pots and lugging incredibly heavy things this way and that way. While the douche-y family talks about how special and pampered they feel, the servants downstairs are plotting the various ways they would like to murder them.

Something I find interesting is how it seems to be a natural inclination to assume that if we like, lived in another century, we'd be the owners of like, Versailles, but, it seems pretty likely that most of us schmucks would be the servants (if we're LUCKY!) The Manor House website confirms this for me with a lovely little quiz. I'm somewhat cheerfully informed: You are in Service in a Country House! AND! Not only that! But, apparently, I get PG out of wedlock and die alone in a work house. It told me that. For realsies.

If that's too erudite for you, you might enjoy Drunk History - a hilarious bit of comedy involving drunk people explaining historical events while actors like Michael Cera and Jack Black act them out. #3's my favorite.

And if even Drunk History requires too much thinking, may I offer you "Baby Dancing to Single Ladies"? You won't be disappointed.

4 comments:

dad said...

Sign me up for those 18 hour days, just what I want to do, work for a bunch of schmucks!!....who is that baby? I think he got tired!

kbmulder said...

I really want to see that documentary. Where did you find it? Netflix?

I saw the baby video and so I showed the Beyonce video to Charlie to see what he'd do. He was bopping, but not quite like that little boy. Awesome! I would like to learn that dance, it is a great workout!

Special K said...

Yeah, Netflix has it!

OMG! I want to learn the dance too! But, I was thinking, I bet if I watched it like 4 times in a row, I'd still be just shakin' my left foot like that baby!

Carrie said...

My 1900 outlook was the same as yours of course, so I put in Milo's with a creative/artist dad- it said he would be a boilermaker who would cheat on his wife at every opportunity!