Another journal

Did you know that most library cards come with access to Hoopla? Free movie watching! And comics and music etc etc. But mostly I use it to watch documentaries (and trashy cable sci-fi movies). Here’s some of my go-to docs for both naps and “second screen” watching (also straight watching).

Some faves:

• Ken Burns: The Brooklyn Bridge: This was my first Ken Burns. It broke the seal. I get accused by some people about watching nothing but “bridge documentaries” but I need to clarify I only watch like five over and over. The guy who designed the Brooklyn Bridge (and the father of the guy who built it) was quite a type of guy. This is a cute doc and has some great talk of the history and importance of the bridge and also has a bit where a bunch of kids are building a block version of one of the towers.
• American Experience: The Rise and Fall of Penn Station: What a hell of a building and what a wild time of tech. Getting the bends building train tunnels! Building train tunnels because holy shit you have to commute across the river on a ferry and that gets squirrelly during winter. Also some interesting stuff about historic places there at the end.
• American Experience: Riding the Rails: No lie, I did watch this a couple extra times to scoop some slang and context for a Fallout: New Vegas fic (read over on AO3). But I did also watch it originally as the dessert to a Ken Burns Prohibition/Dust Bowl double feature. It’s super interesting, the whys of kids riding the rails, and how that changed as the depression went on. Because of when it was made, we get to hear from the (former) kids who travelled around jumping on trains, and it’s just a lovely bit of history and story.
• Nature: A Squirrel’s Guide to Success: Squirrels are simple creatures but, like all living things, have some surprising complexity! Just a fun animal doc.
• BingePass: French Chef with Julia Child: The thing about watching TV on Hoopla is you have to check each episode out, which can suck. But for some things they have the “Bingepass” which is just several days of all eps available. They’re great especially for archives like these, the earliest Julia Child episodes! Black and white and old TV quality and there’s so much about what the world was at the time (she got so many kitchen tools from the hardware store?) you can pick up in passing. Also: fun food, great host.

If you read my newsletter, then you’ve seen me talk about the two most-repeated docs on Hoopla for me: The Poison Squad (the Pure Food movement and why our food says what’s in it now) and The Poisoner’s Handbook (ostensibly about forensic medicine, but also about denatured alcohol deaths and leaded gas). My history is honestly mostly these over and over. I’m a simple fellow.

Anyway, some starter docs! There’s loads on Hoopla though. If you haven’t given this library resource a go, I seriously recommend it! It’s free and often available with the “e-cards” some libraries offer that you can get for only digital checkout and resources. You get an amount of checkouts a month and they last about three to five days, depending on the title. In this world of streaming mess it’s nice to have a way to watch stuff that’s not only free but ad-free. And yeah, there are normal movies on there as well. If you’re a Hallmark or a Lifetime fan they get a lot of those titles, which is nice. Get a library card and guarantee yourself some comfort watches.