What to Watch This Weekend - June 18, 2011

June 17, 2011 - 22:57 -- RokuGuide

There are a lot of great videos and music selections on Roku, much of it free, but finding good stuff can take a bit of effort. To help you out, here are some ideas for what to watch on your Roku this weekend.

Revision3With the ability of camcorders, digital cameras, and even smartphones to record great-looking video, many more people think of themselves as amateur filmmakers. If you're one of those, you might be interested in Film Riot on the Revision3 channel. Billed as "a how-to trip through filmmaking from the hyper-active mind of Ryan Connolly", this weekly series addresses a wide range of film making topics. Recent shows have covered high-speed slow motion, how to direct actors, lighting tests, and many other technical aspects of creating films. All 107 episodes, dating back to May 2009, are available on Roku.

CrackleAmerican Dreamers is a series on Crackle that tells the stories of eccentrics, inventors, artists, and dreamers who are attempting to create their own American dream. In 11 episodes from 2008, you'll meet people such as Dixie Dynamite, the 82-year old former Marilyn Monroe impersonator who opened the Burlesque Hall of Fame in Las Vegas. Howard Kapp, owner of the world's largest kazoo collection. Angelica Insectivora, a fire eater at the Coney Island Sideshow. You'll find these documentaries/biographies under the Originals category on Crackle.

Y'all WireFans of country and bluegrass shouldn't miss Y'all Wire, where new music videos include Brandon Rhyder - Lord, I Hope This Day is Good, Luke Pilgrim - Sweet Tea, The McClymonts - Wrapped Up Good, and Jon Pardi - Guitar Town (Live).

Pub-D-HubIf you prefer to settle in with an old movie or two, new offerings this month from Pub-D-Hub include Under the Big Top (1938), a film in which a young circus trapeze artist is pushed by her domineering aunt to be the best aerialist in the world, until she begins to fall for one of the two men in her act, and her mother determines to break up the romance. Things become even more complicated when the other trapeze artist falls in love with the girl. Bells of Rosarita (1945) is a western in which a woman inherits a circus, but her dead father's partner tries to take it away from her. Western movie star Roy Rogers comes to her aid. In Submarine Alert (1943), Nazi spies use a stolen shortwave transmitter prototype to broadcast top secret shippping info to an offshore Japanese sub and the government tries to nab the spy ring.

ChowNew videos on Chow include how to cut with a chef's knife, making a vegan breakfast parfait, and making lemonade with whole lemons. Get a taste of food in new locales from the CHOW Tour series, which has episodes on impressive sandwich shops in Portland, frozen desserts in Oakland, and food trailers in Austin.

ClassicalTVFor fans of classical music, ClassicalTV has several new videos, including Discovering Delius, an hour-long documentary that looks at the early life and work of the young composer; a piano recital by Brazilian pianist Cristina Ortiz; a solo piano concert by Viennese jazz musician Joe Zawinul, recorded live in Munich; and The K&K Opera Choir performing well-known opera choruses with the K&K Philharmoniker.

New Roku ChannelsIf none of my picks interest you, check out the new Roku channels that were added to the Channel Store this week. Try them out and leave comments on the RokuGuide channel pages letting other know what you think about them.