Maltz, Albert A Tale of One January

Every year on January 1, a quirky crowd of adventurers storms out across North America for a spectacularly competitive event called a Big Year – a grand, grueling, expensive, and occasionally vicious, "extreme" 365-day marathon of birdwatching. For three men in particular, 1998 would be a whirlwind, a winner-takes-nothing battle for a new North American birding record. In frenetic pilgrimages for once-in-a-lifetime rarities that can make or break their lead, the birders race each other from Del Rio, Texas, in search of the rufous-capped warbler, to Gibsons, British Columbia, on a quest for Xantus's hummingbird, to Cape May, New Jersey, seeking the offshore great skua.

A straightforward reissue of the much-prized All the Way from Stockholm to Philadelphia CD (which itself compiled two previously released discs – Mott collecting is nothing if not repetitive!), A Tale of Two Cities finds our heroes in Sweden in 1971 and the U.S. the following year, and in two radically different frames of mind. At the earlier show, touring in the aftermath of the low-key Wildlife album, Mott are facing up to the fact that they're doomed to remain a second-division attraction, adored by the faithful but unknown to the rest of the universe…

BBC - London: A Tale of Two Cities with Dan Cruickshank (2012)
HDTV 360p | AVI | 640x360 | XviD@2657 Kbps | English MP3@128 Kbps | 2 channels | 1h 0mn | 1.18 GiB
WEBRip 720p | MKV | 1280x720 | AVC@2296 Kbps | English AAC@93 Kbps | 2 channels | 1h 0mn | 1.00 GiB
Genre: Documentary

Dan Cruickshank follows in the footsteps of John Stow and John Strype to explore London in the 17th century, one of the most dramatic times in the city's history.