Jeroen's Micro Blog

The one hundred thirty-ninth TV show: #676 Project Runway

After we started watching it, we ended up addicted to RuPaul's Drag Race. As a follow up show (a few years later) we picked Project Runway, one of the big inspirations for Drag Race (as that show's third season shows) and something where we see a different side to fashion. Although it seems to take a season or two to truly find its feet, but unlike the other show, Project Runway has a pretty decent standard structure - get an assignment, design and build a garment and show it off on the runway. There are some twists - aside from changes to what you make, some have group challenges or other smaller changes, but often the target group or type of fashion is what matters.

It's lower on drama, it's simpler, but that makes the show much more watchable and your appreciation of their skills builds immensely. It's a neat set up and the show is just as addictive. Unlike other reality shows, this relies on skill and I feel that's what really matters here.

The one hundred thirty-eighth TV show: #594 Malcolm in the Middle

There's something realistically wholesome about Malcolm in the Middle. It has the heart of a family that loves each other, but also the rough way a household of four boys would interact. The parents aren't great - Hal has partially detached, while Lois is the type-A loud mother who seems out of her depth a lot of the time. There's shades of what the Middle later did, but with younger kids, and the cast is a powerhouse- we know what Bryan Cranston can do, and here he goes into everything with wild abandon, Jane Kaczamarek is amazing in the show and the kids are amazingly well cast. The whole series becomes a delight that delivers. The main struggle, at least in these early seasons, is that Francis, the oldest son, is stuck in the military academy - while he gets his own story lines, it feels like an unnecessary separation that makes everything more complicated and doesn't always add much. It's a great show, still, and I'm glad we still have several stations left.

The five hundred eighteenth song: Outdoor Miner - Wire

I'm not sure whether it's the time I'm listening at or something else, but Outdoor Miner's subdued, straightforward slow song doesn't quite fit the post punk feel you'd expect from that moniker. It's a pleasant poppy song, something that could fit into a soundtrack somewhere around track eight. It works well enough, without a bigger impact.

The five hundred nineteenth song: Rapper’s Delight - The Sugarhill Gang

While this isn't where rap started, it's what broke the genre to the world. It's been parodied, sampled and referenced so often that this feels like a parody, but the evolution of funk or disco works here - the music sound is there, but the rap changes it into something more interesting, removing the repetition or longer dance breaks and pushes it further. With the benefit of hindsight this feels a bit simple and commercial, but I do see how this becomes impressive.

The five hundred twentieth song: California Uber Alles - Dead Kennedys

On the other side, California Uber Alles is a highly political song, written with some quite high brow allusions to Shakespeare and Orwell that comment on the governor of California and his actions. It's dark and aggressive, militaristic in places, and it feels like a challenge that stays that aggressive.

The five hundred twenty-first song: Typical Girls - The Slits

Typical Girls is a female led rock song, which feels like it was even rarer at the time - I know we have BLondie ocmic up, but the rock and punk scene has it as the exception, often restricted to the vocalist. Here, the entire band is, with a sound that feels as unique. The guitars and bass as mostly toned down, the drums a bit different, but the slurred punk vocals are there and it feels loose, an anthem that challenges standards and sets its point of view. I can't say this is the best performance out there, but it has its own unique side.

The five hundred twenty-second song: Atomic - Blondie

I'm not sure what this song is trying to say, Debbie Harry's improvised vocals more an instrument than creating that much meaning for the song. That feels a bit futuristic for the time, relying on synths and electric guitars to creating an ongoing beat that just occasionally gets interrupted by some musical flourishes, vocals and the rest that comes in. That, at the same time, fills the room, creating an environment more than anything.

The five hundred twenty-third song: Gangsters - The Specials

The story behind this song - the Specials were blamed for the damage another English band did to a hotel room - feels slightly undercut by the message. Rather than a statement, the early ska vocals feel a tad whiny and the punk vocals seem a bit off compared to the ska sound. It's an odd mix that doesn't always work well and doesn't come into its own until the second half of the song, when it all meshes better. It's a decent experiment and something different from what we've been used to.

The five hundred twenty-fourth song: Cars - Gary Numan

It feels like we had a Gary Numan song in the last batch, and we're in his big stage, with new wave coming in as it is. The first minute and a half have the actual vocals, a commentary on the security while you're in a car and that feeling of immortality - something I've noticed mostly as a regular pedestrian. The music itself continues for another two and a half minutes, a good electric sound that follows those new wave roots further and (aside from synths being a bit out of date) feels like it would now, or at any time. It's good, but it's the first section that works best, while the instrumental part threatens to become a tad too self indulgent in its length.

The five hundred twenty-fifth song: Babylon’s Burning - The Ruts

More reggae punk here, but while The Specials had the reggae vocals, The Ruts' Malcolm Owen sings with a hard rock voice, loud and shoulty in a way that even punk doesn't always have. It lends an aggression to the song that suits the message far better and continues to dominate the track. It feels like a more impressive feat and everything else follows suit - loud guitars, the constant drums and an anger that is felt throughout.

The five hundred twenty-sixth song: Message in a Bottle - The Police

Listening to these songs in context really bring out some of the influences you didn't really think of before hand, and the reggae intro of Message in a Bottle stands out a lot more here. The sound is dropped in the chorus, thankfully, as while it makes the verses sound different, I also wonder whether it adds that much to the song. The driving and desperate chorus feels like the more interesting part of the song, the music underscoring the longing despair that well. It works so well, becoming memorable and interesting as a track still worth listening to.

The one hundred thirty-seventh TV show: #29 Eurovision Song Contest

With the proper Eurovision Song Contest cancelled this year - appointment viewing for us - we've been following along with the recent live rewatches that have been happening on Saturday evenings. Most of these have been reposted on Youtube as well, and so since it's not on tomorrow, we used today to watch an old one that won't be shared as much - just to get that full coverage. And because we were curious about Abba's competition, we thought 1974 would work as a nice option.

It feels like, at times, you are either into the contest or don't care for it at all. We have been faithful viewers for years now and so most of the repeats were familiar. These days, it does feel like a spectacle, with a variation of styles and attempts, with the smaller songs sometimes working better to win than the ones that go huge. And despite the controversies and arguments, for the most part these are friendly arguments, in a friendly competition. Most countries try, and while there are some bloc voting accusations, rewatching these show that, at the very least, it's normally a top three song that wins, as well as the stand out at times. It's best to get into the spirit, embrace the campiness - that wasn't quite there in the seventies, and has been reduced a bit lately, but is also what makes the whole thing just a lot of fun.

The ninetieth book: #74 Frankenstein - Mary Shelley

Thanks to a summarized retelling of the book by the podcast Fictional, I knew that this book wasn't quite like what the movies and pop culture portrayed. The monster's creation is a small part of the story, with no observers or an Igor really present. Instead, the story focuses on Frankenstein dealing with what he created, throughout trying to escape responsibility - abandoning the monster until it gets his attention by murdering his loved ones. Even when asked to make a companion for the monster, he starts but destroys the creature in disgust.

As much as he frets about his relationship - mostly a courtship of his adopted cousin - it reads as a standard romance novel and really is just a set up for the horrendous things happening around him. The monster's story about how he survives afterwards is the more interesting description of his life, and his descriptions of his struggles to find any meaning are harrowing. Even after Frankenstein's death, the monster can't find peace, and the tragedy is his, as much as his creator wants otherwise. It's a powerful story that resonates now, even if popular culture didn't follow up.

The one hundred thirty-fifth TV show: #442 Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

While I don't think I've felt the true religious pressure on the LGBT, I've seen enough of the periphery of it to make me uncomfortable. I've once decided not to pursue a job opportunity because of it. As such, while I don't have as direct an experience with these issues, I can sympathize and understand how hard it is. This story of Jess, an adopted girl from the north west of England. Starting off as a semi-comedy, it morphs into a darker story as she discovers her feelings for another woman, then gets kicked out by her religious parents and gets shunned by most of her community.

As funny as the showcases of their missionary existence are - feeling as often like an excuse to hang out - the tone slowly shows how difficult it is, how much the church has brainwashed them and uses techniques like another cult to keep people in and behaving the way that's desired. It's a story of growing up and finding your independence and letting go off what is damaging you. It's a lovely series, one that makes you think and hits you where it hurts, even as it stays light.

The one hundred thirty-fourth TV show: #118 The Time Tunnel

The concept of a couple of people travelling through time, unable to control where they're going, is an interesting one, explored before on Doctor Who and, dimension or life hopping rather than time hopping, on shows like Sliders and Quantum Leap. To a lesser extent, most sci-fi shows seem to do time travel at some point, both as a different way to tell a story and, to be honest, because those are sets built for other production and so are cheaper to use.

The latter is the driving force of Time Tunnel, using both the sets and crowd scenes of existing productions, with a small guest cast for the actual stories. The success is, at best, mixed, a trilogy of alien stories and the end of the series working because of how bizarre it gets, but stories involving the fall of Jericho and a trip to the Moon doing quite less so. On the whole the show feels ambitious, a trend setter for American television, but flawed now, with too much action where some more dilemmas would have been better. There are places where that comes up, and that's when the episodes are more interesting than when we deal with the fall of Troy following the known beats. We didn't finish it, but it stayed a decent curiosity.

The one hundred thirty-third TV show: #233 I, Claudius

While a lot of people might seek out something fun and distracting during the pandemic, we've ended up going for a historic drama set in Rome, a fictionalized account of Claudius' fictional memoirs and family history, set up at times as a dark comedy and just as often played as a soap opera. What it is, even more than that, is a show where a lot of great British actor give amazing performances, a stage play filmed and better designed. The centre of that cast is, of course, Claudius, played brilliantly by Derek Jacobi. It's hard to see how Charlton Heston would have played him, as the vulnerability, frailty and low status are such a part of his character while also standing up against the other big performances, just forceful enough to stay in focus and not fade. It's an amazing balancing act that is easy to overlook, but he walks the tightrope incredibly well.

The three other emperors show this most clearly. Augustus, played by Brian Blessed, is of course larger than life, well meaning but foolish, and the moment he shows respect for Claudius rather than ignoring him is one of the sweetest moments in there. George Baker's Tiberius always has anger lurking underneath the surface, a sense of insecurity that he feels he has to hide which puts him on that knife's edge all the time. But some of the most amazing scenes are between Claudius and John Hurt's Caligula, who seems otherworldly. His insanity goes between comedic and intimidating, always making you wonder what's happening, and somehow Derek Jacobi keeps being able to stand up to it where it feels like other actors are lessened in between. Livia, Augustus' wife and main driving force in the first half of the series, is an amazing tour de force, a camp villain that remains believable and sets the standard for schemers in the rest of the series (although I don't think any quite live up to it). Other stand outs are, of course, Patrick Stewart and Patricia Quinn, but there are many others. Sometimes they are overshadowed by some of the earlier performances, but (aside from some child actors) most do well, and it shows the talent in the West End at the time.

Add to that how they're working with a great script, hitting the right notes and balancing the serious and humorous sides, and some great directing that makes the best of the limited BBC budgets. Yeah, the sets are often reused, with a lot of happening being told about rather than shown, and the make up has its flaws, but it's not necessary with the performances on display. It's not hard to see why this is still remembered well - all of it still amazing and something that's unlikely we'll see again.