The one hundred twelfth album: #112 Os Mutantes - Os Mutantes
Listening to this, I feel like I'm still trying to define where tropicalia fits in. It has elements of samba in it, but with more rock influences and a larger soundscape. Not to the point that psychedelic rock has it, but there are more effects in the album, distortion from guitars and other weird sounds that make it sound like far more than a recording of a concert like samba would be. It's not just a party, there's more in here and the experiments pay off.
There are also parts where it gets more gentle, O Relogio already getting calmer and gentler. It's surprising how that doesn't actually stand out, but there's a spectrum where there might be weird sounds, but it's not full on party. It made for a better than if I were to have the samba-inspired rock playing the whole time. That variety, coming from the many different sources the music draws from, makes for a great, varied album with a good mix of songs.
The one hundred eleventh album: #111 Ravi Shankar - The Sounds of India
For a real change, today I listened to an album of Indian music. Ravi Shankar introduces each piece explaining the music, how it evolves and how it changes, and the context helps me appreciate a bit more what they're actually doing.
With the focus of the music being different, it sounds more supporting - not background music, but not something I felt I focused on as a single thing. It would work as a performance and worked to get me in a mind set - more energetic than that might imply, because of the speed and rhythm changes. The improvisations are compared, to some extent, to jazz on the album, and it does feel similar to that - a basic number that they play around with and extrapolate from. It's good to hear some different music and this was especially worth it, even aside from the influence it has on psychedelic rock after this.
The fifty-eighth book: #48 Dangerous Liaisons - Pierre Choderlos de Laclos
While I've enjoyed plenty of early books, it does feel like at the moment, a lot of styles are still evolving for the better. Epistolaries have not been my favourite, but they have been getting better and while Dangerous Liaisons has its faults, it was a lot more readable. The shorter letters help a lot from me getting too lost if I have to stop halfway during my commute. They also keep the narrative focused, it was nice not to have too many digressions and allowing for a more linear action, rather than the letters dealing with multiple events (possibly out of order). By focusing on the duplicitous characters, the story becomes a lot clearer as well. Still, there's a focus on skipping over the action, which means events get lost sometimes and the gaps seem longer than they really do. Still, it was very readable and I'm happy to feel them getting better.
The ninety-first TV show: #630 I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!
There are some shows on this list that I know I'm not going to love. Reality shows can be a pretty mixed bag and I'm A Celebrity has always been a bit meh for me. I can see why it would be something people would latch on to and it could have won me over, but they type of production and set up doesn't wow me. Celebrities on these shows can always feel a bit weird, even if they usually know better how to entertain, and the concept feels like it could be quite cringy. I watched the 2016 season, which seems like it was particularly conflict free (although I wasn't too enthusiastic about pursuing others). Mostly it feels like they were sitting around in the jungle, in uncomfortable circumstances, but in the end a camp that's mostly set up for them rather than doing more survivally tasks that you might get.
Instead, there are daily tasks for food and sometimes extras. A lot of it relies on eating weird things - the less weird ones are part of their meals every day, but the bugs and other Fear Factor items are part of these challenges. In others, it's about getting keys or stars (each of which presents a meal) from containers that are bad in some way - filled with gross liquids, weird creatures (that might sting if it's not lethal, or are safely kept track of so they can't do harm) or other things like it. It's from the jungle, but not that jungly. For me the most interesting ones were the ones dealing with fears or heights and such - that requires some skill. I understand none of it is pleasant, but it feels repetitive and mostly seems to require getting past it. It feels like it got quite samey early on, unfortunately - especially with the successes I saw most of the time.
The presenting got to me a bit as well. Ant and Dec are quite charming and I could see why they made it on here, but their ad libs are better than the written jokes, which are terrible - sometimes ackonwledged, but sometimes intentional, but often more annoying than anything. I can see the appeal, and enjoyed this more than I would enjoy Big Brother, but this might just be a bit much.
The ninetieth TV show: #611 Six Feet Under
A TV show about a family whose family business is an undertaker has to start, by dramatic necessity, with the death of a family member. I believe it also ends with one. I'm not sure I could imagine another way in a series where death plays such a major part. There is usually one per week, and aside from the procedures surrounding that, like the service and the body being prepared, often it feeds into the themes of the episode and the problems the other characters face.
While they have a number of standard conflicts, they feel like they got a bit more complex than they would have been. One of the brothers is in a gay relationship that has shades of internalised homophobia that feels right for that era. The playboy settling is dealing with health problems and the troubled daughter feels more developed than mostly any other one I've seen. It's helped by a formidable cast that can handle everything admirably well, with a lot of charm that makes you see all sides of them. Conversing with the dead and the other dream sequences play out amazing (especially when Michael C Hall can bring out his other theatre experience in a fairly early musical number) and give a better insight into these characters.
It makes for an intense series - not something we could binge, but something that's been great to watch when we were up to it. It took a while to get there sometimes, but we're finally getting back to it.
The fourty-sixth classical recording: #239 Felix Mendelssohn - Octet
Continuing in my journey to learn and appreciate more classical music, I think this is the first time I've encountered an (instrumental) octet. Not having the full body of an orchestra removed some of the force, which worked well with the energy this piece has. At time menacing, the speed of play feels more important, the franticness of forte sections contrasting with the quieter, more delicate parts that bring out the individual voices more clearly. While I am, of course, listening to recordings here, it feels like the effect in the room would have been even better, feeling more personal as you can get swept up in these sections. It's uplifting, more intense to listen to than I expected, but (it turns out) great to get some energy to start the day.
The one hundred tenth album: #110 The Kinks - The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society
Where many albums of this time are rather varied, throwing several ideas in with perhaps a musical link between songs, but not necessarily a theme. The Village Green Preservation Society instead has a lyrical theme, mostly harkening back to memories of childhood and older traditions - being able to play on that village green, the feeling of what things used to be like, and wondering what happened to the people at the time. It builds out from there, with the music following suit. It's a bit slow, the instruments packing a punch but all of it adding up to a gentler rock that fit in with that theme. There's no high energy rock here, but more music that feels like it drifts you there without becoming psychedelic - it stays grounded through all of this, perhaps with the exception of fairy tale Phenomenal Cat and the calypso Monica, but it feel like both still fit into the same 'story'.
The fifty-second comic: #574 Frank
Here's the first comic listed as being 'funny animal', although we've seen parodies of the genre before while I suppose the likes of Garfield are just humor comics. Here it's a longer story, several pages of this strange animal (vaguely cat-like) called Frank who lives in this bizarre world. Frank has a small house-shaped pet and meets several other bizarre creatures hwo live in this world. Some of these are colourful (when applicable) nightmare creatures of strange designs, who are probably the most visually stunning parts, but in the end it's all down to these small adventures and encounters in the world, even when they involve plucking weird creatures out of the sky.
The fifty-first comic: #150 Frontline Combat
A sister publication to Shock SuspenStories, Frontline Combat follows the same format of four stories in an issue that cover a topic - in this case, stories about war. These are brutal, showing the real horror of war, and involve plenty of people dying, running away like cowards and being horribly maimed. There's a jingoistic bend to it, where the American troups win, being a coward gets punished and collaborators end up in trouble. Considering this was published during the Korean war, that's not a big surprise, but it feels very moralizing now. Still, when ignoring that the series is quite informative and you really get a feeling for how terrible it is on the frontline. I'm sure war has changed somewhat, but it feels more like what you expect than the perfection other places sometimes have. It's dirty and dark.
The series probably ended at the right time - not just because the war was over, but the stories became stale and the increased focus on the air force led to some repetitive stories that have planes flying around, which didn't hold my interest. It feels like they were out of really new ideas, as the creativity from the earlier issues was lost.
The fourty-fifth classical recording: #780 George Gershwin - Porgy and Bess
After a number of shorter pieces, we're listening to a three hour opera. Unlike the others, it's in English, set in more modern times and so more comprehensible on multiple levels.Still, it's odd to hear classic songs with an operatic bend (and it does sound more impressive that way). There's a contemporary feel to it beyond that, though, more musical-like with a story still (mostly) told through song, but feeling more modern. This seems to extend everywhere and it makes for an amazing soundtrack that way. Even that is enough to tell the (at the time controversial) story, a tragic love story made more complex through the circumstances in which they happen.
The one hundred ninth album: #109 The Incredible String Band - The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter
Scottish psychedelic folk sounds like it should be interesting - once again something different. And it's hard to ignore that it's trying to be different. At times it works - the lyrics are always interesting, thoughtful and though eccentric, the way it tries to talk about other things works really well. The melodies are lovely, the experiments with different instruments working out well. The thirteen minute Very Cellular Song shows this well. There are - as you'd probably expect from the era - a lot of Indian influences, too much sometimes, but mostly the album keeps it well balanced.
Sometimes, though, it doesn't quite work. And it's not musically, but the attitude being different. It feels like they try to be funny - and while it might be intended as a parody, it can come across as too self indulgent and... well, just stupid. It isn't a joke I feel in on and it feels unnecessary, especially with the amount of laughter coming through. I felt it misses the mark when they do that. It doesn't happen too often, but it does leave a bad taste in my mouth.