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The fourtieth comic: #742 Mushishi

In the quest to read a number of manga series that need to be covered so the anime can be started, we read Mushishi. Not sure what to expect beforehand, I was drawn into this world of Japanese spirits. It combines ideas from folklore with its own mythology and lore and creates these short stories - five per volume - set in this world. There are a handful of two parters and a few details carry over, but for the most part these stand alone - we, like the main character Ginko, wander into people's life, see them deal with their problems and leave again. It's a powerful formula and with stories that don't always have a happy end, it's a good mix that somehow feels grounded.

The fourty-fourth book: #1002 Aesop's Fables - Aesopus

Staying in the world of spirits, Aesop's fables are nice little stories of talking animals and gods, designed to teach you lessons - just as you'd expect. They make for amusing little stories with some good morals - although some are more dubious - but that's time and personal opinion. They're all quick reads and a fun diversion for that and it's clear several of them have made it into more common parlance.

The three hundred and eleventh song: Into the Mystic - Van Morrison

We start off this batch of 1970 songs with some nice folk rock, giving a feeling of detachment from the world leading into a feelingo f nature. The lyrics are apparently intentionally using homophones, creating more of a feeling where it can mean what it wants. A song that's more about the feeling than a specific meaning, really, and that shows - and works.

The three hundred and twelfth song: Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine - James Brown

This feels like the song James Brown is most associated with, one of those big funk songs that must have felt somewhat controversial. It's especially aggressive in its lyrics, not as much when it relies on the bass, but it's more about the ongoing repeating rhythm that words are almost improvised over - again getting you in a mood, but a different one here.

The three hundred and thirteenth song: Ohio - Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

Here we get a song with an actual message, more content and some real counter culture relevance, a protest against the violence seen in a police shooting following protests that were common in this day. CSN&Y were always connected to this and there's some real emotion running through this song, anger at what happened, that make it sound more raw. It's not complex musically, but the impact is far greater here from the actual emotion.

The three hundred and fourteenth song: The Only Living Boy in New York - Simon & Garfunkel

Not as much of a protest as Ohio (but why would it be), here we have a more personal sadder folk song, which again features Paul Simon doing great work - I've really gotten to admire him on my way through the project, seeing what he did as writer and performer - creating a good sound that is encouraging but also a bit sad and accusatory.

The three hundred and fifteenth song: In a Broken Dream - Python Lee Jackson

Getting into rock, almost as its own interlude, we get a rock ballad featuring Rod Stewart that sounds haunting, emotional, layered in a way that I don't think we hear quite as often. There's a story in the break up this seems to describe and its volume works here, staying restrained enough to not overpower anything.

The three hundred and sixteenth song: Oh Lonesome Me - Neil Young

It feels rare to have covers on this list at this point, but this was thirteen years old when Neil Young recorded the song. It's a slow country ballad, not something that normally fills me with too much confidence, and it's true that it's not working as well for me as it probably could. I can see why Neil Young would be celebrated and why this would work for some, but for me this particular song doesn't really go anywhere. I guess it's not the standout track the book claims this is.

The three hundred and seventeenth song: 54-46 Was My Number - Toots & The Maytals

"Oh hell, ska" rang through the living room as we started this - not everyone here appreciates it and I do feel the uncoordinated, loose sound here doesn't really work as well as it should. It's got a decent story going on its lyrics and Toots pulls off his parts well, but the call and response doesn't really hit the mark and limits the song. It tries, and the band's talents are there, but this doesn't seem to be the best showcase.

The three hundred and eighteenth song: Working Class Hero - John Lennon

There is something to be said about John Lennon's talents, both in the Beatles and in his later solo work, but Working Class Hero isn't reaching those peaks for me. He has a decent voice and the acoustic guitar I suppose underlines the point, but it doesn't really create the emotions or reach the heights of other songs - I can see why you'd keep it small, but then it needs to connect on some other level, and I don't feel he pulls that off here. Too isolated and alone to make an impact.

The three hundred and nineteenth song: Box of Rain - The Grateful Dead

Here we get what feels like a simpler rock song, accessible and easy to listen to. The vocals aren't strong, but they are earnest - as you get when a bassist writes and performs a tribute to his father. It somehow comes through in a way that goes beyond just the lyrics (written based on the songs and nuances that were there before). I understand it's not classic Grateful Dead, but these create a sound and lyric that have their own mood and hope.

The seventy-ninth album: #79 Country Joe and the Fish - Electric Music for the Mind and Body

As I go deeper into this list, I encounter more albums I've never heard of before. That's the case here - the band is new to me, the album is and I don't recognise any song names. In my quick research (Wikipedia) this seems to psychedelic blues rock, which seems like an interesting combination. Is relaxed rock a thing? That what it feels like - quite calm blues, but with some of the unsettling sounds that come with sychedelic rock mixed in. It's an interesting sound to listen to, not one I'd seek out, but the set up works for me here.

The seventy-eighth album: #78 The Beatles - Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

It sounds like there was this back and forth around this time in Music, with Pet Sounds influenced by the Beatles and that album influencing them right back for this album, while also pushing the idea of a concept album. In the mean time, all of these songs have been repeated so often that there aren't as many surprises on here. Compositions like Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds may not be at the top of a list, but the composition, the effects used to slow down and speed up the song work well, especially with the psychedlic imagery that it includes and invokes.

At the same time, songs like Getting Better and Fixing A Hole may have some interesting features, but they also feel like they are less known because they don't relaly offer much new - there's no fresh sound here as there is elsewhere and a lot of the tricks get a bit buried sometimes under the vocals that are fairly standard for the Beatles - still good, but I struggle to really pick them out. They're good, but not for what this album tries to do. She's Leaving Home would be in danger of this too - very much bringing Eleanor Rigby to mind - but it works better and McCartney's voice really works for these songs. I think, though, that something like Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite! is a track that really works - playing with the music and sounds, drawing on an unusal theme and doing slightly odd things that display a skill that you'd need to have to make it work.

Side 2's first three songs all contrast with each other, showing quite different sides to the album, with When I'm Sixty-Four and Lovely Rita both feeling like good upbeat songs, but feeling completely different at the same time. Good Morning Good Morning probably best showed to me how the album fades between songs as well - avoiding silence, there are instead some animal sounds that tie into the song and theme while hiding the shift nicely. What ends this pleasant, mostly upbeat album is the darker A Day in the Life, with Lennon moving away from the excited sound, back to reality. It's a contrast, but one that works amazingly well, taking down the energy in a great way. It feels like the perfect book end and while this isn't the perfect album it seems to have once been hailed as, it is still great.

The thirty-ninth comic: #297 Tex

Today we dive into our first western, and of course we start with one from a country that's second most associated with it - Italy. I'm still not quite sure why that country loves them so much, but it's a definite trend in movies that clearly transferred to comics as well.

Tex Willer is a ranger (although for part of the work we read, he's demoted due to an incident that was clearly implied not to be his fault, but that he did get the blame for. He travels around, taking on outlaws, saving the innocent and especially bringing down those harming others. There is still plenty of bloodshed, but there's meant to be a moral difference.

The art is good, although it works best in colour, but the stories are absolutely of their time, which irks at times. There are some good things here, though, and on the whole it held up better than I expected.

The seventy-seventh album: #77 Nico - Chelsea Girl

This is, at its base, a folk album, the songs and lyrics support that. When it was being made (as I might have discussed when covering the titular song from the album), additional production elements were added - strings and the like - that add body to the music. On the whole, I think it works to create good songs, but there are places where it feels a bit much - almost comical - and they overshadow Nico's voice. Her near-monotone adds to the effect of the music, injecting plenty of emotion but also setting a mood that supports the folk music and keeps it grounded. Sometimes, it seems like the vocals are there to support the music, which is where it's not always succesful. On the whole, though, there is something calm and inspirational in here, something that connects - but especially when the production don't overshadow everything else.

The fourty-third book: #43 A Man of Feeling - Henry Mackenzie

I've struggled a bit with sentimental novels before. The issues I had with them were here - I think the difficulty of the language makes it more difficult for me to keep up with narratives that are disjointed at times, it's not suited to sleepy commutes.

Here, however, it was more readable than Tristram Shandy, even if it was more disjointed (thanks to its found documents interpretation), it also didn't rely as much on information that can be more difficult to keep track of. It works well enough and fun enough to play.

The fourty-second book: #42 A Sentimental Journey - Laurence Sterne

The previous Laurence Sterne novel obviously didn't work for me, but here it did. Probably because, although it meandered through some stories, they held together with a more coherent story and narrative. It kept things more focused, so the story made more sense - I guess it worked better this way today. The end of the book is rather abrupt for it, but personal and tantalizing, and it felt fine as saying how things could continue.

The twenty-sixth classical recording: #13 Antonio de Cabezon - Diferencias

And finally, we move away again from the purely choral songs to something with more instruments and content. While it still retains the heavenly sounds from religious music, the different, probably at the time more common sounds are a welcome change as it expands what is possible. It's perfect as a background music for a Civ game too, it is pleasant and what we've been looking for in the earlier songs. It harkens back, in a way, to the first few that we covered, but now brought a bit more up to date with more strings.

The seventy-sixth album: Astrud Gilberto - Beach Samba

When I hear samba, the carnival sounds of Brazil often come to mind. I know that's not quite true, but the album here feels like it goes broader, drawing a lot of bossa nova to create a melodic, but also inwards sound. It's actually very gentle and relaxing, great working music. At the same time, there's a nice set of lyrics and themes that keep everything interesting.

You Didn't Have to be So Nice is especially stand out, with a quite kid singing along as well. It's a decent mix of songs, mostly relaxed, in a way that really creates a break from the rock songs of before while staying swinging and avoiding more maudlin tones.