Archive of

The second TV Show: #597 Gilmore Girls

We're a season into what is Peter's favourite show. A comedy taking up a full hour drama slot, it's not quite a dramedy, more a show that focuses on providing more character growth and ongoing development. It's funny and heartwarming, aided by the pop culture references I am glad I at least feel I get a lot of the time. At the same time, you're rooting for these characters and hoping they will do well. You can analyze everyone's behaviours and so much of it makes sense.

Although we only finished the first season for the minimum blog length required, I'm pretty sure we're going to continue watching this. Six more seasons to go! (Just not on here)

The fifth comic: #827 Death Note

A book and a half in, this is getting quite interesting. More of a thinker than the concept may have seemed to be - while also featuring shnigami, Death Note doesn't feature Bleach's battles - it poses some more quandaries - if you had the power over life and death, what would you do with it? Is it okay to kill all criminals that way, or even some of them?

Nothing is really answered quite yet, even if I don't agree with our (nominal) protagonist that his course is the wisest. Then again, it isn't meant to be, and the thriller aspects of it are  amazing so far.

The fourth comic: #776 Persepolis

Sure, this is the second time I read this, but it was worth it. As a biography, the comic takes us through the life of Marjane Satrapi, an Iranian girl and woman growing up in Iran during its revolutions, stuck between a western life she's heard of and experienced and the traditional (conservative) Iranian lifestyles that keeps being enforced more and more strictly. 

It's engrossing, not in the least because she isn't ashamed of showing her own flaws. It's entertaining and educational at the same time, wrapping observations in nice vignettes that kept me reading. It feels like an important two volumes to read to understand the situation in Iran at the time, the simple graphics enhancing this even further by keeping everything simple and solemn, as well as evocative.

The fourty-fifth song: They Can't Take That Away From Me - Fred Astaire

Moving further into movie songs, our initial worry was that we picked up the instrumental version - it certainly gives the movie time to set up the song itself. The song feels less swingy than later covers, but the sentiment is still there - the book calls it callback to a more romantic era, and it feels that way. It's sweet without being over the top, which is certainly what suits the mood.

The fourty-sixth song: Dust My Broom - Elmore James

Back to blues, this is agood song in the genre. It sounds good, seems to have decent lyrics going, and certainly feels like the innovation happening at the time... it's also not a song that I can say more notable things about, other than that this might have had our first electric guitar.

The fourty-seventh song: Foi Deus - Amalia Rodrigues

Something quite different, moving to a more operatic style in this Portugese fado (folk-like) song. It's not as melancholic as you'd expect, some happiness - or at least optimism - showing through in the music.

The fourty-eighth song: Le Gorille - Georges Brassens

I realise I'm missing out on the meaning of the song as my French is too rusty to keep up, but the mocking tone of the song (originally aimed at World War II war camp guards, but now at authority figures in general) shines through. It's with a wink, anarchic, and even the single guitar with voice, not quite level or trained, adds to the effect, sounding like everything is sung off the cuff.

The fourty-ninth song: Singin' in the Rain - Gene Kelly

Probably one of the most famous songs we'll be covering so far, the song is probably better than the movie the recording comes from (it had featured elsewhere before). There's joy in it, fun and entertainment, and some of the sections are pretty well known by now. Some of the bridges - clearly intended for dance sequences we can't see - feel a bit unnecessary to be included here, but that's more a consequence of this being from a movie's soundtrack. 

The fiftieth song: Just Walkin' in the Rain - The Prisonaires

Not sure whether these two songs were placed together in the list on purpose. They certainly sound different, this being a slow ballad (sung by a group of Tennessee prisoners, hence the name). It's quiet and slow, but sounds very good together. 

The fifty-first song: Please Love Me - B. B. King

Another electric guitar comes in on this R&B song, the oddness here being that the music is approaching rock music sounds, while the vocals stick with something closer to a blues style. It looks good, but sounds odd to my modern ears.

The fifty-second song: Crying in the Chapel - The Orioles

This gospel song feels like it draws out the tears early on. It pulls on the lyrics, coming out slowly with acoustic support from the other singers. Bells and bass come in later, but the real strength comes from these singers, creating a melodic sound that doesn't really get you down, but tug at a certain string while still keeping something good in there.

The first TV Show: #421 The Simpsons

The first show to be watched is one that I'm mostly going in for because I've been watching it a lot for a while (as well as getting a lot of the lore through The Simpsons: Tapped Out mobile game). As a long running show (not the longest running cartoon - thanks Japan, a shame we won't get to see your animated work) it really has gone through its own ups and downs. Aside from having started on the most recent seasons (keeping up to date) my current watching has gotten me into season 7.

This is still the high point of the series - where that ends is debatable, but I know it's coming up - but I'd argue that even the lower points (of which I've sampled a few while writing up) are still good, just not as good. One of the genius parts of the early shows are how they link together several different plotlines into one in a way that makes sense, while keeping them all enjoyable. This allows them to mix the ridiculous with the grounded in an episode - keeping them separate until needed.

At the same time, the show has good concept episodes, whether it's one of the several story episodes (which allows for smaller stories to develop, set in weirder environments) like the celebrated Treehouse of Horrors series, or a look at the family's future.

One of the biggest advantages The Simpsons has, in part because as an animated series it's easy to introduce more, is its extended cast. There's are loads of additional recognisable characters that get used when needed, allowing the titular family to be sidelines as story requires (without having to worry about the actors not appearing). Just as often, minor one gag characters return and become more fully fleshed-out characters.

It's been good. You could wonder whether it's time the show ends, but until then there are a lot of good episodes to watch even now.

The third comic: #527 Watchmen

One of Alan Moore's major works, this is one of the comics I had read before. I'm not sure I quite appreciate how revolutionary it was, with retired or down on their luck superheroes, set up more realistically, seeming to be something we see more often. The commentary is clear in the work, not believing in the unambigiously good superhero, but the exploration of the different attitudes 'after the work ended' is as interesting. Not everyone is a good person anymore, and just as often the small bits are ignored in favour of the greater good. An amazing thing to have read.

The second comic: #837 The Walking Dead

Been a while, huh? With Peter now catching up, I can properly start this project. I reached minimum required length today, so can 'officially' sign off on the Walking Dead, even if (as a continuing series) there's loads more to read.

There are some of the same issues here as in Bleach, where complications get added to the story because it has to keep going. It doesn't feel as forced here, though, most developments come naturally and don't feel as unexpected - there's no sudden power up needed. Instead, the story takes time to explore aspects, sometimes in a gruesome manner.

A worthwhile read in any case, psychologically as much as anything else.

Coming Up: 1001 TV Shows

That makes it close to the full set

The fourth book: #4 Romance of the Three Kingdoms

So that's that book done. I'm still a bit torn on it. The book is good enough, but it's partially a history book - where it's dry - and part storytelling, which doesn't always fit in quite as well with the general tone. Especially some of the supernatural occurences weren't as suitable, although there are also some other fables that could be true but feel a bit too true. The political view point - celebrating that of the winning army - also shines through, with several characters who have to be villains although they also feel to be admired.

Still, an interesting insight into the history of the time, and how Chinese politics worked.

The fourth book: #4 Romance of the Three Kingdoms

Not quite done yet, but a day or two away. I did want to make a brief observation about symbols. You probably know as well as I do about Chinese characters being pictographs, representing words, and how they are often made of combinations of symbols (such as 'forest' being three trees). This comes through in the stories - several times, written words or sentences are said to make little sense, until one of the smarter characters (including relative villain Cao Cao) points out that the actual meaning is that of the symbols making up the word. For example, 'horn' contains the symbol for knife, which is later interpreted to mean more. Interesting to see this used in context.