The ninety-sixth TV show: #953 Orange is the New Black
There are a lot of problems with the prison system - not just in the US, where this show is set, but also around the world. Seeing all of this on a TV show, based on a real stay, shows the power imbalance, the cliques, and how little the world cares. The show mixes a fair amount of comedy with some at times intense drama, a combination that's compelling to watch if at times exhausting.
With that, the performances are amazing with some interesting characters - pulling from stereotypes but building on them, there's more to these people. Piper, the main character, starts off slow but her arc becomes more interesting towards the end of the first season. Beyond that the wacky character may stand out, but it's where they get or are grounded that they get interesting, with fights about who ends up on top in prison, a more than expected amount of religious infighting (with a rare atheist protagonist) and otherwise dark outcomes for plots that starts lighthearted. It's a well done balancing act that makes for an interesting series.
The sixty-second book: #51 Anton Reiser - Karl Philipp Moritz
The psychological novel, as it's described here, is a biography of sorts - Anton Reiser is fictional, but is based on the writer's life - but it focused more on the protagonist's troubles, how he's mentally dealing with what happens in his life, and how that influences what follows, dragging himself down. It's a more engaging approach than using the factual accounts - not as much happens, but it flows better and makes more sense, while the protagonist is flawed enough that so much can make it through internally.
In the end, despite this book having been somewhat forgotten, it is a decent read and an actual page turned - not something I usually get with books this old.
The one hundred nineteenth album: #118 The Byrds - The Notorious Byrd Brothers
There's a nice change in contrast when I get some folk on the list, and the psychedelic folk rock of the Byrds strangely fits with the time of year - something gentle and flowing rather than the hard rock we saw last time. I'd never class the Byrds as a favourite of mine, but they hit these beats incredibly well, adding a deeper message to a decent set of songs.
The one hundred and eighteenth album: #118 Blue Cheer - Vincebus Eruptum
Today we're covering one of the first heavy metal albums. Fitting six track in half an hour means the tracks are generally longer, which feels suitable for this era of hard rock - longer pieces that don't feel the need to fit in the pop music lengths, I guess not even necessarily intended for main radio play.
That's only for a few of the tracks, of course, while it starts off with the single worthy Summertime Blues. Though far from a major hit, it's a cover that has a more upbeat melody that is overlaid with screechy guitars and generally a loud sound. Rock Me Baby, too, feels like the music has to hold back as the bluesy number doesn't allow for really rocking out. The tracks penned by Peterson feel more appropriate, louder rockers that lead you on through, and I feel they're the more appropriate songs - maybe not as technically perfect, but what I actually want from this band.
The one hundred and seventeenth album: #117 Aretha Franklin - Aretha: Lady Soul
The second list album of the Queen of Soul isn't as high energy as the first one, while still having a punch to it. Natural Woman plays like a soulful ballad, with some additional flourishes and generally feeling quite upbeat. It sounds good, but by being less abundant, I think it showcases some smaller emotions better, which come across really well in this set of songs. This is a more sentimental, toned down album, but it makes Franklin's voice shine all the more and it all sounds great.
The ninety-fifth TV show: #874 Twenty Twelve
While there are a bunch of these mockumentaries, it feels like there aren't many that cover an (at the time) major event like the 2012 London Olympics. That might be more so because we were watching this live as the event was being set up almost around us.
Twenty Twelve uses that by putting in a bunch of British comedy heavyweights playing the members of the deliverance committee, most of whom aren't necessarily the best at the job, are at least narrow minded and focused, while the game date creeps up. Clearly, the outcome is that everyone went well, but here it feels like the head of the committee, Ian, played by Hugh Bonneville, is the only one really holding it together. Jessica Hynes, the head of PR, is another clear stand out, coming across as absent, but with the right tone and twisted logic to keep things moving. Olivia Coleman, as Ian's PA, does a lot with very little - few lines, no big personality, but her care for Ian really shows through.
It's funny, pushing the boundaries of what feels realistic, but never going too far with them. It's brilliantly done, and holds up well on a rewatch.
The one hundred sixteenth album: #116 Laura Nyro - Eli And The Thirteenth Confession
This album contains a number of jazz-influenced R&B songs - plenty of brass in swinging soul songs, moving around that area throughout, with a song like Sweet Blindness moving more towards the soul end, but also switching between them. Between that and the more ballady numbers, there's a nice mix of styles that work together quite well and the whole of the album is a pleasant, refreshing listen.
The sixty-first book: #50 The 120 Days of Sodom - Marquis de Sade
Let's start today's write ups with something salacious. The story of 120 days of libertine entertainment is legendary enough to be banned in several countries. Despite that reputation, only the first thirty days were actually written, the rest mostly only existing in notes, as the Marquis de Sade was moved out of the Bastille before he could finish it and he couldn't take the work with him. It took a century for it to be found and it gives a weird insight into the excesses at the time.
While I'm sure this was, in places, exaggerated, the Marquis writes about the extravagances in such a way that he's at least heard of people enjoying some of them and some people would at least have been interested in the worst parts. While there's some disdain in the tone about the novel's protagonist, the details and care of the writing make it feel like he also gets some thrill out of it. As a reader, it gets too much real quick - I suppose I am not the biggest fan of the faecal focus of the first month, but it was extreme here. The later months really take on a BDSM focus, and there's no penetration in the first month at all, and I'm glad I don't need to go too far in the details. Just the notes on how many of the victims are maimed and executed can feel stomach churning and I would hope this isn't actually seen as erotica - even if it's sometimes written as such, and the writer having participated in it anyway.
With that said, it's well written and there's something fascinating about these descriptions of what happened - a dispassionate look at these fictional characters and their actions - and so curiosity makes it mor einteresting to read. I'm just glad it ended when it did, really.
The fifty-sixth comic: #484 Dragon Ball
And now to something a lot lighter. Like anyone else my age, I was exposed to Dragon Ball Z in my teenage years and was both fascinated by it and vaguely put off by some of its endless arcs. The anime was based on the second arc of the manga, which is on the comics list, and for that reason we started by reading the first arc.
The comic starts out as a take on Journey to the West, with a more innocent monkey and a rather less innocent monk. They hunt for the seven dragon balls, which are said to summon a dragon that grants one wish. After that, they disappear for a year - a cycle that comes back a few times in the series, so clearly it's not as much of a limitation. In the mean time, it turns into a supernatural martial arts manga - there's a lot of training done to surpass your normal limits as well as levitation, psychokinesis and the infamous kamehameha blast that we've seen so often since. Once it settles into that, it flows a bit better - it retains some of the humor and slapstick elements, but it's also one of the best at portraying action and motion, making for some incredibly satisfying fight scenes. I hope the Z arc follows that as well, rather than just the plodding delays that the anime is knkown for in my mind.
The fifty-second classical recording: #640 Manuel Falla - Nights in the Gardens of Spain
There is a sense of magic in this piece, the music carrying you away to different gardens as it plays. There are three distinct stages, meant to invoke different gardens, but also creating different atmospheres, a spring time lively first part, a darker night time second and something that feels more tragic in the third half. It's a perfectly tuned piece of music that I want to play during a walk now, rather than being stuck in an office, but this felt enough to carry me away.
The one-hundred fifteenth album: #115 Johnny Cash - At Folsom Prison
Every once in a while, we get these live albums, and they do have a different atmosphere from the originals. As much as you might try to power up the studio sound, the live reaction of the crowd gives a recording a different feel, while also letting you get a recording that might not be as perfect - you're not going to do multiple rerecordings if it's not quite right. This shows clearly on Dark As the Dungeon, where Johnny Cash comments on a prisoner laughing and distracting him.
This being recorded in a prison creates a different feeling too. It's not as rowdy as other recorded albums, when the club is a bit more active. Here, it feels like while there's some loud applause and hollering, they're still feeling a bit constrained and were probably just sitting there instead. It works fine for the blues being performed here, a quieter sound working well with the sometimes downer numbers, and the crowd properly responds to the more uptempo numbers.
It stays compelling. Johnny Cash's banter connects really well and the music sounds good. There's a decent variety between ballads and more uptempo songs, both of which work well, and there's enough looseness in there that playing around with it work. The lyrics are more of a focus and they work especially with this setting, creating a good sounding album.