The sixty-ninth book: #58 Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
For what's meant to be an ironic commentary on a Bildungsroman, I feel like it was just as often a fairly boring examination of theatrical aspects. I lost track of the plot through these diversions and I guess I just got bored with the book early and never quite got myself back into it. It's impressive, that's for sure... but I guess too intelligent for me to read on my morning commute. And yeah, there's just no hook that caught me.
The one hundred fourty-ninth album: #149 The Rolling Stones - Let It Bleed
At this point, I feel I know the typical Rolling Stones sound, something they've reached here. It's a hard rock sound with a strong blues influence, the vocals especially inspired by the latter. It sounds, creating some powerful songs with a decent impact. There are some creative attempts at different things, but in the end the core stays solid, more variations on their sound than getting as much variations as the Beatles did in the day. That's probably the best thing though, I knew what I'd get, and I got what I wanted.
The one hundred fourteenth show: #636 Top Gear
I've struggled to decide how many episodes of this I need to watch. I've seen more than plenty over the years (with the main original presenter group, which is what the book was obviously still going for) and watching more episodes I think I'm there anyway.
I don't care that much for cars. This is sacrilege in my family (well, not quite, but it's true I never really took after my father that way, although I still neared some things because of it). But then, you need to for this show anyway - it might go into some detail, but that's a small part of the show and they know it. You get your car news and all that, but it's set up about the banter between Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May. It's laddish, often aimed at cutting each other down and usually amusing, but the vague elitism and resulting insults feel a bit much - aiming at a masculine audience that probably doesn't apply as much ten years on. And that's why I stop caring. We saw something similar in Infinite Challenge, but there's it's so much less about showing up each other and instead about being amusing.
And that's what's off putting. There are some good segments that are incredibly entertaining and most of it is probably fine, but I just can't get past that. I mean, they're at their best when the attitude is pierced, but it doesn't quite get there. It's a worthwhile watch and quite fun at times, but I'm at the point where I feel I can't stomach as much of it.
The one hundred fourty-eighth album: #148 Pentangle - Basket of Light
It always feels odd to hear folk on this album, in particular the type Pentangle played, using acoustic instruments and mostly sounding quite traditional rather than featuring the faster speed of Bob Dylan and the like. In fact, it feels like some of it could belong to the more folksy songs we've seen in the classical list a handful of times. Some of the songs on this album adapt traditional songs, which shows through as well.
The music sounds good. There are a couple of places with good harmonies, and the vocals really stand out, but the music works well too. It sounds magical and ethereal, but it's more listenable than the hymns we've had before - the adjustment to modern times works incredibly well. It feels like it sits outside the musical timeline, but I hope we can get more of this occasionally.
The sixty-eighth comic: #528 A Treasury of Victorian Murder
There's something fascinating about tales of (unsolved) crimes, murders with clues that are ambiguous enough that you don't know what's going on. Rick Geary's set of stories examines a number of Victorian (and early 20th century) murders. In some cases, these remain unsolved, while with others we know what happened but the perpetrators disappeared, while in the case of Guiteau we know what happened. As always, in a way the journey is more interesting than the solution and the way these stories are examined - sometimes through a (fictional?) contemporary account, or other devices. The art style is fairly simple but the black and white drawings have a lot of character, leaving identities vague enough while still letting you identify characters, it fits the slightly unclear nature of these cases, especially as it brings across the facts well. I devoured these in a few days, and that was for a good reason.
The one hundred fourty-seventh album: #147 The Bee Gees - Odessa
It feels odd to think about this album coming before the disco sound that I associate with the Bee Gees came into play. In fact, the title track Odessa that opens the album is far away from it, with its long run time, deep harmonies that from time to time sound like monks chanting, and far more portraying that feeling of being lost at sea than you'd expect. What we have here are a number of prog rock tracks, very accessible, taking cues from country in some songs, both in sound and lyrics, and on the whole it feels like the album uses a number of different sounds.
The lyrics are excentric, not deep, but an ode to Edison feels like a theme I'm unlikely to encounter again on this list and even that is well put together - the partially electric orchestration works well for the song. Again, the harmonies work well, and as much as they're a feature of the band's output, they are always amazing to listen to when they appear.
The one hundred fourty-sixth album: #146 Miles Davis - In A Silent Way
I can't say I've missed jazz on this list. Miles Davis creates some nice lounge music here, nice as an acoustic background, but when focusing on listening to it, the album doesn't really give me a great feeling. It doesn't go somewhere and do much that's interesting and lacks a bit of spark. I get that it works well for the atmosphere it's trying to create - and the album creates a relaxed atmosphere for sure - but it doesn't feel like there's much here to listen out for.
The one hundred thirteenth TV show: #877 Episodes
Episodes is another show we stopped watching after a while, although I'm less clear on why that was. We enjoyed the first season, and rewatching it it's still amazing, but it faded out a bit around the third season for us. I think that for us, it was more about the amount of shows we're watching, and how it gets slightly darker. The concept of two British comedy writers bringing their award winning sitcom to the US, getting annoyed with the system they have to deal with. The two writers are played by Stephen Mangan and Tamsin Greig, both giants in the British comedy scenes. We loved both in Green Wing and in particular saw Tamsin Greig in both Friday Night Dinner and Black Books in great parts as well. They have great chemistry and get their performances right on all levels. They bicker immensely well, which works great for the show.
The third side of the triangle, during the show partially a love triangle, is Matt LeBlanc. Although he's obviously known mostly for his role as Joey in Friends, in this series he shows that he can do more than that. He plays what you'd expect him to be like - wise in the ways of US showbiz, but also vapid standard celeb. It's quite self aware and his confidence in making a fool of himself works well. He manages to flirt with both of the other characters and comes across as incredibly charming, which means he can get away with the antics on the show.
Although not singled out as often, Kathleen Rose Perkins' performance is just as good, both piling on to the showbiz vapidness while also be aware enough of it that he can get the Lincolns through all of it.
Rewatching it, the show moves quite quickly through the first season. A lot happens, and while some of the twists are a bit obvious, there are enough layers to it that they work. It feels like a British sitcom made in Hollywood, avoiding the obvious pitfalls that the show shows would happen if it was a network comedy rather than on Showtime. The way it skewers both side works well and the actors apply themselves well enough that the performances raises it even further. Perhaps not perfect in places and the show may not hold up, but it's worth watching the show's take off.
The one hundred fourty-fifth album: #145 The Who - Tommy
We've had a few albums that try to tell a story before, but this feels like the first major one we get, on a scale I don't think I've quite seen before. Having seen the movie before, I roughly know the beats even if the album doesn't quite have it.
The album as a whole concept is quite interesting - the storytelling isn't always subtle, but it sort of works to give an idea of what's going on. Pinball Wizard, as a tentpole song, works as something everything else runs around. It's not the most amazing songs, but a lot of darkness culminates in the more upbeat song while we reach the first climax of the story, leading into Go to the Mirror as the second triumph that's linked to it.
As a standalone album, it works well too, in part because a lot of songs get the right intros. Having this buildup works, but on the whole the band sounds good, with deent writing and a decent variation in melody that still stays like a coherent whole. It's a good album, complemented with a decent story, and even without any further performance elements stands on its own.
The one hundred twelfth TV show: #342 Widows
It's interesting how again, there's a split between seasons here on how good the show is. The first season of Widows is excellent. After their husbands die in a heist, three widows (and a fourth companion) decide to replicate the heist to gain the money their husbands would have gotten, while holding off others who are after the same plans for the heist. It's an interesting drama, both for the way the women interact and how they pull off the heist - a few times getting closer to discovery, but usually getting away - the way they manage to weave their way through, sometimes using their supposed innocence to make it out, works incredibly well. It was an incredibly engaging season.
The second season abandons that in favour of a revenge story. It takes a while to start this in the first place, it never works quite as consistently. It's often not as compelling, and it's mostly the third and final episodes that deliver the best moments. In between, it can spin its wheels a bit. Second, and more frustrating, is how some of the characters develop. Some of them haven't grown, while I feel like some of the widows go back in their growth, losing the strength they've shown in the first season. It revolves around Dolly, played by Ann Mitchell, who delivers a stellar performance where she is capable, not always likeable but works as a strong core performer around which everything revolves. Her story dominates in the second season, to the detriment of others, but the story itself works. We didn't watch the third season, released about a decade later, for that reason, but the first season is more than worth it.