The eighty-first album: #81 Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Safe As Milk

I've mostly been exposed to Captain Beefheart from Peter's earlier listening to and reading about Trout Mask Replica, a later album of his with some odd elements in its production. Based on the name, too, I'm expecting some psychedelic sounds, or at least ones that stand out and will be weird.

Instead, so far this is more blues rock, with some odd details added, but some weird changes sneak in and the songs make more use of contrast. Dropout Boogie has a hardrock vibe, but drops in these really light moment. I'm not sure where it's meant to lead, but it brings in these sudden surprises. These are the songs that stand out from beyond the blues ballads though, which don't seem as impressive. Sure, they are competently done, but I can't say it feels that much better. It veers between, in a way that shows some progress in the music, but is mixed in how well it actually works.

The sixty-fifth TV show: #100 Green Acres

Yeah, this was a pretty quick watch. Green Acres doesn't sound like it's a very inspiring show: a succesful lawyer moves from New York to a farming village to become a farmer himself and drags his socialite wife along, even though it's not her scene and she's not happy there. They have to adjust to live on the farm - one that clearly needs a lot of work.

It's incredibly silly, though, with a bunch of great sight gags and excellent execution of some of the standard gags. The characters themselves are interesting - sketched with more depth than you'd expect. Soon, however, the show starts to show its true face. The show adds a lot of meta elements - at one point, for example, the characters comment directly on the credits that show up on screen, while another shows a subtitled conversation between a pig and a horse. The subtitles continue into the next scene, until one of the characters calls it out so they stop.

It's a delight to watch the show, excellently executed (including by the editors) but also feeling ahead of its time. It's a show we want to continue watching, because it's just that good.

The sixty-fourth TV show: #717 Bleak House

I'm effectively a year or two away from reading the novel, but in the man time I've seen this adaptation from Bleak House. I'm sure it's edited in what it covers (including, I understand, an added character to make scenes flow better), but what feels more noticeable is that the show speeds up its storytelling compared to, say, Brideshead or Pride and Prejudice. It feels more like a modern show in that end, rather than imitating the pace of what's expected from these older shows. It works to keep the show a bit more interesting and accessible. A comment on us, perhaps, but it's more considered in what it does and how it does it. It still keeps time for the significant moment, just doesn't linger where it isn't needed.

The performances stand out here. There are some of the greats here that clearly dominate, where you would expect the performers too: Charles Dance allows those around him to shine, but stands out, as do Gillian Anderson and Denis Lawson. It's impressive that the real lead of the story, Anna Maxwell Martin, holds up against that. While her character is sweet and smaller, she holds up against these personalities and comes across really well, without overwhelming either. She's great to watch and enjoy during the show and anchors it well.

There are some great emotional highs in here, moments that work well - often earned from its biuld up and followed up with better. Again, it doesn't linger on it too long, and jumps off to the next step after that, showing the consequences and ripples. It's great editing, which is something we've seen works from other shows... ones that aren't as historical. It's a quality production, exceeding others in the genre that didn't always work for me.

The fourty-fifth book: #44 Humpry Clinker - Tobias Smullett

Another epistolary here, although here it's satirical for sure. We have five writers, each writing to someone else, with all five traveling around the UK to different places in aid of the health of the uncle. We explore these characters through each other's and their own eyes. There's an exploration of society at the time, with a number of different viewpoints from the different characters.

The story is quite good and has some interesting moments while also telling its story quite well. It does struggle to stay focuse din place - or perhaps it's better to say I struggled with its focus sometimes - which led to some moments where I lost parts of what was going on, but for the most part it worked well and became an entertaining work.

The eightieth album: #80 Buffalo Springfield - Buffalo Springfield Again

Before I started listening to this album, I was expecting a collection of country songs. THe presences of Stephen Stills and Neil Young shows this isn't the case and instead we get rock. There's a heavier bass line here than what I've been getting from the Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young supergroup, which makes this sound even harder - and different from what I expected.

There's still quite a bit of folk rock in here and the music moves to country (where are the boundaries, right?), but what strikes me most is how the sound changes more than I'd expect. Just as the different genres are still spinning off at this point, here the album seems to fill several voices and niches, with decent success. While others experimented - the Beatles, for example, had distinct sounds too - it is rare that we get this variety of songs.

The sixty-third TV show: #588 Clocking Off

They're the stories of employees of a textile factory in north west England. While focused around one or a few characters, the different people intersect and appear in different stories, as they normally would. It's a diverse range of stories, even as most tend to be pretty dramatic. It deals with different stories from cheating, to starting new relationships to an amnesia story that led to some harrowing discoveries. While mostly standalone, some parts of the stories overlap to create setup for more dramatic turns later in the series. The sense of continuity really helps, setting up a lot and giving us an easier in for later stories.

It's a difficult watch, though, as parts are quite harrowing and difficult to deal with. There are moments of levity, helped by some amazing performers who are able to layer their performance to really make the dilemmas clear, but there are often difficult moments and, especially in season two, some storylines that become hard to watch and deal with.

Even so, it feels like the series keeps the storylines real and grounded, which creates episodes that feel small enough to stay believable. In that sense, watching it really is worth it.

The sixty-second TV show: #639 Little Britain

I've struggled with Little Britain for a while now, and I just couldn't. It's mostly just not funny and as a sketch show, once it lost me I couldn't find anything else in it. For a show starring a gay man, there are a lot of gay jokes (and not just laughing at homophobes and the like, but perpetuating a number of LGBT stereotypes that feel misguided and because of that, just not funny. The same thing applies to other groups as well, the disabled coming off badly as well, but this is one place where I really felt it and where, I think, it shows how entrenched these attitudes are in our society.

Where this didn't apply, a number of sketches fell flat because they relied too much on repetition, wanted to become funny by creating catchphrases but didn't do any of that. You know where it's going, the show leans on it and it gets boring.

There are a handful of cases where the show works and it sometimes does hit the mark - even in sketches that otherwise don't work - but it feels so wildly inconsistent that I just couldn't get into the show and mostly just stared blankly at the TV. Not a good experience.

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.