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.

The seventy-fifth album: #75 Nina Simone - Wild is the Wind

It's nice to have a gentler album in a stretch of albums that feels quite rock-inspired and seems set to add more of that. Nina Simone's somewhat sombre voice sounds amazing on this, drawing attention to itself and not needing much accompaniment. The lyrics of the songs come out well, their tone and mood working better with those.

While powerful, Nina SImone's voice never goes large. It's strong, conveying sadness and anger, but it stays constrained in a way that works well to get that message across too. It's a great combination that I've mostly just enjoying everywhere.

The fourty-first book: #41 Tristram Shandy - Laurence Sterne

I didn't get today's novel. There were a lot of digressions, comments on the contents of the book itself - I swear every other chapter started with a comment on the start of a chapter - and a lot of other things that distracted from the novel, to the point where I lost the plot repeatedly and had to try to catch myself up each time. That got me several times, unfortunately, and I think I mentally gave up after a while.

The other issue I have with the book is the semi-conversational style, often with the reader, and that's written in a way that I felt was difficult to keep track of. So yeah, I guess in the end I just didn't care.

The sixty-first TV show: #602 Beckett on Film

Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot has always fascinated me as far as its concept goes, even if I hadn't had a chance to actually watch it yet. So to see it come up as the next TV show from our bucket made me quite happy.

What we went on was a mixed journey, with some engaging plays (Play and Come and Go come to mind, as well the first Act Without Words) and some that seemed pointless (like Endgame). The latter is probably the most interesting, as it highlights the problems I find with the work. The wordiness wouldn't necessarily be too bad, but being wordy while also at time nonsensical means that I lose interest fairly quickly. The absurd staging - or lack of staging altogether - doesn't help there either, and a lot of the quality here came, to me, from whether the actors and director managed to do it well. This didn't always come down to the usual suspects either, but it seems to be down more to whether it all lined up right.

It's been worth seeing, from a cultural growth point, to understand post war play writing and culture, and the dedication of the actors add to that, but it feels like there are times where Beckett's rules for staging constrained the medium and others where it just isn't htat good.

The general rule here was shorter is better. The monologues work well when not too long, and more players tend to make slightly more interesting plays (although this isn't quite as universal). It's when it drags and gives you too many strands to follow - often, it seems, with half of them unneeded or unclear - that it falls flat. The genius is in here, but it doesn't necessarily work, or at least work as a television series. Maybe, for plays, you do need the captive audience of the theatre.

The three hundred and second song: Black Night - Deep Purple

This feels like a road trip track - a group of travelers on their Harleys driving across endless American plains. The music is loud, straight forward but it drives you on. The lyrics were written to be incidental and it shows - there's a few words that jump out fitting the theme, but they don't matter as much. For that genre, it suits it well and the solo songs alone drive it well enough.

The three hundred and third song: War - Edwin Starr

Originally a Temptations song, the single release was tied to a performer whose career would not be ruined by it. Adding a James Brown sound it, we get a more soul, looser and because of it angrier sound to it. There's a lot of energy in it, driving the structured chorus to jump out from the chaotic verses surrounding it. It's a powerful effect that sustains the song well and the sing drags you through all of it.

The three hundred and fourth song: (To Be) Young, Gifted, and Black - Bob and Marcia

Here we get another protest song, aimed at civil rights, but here adding a Jamaican band to a Nina Simone originally. It's interesting to hear the normally quite energetic, frenetic sounds and instruments of reggae applied to a more subdued, quiet song focused more on a message and it butts heads here sometimes. It works decently well though, even if I'm told it doesn't hold up to the original.

The three hundred and fifth song: Ball of Confusion- The Temptations

Whereas War was a bit too much for them earlier, here the Temptations still show a larger connection with the political at the time, although possibly in a way that's trying to be more open. We're getting more soul and take a step further for that genre, going bigger and creative once more with, still, a lot of energy. There was a lot of anger at the time (as there is now) and it feels like these songs are giving a voice to it.

The three hundred and sixth song: Avec le temps - Leo Ferre

So what's going on in France at the same time? We still mostly seem to get the slower chansons coming from there. While I'm sure rock won't have passed them by, I guess they wouldn't last as long and that's why we have this sad lovesong instead. The language and music do a lot to convey the sadness and it reaches you from the start, even without keeping up with the lyrics. It's a lovely, sweet song on the whole.

The three hundred and seventh song: The Man Who Sold the World - David Bowie

And so another big musical influencer enters the list. Produced from beginning to end, there's something esoteric from the rock song, using a lot of electronic sounds and sudden jumps, with some now odd sounds keeping up in the background, the changing of different rattles moving you between songs. There's a differnet sound to this, its own niche that I haven't quite identified before, that is good to listen to.

The three hundred and eighth song: Awaiting on You All - George Harrison

It feels like, now the Beatles are over, that George Harrison goes back a bit more to their roots rather than their later work, and here crosses it with Phil Spector's big productions. It's a good, swinging song that has a lot of happiness and exuberance in there that's clearly missing from earlier in this batch of songs - then again, you couldn't say that he wasn't at least partially in the establishment at this point. Despite its big sound, this song just can't help but make you feel good on some level.

The three hundred and ninth song: Northern Sky - Nick Drake

And now some folk music in between to calm us down - together with Leo Ferre the two smallest songs in this nine, and the lowest energy. Here that's intentional, based on Nick Drake's style, but it is a mental shift. The music was improvised separately from the writing of the track, but it works here to evoke a more magical work than just a man and a guitar would create, and it's that dreamlike quality that appeals to me here.

The three hundred and tenth song: Maybe I’m Amazed - Paul McCartney

Paul's first album following the Beatles has this on it, on what sounds like is a mostly self-produced work. There's something sweet and really well meant in the lyrics of this song, clearly dedicated to his then-wife Linda. It feels really real, something that was often missing from Beatles tracks and it becomes a lot more personal because of that. THat's what works, even if musically it doesn't feel as challenging. It's solid, which feels like it has its own appeal here.

The seventy-fourth album: #74 The Yardbirds - The Yardbirds

(Also known as Roger the Engineer)

A mix of rock songs here, with some baroque touches as well as harder sounds, The Yardbirds created an album here that's pleasant to listen to, generating a lot of energy. It feels fairly representative of late sixties rock, which feels like a good thing. It's not overly ambitious compared to the sounds of others, but it's a good, solid sound.

The thirty-eighth comic: #582 Parasyte

Parasyte has an interesting premise - these parasites invade the human race and take control of several people, fighting mostly for their survival. Our hero gets infected by a parasite, but his mind isn't taken over. He starts to fight these parasites - in part in self defense as he struggles with questions about how he fits into this world.

It's an interesting story, exploring the struggle of humanity versus needing what needs to be done, with some vague environmental comments, in particular in how you treat those who are less than you.

What's disappointing, then, is that the story ends rather quickly. There is an ending that's written to, taking out the strongest of the parasites, but it never addresses what happens in the larger world, or more important, never really resolves the question of whether our hero is still human, whether the parasite is changing him or whether it's for the best. In the end, is he doing the right thing? It's asked, but just wiped away at the end.

It's a waste of a good story, one that I wish I hadn't quite read, as it feels it overshadows the rest of it: in the end, the fun of these stories is seeing where it goes and how these people end up. Knowing the answer doesn't just quite live up to expectations (they never do) but actually make them worse is painful.

The twenty-fifth classical recording: #773 Sergei Prokofiev - Lieutenant Kijé Suite

Composed as a film score, the movements feel like they support the different scenes - moving from mood to mood. It's fairly delicate, even the boisterous sections being fairly contained compared to the big orchestral pieces we've had before and only really used for emphasis. There is a lot of joy in the early movements and the composition keeps up a lot of energy - the fourth movement, Troika, has more speed in it, but one that follows from elsewhere as well. Even the final movement, the Funeral, maintains this with a sombre tone that still keeps moving.

While some of the impact of the composition is probably lost without the film, the score sounds good on its own and does take you through the story. The phases are distinct and compelling and make for some good listening and relistening. It might not be stirring, but it's incredibly satisfying to listen to.

The thirty-seventh comic: #90 Mopsy

Mopsy didn't seem to amount to as much, to be honest. It's a newspaper comic focused on a single (most of the time) woman in the 1930s. She's somewhat independent, working a job and going out to find a man. There's (obviously) no real continuity, but it's the character that roughly stays the same.

The comics are amusing - dated, but quite good in places with some decent characterization. It doesn't always land, but they mostly did and they did work. I enjoyed reading them - but too much of it wouldn't be worth it.

The sixtieth TV show: #290 Minder

Some shows don't ever quite connect with you. Maybe it's because this is a working class show and I'm just too middle class for it (I've changed man, I've changed). Perhaps it's the difference of three decades between when this show was shot and when we watched it, casual racism included. Perhaps, even, it's that supposedly likeable characters weren't to me.

I think part of it is a selection of episodes - Arthur, one of the leads - doesn't always come along as well and is too much trying to be a grifter or dubious dealer rather that someone I root for. On a show like Hustle, these characters work by picking the right targets, but here the targets don't feel as sympathetic.

Dennis Waterman's character, Terry, is more of a mixed bag. Working with the right people, he's got decent comic timing and comes across well. He comes across as a decently convincing lead, but there are times when the action is a bit forced and there are times when he misses some of the charisma to keep the show watchable. He's good, but not as the main lead.

So with all of that taken together, the show didn't work for us. It was a chore to watch and, to be honest, we're glad to drop it. There's enough of a feel we've gotten for it, so this is probably the place to leave it.