The nineteenth book: #19 The Adventurous Simplicissimus - Hans von Grimmelhausen
I'm not sure where to go with this book. It's another travelogue of sorts, a long meandering story of someone's life and travels, including a bunch of exaggerated happenings. Here, a decent part sounds plausible, but it all doesn't quite ring true. It's fine for fiction, but the minor note that this is partially biographical makes it feel a bit off.
For a large part it reads well, but there are sections that can drag a bit, when it gets too technical... or goes into another campaign. Yeah, he travels all over the map, and in a way that makes sense, but sometimes it can be a bit much. It's also a bit self righteous at times.
Still, those are relatively minor niggles. For the most part this is a good, fun read.
The thirty-first TV show: #307 Brideshead Revisited
I guess it was about time I did a historical drama - should have done more than one in fact. They're not my favourite genre, as the details can be a bit tedious and for some reason they feel like they have to be made slower - often to show how close they got to history. This show certainly had its moments of that, and we both had times when we figured we could get away with checking something else at the same time.
I (of course) haven't read the novel yet, so can't comment on the quality of it, but it doesn't feel like one. Sure, there's some voiceover, but it all flows together well. The adaptation is shot and written well in that sense.
It also helps that the actors seem to be in great form. They make it all feel natural - especially where the nobles can be nobles and students are students. It comes across that way. Jeremy Irons, as the lead, does this especially well, playing it slightly detached. He's the narrator and authorial insert, and plays it as if he really is that bit more disconnected, observing what goes on around him. It makes his Charles a slightly ambiguous character - it's never quite his fault - that works really well.
The characters' growth is interesting, becoming an interesting investigation into the family and those surrounding it. Executed well, and looking gorgeous.
The nineteenth album: #19 Ella Fitzgerald - Sings the Gerswhin Songbook
Surely amongst the longer albums on the list, this compilation takes three hours, serving here as a workday companion. The instrumental start also make the album feel more epic, putting you in the right move more generally.
It's obviously a lot more restrained than yesterday's Sarah Vaughan album, which help make it feel like a big production. Ella Fitzgerald sounds amazing, very polished and confident. It's a variety of songs, although all jazzy and from a musical tradition, but it goes from very happy and upbeat to sadder and slower, creating a nice mix.
The eighteenth album: #18 Sarah Vaughan - At Mister Kelly's
There's something exciting about this album. As a live jazz album, it has a lot more energy than a studio album, but that's also something that shows through in Sarah Vaughan's performance. It's excited and happy, and infusing something optimistic in more melancholic songs. The looseness of the performance comes through as well (the introduction says that her having lyric sheets is because they're recording the album), especially when she gets ahead of the song on WIllow Weep For Me, improvising some lyrics to fill time. It's different, and adds a more human touch. Beyond that, the songs also sound really good, polished and well rehearsed. It's a relaxing comfortableness, one that doesn't let them sink away like other jazz songs have done, but instead keep you going.
The thirtieth TV show: #523 The Daily Show
Peter asked me why I didn't write this up yet. It's because while we've been watching the last few seasons of Jon Stewart and part of Trevor Noah's run, I have not yet seen a lot of the earlier season yet, or anything of Craig Kilborn's run. The latter is difficult to find - there is just one full episode of his on Youtube, and nothing to be found elsewhere.
What makes this such a good show, to me, is the same as (I believe) a large part of my generation (at least that leaning in our direction). A feeling we can't quite trust media and politicians, and laughing at their errors in what's usually a well researched manner. John Oliver's show is the same - obviously, as it's an off shoot of this show - but here it's a bit lighter and it covers more topics per episode.
The interview segments - quickly dropped on Last Week Tonight - do usually feel like they're a bit unnecessary, more useful because they eat up a nice chunk of time on a daily show, and so understandable.
The correspondents are one of the major segments, having launched some major careers - Rob Cordry's Children's Hospital has been covered before, I'll go into Stephen Colbert's show later, and the US's Office has several alumni. When the right person comes a long, it can be a nice turnaround, especially during field pieces which nicely take a longer view than the short news cycle of the rest of the show.
But what made the show special is Jon Stewart. The show can be presented by someone else, but Jon Stewart's sense of humour combined with his genuine anger and bafflement at what happens and willingness to take people down while not quite hiding from it himself (although he has those moments too, where he pushes it) made it feel like he said it straight and gave a far better impression of what's actually going on.
The seventeenth album: #17 Ramblin' Jack Elliott - Jack Takes The Floor
Going by the name, I was expecting something moving towards rock. Seeing Jack Elliott's picture, I'm expecting something closer to country...and we certainlu get that folksy sound, accompanied only by guitar. It's very simple in its setup.
Folk always needs to do a bit more work to win me over, and I'm certainly feeling that here. Elliott's voice is fine, but gets to me sometimes and I don't feel this necessarily sounds that amazing. He's a fine singer, suited to the music, but there's not much that grabs. It gets a bit too samey and boring, to be honest. And worse, the yodelling just sounds terrible.
The sixteenth album: #16 Billie Holiday - Lady In Satin
After listening to her several times for the songs list, I now get the full 'experience'. This is her in her later years, which shows through in the vocals, sounds deeper and darker.
It's the slow, simpler songs that get you. While from the same place of Sinatra, where he goes big and swings, she goes small, the track often relying far more on her voice. It makes her sound sadder and smaller, something that really shows on "I Get Along Without You Very Well", which I've heard on both, but express a different sentiment simply because of the difference in the performers' voices.
It becomes maudlin music to immerse yourself in, something the songs really allow you to do. The orchestration makes you feel comfortable in the sadder parts of the songs, which is a great feat on its own. It's good to feel a bit sad sometimes.
The eighteenth book: #18 The Conquest of New Spain - Bernal Diaz del Castillo
Or rather "The True History of the Conquest of New Spain", this book details the expeditions of the conquistadors (including Cortes' famous one) as the memoirs of Bernal Diaz del Castillo, one of the people who joined in the expedition. Aside from writing the history, he also seems to have wanted to correct another historian's work, which had become more famous but (he said) included several inaccuracies. I don't know whether this is necessarily more accurate, rather than being an alternative point of view, but it does provide an interesting narrative.
The book is written from the perspective of the invaders being good people, doing their duty and claiming their right. They're not quite there to civilize the barbarians (although they are converting heathens), but you get the feeling that they assume they should have control very quickly, even though these people had lived there for ages. Some barbaric practices are ascribed to the indigenous people (ones that I do believe are real) but for the large part they seem friendly - and more than once taken for fools by the Spanish. Their military prowess still comes through, even if some numbers seem exaggerated.
What makes it interesting to read is how the writer's personality shows through. He puts in asides to tell off other writers who got it wrong and feels the need to justify some of the things that happened. At the same time, at least where the leaders were concerned (he was a soldier, so wouldn't have had much say, at least in the narrative as portrayed here), he says that they've done wrong several times. They're human and are painted as having several flaws.
All of that makes the book quite readable as well, and aside from getting confused with names a few times, it read quite well. I really enjoyed it, and was actually surprised it ended when it did (thanks to a lot of appendices in the copy I had). I would certainly be interested in more books of this type.
The twenty-ninth TV show: #279 Pennies from Heaven
Here we have an at times dark drama mixed with a musical - or rather, one where the character will suddenly lipsync to a 1930s song as they perform more elaborate choreography. The songs reflect the characters' inner life - often as a weird fantasy sequence - lit and set up as if they're on stage.
The story is that of a man stuck in a loveless marriage, desperate for affection, who gets caught up in various situations to the point where he gets accused of murder. This gets a lot darker than the musical tone implies - there's some evidence of spousal abuse, for example, and it's odd how well it manages to move between the two. It manages to nicely float between the two, something clearly anchored by Bob Hoskins, who moves between the two quite well. He's not a good man, but digs further than he possibly deserves as well.
Not sure what to make of that ending though.
The fifth classical recording: #4 Francesco Landini - Ballades
This is not quite what I expected from a subtitle of "Art of Courtly Love". These ballads sound fine, a lot of sopranos in more complicated melodies, but it all faded into each other, I wouldn't be able to distinguish individual songs in here. All in all it's a fine sound, but not one that I gain more from, just the ethereal, intrusive singing.
Still, it sounds good, and i can see this working even better in the intended setting.