Graphite and Glitter Tuesday, June 26, 2007

So where have I been? Bored and tired! So what do I do? Get back into action!

The new Richard Thompson record is a real treat. His past couple of albums have been pretty good, but they didn't compel a lot of listens. Let's call them respectable. Listening to the latest, I figured out why: As a songwriter, Thompson's bread and butter is templates. He's got a half-dozen or so basic song types, and when he's on his game he can fill in the blanks with just about anything and come up with a classic. For about five years, he's been ignoring those templates and writing oddball "suites" or working in olde-timey folke forms. On this record, he goes back to the old playbook, with inspired results. The songs here echo earlier (and sometimes better) Thompson tunes, but they've also got the classic wit, fiery guitar parts and full-throated gusto over human misery. Not to be missed.

The new Feist also sounds wonderful, with lots of bouncy, compulsive beats with low-key vocals. Likewise Keren Ann's self-titled album. Embarrassed to say, I didn't listen closely enough to pick up the actual words, but c'est la vie these days. They could read the town constitution, for all I care.

Vidwise, we finished up two seasons of Battlestar Galactica and all of Firefly. Interesting shows, with complementary pluses and minuses. Battlestar is "new TV": decent actors who are plausibly cast as types, and usually deliver the emotional goods; a compelling long-running storyline; lots of gritty twists and turns to make sure you're paying attention. On the other hand, it's writerly to a fault. Things happen, and characters do things, because the script demands it, not because of logic. See also "The X-Files." And for all the twists and turns of the plot, for all the supposed willingness to junk the format in favor of a good story, none of the characters do anything to put a real writer's pet in jeopardy. (Such as noticing that a very obvious turncoat is a very obvious turncoat.)

Firefly, on the other hand, feels more like a traditional picaresque show--the old Star Trek, say. The stories mostly wrap up in an hour, and at the same time they're much more leisurely than Battestar's, with lots of room for jokes and little character moments that go nowhere. And, glory of glories, the characters basically act from sensible, comprehensible motives--which makes many of the show's curveballs that much more believable. (Of course he'd do X, it's in his best interest.) On the other hand, even though the show's a lot lighter and more likeable than Battlestar, it feels a lot less authentic. (By TV sci-fi standards, of course.) The characters are basically Whedon stock figures--smushy men who tell jokes while implausibly gorgeous women do the heavy lifting--and they all talk like mallrats, even in a futuristic Sino-horse opera setting.

To be honest, probably the best thing I've seen lately is Mary Poppins, currently the opiate of choice in the Wrong Turn household. I hadn't seen it for thirtywhatever years, and I was surprised by how strong it is. All else aside--and that's quite a bit--every single song is a stunner. Where did the Shermans come from? Where did they go?

@ 8:03:00 AM,

1 Comments:

At 10:30 AM, Anonymous Ramsey said...

"smushy men who tell jokes while implausibly gorgeous women do the heavy lifting--and they all talk like mallrats, even in a futuristic Sino-horse opera setting."

Ha ha ha!

 

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