6 posts tagged “tv”
Reading:
--The Empty Chair, Diane Duane's final Rihannsu novel, in an early-release electronic edition.
--Bonewits's Essential Guide to Druidism. I am not a great fan of Isaac Bonewits, but two things cannot be denied: He is a decent writer, and he has been Johnny-on-the-spot in a great many Neopagan movements in the U.S.
--The Warrior's Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold, my second reading. I had forgotten just how insane her protagonist Miles Naismith Vorkosigan actually is. I'd rather cope with the psychotic liegeman who likes to kill things.
--Cordelia's Honor by Bujold. The first novel in the Vorkosigan series, actually a compilation of the first and third books written, which form a single coherent story.
Listening:
--The Complete English Anthems of Thomas Tallis, performed by the Tallis Scholars.
--The Great Service of William Byrd, performed by ditto.
--assorted recordings of consort music by Lawes, Gibbons, etc., roughly contemporary with Tallis and Byrd or a bit later. Ah, viols....
Watching:
--the first season of The Tick. SPOON!
--just finished the first season of Dead Like Me courtesy of Netflix and liked it so much I *bought* the second season, which I hope to crack open tonight.
--Antiques Roadshow and American Experience. Yes, you may think of me as a boring old person now, someone who gets excited by Antiques Roadshow.
--Secrets of the Dead.
Thinking about:
--what I'm going to have for dinner.
--what I ate for lunch and how there was rather too much of it.
--the books I'm reading, and their characters, and their themes.
--what sort of ritual I'm going to do for the Samhain/All Saints/All Souls season, and when, and why.
--a friend who is having some troubles.
--things I'd like to do that involve getting away from the computer and socializing with friends in non-virtual life.
Books, movies, music; what's in your top 5 right now?
Books
Cordelia's Honor: I've just finished my first re-reading of this dual novel, the beginning of Lois McMaster Bujold's chronicles of Miles Vorkosigan. I may be even more impressed with it than before.
Gaudy Night: When in doubt, I re-read this book. Sayer's finest Lord Peter Wimsey novel--mystery, romance, social critique, larded with literary quotations and providing some splendidly quotable bits of its own.
The Ode Less Travelled: Stephen Fry explains it all for you in this engaging, informative primer on writing traditional metered verse. (Yes, I mean *that* Stephen Fry.)
Movies
Dead Like Me: Not actually a movie, but the thing I've been watching with the greatest attention and greatest pleasure, of late. A teenaged slacker's afterlife as a "grim reaper", whose job is to release the souls of people about to die.
Eyes on the Prize: PBS recently re-ran this gripping documentary, now twenty years old, of the premiere events of the civil rights movement. It really makes you appreciate how much the laws have changed and wonder how much attitudes have changed to match them.
The Tick: SPOON!!!
The Twilight Zone: Every so often I order a few discs of this classic series from Netflix, and each time I rediscover *why* it's a classic. I think the secret is that it's not really television, at least not as we understand it now; it's really theatre transposed to the stage. The acting, the makeup, the sets, all belong in a black box as much as on a soundstage, and many of the actors who guested on TWZ, who went on to become fixtures in television, came to TWZ from Broadway and other theatrical venues. It's just plain *good*--drama, comedy, horror, fuelled by Serling's passion for characters and for ideas and the actors' willingess to give the small screen everything they had.
Music
English Anthems of Tallis: Exquisite, crystalline performances of works by The Man Who Invented Anglican Choral Music, sung by the Tallis Scholars. Thomas Tallis and his business partner William Byrd were among the first and certainly among the most influential composers to write for the new, vernacular liturgy of the Church of England.
Royall Consort Suites by William Lawes. Beautiful, complex instrumental music of the seventeenth century, featuring viols. I love viols. I don't like violins--too screechy. Viols are mellow. Lawes was a court composer to Charles I, who was overthrown by Cromwell.
The Great Service by William Byrd. Morning and Evening Prayer, set to music by and for people with attention spans. Suitable for performing in the presence of red-haired Virgin Queens. Magnificent.
Pretty much anything we sing in my church choir, which includes a fair helping of Tallis and Byrd.
And pretty much anything played on the big band show that airs Friday nights on our local NPR station. Even "Elmer's Tune".
What tv show(s) will you be watching this fall? Why?
The shows I know I'll be watching in the next month or so are shows that are no longer airing but are available on DVD:
Death is just a wake-up call for young Georgia Lass, who prefers to be called George. When this eighteen-year-old slacker gets hit and killed by a flaming toilet seat from outer space, she discovers she is destined to be a grim reaper--one of the undead civil servants who collect the souls of those about to die. George finds herself holding down a boring day job in an office (the same office where she worked in life) while harvesting the souls of those who, like her, died by violence--murder, suicide, or accident.
The Tick can only be described as The Most Perverted Cartoon I've Ever Seen. Cancelled on the Fox Network because too many adults watched it and not enough kids, it takes every superhero trope and cliche and stands them on their heads, wearing purple tutus. A superhero who's a giant insect. His sidekick, a chubby accountant wearing a moth costume, who gets mistaken for a bunny because of the long white moth antennae. Villains who quote The Iliad, pay tribute to Joseph Stalin, and attempt to clone an Evil!Tick from a kleenex he used. I can't wait to see this again. Spoon!
Today is the fortieth anniversary of one of the most popular and influential television shows ever aired: The fortieth anniversary of the premiere of Star Trek.
Many other television shows from the 1950s and 1960s have remained popular. No other, however, has generated ten feature films and four other television series. Many television shows have been influential within their own medium. Few shows can claim to have shaped lifestyles, inspired careers in medicine and the sciences, and prevented suicides. And if you doubt that latter claim, I commend to you a pair of documentaries:
What made Star Trek unusual and innovative amongst science fiction television of its day was that it was not, unlike The Twilight Zone and similar shows, an anthology, a collection of short tales presented for the small screen. Rather, like a Western or a soap opera or any other tv drama, it featured a regular cast of characters in a stable setting that allowed for some variability; they were able to travel to different planets, but at the end of each episode, they were always back aboard their trusty ship. It was an idea that hadn't been tried before with the science fiction genre.
What made Star Trek enduring, I think, is that it was unabashedly, optimistically secular humanist. Its creator, Gene Roddenberry, had no qualms about embodying his values in the show, and they were values that struck a powerful chord in 1966: Sexual equality, racial and cultural diversity, interracial harmony, freedom of thought and choice, non-interference in alien cultures, the positive importance of the arts and sciences. The logical and briliant Mr. Spock was also a musician, playing an instrument from his Vulcan father's culture; the capable communications officer was also a singer; Shakespeare drew appreciative audiences even in the dress of alien cultures. One of the main characters was the product of an interracial marriage; the show gave tv audiences the first televised interracial kiss.
Star Trek told its audience we could solve the social problems of prejudice and bigotry and the scientific problems of space travel and, smarter and wiser than ever, make a glorious journey to the stars. And there, it told us, we would find love, friendship, and ever more exciting challenges to meet. What other show has dared to be so optimistic? What other show has triumphed so gloriously over its cheesy sets, hokey acting, and camp costumes? Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and their companions have been my friends for four decades. On this their anniversary I gladly toast them: May you continue to boldly go where no one has gone before.
It's finally here: The first season of the funniest, most warped animated superhero show ever. The Tick. The Tick, with his faithful sidekick Arthur the accountant, alias The Moth. The Tick! Fans everywhere know there's only one possible response to this:
SPOOOOOOOON!!!
Over the weekend I finished reading Naomi Novik's Black Powder War, the third book of her historical fantasy Temeraire series. It's obvious that there will be more, and I'm looking forward to them. They are excellent brain candy: Not terribly rich thematically, which I suppose is my chief criterion for a book being more than brain candy, but well written, interestingly plotted, with engaging characters, and lots of fabulous clothing to boot. Not that they are completely without theme, but it's not as important an element as it is in, for example, the Young Wizard books. Nor is the characterization uniformly good for every character, but Temeraire is so delightful I can't help but think of him as a really, really big parrot. A meat-eating parrot with very short feathers. *g*
Just how big is Temeraire, anyway? It's bugging me that I can't quite form a mental picture of him from his size, but then, I'm not very good at that sort of thing.
Novik's new series is my discovery; my re-discovery is The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. It's so gratifying when you watch something you loved ten, fifteen, twenty years ago, and it's every bit as good as you remember. For example, I'm embarrassed now when I see Lost in Space; I love Dr. Smith and the robot, but that show was So Bad. On the other hand, I think Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids holds up really well despite the crappy animation--it was funny and witty and real.
Brisco turned out to be like Fat Albert--just as funny, clever, and warped as I remembered. And Bruce Campbell was so handsome! I don't think I appreciated his manly jaw back then. I appreciated Julius Carry's manly swagger as Lord Bowler. *g* It's like a cross between Bugs Bunny and The Wild Wild West in live action--as if the wise-cracking, self-aware rabbit with the Brooklyn accent had to be the hero of James West-type adventures. Once you see the scene in the pilot in which a train is held up by running it into a wall painted to look like the scenery ahead, you know exactly where you are, fictionally speaking. Even the commentary on the pilot was good, and I tend to find DVD commentaries either very dull or very annoying. Bruce Campbell's comments on how difficult it sometimes was to make a tv Western in the early '90s, when Westerns had been out of style for years, were quite interesting, and he didn't try to overwhelm the episode or the audience by being constantly funny.
Another unexpected discovery has been Hell's Kitchen. I don't like reality shows, as a a rule, but my husband I watched the last few weeks of this show with unholy fascination. I think the reason that it captured me when I normally have no interest in reality shows is that it had people competing at something intrinsically worthwhile--cooking--for a valuable prize that wasn't just money--the position of a head chef in a high-profile Vegas restaurant. Gordon Ramsay is a foul-mouthed son of a bitch, but he's a talented, charismatic son of a bitch who really wants to see people cook well and create food that looks as well as tastes good. I'm sorry the show is over and hope it will be back next summer.
I also took a look at the new Fox show Vanished. I was not impressed. Too fast, too loud, too herky-jerky, with sex, violence, conspiracy, and just plain confusion. I'm reminded that the word "obscene" etymologically means "off stage". It's possible to *suggest* stuff rather
than shoving it down the viewer's throat. I had a lot to cough up after
the premiere of Vanished.
