Week of July 24

 Week of July 24

Music 

Daliborovo Granje - Hainin (2020)This band is Croatian, they play psychadelic and prog rock. Sometimes it verges on the heavy. Their tunes have been in my ear this week.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neh4ZAGBdUs&pp=ygURZGFsaWJvcm92byBncmFuamU%3D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odmYh_68sHg&t=326s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JC4XpHEd35M&pp=ygUIbmF4YXRyYXM%3D

Aphex Twin-Alberto Balsalm (1995)

I have recently become aware of this song by Aphex Twin. It's a great piece of IDM and electronic music. The percussion and the synths steal the show, they are really the only things going on but the simple melodies and drum patterns that he uses blend in and out and warp into a hypnotic yet complex song. The song is nocturnal and subtly industrial like much of his work.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZVZgCrHy5E&ab_channel=AphexTwin-Topic

Literature

The Queen of Spades-Pushkin (1833)

This short story is a wonderful tale of the seemingly rigid and principled engineer Hermann who becomes enticed to gamble only after attaining knowledge of the predestined winning hand. He attains this knowledge by infiltrating into the life of an old woman who later shares the winning hand with the young man in a dream. As the man becomes enamored with the prospect of winning, he disregards love and becomes enveloped in greed only to lose his fortune. Magic Realism is employed in this narrative through the blending of the supernatural and the real.

Film and Television

Barbie-Greta Gerwig (2023)

The Barbie movie is a bright, occasionally funny, confused mash of feminism and existentialism. Was it about motherhood? The issues with patriarchy? About existentialism? You can interpret however you want, but in its most apparent purpose, the film was a 2 hour long attempted rebranding of Barbie as enforced by the movie's Mattell meta-narrative and the extensive self-referential humor, which can only be zoomed out and interpreted as a real-life marketing ploy. Feminism and existentialism are useful ornaments to give this story a sense of emotion. The performances and the visuals are well done and cartoonish for the most part but can become cloying. In the end, the Barbie movie feels like watching Mattell pull its pants down and act a fool in an act of bombastic marketing only to realize at the end of the movie that all while you have been laughing you yourself have been pantsed and 15$. poorer.

5/10.

Blue Velvet-David Lynch (1986)

Blue Velvet is an often terrifying dreamscape of Oedipal surrealism. Not as demanding of the viewer from an interpretive point as some of Lynch's other work, Blue Velvet is still chock-full of absurd scenes that are equally frightening, and oddly humorous. The movie consists of many triads of relationships, the most evident the Oedipal triad of Son (Jeffery; Kyle Maclachlan), Mother (Dorothy Vallens; Isabella Rossellini), and Father (Frank Booth; Denis Hooper)

Laura Derne's character can also be seen in a romantic Triad with Jeffrey and Dorothy as well as Jeffrey and her Boyfriend Mike, furthermore, Dorothy's actual family triad between her husband and her son is rendered fractured in the story. 

8/10

 

Week of July 17

Week of July 17

Music 

The Doors-Changeling and L.A. Woman 

Rock/Blues

Jim Morrison's later material is almost indistinguishable from his early clean-cut crooning. He fully embraces the blues and the uncouth, like a monstrous hairy troll. He and The Doors were a generational act. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtN8UPjN5WU&pp=ygUKY2hhbmdlbGluZw%3D%3D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHXjcdNIN-Q&pp=ygUSbGEgd29tYW4gdGhlIGRvb3Jz

Rings of Power Soundtrack-Khazad-dûm, Durin IV

I really like the Dwarves in Rings of Power, their soundtracks are amusing and epic as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gJBqV0Ect4&ab_channel=BearMcCreary-Topic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OU8NWgthmvE

Lou Reed-Your Love,Merry-Go-Round

I came upon these early Doo-wop tracks by Mr.Lewis Reed. He already had that punk energy seeping through his Doo-woop crooning. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UI2UfCk6oGw&ab_channel=LouReed-Topic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KO2MnTnd98&ab_channel=LouReed-Topic

Literature 

Mikhail Lermontov 

The Fatalist was re-read this week. Its nocturnal atmosphere still sticks. This foreboding feeling is something that I wish to expose myself to more often in art.

“I prefer to doubt everything… as far as I am concerned, I always advance more boldly when I do not know what is awaiting me. After all, nothing worse than death can happen — and death you cannot escape!”

Film and Television

Amazon's Rings of Power

This show is not as bad as most make it out to be. It can be a bit ridiculous but it is fantasy. The Dwarves are the best part, the elves perhaps the worst. 

Funny things #1

 

This is a very funny series of YouTube videos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtshATI3ELg&ab_channel=tonyhemphill

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ya73TZtt88E&pp=ygUSd2hhdCdzIHRoZSBnb2FsaWUg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rydu3XHSB3Q

Week of July 10

 

Week of July 10

Music 

Mdou Moctar - Tala Tannam

Tishoumaren 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEAsL2qqdiU&pp=ygULbWRvdSBtb2N0YXI%3D

Gabriel Yared-Bungalow zen

Harmonica/Instrumental

Brief and calming, like a crisp summer dawn. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZ3Y8mDIJ1A&pp=ygUMYnVuZ2Fsb3cgemVu

Angelo Badalamenti-Twin Peaks Soundtrack 

The Twin Peaks soundtrack is magnificent. Hypnotic, lulling and ethereal jazz and dream pop.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCh6jhpIiws&ab_channel=YannickVallet

Literature 

Munero 

-Munero is an acclaimed short story writer from London Ontario. She won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2013. Miles City, Montana was read. It began slow, but an ominous tension. It is about chance as well as the choices and paths taken in life. The story is for the patient, but she builds up steam as it progresses. Nonlinearity is present in this story as is in many of her stories.

Film and Television

Twin Peaks

-Season 2 has more filler than season 1. 

Ballad of Buster Scruggs

-Some good stories but the movie often suffers from pacing issues. Whether too fast or slow. The second and fifth stories are the best, and the first is the worst. 

Week of July 3

Sunday 9th of July 

Music 

Last week I took a moderate interest in Tuareg music. The genre known as Tishoumaren (from the French chomeur meaning unemployed) 

Mdou Moctar - Tarhatazed

Tishoumaren 

This song is electric. I have no idea what the Tuareg lyrics are about but I like to believe it's about an ancient magic that conjures a sandstorm in the face of a serpent in the Sahara night, swirling and fluttering through the night's stars. The change-up at 4:28 is a favorite part among many.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhqk3bHmnk0&pp=ygUWdGFyaGF0YXplZCBtZG91IG1vY3Rhcg%3D%3D

Mdou Moctar - Ya Habibti Tishoumaren 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiwcnMYfc2Y&pp=ygUKeWEgaGFiaWJ0aQ%3D%3D

Imarhan - Tarha Tadagh

Tishoumaren 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtTV9IM-X40

Roberto Musci - Lullabies... Mother Sings... Father Plays...

World/Electronic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BT8mML26J5o&pp=ygUjbHVsbGFiaWVzIG1vdGhlciBzaW5ncyBmYXRoZXIgcGxheXM%3D

Far From Any Road

Country

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRJ_s2G76Hg&pp=ygURZmFyIGZyb20gYW55IHJvYWQ%3D

Paul Simon - Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes

Pop/Rock/World

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-I_T3XvzPaM

Literature 

Borges

-Borges is an author of the infinite. The Gospel According to Mark(!!!) and Circular Ruins were read. Fables for adults the former deals with the ingraining of myth through time and the latter with dreams and reality. 

Read here for free 

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1971/10/23/the-gospel-according-to-mark

Chekov

-Romance with a Contrabass is a funny story worth reading about two people who are going to a wedding:A contrabass player and the bride. Unfortunate events happen in a humourous fashion.

Twain

-Huckleberry Finn was begun, and a few chapters were read. 

Film and Television

Twin Peaks

-The surreal murder mystery show that somehow manages to divert from being about a murder mystery.

Rosemary's Baby 

One of the greatest movies ever. The increasingly claustrophobic and banal nature of the movie is where the true horror is felt.

Week of August 7th

 Week of August 7th

Blogger issues plagued this week which resulted in deleted entries.

Music 

First Opus: Sinjin Hawke (2017)

Sounding like the theophany of some celestial mass, shimmering embellishments and manipulated vocals define this occasionally rambunctious, often ethereal electronic album.

 

Film and Television

A River Runs Through It (1992)

A homely family drama about identity, family and my state Montana. Fishing and rivers serve as metaphors for this old demonstration of Protestant Values

7/10

There Will Be Blood (2007)

Concerning the rise of oil prospector Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) in early 20th century California. There Will Be Blood is an excellent parable about a world where greed and capitalism always are.  But the tale is not only rife with biblical imagery but has a plot that juxtaposes the psychopathic capitalist (Daniel Day Lewis) and the conniving preacher (Paul Dano). Their stories merge and progress in tandem, yet ultimately are antagonistic to each other. The acting is exceptional, and the imagery is striking. An ominous and detached tone veils the film. Exceptional.

10/10