Top Five Songs: All This Bad Blood (Bastille)

I’m not sure if this album B-sides to Bad Bloodor what.  I can’t recall ever getting a CD that came with a full-length bonus album of all different songs – remixes, sure, the odd new song here and there, but this whole album is new.  Whatever it is, I approve.  My picks are below.

“Poet” – Come on, how could I not love this one?  A writer immortalizing his beloved in words?  I’m all over that.  I adore the way the metaphor is used and how sexy it is, especially the repeated refrain of “I have written you down” and the line “I have read her with these eyes” in the bridge.

Best lyric:  “Now you’ll live through the ages. / I can feel your pulse in the pages.”

“The Silence” – Soaring melody, beautifully poetic lyrics, and this ineffable spirit that carries through it.  Such a gorgeous song; I love it so much.  “We used to swim in your stories / And be pulled down by the tide” gives such wonderful imagery, and since it also dwells on the power of words, it makes a perfect companion to “Poet.”

Best lyric:  “Wrap me around your fingers, / Break the silence open wide / Before it seeps into my ears / And fills me up from the inside.”

“Haunt” – First three songs, first three favorites – quite the frontloaded album.  That’s okay, though.  This one’s just cool and atmospheric, using the idea of a ghost to explore the regret of a lost relationship.  It makes me think of a line from Dead Like Me, where George notes, “Rube once told me that haunting is all about envy.”  In both cases, the haunting is viewed through the lens of the “ghost,” not the person who’s being visited, so focus is on the why, not the what.

Best lyric:  “You can’t see what’s past, make that happiness last, / Seeing from those eyes what you’ve become.”

“Laughter Lines” – So warm and lovely, one of the best ruminations I’ve found on the idea of “growing old” with someone.  “I’ll see you in the future when we’re older” expresses the idea wonderfully, suggesting an adventure or a journey, more than the passage of time.  Similarly, I like the way “I’ll see you with your laughter lines” recognizes the beauty of age and relishes it.

Best lyric:  “You took me to your favorite place on Earth / To see the tree they cut down ten years from your birth. / Our fingers traced in circles ‘round its history. / We brushed our hands right back in time through centuries.”

“Skulls” – Well, since we’ve done love preserved on paper and love enduring into old age, why love continuing after death?  Yes, it gets a little close to the morbid/angsty place occupied by people who don’t realize Romeo and Juliet were really dumb, but it also reminds me of the end of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and, as dramatic as that is, it still pulls me in like wow.  Major points by association!

Best lyric:  “Hold me in your arms, hold me in your arms. / I’ll be buried here with you, / And I’ll hold in these hands all that remains.”

As Tears Go By (1988)

This was Wong Kar-wai’s first film, although I didn’t see it until fairly late in my Wong-jucation (probably because it’s one of the few that doesn’t feature the wonderful Tony Leung Chiu-wai – they didn’t start collaborating until his brief appearance at the end of Days of Being Wild, which came next.)  It’s pretty far down on my list of his films, but it really is interesting and well-made.  More than anything, it’s a testament to how jaw-droppingly gorgeous some of the later stuff is that I don’t rate this one higher.

Wah, a mid-level gangster, is on the brink – of pretty much everything.  Of moving up in his organization, of throttling his “little brother” Fly before the fellow gangster gets himself or Wah killed with his reckless behavior, of exploding from all his unvoiced (maybe even unrecognized) discontentment, and even of leaving all that behind him for Ah-Ngor, his sweet and beautiful cousin.  Ah-Ngor is a provincial girl who lives off the mainland, but poor health has recently brought her into Hong Kong, where she’s been staying with Wah.  The two have a strong, simmering connection, but she worries about the danger of his volatile way of life.  Wah is thinking about going straight for her, but there’s Fly to think of.  What will happen to his friend if Wah isn’t there to look out for him?

Most of my favorite Wong films don’t fall into the gangster genre, just as a personal preference, so even though this is a very goodgangster movie, I can’t compare it to something like Ashes of Time or In the Mood for Love.  Still, when done well, I can enjoy this type of film just fine, and this one is sterling.  Even though the plots are so different, it reminds me a lot of State of Grace, maybe because of the relationship between Wah and Fly?  It’s a nice realization of why a life like that could appeal to someone beyond thrill-seeking, power, or by-any-means-necessary dough acquisition – those ties run deep.  Fly’s hot temper and dubious competence can turn virtually any situation into a crisis, but Wah stands by him through thick and thin, whether that’s pulling him out of yet another jam or trying to slap some sense into him in the vain hope of keeping him safe for once.  The film delivers nicely on the romance front as well.  The love story is a bit basic, but it’s conveyed so effectively, with Wong’s classic romanticism already on fine display in the cinematography and music. 

As Wah and Ah-Ngor, Andy Lau (who went on to do Infernal Affairs, the Hong Kong precursor to The Departed) and the sublime Maggie Cheung (frequent Wong collaborator, most memorably in In the Mood for Love) are electric together.  Lau is a strong, subtle lead, and Cheung gives a beautifully introspective performance.  Jacky Cheung (he was also in Ashes of Time) is very memorable as the irrepressible Fly.

Fun fact:  this film is where I first heard the song “Take My Breath Away.”  After hearing it elsewhere, though, it took me forever to realize it was the same song, since most of the lyrics in this version are in Cantonese.  I just knew it always made me think of “that song from As Tears Go By.”

Warnings

Some fairly strong gang violence, sexual content, drinking/smoking, and thematic elements.

Dessa Rose (2005)

I’m a bit on-the-fence about this Ahrens & Flaherty musical.  It has some really nice elements going for it, but I think it also stumbles in places.  In general, I’d place it in the middle of the pack for Ahrens & Flaherty shows I’m familiar with, with the score being somewhat better than the story (some spoilers.)

Based on a novel of the same name by Sherley Anne Williams, Dessa Rose follows the lives of two women in the Antebellum South.  Dessa Rose is a teenage slave girl infamous among plantation owners as the “devil-woman,” due to having led a slave revolt.  The pregnant Dessa Rose is brought to prison to be hanged for her crimes, and upon her escape, she crosses paths with Ruth, a white woman who’s struggled to keep her farm running since the departure of her husband some time before.  The two women immediately misjudge and mistrust one another, but circumstances throw them together and, providing they can cooperate, just might offer both of them a way out of their situation.

I haven’t read the book this is based on, so I don’t know how closely the story follows it, but the narrative bothers me in a few places, mainly because I feel it underestimates what being a slave was like.  The first is an account of Dessa Rose being whipped as a punishment, with her master only striking her “‘round her private places” so she won’t have visible signs of disobedience and therefore be easier to sell off.  Now, this is obviously reprehensible and I have no problem believing that a slave owner would devise such a cruel punishment (although, with a female slave, they might not in the interest of making sure she could still bear children.)  On the other hand, I do think it’s naïve to think a potential buyer wouldn’t see her completely naked.  It seems to suggest a tiny shred of bodily autonomy that slaves just didn’t have.  (Note:  although the scenario problematic to me, I love one of the lines in the song dealing with it.  “Don’t damage the goods. / Don’t scar where it shows” – chilling.)  I also call foul on the relative ease with which Dessa Rose and the other slaves run their “scheme” of having Ruth repeatedly sell them, running away, and meeting up to be sold again.  It almost comes across like escaping slavery is a cakewalk, and I find it hard to believe that they wouldn’t have lost a larger number of their group, either from being unable to get away or from being killed in attempts to flee.

This frustrates me, because it can be really great at times.  I like the recurring theme of finding small joys and comforts to make the horrors of life bearable, particularly the importance of family, names, and passing on the memories of those you’ve lost.  Although the way things resolve between Dessa Rose and Ruth is a bit pat, I like the way both women learn to see one another better and work together as a result.  I always love Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty’s talent for mixing a modern Broadway-pop sound with the flavor of their setting, and here, the fiddles, vocal harmonies, and spiritual rhythms do a nice job of capturing the feel of the story.  It’s not my favorite score of theirs, but there are some excellent songs to be had (in part, it’s a little tough to get into the Off-Broadway cast recording, since there are a lot of dialogue tracks and so the music is broken up considerably.)  The original cast starred a beautifully-voiced LaChanze (who also worked with Ahrens & Flaherty in Once on This Island) who has some lovely songs to sink her vocal cords into.  Norm Lewis (who I know from the original casts of A New Brain and Side Show,) playing fellow slave Nathan, isn’t used as effectively, but it’s always a treat to hear his richly-gorgeous voice.

Out West (1918)

 

I really like this one, a fun slapstick western with some terrific gags.  It has its definite imperfections, but overall, it’s one of my favorites of the Fatty Arbuckle shorts.

Fatty, a drifter, rides the rails into a rough ‘n’ tumble town in the Wild West.  He gets a job at the local saloon, run by Buster, and the booze-slinging makes it a bit awkward when he falls in love with a temperance advocate (Alice Lake.)  However, ideological difference don’t matter much when outlaw Al St. John moseys in.  He runs off with Alice, and it’s up to Fatty and Buster to save her.

Just great fun.  The plot is pretty slapdash, particularly in the last act, but the comedy keeps the short moving along well.  Things get off to an excellent start with a series of fine train gags.  (Now, I don’t want to go straight to the “I bet Buster made up this gag” well every time I come across something especially funny in a Fatty Arbuckle short, but come on – intricate circular gags on a train just scream Buster.  I would need pretty empirical evidence before I could entertain the possibility that anyone else came up with that sequence.)  There’s also lots of laughs involving a trap door, and a drunk horse whose performance has to be seen to be believed.  Seriously, not even the fashionista horse from The Blacksmithis as good as this one.

On the not-so-good side, I’m perplexed at the film’s apparent understanding of dangerous weapons.  Whereas people are merely threatened by guns and knives in The Rough House, multiple characters – Fatty included – get shot by both bullets and arrows in this short, to little ill effect.  I get the sense that the general rule is thought to be, “If you’re shot in the butt, it doesn’t count.”  I know these shorts are big on cartoon gags, but that’s just silly.  More unfortunate are the unpleasant moments of racial humor.  There’s a short sequence where Fatty is being pursued by Native Americans who evidently want to eat(!) him, and Alice Lake’s character is introduced rescuing a Black man that the saloon folk are repeatedly shooting at to amuse themselves.  The setup itself is of course horrible, and it’s an additional dose of unsettling to see him falling at the feet of his White Savior, big glycerine tears of gratitude streaming down his face.  Not cool.

But then there’s Buster.  Pretty much the fully-established Stone Face we know and love, running a Wild West saloon with the panache that only Buster can pull off.  So many great gags around his character.  I like that he uses his liquor as a cure-all, he deploys that trap door like nobody’s business, and he clings to a light fixture.  It’s great to see him slightly concerned but basically unruffled in the face of obvious danger.  I don’t even know how this worked with the deadpan, but nobody gave reaction shots like Buster.  He’s stoic, clever, athletic, and makes no bones about confronting people much bigger than he is – what more could you want?

Warnings

Slapstick violence (including gunplay,) drinking, and some distasteful racial humor.

Character Highlight: Clara Oswald (Doctor Who)

I know, I’ve already written about Clara ad nauseum, but my completist tendencies need to give all major Whoniverse characters either a Favorite Characters or Character Highlight writeup, so here we are.  Trying to sort through the various permutations of Clara (some spoilers.)

Things get off to a dubious start when Clara 1.0 is actually the third one we meet, and of the three, she’s the most unremarkable.  She’s a kind young woman who longs to travel but has been waylaid by her own caring.  The Doctor takes her along because he’s trying to work out the “Impossible Girl” mystery, and as such, she spends her first half-season not quite feeling like a companion.  She’s more of a puzzle than a person, she doesn’t get to do a lot in the adventures, and she feels flat and nonspecific compared to her splinter-self predecessors.  And yet, I do like her.  She’s caring, she seems clever, and she’s brave in a quiet way – not guns-blazing, but she’s good at keeping her head in a crisis and holding it together when she’s scared.  When she prepares to sacrifice herself for the Doctor at the end of series 7, I buy it.  The whole “I was born to save the Doctor” thing is grossly reductive, but that’s more a case of the writer putting unfortunate words in her mouth.  I believe that, seeing the Doctor suffering and, furthermore, knowing how the universe will suffer without him, she would jump into his timestream.  Of all of Clara’s potential exits and/or possible deaths on the show, this one remains the most organic and the most affecting for me.  If this was how she bowed out, I would have been sad.

But that’s not how Clara goes.  Clara 1.0 has a couple more episodes with Eleven, in which time (we don’t know how much) her occupation changes from nanny to English teacher and she has a few more strong emotional scenes with the Doctor.  Twelve comes onto the scene right in time for series 8 and Clara 2.0.  This Clara, as I’ve documented extensively, is by far my least favorite.  She often feels like she can’t be bothered with all this annoying time-and-space business, she hardly seems to have any faith in the Doctor anymore (except when she needs to give a Stirring Emotional Speech according to the writers’ need for it,) and she lies frequently, seemingly without much reason for actually doing so.  Mostly, she leaves me wondering why she keeps traveling on the TARDIS if it’s such a disruption to her life and she thinks the new Doctor is so lacking.  That said, Clara 2.0 is much more proactive in adventures than the previous version, although it’s sometimes, irritatingly, at the expense of the Doctor’s own competence.

In series 9, Clara 3.0 feels like a course-correction, an unspoken admission that series 8 took the show down a bad, sad road and something had to be done.  I still have my “Argh – why?!” moments, especially toward the end of the season, but overall, I think this version takes good elements from both prior iterations while discarding a lot of the unfortunate aspects.  She remains useful, contributing to adventures, and she feels like she actually cares about the Doctor again, noticing when something’s up with him and trying to help.  She’s still more of a part-time companion (boo!), but when she’s there, she clearly wantsto be there and is invested in going on adventures (true, there’s some hinting/anvil-dropping that this behavior is unhealthy, possibly a response to the trauma she suffers at the end of series 8, but I’m not going to complain about a companion acting like she wants to be there.)  While things dip pretty sharply again shortly before her departure from the show, it’s more about the plot surrounding her than the character herself.  Unfortunately, though, that plot stuff is annoying enough that, in the end, I was ready to toss her out of the door myself.  Not exactly what they were going for.

Captain America: Civil War (2016, PG-13)

Fair warning – I just saw this movie a few hours ago and I’m still riding my nerd high.  The objectiveness of this review is up for debate, but its sincerity is unimpeachable (premise spoilers.)

Things have been building in the Marvelverse for a while, on both the macro-level – the public (and the UN) are calling for accountability over collateral damage on Avengers missions – and the micro – Steve and Tony’s ideological differences as to what the team is for and how it should be run are quickly approaching irreconcilable.  When the Sokovia Accords, an agreement for a UN taskforce to handle oversight of the Avengers, is presented, Tony leads the charge to fall in line, while Steve is wary about placing their kind of power in someone else’s hands (especially, presumably, after the events of The Winter Soldier.)  Then, Bucky suddenly becomes a lightning rod at the center of the tempest, and for Steve, the stakes are too high and personal not to dig in.

As (ridiculously) excited as I’ve been about this movie forever, I was wary about it feeling more like The Avengers 2.5 than Captain America, plus I know Age of Ultron struggled a little to balance its massive cast.  For me, though, both of these concerns were completely unfounded.  Even with all that’s going on, particularly the large shadow that Tony inevitably casts, it still feels like Cap’s story.  Steve is given definite central focus, and his relationships with Bucky, Tony, and other team members take pride of place.  And honestly, I’m shocked by how well everyone is incorporated (while maintaining the aforementioned Cap focus, no less!)  Maybe it actually helps that it is a Cap movie rather than a team movie.  It’s easy to feel like, say, Thor, is shortchanged in Age of Ultron, but when it’s Cap’s story and the other characters are woven into it, it’s more palatable to see someone like Hawkeye used sparingly but well.  People are brought in as the story needs them, integrated organically, and given logical/emotionally-consistent motivations, and when the focus needs to go down to just Steve and Bucky or Steve and Tony, that’s what the film gives us.

I like the central conflict, because the arguments on both sides make sense and feel true to the characters making them.  Neither side is fully right or wrong, and, rather than using the plot simply as an excuse for “OMG superheroes fighting!” moments, it’s clear throughout that these people don’t truly want to fight each other.  The crisis builds slowly, with numerous entreaties to make those on the other side see reason, and when it does come to blows, it feels earned.

It’s no secret that I love virtually everyone in the MCU, and I easily could rave about the whole cast, all of whom do bang-up jobs here.  For now, though, I’ll just single out the newcomers to the Marvel fold.  Chadwick Boseman is fantastic as T’Challa/Black Panther:  he feels every inch a king, and I’m currently in denial about having to wait another twoyears for his movie.  Tom Holland is so perfect as Spidey, super-fun and a total scene-stealer without being overused.  I’m still annoyed about Spider-Man:  Homecoming pushing Black Panther and Captain Marvelfurther down the schedule, but I can’t say I’m not psyched to see more of him in action.

Warnings

Comic book violence, language, and thematic elements.

News Satire Roundup: May 2nd-May 5th

No John Oliver this week, but I’ll still talk a bit about the show.  One thing I really love is how proactive it is.  In addition to its brilliantly-incisive satire, the show frequently goes beyond commentary and takes tangible action.  I love John’s creation of Jeff the Diseased Lung in a Cowboy Hat – his proposed new mascot for Marlboro – along with the actual billboards and T-shirts he’s made/publicized with Jeff’s image.  I’m still a little stunned that he founded a fake church, not to make fun of religion, but to demonstrate how criminally easy it is for crooked televangelists to get tax exemptions (all of John’s donations, by the way, went to Doctors Without Borders.)  I adore the video he made for a Days of Our Lives-loving teenage refugee from Syria, in which her favorite character is resurrected and her favorite couple reunited; they then dramatically discuss the refugee crisis and mention the girl several times by name.  Aw…

Monday, May 2 – I liked the first story, on people who choose/are chosen by Trump.  Mike Tyson’s recent endorsement was accompanied by a reminder of That Time Trump Dismissed the Woman Accusing Tyson of Rape, and one of his campaign staff has worked in the past with various genocidal dictators collectively known as “the torturers’ lobby.”  Trump sure is making it easy for Trevor to keep up the African dictator jokes.  Guest Nikolaj Coster-Waldau’s “Live from Westeros” bit on Trump the Mad King was apt as well.  Ronny had a decent field piece on a possible contested convention.  I like that, as much as the show is horrified by the thought of a Trump presidency, it still dwells on the idea that every primary vote could be thrown out if the delegate numbers don’t add up.  Interesting how Nikolaj Coster-Waldau’s interview focused mostly on politics, discussing Denmark’s perception of the U.S. election insanity.

Tuesday, May 3 – We eased into things with a woman accusing Starbucks of putting too much ice in her coffee, a problem that Trevor rightfully pointed out is as first-world as they come.  The show then moved on to Cruz’s uninspiring showing in Indiana, featuring tons of Trump supporters harassing Cruz in exceedingly juvenile ways; I laughed at the graphic of Chief Justice Roberts pulling the “too slow!” trick with the Bible at a hypothetical Cruz inauguration.  I’m glad the show covered the prospective bill requiring women to register for the draft.  It’s so crazy that the whole thing started as a sarcastic remark aimed at blocking the move to allow women in combat positions, and Trevor captured that “this is how governance happens?” dumbfoundedness really well.  I enjoyed guest Josh King, who discussed all that goes into planning out and orchestrating a presidential candidate’s campaign narrative.

Wednesday, May 4 – Well, we’ve come to it; Trump is the presumptive nominee.  I liked Trevor’s comment that the last time a non-politician secured a party nomination, it was because he “beat Hitler.”  I also liked his callback to people asking if he was “ready” to cover American politics, asking now if we were ready for it.  Hasan’s field piece on wage inequality with the US women’s soccer team mostly covered the same info the show presented before, but I liked that we heard it this time from the team members themselves.  Their “no, we are not kidding you with this crap” attitudes were palpable.  Plus, bonus Billie Jean King!  The guest was Bethany Cosentino from the band Best Coast. She talked about sexism in the music industry, from sexist assumptions to harassment to assault, and her position as an unexpected spokesperson for the movement to speak up about it.

Thursday, May 5 – At this point, it does not surprise me in the least that, after all his raving about the border wall, Trump’s attempt to garner critical Latin@ voters consists of tweeting a picture of a taco bowl and the words “I love Hispanics!”  Wow.  Great piece on looking critically at Sanders’s policies, with everyone from correspondents to the cameraman desperately trying to silence Trevor to avoid pissing off Sanders supporters.  I especially liked Desi likening it to poking a hornets’ nest with a lot of student loan debt.  I’ve been enjoying Ronny a lot lately, and he kept it up with a story on assorted consequences of the current selfie obsession.  In what world does it not occur to Snapchat that creating a photo feature that clocks your speed might play a part in car accidents?  Musical performance from a band called The Heavy.  The bands on the show don’t normally hold my interest too much, but I liked these guys pretty well.