Aug 30, 2017 | Goggle-eyes
Further despatches from the frontier of my TV viewing:
Game of Thrones Season 7 has just finished, and I enjoyed it. There has been criticism of the pacing and telescoping of plot, amongst other things. The criticisms are valid, I think, but I’m not that concerned in the long run. We’ve had 6 seasons of manoeuvering and subtle politics, and now crunch time is here and choices are forced by events.
Supergirl Season 2: A year ago I wrote about Supergirl as a surprise hit for me. I have nearly finished season 2 and continue to appreciate it: it is solid and enjoyable and more confident than season 1. Sure, it’s a little too clean-cut, and I get weary of inspirational speeches and occasionally strained dialogue, but not so much that I stop watching. Equally, though, the criticisms I had of it a year ago, when I compared and contrasted it with Sense8, still hold true for me. Global problems are still coterminus with “National City” rather than, er, global, and the Big Bads don’t begin to approach Bond super-villain class for that reason; it isn’t really a global threat if it only impacts on an industrial estate in Vancouver. Drama needs conflict and peril, but some of the drama in Supergirl seems somewhat forced rather than arising naturally out of what we know of the characters, especially from episode 14 onwards (and I’m not sure how Cadmus came to have a fully functioning FTL spaceship just hanging around.)
Genre television is in transition, but lots of of shows still cling to old norms (42 minutes plus ads, villain of the week, season long story arc, 20-odd episodes) and Supergirl is one of them. I’m hardly the target demographic, but I think that, enjoyable as it is, Supergirl could be better.
Jessica Jones is an interesting contrast to Supergirl, not just because of the Marvel:DC split; it is clearly aimed at a different audience. Jessica Jones doesn’t stick with traditional comic-book tropes, as Supergirl does; it deals with the upclose and personal and has more of a graphic-novel vibe. We engage with our titular heroine because of deep characterisation and a compelling narrative which is truly character driven. The drama never feels forced or false, and the show is populated by a convincing group of primary and secondary characters who are sharply delineated (and very well played by an ensemble cast).
And it looks and sounds ravishing.
If I have one reservation about Jessica Jones, it’s that I sometimes felt that they were told they had 13 episodes and wrote 13 scripts, when the story itself probably only needed 11 episodes to tell.
Jessica Jones seems to me to be much more in sync. with how genre television is changing than Supergirl, and all the better for it. I’m not suggesting Supergirl should be dark and gritty or that Kara Danvers should become a hard-assed, hard drinking woman with self-esteem issues and untreated trauma, but that with some thought the show could elevate itself further (it certainly has a cast capable of carrying that off). I doubt it will, though, because it sits in a CW/DC Universe that is much more attuned to classic comic-book tropes (acknowledging that it handled the coming out of a lead character with sensitivity and wit, and graced with a formidable performance from Chyler Leigh.)
A year ago I wrote:
Now: it would be wrong criticise Supergirl for not being something that it has never set out to be. Supergirl is no more Sense8 than Mary Poppins is an homage to Akira Kurosawa. And that’s fine, it takes all sorts to make a mix of entertainments. I enjoyed Supergirl season 1 and I’ll no doubt enjoy season 2 when it comes along.
But Sense8 seems to me to be an event which will be a reference point for future writers, directors and producers in the same way Twin Peaks, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Star Trek were and are. Supergirl is entertaining and fun, but it isn’t a game-changer.
A year on and I could write the same, swapping out Sense8 for Jessica Jones, and, in a weird sort of way, I regret that.
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Added: Supergirl season 2 ended in melodrama and emoting; so far so normal. It got noticeably stronger whenever Calista Flockhart was on screen. In the bigger picture though, it was still melodrama where Jessica Jones was drama, and the difference is telling.
I noticed towards the end of the last episode that Supergirl had her ears pierced; how did they manage that?
Aug 28, 2017 | Jam
I had a real rock’n’roll weekend, picking damsons and plums from the garden and turning them into jam. I didn’t know how tricky damsons are to separate from their stones, and spent an age with 2.3kilos of them and a sharp knife on Saturday night. The net result, brown fingers from the fruit. After experimenting, shampoo was best for getting rid of the worst of it.
For future reference, this was my recipe.
2.3k Damsons and 0.7k plums (about 2.8k after stoning)
2.3k jam sugar
about 1.5pts water
I de-stoned the fruit into a bowl and left overnight to macerate in 1.5k sugar. I soaked the stones with bits of flesh still on overnight in about 0.5pints water.
On Sunday morning I simmered the stones in the water for about 15 minutes then put through a sieve to keep any dissolved fruit and the water, all of which I added to the main bulk of fruit with the remaining sugar and 1pt water.
Everything went into a jeely pan in the normal way, and I bought to the boil, stirring to ensure the sugar was dissolved. When it started to boil I simmered for 1.5 hours to get the maximum flavour out of the damsons. I then brought it to a rolling boil until it reached 220F (105C). I made 11 jars of jam, but they were of varying volumes. I can report that it tastes great 🙂
I have a book of jam recipes that my late mother-in-law gave me. It recommends a 60:40 ratio of sugar to fruit (while noting that sugar is subject to rationing…) but I find this far too sweet. Most modern recipes say 50:50 fruit and sugar, but I still find that too sweet. This jam was roughly 45:55 sugar to fruit, and I would prefer less sugar still, but that makes setting trickier.
Incidentally, there are lots of hints and tips about knowing when jam will set, using cold saucers and edge tests from spoons; the safest way, I find, is to use a sugar thermometer.
Aug 22, 2017 | Goggle-eyes
In a doomed attempt to keep up with the zeitgeist, I watched Marvel’s The Defenders on Netflix.
A Guardian Review said the first couple of episodes were redundant as they introduced characters we already knew from their own series; not relevant to me as I haven’t seen those series. Well, except for episode one of Iron Fist which was more than enough.
There were plenty of things about The Defenders I liked a lot, especially about the production values. The colour palette was great throughout, subtly (or not so subtly) shifting with the characters–Matt Murdoch/Daredevil was filmed with red tones dominant, for example. I really liked the framing most of the time too; they did a good job of evoking the tropes and feel of classic NYC street photography, finding formal composition and beauty down in the darkness. Characters were often filmed through windows or glimpsed through the side-windows of passing automobiles, evoking hints of Saul Leiter. For my tastes, there were too many camera angles designed to mimic comic-book panels, but it wasn’t as egregious as, for example, American Gods.
Sound design was strong too, as was the steady, deliberate pacing. As is now de rigeur from any TV show with pretentions to excellence, it had a good titles sequence, The villain, played by Sigourney Weaver, was good too, and wasn’t the usual moustachio-twirling scenery chewer.
My problems with The Defenders were with the script and the characters.
I found the show dismayingly formulaic, bound tight to cliche and conventions of the Hero’s Journey. Right on cue, characters rejected the call to action until some catharsis caused them to change their minds. Shit, we even had a grizzled old mentor come by to be mysterious and lay some heavy exposition on us. Within this, the dialogue was too formalised and over-wordy compared to how people actually speak (with the notable exception of Jessica Jones). I didn’t find myself engaging at all with their peril. The actors did their best with what they were given, often giving more than the writing actually deserved, but I think they could have made it sing with better material. The plucky sidekicks didn’t fare any better, though the actors all did well.
Stock shot cliche alert, with Iron Fist manspreading and Jessica Jones showing her arse
As to the leads, we have the whiny rich kid with maturity issues, the dude just trying to save his ‘hood from the bad guys, the emotionally conflicted masked vigillante, and the ex-superhero with a traumatic past and a taste for Canadian whiskey. Yeah, right.
And the ending? If you go to war there is a price to pay: there has to be a toll. The good bit is there was, the bad bit is the final scene completely undermined it.
Finally, it wasn’t weird enough. If you’re dealing with ancient mystical powers, a whiny kid with a hand that glows from time to time doesn’t cut it.
All in all, a clean, professional production lacking in any artistic or dramatic challenges, so a grumpy >meh< for the series. It isn’t so much that it pales to nothing in comparison to Twin Peaks or Sense8, though it does, it’s that there really isn’t any excuse for this sort of risk-free film making since The Wire showed exactly how to do compelling drama with realistic dialogue, deep characterisation, and tight plotting. Hell, just watch S1, E1 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer for a masterclass right there.
On the plus side, it did suggest I really ought to watch Jessica Jones, a character who interests me–well written, and believably portrayed by Krysten Ritter.
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Added: I’ve now watched several episodes of Jessica Jones. It was taut, suspenseful and mysterious. Cinematography was spot on, all moody colours and tones soundtracked by strains of distant modal jazz in the NYC night. In short, everything The Defenders wasn’t.
Aug 16, 2017 | Uncategorized
I can barely remember a time when I didn’t have a way to listen to music. I think my first machine was a tape recorder, then there was a record player and a cassette player. Over the years the equipment has changed, but the music is the continuity.
In our front room now is equipment that mostly dates from when I bought it in 2001–Cambridge Audio CD player and Amp., Eltax speakers–and some that I’ve acquired in the meantime: a Denon cassette deck, a Rega turntable, and a Cambridge Audio phono-stage. In the shed I have a cheap Sony cdplayer/DAB radio combo.
Stan Tracey Quartet
It’s been on my mind lately to upgrade what I have, in part because I have some hearing loss in high frequencies, the kind that makes it hard to pick out what people say when there is background noise. I’m also listening more to vinyl and especially post-1950s jazz so I’m looking for a particular ‘sound’ in which the instruments are distinct and separate and I can hear the overtones
The Shed
My initial thought was to buy a used Denon minisystem as a straight upgrade. The I began to wonder about getting hold of some vintage hifi gear from eBay, and had a long look at what was around. Of course, there is plenty available, and working out which is nominally ‘best’ and then sniping for bargains is a tempting rabbit hole I’ve been trying very hard not to tumble into.
I then thought about transferring my cd and amp from the living room to the shed and buying upgrades for the living room, but see below for more on that.
So I haven’t made up my mind, but in the interim I spotted a comment, by someone with the same cheap Sony cd/DAB combo I have, that it sounded a lot better with a change of speakers. The device claims to accept speakers of a nominal 4Ω impedance, so, courtesy of eBay, some battered old Sony SS-85e speakers are on the way. With some fresh wire etc. from Amazon, and some improvised isolation provided by mousemats and metal feet, I should get a substantial upgrade in shed sound for well under £50 (including P+P).
I’m toying with having a turntable up there too, though that would mean major reorganisation and definitely another amp., so that can wait.
Living Room
Heavy Weather
I had a good exchange with Richer Sounds who said I should stick with what I have because it is as good as what is currently available around my price point. Assuming that to be true, (props to them for not simply seizing the opportunity to sell me something shiny and new), and given that I don’t really want to splash the cash on a serious upgrade, I started to think more about how I have things set up in the living room.
At present everything sits on a solid IKEA unit which is on castors on the carpet. The speakers are an exception: they are on spikes on fairly solid bamboo boards. It was obvious the moment I started to think about it that there is no effective isolation for any of the main components, aside from the speakers, from either system noise transmitted through the unit or general vibrations in the room. The effect of this has to be to degrade the performance of the units in precisely the way that will cause problems with my hearing. In fact it may well be the combination of this and my hearing that is making the music sound undefined.
So I’m going to focus on various improvised devices, drawn from internet forums, to isolate the turntable, cd player and amplifier. This includes both vertical and horizontal isolation of the turntable. The improvised devices include IKEA chopping boards, squash balls, steel bearings, furniture cups, oak cones, and sorbothane pads. Again all at rock-bottom prices.
I’ll report back.
Aug 11, 2017 | Steal Your Face
Over on the Internet Archive, someone posted an edited version of the Grateful Dead’s Dark Star made up from 30 performances in 1972, including most of the European tour (looks like one of the Paris shows has been left off). It runs to 11 3/4 hours long and is mesmerising. It may be the perfect background music for a day in the office.
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