Carol

Cinematic, romantic, blurrily subjective (from the perspective of both Cate's Carol and Rooney Mara's Therese) and quite beautiful. Also, I wonder whether the name of the film/character and the Christmas-time setting is a coincidence?

(w/ Kevin)

Lorrie Moore - Self-Help

Acerbic, witty and moving, these stories do what short stories are supposed to. Includes "How to Become a Writer" and another that I've read somewhere in an anthology before, "How to Be an Other Woman". Several of them got to me, but "Go Like This" is the one that made me feel the saddest, that made my breath catch in my chest, that most made me feel.

Natalie Merchant - Paradise Is There

When Natalie Merchant released her lovely, resonant solo debut Tigerlily, in 1995, she was more or less the age that I am now; last year, two decades on and now past 50, came Paradise Is There, made up of the same songs but re-recorded (and reordered) with the benefit of experience and the different perspective that comes with time. So of course I had to listen to it.

I came to Tigerlily during university - via the local library, over summer 2001-02 (so, tipping from second year into third - in retrospect the start of a period that shaped me a great deal) - and it's one of those albums that, even if I don't think of it that often, has become deeply woven into my life, songs like "San Andreas Fault", "Wonder", "Beloved Wife", "Carnival", "I May Know The Word" and more which have become more familiar than words and which I really hold dear. There's a sweetness to it and a sadness coexisting with hope in its gentle melodies and Merchant's somehow both hesitant and fluid vocals that was irresistible then and still is.

In that context, the versions on Paradise Is There were never going to replace the originals in my affections. These are not radical reinterpretations; rather, overall, these new versions tend to be more orchestrated (more strings), a bit fuller in sound (including a certain deepening of the timbre of Merchant's voice) and longer, but remain clearly recognisable. Do they cast new light on these familiar songs, and do they have something to say about the journey that their writer and singer has been on in the 20 years since she first laid them down? Do they also make me reflect on the time that's passed and what has changed in my own life over the (more like 15 year) period since I first discovered them myself? Yes to all of those questions, in small ways but not negligible ones - and so, something to be grateful for, as quiet as all of this may be.

Sarah Blasko - Eternal Return

Very and nicely smooth from Blasko - she's so, so good. (Also, as a somewhat random aside, the only album I can think of that I've ever listened to where the first two tracks are my two least favourite.)

Veronica Mars season 1

"We Used To Be Friends" was always my least favourite of the Dandy Warhols' radio singles, but thanks to its use as the show's theme song, by the time Kristen Bell's Veronica Mars utters those lines about midway through this engrossing first season, "we used to be friends, a long time ago" - in the same rhythm as the song, no less - it carries a charge.

I knew that the show had a sizeable cult following and the concept of high school noir was intriguing (Brick being the only obvious predecessor in that sub-genre), plus Bell was appealingly waspy as Leslie Knope's Eagleton rival in Parks and Rec, so this seemed a likely prospect - and yes, it is very good!

As it turns out, high school is a good setting for a show about a (teen) private investigator - after all, to those living through it, the stakes are high and everything feels meaningful, and there's a ready cast of contrasting types and motivations, not to mention plenty of rules (there to be broken) and mystery. And Veronica Mars (people use her full name a lot) is a terrific character to have at the centre of events - smart, tough and hard-edged while also vulnerable and prone to kindness towards others, an outsider who used to be an insider, and convincingly all of those thing as a function of both personality and (traumatic) events - and while the figures in her orbit vary in interestingness, all are memorable even if only because of their archetypal nature. (I do like Logan; also likeable in a smaller role is Tina Majorino of Napoleon Dynamite fame as Veronica's IT specialist; Alyson Hannigan also flits through two or three episodes as Logan's flighty sister.)

Also notable: issues of class are foregrounded throughout, from the very first line; and it gets right the number of twists, and the balances between lightness and the darker elements, and the overall mystery (who killed Lilly Kane? ... which reminds me that Amanda Seyfried is also good in her many appearances in flashback) and the episode-by-episode investigations into which she's drawn by various schoomates).

Aziz Ansari - Modern Romance

A bit fluffy but pretty much on the money, on a subject about which we are all such great theoreticians. It helped that that I could imagine Tom Haverford while reading it, even though Ansari's own voice and personality obviously differ plenty from the character he plays.

Heather Christle - The Trees The Trees

I've been reading this slim collection for, I think, three or so years now, on and off, and grappled with most of the 58 poems comprising it several times along the way - it's struck a chord, meaning and objects and images and phrases slipping one into each other.

                              THEN WE ARE IN AGREEMENT

                 pick a hand      it has nothing in it      you can keep
                 my hand as long as you need it      you never know
                 what a long day this has turned into     you can say
                 it's only time       but what isn't      maybe if I asked
                 nicely      you would represent me      in court      in
                 the future       in many ways       we are alike      we
                 both have one of my hands     and at least one of us
                 likes it      I won't speak for you      but am honestly
                 waiting         in  hopes that you might  speak for me
                 make statements       deny statements       the vital
                 thing's to make a little noise

(context)

Laura Stevenson - Cocksure

Terrific! Every bit as enjoyable as 2013's Wheel; sweetly, sharply piquant, and nearly every song a miniature - or, in the case of the first and last tracks, not so miniature - epic.

The Hateful Eight

Years of watching Tarantino have trained us all to pay close attention to dialogue, character and set-up (including shifts in apparent power relations) in his films but - unsurprisingly - there was no way of telling how this one would turn out or who (if anyone) would be left standing at the end; that uncertainty, plus the presence and impact of all of the usual technical things that he does so well (including characters and set pieces that, even if sometimes on the thin side in this one, enable their inhabiting actors' charisma to come through[*]), adds up to three hours that never drags. Yet, easy as it was to watch on a Sunday afternoon in a crowded movie theatre, I don't know how much there was to this one, or whether I'd watch it again - I have a suspicion that it might ultimately be hollow, insubstantial.

(w/ Julian - at the Astor and on the 70mm film at the 2.76:1 aspect in which it was shot, complete with program, overture and intermission)

[*] I don't think it was one of her great performances, but it was committed - and it was a treat to see my old favourite Leigh in such fine touch.

"Julian Rosefeldt: Manifesto" (ACMI)

Four video works, dominated by the multi-screen one that gives the exhibition its name - Cate Blanchett in multiple (about a dozen?) characters including teacher, rock star, ballet impresario, dock worker, housewife, news reporter and more, declaiming a range of art movements' manifestos.

Two musical things

1. "Summer Rain", Belinda Carlisle. This evening, out running as it lightly rained. There seem to've been more of these music/life moments over the past six or nine months, which must be a good thing.

2. David Bowie. Generally I'm quite unaffected by the passing of people who I don't know in real life but this one is different - I don't know why. I feel a real sense of loss.

Garbage - Garbage (20th anniversary edition / remastered)

This album was pretty epochal for me and so of course it's good listening to it again, the songs travelling along paths seared into my awareness long ago. The b-sides haven't aged well, though, apart from strong residual affection for "#1 Crush".

"The Biography of Things" (ACCA)

This one pretty much passed me by, sad to say. Nothing here that I could sink my teeth into.

The Lobster

Very good. Still not sure how to read the ending - razor sharp endpoint of critique of idea of relationships as founded on shared qualities, actually romantic (the internet seems to have plumped for this one), or both? Of the big names, Farrell and Seydoux most enjoyable.

(w/ David)

Marissa Nadler - Songs from the Big Wheel

Elegant, clear modern folk.

Grimes - Art Angels

Sinuous, beguiling, brilliant - astonishingly, even better than Visions (which turned out to be seriously excellent as time went on). Every song is good but there's a particularly murderously good run through the record's mid-section from tracks 6 through to 10 - "Kill v Maim", "Artangels", "Easily", "Pin", "REALiTi" - throughout which it feel like she's reached some kind of almost transcendent state of flow, spinning out one glorious piece after another; also particularly blissful is the earlier "Flesh Without Blood".

Artists

... but the real piece of procrastination recently involved exporting my itunes data and then mucking around with excel to get it to tell me which artists I've spent the most time listening to since itunes became a part of my life in around 2007 or 2008.

1. Patty Griffin
2. The National 
3. Aimee Mann
4. Taylor Swift (sure I like her a lot, and listened to Red in particular heaps, but this is still kind of startling)
5. Beach House
6. Buddy Miller (not including his collabs with Julie Miller)
7. The Arcade Fire 
8. Jolie Holland
9. The New Pornographers
10. Laura Cantrell 
11. Robert Plant (another that's a bit of a surprise, but then I have really enjoyed his latter-day run since - and including - Raising Sand)
12. First Aid Kit 
13. Belle and Sebastian 
14. Jen Cloher & the Endless Sea 
15. Lydia Loveless 
16. Spoon 
17. Neko Case 
18. The War on Drugs (this is entirely the one album)
19. Sharon Van Etten  
20. Radiohead 

Anyway, give or take, seems pretty much right, though it was surprising to see what a big gap there was between Patty Griffin and everyone else; turns out I've spent some 158 hours listening to her music, or almost a full week all up - whereas the next on the list, the National, clocks in at 'only' 88 hours, with the rest stepping down in much smaller increments after that. Also, once again, I wish that a 'lifetime' version of this was possible, and not just the last few years!

"74-93 (as culled from Christchurch secondhand cd shop bargain bin, October 2015)"

Much fun on this one - the title of this mix cd from JF self-explanatory (except that they're all Japanese artists). Most enjoyable (some of those titles possibly the results of google translate efforts): "Sky Drew Ball" by Masato Tomobe, melodic singer-songwriter on piano (1993); "Sukiyaki Etoufee" by Makigami Koichi, which is kind of like a lower-fi "Bohemian Rhapsody" (1992); "Eve of Destruction" by RC Succession, which sounds like heartland roots rock with a punk dash, in a good way (1988); "If Purple" by Haruomi Hosono, which is hazily lovely and feels like a precursor to that Squarepusher pair "Tommib" and "Tommib Help Buss" (1987).

Song list

Ok - so it seems like this is now an annual thing too. Procrastinating from writing a couple of other things that I really should, update on my most frequently played songs according to itunes (it would be nice if there was some way of working out the stats over, say, a 12 month period rather than just for the whole of my itunes-using time).

1. (12 months ago: #1) Different Worlds - Brittany Cairns (215 plays)
2. (2) This World Can Make You Happy - Amaya Laucirica (140)
3. (3) 100 Million Little Bombs - Buddy Miller (138)
4. (4) State of Grace - Taylor Swift (133)
5. (5) New Year - Beach House (126)
6. (7) 23 - Blonde Redhead (122)
7. (8) Useless Desires - Patty Griffin (117)
8. (6) It Must Come Through - Jen Cloher and the Endless Sea (116)
9. (9) The Mother We Share - Chvrches (112)
10. (=15) Slow Show - The National (110)
11. (10) Starry Skies - Laura Cantrell (104)
12. (11) Out Loud - Mindy Smith (102)
13. (12) Aeroplane - The Everybodyfields (100)
=14. (new) Learn To Say No - Lydia Loveless (99)
=14. (=15) No Bad News - Patty Griffin (99)
16. (new) Vez Primera - Carla Morrison (94)
17. (14) Sweet Talk - Jessie Ware (93)
=18. (=15) Don't Tell Me - Buddy Miller (92)
=18. (=15) Godspell - The Cardigans (92)
=18. (13) Coming Home To Me - Patty Griffin feat Julie Miller (92)
21. (19) Red - Taylor Swift (91)
22. (=20) You Keep Me Hangin' On - Janelle Arthur (88)
23. (=25) From This Moment On - Shania Twain (86)
=24. (=25) Afraid of Nothing - Sharon Van Etten (83)
=24. (=20) Even Though I'm A Woman - Seeker Lover Keeper (83)
=26. (=28) Wild Old Dog - Patty Griffin (82)
=26. (=23) Manchester - Kishi Bashi (82)
=26. (=37) Bloodbuzz Ohio - The National (82)
=29. (=28) Circumambient - Grimes (81)
=29. (=28) Hey, Snow White - The New Pornographers (81)
=29. (=28) I Couldn't Be Your Friend - Tegan and Sara (81)
=32. (=28) I Don't Ever Give Up - Patty Griffin (80)
=32. (=25) The Bleeding Heart Show - The New Pornographers (80)
=34. (=23) Ode to LRC - Band of Horses (79)
=34. (=20) Blue Lips - Regina Spektor (79)
=36. (=45) Let's Get Out Of This Country - Camera Obscura (78)
=36. (=35) I Got Nothing - Dum Dum Girls (78)
=36. (=28) All I Can - Sharon Van Etten (78)
=39. (=42) Strong Enough - Haim (77)
=39. (=45) Abducted - Cults (77)
=41. (=50) Fake Empire - The National (76)
=41. (=35) I Think I Broke Something - Dan Rohmer and Benh Zeitlin (76)
=41. (34) Don't Let Me Die in Florida - Patty Griffin (76)
=44. (new...though actually a re-entry) Breakaway - Kelly Clarkson (75)
=44. (=37) Mexico City - Jolie Holland (75)
46. (=42) Red Eyes - The War on Drugs (73)
47. (=39) Burgundy Shoes - Patty Griffin (72)
=48. (=39) Lie in the Sound - Trespassers William (71)
=48. (=39) Modern Love - The Last Town Chorus (71)
=48. (=42) With God On Our Side - Buddy Miller (71)

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Star Wars has never been a big part of my life, which probably goes a fair way to explaining why, while I found this one entertaining, somehow it wasn't particularly exciting.

(w/ Andreas)

Bits and pieces from Singapore

Quick wrap from impromptu dash to Singapore between Christmas and new year's:

At the Art Science Museum, "Collider: The World's Greatest Experiment" & "The Nobel Prize: Ideas Changing the World". Both a bit heavy on the 'facts' side for me, though both made noble (ha ha) attempts to present their content interestingly and interactively. The highlight for me was really an add-on to the 'Collider' exhibition (which is about the Large Hadron Collider underground at the Swiss-French border, with a history of particle physics thrown in), a piece called "The Gift of Mass", described thus: "This immersive audio-visual installation invites the visitors to live the impossible experience of acquiring their own mass. The visitors go virtually from a Universe in which particules having no mass move without distinguishing themselves, to a Universe where mass is formed through an invisible sea, the Higgs Field" - as you walk towards the screen, your body acquires mass and form via coloured projection.

At a small gallery called Deck, "To Measure the Depth of the Ocean", showcasing the work of five important modern Singapore photographers. My favourite was Foo Tee Jun.

Across the several exhibitions at the Singapore Art Museum, a contemporary art gallery (works from across south-east Asia but a focus on Singapore), a few that stood out were Ho Tzu Nyen's "No Man", an video installation with projections of fantastically costumed figures on both of a pair of mirrored walls facing each other in a darkened room, Matthew Ngui's "Every Point of View", a forest of pipes exploring ideas of democracy, Heman Chong's "Calendars (2020-2096)", Sarah Choo Jing's "The Hidden Dimension II" (detail still below and video here) and Loo Zihan's installation "Of Public Interest: The Singapore Art Museum Resource Room", particularly for the reasons given by previous visitors for withdrawing particular books from circulation.

Also, in a slightly different vein, the soundtrack to The Virgin Suicides completely hitting the spot as I sat outside by myself in the heat one evening after a dusk-ish ride on the Singapore Flyer (I'm drawn to ferris wheels, I don't know why).

China Mieville - Three Moments of an Explosion

Excellent collection of cerebral Mieville weirdness, with each story (some of them are very short) built around something substantial and often fascinating - an idea, an image, a question. Shot through with concerns of class and politics both structural and personal. Icebergs over London, lost oil rigs breeding and returning to shore to feed, slantwise reinterpretations of existing paintings revealing uncanny new objects, people are infected by a condition that manifests in trenches appearing around them if they remain still for too long, several hauntings, and much, much more.

Suzanne Collins - The Hunger Games series

Still leanly pacy and sharply satirical; coming back to these after the movies makes me realise actually what a good job they did in translating the book's spirit, plot and characters to the big screen - how faithful the adaptation was.

(previous time: 1, 2, 3)

Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck

Nirvana and Cobain were never any more big a deal for me than they were for everyone else of more or less my age and sensibilities - ie still quite a big deal but, in my case, in more of a diffused and generalised way than imbued with a huge amount of personal meaning. So I didn't expect this documentary to particularly affect me, and it didn't (although it uses its home videos and other personal sources well), but what it did do was remind me of the whole grunge thing, how messy it actually was before it became completely packaged and mainstreamed and all that.

John Higgs - Stranger Than We Can Imagine: Making Sense of the 20th Century

Chewed through this during recent trip. Enjoyable skate through some of the biggest ideas - of various kinds - to have shaped the century and does a good job of both organising them into sensible chapters and highlighting both expected and less obvious connections: relativity, modernism, war, individualism, id, uncertainty, science fiction, nihilism, space, sex, teenagers, chaos, growth, postmodernism, network.

Terry Pratchett - The Shepherd's Crown

The last Discworld novel. Truth be told, I thought it was fine without being that great, but that seems almost beside the point in any number of ways.

Randall Griffin - Georgia O'Keeffe (Phaidon)

I spend a lot of time leafing through and reading bits of books about art and artists, but don't tend to get through many from start to finish; this one was an exception, aided by the straightforwardness and brevity of the text (which I found a bit unsatisfying for those same reasons, but catch 22 I guess) and how much I love O'Keeffe (since to a very large extent, I respond to her paintings in themselves and without needing any particular context for them).

Community season 5

Sharp!