Music and Movie Talk #3 - Another Week
What a slow week it’s been. I’ve been jumping around with what I’ve been listening to and viewing, with the hope of making the week go by a bit quicker—though I should probably value boredom more than I do.
As the week progresses, I suppose it’s not too strange to jump around music or movie-wise for anyone since our respective moods and appeals can shift very easily. Then again, we all consume music, movies, and other forms of entertainment on different levels from one another. Regardless, let’s talk music and movies.
Music
Lately, I’ve been having live concerts on in the background while working more than I usually do. As a kid, I had a fixation with live settings and would watch a flurry of live shows from bands I liked on YouTube. I even would record the few concerts that’d appear on television—be it from MTV live or VH1, etc.
The Smile - Tiny Desk Concert
Genre - Art Rock
Release Date - 2023
Listen Here
There are plenty of concerts I’ve viewed over the last week on YouTube to pick from that are worth mentioning, but The Smile’s Tiny Desk Concert stood out the most to me. I’m a huge Radiohead fan and jumped on board The Smile when the project was teased back in 2020. So you pair The Smile with one of my favorite concert series in Tiny Desk, you have the perfect video for me to watch.
The trio performed three tracks: Pana-vision, The Smoke, and Skrting On the Surface, and was everything I hoped it could be. As expected, the tracks are slightly more stripped back than their recordings but demonstrate the same appeal and musicianship. It’s quite impressive what they manage to accomplish with such few instruments.
Mad Season - Above
Genre - Grunge
Release Date - 1995
Listen Here
If you’re a fan of Grunge, you most likely have heard of Mad Season’s sole record Above. If you don’t know, Mad Season was a supergroup formed in 1994 as a side project of members of other bands in the Seattle grunge scene. The band's members included guitarist Mike McCready of Pearl Jam, lead singer Layne Staley of Alice in Chains, drummer Barrett Martin of Screaming Trees, and bassist John Baker Saunders.
Today, I feel like not enough people around my age are aware of this record, even if they’re a fan of some of the member’s more notable bands. Though it blends a lot of elements from various guitar-based rock genres, the lyrical themes keep it a cohesive unit, dealing with themes of addiction and personal problems. I wish the group did more, but I’ll always be appreciative of this record.
Clipping - Visions of Body Being Burned
Genre - Hip Hop
Release Date - 2020
Listen Here
I really got into Clipping’s music after hearing their 2020 record Visions of Body Being Burned. Pretty much every critic and music outlet I follow gave this album so much praise back in 2020, prompting me to check it out, and boy, am I happy I did.
Self-proclaiming the album as sixteen scary stories disguised as rap songs, Visions of Body Being Burned is more-or-less a continuation or second half of the group’s previous record There Existed an Addiction to Blood. Lyrically it follows that Horrorcore motif with an abrasive production style that results in a gripping and visceral experience I can’t get enough of. Even if you’re a casual Hip Hop fan, you’ll appreciate this record in some way.
Movies
I haven’t been as constant with my movie intake lately, mostly since I’m spending any free time outside of work and music on some writing projects I’ve been putting off. Still, there’s always time to watch movies, and the thought of limited time made me realize I haven’t mentioned any short films here before. So, let’s change that!
La Jetée (1962)
Genre - Short/Sci-Fi/Romance
Director - Chris Marker
Writer - Chris Marker
Starring - Étienne Becker, Jean Négroni, Hélène Chatelain
About - The story of a man forced to explore his memories in the wake of World War III's devastation, told through still images.
Why You Should Watch
I first came across La Jetée after reading one of those Essential Sci-Fi Movies to Watch Before You Die type lists. I had it on my watchlist for at least a year until I finally threw it on a couple of months back. It mesmerized me, and I can confidently say it’s unlike anything I’ve seen before. If you don’t know much about it, La Jetée is constructed almost entirely from still photos, meaning there isn’t a motion picture video format to it—think of it like a slide show. Over its 28-minute runtime—through the still photos and the use of voice-over narration—La Jetée tells the story of a post-nuclear war experiment in time travel.
It won the Prix Jean Vigo for a short film, and from what I’ve read, 12 Monkeys (1995) was inspired by and borrows several concepts from the film. I really enjoyed it, so definitely check it out if you’re a fan of Sci-Fi, I’m pretty sure it’s on YouTube for free. Also, there are two options out there, one with the original French narration and another with English narration. I watched it how it was made with French narration but obviously had English subtitles on.
Bonus TV Talk - The Last Of Us Episode 1
I know I usually don’t talk about television series, and that’s because I don’t watch many shows, if any. I have a hard time following television series and get bored easily, hence why I prefer the movie format. It’s why I watch so many movies since I don’t have any shows to follow in my free time and instead use that to watch a movie. That’s not to say shows are bad or inferior to movies, it’s just a personal preference.
Regardless, I finally decided to start a series for the first time in a couple of years after watching the trailer for The Last Of Us a few weeks back. Like most of the audience for the series, I played The Last Of Us as a teenager in high school back in 2013, and it’s been one of my favorite games since. Going into this episode, though I had high hopes because of the team behind it, I didn’t know what to expect since video game adaptations don’t exactly have a great track record.
Thankfully, I really enjoyed this first episode and am looking forward to seeing where it goes. Just like the video game, the series follows Joel (Pedro Pascal), a smuggler tasked with escorting the teenager Ellie (Bella Ramsey) across the post-apocalyptic United States. I imagine many similarities will be drawn to The Walking Dead, especially from people who haven’t played the video game, even though I personally don’t think there’s much of a comparison.
As for my experience with its first episode, Pedro Pascal is excellent as Joel and takes the persona and beloved characteristics of the character very well in a live-action adaptation. Bella Ramsey is also great as Ellie, which is a tough role to fulfill since Ellie will be relied on as a bit of a comic relief in a world that’s so grim and heavy. Still, if they can do it in the video game, I imagine they can in this too.
The action sequences are great, and I genuinely felt overwhelmed during the Day 1 prologue portion of the episode. I also appreciated the extra time spent with Joel’s back story and the show’s ability to tell the story without assuming everyone who is watching has played the video game. They take the time to set characters and the world up, which always gets lost in these sorts of adaptations.
I have some minor issues—as anyone can highlight with the first episode of any series—particularly with the exposition in dialogue. I can’t stand when characters say something so unrealistic just to spoonfeed what’s happening to the audience—so we’re going here to get this so we can achieve this goal and then do this? Or something along those lines.
Still, for the most part, I really enjoyed this episode and can only imagine how challenging it must be to adapt such a beloved story through a different medium. I’m really looking forward to see where it goes and how long it’ll stay on. It seems to be doing well critically and among audiences right now, but hopefully, they don’t try to milk it and have an absurd amount of seasons and episodes for the sake of getting ratings. I suppose we’ll see.