JSngry

Watched episode 4 last night (Maggie in Uganda) One of the most compelling pieces of TV I've seen in years. The slow drip tension as her tale was unpacked was brilliantly done. Yeah, that one was major. Up until then, the Alison Pill character epitomized in the extreme everything about this series that I disliked. Then in this episode, it epitomized everything I applauded about it. No spoilers, but what happens to her afterwards is pretty much minus the pre-trauma cuteness, although in last night's season opener, there are signs that she might be getting it back. It involves serious-looking glasses, and music and camera angles and....that's too bad. But in real life, it would be ok.

Ok, Newsroom premier tonight - loved/hated it. Loved - serious, relevant subject matter, impact of commerce on news media, impact of social media on news media, impact of pre-cyber thinking on progress of news reporting in general (pro and con), abilities to gain multitudinous amounts of relevant information at once by any means, etc. These are things that I like to see brought to the floor and not just glossed over or stipulated to in sound bites. More of this, please, and I know there will be. Hated - heroic camera angles b/w complimentary uplifting super-hero move underscoring (was not Jeff Beal at one time some sort of "jazz musician" sorta/kinda?), overtly choreographed dialogue, "snappy" repartee that further nothing but its own snappiness. Playing to the balcony, if you will, albeit a very smart balcony. I just do not like that kind of thing. It might be brilliant, but many things are. Can't like all of 'em. Less of this, please, but I know there will be...or won't be...whichever is not the other. Sorkin could no doubt phrase it right, but the odds are that I would be equal parts grateful and irritated for/with the result are 50/50...seems fitting, somehow. In that regard, manipulation failing on at least one intended target, I'm reminded of the story where the aspirational pimp says to the unattainable woman he was trying to turn out, "Damn woman, I try everything on you and none of it works. I never had none of it not work on at least ONE bitch. What's your problem?" To which the lady coolly replies, "Could be that I'm not a bitch." Anyway, the show is a rare, unlikely, and quite possibly unintentional triumph of substance over style, so what am I complaining about? Also, The Comeback immediately following...missed the original run, and not sure if this new one will sustain interest, but I kept waiting for the point where I could walk away and just say ehhhh with real certainty, but that point didn't really come, so we shall see. One real LOL line for me, though, was, "That happened 10 years ago...well, not really 10 years ago...technology moves so fast these days..." Hello, chronohumor, HELLO!

Understood. Point was just that I hear Wayne as a point-of-reference/listening/familiarity/whatever for a lot of this music. Whether that's "correct" in any way outside of my own mind...probably/definitely not? But it's working for me.

Hello, what? But seriously...the rumors about Thad's sudden departure from the US and his unfortunate accident, hello that, hello no-show for interview between sets, hello, that, as well as hello, motherfuckers sometimes DO be crazy, and their behavior/lifestyle choices follows from that, and sometimes crazy motherfuckers actually DO be geniuses (or at least brilliant), not a connection AFAIC, hello that, too. "Discredit" has nothing to do with anything here, at least not as a part of what my value-system views as discredit, anything but that.

Actually, I'm really going back to the Plugged Nickel solos onward, but I know we view Wayne's subsequent path(s) in pretty much diametrically opposed viewpoints, so a divergence of opinion is no big deal, should be expected. No biggie, afaic. But I do hear a lot of Wayne-ish-ness in the contours of the lines and the dramatic schematics of a lot of this music, drivel or not. Again, I have no idea what I'm talking about other than it's what I'm hearing at this time. Ignorance = bliss, perhaps. I'll figure it out when/as necessary.

Hello.

Finnish, eh? Most of the post WWII-born composers I've been discovering and enjoying to any relevant degree have been either Finnish, Estonian, and/or female. Perhaps not really, but that's the impression I have, brought about by those YouTube clips. For whatever reason, a lot of this stuff has moments or more where it sounds to me like one big elongated orchestrated Wayne Shorter performance. Remaining credibility finally destroyed once and for all, but that's a fun way to hear it, especially if you can't help it. Larry hears drivel, I hear Wayne. Sometimes...enough to make it relevant and/or interesting to the moment at hand. Perhaps it's finally time to consider medication..I have insurance.

I would love to see a "We are The World" type thing with, like, literally everybody in the literally whole world singing literally all the phone books literally from everywhere, ever. Maybe have an international on-line game about who is singing their own number, who isn't, and who doesn't even really have a number, much less a phone, ok, hey, first world problems, writ large and though small, onward through the ether, and all that.. And then, oh wait, there are no more phone books, oops, hoax after all, and then everybody, and I do mean everybody, gets emo about it in some form or fashion for one reason or another, hey, you're powning my Global Oneness Hope Vibe vs. Oh Fuck Off Old Sentimental Self Indulgent Hippie Pot Farts, and then everybody kills everybody, and then we could have world peace, right? The internet does bring the world together, through phone books and singing. Perfect world, right? Three generations of mass-communication, together again for the first time, all under one roof. Only in America, grace shed, etc. See it, though, not hear it, because, you know....some people just can't carry a tune. Not won't, can't. Main point, though - the song was a big hit among the demographic that Houston Person would be playing for (the very first professional (ok, "professional", we tried) R&B band i was in covered it as a Gladys Knight, not Barbara Streisand, song), so not at all odd that he would record it lo these many years later.

I know, you probably think it's Clem's hip-hop/jazz geek female alter ego. Who wouldn't? But:it's her.

Yup. whoa...somehow has escaped my attention all these years...whoa...

She's got the whole rest of her live in front of her (as do we all, I suppose)!

And then Gladys Knight did it.

Jan Wenner Ralph J. Gleason R.J. Reynolds

James Brown The Cake Orville Redenbacher

O.J. Simpson Jack Kemp Edmund Kemper

Sounds like she's one of us, other than the part about needing to eat more.

This blog goes back to 2007!

Did you see the Houston Person riffs?