#Martyn's episode plays such pretty music

[fountainpenguin]

Martyn's playing so well, I'm so happy for him. He comes skidding in during Session 1 and whips up a tiny copycat base of Lizzie's tiny, stunted base... Then he immediately draws the secret task "Convince someone to burn down your base without getting called out" and expertly charms Jimmy into thinking that old dumb shack is Scar's and they're gonna make a statement by burning it... gets his task done within the first 20 minutes...

... then goes tumbling down an emotional hill, straight-up loses 27.5 hearts, and dies the first death of the season in Episode 2. skldjf Love that for him.

[whereispearlescentmoon]

This is for the two other people who are obsessed with Ghost Quartet (it’s my favorite musical please listen to it I have CHARTS FOR THIS), here is my analysis of who in the Divorce Quartet is who (note for non-GQ fans, there is a character named Pearl in the show. To lessen the confusion, I’ve color coded.):

Pearl- Rose Red. Rose as a character is someone who feels wronged and abandoned and then uses that to hurt others in every lifetime, namely Pearl (who I am assigning to Cleo). She looks to The Bear (who I’m assigning to Martyn) for help in getting her revenge, but he is uninterested in helping, which causes her final spiral, like how Martyn leaving Pearl in episode one led to her being alone for the series.

When Pearl is the Soldier, Rose manipulates her by flirting and steals her honey, then shoots her. When Pearl is Lady Usher, Rose’s manipulation of Roxie as a child and later stealing Starchild is what leads to Lady Usher’s descent into madness and her death. When Pearl is Scheherazade, Rose callously takes her last piece of stardust. When Pearl is the Victim, Rose chooses not to help her, letting her die. And through all of this, until after it’s reveled that it was all for nothing, Rose sees her actions as righteous vengeance against Pearl. There is a parallel to be made here about life series Pearl killing Cleo over and over, still bitter from Double Life.

There is also something to be said for the fact that the person who gets hurt by Rose the most, besides Pearl, is Rose in other lives. Roxie and Starchild are the most obvious examples. Rose lies to Roxie as a child, leading her to become a tortured ghost when her expectations of heaven aren’t met, and she steals Starchild from her mother, baptizing and then abandoning her. Double Life Pearl, in her effort to hurt the person who wronged her, spends the season torturing herself.

Cleo- Pearl. Besides the irony of the name, see the above. Ultimately, it’s the Astronomer who betrayed Rose Red, not Pearl, yet Rose’s anger manifests in hurting herself and Pearl. And, in Rose’s defense, Pearl did act selfishly. She started a relationship with the Astronomer, knowing that her sister loved him. And we can see this from how untrusting all of Pearl’s lives are, similar to how Cleo behaves towards her allies. The Soldier is apathetic towards the idea of dying, knowing Rose’s flirting isn’t genuine. Scheherazade knows that the story she’s giving Rose is the last piece of stardust she has, and she gives it anyways, not because she is selfless but because she wants to rest. When Lady Usher is killed by Roxie’s ghost, she still sees her as her little girl.

I mean, I feel like these lyrics could sum up Cleo and Pearl in the life series pretty well honestly:

“This has all happened before….And the dead girl leapt upon her mother//And her sister//And her daughter//And her lover//With the rage of four generations”

No matter who Cleo is to Pearl, Pearl kills her in the end. No matter who Pearl is to Rose, Rose ends up killing her.

Scott- The Astronomer. The Astronomer is, in my opinion, the real catalyst of the show, even if the focus is on Rose and Pearl. He uses Rose for her observational skills and gets close with her before ultimately choosing Pearl over her, which you could parallel to Scott choosing to ally with Cleo and ditch Pearl in DL.

However, The Astronomer, like Scott, is not truly an antagonist. He is a man, who as we can see both from the songs The Astronomer and Fathers & Sons, acknowledges his faults but can’t find it in him to get better. The Astronomer wishes he could sing and see beauty the way Rose does, but he doesn’t practice and he’s “CONFOUNDED BY MUSIC// AND BABIES AND LAUGHTER//AND STORIES AND GOODNESS//INFINITY AND LUCK//I’M CONFUSED BY THE NOTION//THAT SOMEBODY LOVES ME”. We see this in the Astronomer’s other lives too. Lord Usher says that he knows he’s a bad lover and deadbeat dad, telling The Son that he should leave and never look back. David plays the piano in the palace of the Shah even as it hurts him and even after it has been determined that humans don’t deserve music, because he is begging for forgiveness, which you could parallel to the way Scott kills himself in DL as an apology to Pearl.

Martyn-The Bear. The Bear is a character who acts solely on impulse and base desire, which fits in line with how Martyn is often characterized as someone who acts before he thinks, whether out of love or rage. Martyn ditched Pearl in the heat of the moment because he felt hurt by Cleo’s rejection, and spent the rest of the season begging for Cleo back. Instead of being honorable in the final duel with Scott and Impulse in LimL, he indulges in his bloodlust. Half the time in SL when he got guesses wrong as a yellow it was because he was goaded into guessing and couldn’t resist.

The Bear, similarly, is a creature of instinct in every life. He sends Rose on a wild goose chase just because he wants honey. As The Son he leaves his grieving family because he wants to go join a band in New York. All the Shah wants is to drink, eat, and indulge himself in mindless entertainment. The Pusher gives no consideration to the fate of the Victim when he shoves her onto the tracks, he just takes a swig of his drink and pushes.

[moonlight-fan2008]

Part 2 of 3 of the music of Moonlight (episodes version)

Music featured in Episode 8: 12:04 AM (in order of appearance)

Drowning by the stereophonics (plays in the beginning when Shepherds gets taking to the execution chamber)

To Hell With The Devil by Jim Bianco (featured in the middle of the episode when Mick goes to see the sleezy producer’s house)

Keep my love by deep love (featured in the middle of the episode when Shepherd visits Drake)

Dark as love by Lucious redhead (featured in the middle of the episode when Beth goes snooping around Mick’s office)

Together by the Kin (featured at the end when Beth and Mick have their rooftop talk)

Together is also my one of my favorite songs of all time

Music featured in Episode 9: Fleur de Lis (in order of appearance)

Dead end street by Varano (featured in the beginning of the episode when Beth and Mick are stalking “Morgan”)

“I own her Mister St.John” ugh I don’t condone murder but I kinda wished the wife was able to at least seriously injure her husband

Look after you by the Fray (featured at the end of the episode when Morgan reveals she’s Coraline all along)

Music featured in Episode 10: Sleeping Beauty (in order of appearance)

I can’t find the song Josef was listening to when he has that party at Mick’s place after he has the murder attempt and IMDb doesn’t seem to have it either (this is like the middle of the episode)

Aurora by LAPUSH (featured at the end when Beth and Mick part ways in New York and we see flashbacks of Josef and Sarah)

Music featured in Episode 11: Live lasts forever (in order of appearance)

I’m unable to find the song at the beginning when Mick is working out to. According to IMDb I think it might be Here Comes The Pain by Paul Trudeau but it’s not on YouTube but I’m like 85% sure it’s that

Looking Back by ANGER MANAGEMENT (at the beginning of the episode when Josh is assaulted in the parking garage)

Calling You by Blue October (featured in the beginning/middle of the episode when Beth and Josh sleep together)

Los duenos de la Discoteca by JHOSY & BABY Q (heard in the middle just before the father daughter dance ) (I’m pretty sure it’s the song we only hear a snippet of it before they go to the father-daughter dance)

Las mananitas by Martyn Laight (just a brief snippet heard in the background of the father daughter dance in the middle of the episode. Then I’m pretty sure it’s re-used again for the end of the episode when Mick is raiding the bar)

Give me that thing by RENE BRIZUELA (heard in the middle when the police come to arrest Tejada at his daughters birthday)

Subterfuge by Adam Hamilton (featured towards the end of the episode when Mick goes to kill Tajda)

Used IMDb for this episode Shazam did not like a lot of these songs and couldn’t find them. I looked them up on YouTube to make sure they were the right song. I think I got them in the right spots

Will post the 3rd part sometime later idk when though.I’ve got some things to do later today and all day tomorrow. Might not be able to finish this until maybe next weekend.

[gammagoop]

more details for all my dedicated readers

skizz has worked like 200 different jobs, so it's a running gag that if anyone needs help with something they'll ask skizz, no matter what it is

^ skizz gives grian, joel, and jimmy advice for their bakery endeavors

there needs to be some kind of allegory for them killing each other in the canon -- maybe everyone's really into weekly dodgeball or something

mumbo never actually appears in the show, but is brought up a lot by grian. he often says things like "i miss mumbo" or "i wish mumbo were here". not everyone is convinced that 'mumbo' is actually a real person. scar swears he's met mumbo before, but that's honestly just more evidence that he doesn't exist

almost everyone in this au lives on the same apartment building, rather than separate houses, so the next few bullets will be about that

obviously cleo, bdubs, and scar all live together. etho doesn't live in the building but his living situation is never shown on-screen. he's just shown arriving at the complex

pearl and bigb are roommates and live next door to cleo

grian and jimmy are also roommates. joel used to live there too but moved in with lizzie a little while after they started dating

^ jimmy plans a goodbye party when joel moves out and grian helps him set up for it. jimmy is like teary-eyed “we’re gonna miss you joel! goodbye!” and then joel is like “okay” and walks to his new apartment across the hall

im not sure if skizz, impulse, and tango would all live in that same building as well, but if they do it's on a different floor. they don't all live together but they live very close to each other

scott and martyn are roommates

ren doesn't live in the complex, but is often crashing at various people's places. sometimes he'll mention that he's been staying with his friend 'doc'

grian would make most sense as landlord since he owns the limlife server but i dont think that makes sense narratively so maybe its just never mentioned

ok back to the non-living situation points

scott and cleo are the most openly queer characters, though lizzie being bi is mentioned once or twice. even though etho and joel dated, they're both usually included amongst the heteros

various other related-mcyts show up for specials. oli in specific initiates a musical episode

there's a valentines day special in which bdubs and scar try to set etho up on dates so he can find a new partner (etho is not very invested in this mission)

^ the rest of the side plots are pretty chill. joel and lizzie go on a fun date, cleo enjoys some alone time, some of the other folks organize a platonic valentines celebration

^^ bigb brings cookies, grian asks him if he wants to be part of the bakery coalition, but bigb tells him no because baking is just a fun hobby for him

^^ the episode ends with most of them at the party. bdubs and scar show up looking tired and worn , presumably the etho dates went pretty badly

scott and jimmy have a very on-and-off relationship that's mostly dictated by scott. for a lot of the show it's played for a joke, but there is a more serious plotline in which jimmy sets a boundary against it. scott hadn't been messing with him maliciously, of course, but there was a lack of communication between them-- especially because jimmy didn't quite know how uncomfortable he'd been. they come to an understanding that leaves them as mostly just good friends

in terms of jobs, we've established that cleo is a zumba instructor and TIES work in IT. but for the others:

^ pearl is a cleaning lady, of course, and makes good money doing it

^ bdubs works in retail but hates it. scar is a door-to-door insurance salesman but has dreams of working in a theme park (disney)

^ joel and jimmy are coworkers (outside of the bakery) but im not 100% on what they would do

i think that's all i have for now! if you want more from this au, check out this drawing cloud did! :D

limited life 90s sitcom au

[iaincblog]

Music for New Times

Sometimes marginal music communities do RnD for the culture industry as some commentators have suggested. The Belville Three in Detroit develop techno and within a decade or so capital has invested in global superclub brands and star DJs.

A musical ecology like that one uses ideas from a number of sources. Besides content ideas there is the technique of DJing, the large sound systems, the crowd management including H&S, security etc. All these different areas combine to make substantial investments deliver a return.

There can be other examples of musical ecologies .It has been suggested that the modern mind suffers in various ways because modern labour markets make people feel worthless. Big pharma develops pills to make them feel better and it is also suggested that they rig the diagnostic categories to favour their solutions in effect creating a market with peoples’ unease. An English Prof at Stanford suggests that the this system leaves something out concerning the content of peoples’ lives. Art moves into the vacant space - she cites various artists who illustrate her theory.

As far as music is concerned, we might well have an ecology where alienated and marginalised young people use music as some sort of emotional tool to provide content missing from their work and non-work lives. You can get this far and then take an optimistic or pessimistic turn. Pessimism says it is the system maintaining and reproducing itself. Optimism starts with the thought that art promises something better and indeed may do more.

Different social ecologies will use music in different ways.

If the avant garde does RnD for the culture industry is it only servicing a cycle of fashion? In the Fashion System Barthes provides a model of fashion change. In Anglosaxon terms his model is that fashion doesn’t concern attributes but the only the values of attributes. Take skirts - these entities have attributes including length. The values of that attribute include short, long, medium, ankle length etc. Barthes model says that modifying these values in a systematic way is a method of signalling social prestige.

This Barthes Fashion Semiotics makes no claims to progress. There are simply  ever lasting modifications , early adopters, the mass, late adopters etc. Pop music can easily be fitted into this ecology. There is always something hot and new - just read the current NME.

Andy Powell producer of the first two Kate Bush albums was at the same college as Ian MacDonald who amongst other things wrote Revolution in the Head about the Beatles, a biography of Shostakovitch and articles about Laura Nyro and Nick Drake.

When Andrew Keeling was writing his book about the Court of the Crimson King he asked me for some research given I knew one of the musicians just before the album was made, a different Ian Macdonald. To avoid confusion lets call the Rev in Head one Imac.

I considered the long first chapter of Rev in Hd and decided I disagreed with a key element. Imac argues that the Beatles career is more than part of a fashion system - the classic pop model. There was genuine progress. I think many people would agree that there was serious  progress from album to album. To parody Imac he saw that the Beatles lost the plot when they plugged into the US avant garde particularly in the Apple phase.

From this distance it is easy to frame a counter - in terms of pop development along the series of Beatles albums.Then King Crimson from 1968 picked up many different sets of ideas including some of the avant garde and put them into albums.  King Crimson were obviously harnessing tremendous momentum as Ian Macdonald went from thirty quid gigs at the Middle Earth to global touring in about a year.

Apple is a complicated case. A coincidence made me think of this recently. James Taylor was the first artist signed to Apple and I found a wonderful half hour interview where he reflects on the whole experience. By chance in the nest day or so I went to a concert recording of the BBC Singers performing works of another Apple artist - John Taverner. I think a proper appraisal would have to consider a lot of fantastic content including Taylor and Taverner plus not least the film of the Beatles playing live on the roof.

The Beatles lost their manager and were looking for an alternative way and so Apple was formed. There were also increasing personal tensions. I think it is over simple to see Yoko as bringing the poison of the  US avant garde into the Beatles development and stopping it with modern foolishness. She was I agree a major carrier and developer of the avant garde ideas of John Cage and his circle.

Imac’s career is covered in Nick Kent’s autobiography. He and Imac formed part of a new journalistic era at NME which in simple terms was based on more serious writing and longer articles. This era was replaced by punk and especially T Parsons and J Birchell who in the spirit of punk despatched their elder brothers pretty quick and took over. There is a good film on Amazon Prime which looks at the whole development of serious journalism about rock in the 1970s - the NME tale is part of this.

The narrative  of progress gets much harder to map in the 70s, but arguably in doesn't disappear - considering Steeley Dan John Martyn Television  Little Feat Hall n Oates D Bowie etc  - but it certainly becomes more complicated.

Punk has to be fitted in obviously. I think this has to include France and Situationist ideas,  and both UK and the complex US story from News York Dolls and Patti Smith to Lydia Lunch and No Wave. Not for this article. Nor a consideration of Simon Reynolds’ detailed account of UK post punk in his big yellow book. Then there is the recent Goldsmiths reappraisal of post-punk as well. I think onemight get a narrative of progress up to the mid 80s and the financialisation of culture. Perhaps the Smiths are the last gasp of pop progress?

The pop fashion cycle based on Barthes semiotics doesn't go away - because there are always new generations of teenagers seeking to be different and they want new values for existing attributes.

When the Stones brought out their much praised blues album I went back and looked at their career. There is an interesting multi episode film biography on Amazon Prime. Their great period is seen as the Mick Taylor era from the Hyde Park Concert where KC broke through to his still mysterious decision to leave in the mid 70s. (Incidentally there is a narrative of progress to weave around the succession of Clapton Beck Page Green and Taylor. Compare live Beck with live Clapton these days.)

Ronnie Wood gave the Stones a new foundation on which to work and some decent albums resulted but this was followed by Jagger-Richards warfare in the 1980s which impacted the group output as solo projects became priorities..

It seems to me that financialisation took over the Sones music ecology. They became a cash generating global brand monetising a great back catalogue and using the Situationist idea of the grand spectacle. In the 80s and 90s Stones touring represented a new level of spectacle - lots of new technologies had to come together and large financial investment was need. It was genuinely new, there was a lot of risk and it must have worked. When B Wyman left they brought in Miles’bass player Darryl Jones - must have cheered Charlie up!.  Jones was in Miles comeback band in the early 80s - he went on to be in Sting’s band before joining the Stones.

The upshot of the Jagger-Richards wars was that they realised they had a fantastic creative base. Some insight into this is available through Godard’s film of them making Sympathy for the Devil just before B Jones left.Many of us have been in bands which have trashed their core creativity but various people mistakenly thinking we were the magic and we could go it alone. The Stones nearly fell down the same hole.  Did this keep progress on track?