Drawing the Human Body - A Genres & Judgments Mixture

Before hitting you up with the Fall TV report card and my end-of-year media rundown, here's a brief alternative to the plethora of Christmas music playing right now. This is more or less a burning-off of some cuts I've been digging of late, so ring in the new year with a crisp selection of tunes.

Track list and download link available after the jump.

And Thus Spoke The Graffito - A Genres & Judgments Mixture

Been listening to some good jams lately, but hadn't sourced any into a playlist since my last endeavor. Some entries were relatively brand new to my ears since July, while others are long-forgotten favorites recently rediscovered via a shuffling iPod.

Whether it be a testament to a diversity of soundscapes or merely an example of musical psychosis, is for you to determine. Regardless, I implore you to enjoy.

Track list and download link available after the jump.

TV's Summer 2010 Report Card

I'm back with another comprehensive recap of the past few months of my television viewing. Looking back, it was an excellent summer for TV. I mean, when the David Simon entry is the amongst the least interesting shows you've watched, I believe that's a sign you've surrounded yourself in some quality programming.

This edition covers shows having ended after June 1st, when my last recap was published, through September 12th.

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Breaking Bad
(Season 3, AMC)
Is this now the best show on television? In my mind, only Mad Men gives it a run for it's money. Season 3 was THAT good. A horse with no name. Gustavo. Hank slamming the SUV into reverse. The tortoise. Saul. Leg blood on a hospital floor. Motherfucking Badger's voice. The Chicken Brothers. Mike the PI/hitman. That one god-damned fly. And those are just the ancillary bits of Breaking Bad I get jacked up for. I don't think Mad Men, as phenomenal as it is, is constructed in a way that I can enjoy it as I now enjoy the trials of Walter White and Jesse Pinkman.  A+

Doctor Who
(Series 31, BBC)
What a blast this latest incarnation of Doctor Who turned out to be. Even if you prefer David Tennant as the Doctor, I think you have to admit Matt Smith did an admirable job taking over the reigns of the series. I feel he did a fantastic job and accepted him by the time the second episode of the season rolled around. And of course, there's the mega-crushable Karen Gilliam as Amy Pond, who is easily my favorite companion not only because she's a cutie pie, but also because she's intelligent, mischievous and . Rory was also a nice addition, and was in perfect doses. But let us not forget Steven Moffat, who I justifiable praise on this site constantly, taking over the show's direction from Russell T. Davies. A fabulously entertaining season resulted from mixing high concept science fiction, simple humor, and repeatedly tugging and tearing at our heartstrings as each week's story progressed. As much as I enjoyed this season, I expect 2011 to bring an even better one.  A-

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After the jump, you'll find the nine other shows I watched to completion this summer, including Entourage, True Blood and some more fantastic imports from overseas.

Summer 2010's TV Supplement

There are only a handful of shows worth watching during the summer (a recap of those will arrive once True Blood and the other HBO shows wrap up). Compound that with the fact that other than Inception and Iron Man 2, I had zero interest in the cinema these past few months, I embarked on a massive TV binge this year, catching up on loads of shows I'd been recommended by friends and acquaintances, or just plain wanted to check out. Behold.

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Being Human
(Series 2, BBC)

This show continued to show great balance between horror, drama and humor wrapped into a well-crafted universe of the supernatural, and provided another strong season. For those of you who are not familiar, Being Human revolves around the lives of a vampire, a werewolf and a ghost who live together in a flat (hey, it's British), and deal with everyday problems of existence in modern society in realistic, yet interesting ways relative to the show's context. They gave us a very nice cliffhanger this season, and series 3 is amongst the shows I'm most looking forward to return. In addition, there's an American version on the horizon via SyFy at some point, although I'm sure they'll find a way to f it up.

Charlie Jade
(Season 1, Canadian Space Channel)

A parallel universe jumping version of Blade Runner? While it certainly gave off that vibe in the early episodes, Charlie Jade didn't quite live up to my initial lofty expectations. Revolving through a trio of universes, this sci-fi tale had all the grand hallmarks of modern noir, while simultaneously warning of the dangers of big-brother commerce. Making its premiere the same year that brought us LOST (2004), this joint project from Canadian and South African companies probably was a bit ahead of its time in terms of widespread audience acceptance.Also, its inconsistent level of engaging stories during the middle portion of its lone season wouldn't have helped its changes of success much. However, it ended rather triumphantly, and had some nice little tales in spots. I wish the second season, which was written, had been produced. There was a lot of potential in those three universes, not to mention all the others they could've explored and exploited down the line.

Community
(Season 1, NBC)

As you'll see later on in this column, this was a very good year for new comedies, as Community joined the ranks of my favorites this year. I always enjoyed Joel McHale on The Soup, but he's even better in this format. Add in a rejuvenated Chevy Chase, Pittsburgh's own Gillian Jacobs (who I dare you not to develop a TV crush on), and Ken Jeong's Senor Chang who all highlight the cast, but certainly don't overshadow the ones I haven't taken the time to list, and I'm constantly laughing out loud. Easily graduated to must-watch status for me.

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After the jump, I liked some of what I saw from the highly recommend list of Dexter, Modern Family, Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Arrested Development. But not all of them.

First Heard in Summer 2010 - "You Are Not A Number You Are Many Numbers"

When I woke up this morning, I wasn't planning on making a mix. My life is different now. Today, I heard my first Justin Bieber song.

I believe in maintaining a balanced media diet, consuming a mixture of high and low culture. I don't have any guilty pleasures, and I often get as much enjoyment, both sincere and anthropological, out of hugely popular entertainment as I do more "challenging" "art." I don't disparage people for being into stuff that I don't find substantive, and in fact I like to live vicariously through people who go apeshit over stuff like Twilight or professional sports. On TV, I run the gamut from Mad Men to iCarly. In a given movie-watching week, I could be taking in The Archers' "Black Narcissus" or "Step Up 3D" (make sure to grab some glasses before you sneak in).

Kelly Clarkson comes between Vashti Bunyan and cLOUDDEAD on my iPod. And I know Justin Bieber. But somehow his music eluded me. Until now.

Enter the internet meme of the week: a version of Bieber's "U Smile" stretched from its original 3:21 length into a 35-minute ambient drone. It's a funny idea, but I found the end result legitimately mind-blowing, and oddly moving. In a weird way, it amplifies, to absurdly epic proportions, everything that I love about "disposable" pop music. The original Bieber track is grating and overproduced, soulless but well-constructed. The 35-minute version moves beyond the bland sentiment of the vocals and allows you to appreciate the song on a subatomic level, to revel in its airtight construction. Its valleys and crescendos take on massive weight, it's like a Pixies song played by a choir of angels.

Above all, this song made me feel like I was on the beach in the middle of the night. And I got to thinking about the end of summer. So, Justin Bieber inspired me to make a mix of end-of-summer songs, some literal, most just appropriately wistful or angry. Plus, I included one of the best and most insane hip-hop boast tracks that I've heard in a long time, wherein Busta Rhymes uses the word "frankfurters."

001 Brian Eno - Spider and I
002 Cloud Nothings - Even If It Worked Out
003 Royce Da 5'9" - Dinner Time (feat. Busta Rhymes)
004 The Soft Pack - Down On Loving
005 The Chap - We Work in Bars
006 Tamaryn - Choirs of Winter
007 Janelle Monae - Tightrope (feat. Big Boi)
008 Arcade Fire - City With No Children
009 Gauntlet Hair - Our Scenery
010 Dum Dum Girls - Yours Alone
011 Pop Winds - Owl Eyes
012 Courier News - Empty Clouds
013 Sufjan Stevens - Heirloom
014 Justin Bieber - U Smile (Slowed Down 800%)

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

TV Tweets: Aug. 14 - 20

As always, you can follow me at LowBrowJon for an advance peak at my potentially forgone fallacies, as well as other LBM updates.

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Aug. 19th [Louie]

I find it kinda creepy that each ep of #Louie finds a way to slightly mirror my life more than it did the week prior.

Okay, so I don't have kids, I've never done drugs and I love my mom, but damn, lots of situations on Louie really hit home with me.

I love it. 

Take this week's episode, titled "Bully." (Major spoilers for this particular episode follow, so some of you may want to skip ahead to the next portion of the article at the link below.) Louie is on a date with a woman way out of his league, but he's convincingly winning her over anyway with his humor, because we all know it's not his physique or what's left of that ginger hairline of his. In walks a group of rowdy high schoolers, who he yells at to be quiet. Things continue to look promising for the date. However, one kid walks over and eventually challenges Louie to a fight. Of course Louie doesn't fight him, but he backs down in such an overwhelmingly emasculating way, I wanted to bash my head in because I know there's a very good chance I'd do something similar. Seriously. Fight a teenager? Please. Now, maybe knowing there's woman across the table watching all of this would spring me into action, but if she weren't there, yeah, I'd let the kid run over me. However, Louie backs down, forever ruins his chances with the woman and is humiliated all at the same time. Then the next two-thirds of the episode unfold. Pure genius.

This new show from Louis C.K. is so fantastic, I'm happy Lucky Louie didn't catch fire during it's only season -- although it was rad, too. Oh, and the dude flipping off the camera in the foreground for a split second during the Louie intro is an added bonus each week. See if you can catch it before the censors do.

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For further reading, I offer you the opportunity to follow me after the jump, where you will find a mini discussion on Hung's exploration of American life amid the recession and Big Johnson t-shirts.

TV Tweets: Aug. 3 - 13

As always, you can follow me at LowBrowJon to get my ostentatious oratory (so to speak), as well as other LBM updates.

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Aug. 9th [True Blood, Mad Men]

Ho-hum. Another week, another f'ed up sex scene to end an episode of #TrueBlood.

He's on a horse.

As is no surprise, True Blood continues gettin' it on with its sexually explicit self, which is as it should be. Although the Beeeeel/Sookie reunion was nowhere near as over-the-top as the Bill/Lorena escapade earlier this season (mainly because there was nothing comparable to The Exorcist this time), it still left me with an uneasiness all the same.
Overall, I've been enjoying this season. The Sam storyline is super annoying and lame, but the rest are at least entertaining, which is really all I expect from this show. Give me crazy creatures doing ridiculous things to each other, and I'll continue to be happy.

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After the jump, Mad Men rings in the new year, and the pieces of Rubicon get more interesting.

TV Tweets: June 1 - Aug. 2

Welp, I done did it again. Been away for far too long. But my life changes appear to be over now, and hopefully I can get back into the groove. Here's a catching-up edition.

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June 16th  [Breaking Bad]

Gah! #BreakingBad, you are some cliffhanging bastards.

Spoiler?

What an amazing season this was. Plenty of time to catch up before season 4 returns if you're not watching. Do yourself a favor and start it up sooner than later.

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After the jump, we'll delve into the Treme finale, the return of Mad Men and the BBC's latest incarnation of Sherlock Holmes.

mojito - A Genres & Judgments Mixture

Playlists used to be one of my grand specialties in another age, mainly of the 90-minute cassette tape. Hadn't made one for at least 5 years before this one, so I'm probably rusty, but dig it nonetheless.

This being a particularly sweltering mid-July in the Northeast, I had summer on the gray matter. So as I sat in my new apartment and somehow resisted turning on the A/C to keep my dollars in tow for autumn, I cobbled together some of the best music that was new to me in the last two or three months. And I only cheated once with The Explorers Club with that time frame, but they just scream summer and begged for inclusion.

There's a decent mix of styles here which I feel encapsulates the spirit of summer from the mad jam of a house party, to the longing crush you won't see for months, to the drink that tastes just a little better on a day with a high dew point, to the realization that fall's about to kick in and you better enjoy the heat while you still can. I tossed in two fantastic covers (Bob Dylan & Buddy Holly), and limited myself to only two tracks from Best Coast (my current musical obsession).

Btw, I just discovered blip.fm. So if you're feeling so inclined, become one of my listeners to see what music I'm into at any given moment. Without further delay, I present mojito.

Track list and download link after the jump.

Reel Low: The Last Airbender

It’s hard to imagine a movie can fail in as many ways as M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Last Airbender” does.  Given the apparent rich source material, it makes me question Shyamalan’s ability as a film maker and as a storyteller.

“The Last Airbender” is the first of what is presumably a trilogy of films adapting the three television seasons of “Avatar: The Last Airbender”, which tells the story of the boy Aang who is the last of the Air Nomads and prophesied savior of the world.  Aang has been trapped in ice for the past 100 years having run away from his duties as the avatar.  While he’s been on ice, the world has been devastated by war as the Fire Nation has moved to subjugate the world under its fist.  Now that Aang has resurfaced, the armies of the Fire Nation and its dishonored prince pursue him to prevent him from thwarting their plans.  Aang and his newfound friends, Katara and Sokka, set off on a journey so that Aang might learn to bend the other elements and become the hero the world needs.

A pretty standard setup that looks great on paper but is so poorly executed it makes me wonder how Shyamalan was unable to do anything great with it.  The dialogue is poorly scripted and often gives characters lines describing actions the audience has just seen on screen seconds earlier.  I like to think audiences haven’t become that inattentive.  There also seemed to be some disagreement on how names and words should be pronounced, most being pronounced in a way that makes me think the actors were trying to sound either smart or Brittish.

The action scenes felt clunky and poorly shot with a lot of the wire-work standing out as wire-work.  There is little about them that builds tension or excitement.  The only thing about the action scenes and the movie in general that really worked was the music.  Also, Shaun Toub’s performance as Uncle Iroh was one of the few shining points, breathing the only sense of humor into an overall dull atmosphere.

Before “The Last Airbender” came out, there was controversy over casting Caucasians in ethnic roles.  Now that it is out, it can be said that is least of the film’s problems.  This movie was lacking in so many ways that it’s (hopefully) doubtful that the other two seasons will get covered.  If they do have a go at them, I hope they can bring someone else on board who might be able to salvage the mess Shyamalan has left in his wake.