Watching
NBC has this new show "Medium" about a psychic helping the police bring criminals to justice. Or "find" criminals or crimes or basically help with anything she has a dream or "feeling" about. I love the way the show is made because the episodes she sees are shown as they happen and the viewer is sort of stuck in the mystery the same way "the medium" is. I'm not much of a crime show watcher at all. I am not interested in CSI or Alias or whatever is all the rage now, but this show... is just so intriguing. Surprisingly though it's not just for the above described reasons, but for the relationship shown between the medium, who is a mother of a three and her husband. Inbetween the crime story episodes you see the two of them going through the daily stress of driving the kids to school, trying to remember who is picking up who, organizing birthday parties, dealing with school problems... all the while they are being really committed to each other and the family without the usual movie drama, not the excessive negative nor the excessive positive drama.
I have to admit I recognize myself in many of the scenes. I wonder who created that part of the story, because the timing and dynamics of the interaction of the spouses are just so accurate. Many times in movies, drama is created to serve the already mapped out progression of the story, but here it seems, the goal is just to recreate the reality of two people loving each other on a daily, non-eventful basis. They fight and they apologize and it's not a big deal and they can be honest and not, but there is the underlying constant of them knowing each other and things always end up right, not because they are "ah just so perfect for each other!" but because they are making a conscious effort. I like it. I'm surprised Hollywood can be so normal.
Posted at 12:04 PM on February 16, 2005 | Comments (1)You can feel it all over
I got a bunch of CDs for Christmas, which is wonderful for me, because I never get to buy any CDs anymore. Partly due to lack of funds and partly because I don't have the time to keep up with what's out there. A good chunk of those CDs were Stevie Wonder albums - music I've had on my wishlist for a while and never really got to listen to. I'm still listening through all of it, it takes a while to digest 3 Stevie Wonder records.
"Songs in the Key of Life" is the longest one, including 2 CDs and I don't know how many tracks. A lot. That record is unbelievable. I feel a little silly saying this now, as it's been out for over 30 years and is considered a classic. So, it's a little bit like discovering hot water. I know I wasn't even born when that album came out, but still, I feel like I should've known more about it than its name. On the other hand, there are so many hits on that album, that actually everybody has heard it at some point. And that's the thing. This CD has so many good songs, it's almost too much to listen to at once. It takes you from bouncy happy awesome dance songs to beautiful ballads to some really serious social criticism. While some might think that's silly or chaotic, I think it actually has a lot of coherence. To sound really corny, that's how life is. Plus it's different to throw together a bunch of songs until it's enough for an album than combining songs illustrating the different very personal situations in one's life.
But most of all, the music, the songwriting is just amazing! I am so stunned someone could actually release an album like this! Nowadays I'm happy if a CD has 2-3 really good songs. But more than 10?! Some songs are 7 minutes or longer, yet you don't get tired of it. It's perfectly produced, it's rich, but not annoying, it's intense but not exaggerated...
Anyway, I will not attempt a serious review of "Songs in the Key of Life". I just had to let you know it's on my top-ten-list of favorite albums ever. Now don't ask me what the other 9 are because I never remember. But this one, it's really good. Go buy it.
Posted at 12:57 PM on February 08, 2005 | Comments (2)Hm.
If you search for "monotony + motherhood" on google, my site will come up first. Ooops.
Posted at 04:46 PM on February 06, 2005 | Comments (1)