noname - Sundial

No posts for an age, moving house from a northern island was a bit of an undertaking. Anyway, job done, nearly all the boxes unpacked, although the garage is a tad chocker! Living here, in Perthshire, I can now go to gigs again, or at least, "a significantly broader musical genre may be experienced with relative ease.....(ha-ha)". Louise is a bit bemused by the number of things now booked (really not that many!). The first is coming up shortly, thus the recommendation below. Younger daughter kindly bought tickets for the Stirling festival day with headliners Young Fathers, a band I've long enjoyed. However, the recommended album is more controversially by one of the support acts, noname. Fatimah Nyeema Warner is a controversial figure, and would not like me promoting her album (in this very small way) I suspect. However, there are some great tunes and lyrically it is wordy, and interesting (warning, some might find it offensive, for various reasons). So, recommended, Sundial by noname

https://www.instagram.com/nonamehiding/?hl=en

 

And I'm feeling a playlist formulating... posted shortly maybe.

An album and an EP - enjoy!

 Bright Future by Adrianne Lenker  and The Great Gatsby by Jeffrey Lewis.

Bright Future by Adrianne Lenker.

https://jeffreylewis.bandcamp.com/

 

Click the pix for Bandcamp links (where you can purchase the music).

The January playlist - Americana

Here's the playlist. The thing that makes it play may appear at the bottom.

A lot of films recently, several forgettable but  Everywhere, Everything, All At Once is wonderful, highly recommended.

Photo Allyson Riggs.

 

We went to a gig in Kirkwall, Auskerry, Hildaland and Saltfishforty. Excellent. Great atmosphere, fabulous tunes and playing. All three bands came together with a few friends for a final song. Hildaland are on the playlist but do check out Saltfishforty and Auskerry.

Next playlist - horses.

An Overview on Phenomenal Nature

I'm not sure why I don't post music straight on to this blog, instead of posting on a page. Anyway, early New Year's Resolution, post here!

This album is my new obsession. It is truly lovely. Many thanks to Simon Armitage, the UK Poet Laureate no less, for the recommendation. 

An Overview on Phenomenal Nature by Cassandra Jenkins.

Many movies.

 The best of which was The Big Short, great performances and an interesting insight into the financial crash of 2007 - 08.

Poster - Paramount.

Bones and All is well worth a watch, but be aware this might be considered offensive or distasteful (ha-ha) by many as it deals with a taboo subject. This is a clever film, and it would be a shame to be put off by the context, but that is understandable as well. Approach with caution if you are of a more delicate persuasion; otherwise add to your watch list.

Photo - DP Arseni Khachaturan.

 Various other movies have been watched in the last couple of months, and whilst some of them were niche subjects (a few cycling films) others were pretty forgettable.

Avatar

Not being one for mainstream cinema on the whole I watched this for the first time the other day, mostly because family want to watch the next one but couldn't really remember this. Good things, if the allegory was intended, European invaders destroying the stable, animistic lives of Native Americans. Mostly, they destroyed them by introducing European diseases I  believe, but there was also brutal oppression and murder. The world created in this film is pretty amazing, hugely imaginative, some of the details are just lovely. Bad things; the writing and plot are abysmal, corny, just embarrassingly so; far to much violence, oh, it's just dross. What a wasted opportunity. There is a wonderful film lurking in here, if the studio and director had employed some decent writers and edited it properly there could have been something truly magical. Instead we sadly have a James Cameron ego trip, well that's how it seems to me. Family may watch the newer version but I'll be strategically absent, I have better things to do with three precious hours of my life!

Tiny Desk Concerts.

If you've never found the Tiny Desk Concerts on NPR you've been missing a treat. There is so much fabulous music here. The musicians all seem to enjoy this tiny, tiny venue, everyone gets happy and the music is often very different from albums or more formal gigs. The gigs are also tiny, with the sets being around 20 minutes, like about an album side. Of course, it's a big deal being invited these days so, there's a certain nervous energy in the mix too. I particularly love the Raye set, but you could pick almost anything here, Kenny Garrett, Ezra Collective, Fred Again, Allison Russell, Theo Croker, Mama's Broke....

Here's the link - https://www.npr.org/series/tiny-desk-concerts/

The Report

I'm a bit of a fan of Adam Driver, of course he starred in Paterson, which might be my favourite film of all time. He played a bus driver. Paterson is based on the epic poem Paterson by the "beat" poet William Carlos Williams. Anyway, back to the point.

The Report, or The Torture Report (the word Torture redacted) is the story of how the CIA instigated a series of tortures of prisoners - there is a review from The Guardian here - https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/jan/27/the-report-review-adam-driver-annette-bening-cia-torture 

 A serious topic, outstanding performances, and a well crafted movie that is always interesting and holds the attention. Free on Amazon Prime.

I've been gripped by a medical drama, unusually. Not my favourite genre, but Lifelines on Radio 4 (available on Sounds) is excellent. I was struck by the skill of the call centre staff in dealing with 999 calls. Something I'd never thought of before is that they often don't know the end of a harrowing story that they have been part of, that must be extraordinarily stressful. Recommended.

The Menu (spoilers included).

It's difficult to know what to make of this film. The posh end of the restaurant market is a huge target, and a very easy one. The film is billed as a thriller, or horror and it has some jokes, more towards the beginning, and they're not that funny to be sure. Critics favour The Menu as a crude allegory of the eternal struggle between the privileged and the rest of us. If this is what the film is, then it's beautifully shot, well acted tosh with a very unpleasant, irresponsible use of suicide as a dramatic device. In which case 2/10. However, perhaps the film is better than that, could our chef be Putin? Could the allegory be about despots and their cynical misuse of power?

Photo Searchlight Pictures.

And are such despots prepared to destroy themselves as well as everyone and everything in their and our worlds in a final grand gesture? If this is the allegory then I like this film a whole lot more, surely this must be what was intended?

The Corrupted

I've sadly come to the end of this series on BBC Sounds https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b050z5cf

Fifty eight episodes aiming squarely at those in power, both in the larger political sense; in individual institutions, like prisons and The Met; and in personal relationships. The series pulls no punches. GF Newman, the author of the original book, The Corrupted, cleverly interweaves his characters through real political and historical events, so Joey Oldman (or Lord Olinska as he eventually becomes) meets historical characters we all know as he corruptly, without scrupples, with no morality, makes his way to the top, or near it any way.

The story begins in 1953 and ends just after Goron Brown took over from Blair. The series is not for the faint hearted, so if you you have difficulty with very offensive racist and sexual language and a large dose of violence, avoid. But if you are interested in the underbelly of British society and in corruption in high places (and low ones) you won't be disappointed. Personally, I thought it was brilliant. There are some fab performances, as usual Toby Jones is excellent but Joe Armstrong and Ross Kemp are super as the "hero" of the piece, Brian.

Austerity.

These poems about the cruelty of the UK Tory Government are well worth a look, and a link. The website is called austerity, https://thisisausterity.uk/

 Best read about the poems and the project there. But here's a short example:

01 she was not ill enough

Posted on July 29, 2022

She died of a lung condition.

Her husband agreed the life support machine be turned off.

The same day

the Department declared

she was not ill enough

to receive benefits.

[Daily Mirror, 08/01/2016, Dead mum not ill enough for payouts]

https://thisisausterity.uk/about-this-project/

Shaun Gardiner