Saturday Morning Brain Drain [12/11/22]

12/11/22 Elliecoo 32
Image via BT

What I Watched: With thanks to @Luigi-Vuoto for the recommendation, I watched The Devil’s Hour. After being totally perplexed the first two episodes, it clicked for me. Plus, Jamie Tartt from Ted Lasso is in it!

As per The Guardian: The Devil’s Hour has all the component parts to be very, very good. It has Peter Capaldi back in intense, unblinking, talking-with-his-bottom-teeth-out mode, which is where he’s at his best. Jessica Raine is doing a superb job as Lucy, the whirring centre of the whole thing: she’s playing the three roles of “haunted woman who keeps jolting awake at 3.33am after a recurring nightmare”, “firm but caring boss at the underfunded social services unit” and “mum to a creepy little horrible goth boy”, and doing each of them from a really interesting, charming new angle.

Trailer One

Trailer Two

What I Read: More series continuations, including, The Magpie Key (Crow Investigations Book 8) by Sarah Painter; not my favorite, but in total a good series about magical London families with the attributes of crows, foxes, pearls, etc. Oh, and friendly ghosts. And, Garrett’s Destiny: An Action Packed Alpha Vampire Paranormal Romance (Dark Protectors Book 15) by Rebecca Zanetti. Good stuff, no surprises, working toward the culmination of the Seven story line. And, why yes, I did read Duke in a Box: Twelve Steamy Historical Holiday Novellas. Some authors were unfamiliar, others are well known, such as Darcy Burke. Seriously, a nice bit of holiday fluff with stories like this: Undressing the Duke by Erica Ridley, When the Duke of Southbury informs his charming French valet of his impending dismissal, Vachon has only a fortnight to convince the duke to change his mind… and take a chance on love!

What I Listened To: Balloons by Lunar Isles (really pretty); My Echo by Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever; I Wish It Was Me by Obongjayar, and Cry Mfer by My Idea.

Thank you for playing Brain Drain! How are you, dearest DeadSplinterites? What’s up, darling ones?

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About Elliecoo 588 Articles
Four dogs, one partner. The dogs win.

32 Comments

  1. What I Watched:  Source Code, a 2011 film with Jake Gyllenhaal that is a high suspense version of Groundhog Day–but they pulled it off.  It’s a good film.

    What I Listened To:  Our latest stop on the tour of the best recorded albums of all time brings us to The Trinity Session by Cowboy Junkies.  Released in 1988 and engineered by Peter Moore, this album is a testament to what can be done when you understand the principles of acoustics and sound propagation.  Most of this album, save one track, was recorded in Toronto’s Church of the Holy Trinity using a single, two-track tape machine which was fed by a single stereo microphone (a stereo microphone is one that has two capsules which can pick up sound in a stereo pattern).  Now, technically, there were two microphones used in this recording because the only way to keep Margo Timmins’ voice from getting drowned out was by having her sing into a separate microphone which fed a PA, which was what then fed the stereo microphone for recording.  Anyway, doing this type of recording means that the entire band had to play live, circled around the stereo mic but placed in different positions and distances to balance the sound.  They started with their simplest arrangements, and then moved on to more complex songs with additional musicians, one at a time, so they could more easily troubleshoot getting the best sound on tape.

    Fun facts:  In order to get the church to agree to let their building be used for the album, the band lied by saying they were the Timmins Family Singers, recording a Christmas album.  They also bribed the security guard an additional $25 to get extra recording time so they could finish recording “Misguided Angel.”  Also, the one song that wasn’t recorded at the church was the opening track, “Mining for Gold”, an a cappella piece that was recorded at Roy Thomson Hall, during a break between rehearsals for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.  If you listen carefully, under a good pair of headphones, you’ll hear the differences in ambiance and in the microphone used for Margo’s voice.

    This album doesn’t have the hallmarks of your typical audiophile album–the super clean sound, the punchy low end, or the wide frequency range–but the kind of work that went into doing this album using the equipment they had, and not doing any overdubs or mixes in post-production–is a thing of aural beauty that must be appreciated on its own merits.

     

  2. I watched Everything Everywhere All At Once and really liked it. It’s wildly imaginative, pretty exhausting, very funny and touching in places, with some fun action scenes too.

    Michelle Yeoh is the owner of a laundromat who ends up in a multiverse trying to defeat an all powerful being and fix her connection to her daughter.

    Ke Huy Quan, who played Short Round in the terrible second Indiana Jones movie, is great as her husband/multiverse guide.

    James Hong, who has played a million roles over the years, is her dad and Jamie Lee Curtis is an IRS drone who at one time has very odd fingers.

    I had to watch it in pieces because it ended up being too much for one sitting, but I may eventually rewatch it in one piece now that I have my bearings.

  3. I started Season 5 of The Crown last night. I’m not enjoying it as much as the earlier seasons. I can’t accept Dominic West as Charles.

    I read All Good People Here by Ashley Flowers. It was a gift and not a book I would have chosen for myself. It was what I expected, a not terrible, but not particularly good murder mystery. There was a lot going on. I think she needed a better editor. Flowers is a podcaster with popular true crime and supernatural shows. But good oral storytelling doesn’t always translate to the written word. I’ve noticed this before when authors are on The Moth. Some of them are surprisingly terrible.

    I’m listening to the New Big Joanie LP Back Home

    Cactus Tree

     

    In My Arms

     

  4. The Crown, Season 5. It was basically the Chuck & Di show, way too much so I think. You know who plays a huge part is my Doppelgänger, John Major. Also the kid who plays preteen Prince William is fantastic. The guy playing Tony Blair looks like a slightly overweight, contented middle manager at a small company in the North somewhere. The actor playing Cherie Blair bears an uncanny resemblance to the real article, poor woman. Camilla comes off very sympathetically, she will be happy to learn. We hardly hear from Anne or Margaret, which is a shame.

    There is a very funny one-episode side plot where QEII is convinced to finally get cable. She can’t figure out how it works, of course, so while she’s flipping around trying to find the (horse) racing channel she briefly stumbles upon an episode of Beavis and Butthead. Just for a second and I hope that wasn’t a spoiler.

    • I always sad for the royal constraints on the life of Princess Margaret. I t would have been a different, perhaps better life had the royals allowed for love.

  5. damnit…prime video… well thats a no bueno

    anything peter capaldi has my attention…guess ill wait till it turns up somewhere i can watch it

    not currently watching anything

    and listening to my wonderfully schitzophrenic youtube recs

  6. I’m going to see Wakanda Forever today and I’m super excited!

    Aside from that, I caught up on Dancing with the Stars. They finished the quarterfinals and finally all the people I didn’t like are off the show. Still a huge error a few weeks ago cutting Jordin Sparks, she was delightful. They kept telling tiktok teen star’s mother to show more emotion, and I don’t think she physically could. Like I think there’s botox in there keeping much of her expression so neutral.

  8. READ

    The Unsettlers: In Search of the Good Life in Today’s America, by Mark Sundeen. The author looks at 3 cases where couples decided to go very much against the typical American Dream to live differently, i.e. more in step with the land. Love the idea, but the execution left a little bit to be desired. I would still recommend it, but you might not come away really loving or empathizing with the folks profiled.

    LISTENED

    Lots of techno/ambient this week while trying to figure out the rest of my career.

    Didn’t really watch anything other than some exercise and yoga videos.

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