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I will confess that I do not follow, and seldom even recognize, current trends in popular music. Some years ago, I did observe the increased use of auto-tune, and in recent years I have noticed that many songs are about “da club”. But that’s all pretty superficial, and so is most contemporary music. Or so I thought.

I don’t listen to top-forty radio, and I never see music videos, so whatever exposure I have had to current pop music has been on late-night television. The current season of Saturday Night Live has had its share of disposable “musical” guests, but it has also had some (to me) surprises – performers I had never heard of, whose music intrigued me.

The first was Bon Iver. When I saw the performance, I immediately thought, Steve Winwood lives! And that’s a compliment, since I am not used to many artists today going to the effort to make such elaborate arrangements. Multiple guitars, keyboards, horns, and a host of percussion make for a very rich sound. At a time when, it seems to me, what passes for a song is little more than an electronic drumbeat and a musical hook lifted wholly from another, superior song, I am comforted to hear something so sophisticated. Watch the clip (probably available for only a short time), and see if you can spot the Winwood.

The second performance that pleased me was by Gotye, who played a song called “Somebody I Used to Know”. Much more compelling than the typical break-up song, “Somebody I Used to Know” seems to be about guy whose ex-girlfriend has shunned him, which would not be so unusual absent his surprisingly self-aware observations, notably, “I told myself that you were right for me, but felt so lonely in your company”. Indeed, listening closely to the lyrics, I was taken by the complexity of the emotions. On one hand, the song claims that “you can get addicted to a certain kind of sadness, / Like resignation to the end, always the end”. Nevertheless, the speaker is hurt by his former lover’s coldness: “But you didn’t have to cut me off; / Make out like it never happened and that we were nothing. / And I don’t even need your love, / But you treat me like a stranger and that feels so rough”. Next, in a clever but lifelike twist, we hear the ex-lover’s perspective, and it contradicts his own. He is not, it seems, the innocent victim of her callousness, but the oblivious saboteur of their relationship. And in a brilliant turn, she turns his own phrasing against him: “You said that you could let it go / And I wouldn’t catch you hung up on somebody that you used to know”.

The arrangement is also compelling, particularly given the simplicty of the song itself, and so far from what I would have imagined had I written it, that I have to smile at its efficiency. Watch this video (probably only available for a short time) to see what I mean. Pay attention, too, to the visual performance, especially after the female singer appears. Both singers seem to be acting their roles, and the cameras do a good job framing the confrontation, notably by showing her in the foreground facing away from him. (Also, he looks and dresses just like my grad school adviser.)

Filed under: Popular Music, Television on May 10th, 2012 | No Comments »

I’ve watched The Simpsons since the very first episode, decades ago. Like many fans of the show, I would say the series reached its zenith some time around 1993-1995. I thought the program was becoming stale as early as the late 1990s, and since then I have found myself thinking it would not be too bad a thing if the series came to an end, if only to preserve its reputation.

But it never fails that at least once a season the writers of The Simpsons give us something inspired – something that lives up to the high standards the show set in its better seasons. Last night’s episode, “Replacable You”, was outstanding, and a splendid reminder of how the show used to make me laugh until my guts hurt.

Filed under: Comedy, Television on November 7th, 2011 | No Comments »

Several years ago I saw one of the big late-night talk show hosts interview a fellow who was known for catching home run balls in the bleachers at baseball games.  He had a whole video reel of him snagging balls right out of the air, or diving under seats and coming up with a souvenir.  He had even retrieved some fairly significant hits.  I was a little amazed that one guy could be in the right place at the right time so many times, but, to be completely honest, I also thought this fellow a bit obnoxious.  After all, many of the fans you see scrambling for baseballs are impolite at best, and occasionally a threat to public safety.  Remember the man who tumbled from the upper deck at a Major League game last season?

Today I was reading the UniWatch Blog, one of my favorite internet destinations (for reasons I will explain in the future), and I came upon a story that surprised me.  It was about the same fellow I saw interviewed on television years back.  At this point he’s caught thousands of balls, but, to his credit, he has parlayed his hobby into a fine charitable enterprise benefiting underprivileged youth.  He recently caught a home run ball at Citi Field that had been hit by a young Mets player.  It was that player’s first Major League home run.  On this fellow’s blog, he tells a great story of how he gave the ball to the player, who gave him an unexpected reward for the gesture.  The tale is long and somewhat boastful, but well worth reading.

Huzzah, sport!

Filed under: Sports, Television on April 28th, 2011 | No Comments »

If you’ve ever seen a crime-themed film or television show, you have no doubt heard a character–generally a detective or investigator–instruct a lowly technician to “zoom and enhance” some bit of surveillance video.  No matter how distant or grainy the footage, the technician merely turns a few knobs on a console, and, ta da!, perfect high-definition video quality.  It’s ridiculous.  Or so I thought.

Tonight the History Channel is broadcasting a special entitled Stealing Lincoln’s Body.  “Outstanding”, I thought when I saw the listing, since not only is the Rays vs. Red Sox game currently on a rain delay in the ninth inning, but I am a passionate Lincoln fan, and am presently reading David Herbert Donald’s wonderful biography of the greatest of all Americans.  History Channel productions, however, have frequently failed to impress me, commonly employing silly reenactments, and generally lacking the authoritative scholarship associated with PBS efforts.  Stealing Lincoln’s Body has some slightly silly reenactments, sure, but it is much better than average for a History Channel project.  And it has something else that struck me as revolutionary.

Describing Lincoln’s funeral procession through New York City, a famous image of a young Theodore Roosevelt observing Lincoln’s coffin passing beneath his window is shown.  But, like magic, the image appears to come to life, and from the apparent distance at which the photo was taken, the camera zooms in on the two figures in the window, and, lo, there is the boy Roosevelt.  They zoomed and enhanced!  They did it with a couple other historic photos, too, and each time the effect was startling.

I’m sorry I ever doubted you, television detectives.

Filed under: History, Technology, Television on April 16th, 2010 | No Comments »

I just finished watching the most recent Frontline episode, entitled “The Suicide Tourist”.  It was, simply put, the most powerful and affecting thing I have ever seen on television.  I write this with tears in my eyes, and an entirely new perspective on physician assisted suicide.

The program documents a man named Craig Ewert, who, five months earlier had been diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s Disease.  After his diagnosis he began to rapidly lose motor function, and when the film begins, he is paralyzed from the neck down.  His wife of several decades is with him constantly.   Mr. Ewert has decided that he would prefer suicide to total paralysis followed by prolonged death, so he travels to Zurich, where assisted suicide is legal, and with the help of a group called Dignitas, ends his life, with his wife holding his hand, and Beethoven playing on the radio.

What makes this program so powerful is that one gets to know Mr. Ewert.  He is a likable, chatty person, who, until his diagnosis was living an active, interesting life, which, were it not for the disease, he would love to continue.  But he fears that if he waits too long, he will lose the ability to move a muscle, at which point assisted suicide would be impossible, leaving him in a prolonged vegetative state, causing his family years of agony.  No one watching could feel anything but profound sympathy for him and his family.  And when he finally drinks the drug that will stop his heart, which he knows will separate him from everyone and everything he has ever known and loved, the tragedy is overwhelming.

I used to think that only ghoulish doctors exploited suffering people by helping them end their lives.  But “The Suicide Tourist” depicts something else entirely.  I am a man of strong faith.  I don’t take matters of death lightly.  But as someone who feels for those who suffer, I cannot ignore that, for some, death is the more dignified, humane, and, ultimately, loving alternative.

I don’t want to take the smile away from anybody’s face, but if you want to witness the most profound portrait of human courage and dignity, watch “The Suicide Tourist”.

Filed under: Health, Television on March 4th, 2010 | No Comments »