Stuff I'm diggin' lately.

TV!

First up...this TV show I found for sale at my local video store. Which I got for $7 because they went out of business.

It stars Tamsin Greig, Stephen Mangan and...Matt LeBlanc. Believe me, I was put off by him at first too but I am SO glad I flicked the seven bucks on this because it is actually such a fantastic, well-made show. Obviously Tamsin Greig and Stephen Mangan carry everything effortlessly with their totally natural acting chemistry, and if you're used to seeing them in Green Wing then you'll know what I'm talking about.

Above and beyond that, it is great to observe the huge contrast and resulting conflict between two cultures that are still so, so different. 

The basic plot is that Beverly and Sean (Greig and Mangan, respectively), are a married couple whose hit TV show is spotted (sort of!), by a big American TV mogul. He flies them to LA to write the US version of their show and as you'd expect, shit gets fucked up. Of course, they were "promised" that it wouldn't, but they end up by bending to the will of Merc, the aforementioned TV mogul. The result is the absolute bastardisation of Beverly and Sean's pride and joy. For a start, Matt LeBlanc is cast in their show instead of Richard Griffiths, who starred in their original show. The contrast is at once absurd and hilarious. 

 Beverly does her best to stand staunchly against everything but unfortunately for her, LeBlanc takes a huge shine to her husband and co-writer, Sean. He becomes enamoured by the glamorous lifestyle that LeBlanc shows him and this drives a wedge between himself and Beverly.

Anyway, I'll stop now before I give too much away! Although I seem to be the last person to get on this boat as I only just found out about this show, which originally screened in 2011! I'm ridiculously keen to see the second and third season (currently in production).

Books!

This is the book I am currently reading. I came across it because I got a weird yearning for Bastard Out of Carolina, which I thought I owned but can't see on my bookshelves anywhere. Hopefully it's at my mum's house and not in the possession of some jerk who will never give it back.

Anyway, I first read Bastard Out of Carolina many years ago and I was immensely moved by it. It is loosely (not TOO loosely) autobiographical and I think it was probably the first book I'd ever read about being dirt poor and white. Luckily I can't relate to certain other elements of the story, such as all the incest that goes on, and also I can't imagine how awful it must be to grow up gay in Carolina, but still, Bone was a character I hugely identified with. I wish I'd read the book when I was younger. I think I was 19 or 20 when I read it. Having been the only poor white kid in both the schools I attended it was a huge relief to find something I could relate to in regards to that. 

So as I was saying, I got a hankering for this book a little while ago. I did a little research and found Trash, which is a collection of short stories by Allison. As you can imagine, the stories are largely about growing up with the label "white trash". I only just started reading it but even the foreword was great reading. It's so fantastic to rediscover an old favourite author.

I think what I love most about Dorothy Allison is that she refuses to just "forget" and "move on" from her past and view it completely negatively. Yes, her childhood was horrific and she struggled for a very long time, but she made it work to her advantage. I think I'm the same. Our histories shape us and inform how we express ourselves, however we choose to do so. I only hope that one day I have the guts to write about my life and let people know that the things that have happened to me only make me stronger, and I hope others can relate to that as well.

Music!

Well what do you know, I fucking love the latest album by Thee Oh Sees. How predictable! But seriously, this album is great. My favourite song is track four, "No Spell", which is so incredibly epic. Not as epic as "Putrifiers II", the title track off their last album, but it's definitely epic in its own way. Going to stop saying the word "epic" now as it just reminds me of all those stupid internet memes. 

My second favourite track is "Toe Cutter/Thumb Buster" which has one of the best music videos I've ever seen. And I fucking hate music videos so that's saying a lot. I posted it on this blog a little while ago so if you want to see it, just scroll down a little bit.

Anyway, I've listened to Floating Coffin about 60 times and can't say I love it as passionately as Putrifiers II or Carrion Crawler/The Dream but it's still the best damn thing that's come out lately. Although I'm oddly keen on Queens of the Stone Age's new album too, which I wasn't expecting. And there was another recent release that I heard at work that I really liked but I can't for the life of me remember the artist's name. She was a lady, anyway, and the style of music was an interesting mix of country and soul. I wish I could remember her name! 

Unfortunately there isn't much else I've enjoyed lately, apart from Kurt Vile which I'm pretty sure I've already written about ("Girl Called Alex"?! So amazing oh my god don't get me started...). And the new Wavves is great, already wrote about it though...new Devendra was pretty good too but I wouldn't go buy it or anything.

Obviously I adore The Black Angels but I'm just not enjoying their new album at all. Same goes for the new Stooges record. Just cannot get into it. And Vampire Weekend can get fucked but no surprises there, I've always hated those assholes. I still haven't listened to the new Wire album, damnit. New Yeah Yeah Yeahs was a massive disappointment. Sigh. New Boards of Canada soon though! Yay, something to look forward to.