Visual Aspects - Battlestar Galactica

MINE

YourZ and I have been in love with this series for ever.  I'm sure his love is largely borne from a certain red dress worn by a certain Cylon, but I can forgive him that.  Can't you?  Go on, Google "Caprica Six" and forgive him here and now.  Remember to come back!

I had an interesting conversation with my brother-in-law about the merits of BSG versus The Wire, which of course we also love.  He is of the opinion that it's "cheating" for BSG to tackle difficult issues, because it's science fiction and therefore the writers can make any situation fit; whereas in The Wire they're restricted to real life situations.  Of course, I think that's a load of hooey.  Both of these series are fabulous, in different ways.  It's just BSG has the most fabulous CGI to go along with the amazing acting and top-notch scripts.  Shiny! Oh, wait, that's another TV series, I'm getting ahead of myself here.  We recently watched BSG end-to-end, because last year we finally bought a flat-screen TV - so we wanted to watch all our great visual-effects movies and series over again, with the oh-wow picture.

OK, so BSG takes places in a universe where there are 12 colonies of humans on 12 planets which are kind of named after signs of the Zodiac and they worship multiple gods and they've formed a truce with the Cylons which are robots that became self-aware and then rebelled years ago and now the Cylons are back and some of them look like humans and they're still pissed off so they nuke all the human's planets and only about 40-thousand people get away on a bunch on spaceships including... Battlestar Galactica.

After that it gets complicated.

My favourite part?  The way the series examined summary executions and imprisonment - from both sides of the human/Cylon debate.  I loved how this series put the issues being tested in Iraq and at Guantanamo on to prime-time US screens, right then and there.  And vote-rigging!

My favourite character?  Gaius Baltar.  Selfish, self-serving, cowardly, tricksy and an unwitting traitor, he manages to survive through the basest of human emotions. Yet toward the end, he seems to redeem himself - by supposedly laying bare his soul in a tell-all autobiography.  Whoever thought him up deserves all the writing accolades there are.

My favourite squeeze?  Chief Galen Tyrol.  I don't know why, there are some much more conventionally handsome men featured - Anders and Helo spring to mind - but I love the Chief.  He's huggable.

And while she's frustrating and impenetrable and likeable as well as facepalm idiotic from time to time: I love Starbuck.

We haven't seen the BSG spin-off Caprica, and it can't have been that good if it got canned after one series, but I guess we will when it's released here on DVD.  Completists that we are.  Hey, that reminds me - we haven't re-watched The Plan yet!

VERDICT: Vital

YOURZ

Initially, my review was going to be very simple:

"Watch it if only for the bodacious, deadly Clyon babe in the painted-on red dress."

But on careful deliberation, I decided this would make me appear extremely shallow.  I'm now gonna go for some depth:

Watch it if only for the magnificent cast, the effects, the story, the drama, the intrigue, the pointy-headed robots from hell and cool spaceships.  And, if this isn't enough, watch it for the bodacious, deadly Clyon babe in the painted-on red dress.

I think you can guess who my favourite character is, can't you?

VERDICT: Vital

Damian 'Jnr Gong' Marley - Welcome To Jamrock

YOURZ

Barely two years old when his father died, Damian 'Jr Gong' Marley grew up in the shadow of his Bob's reputation and the fanatical following he inspired around the world.  His youngest son could well have turned out to be another spoilt underachiever living on the reputation of his parents (like so many).  But if anything is true, it's the opposite.

A musical force in his own right, Damian turned the collateral of having a famous father into a spectacular Grammy-winning career.  Performing since the age of 13, he's a reflection of the Marley clan's many talents, his speciality being a toaster (and not the baddies from Battlestar Galactica either - how's that for a geek-fact). 

On Welcome To Jamrock, he continues updating the traditional Jamaican template to include samples, beats and sounds more associated with hip hop than with reggae but with such great effect it won him two Grammys on the same night, something no reggae artist has ever previously done. 

Now, if you like reggae and hip hop, this is absolutely a must have.  Every track, from the opener political manifesto of Confrontation to the more personal Beautiful (for the ladeez) and the genre blurring tracks Pimpas Paradise (featuring The Roots Black Thought) and Road To Zion (featuring Nas) are just brilliant.  In fact, there is not a dud track on this record, as far as I'm concerned. 

I like this album so much, I'd love to call it a Forgotten Gem.  Problem is I play it too much so I'm not likely to forget it.  For me, it is truly one of the greatest albums of this genre and well in line to be one of THE albums of the decade. (Mine says: And there's a great example of how different our tastes can be sometimes.)

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

MINE

I have a confession to make.  I don't like reggae music.  Oh sure, I'll sing along to some old Bob Marley or Peter Tosh, but generally it's not really my thing.  You know the quote about golf being a good walk spoiled?  I think reggae's some good music spoiled.  (YourZ sez: and yet you love ska - what gives?)

Notwithstanding Damian's stellar lineage, this album just annoyed me.  There's too much shouting at me from the toasters, some of the nominal melody lines are horrifically repetetive, and then there's the matter of being able to understand what's being said or sung or shouted, which is intermittant.  And that's not because Damian doesn't know how to enunciate, it's that he chooses not to.  Or chooses to stir in that thick, gluey Jamaican accent.  Now, all power to him, Jah be with him and keep him and all that good stuff, and I'm not criticising the music or the playing or the production.  But I just can't imagine ever wanting to listen to this ever again.  Not even if you paid me.

VERDICT: THROW IT OUT

For more information: http://www.myspace.com/damianmarley

James Hunter - The Hard Way

MINE

Listening to The Hard Way is a bit like dropping into an episode of Mad Men.  James Hunter effortlessly recreates the feeling of early-60s smooth American white-people's music - although sometimes with a hint of dangerous rock-and-or-roll.  It just makes me want to reach for a pitcher of martinis and light up a Lucky Strike.

Just how good is that show, anyway?  And what is it about American TV in the Noughties that it reinvented itself with these OMG scripts and fuck-off acting?  Right now I'm panting for the DVD of the latest series - too long to wait for it to be screened in the Antipodes.  But I'm also enjoying Dexter, as mentioned in our sidebars, and we just gulped down the entire four series of The Wire available here, plus the sheer excellence of Breaking Bad.... and we're still waiting for more spin-off goodness of Battlestar Galactica after the series ended (sob).

It used to be US television was far inferior to the British product.  But now YourZ and Mine(self) spend time nudging each other over the excellent sets and furnishings in Mad Men (we're both Eames-era junkies) - or gripping our seats in the rollercoaster writing of Breaking Bad - or checking our watches to see if we can squeeze in just one more episode of The Wire before bedtime.

But all this isn't telling you how I feel about this album.  And I'm not as passionate about it as I am about Mad Men.  I guess I don't mind it - but frankly I'd rather listen to some recordings of music from back in the day - like my Stax Collection - rather than new music sounding like it was recorded back in the day.  Oh, but that doesn't include Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, who can play at any party I throw from now till whenever.

VERDICT: TURN IT DOWN


YOURZ

I'm a sucker.  Just ask Mine.  She probably has countless examples of why I am, of this I have no doubt.  But at least I know what I am.  This can go part way to help alleviating losing great amounts of hard earned dollars to snake oil salesmen or con artists trying to sell me national monuments.  But put a pretty girl behind a counter who knows how to use her, erm, charms, and I've already paid for whatever she's trying to sell.

Such was the case when I walked into my local music store and the young, firm beauty behind the counter was sashying around while listening to The Hard Way.  In other circumstances, things might have gotten embarrassingly hard indeed.  Thank goodness for air conditioning and a modicum of self-control, let me tell ya.  The end result was predictable though; I walked out of the store with this CD in my hot and somewhat sweaty palms.

James Hunter is a Englishman who sounds like a lot of the old soul and RnB singers (the first, true and only RnB as far as I'm concerned).  He sounds like a lot of the music my parents loved and listened to when I was growing up, music I find weirdly comforting, given I'm generally a rock pig.  Hunter is talented, unpretentious and in possession of a very fine soul voice.  But what really sets him apart is he not only writes all of his own songs but he plays a mean guitar too.  The authenticity is undeniable and he has garnered fans in people such as Willy Nelson, Chris Isaak and Van Morrison, as well as nominations for a number of the more prestigious music awards.

Personally, I like the ska flavour of Carina, the rockin' Don't Do Me No Favours (the yelps he pulls off in this are pure joy) and the bossanova-flavoured She's Got A Way.  But it's the last track, Strange But True, which comprises only Hunter's vocals and an acoustic guitar that stays with me long after this recording finishes. 

As Mine said, this music would have no problem finding a home in the soundtrack of Mad Men.  Sure, it might have been done before, but James Hunter has a way of making it his own and wow, daddio, what a way it is.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP, shake up a dry martini and shimmy 'till dawn

For more information: http://www.jameshuntermusic.com/