5 Things to Check Out

The Best Thing I Ever Saw on TV

In the summer of I think 2009, over dinner, on a business trip to what I will charitably describe as Suburban Chattanooga Tennessee; I sheepishly confessed to 2 extremely smart, and reasonably non-judgmental co-workers that my wife and I watched TMZ – not occasionally, not casually, but obsessively watch TMZ .

For those who don’t know, TMZ is a paparazzi show.  Five nights a week, a gaggle of cooler than thou Dodger fans give the latest gossip on the Lindsay’s, Britney’s, and Paris’s of the world to their mean spirited, litigious troll of a boss.

My best estimate is that we’ve seen about 2,085 episodes of what may be the worst show ever, and we’ve missed maybe 15 or 20.

I present this information to you as part confession, and part baseline.  A baseline that establishes the amount of TV – crap TV and otherwise that I’ve consumed over the last few years.  For balance, it’s important to point out the good stuff that I watch and enjoy– Mad Men, True Detective, Breaking Bad, The Wire, Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown and Trailer Park Boys.

For additional balance, there is a load of crap that I absolutely reject. With great pride, I declare that I’ve never gotten through a single entire episode of The Big Bang Theory.  I look for glimmers of greatness in Brooklyn 99, but it eludes me. I’ve seen every episode of Halt and Catch Fire.  I really gave it a shot, and I respected the ambition, but it never really worked for me.

1. Big Build Up.  The best thing I ever saw on TV was….

A few months ago a friend of mind Skyped me.  It was one of those ‘Hey, check this out” entries with a hyperlink, and it was glorious.

“Live on Letterman” scrolls horizontally across the screen.

Kick, snare, kick, snare, kick, snare, kick snare….

“You better toss your bullets…”

The Orwells on David Letterman –   Dave  is fired up.  Paul is really fired up in a way that you don’t see often.  I can’t describe it in a way that does it justice, other than to say that there are so few moments of raw and honest enthusiasm in mass  media, that when you’re part of one it scrubs away layers s of cynicism and feeds optimism.

Find it and watch It. watch all of it.  Over and over.

Ty Segall Manipulator Video – I’m such a fan of Ty.  This is a guy that is doing exactly what he wants.  Every crazy idea is realized and this video in support of his excellent double LP Manipulator is truly original

http://ty-segall.com/manipulator/

Spoon – They Want My Soul – New record from the consistently great indie band. Pitchfork gave it an 8.6 and they don’t like anybody.  I saw them 10 years ago at the Fillmore.  They said the sold out show was by far the biggest audience they had ever played for (which was confirmed when, every other song, they would stop and take pictures of each other standing in front of the 1500 audience members).  Seeing them now youre standing in a field with 100,000 festival goers.

“No Shows” by Gerard Way – Back in 2006 I was at the upstairs bar at the Warfield drinking a Jamo rocks.  I was the only one at the bar and where there are usually 5 bartenders there was just one.  The bartender assumed my daughter had dragged me to the show.  In fairness both my gender and age had my in the minority.  It was a My Chemical Romance show (that fucking rocked thank you very much). Gerard broke up that band and is now shooting for a broader audience.  This track from his upcoming solo album is more fuzz soaked T Rex era glam than MCR emo.

The Beatles –Vinyl Mono Reissues – For all Beatles albums from Please, Please Me through The White Album the definitive versions were the mono mixes.  At the time the Beatles thought stereo was a novelty (like 3-d movies) they were actively involved in mixing the mono tracks but had no interest in the stereo mixing (for Sgt Peppers they left on vacation before the stereo tracks were mixed).  Tracks like Back in the USSR and Helter Skelter are completely different versions (more edge and no “Ive got blisters on my fingers”)  These albums were engineered by comparing the master tapes with first pressings of the mono records made in the 1960s and then cut on a vintage VMS80 lathe. No digital was used in the process.