Saturday, November 22, 2014

Tv

If you like The Great Gatsby, Nero Wolfe, or Boardwalk Empire, be sure to try Miss Fisher's Mysteries, a '20s period piece with a female detective. It's quite fun and is streaming on Netflix -- and there are books to read if you prefer, all by Kerry Greenwood. If you enjoy jazz or 1920s music, you'll love their scores: there are THREE soundtracks so far! All on itunes.

To see stills and gifs from the series look at MissFisher'sMurderMysteries, for photos see too MissFisher'sCaps.

Be sure NOT to watch the pilot episode first, which is more 'cute and quirky' than the rest of the 2 seasons of the series. I prefer the other episodes to the first. Miss Fisher is a fun, moving series with a great sensibility and great love stories, as well as a type of modern, Bechdel test passing quality that many people will enjoy. There is a broad spectrum of characters, it's not just flappers only. The quality of 1920s fashion in the show is great and really fun -- the costumes are truly a cut above, quite beautiful.


Thursday, November 20, 2014

Interstellar

Nolan did it again, with his great film Interstellar. It's both visually amazing and exciting, with a lot of emotional, moving scenes. The ideas about physics and quantum concepts were amazing, and really spark you to learn more. Read NolanFans if you enjoy his work, there are reviews and forums, and great fan art.

The Interstellar film score is great -- and also if you like Zimmer or film soundtracks, be sure to listen to the live, orchestra versions that are often online, like Zimmer's Inception score live concert here and Michael Giacchino's Star Trek reboot track 'Enterprising young men' here.


India

Some great places to see photos of India are IndiaIncredible and Vintage India [for older photos, this is a great one]. Here are some Sept. 2014 Bollywood songs, always fun to listen to and see if any favorites emerge, and the excellent song collection here to try--including the opening 2014 song Devil's 'Yaar Naa Miley' and the famous, fast older 'Munni Badnam' at min. mark 8:41, and at mark 17:36 is the very infamous, lively older song 'Sheila Ki Jawaani'.

For older, more traditional music try Anoushka Shankar - Indian Classical Raga.

The image below is Vinayaka [another name for Ganesha, with his elephant head is in the center] with his consorts in the temple, from a book by P. V. Jagadisa Ayyar (from 1920), South Indian shrines: illustrated. [On wiki images]


Music

Some great recent mashups are Ariana Grande x Ciara - Problem Yeah I Know (Mashup) (Feat Iggy Azalea) and Bang Bang vs. Shake It Off (Mashup) - Jessie J, Ariana Grande, Nicki Minaj & Taylor Swift.

There's also the great Iggy Azalea ft. Charli XCX vs. Britney Spears - "Fancy One More Time" (Mashup).

The Interstellar score by Hans Zimmer is also excellent, but be sure to hear it first with the incredible images of hurtling through space in the film--try 'Day one dark' for a sense of the haunting, atmospheric terror. It's almost like an intellectual, complex, esoteric, humanity/Carl Jung-focused version of Silent Hill. Many people have enjoyed the great song featured in the Exodus film trailer, Sydney Wayser's 'Belfast Child', it's quite moving.