Girls & Menda

The Year My Voice Broke (1987)
Menda (left) and Taylor (right)

Menda in Girls

Noah in Game Of Thrones

I just watched the second season of Girls and hey that was weird wasn't it? Way less laughs in this season. It had me thinkin of Woody Allen doing Interiors after his early comic hits ie. Girls season 2 was really quite bleak and disturbing. Then in maybe the second to last episode my continuity/disbelief suspension was totally ruptured. Great Australian actor Ben Mendelsohn shows up as Jessa's dad! My viewing then switches from identifying with the kids/20 somethings to then having to readjust to relating to Mendelsohn's character's situation as he's only a couple of years older than me. Funnily enough it was not that dissimilar to mine as in he'd moved to the country and was watering the grass, something I'd never done until 2 days ago. I guess I relate to the characters in Girls in a retroactive kind of way. I watch them and see what they're up to and mainly think 'Thank god I'm not that age anymore'. I still relate to their more universal human characteristics though. Just like when I watch The Simpsons I still relate to Bart on a lot of levels but I'm also surprised how Homer-like I can be. Is this navel gazing? Anyway seeing Ben Mendelsohn put me in mind of a time in the early 90s when late at night after boozing on there he was in the same St Kilda kebab shop as me. I remember thinking 'He's from one of my all time fave movies (The Year My Voice Broke) and here he is just as drunk and in need of late night lamb sandwich as me'. Noah Taylor from that same movie turns up in Game Of Thrones but that wasn't nearly anywhere near as jarring as Menda being in Girls makin me feel well old. I guess also Taylor's appearance doesn't jar because Game Of Thrones is fantasy while Girls almost feels like Cinema Verite. Oh shit I'm in trouble now with the pretentious police for saying C..... V.....  Judy Collins, yes the singer from the 60s, makes an appearance too, looking quite frightening. Lena Dunham, Girls creator, has created some exceptional characters including Hannah played by herself. One wonders/worries how autobiographical Hannah actually is with her escalating OCD and Hypochondria. In Girls the boys are especially brilliantly acted. Ray, Charlie and Adam are confusing, complex, frightening, stupid and real. Then there's the ladies, Jessa is fabulous, Shosh is just weird and how much do you hate Hannah's mum and bloody Marnie? It's one of the few telly shows right now worth watching.

Ray. Service with a sneer.

Sun Araw/The Congos/Sherlock Holmes/Girls

Sun Araw and The Congos create a new zone somewhere between Roots Reggae and Hynagogia.
Stoned? Us?

Not much to talk about musically really. I just looked over my top 20 of 2012 and noticed I left out the  Sun Araw, M Geddes Gengras Meet The Congos LP which is brilliant. And I only just, a week or 2 ago, got the 2nd Hacker Farm LP. I'm loving that and it's a huge leap from Poundland. I would describe it as Isolationist (in the best sense of the term) ambiance and dare I say the word, Industrial, anyway it's post all that, but post seems to be a bad word at the moment so I won't say that. The new Broadcast LP is the only other thing I've been listening to. A faux Giallo soundtrack that pays homage to Goblin and other Italian masters.

I've caught up on some tv though. Sherlock Holmes the BBC series featuring Benedict Cumberbatch & Martin Freeman is one I have watched. Thinking, well I didn't really like the Hollywood films of recent times but I'll give it a go, because Caitlin Moran rates it. I was immediately transfixed by the whole thing. The best BBC drama in a very long time. The plots are incredible and the acting, well fuck me!, where did this Benedict Cumberbatch come from? He's an incredibly charismatic actor with star written all over him. How does he do that unblinking thing? I've spent some of my life amongst people with Aspergers Syndrome and I could not come up with a more real version of the syndrome. At one point during the show Dr. Watson  claims Sherlock as Aspergers. This I find refreshing considering how many seasons has it been for Big Bang Theory? Where one of the main characters, Sheldon, quite obviously has Aspergers  and no one has muttered the word Autism or Aspergers as far as I know! But they are quite willing to make fun of his condition. Anyway what a surprise and I can't wait for the next season which is going to be at least a 12 month wait.

The next one was Girls. I was not expecting to relate whatsoever  to a show about 20 something girls in New York, but somehow it drew me in! I thought this may be an interesting show but did not expect to relate to it in any terms. I thought the era, ie now, would alienate me. Being married for the last 5 years etc. would exclude me but fuck this show just reminded me and the Mrs of our early 20s. Lena Dunham has captured in minute detail the confusion, bewilderment, narcissistic wrongness, the obsession with sex, and the whatever else is happening in your 20s perfectly. Timeless, brilliant and so close to the bone sometimes it makes you want to look away. Lena puts in all the bits, awkwardness, selfishness and embarrassment, that others would leave out. One of the most honest accounts of awful 20 something behaviour I've ever seen.