Mr. Sloane

This past month, I've been watching a lot of British TV and being a huge fan of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, I came across this just stumbling about on the net. The first season (series as they're called in the UK) just finished a month or two ago, and while it's rather short (only 6 episodes) it's.fucking.awesome.

It takes place in December 1969 in a town about 20 miles north of London called 'Watford'. Starring Nick Frost (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, The Worlds End, Paul) as Jeremy Sloane, you see a lonely man with perpetually bad luck work his way through the Xmas season leading up to New Years 1970. You know he's been having a rough go of things when the first time you see him in Episode 1, he's attempting suicide, however the ceiling can't hold his weight and he crashes to the floor, hears the phone ring and casually accepts an offer from his friends to go to the pub. It's full of dark humor and ridiculous events, but Jeremy is charming throughout and rarely appears to dwell on his comical misfortune.

Recently separated from his wife of 10 years (as well as fired from his job on the same day), you get to follow Mr. Sloane as he tries to put his life back together e.g finding new love, finding steady employment (he's a substitute elementary teacher), dealing with his crude, juvenile friends, and a very annoying albeit kind hearted neighbor. As events happen, you'll notice that his life is living example in Murphy's law, everything that can go wrong, pretty much does, but as he's such a lovable guy, all you do is root for him. He's a character you can associate with, all the stuff he goes through feels so organic and genuine as ridiculous as it gets sometimes. 

With life as he knew it in shambles, you get to see him transform from a rigid, conservative, by the numbers (literally he's an accountant) predictable man, into a free spirited, open minded person whose life is in dire need of a reformat. It's an awesome ride and I hope they do a season 2 because 6 episodes of this just isn't enough. Fucking A....

                                      

Derek

I've been a Ricky Gervais fan for years now and not only have I been hearing about this show for awhile now, I've been seeing the man himself post about it all the time on Facebook, so I finally said fuck it, I'm going to check it out and two words......mind blown. I had a little marathon and watched all 12 episodes in the span of 2 days (only 12...so far, I want more...) because from the first episode I was hooked. The characters and dialogue had me laughing hysterically and feeling horribly sad at the same time, the show is a total roller coaster. For example, in one episode, within 10 minutes I went thru a range of emotions, laughter because something hilarious happened, anger because there's a total cunt of a character and then sad like "wtf that's some of the most depressing shit ever." It's crazy.

The show takes place in a nursing home in London which is in danger of being shut down (episode 1), it stars Ricky playing a character named "Derek" who is a naive 50 year old volunteer at the home who is nothing but kind and finds complete joy in caring for the residents, as he says "I likes old people. They're kind and they're not going to be around forever, so be nice to them." He's slightly "slow" with a basket full of nervous twitches, a complete animal freak and a heart of gold.

His homeless best friend "Kev" hangs out, drinking beer at the home simply because he has nothing else in his life to be apart of. One of the main sources of comic relief in the show, he always has something crude or sexual to say, though is kind to everyone at the home thus everyone allows him to be a constant figure there. 

You can see how ridiculous Kev is here.

Caretaker Dougie played by Karl Pilkington (An Idiot Abroad, The Moaning of Life, The Ricky Gervais Show) is the handyman, jack of all trades at the home who keeps everything running, including Derek and Kev, as it's revealed they live in his Council Flat (I guess it's called section 8 in the US?). Very cynical, he always has an opinion or comment about what ever is going on at the time. Coming off as stern and rigid, he has a love for the home and it's residents often getting angry when outsiders come in and mess with the harmony of the residents.

Here's Dougie. 

Hannah, the person is charge of it all, is the matriarch of sorts. Well loved by literally everyone at the home, she's the reason it all works. Early to mid 30's, she describes herself as a "midwife for the way out" meaning as opposed to a normal midwife helping with birth, she specializes in helping people on their way out of life. She acts as a big sister/motherly figure of sorts to Derek who shares her passion in caring for the residents. Her complete and utter dedication to the home puts a strain on her social life, as her boyfriend Tom grows increasingly frustrated with her not being able to make time due her to commitments to the residents.

Vicky, A teenager who was caught shoplifting was sent to the home for a community service stint, whom at first is completely appalled with the home and its residents, quickly begins to turn around and share the other characters passion and love for the job. In season 2, Hannah makes her an official employee and the two become best friends and share a sisterly bond. Vicky uplifts the spirits of the women residents by doing their hair, nails and giving them make overs.


The show, while serious, is chock full of off the wall comedy of ridiculous nature. A resident dying or something equally heart wrenching while be followed with alcoholic Kev spilling his beer wrestling with Derek, then proceed to sip it off the carpet, followed by Dougie telling an anecdote about the wacky nature of the two. For every sad moment, there's a hilarious comedy bit.

Gervais was nominated for an Emmy for his role as Derek, and I'd say the accolade is rightfully earned.  It's currently on NetFlix so go check it out, I thought it was fucking great. 10/10

Here's a trailer.

 

Game Changers #1

Think of all your favorite music, not just casual fly-by-night one off songs you love. I'm talking about music that has changed your life, albums that completely define a point in your life, a sonic scrap book of memories if you will. I call them "game changers", though I also use this term to describe albums that completely changed the flow and pace of whole genres in their wake, but that's for another day.

I'm going to do a post every now and again where I list one of mine because I'm arrogant like that and want to show off my taste! No but I just want to talk about certain albums and where I was in my life and what they meant to me.

Part #1

                                             Mercenary - The Hours That Remain (2006)

This is a band from Ålborg Denmark that plays a dynamic blend of crushing groove, power and melodic death metal. Two types of vocal styles, one being an almost operatic? type of soaring singing in synergy with typical metal vocals (growls, screaming ect), however the hard vocals are very conservative and fit well. Don't be expecting Cannibal Corpse here, it's palatable to non-metal fans.

In the mid 2000's, this band was BIG BUSINESS in the metal underground, but at the time I was arrogant and stubborn to check out anything with the power metal label. A friend of mine kept preaching the gospel, but my foot was on the ground, no way! Well winter 2007/2008 came around and I was dealing with a lot, I had just turned 20, was suffering from the first real heartbreak of my life, and the awful, colorless New England winter certainly wasn't doing anything to improve my mood. I guess through sheer boredom and mind numbing depression, I finally decided I'd bit the bullet and give this album a shot. I needed to give my mind something to digest other than my whirlwind of defeatist internal dialogue. What I found was a melodic, emotional powerhouse of an album. This shit floored me right here, hell track 1 features a guest spot from my favorite metal singer ever! I felt so foolish that I was so ignorant and for no good reason, tried to skip out on this album.

Lyrically the album deals with (well from what I take away from it..) A pending catastrophe, a looming finality. The lyrics touch subjects such as internal struggles, love lost and the like. It's all backed by a soundtrack where the melodies and music can be as woeful as the topics, or adversely can portray the existential crises as hopeful and uplifting. It really goes both ways depending on how you feel at the time of listening. For me, as mentioned earlier it was the former of course, but any album that can portray anger, sorrow and hope at the same time is pretty special.

The soundtrack to one of the gloomiest, depressing winters of my life. 7 years later, it's a regular listen, though I don't necessarily associate with the dread of the period. It's just good tunes man, good tunes.

                                                          Track 1 - Redefine Me

                                                     Track 2 - Year of the Plague

                                                            

                                                      Track 5 - Lost Reality

                                         

                                                    Track 6 - Soul Decision

                                                 

Depressing Comics

http://explosm.net/comics/3607/

Here's a very popular web comic called 'Cyanide & Happiness', simple and crudely drawn but with a very dark sense of humor. Everything from racism, rape jokes, abortion jokes, anti-religion, ect It's all very silly and not meant to be taken 100% seriously despite the extreme nature of many of the jokes.

Once a year, they do a week long segment called "Depressing Comics" where the same dark subject matter is there, just there's no obvious punchline. Some of them are downright sad, hence the title, however taken in context with the rest of the comics, there IS humor to be found albeit you'll probably feel really awful for chuckling at some of these.

I'll show you a couple that made me feel some kind of way.
Be warned, some of these are completely FUCKED.

There you have it.

New!

I've always wanted to do this, seems like a really cool idea. Anyway I wanted to start a blog to talk about stuff, new music I like, thoughts about things, happenings in my life. Not that anyone even cares but I want to do this anyway!

This first post is to make it official that it's up and running so y'know follow it and stuff if you care to!

A lot of this blog is going to be about music as the above photo suggests. So, I would like to add this here! 

http://www.last.fm/user/vonGrav

That's sort of a social network for music fans. It keeps track of and charts the music you listen to so you have a visual representation of your taste in music. It has a mobile app so you can "scrobble" in your car when you're out doing whatever it is that you do!