Things I am enjoying right now...

My disc of the week:
Amadou and Mariam
Welcome to Mali (Because)
Kicking off with the eerie, electronic, Damon Albarn-produced “Sabali,” this simply fantastic album continues to seduce and surprise throughout. Mariam’s voice is perfectly paired with Amadou’s jangly guitar and a range of layered instruments on an album that resists catagorization. The couple, who met in 1977 at Bamako’s school for the blind, have been making music together for over 25 years. Their Manu Chao-produced Dimanche à Bamako, from 2006, was a revelation. On their own, they have now crafted an album that’s equally good and sounds overwhelmingly present. It connects the dots across the continent of Africa (Somali-Canadian K’naan guests on “Africa,” calling it the “original East-coast, West-coast collaboration”) and beyond, to the rest of the world, begging comparisons to everything from garage rock to ’70s funk to ’90s Britpop. It’s tough to stop
listening. 9/10 Trial Track: “Sabali” (Erin MacLeod)

My TV program of the week:

Reading Television

Everyone who knows me knows I love TV. I watch lots; I used to write about it. I also used to teach a course called "Television as Literature" where I'd get students to do stuff like compare Sherlock Holmes to House. It was awesome. Some of the best student writing I have ever read came from that class. Thing is, lots of people (mostly late at night at parties) have intimated that my obsession with analysing TV is a little much. Though I'm not that big on authorial intent, I was still particularly happy to read this entry from Douglas Rushkoff over at Boing Boing:

I just got this email from John Langley, the guy who made the uber-reality show Cops. I see it as an acknowledgement of all of us who tend to read more into TV programs and their creators' intent than they might suggest on the surface.

Dear Mr. Rushkoff:

It was refreshing to recently read "Media Virus" and your take on "Cops," which I happen to produce and for which I'm responsible as the guy who created it. I can't tell you how tiresome it is to read traditional criticism and critiques of "Cops" as an expression of this or that, usually far from the mark (or at least in terms of my intentions). As a kid of the '60s, I was more likely to name the show "Pigs" than "Cops," so it was indeed rewarding to read that you positioned the program more accurately in its existential realm of relativism. All I do is feebly hack away at trying -- emphasis on trying -- to capture some version of "reality" that will speak for itself, including the echolalia of the very media influence that filters it by the act of recording it. (Viva Heisenberg!) Anyone with half a brain should recognize the social, political and philosophic issues it sometimes reveals in the quotidian pursuit of law and order and the meaning of street crime.

In any case, keep up the good work! And apologies for getting to you so late in the day. Your book is no less valid for the delay.

Regards,

John Langley
Executive Producer - "Cops"

Not only does an email like that make my month, but restores my faith in the notion that absolutely mainstream programs might still be intended to have a rehabilitative or even noxious effect on the overculture. The fact that Langley made Cops in the spirit that Albert Maysles made Salesman means that we can cut through the clutter and expose mass audiences to virulent memes - even in the darkest of times.

Check it and all the reader comments out here.

Lee Lee Lee Lee Lee!!

I've been watching the Apprentice UK. Yes, I know that it is a reality show, but man oh man, it's a damned good reality show. I have much preferred the UK version of Hell's Kitchen, and the Apprentice is also better across the pond.

The role of Donald Trump is being played by Sir Alan Sugar, and he's fantastic. Three weeks ago I would have scoffed (and think I actually did) at the notion of this show being "arty", but the long pauses and carefully sussed montages have won me over. It is a more beautiful way of doing television.

Next week is the final, and I have to say, it's all about Lee. I'm thankful that Miss "they don't like me because I'm too posh" Lucinda is out, and I'm hoping that Alex, a.k.a. the hot yet despicable one, is the next to go. My money (and hope) is on Lee--the man who replaces his "th"s with "f"s. Heck, I don't care that he lied on his resume.

Goodness, I really should be talking about more important things, shouldn't I?

Omar's coming yo!

Thanks to Dave, who gave me season one (which I stupidly didn't watch it for over a year cause i couldn't get past the first four episodes--little did I know that I simply needed to pass the fifth episode hurdle on the way to all-out obsession), I have become transfixed by the Wire. It's an incredible TV show, but this is saying nothing new. Listen to these guys' thoughts instead.