We like the disco sound--HEY!

[muckefuck]

The suppliers of monshu's digital cable just added a metric bumload of new channels, 98.9% of which are subscription and show up only as blank screens. So why do we have to surf through them? If the intention is to make us break down and purchase all ten NBA channels in order to finally see what's on them, all I can say is that Bush and Blair's lovechild will part the North Atlantic with a burnt kipper before that happens. Surfing has finally become an odious chore and we shall be forced to learn the numbers for the small handful of channels we actually watch. Of course, many channels changed numbers with the latest shuffle and so we've had to poke around to find them again. The local "All-Foreign Channel" is MIA, as is Korean Broadcasting, but Spanish-language offerings seem to have doubled.

Just last Saturday, we discovered what seems to be a local cable-access Latino video show originating in with My Angel Baby Productions in New Lenox. I nearly pissed myself when I realised that the name of the all-male Tejano combo Los Angeles de Charly meant "Charlie's Angels". Also feeding our insatiable taste for the best in world music were That-One-Hour-Bollywood-Programme-That-Is-Not-Namaste, Amerika! and two newly-discovered Nippop shows, Japan Pop and Hey! Hey! Hey! Sadly, still nothing that showcases monshu's favourite, Mainland Chinese boy bands, but we'll keep searching.

We also stumbled upon the broadcast premiere of O Brother, where art thou? on commercial-rich TBS. monshu rather enjoyed it; I did, too, once I started watching it as an amusing mythological tale and put out of my mind any thought of a connexion with the actual South (such as trying to reconcile the (northern?) Mississippi setting with Nelson's Oklahoma accent, Turturro's affected Appalachian accent, Clooney's Northern Cities Vowel Shifted accent, Hunter's Georgia accent, and Duvall's Alabama accent; or trying to reconcile the characters they play with the disproportionate vocal gifts of the singers they lipsynch). It made me want to dig up my copy of the soundtrack. I love the songs, and I'd much rather hear them with no context than the often-direspectful context the supposedly music-loving Coen brothers supply. ("O Death" particularly suffers; if I were Ralph Stanley, I'd be pissed off--newfound notoriety notwithstanding.) It was a gorgeous film and some of the little period details were charming. (I was especially taken with a "Thirsty? Just Whistle!" at a roadside stop.)

Comments

[mollpeartree.livejournal.com]

That-One-Hour-Bollywood-Programme-That-Is-Not-Namaste, Amerika!

Ooh, you mean India TV? Did you see the most recent episode? What's up with the Punjabi movies being so low-budget? They looked like they were shot with cameras from my high school AV club.

Surfing has finally become an odious chore and we shall be forced to learn the numbers for the small handful of channels we actually watch.

TiVo, TiVo, TiVo.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

I can't remember what the name of it was. It was produced by AVS (Asian Videomumble), as we were reminded like every two minutes. I don't remember any Punjabi movies, just a Punjabi video (a traditional song with a hapless protagonist wearing an "Alfred State" college sweatshirt--can you believe it really exists?) and a dreary Bengali film, plus a couple new Bollywood musicals.

[mollpeartree.livejournal.com]

I must have watched a different episode; this one had a whole Punjabi segment in it. Or maybe it was India Vision instead? Hm.

[lil-m-moses.livejournal.com]

Hey! Hey! Hey! scares me. But it's one of those car-wreck kind of scares, where I just can't look away. It would probably be less scary if I had a clue what was happening (they don't bother subtitling except in Japanese, which I can't read). Then again, not knowing what's happening and trying to figure it out is part of the fun!

[off_coloratura]

Digital cable should have an option where you can program your favorite channels. Then you just press the FAV button to advance through them.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

There's so much that cable should have, but never will--at least, not under this business model.

[off_coloratura]

Hm. My digital cable has this option.

Gopher?

[bunj.livejournal.com]

Ironically enough, -e and I felt the need to see O Brother, where art thou? just last week after seeing the new Ladykillers. If you ever want to borrow it, just whistle (that sign also tickled me to no end). To be fair, Tim Blake Nelson did sing all of his own songs, as did many of the non-star singers (such as the Whites at the Stokes rally).

I didn't find the context for the songs to be that disrespectful. Many of them were lovingly showcased (such as the sirens' song and "Big Rock Candy Mountain"). I can see your point with "O Death", though. With everything going on in that scene, the true impact of Stanley's singing gets lost. Then again, it adds greatly to the scene, which is the whole point of movie music to begin with.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

I didn't realise Nelson sang his own songs. My respect for him (his was my favourite character in the film) is only magnified. I'm mostly complaining about "O Death", I guess. I don't really see what it added to that scene, which I think is a conceptual mess anyway. But it's just perverse to put a religious song by a Primitive Baptist Appalachian bluegrass singer into the mouth of a Mississippi Grand Dragon.

It just confirms my conception of the Coen brothers as a couple of clever citified Yankees without the slightest comprehension of what they're supposedly lovingly lampooning. At various points, the amphibian that Pete is thought to have changed into is described as a "toad", a "frog", and a "horny toad". Now, nobody who grew up on the land would confuse those three very distinct animals. Perhaps it's another dig at Delmar's simple-mindedness, but--far more likely--I'm afraid the Coens can't be bothered to know the difference and assume their audience can't either. That alone speaks volumes about their approach to their material. Bluegrass, spiritual, country, shape-note singing--whatever, it's all rustic redneck music, ain't it?

Like I said, I had to turn off the analytic parts of my brain in order to enjoy the film. That's generally not a good sign for movies where nothing blows up.

[bunj.livejournal.com]

First of all, I think you're being a little critical about "O Death." That song is older than the hills, and just because Stanley has a Tennessee accent, doesn't mean the song has any narrow regional roots.

Second of all, I took the weird geography and variety of accents in stride (I'm surprised you haven't mentioned Goodman yet, he was the most painful to my ears). It's supposed to be mythic. Besides, this being the Depression, you had a lot of movement. There's nothing to say that any of the characters originated in Mississippi, particularly those on a prison farm.

I'm confused as to why you're upset about the variety of music in the film. They obviously wanted to showcase many different musical forms. I can't think of any, offhand, which were out of place. Considering that much of the music was sung by the actors (the choir at the river, the gravediggers, Chris Thomas King, etc.), I think you have a high fidelity. It's not like people only listened to one kind of music in the period. They even have an explanation as to why we're hearing more older forms than the jazz and country you'd expect. In these times of trouble, people are conforted by "old timy" music.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

First of all, I think you're being a little critical about "O Death." That song is older than the hills, and just because Stanley has a Tennessee accent, doesn't mean the song has any narrow regional roots.

Stanley's actually from just over the border in Virginia. The song does, in fact, have narrow regional roots. It's an "shout" from Appalachia, a type of religious song. There were many cleavances in the Old South, but one of the biggest is between the Appalachian hill country and the low country. The latter is the Dixie stereotype with its huge plantations and the white-suited elite that owned them. The hill-folk, however, opposed this elite and the slavery that supported them; it's why West Virginia split off when Virginia seceded. The Primitive Baptist Churches (which, AFAIK, were never associated with the pro-slavery Southern Baptist Convention)--of which Stanley is a member--are strong among them, whereas the planters were much more mainstream.

So here we have a simple Appalachian religious song put in the mouth of a member of the plantation aristocracy and leader in the KKK and you can't understand why I would call that perverse and disrespectful?

I already said that I took the accents in stride once I realised I could only enjoy it as a sort of fantasia on Southern themes. Despite the Homeric pretentions, it's not "mythic". Faulkner is mythic. (Yet, that doesn't prevent him from Joycean fidelity to his chosen locale). Twain is legendary. (Ditto). The Coens are just sloppy.

I concede your point about the other songs, which is why I said in my previous reply that I was primarily annoyed by the use of "O Death". Some of them (like the gravediggers' song) are so de-emphasised, though, that I hardly remember the contexts they appeared in. They add flavour, but what do they add in thematic terms?

[lhn.livejournal.com]

Clooney's Northern Cities Vowel Shifted accent

Is there a site that has audio files demonstrating the Northern Cities Vowel Shift? It's been too long since I saw the movie, and while I can find plenty of web sites documenting the shift, I can't really get it by description. (Which is odd, since given where I've lived I should have heard it plenty. Possibly I'm just a fish not noticing water, but I'd still like to see it illustrated.)

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

<http://www.ling.upenn.edu/phono_atlas/tsdata/ts66.html>

[aadroma.livejournal.com]

I nearly pissed myself when I realised that the name of the all-male Tejano combo Los Angeles de Charly meant "Charlie's Angels"

Which in turn reminds me of the failed attempt to remake Charlie's Angels on Telemundo, simply titled "Angeles". They kept the old theme and everything ^^;;;