Latitude Thoughts : They Might Be Giants

On these shores They Might Be Giants (TMBG) are kinda thought of as one-hit wonders due to the mega-success of Birdhouse In Your Soul (possibly one of the best songs by anyone in the 90s).
Despite the worst rain of the festival punctuating their set, TMBG showed why they're so much more than that.
They are one of the funniest live acts I've seen of any genre.
The set started with a song dedicated to an "absent friend", the sun.
And after a bravely early airing of Birdhouse we were introduced to the awesomely crazy edutainment tunes including the Alphabet of Nations which is simple in concept but wonderfully entertaining even in midsummer downpours.
Also as well as the best ever song about city nomenclature there was a duet by sock puppets claiming to be Rupert Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks and nobody else at Latitude came anywhere close to that level of crazy (and this includes KT Tunstall having an interpretative dancer providing sign language).
There was a real warmth and humour to their banter. So much so I found myself drifting into a lovely little NYC fantasy in which we would all meet up at Casa TMBG's local pizzeria, get involved in Seinfeld-ian escapades and then together with Spidey writer Dan Slott we would go watch some off-Broadway gem.
Which is an odd way of saying to hear these guys is to fall ever so slightly in love with them even in bad weather.

Latitude thoughts : The Vaccines

The caravan has been doing its' summer tour of festivals and general awesomeness.
To catch up, we'll do a few posts on acts wot caught our eyes.

So, The Vaccines.
I have a slightly complicated relationship with these guys as I ADORED Jay Jay Pistolet (frontman Justin Young's previous venture).  Jay Jay Pistolet is very folksy and the tunes are stunning in a nu-folk Noah and The Whale or Johnny Flynn way.
The music's thoughtful but not navel-gazing.
And, well, The Vaccines are closer to The Strokes (or actually The Ramones). Listen to this - it's great but utterly unrecognisable from the Pistolet material.
Which means Justin Young's a very talented man (even if I don't care for the ubiquitous Post Break-up Sex).

Live, though, they won me over.
There was incredible excitement in the audience (the most we'd seen at a fairly laidback and wet Latitude).
And an understated cockiness to the band (it's like they think "Yeah, we're awesome, we don't have to prove anything") but not a laziness. The tunes back this up.
For the next week, we woke up with The Vaccines providing our internal soundtrack.
Which isn't bad seeing we saw them on the first day of a three day festival.

Mass Effect

Last week I finished the first Mass Effect.
It was brilliantly absorbing, strong plot, well paced.

There was one thing that bugged me. The side-missions would often take you to research labs on planets and they were all kinda samey.
I thought it was slightly lazy design but understandable given the scale of the game.
Until I was finding myself walking down the stairs at Bank tube station. In the staircase there are at least five separate sections, all clearly numbered and assembled in some kind of train station Ikea style.

And I thought maybe those identikit research stations on Mass Effect aren't as unrealistic as all that.

Eden sessions : Flaming Lips

The Eden project is a wonderful place.
Biodomes containing tropical rainforests. Statues made out of recycled waste. Giant bees.
All very trippy and very fitting for Wayne Coyne et al.
In fact this is probably the best marriage of performer and venue.
And Coyne certainly seemed to agree.
Yeah, the Lips didn't play all of their wellknown songs. No "The Test" or "Waiting for a Superman".
But I really didn't care.
It was the first time I'd seen them and as first support act OK Go had warned, my brain burst out of its brain socket.
We managed to find ourselves against the barrier and, erm, I did kind of get carried away with punching giant balloons back into the crowd.
All the dancing  Dorothys were excited, as were the security guards, one of whom was giddily talking about what was to happen.
Also, most crucially, the Lips were so thrilled to be there. Wayne Coyne had clearly fallen for the place (and rightly so because Eden is magical and inspiring).

This was an absolute coup for the Eden project. I remember being a teenager in Plymouth and, INXS and Oasis aside, we didn't get big acts. In 1997 the biggest was The Lighthouse Family and, well, that's wrong and a quick Google suggests things haven't changed too much.
So I felt a bit sad for the region's indie kids that Morrisey was making his Plymouth debut that night.

A brief bit on the supports. We saw a surprise (to us) appearance by Badly Drawn Boy (saw but didn't hear as his sound check took forever and OK Go were about to go onto the main stage). One of the nice things about the sessions is that even Eden visitors without concert tickets can watch the performances that aren't on the main stage (and there were a lot of acts on the two non-main stages), as it acted as tasters for not only the acts concerned but also the sessions as a whole.
And OK Go were fantastic. I'd loved their videos (if unfamiliar, try this, this and this and we'll see you when emerge from your YouTube black hole) and I wondered how they were going to be live.
Their version of White Knuckles was brilliant and the handbell edition of Return is stunning, both moving and entertaining.

All told, it was a fantastic evening.
And you MUST see this image of Wayne and the bubble and the bubbles

The thousand autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell (not that one)

I had read Cloud Atlas, an earlier Booker-nominated novel by Mitchell.
Though I was slightly anxious about this book.
For starters, Cloud Atlas was a series of stories of a variety of genres and while Mitchell was clearly able to capture a variety of styles, at times they bordered on pastiches. And I seldom warmed to the characters.
But, no, this is an extraordinary book.
It depicts a Dutch East India Company settlement on the island of Dejima off Nagasaki, with the Dutch folk forbidden to step foot on any other Japanese land.
We see the culture clashes. Humorous misunderstandings as well as attempts to screw each other over.
We have seemingly ill-starred romance.
But it's fresh.
While the story is rooted in history and is inspired by real events, it almost feels like a fantasy novel, so alien does Dejima feel. This is meant as a compliment. And it's backed up that wonderfully mysterious title.
The title character, Jacob de Zoet, is a pastor's son and has been told by his fiancee's father to go and make his fortune in the east. So, unlike most of his compatriots on Dejima, he is not an out-and-out mercenary. He can be a bit holier-than-thou but he is a very sympathetic character to modern audiences. And, there is a rebellious streak as evidenced even in the early chapters by his smuggling scripture for his own personal use onto the island, in a time when Christianity was outlawed in Japan. That helps make him feel more human.

In many ways, it's a trilogy in one book with a strong story arc. An arc that twists and turns.
Also it's refreshing that the novel focuses on Dutch colonists. I've found myself reading too much historical fiction focussing on dodgy British colonial adventures, even if they're excellent like English Passengers.
We see the savagery and cruelty of the Dutch and Japanese and you know we'll go dark places though these are stunningly dark.
And yet, it's a very easy read. There's a lightness of touch but, good god, is it gripping.

Revamp : Thor

J. Michael Straczynski (JMS) has received a fair old amount of stick lately, particularly for starting two epic DC storylines and then bailing. I haven't read Grounded but the idea of a non-flying Superman reconnecting with America by walking across it reminds me very much of the crazy conditions imposed on Kevin Smith when he was working on a Superman film script in the 90s.

But JMS can create likeable characters that you can relate to as well as stories with depth.
Look at the start of his Amazing Spiderman run. It is a class above preceding writer Howard Mackie's material (though I also get the sense that JMS wasn't having to shoehorn in editorially mandated references to other characters/storylines)

When JMS took over Thor, the character had been out of use for three years, killed in the fan-fic-esque Norse god slaughter-thon that was Ragnarok.
Instead of just reviving all the gods and Asgard, JMS has Thor reappear in the sleepy town of Broxton, Oklahoma. This cuts away at some of the aloofness of the deity concept. Through vignettes we see the long-term residents' sense of wonder as they encounter the gods in town, especially when local lad Bill meets the enchanting Kelda in a run-down carpark. It also doesn't cheapen the Norse gods. We do see them in townhall meetings but we don't see them, say, take human jobs. When we see Hogun walking back from Texas, boar on his back, he refuses lifts as he tries to be Asgardian in this new framework.
There is almost a lyrical quality. (And a debt to Neil Gaiman's Sandman superficially at least)
Yes, there are pacing issues. That first issue has Thor in limbo wrestling with demons and not an awful lot happens. I bought it at the time but was underimpressed until reading the following issues a while later.
There is also litle interaction with the rest of the Marvel world in the first few issues bar a very personal fight with Iron Man. Whilst other characters' fans won't be brought into the book, this is wise as it enables Thor's new readers to learn their way through all the new (to them) characters as well as get to know the locals.
It is a refreshing more poetic take. I was particularly moved by the story of Thor's father Odin and its' theme of paternal responsibility, especially when you see the flashbacks to Odin succeeding his own father Bor.
JMS's dialogue is also mercifully free of the cod-Shakespeare that Thor has been associated with.
All told, it's a solid reimagining.

Revamp : Doctor Who

Ninth Doctor 

Eighth Doctor and Grace in
a cathedral-esque Tardis

I do love Doctor Who.
From reading this blog, you may have noticed this.
So with all the revamping elsewhere, I thought I would cast my mind back to the two relaunches of the show.
As much as I adore all the mythology, continuity and campness, I kind of knew they would have to strip back. You don't want to swamp the audience.
This is what the 1996 Paul McGann TV movie ends up doing but in the wrong moments. Leaving aside the inherent risk of Fox deciding on commissioning a series based purely on ratings for a pilot (and therefore relying on the strength of marketing rather than audience reaction once they had seen the actual product), the show needed to hook in anyone who had channel surfed. So starting it by focussing on the outgoing middle aged Doctor in the Tardis - not a great choice. The interior looks lavish but we need to explore the Doctor from a newcomer's perspective. It would make more sense to introduce your actual lead actor. Which is one of the smart moves of the 2005 relaunch, featuring a Doctor who has just regenerated off screen.
Another oddity of Who 96 is how it shows (in shadow) the Master being executed for his crimes by the Daleks. We don't know what the crimes are or, crucially, how come the Daleks seem to have evolved legal structures of any sort. This not only disorientates fans, it'll throw casual viewers as well especially as the tinpots and their genocidal rampages are part of popular culture in their own right.
Compare to the 2005 episode Dalek in which we see just the one Dalek. We feel, wonderfully, pity for it as it is tied up in an underground base, the last of its kind. And we also feel fear as we see it take on Henry van Statten's private army, especially the scene in which it electrocutes a squad using sprinklers.
This wonderfully sells the menace of Daleks to the new audience. And we learn more about the Time War and why this Doctor seems so grim in comparison to most other regenerations.
The show needed to have a slight departure from the upper-middle class eccentricity associated with the Doctor. What made sense in the 60s and 70s would have seemed very out of place in 05, especially coming out of Eccleston's mouth. The ninth also looks hard and street-wise with his close cropped hair and leather jacket. It doesn't take too long to get used to, mostly because it suits the character.
McGann's Doctor though is a Greatest Hits, but with a tendency towards Tom Baker, jelly babies, big hair and all. He's charming but not distinctive. Maybe that would have come in time.
However, one crucial mis-step of Who 96 isn't the Doctor kissing or single-serving companion Grace swearing but the revelation that his mother is human. Me, I don't have a HUGE problem with it but I just feel that we don't need it to relate to the character. Nor does it help the greater mythology any. (I adored all the Gallifreyan-ness of the novels, especially the time-looms from which Time Lords were grown. I didn't expect it to be referenced on-air but some wiggle room would have been nice.) Tony Lee, in his Doctor Who : The Forgotten story for IDW, rather wonderfully has the tenth Doctor pass all this off as a practical joke his eighth incarnation played on the Master.
Which is something that actually the TV Movie gets to work. I loved Eric Roberts's portrayal. Very High Gallifrey and very evil. Desperate to survive. Though it's a shame that the story descends to having two aliens wrestling with each other.
For all the talk of the Doctor's half-human side, this isn't a very human production. You don't get much of a flavour of Grace or of the threat.
Whereas Rose's focus is, well, it's there in the title. We meet her loved ones, explore her world first. It's this that the original show needed at times not car chases through the streets of San Francisco.
It also helps that Rose (pays homage to /rips-off ) the Auton invasion of Ealing Broadway, one of the more iconic moments of early 70s Who. It tells the older/more knowledgeable members of the audience that the production crew know the show's history, how it works and that there'll be more of this. (It's also good that the program doesn't continue re-telling classic stories though bar those that originally appeared in audio/novel form).
Crucially that first season is written by fans, who gave their a-game. Who knew that if this failed, the show would be dead forever.
So slowly introduce us to your lead. And re-think. Give an edge by all means (the loss of Gallifrey and the Time War was a shock but explains the dourness - and most rumoured revivals had involved Gallifrey's destruction so it was nothing that new to fans and, besides, the novels had alreaady done it).
Though make sure you're adding, not subtracting from the franchise's appeal (hello 80s Biggles time-travel movie). Yes, you need to pick up new fans but don't assume that you'll forever have the good will of the old ones.