RIP Anne Rice

I haven't read any Anne Rice in more than 20 years, but I'll always fondly associate her early vampire novels with the time when I was a teen and really getting into reading voraciously (something which came crashing down when I entered the real world of employment/slavery). As a Christmas gift, my aunt bought for me a paperback set of the first three novels, despite her initial objections to buying something titled The Queen of the Damned. 

My book notes reveal that I was reading Interview With the Vampire at the time I graduated from high school in 1991, and I read the next two within a few months. My notes also indicate that I liked Queen best of the first three books, although that was not how I remembered it before digging out those old pages that meticulously document the books I read. I also read The Tale of the Body Thief, the fourth of The Vampire Chronicles series, a few years later, and that concluded my consumption of Rice's work. I think I sensed by that point she had said what she had to say. At times, I felt the series sagged under the weight of excessive historical detail, but I ultimately bestowed highly favorable ratings on each of the first three novels.

I admire Rice's deadly serious approach to the subject matter; she aimed to elevate the genre with an eye to being a lasting influence, and I believe she succeeded. I'm not sure the sophistication of the Sookie Stackhouse and True Blood stories would have emerged had Rice's treatment of the genre not happened. The idea of a vampire living as a rock star was a groundbreaking departure from caped bloodsuckers crawling up the exterior walls of castles to a young woman's window in the dead of night.

We'll be looking to the upcoming AMC series Interview With the Vampire, coming in 2022, as a fitting tribute to the queen of vampire horror.

Netflix's Midnight Mass is a revelation

I've taken note of the name Mike Flanagan. 

I've not seen much of his previous work. I liked Doctor Sleep (2019), the sequel to The Shining. A few years back, I panned his Ouija: Origin of Evil but noted some inspired flourishes; and, more recently, I bailed out on his The Haunting of Hill House series after one episode (we're going to give it another shot). But watching the seven-episode Midnight Mass proved to be a religious experience of the sort I haven't felt since the first couple of seasons of True Blood and, in movies, since the stunning twist of The Sixth Sense.

There aren't many new ideas in horror, and that's where Midnight Mass really delivers, taking the concept of the vampire to a place that some might find blasphemous, but I found its melding of vampire lore and Christianity brilliant and exciting. In terms of good and evil, it turns the concept of the vampire inside out. And it does so at a leisurely pace across seven hours; it takes a bit to fully realize what's going on here as the story establishes its territory with the return home of Riley Flynn (Zach Gilford), a troubled young man, and the arrival of Father Paul (Hamish Linklater), a young man of the cloth who … well, to say much more would enter spoiler territory.

There are no jump scares; it doesn't need them. The music, which often consists of gorgeous choir renditions of sacred hymns, and the sparingly used, something-creepy-is-about-to-happen parts, is outstanding. There are enormous passages of fascinating, hypnotic dialog, often delivered by Linklater, who was good as the brother on sitcom The New Adventures of Old Christine and is Emmy-worthy here. Another cast standout is Samantha Sloyan as Beverly Keane, an overly pious clergywoman whose intentions are always suspect.

At times, Midnight Mass becomes a profoundly philosophical meditation on existence, life and death. We immediately watched it a second time — something we never do — to revel in the nuance and the slow-burn dread. We're still haunted by it, still dissecting and discussing the details. As lifetime horror fans, we think it's an important work in the genre. I don't remember for certain if I've ever bestowed a divine 5 out of 5 rating to any piece of entertainment on this blog before, but here one is.

Seven things about Spotify's 2021 wrapped

 

1 // I don't usually post about Spotify's yearly recap because the bigger picture of my listening comes via last.fm scrobbling, which aggregates all of my listening on Spotify and the things that I play from my computer, but this year will be an exception. My overall year-end recap will be forthcoming, of course …

2 // In a bit of a shocker, Wrapped tells me I listened to more music this year than 65 percent of other listeners in the United States. I wouldn't have expected this, since I almost never listen at work, and with last.fm I'm rarely in the top 50 percent.

3 // I was a bit surprised to see Erasure as the most played artist (spoiler: They will not be #1 on the aggregated list). It must stem from the fact that I did not purchase a physical copy of their last album, The Neon, or any of its offshoot releases, such as the Ne:Ep. It's a decent album but not one I feel like I played that much. Their songwriting is not as sharp, in my view, over the last several albums. Wrapped says I was in the top 1 percent of Erasure listeners.

4 // Wrapped says I listened to 63 genres, and that's a good thing — I'm proud to be eclectic. New wave coming out on top is a reflection of all that '80s music, and too much of it gets labeled that way.

5 //  The artists on those top songs are, in order, Bieber, Dua Lipa, Simple Minds, Johnny Hates Jazz and Griff. Then and now, now and then.

6 //  Kudos to fairly obscure electronic / chillwave artist Brothertiger for edging into the top 5 artists. That's largely on the strength of his excellent rendition of Tears for Fears' Songs from the Big Chair album in its entirety.

7 // December 1 is too early to close the chart year — there are weeks to go.

Unmasking Information Society's ODDfellows bonus tracks

I recently got the physical CD copy of Information Society's latest album, ODDfellows, for which the bonus tracks are rather shrouded in mystery. Unless they were described in some "social media" comment thread, there is / was literally no information about them online, except that they are limited to the CD, which appears to only be on offer through bandcamp. So, this is a public service to identify and briefly describe the bonus material:

Track 11 - Might Have Been 4:13 // This is the reason to get the CD. "Might Have Been" is arguably better than most of the proper album; it's got a piano bit that lodges in the brain, and the song is one of the sort of mid-tempo grooves they do so well. It's also a tad dark, as if a pinch of Don't Be Afraid was thrown into the recipe.

Track 12 - World Enough (Phuzzed Up Mix) 5:13 // An unremarkable remix of one of the better tracks.

Track 13 - Escape from Murderapolis 1:02 // An instrumental trifle that seems rather pointless to include here at just a minute in length. Quite possibly from one of the guys' soundtrack work.

Track 14 - Slow-Scan 72 1:40 // This is one of their on-line scavenger hunts that I was never hacked enough to pursue.

Back in 2018, they sort of declared the album format dead and started chucking out a string of singles — "Nothing Prevails," "World Enough," "Room 1904" and "Bennington." These ended up being four of the 10 tracks of the new album, so it feels more like getting an EP's worth of new material here. The romantic rumination "World Enough" is the best of the bunch, another of those mid-tempo toe-tappers. Their 2014 return with _hello world remains the jewel of their late active period and, with Information Society (1988), is one of their two best albums.

Who is 'the host of Jeopardy!'?, part 2

200 // Setting aside any debate over the merits of Mike Richards’ character, this whole hosting kerfuffle has saved Jeopardy! from a wrong decision on host. Richards is not bad as a game show host — I liked him as host of GSN’s brief and surprisingly good revival of Pyramid in 2012 — but he is not The One. I do not condone the trend of random actors and third-tier comics getting game show hosting gigs, and this is a situation that needs something more, a bit of heft, like when Regis Philbin became host of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.

400 // Mayim Bialik seems to be an acceptable answer. Some stuff has come out about strange things she has said but, thus far, not enough to get her canceled. Her turn as host was very solid, and she would only get better. So why isn’t she making it happen? A sitcom that no one knows about?

600 // Everybody loves LeVar Burton, but his performance did not look like The One. On a side note, I wanted him to stroll out onstage wearing his Star Trek visor.

800 // I had never seen or heard of David Faber, but I thought he did a smashing job. Smooth, engaging and in control, like a classic game show overseer. 

1000 // Ken Jennings would also make sense — he’s now in the DNA of the show and seems to be generally well-liked — but he has the disadvantage of having Tweeted.

Daily Double // As I’ve said before, there was already a very solid audition in the can from Jeff Probst, who nailed it as host of Rock & Roll Jeopardy! (1998-2001). And that completes my shortlist — Probst, Faber, Jennings and Bialik.

Final Jeopardy! // How appropriate that all this drama unfolds as the show gets one of its biggest champions of all time, Matt Amodio, who will resume his reign of terror when the new season opens Sept. 13.

Netflix's Black Summer

It’s like someone looked at The Walking Dead and said: What if we took out all the boring parts? Rather than concocting an elaborate new villian every time the crew moves to a new fracked up town, as The Walking Dead does (at least up to the point that I bailed out, which I think was season 4), what if it’s mostly just about getting from point A to point B? Also, change the zombies from lumberingly slow to super fast. Thus far, it’s a winning formula for Netflix’s Black Summer, a relentless exercise in zombie fight-or-flight tension. It’s best not to get attached to any particular character, because (spoiler) a lot of them don’t make it.

The story does not always unfold in a linear fashion, and I like how they’ve done it, going back to give us a bit of back story on something that just happened. Some have criticized the show for lacking character development, but I think Rose’s character is progressing just fine every time she blows away another non-zombie who’s gotten on her wrong side.

This show is derived from Z Nation, and the good news is that this is far better than that, based on the little bit of Z Nation I’ve seen. I’m not particularly a fan of the zombie genre and am perplexed by its enduring popularity — it seems a daunting task to bring anything new to its apocalyptic storylines — yet I tore through the two eight-episode seasons (season 2 just recently arrived) and was left wanting more when I came to the end. It’s pretty rare that I say that about a new show these days.

Score: Considered merely as escapist fare, it's a solid 4 out of 5.

Eight things about classic Price Is Right on Pluto TV

 A 24-hour loop of current episodes of The Price Is Right might be one definition of hell. But Pluto TV’s 24-hour-a-day classic The Price Is Right Bob Barker-era channel is pretty heavenly.

Some random observations:

• With my (lack of) luck, I’d probably win a sewing machine or a snowmobile. I always feel sorry for those contestants.

• Most of the episodes airing now are circa 1983, when it was apparently a legal requirement that all washing machines and clothes dryers were a sickly yellow color.

• What’s the deal with the 1980s obsession with brass beds? It’s a chintzy look.

• Contestants could reap the rewards of faithful viewership. Watching these shows, I quickly learned that the Haggar slacks are always $30.

• My dream would be to play Punch A Bunch (or is it Punchboard?). Assuming I earned all four punches, I would punch four consecutive spaces on the bottom row. Just because.

• Whoever built the games used too much lattice. Ten Chances looks like something your neighbor is trying to grow tomatoes on and might be a city code violation.

• Bob Barker had his occasional creepy and condescending moments, but he was peerless among game show hosts at building playful drama and anticipation, and I admire his love for game statistics and esoterica (“Has that ever happened before?”).

• It’s streaming on channel 163 on Pluto TV, which, many days, we watch more than “regular” television. That's really saying something, because we loathe sitting through commercials. Come on down!

Jim Steinman died (and we're sad about it)

See what I did there with the title, which would normally just say "RIP Jim Steinman"?

My first real exposure to Steinman's work was not until 1993 when Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell came out, making a big splash with "I Would Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)." I actually liked the subsequent singles better — "Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through" and, particularly, "Objects in the Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are." I am often drawn to different in music, and this was certainly different from the '80s pop I grew up on. The soaring melodies, operatic drama and long, unconventional song structures all ticked the right boxes for me. "Original Sin" is another favorite, released on Mr. Loaf's Bat Out of Hell II and as a single by Taylor Dayne (!) from the soundtrack of the movie The Shadow; her big voice was a fine pairing for Steinman's style. "Original Sin" was originally recorded by Pandora's Box.

There's a magical and poetic quality to the lyrics of "Objects in the Rear View Mirror …" There were endless winters and the dreams would freeze is a line that takes me somewhere. And those repeated passages of building drama and urgency (But I can see her rising up out of the back seat now  / Just like an angel rising up from a tomb) … it deserved better than its peak of 38 on the Hot 100. The song sprawls over 10 minutes in its album version, but this one, via Spotify, is a nice edit:

Objects in the Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are - AC Edit 3 aka Wild Car

Who is 'the host of Jeopardy!'?

With the final week of Alex Trebek at the helm of Jeopardy! upon us, a few thoughts:

• According to a press release from Sony, Trebek makes notable comments at the top of Monday's show (January 4), and there will be a tribute segment at the end of Friday's show.

• It seems we're maybe going to get a series of guest hosts for a while, and I think that's an excellent idea. There's no need to rush into anointing the successor; take the time to get it right.

• In the following week (January 11), uber-champion Ken Jennings begins his turn as guest host. His aptitude for this seems to have been met with some skepticism among fans, but I say give him his chance. He's had enough time in the limelight to become at ease with it, and his ability to do the schmoozing with contestants might surprise us all. Or not. My gut feeling is that he will not become the permanent host, but who knows.

• Quite forgotten amidst all this is the one fine audition that's already in the can: Jeff Probst's 100-episode stint as host of Rock & Roll Jeopardy! (1998-2001) on VH1; episodes also aired on the Game Show Network for a time. He's a smooth question reader and an amiable personality, and his long tenure on Survivor has only made him more capable. Sometimes the solution is right under your nose …

• Other possibilities? This is difficult, since we don't really have professional game show emcees anymore; Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak is now the last of the old guard. As I've said before, it's unfortunate that third-tier comedians and random actors have become the go-to choices to host game shows. It's been reported that politico George Stephanopoulos has expressed interest in the gig. He's a nice chap — give him his turn as guest host — but I don't think he's The One. I think one direction to consider might be a larger than life personality — the Millionaire team had the right idea when they snagged Regis Philbin. It will take someone with gravity and gravitas to successfully follow Alex Trebek.

An episode of Rock & Roll Jeopardy:

 

Music that moved me in 2020

Most played (new songs)

For songs released in or near 2020, Pet Shop Boys win the year with “New Boy,” a “b-side” from the “I Don’t Wanna” single. It’s one of those brilliantly maudlin midtempo meditations they reel off effortlessly, like “Only the Wind” and “Always,” which are often buried as extra tracks on singles and are better than most of what’s on the accompanying album.

The runners-up are the Pets’ “Only the Dark” from this year’s Hotspot album and “Do You Feel,” which emerged as the favorite from La Roux’s latest album, Supervision.

Most played (oldies)

Don Henley’s synthy “Sunset Grill” wins by a point over three tied songs — Tori Amos’ “Silent All These Years,” The Lighting Seeds’ “Don’t Let Go” and Paula Abdul’s “The Promise of a New Day (7” Edit).” When I went to an Eagles concert in Tupelo with my parents back around ’99 or so, the highlight for me was “Sunset Grill.”

Most interesting

From the first time I heard it, I thought Miley Cyrus’ “Midnight Sky” was the most interesting song of the year. It feels like she’s channeling the dark electronic sounds of The Weeknd on this one, and the whole Plastic Hearts album is sounding strikingly good.

What’s so hot about the Hot 100?

It’s becoming a trend that one song from Billboard’s Hot 100 of the year makes my year-end chart. This year, somewhat surprisingly, it’s Billboard’s top song of the year, “Blinding Lights,” by The Weeknd, which sits at #59 on my year-ender. It’s probably his best since "Can't Feel My Face," although I ended up playing “In Your Eyes,” with that killer sax riff, more (#27 for the year); it is currently in my top 10, having recently topped my chart, and could have finished even higher if its run had come earlier.

Lukewarm

Some of my core favorite artists significantly underperformed with new releases (this, sadly, has been a recurring theme in the last few years). With Chromatica, it’s time to accept that Lady Gaga isn’t going to reach the heights of The Fame / The Fame Monster / Born This Way and, to a slightly lesser degree, Artpop, again. Chromatica, to my ears, has a disturbing homogeneity, particularly when compared to her first few albums. It does land a couple of songs on the year-end chart — “Alice” (#51) and “911” (#56). Then there’s Erasure, whose last several albums have underwhelmed; their lone entry from The Neon is “Shot a Satellite” (#62). And the Pets’ Hotspot had some gems, as always, but it was not at all what I expected for the conclusion of their trilogy with Stuart Price, who has essentially been a Pet Shop Boy for the past decade.

Posthumously

It’s not unusual for me to have a Roxette song in rotation, and the late 2019 death of Marie Fredriksson had me hunting for some deeper cuts. They finish the year with several entries — “Wish I could Fly” (#32), “Queen of Rain” (#44) and “Perfect Day” (#66). And my favorite Eddie Money tune, “I Wanna Go Back,” is in at #78, while the posthumously released George Michael song “This is How (We Want You to Get High)" scrapes in at #95.

Ava Max

“Sweet but Psycho” was big enough to repeat; it was #53 for 2019 and #90 for 2020. “Kings & Queens” finished at #115 this year.

The chart statistics are courtesy of scrobbling via Last.fm.

Go here for recaps dating back to the 2000s.