What I've Been Consuming is back! Are you gobsmacked by how much I watch and listen to in a month? Are you hungry to add to your unending list of things you must also consume? Then read on you ravenous teet sucklers of media. For you know as well as I do that none may resist the urge, that irresistible interminable unquenchable urge, that urge that leaves us forever unsatiated and forever searching for that next big hit, the urge to consume!
TV
The Last of Us episode 2 reminded me of No Country for Old Men.
Wooooooo! Fucking unbelievable. How many times is HBO going to do this sort of shit to us? Was that a gut punch mixed with a dirty sanchez or what? I played the first Last of Us game, but did not play the second and I WAS NOT prepared for what just happened. Even after he was stabbed in the neck, when I saw that wide shot of Jesse riding up to the house, I still held out hope he would be saved, but then the show hit us with Joel, Dina and Bella dragging Joel’s body back to town. He’s gone. And I’m still not over it. He’s gone. Pedro no! Piper no!. Joel no!
While there are many Game of Thrones similarities with how shocking this death is, I’m actually more reminded of a different unexpected death and it’s from a movie. That death is Llewelyn Moss in No Country for Old Men. That death was so shocking to me as it occured off screen and I just couldn’t accept it. I kept thinking there’d be a scene showing how he escaped, but it never came. Now that shock isn’t the only similarity I’m speaking of. As I write this I’ve also seen episode 3 of the Last of Us and I realize now that our point of view is shifting, just as it did in No Country for Old Men. We will from here on out see the story from Bella’s eyes and it will I’m sure be a very different journey. Again, remember I haven’t played the game so I’m blind here, but I do think there may be another point of view shift so we shall see. Now excuse me as I wipe the tears from my face.
Common Side Effects (season review) - Man this show was good! I am normally one that has a hard time getting into something if I don’t like the art, I’m like this with comics and animation too. I was put off by the style right away, but the story really hooked me pretty quick and I actually came to love, I mean really love the style of this. What the animators are doing with some of the lighting and little touches is really outstanding.
Now onto the story! Our main character, Marshall, has discovered a miracle mushroom, that when ingested, cures all known bodily harm, this means diseases both mental and physical, physical injuries and even death. Now Marshall is a hippy earth loving type and wants to share this with the world, but soon a major pharmaceutical firm becomes involved because we can’t have this hippy and his fungi cutting into our profits! Along for the ride in this show are some competing hippy types, some rednecks, an old high school friend, the DEA and also a tortoise. This show is jam packed with some really great characters that feel ripped from true life corporate crime stories, comedic caper movies, and a dash of Big Lebowski mixed with something I can’t quite put my finger on, but it’s all here and it all works.
Jump into the quirky fun, but actually pretty serious series on HBO Max.
Lazarus - (first episode review). Features Chad Stahelski (he of John Wick fame) with some great music by Kamasi Washington, Bonobo and Floating Points.
Right away one will notice the near shameless influences from Cowboy Beebop and that’s for good reason as Shinichirō Watanabe, director of Cowboy Beebop is the director of Lazarus as well. Now that we have all that out of the way and also now that our expectations are sky high, because people love Cowboy Beebop, how is this show? It’s pretty good so far. You see a Dr. Skinner created a drug that banishes any feelings of pain in the user. As you can expect the drug, called Hapna, is a huge hit. After releasing the drug Dr Skinner disappears only to reappear via online video three years later to reveal that anyone who took the drug will die three years after their first dose. Yikes! Just say no kids.
It quickly becomes apparent that Dr Skinner must be found and that’s when the team is put together. Five agents, each with a different skill, are pulled together to find the doctor and find a cure.
For me the story is secondary. I’m here for the great action and the cool music. And so far I’m getting what I want. If you love anime then you will probably get into this.
MUSIC
I’ve been having a really fantastic music month with some totally new stuff I discovered, some stuff I’m late to the game on and some old nostalgia stuff too. First out the gate is…
Bad Bunny’s DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS - I had some friends recommend this and I put it off as I just never was really grabbed by BB before, but one day I threw it on and man did this album just move into my house and put itself on repeat? Did we just become best friends? I cannot stop moving and dancing and just shaking my hips like Shakira running from the tax man. This album is a rump shaker and hip breaker! Put it on now.
Also, if you haven’t checked out his Tiny Desk performance supporting this album, do it!
CA7RIEL & Paco Amoroso - Papota - Thank the YouTube gods for this one. I was watching the aforementioned Bad Bunny’s NPR Tiny Desk concert and these guys' performance was served up to me afterwards. Man was it an experience from the start! These two are just wholly and completely themselves and we are all just blessed to be living in their world. Their Tiny Desk performance got me hooked and high and I’m happy to say that their album has that performance on it! It’s a banger through and through and it has also been on multiple plays throughout my house.
Something a little smoother and softer that was served up to me was an album from someone I’d never heard of before from back in 2021 and that is…
Celeste - Not Your Muse (Deluxe) - As I said I’d never heard her music before, but I felt like I had. As I listened to her album I was like,”Oh, is this an Amy Winehouse outtake?” And then I listened further and I was like, “Who is this Adele soundalike?” Truthfully she’s a bit of both and mostly her own thing, the influences are there, the music is there too, it’s boozy and smoky and sultry and sexy and it’s just damn good.
Gore Skate Mix - Spotify - I was feeling nostalgic for some old high school sounds the other day and I happened to remember a band from Texas that had a couple of hits that my friends and I listened to and it brought me back to some of the other songs I listened to back then. The band that popped back in my head was this little known Industrial band called the Skatenigs. These guys had a hit called Chemical Imbalance that opened with this awesome snarky poem about how crazy the Skatenigs were and how they would piss on your moms’ best collectibles. It was all hilarious back then and it hits just as hard for me as it did back then. That’s the opener to this mix and it slides into hits by Ministry, White Zombie, Rob Zombie, Butthole Surfers, Monster Magnet and more. If you’re down for some old school alternative/industrial and want to hear what my teenage ears were consuming then slap this mix onto your wireless earbuds.
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/770WE75SQrSbYhjNXA1H3J?si=3375ea26ce044142
That is all for this month my fellow buffet brats. This month’s consumption collection was late and for that I offer the utmost of apologies, but alas I will return in just a 11 days time with another buffet of music, tv, reading and perhaps even some travel!