Unborn is Six Feet Under’s tenth full-length studio album released on 19 March, 2013 via Metal Blade Records. It is 11 tracks long, clocking in at 33 minutes in total length.

Following on from 2012′s Undead there were quite a few member changes in the band, but surprisingly Six Feet Under have managed to pull another brilliant album out of the bag; it was really a question of ‘could they do it again?’ considering of their almost uncanny ability to produce stellar album after stellar album. To be honest though, released a few weeks ago Suffocation’s Pinnacle of Bedlam has set the death metal bar pretty high…but Six Feet Under come very close to knocking it off my list, very close indeed.

The album is like a complete onslaught of the senses, and with the added guest musicians and writers it only makes the impact more sudden, surprising and swift. Though this isn’t a full-on death metal assault, as much like Suffocation they have different tempos and different parts in their songs to break it up from the death metal norm; though there is still that death metal finesse that only Six Feet Under know how to do.

I love the sound of this album as well — everything is clear and you’re able to hear everything: the pinch harmonics of the guitar, the low vocal growl, the fantastic drumming and even the thundering bass work. This album drips and oozes with a menace to is somewhat akin to a lot of death metal bands, but Unborn packs a certain punch, but at the same there is almost a knowing of a veteran air about it.

The tracks aren’t long and only range in about a 3-minute or 2-minute affair. This is a brilliant move (sometimes death metal bands make their songs too long, sometimes) as it’s quick and precise, there’s no messing about with these guys. It’s fury then, here’s the next track. At the moment I’m on my third listen through and all the songs are fantastic. I don’t have any favourites either and I hope that goes to show at how monstrous this album is!

Overall, Unborn is a brilliant death metal album. Although Suffcoation’s latest release has set the bar pretty high, this still is an album which you need to hear. It’s pretty gnarly and I love the production of it as well: crystal clear. There is not much else to say apart from this is a brilliant album, again hinting why death metal is such a respected and revered genre with talented musicians flying the banner.

RATING: ★★★★

TV doesn’t need to do much for me to make me watch it but my favourite shows requite a lot. I’ve got quite a few favourite TV shows but I thought I’d share with you a few of them in a bit more detail. Please let me know what your favourite TV shows are and why because I want to judge you.

1. Nighty Night

Nighty Night follows an eccentric, self-proclaimed 20-something in leafy England as she tackles the travails of new longings and loves, as her husband lies in hospital ‘dying’ of cancer. Protagonist Jill Tyrell, a beauty therapist, runs her own salon alongside her long-time confidant and friend, Linda. As her husband is cooped up in hospital, she chases after her new neighbour, Don, while befriending his wife, Catherine – who suffers from MS. As clueless as she is conniving, Jill is the sort of cultish, chilling brilliance TV needs.

Deliciously dark, the first of the two seasons was impeccable in its delivery of screwed up situations and built up its own astonishing vernacular. Critics and lots of gay men loved it but as is often the case it never quite got the success of other, weaker UK comedies (don’t mention Mrs Brown’s Boys or Miranda to me).  If you haven’t caught it yet, I insist you at least look at the clips available on youtube. Fav Eps: All of Season 1

2. Enlightened

It’s an oddball that no one seems to watch. Enlightened eschews labels without meaning to; it’s neither a comedy nor a drama. Balancing in-between the two and almost demanding a new category, this show is sumptuous, evocative, thought-provoking & most importantly thoroughly enjoyable. Critics have thrown praise at it but people just haven’t been tuning in, despite a good lead in from Girls on HBO, in the US.

Enlightened follows Amy Jellicoe, a muddled woman in LA, as she begins to repair her life after a precipitous fall, which landed her in rehab. Upon return, she begins to unravel her life and attempt to understand what she wants from it and how to find her own happiness. Like real life, it’s not an easy path. Her sudden realisations are met with confusion and anger at her workplace and at home. I like to think of it as devastatingly refreshing. I don’t want to muddle my way through life, holding steady a numbing corporate job but I’m certainly not about to go and do what Amy does. It’s a great show to get you thinking though.

Anyone struggling with winter and/or their careers should watch this. Enlightened chronicles universal struggles in a resolute way. Life is hard and learning from others is how we first start learning as babies and how we should continue to do. This isn’t on FOX so the storylines here are allowed to be taut and well-paced. The acting is wonderfully downbeat and engaging, with an amazing use of narration usually bookending each episode. Fav Eps: Second half of season 1

3. Kath and Kim

‘Look at Moiiii.’ Kath and Kim are mother and daughter, living in suburban Melbourne, Australia. Along with their respective partners, Kel and Brett and bouncy friend, Sharon, this classy ensemble squabble and go shopping essentially but it makes for great comedy. Poking fun at Australian culture, and written by the principal actors, this show spawned a woeful US-adaptation, a TV movie and a regular movie after notching up four seasons.

Give it some time, you might not laugh like you expect from a comedy, but stick with it and it’ll be worth it. You’ll see uncomfortable parts of yourselves in each character and find yourself repeating lines. (NB: as I write this I’m sounding out the words in my head the way the characters speak). Favourite Eps: S4Ep1 – Holiday & S1Ep7 – Party

4. Buffy

I grew up with this show. It’s always going to be special to me. And luckily its appeal has lasted, thanks to considered storylines, witty dialogue and universal themes played out in a hostile and dangerous world of vampires and demons. No other show at the time managed to capture my imagination and lift me up and away from my loneliness as a child. I’m not particularly thankful to many shows but this one deserves proper recognition. Wonderfully nurtured, the show got better and better (if you exclude most of season 7). Buffy the Vampire Slayer fits the medium of TV like a well-aimed compliment. Confused by the world and frequently hurt by it, Buffy taught a lot of people about growing up and to make sure you keep on fighting the bad guys.  Fav Eps: S6Ep1/2, S6Eps20/21/22, S3Ep20 The Prom, S5Ep16 The Body, S5Ep22 The Gift, S4Ep2 Living Conditions // Weakest EP = Beer Bad

5. Rupaul’s Drag Race

Rupaul’s Drag Race isn’t widely known in the UK outside of some gay men. It’s America’s search for the next Drag Queen superstar. Don’t let the glitter and sequins put you off, like Strictly Come Dancing effectively does for me. Putting the many dismal lip-synchs I’ve seen in clubs in the UK aside, this show mixes performances, comedy and camp drama splendidly. My guilt-free pleasure of the week at the moment, I love watching this show and it’s behind the scenes little brother, Rupaul’s Drag Race: Untucked.  Rupaul, the sharp wit of the best contestants and astute editing are the highlights for me. Fav Eps: S4 in its entirety // Weakest Eps: All of S3 and Allstars

Honourable Mentions:

Donna from Pulling, 30 Rock, Breaking Bad, Peter and Stewie from Family Guy (not Meg), Girls, Web Therapy, Don’t Trust The B In Apartment 23, Six Feet Under, Sex & The City, Cordelia from Angel (& Buffy), the lesbian tension in Xena: Warrior Princess, Ally McBeal, Sugar Rush, Mary Cherry from Popular and Community

P.S I’m still mourning its loss so please take a look at my favourite TV show of last year.

The restaurant and bar area were both packed when we arrived around 8 pm.  Luckily, we thought to call ahead and were seated within 15 minutes (which is about how long it took Chad to find a parking space while I waited inside at the bar – valet anyone??).

I was excited to see a few of my local favorites like Monday Night and Wild Heaven featured on the draft beer list (which was definitely not small). In more of a cocktail-kinda mood, I instead went for a refreshing vodka-cucumber-jalapeño concoction.

The only part I wasn’t crazy about was the name – meaning I was less than thrilled to ask the bartender for a “Titty Titty Bang Bang”

I was oddly intrigued by the selection of oyster shooters and feeling a little adventurous.  I succeeded in convincing Chad that we had to at least try a shooter in order to fully experience everything Six Feet Under had to offer.  We kept it classic with a round of Six Feet Unders – Absolut Pepper, Zing Zang, and of course, a raw oyster.

Good in theory, NOT in actuality

I can confidently say this was the first and last oyster shooter I will ever consume.  I love raw oysters and a good Bloody Mary, but I now know that I do NOT love them together.  After I finally got the entire thing down in no fewer than three sips, I decided that oysters are best left on the half shell.

The dinner menu was pretty all-encompassing – plenty of seafood and a lot of different ways to enjoy it.  Despite all the variety, Chad and I were both immediately enticed by the shrimp & scallop dish.  The shellfish were baked and served in parchment paper, which did wonders in terms of keeping the everything drenched in the delicious lemon-butter sauté.  Cracked black pepper, fresh basil, and lemon wedges added an extra boost of flavor to the seafood, which was quite plentiful.

Clearly I won’t be winning any culinary photography awards anytime soon

The dishes also came with hush puppies and two sides apiece, so for a combined total of $30, we had a LOT of food on our table…and a LOT of it was fried.

The hush puppies were my favorite of the sides, stuffed with jalapeño slices for a little extra kick.  We also shared a garden salad, fried okra, home style potato chips, and zucchini fries.  Good thing calories don’t count on the weekends.

I didn’t have high hopes for the salad, but was pleasantly surprised when it arrived looking bright and fresh as can be.  The cucumber wasabi dressing was very different, in a zesty-tangy kinda way.

Best to go dressing on the side here – too much wasabi might be overwhelming

As for the remaining fried trio, I really enjoyed the potato chips, which were served hot out of the frier.

Far better than Lay’s

I probably (definitely) could have done without the okra and the zucchini. Real vegetables (even when fried) just don’t taste quite as good as fried potatoes & bread do.

MediOKRA

Slightly soggy

All in all – I enjoyed the meal and definitely consider Six Feet Under a good option for casual, reasonably-priced seafood & more.

Among others, here’s what I’d like to try upon returning:

• The Spicy Rat Toes and/or Extra Spicy Dragon Toes – with names like that (plus seafood wrapped in bacon), who can resist?
• The rooftop patio on a sunny, spring Saturday
• One (or several) new beers from the list.  Draft beers + patio weather = my favorite combination

As far as I’m concerned, I’m over winter and patio season can’t come soon enough.  The groundhog didn’t see his shadow, right???

Early British TV dramas were single stories, broadcast in anthology slots called Armchair Theatre or Play For Today.  They were filmed in studios using multi-camera set ups and looked like transplanted stage plays.  By the 1970s technology had evolved. Dramas were shot on film using a single camera and on location to give them a cinematic quality illustrated by this clip from the pilot episode of The Sweeney.  The post credits opening sequence has no dialogue and lasts one minute thirty seconds.  But that rarely happens in British TV shows now.  Why not?

One important cross-cultural reason is that people watch TV at home where their attention is often split.  TV is listened to as much as watched, so drama has to be more dialogue driven. But does that mean it has to feel like a stage play?  If you look at American TV drama I would say no.  Their shows still uses more dialogue than many of their movies but there is one important difference.  The US screenwriting roots come from the silent movie era and Hollywood where stories have to be driven by a character’s action and wants.

I first grasped this concept from studying acting and Stanislavki’s approach to performance in the 1980s.  The actor has to decide what their character wants overall and then break that down into smaller wants in each scene.  Its these smaller character wants which are the building blocks in US screenwriting and they call them dramatic story beats.  I’m going to devote the next post to this form.

In the UK we often don’t tell screen stories like this but I couldn’t understand why not until 30 years later when I was watching This is England 86, episode three.  At this time I was thinking a lot about screenwriting because I was both teaching and developing my own work.

Why episode three?  I had missed the first two parts and tuned in because other friends were talking about this particular episode.  Even though the dialogue was well written, I wasn’t drawn in to the characters and I turned off after eight minutes because there was no story.  And I thought, “this is like watching a piece of theatre.”

Is writing theatre on screen bad ?  Possibly not because I have since watched both seasons of this show and I really love the writing for its wonderful, original characterisation.  So why do I think our theatrical roots are holding us back?

Lets look at the opening of episode three of This is England 86 in detail and compare it with episode three, season one of Six Feet Under created by Alan Ball.  Both shows were written for audiences who want to pay attention to quality drama and not just have it on as aural wallpaper.

This is England 86 was a four part spin off from a film, This is England, set in 1983.  Writer/director Shane Meadows told Guardian journalist Leigh Holmwood,

“When I finished This Is England, I had a wealth of material and unused ideas that I felt very keen to take further …I also saw in the experiences of the young in 1986 many resonances to now – recession, lack of jobs, sense of the world at a turning point. Whereas the film told part of the story, the TV series will tell the rest..”  

This is England 86 is about a group of characters and how they respond to their changing circumstances.  Six Feet Under is also about characters responding to change when Nathaniel Fisher, the family patriarch is killed in a car accident.  Along with their grief, the Fisher family have to decide whether to continue with the their family funeral business.

This is England 86 makes no concession to the occasional viewer. It expects you to be familiar with the characters because you will have watched it from the start of the season.  The pre-title montage sequence shows teenage Shaun still grieving for his father who died four years earlier fighting in the Falklands war.  We learn that he has run away from home because his mother has finally found a lover, Mr Sandhu who runs the corner shop.  The montage sequence which mixes in archive news footage of the Falklands war gives the start a cinematic quality.

It is the following three scenes which made think I was watching a stage play.  They are static two handers and dialogue driven with minimal story development or physical action.  Angry Lol wants her boyfriend Woody to go to work because she can’t stand being with him.  Smell, another young woman, is helping runaway Shaun by loaning him some of her dad’s old clothes.  Teenage boy Gadget is acting out older woman Trudy’s sexual fantasies by dressing up as Clark Gable. If you know and like these characters the show asks to you sit back and enjoy the spectacle but if you don’t you have little idea what is going on.  And by this point you have watched eight minutes of screen time.

It is only in the following scene that a story seed is planted which climaxes at the end of the episode.  The main story of this episode is about Lol’s absentee father who has returned (in a previous episode) to reclaim his wife. Lol can’t stand him because she implies he sexually abused her when she was younger.  She now fears he will abuse her younger sister.  The episode ends with the father brutally raping the younger sister’s friend.  It is very a disturbing scene which is why my friends were talking about it.

Six Feet Under also adopts a leisurely pace but it doesn’t leave its audience wondering what the episode is about for so long.  The three minute opening section is split equally  between the credits and a death of the week before the main story starts in the next scene.

It is early morning and Nate Fisher, the prodigal son and his new lover Brenda have just had sex.  If you had missed their meeting in episode one, their initial playful banter in this scene shows how new their relationship is.  Nate tells her that he has to return home now for a family meeting to discuss the future of their funeral business.  Not only does Nate ‘want’ to attend the meeting, he ‘wants’ to sell up and return to Seattle.  And we see from Brenda’s look of disappointment that this is not what she wants.

This ‘want’ raises some story questions to keep us engaged with it.  Will Nate really go?  Will Brenda try and stop him? And will the other Fishers also want to sell up?  And by now we’re only four and half minutes into the episode.

The story of whether or not to sell the family business and the consequences of that decision is the main story of the whole episode.  The next scene cements that idea clearly for us when Nate, Ruth and Claire out vote David and agree to sell to the corporate undertakers, Kroner.  By the time it concludes we’ve also watched eight minutes of screen time.

In contrast after eight minutes of This is England 86, I’ve met some interesting and highly original characters but I know little about them other than they have problems.  Lol isn’t happy with Woody; Shaun can’t stay on the run for ever; Gadget and Trudy’s relationship is doomed.  I’m not clear of any specific questions, nor has the main story of the episode started.

For some UK viewers, who are drawn to non-genre based shows, watching interesting characters without having a clear story seems to satisfy them.  Is that because they also enjoy watching a good stage play?

What if the characters are not as well drawn?  Why are so many of our dramas based around a crime, even when they about much more the crime solving?  Is it simply because crime is the most popular genre?  Or is it also because solving a crime means that the lead characters have to want to solve it?  So they have to be active, they have to do things and take action.  And this ‘want’ raises story questions and draws the viewer in.

The opposite of this means creating characters who inhabit their world, who discuss it and who carry out activities so we see movement.  And events will occur or a character is compelled to reveal a secret and we watch their reactions to understand the story.  This form does allow writers to develop ideas and debate them via characters but is it the best use of story telling for the screen?

I think recent British shows which have failed have done so partly because we don’t understand this other way of screenwriting.  And in my next post I’m going to explore the dramatic story beat in more depth.

Fox Theater

Just a quick stop in to see where we are with the bucket list…I have been working hard on crossing off items, but have not been doing as well as I had hoped.  In my defense, I have done a lot recently in addition to this list…like going to the Argosy restaurant opening, having a girls night out, throwing drinks back at the local speakeasy, eating at Leon’s Full Service and getting my hair did.  I feel like I haven’t slept in three weeks!!  But it is so worth it…now onto the recap:

• Westin Sundial Restaurant √
  • One of my favorite places, if you haven’t already check out this post to see more about why
• Ann’s Snack Shop – To try the world-famous Ghetto Burger √
  • This was AMAZING.  I was honestly pretty very surprised.   I think this deserves its own blog post…stay tuned
• Six Feet Under √
  • One of my favorite restaurants in Atlanta, and it did not disappoint.  On a warm evening the roof top patio cannot be beat…whether you are at the Memorial Drive location (my favorite) looking out over Oakland Cemetary, or at the Howell Mill one looking over the midtown skyline.
• Dawsonville outlet shops √
  • Very successful shopping trip this past weekend.  RG and I stocked up on warm weather clothes to take with us!
• Visit Fox Theater √
  • I cannot believe it took me this long to go to the Fox and I had no idea what I was in for.  Driving past the Fox for as long as I have I never realized it looks like a castle from the outside…until I walked inside and saw the castle design.  It is like you are sitting under the stars on a clear night watching a play.  I was very impressed, and honestly a bit taken aback at the same time.  I wish I had the chance to go again, without the shock value.  But there is always when we return…
• PushStart Kitchen √
  • One of my favorite birthday’s yet.  A sweet young couple hosts sixteen diners in their loft a couple of nights a week. They call it a Southern Speakeasy and you have to be on their email list to have a chance to reserve seats. It is a different menu each week and everything is made from scratch right there in their home.  We met some interesting people, drank Horchata and gorged on the most scrumptious food I’ve had.  Hurry and check them out…they are opening a restaurant soon and the speakeasy may close!
• Cafe Jonah √
  • A small old house that hosts the quaint, fresh lunch spot…everything is made same day with local and fresh ingredients.  It brings neighborhood charm to the Buckhead area.
• A final bowling competition between RG and myself √
  • This is how we celebrated Valentine’s Day and I wouldn’t complain…EXCEPT RG beat me three games to two!  On to the next time…are there bowling alleys in Thailand?!?!

Bowling & Beer…perfect Valentine’s Day!

And here is what is still remaining…with our time here running out I can only hope I will accomplish all of these.  On to the next one…

• Blind Willies
• Tour Oakland Cemetery
• Brunch at Ria’s Bluebird Cafe
• Sweetwater Brewery
• Gladys Knight Chicken and Waffles
• Visit Carter Center
• Season’s 52 in Buckhead
• See Yacht Rock Revue one last time
  • This may not be possible  They only have one Atlanta show scheduled before we head abroad and we may not be able to swing it…

Ann’s Snack Bar

HAPPY 4th ANNIVERSARY RAY!

I’m not sure about you, but we have two anniversaries — the day we met and started dating and the day we got married, September 30, 2011.  (Gretel and I will have our 4-year “friendaversary” in April.  Yes, I waited two months before I was ready to meet her.)

It was four years ago today that Ray, ABBA, and I met.  We always mark that date with lunch at Exotic Thai, the scene of the crime for our first public date.  So, I’ll be having pumpkin curry for lunch today as we continue that tradition.

This picture was taken atop the Stratosphere in late January 2013 with Las Vegas sprawled out behind us.

SNOW, SNOW, & MORE SNOW

Before last night and this morning’s snow, we had only picked up 12.2″ of snow this winter in the Quad Cities.  Officially, 2.8″ fell from this storm at the Quad City International Airport in Moline, Illinois.  Here are some other official and unofficial totals:  3.2″ Davenport (IA); 4.9″ Dubuque (IA); 6″ Iowa City (IA), and 6.3″ Keokuk (IA).  As you can see, most snowfall amounts were between 2-6″.

You have to admit that the snow from last night is pretty.  Gretel got up this morning and started looking out the windows to see if there was enough snow to cancel school!

While we’ll see some light snow or flurries today, quiet weather is on tap this weekend with highs around 30° Saturday and 30-35° Sunday, which will allow for a little melting.

Another system coming in Monday could bring a rain/snow mix that will change over to snow during the day and then another accumulating snow Monday night and Tuesday.  More on that later in the weekend closer to the storm.  No need just yet to hype it up like some forecasters do.

But here’s how it’s depicted on two different computer models at noon Monday:  the GFS (first) and the NAM (second).

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

So, just like that you didn’t think about the snow outside for a moment and were thinking of summer and going fishing, right?

20TH CENTURY FOX, GET OFF THE “PICKET FENCES”

Back in the early 1990s before moving to Chicago, my two favorite shows on television were “Melrose Place” on Fox and “Picket Fences” on CBS.

The drama, created by David E. Kelley, ran from 1992-1996 and won 14 Emmy Awards during its four years, including “Best Dramatic Series” two years in a row.  It followed the lives of Sheriff Jimmy Brock (Tom Skerritt) and his wife, Jill (Kathy Baker), the town doctor, and all of the weird happenings in fictional Rome, Wisconsin.

This video shows some of the best, or worse, of lawyer Douglas Wambaugh (Fyvush Finkel).

Once I moved to Chicago in the summer of 1994 and started having a real life (sorry, Kentucky life!), I didn’t watch the series until its conclusion.  And, I wasn’t alone.  In the first three years on the air, an average of 9.5 million people tuned in.  In its last season, that number dropped to 7 million.

Now that the DVD market is oversaturated with almost every past television show, I want to know why 20th Century Fox released the first season in 2007, but never released seasons 2-4?  I have no reason to buy that first season and not know if I’ll see the rest of it.  So, if someone at 20th Century Fox reads this, please make the rest of “Picket Fences” available for fans of the series.  I’ll buy it!

FACEBOOK FLASHBACK PICTURES

This is a segment that I recently started where I look back over the pictures I posted on Facebook for the upcoming week in past year.

We had a nice, pretty snow one year ago, too.  I took this picture February 24, 2012.

This one is from Muscatine, Iowa, on the Mississippi River, on February 26, 2012.

And, we had a very tasty dinner of  Mexican chicken salad with avocado and a cilantro/jalapeno margarita on February 27, 2012.

PEEPS’ ’80s FRIDAY FLASHBACK

This is Jon Bon Jovi.  I wish I could look like that at 50!  Heck, I don’t even look like that in my 40s!!!!!!!!!

And, this is what he looked liked in the 1980s when he and his band started their chart run that produced 17 Top 40 Hot 100 hits (ten of those reached the Top Ten and four reached #1).  Bon Jovi would have two solo hits in 1990, including the #1 song, “Blaze of Glory”.

Bon Jovi has sold more than 135 million albums world-wide.  Their biggest album was 1986′s “Slippery When Wet”, which sold 28 million copies around the world.  It also produced three Top Ten hits, two of which were back-to-back number one hits, “You Give Love A Bad Name” and “Livin’ On A Prayer”.

THAT WAS THEN, THIS IS THE FUTURE

I’ve had some success picking future hits.  Early last year, I picked “Call Me Maybe” by Carly Rae Jepsen and I think, by now, you’ve heard it a few thousand times.  I also picked Chris Wallace’s “Remember When (Push Rewind)” and Marina and the Diamonds “How To Be A Heartbreaker”.  Both are getting some radio airplay even now.  As a matter of fact, Wallace is in the Top 25 on the airplay chart.

My pick hit today is catching fire at Top 40 radio.  It’s “Alive” by the Chicago electronic dance band, Krewella.  The trio formed in 2007 and their first full-length album will be released this summer.  With the recent radio successes of EDM dance artists like Calvin Harris and David Guetta, I think there’s room for a few more like Zedd, Martin Solveig, Madeon, and Krewella.

 WEEKEND PLANS

Now that the weekend is here, I hope you have some fun things planned.  As far as I know, we don’t have anything going on.  However, this is my last weekend off before I start back to work Monday.  So, I think it should be a weekend filled with movies, finishing season two of “The X-Files” and “Six Feet Under”, and checking out the Oscars.  I’ll have my Oscar picks Sunday.

Oh, good news for “Dexter” fans that wait for the DVD to see the show.  Season 7 will be released on May 14th!  Typically, the series’ last season arrives on DVD in August just before the new season begins in September.  But, since this is the “last” season, Showtime is starting early this summer with all new episodes beginning June 30, 2013.

I guess that’s enough random thoughts for now.  Have a great weekend!

Anthony

So in the name of mental stimulation and ‘culture,’ I boarded a bus to the Wellcome Collection.  Death: a Self-Portrait seemed appropriately fitted to my lugubrious and misanthropic state.

Upon arrival, my nose was put marginally out of joint by the number of people packed into the foyer, the Peyton and Byrne cafe and the exhibition itself.  Unrealistically, I was craving a quiet solitude within which to cocoon myself and ponder mortality and the mediocrity of my own existence.  Putting those quibbles aside and adjusting my mind to the busy mood, I began to immerse myself in the images: unsurprisingly, a lot of skulls.

Never one for dragging my feet at an exhibition, I sauntered through, glancing at the various idols, ephemera, paintings and medical photography, noting the comical and festive contrast between the macabre and the colourful.  Adriaen van Utrecht’s Vanitas Still Life with a Bouquet and a Skull captures this dialectic vividly; a sense of both contrast and continuity is conveyed between the skull, the objects and the flowers which, although in full bloom, are already giving way to atrophy.  Impermanence and the passage of time vs death and oblivion, and all that jazz.  Or so I think, having never really been one for artistic analysis.

But as I stood there, enjoying the visual contradictions, I became increasingly aware of my own quiet distaste.  There was something annoyingly on trend about the collection, something consumerist which undermined its intellectual message.  To be fair, the message was ultimately pretty thin: the paradoxes that emerge when we ponder death.

Meh.

Once I’d had this mini epiphany, it was difficult to view the remainder of the collection as anything but facile, even though I concede the pieces were very beautiful.  Toward the end there was, predictably, a room dedicated to the Day of the Dead celebrations.  The portraiture here was  indeed fun and vibrant and again, captured those brilliant contrasts of death and colour.  But having already enjoyed myself at the Day of the Dead festival at the Old Vic Tunnels to much greater effect a few months prior, this felt like a strange tack-on to an event that had already proved popular.  Some of the artwork had even been recycled here.   The room dedicated to ‘violent death’ seemed promising, but then dumped me flat, doing little to twang my morbid internal chords.

Reaching the end, I did everything I could to stifle my derisive groan when met with a room full of mid-century Danish furniture, with trendy folk lounging about whilst intently flipping through the exhibition’s be-skulled programmes.   I left feeling tired, unchallenged and disappointed with the superficiality of my experience.  I rarely delve into the art world, being the troglodyte that I am, but when I do, I want confrontation or at least depth.  Even death it seems has been co-opted, consumed, marketed and trended to the point of total ubiquity.

It’s all so boring.

Have I simply become desensitised?  What was I hoping for?  Violence, gore, fear, suffering? Not necessarily.  Perhaps I was expecting more of the literal and even prosaic aspects of death.  It’s anti-climactic reality, it’s rife indignities and corporeal functions.

Six Feet Under always captured this brilliantly at the beginning of each episode.  The deaths would vary – some were more violent than others, or more farcical, but all of them were devoid of any dramatic pathos.  At one point, David, having retrieved a body from the morgue, is in the process of transporting it back to the house for funeral preparation when he is suddenly car-jacked.  While his malevolent  perpetrator sits in the passenger’s seat with a gun aimed at him, the cadaver in the back of the van, farts.  The car-jacker panics at first and is subsequently disgusted, while David tries to explain that it’s perfectly normal: the body continues to release gas after death.

I remember reading (somewhat precociously at age 14) Peter Carey’s The Unusual Life of Tristan Smith and feeling confused and alarmed when Tristan’s mother, after hanging herself, suddenly releases her bowels and bladder before a collection of onlookers.  Is THAT what happens when we DIE? I thought in terror.  I never want to die.

Van Utrecht image source: Richard Harris Collection

Anyways, it’s Wednesday evening, it’s snowing and I maybe totally skipped my workout to bake cookies, drink beer and eat homemade potato soup.  To be fair, I had a headache and I was hungry so it wasn’t going to be a good workout even if I hadn’t skipped out.  I’m sure it was the right decision because I’m suddenly feeling inspired to write a post made of long-winded numbered points.

Cookie-fueled writing inspiration>runner’s high.  Sometimes at least.

Please enjoy previously mentioned long-winded numbered point section.

1.  Like I said, there was homemade potato soup on the menu tonight.  This soup, to be exact.  It is not the first time we’ve made it.  It is delicious.  Joey has decided to adapt it into “our favorite soup recipe ever” and has been talking about how to do this all.night.long.  Help.

2. I bought the Alabama Shakes CD aaaaaand, that is some soul music!  It’s a little bit Adele and it’s a little bit Amy Winehouse, but then it’s its own unique thing too.  I’m not quite sure, but I think I really like it.

3. Cookies.  From a box.  That I found in the very very back of my baking shelf.  And might be over a year old.  But taste amazing!

4. We’re completely caught up on Parenthood and for the two days before we started another TV series, my life felt so empty and meaningless.  We have since started Six Feet Under.  I had no idea Peter Krause was in this show too.  I’m not sold just yet but I have high hopes (and a bunch of 10/10 ratings on IMDB) that assure me I’ll love it.

5. Are you aware of how much a quality Dutch oven or cast-iron skillet costs??  Don’t even look.

6. This is exactly how I feel about the Harlem Shake.

7. Joey had flowers delivered to me on Valentine’s Day and they were… a little worse for the wear.  One angry phone call and three days later, new flowers were delivered.  They look much better.

8. I’ve had that “is my throat dry or sore?” feeling since Saturday and I’m trying my hardest to convince myself it’s the former.  Although if it does end up being a cold, I’ll continue to live like a normal person instead of acting like it’s the end of the world, because I’m a female and that’s what we do.

9. I told my sister I would read over her paper on Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” and I was all too excited to read the original story first.  How awesome is Poe?  Did you know he also wrote detective stories?  Guesses on how many times I will offer to take my sister’s lit class for her before the semester is over.

10. Is it Friday yet?  My nephew’s birthday party, dinner in Denver for Denver Restaurant Week, hopefully some beer brewing and the Academy Awards this weekend!  Someone’s psyched and that someone is me.

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What’s going on in your life?

What’s the last album you bought?

All-time favorite TV show?

I started to run down, in my head, what I would say if I had called in. I would have wanted to talk for hours about how some of the television gems that I’ve seen have really, truly taught me something, but if I had to choose, my winner would be…

…Six Feet Under!

Six Feet Under knocked my socks off. I kicked myself for not watching it sooner – one of my college roommates kept telling me to watch it and I put it off for some unknown reason (probably because death has always been one of those subjects that I’ve avoided, but… anyway). Once I took the plunge, I soon realized that there was not one single episode that disappointed and I fell in love with the Fishers, their family run funeral home, and the life and death that walked through its doors. The writers took such heavy subjects – death, funerals, funeral homes, family dynamics – and looked at them under a beautiful, sometimes disturbing  light. I binge-watched the entire series in just a couple of weeks – after work and between semesters of grad school.

Seeing that much death in such a short amount of time (and portrayed in a sometimes very funny light) gave me a lot to think about. The series taught me to look at death a little more objectively and it helped me realize that I had been looking at death in such a subjective way. And, why wouldn’t I have experienced the loss of family members and friends as subjective? I think that’s just natural and normal. So, to see death, grief, life, and more under an objective microscope (the viewer generally does not know the characters who die) gave me a peek into how others deal with death, even if it was fictional.

To boot, the show had one of the most satisfying series finales that I’ve ever seen. A lot of shows can tie up story lines and leave the characters in a good place, but Six Feet Under brought it one step further and the viewer sees what the future looks like for the Fisher family in a real, matter-of-fact yet emotional way. Here’s one of the quotes that’s stayed with me:

Claire: Oh, I wanna take a picture of everyone.

Nate: You can’t take a picture of this. It’s already gone.

Check out the HBO site for Six Feet Under – all of the episodes are available on HBO GO and won’t let you down.

And, a close second… Modern Family! 

I couldn’t write this post without referencing one of the best sitcoms on TV - Modern Family. A short clip from one of the recent episodes solidified its place as a runner-up to Six Feet Under on my list. You don’t really need to know much about the show to appreciate the quote from Jay Pritchett (but if you do, watch the clip):

There’s all kinds of milestones in life. The kind you expect to live through – first kiss, birthdays, graduations, and if you’re lucky, a wedding or two. Or even a new addition to the family. Then there’s the kind you never dreamed you’d get to live through again, and that’s the best kind of all.

So… what about you?

It’s no surprise to me that both of these shows share a main theme of family, something near and dear to my heart. So, what were some of the shows that taught you some life lessons?

As reported on the official facebook of SIX FEET UNDER:

“The journey to create, write, and record UNDEAD and UNBORN has been the most challenging and exciting musical endeavor and process I have ever been involved with,” expresses vocalist and founder Chris Barnes. “Working with all these amazing writers and musicians like Ben Savage (Whitechapel) on songs like Neuro Osmosis and Fragment are some of the most dynamic, beautiful, and brutal songs I’ve ever had the pleasure of putting lyrics to. I believe Ben is a true innovator of the death metal genre. It was also a lot of fun working Jari Laine from Torture Killer again. We wrote a great album together a few years back called SWARM! –one of my favorite releases I’ve been involved with– and Jari is someone who I have really wanted to work with again ever since. I wanted to revisit collaborating with Jari because of how well we work together; proof of that on UNBORN are the hook heavy sounds of songs like Zombie Blood Curse and Incision.” – Chris Barnes

Listen to & order UNBORN: http://www.metalblade.com/sixfeetunder

____________________________________________

UNBORN – Track Listing & Song Writers:

Neuro Osmosis (Ben Savage/Chris Barnes)

Prophecy (Ola Englund/Chris Barnes)

Zombie Blood Curse (Jari Laine/Chris Barnes)

Decapitate (Ben Savage/Chris Barnes)

Incision (Jari Laine/Chris Barnes)

Fragment (Ben Savage/Chris Barnes)

Alive to Kill You (Steve Swanson/Chris Barnes)

The Sinister Craving (Ben Savage/Chris Barnes)

Inferno (Jari Laine/Chris Barnes)

Psychosis (Rob Arnold/Chris Barnes)

The Curse of the Ancients (Ola Englund/Chris Barnes)

____________________________________________

“UNBORN” bundles are available for pre-order:

http://metalblade.com/sixfeetunder/

Deluxe Bundle Includes:

- Unborn CD

- “Logo” t-shirt

- 3′x3′ flag

- Bite kit

- 10″ x 7″ polyethylene Outbreak Warning sign

______________________________________________________

* For more info on SIX FEET UNDER, click on the links below!

facebook: ~ Six feet under ~

http://www.metalblade.com/sixfeetunder

http://twitter.com/sixfeetofficial

LONG LIVE SIX FEET UNDER.

LONG LIVE DEATH METAL.

Stone.

Woe is me…. I vowed to do this every week and sadly I am behind AGAIN!

Well I will still give it a shot.  (Disclaimer:  Thoughts shared at 3:41 AM may have no meaning whatsoever to anyone but me.)

Your favorite place within two hours of your home?

Well this should be an easy answer because I seldom get anywhere more than 2 hours away.  I am pretty much a homebody, so I have to say my favorite place is our farm pond which is about 2 seconds away from my home, if you want to get specific.  It’s my replacement for the beach.  In fact, every couple of summers I beg my husband to haul in a couple of dump truck loads of sand to add to our little beach and then I walk around and squish it between my toes and pretend the waves are gonna come crashing into me any minute.   Then I climb in the paddle boat and search for froggies.  It’s a great place to spend early mornings, middays, early evenings, even late at night when the stars are reflected in the dark calm water….

What is your favorite TV show or movie of all time (for example can watch it over and over again and quote lines from it)?

I like a few TV shows.  My latest find is Downton Abbey.   Also love Breaking Bad, Dexter,  and Six Feet Under.  But I never get so obsessed that I can remember lines  or sometimes even plots!  Not much of a movie buff although I really enjoyed watching “The Patriot”  and could watch it over and over and cry every time!

Where do you eat breakfast?

Here at my computer while I check email, facebook, and WordPress.   2 Lowfat Eggo Wafflles from the toaster, spread with just a tad of peanut butter (sigh) , percolated coffee with a splash of French Vanilla.   Too much information?

(hmmmm, time to clean the peanut butter off of the keyboard again)

What is your most favorite smell/scent?

I like sandalwood and also patchouli!   (child of the 60′s)

Thanks to Cee for coming up with these questions!    I will try harder to keep up.