Thursday, March 08, 2007

PBS is getting to me!

...not in a bad way, exactly. Their pledge driving is just really affecting me these days. I will be flipping about the channels and happen upon something I really dig on PBS and just when I'm saying to meself "Gosh, this is terrific", they'll cut to a break and suddenly some schmoe at the PBS HQ will be on my telly saying, "Isn't this terrific programming?? " IT'S LIKE THEY'RE READING MY MIND! And they continue: "You can only find this kind of quality programming on public television and it's only possible throught the support of VIEWERS LIKE YOU" And they may as well just say my name, it so cuts me to the quick. I feel like a terrible freeloader. But I'm sorry PBS, I'm too much of a charity case myself to donate a red cent to anybody!!
So anyways, here's what PBS stuff has caught my fancy as of late...

Best of Masterpiece Theatre-- watched this while at my folks' house on Sunday night. Of all the nutty, unconventional stuff to tease for... during this program I kept trying to get my mom to front me some $$ to donate to PBS. She didn't. Not that it woulda mattered. If she had given me the money, I would've given it back immediately, as my mom-manipulation guilt would WAY trump my compulsion to donate to PBS.
Anyways the Masterpiece Theatre crew took a break last Sunday, presumably to scour the massive stacks of the Masterpiece Theatre Library and ferret out the next literary classic to adapt to film. ( If I could make a recommendation, Days with Frog & Toad would be a good pick, as would Are You there God? It's me Margaret) So last Sunday they did a "best of"show. PBS viewers voted on the 12 best Masterpiece Theatre productions and Sir Derek Jacobi hosted the retrospective. Maaan, it's like part of the tenure benefits when you take on the acting gig over in the U.K....hit your late 50s and they knight you. Or dame you..whatever that verb is .
Anyways, about the best of MPT... the ones they counted down that I must now see :
*Jeeves & Wooster- I don't know really know what the plotline here is other than "the comic misadventures of a British gent & his butler" and that's real vague. But Brit comedy + Hugh Laurie is all I need to know. Sounds like my cup o' tea.
*Wives & Daughters-- This is actually at the top of my Netflix queue, though I'm still not sure that I won't just cancel it offa there and buy it. I'm about 3/4 through the Elizabeth Gaskell novel.
*Upstairs, Downstairs
*I, Claudius-- This was like , #3 on the countdown, and very highly acclaimed, but I don't know if I'd be able to get past what looks like some severely cheap-arse production values. Still, this title is also in my infamous "Books-to-Read" queue. If I ever do get to it, I suppose I'll be curious to see the PBS adaptation afterwards.

Documentary on the Lovin' Spoonful-- this was on Tuesday night when I got home from work. Basically it was John Sebastian chatting about his time in the Lovin' Spoonful with clips from the 60s of them performing live.
I must confess, I inherited an appreciation of The Lovin' Spoonful from my Dad. I think that fact speaks volumes about just how much I like them. My natural inclination, I do believe, is to have my tastes run contrary to my father's whenever possible. But it was not possible in this case, as the Spoonful are so unavoidably likeable.

I sort of fell in love with the song "Darling Be Home Soon" after watching Sebastian perform it in this doc. Of course I'd heard it before, but I think it had kinda struck me as excessively needy in tone. And it is still a needy sort of song, but maybe I was in a more romantical frame of mind the other night because I wasn't so dismissive of the neediness. After all, isn't that a common ingredient in your basic love song? The lyrics are all very sweet but it's the chorus that resonates--
"So Darlin' be home soon,
I couldn't bear to wait an extra minute if you dawdled.
My Darling be home soon,
It's not just these few hours but I've been waiting since I toddled
for the great relief of having you to talk to."
Now all typed out like that, the use of "toddled " in the 4th line, kind of irks me. It seems a bit contrived just for rhyming's sake, 'cause really-- there ain't a whole hell of a lotta options for words that rhyme with "dawdled". But in the song it doesn't really stick out so noticeably. (Particularly in Joe Cocker's cover of the tune. It's not at all conspicuous because it's not that clear what Cocker's singing in the first place. I like Joe Cocker alright, but John Belushi doing Joe Cocker is the best) But it's that last line that is the real cockle-warmer, the clincher.
John Sebastian spoke a bit about the band's "musicianship" how he took pride in how their band actually played their instruments when a lot of their contemporaries where just singing along with studio bands. It sounds a smidge braggy, but after watching the performance clips, I think he was actually understating the case! Sebastian's doing some amazing musical multi-tasking in all that footage-- he's playing the guitar and the harmonica when he sings the "Welcome Back Kotter " theme, he plays the HARP while he sings "Rain on the Roof" (one of my faves) The f-ing HARP! Then, during some song I'd never heard called "She Is Still a Mystery" Sebastion sings and plays keyboards and a marxophone. I didn't even know there was such a thing! It is a fretless zither (more details here , if you care to know...) This not only impresses me immensely, but it makes me want to kvetch about the state of modern culture like someone twice my age. Would the damned Pussycat Dolls have a marxophone riff in one of their insipid songs?? I'd wager that not a one of the Pussycats even knows what a marxophone is, and if they had one on stage they couldn't come up with anything to do with it...except maybe dry hump it. (Ah, whole world's going to hell in a handbasket! What time's Matlock on?)
I'm going on a shopping expedition w/ my sis this weekend and I may have to get the Spoonful's Greatest Hits CD. Oh, maybe Joe Cocker's too. Then I could do a comparison listen and determine conclusively which "Darlin' Be Home Soon" is my favorite. I've always dug
Cocker's "Feelin' Alright" , so I figure that gives me sufficient reason to pick up that Greatest Hits.

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