What I'm Watching

Movies I’ve Watched:

• Away (2019): You guys, I can’t begin to tell you how much more I liked Zilbalodis’ debut feature compared to the one everyone loved, Flow. This film is, to me, so much more of what I assume everyone else got from Flow. I was rapt and was not annoyed by the unrealistic elements.

• Baby Face (1933): My second time watching this, albeit close to 20 years apart. The men remain absolutely pathetic.

• Barbarians (1987): Compared to the previous warrior twins film I watched, at least these guys look strong. And compared to basically every bad ’80s fantasy film I’ve watched in the last few years, the budget of this is insane. But it’s still not a good movie, it’s just way better than most of its ilk.

• Deathsport (1978): Corman decided he wanted to make a fantasy version of Death Race 2000 and it’s much worse than the earlier movie.

• Dishonored (1931): This is a somewhat bizarre film apparently inspired by Mata Hari. I don’t know much about her so I have no idea how close it is to the real story but as a film I don’t think it’s very successful.

• Flow (2024): I didn’t love this animated allegory about a cat and its friends during a flood. I preferred his earlier film (see above).

• Grand Hotel (1932): I liked this a lot more the second time. I still think it’s quite slow, but I see the big deal now, which I didn’t 17 ish years ago.

• Shanghai Express (1932): I really liked the first half of this film of a bunch of (mostly European) strangers on a train in China but it, um, goes off the rails a bit in the second half. (Sorry.)

TV I’m Watching:

• Archer (2009): I forgot I was watching this. Oops.

• Basketball: The Raptors made the playoffs and lost in 7 to the Cavaliers. Continuing to watch the playoffs as we do every year. We’ve talked about trying to watch hockey but we barely do.

• F1: Due to, um, certain things happening in the Middle East, there aren’t many races this spring. The next race is at the end of the month.

• Master of None (2015): So I expect it will take me a while to finish the final season.

• Taskmaster: This season of the British show has both the creator of The Thick of It (see below - turns out he is on TV in the UK all the time) and a rather famous Pakistani-American.

• The Thick of It: I saw In the Loop in theatres, knowing nothing about it, and loved it. (Thanks Brandon!) It’s taken me this long to finally get around to watching the show. I must say that it really feels of its time when you watch it for the first time in 2026. Wow did so many comedies shoot like documentaries back then.

• Untold:

  • Chess Mates (2026): A pretty decent telling of the biggest recent scandal in chess.

  • Jail Blazers (2026): It sort of felt like there wasn’t enough about the actual basketball team in this documentary.

Music I’m Listening to:

• Bartók: Bluebeard’s Castle (1911-17): I saw this live and it was among the coolest operas I’ve ever seen.

• Beethoven: Missa solemnis (1823): One of the great settings of the Mass from the 19th century.

• Jackson Browne: Late for the Sky (1974): I just don’t like the Laurel Canyon aesthetic.

• Chick Corea: Return to Forever (1972): A distinct version of fusion but not my kind of fusion.

• Little Walter Jacobs: His Best (1997): Probably the greatest harmonica player ever, certainly among them.

• Keith Jarrett: Solo-Concerts: Bremen and Lausanne (1973): Jarrett’s first ever released solo performances are a landmark in solo piano improvisation, whether or not I think the aura around those performances might be bullshit.

• Red Nichols: I couldn’t find the right compilation and I let my completist streak take control and now I’ve found myself listening to way too much music by this second rate trumpeter from the 1920s. What am I doing with my life?

• The Messthetics with James Brandon Lewis live at 918 Bathurst: This was incredible. My catnip. (Thanks Matt!)

• Charlie Parker: The Complete Savoy & Dial Master Takes (2002): If you were ever wondering what the big deal was with Bird, well, this shows you.

• Les Paul with Mary Ford: The Best of the Capitol Masters: 90th Birthday Edition (2005): Though this is middle of the road pop music, it is absolutely essential to the history of music and the history of the electric guitar. If you didn’t already know, Paul invented multi-tracking and the guitar orchestra. What he does is absolutely wild, often playing every instrumental track (guitars, bass, percussion, weird noises) on his guitar, and using tape effects among other things.

• Reich: Different Trains (1988): A really incredible piece for string quartet which uses speech to help determine the melodies for the strings. Though I've heard a fair amount of minimalism, I am not sure I have anything quite like this before. Apparently live he plays the voices on a sampler rather than just using the pre-recorded interviews. That must allow them to play at different tempi.

• Seong-Jin Cho: Ravel: Piano Concertos (2025): Weirdly conservative and traditional.

• Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade (1888): I wanted to like this more than I did.

• Sonny Rollins: Saxophone Colossus (1957): A good hard bop plus cool jazz record.

• Schoenberg: Erwartung (1909): Arguably one of the most original and daring operas of the 20th century, seeing it live definitely made it appreciate it more.

• John Eliot Gardiner: Schumann: Complete Symphonies (1998): A very expansive definition of symphony. Anyway, not my favourite Romantic symphonies.

• Archie Shepp: Four for Trane (1965): Not just a tribute album.

• Sibelius: Violin Concerto (1905): One of the greatest violin concertante ever written.

• Sabine Liebner: Stockhausen: Klavierstücke I-XI (2018): Overly academic but probably the most influential atonal piano music of the second half of the 20th century (if you care about such things).

• Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen: Currently in the middle of writing my review of this tetralogy. I’m through the first two but have yet to finish all three listens of the last two. Perhaps the greatest achievement in the history of opera. Certainly among the most influential. The 19th century opera version of the MCU or Star Wars.

• And of course, there are the usual covers.