A discussion on NPR’s The Pulse of the imagined condition suffered by Charles McGill, played by Michael McKean in Better Call Saul.
Jamaica, Mon
One of the tracks featured in the HBO Watchmen series is Desmond Dekker’s hit “Isrealites,” produced by Leslie Kong.
Debuting on May 17, 1969, the single cracked the Billboard Top 10 at #9. I heard it on WRKO-AM radio in Boston. I love YouTube videos like this one, with a budget record player. It sounds fantastic, and proves the magic is in the grooves, not the gear.
The reference in the song to the groundbreaking 1967 movie Bonnie and Clyde presages the premise of Jimmy Cliff’s The Harder They Come.
So Much For Medical Tourism
Anyone hoping to have hip replacement surgery done in India will have to look elsewhere.
Who Binge Watches the Watchmen?
One thing I didn’t need was another streaming video service, but I got talked into giving HBOmax a try. Over the past three days I’ve watched the nine episodes of HBO’s Watchmen sequel.
The series pushes hard on culture war issues. The presentation owes a lot to the stylistic influence of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. Some hardcore Watchmen fans have complained the series doesn’t remain true to Alan Moore’s original vision, but it carried me through from one episode to the next. HBO has made the soundtrack available on YouTube, and it’s worth scrolling through the playlist for tracks that may be of interest.
Tied to the Trailer Hitch
A few posts ago I commented on a report of institutional investors getting into residential real estate. Before that trend they were into mortgage-backed securities, and we know how that turned out. But now it’s actual property that big money is after, and it’s not just in the luxury market. The acquisitions go all the way down to the lowest rung of home ownership — trailer parks — as covered in a recent article in The New Yorker.
A Three-Hour Tour
A trilogy of hours in conversation with Brian Sibley, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the BBC Radio adaptation of The Lord of the Rings.
I recently began re-listening to my BBC/America CD box set of the series. The actors include Ian Holm and Bill Nighy.