Humankind Is Simply Color Operating On The 49th Vibration

I don’t have a lot to say today. As I type this, I’m taking a breather from watching the entire first season of Six Feet Under in the span of three days. So far, I’ve made it through the first five episodes, and I estimate that I should be done with it on Saturday morning. (I have plans for Friday, otherwise I would probably finish it then.)

If you go far back into this blog’s archive, you’ll find a very pissy post from sometime over last summer in which I rant about how much I disliked Six Feet Under at the time. I take it all back. When I saw episodes from season 2 (which in fairness, I’ve yet to revisit and could very well be just as awful as I remember them), I was lacking context and I was looking for reasons to dislike the show. I get it now. The first season is fantastic thus far, but still not quite as excellent as the current season is shaping up to be.

I saw A Mighty Wind yesterday too, which was hilarious and did not let me down in the least. I don’t feel as though I’m ready to write about that film just yet, I would like to see it again sometime in the next two or three weeks before I make any serious comments about it as a whole.

The ensemble cast is typically brilliant, very much exactly what you would expect from Christopher Guest after Waiting For Guffman and Best In Show; but Eugene Levy is the heart and soul of this film, and steals every scene that he appears in. The peculiar balance of suicidal despondency, detached flakiness, and painful earnestness that Levy conveys in his performance as Mitch Cohen is consistently funny and surprisingly endearing. For most of the film, I just wanted to give the guy a big hug, and then slowly back away without making eye contact.

Here are some songs for you:

Wire “Being Watched” (from the forthcoming album Send.)

The Slits “Newtown” (live from the In The Beginning compilation.)

By special request:

Guided By Voices “Back To Saturn X” (live from somewhere, 2001.)