Agents of chaos going out through the world

[sovay]

Tonight rushthatspeaks and I made saffron rice with barberries, Quorn (in place of chicken, so that we could feed it to gaudior) braised with shallots and more saffron, and soft-boiled eggs. This would have been an ideal dinner if the recipe for the rice had not one hundred percent lied when it said it took an hour. We ate around ten o'clock at night. The crisp golden crust at the bottom of the pot would almost certainly have worked better if we'd had basmati rice instead of glutinous, but it seems to have tasted good to the people who could chew it. Oh, and we have leftovers because we accidentally made at least twice as much as we needed for three people. Really everything about this recipe went wrong except that it was delicious. I suppose that is the important part.

1. I haven't a clue if it's any good, but this gifset makes me want to watch The Librarians (2014–). If anyone has recreated the Labyrinth of Minos in a skyscraper in Boston, I want to know about it.

2. So through most of high school and into college I believed that all of my favorite characters were doomed. Bad luck, bad choices, bad plotting, whatever. If a character caught my interest, I could feel confident they were headed for a bad end. As it turns out, the vast majority of characters for whom I have felt an affinity across the years do not die or even meet with tragedy in the course of their stories, but I understand how I got the impression: in high school, I was heavily into Babylon 5 (1994–1998). Also I suspect in hindsight that a preference for morally ambiguous characters and outsiders of all kinds may have weighted the scales a little. But I came to understand that it was a mistaken belief, and I was all right with that, and anyone played by Elisha Cook, Jr. should not be taken as an argument to the contrary. I just found that out that a character who featured in the last Magic expansion block I really paid attention to—right around the time they were starting to play with story arcs; he had an interesting face in several illustrations and all his flavor text was cynical—has a horrifically depressing storyline if you follow it through, which I didn't, because I lost track of the game around the time I started college. Maybe high-school-aged me was on to something after all.

3. What with all the film noir recently, I seem to have compiled a short list of songs I associate with the noir aesthetic, despite absolutely none of them having been written in the appropriate decades. More accurately, they've been changing off in my head for the last couple of days and I am hoping this will exorcise them. Enjoy.

Michael Penn, "Walter Reed"

All I want to do is hide
It's graduation day
And everything I learned inside
Didn't seem to pay
I've had my fill of palm trees
And lighting up Grauman's Chinese

Thea Gilmore, "The Wrong Side"

It's a hard case to make
And I'm hard news and I'm going to break now
They got you walking on the wrong side
They got you walking with me

Saint Eve, "While the City Sleeps"

Right on time—think fast
It happens in a flash
A lifetime of regret begins ten seconds in the past

Timber Timbre, "Bad Ritual"

There's a history in pictures
There is evidence in boxes
There is proof of your love for him long after it's dead

Tom Waits, "Gun Street Girl"

Now the rain like gravel on an old tin roof
Burlington Northern pulling out of the world
Now a head full of bourbon and a dream in the straw
And a Gun Street girl was the cause of it all

Beady Sea, "It'll Be Alright"

If you can't go around, you have to go through
If I can't have her, then I guess I'll take you
So breathe it deep, it'll be all right
One more time, it's going to be all right

Comments

[the_rck]

The Librarians is one of the few shows that I look forward to watching. I like most of the characters, and the stories generally work for me. I'm not hugely critical in how I watch, however, so there may well be things that would annoy you that I'm just overlooking. They play with a lot of different bits of mythology (including a dollop of Arthuriana that I think works well). There are two central female characters and three to four central male characters (one of the male characters only shows up sometimes, at least in season one).

The show does attempt to push a het romance between two of the characters that pretty much everyone I've talked to finds hard to buy, but the guy in that relationship is the male character who only shows up occasionally, so I've been able to ignore that aspect of things most of the time.

The three movies that precede the show aren't nearly as good. They're pulpy and fun but far from deep and don't have continuing female characters. I don't particularly remember, but I'm pretty sure they're on the problematic end of find the stick magical archaeology quests. I only recommend them if you're interested in something brainless to fill time (I think they'd be great for times when I'm on painkillers and unable to think) or if you really want background on the setting.

[skygiants]

I feel like a solid forty or fifty percent of Thea Gilmore's repertoire is really just noir incarnate.

[sovay]

I feel like a solid forty or fifty percent of Thea Gilmore's repertoire is really just noir incarnate.

I only know three songs of hers, but two of them qualify, which I think may prove your point.

[sovay]

I'm not hugely critical in how I watch, however, so there may well be things that would annoy you that I'm just overlooking.

I'll still take the recommendation. If you watch few shows but really like this one, that sounds promising to me. Unconvincing het ship warning also appreciated. Thank you!

[skygiants]

I have loads of Thea Gilmore, if you'd ever like to expand the repertoire!

[sovay]

I have loads of Thea Gilmore, if you'd ever like to expand the repertoire!

Quite likely! "The Wrong Side" is an earworm.

[genarti]

That meal sounds delicious, even if it did take entirely too long to cook. I'm not sure if I've ever had barberries; certainly I haven't cooked with them.

Also, upon reflection, I think skygiants has a solid point about Thea Gilmore. "Things We Never Said" comes to mind as an awfully noirish song too.

[sovay]

I'm not sure if I've ever had barberries; certainly I haven't cooked with them.

They are called zereshk in Persian, which the name I know them best under; they are small tart red fruits that I have only experienced in dried form, where they look rather like small sour cherries, but they have a citric edge and permeate nicely through rice. I suspect they also make a fantastic jam.

Also, upon reflection, I think skygiants has a solid point about Thea Gilmore.

I am honestly thinking that what I want is to listen to some more of her music and then make a mix that is just alternating Thea Gilmore and Tom Waits and there will be none more noir.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Oh excellent. I love your playlists. This is the season for playlists, too, somehow.

Since I have two kids who are pretty into Magic the Gathering, I have to ask them if either of them know about Stark. I realize the game keeps bringing out new cards, but they've liked things from the past, so--we'll see.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Had I known you hadn't yet watched The Librarians, I would have pimped it to you long before now!

It is good in the same way the movies are good, which is to say, it's a story about how you can save the world with your brain, and it doesn't take itself too seriously. (I think the first movie is the best Indiana Jones film after Raiders of the Lost Ark and Last Crusade.) With the show, I'm convinced they came up with the character concepts for the three trainee Librarians, then rotated them one notch around the circle: the girl is the mathematician instead of the art history major; the Asian guy is the roguish thief instead of the mathematician; the white guy is the art history major instead of the roguish thief. There's a story element which is surprisingly serious, and handled with more genuine drama than I expected, in that the show had a chance to handwave the issue away and chose not to. I suspect that in the end they'll do something magical to solve the problem, because this is not the kind of story where heroes meet with tragic ends, but in the meanwhile they're showing a lot more respect toward the concept than I expected them to.

And yes: the Labyrinth of Minos, the Apple of Discord, deranged fairy tales, a haunted house, and Bruce Campbell as Santa Claus. All of which get dealt with by the characters being smart and using their knowledge of random stuff -- because that's how Librarians roll. I think it might entertain you greatly.

[moon-custafer.livejournal.com]

I've only seen one episode -- the one that gently spoofs Lovecraft -- and the highlight for me was the Art History guy having to do a spontaneous lecture on 18th-century architecture (the professor having been dragged through a portal by a giant tentacle moments before his students file in).

In a later scene, we cut back to him wrapping up what was evidently the most inspiring lecture the students have seen all year with a rant about the awesomeness of Capability Brown. In the words of Captain America: "I understood that reference."

[sovay]

In a later scene, we cut back to him wrapping up what was evidently the most inspiring lecture the students have seen all year with a rant about the awesomeness of Capability Brown.

+1.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

There's also a bit in an early episode where you first find out that architecture is one of the subjects he knows stuff about. One of the other characters is surprised by this, saying that they thought he majored in art history, to which he rants, "Architecture is just art people live in. Why doesn't anybody get that?"

I love a show that will take a brief detour for rants like that. :-)

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

Speaking of Tom Waits and noir, have you seen the Jim Jarmusch film "Down By Law"? From the first few minutes, it seems pretty obvious that you're gonna get a gritty noir pic. But this is Jarmusch, so it wanders... elsewhere. Kestrell and I both found it quite satisfying.

(I first discovered it from the film blog of a New Orleans T-shirt store. They said it perfectly captured New Orleans, except for the fact that there is no swamp anywhere near the relevant jail.)

[sovay]

Had I known you hadn't yet watched The Librarians, I would have pimped it to you long before now!

In general I am more familiar with movies that came out forty years before my birth than I am with television that aired within the last five years, although it's not a constant: I am currently suffering from a simultaneous hiatus of Gravity Falls (2012–) and Steven Universe (2013–), which is just unfair. I had heard of The Librarians, but I had no compelling reasons to watch it until that gifset. It sounds like it might be fun and not very demanding in the same way that I have found the first season of seaQuest, which I should finish one of these days.

the girl is the mathematician instead of the art history major; the Asian guy is the roguish thief instead of the mathematician; the white guy is the art history major instead of the roguish thief.

That is attractive to me. I always like when stories recognize their stereotypes and then don't bother.

the Labyrinth of Minos, the Apple of Discord, deranged fairy tales, a haunted house, and Bruce Campbell as Santa Claus.

. . . yeah, okay.

[sovay]

Speaking of Tom Waits and noir, have you seen the Jim Jarmusch film "Down By Law"?

I've heard of it—because of Waits—but I've never seen it. My one experience with Jarmusch was extremely positive, however, so I'll boost it up the list. Thank you!

[sovay]

I love your playlists. This is the season for playlists, too, somehow.

I'm really glad! I hope you enjoy this one.

Since I have two kids who are pretty into Magic the Gathering, I have to ask them if either of them know about Stark.

Let me know what you find out! I am decades out of touch with the game, which is one of the reasons it was fun to catch up with Matthew on Wednesday. The expansion that was essentially tropes of Gothic horror sounded delightful.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Oh man, I'm listening to these now, one at a time, skipping around, and I love them all. The Tom Waits one! I love that so, so much. And just now I'm listening to "The Wrong Side," and very yes. (So far the only other one I've listened to is the Timber Timbre one, and it was very yes as well.

This is is an excellent playlist--THANK YOU. It's going right onto a CD.

[sovay]

The Tom Waits one! I love that so, so much.

I think it may be my favorite Tom Waits song. For a long time I thought it was "Tango Till They're Sore" or "Innocent When You Dream," but this one has so much story in it. I love the sound of it, too, like railroad ties and rain and the world rushing past, but you could do it without the guitar, the song tells you how: banging on the table with an old tin cup, saying I'll never kiss a Gun Street girl again, never kiss a Gun Street girl again. I can't stand my voice anymore, but I sing it late at night.

This is is an excellent playlist--THANK YOU. It's going right onto a CD.

I am delighted to hear it. You're welcome!

[genarti]

I am honestly thinking that what I want is to listen to some more of her music and then make a mix that is just alternating Thea Gilmore and Tom Waits and there will be none more noir.

That mix will be AMAZING, and the auditory equivalent of cigarette smoke and dismal nighttime rain, I suspect.