Downton Abbey

This show wrapped up a few months ago with its sixth and final season, and only just recently did I finish watching the last episode.   It was broadcast by PBS – the Pretentious Broadcasting Service – though I watched it on DVD.  It features a fictitious British family from 1912 (sinking of the Titanic) to early 1926.  With the exception of Cora (Elizabeth McGovern), Cora’s mother (Shirley MacLaine) and uncle (Paul Giamattii) most of the characters are English.   DA is located somewhere in northeast England near York, a substantial distance from London.

I have to admit that my first look was from the Spike TV spoof (all of 5 minutes or so), which was nonetheless accurate.  It described the daughters as hot, way hot, and….the other one (Edith); an old woman who looks like a chicken (Lady Grantham); the people who live downstairs whose lives totally suck (the servants), etc.  Funny but true.

As noted, the show starts in 1912 with the sinking of the Titanic, runs through August 1914 to November 1918 (World War I) and continues to early 1926, just after New Year’s.  The fashions change after WWI, with England getting more liberal and less tolerant of rich people.  Edith has a newspaper boyfriend, an older guy, who relocates to Munich so he can divorce his disabled wife (German law being more liberal in that regard) but runs afoul of Adolf and his minions.  Tom and Sybill move to Ireland briefly, and some Americans and Russians are involved, but the show is 95% based and oriented towards England. 

Characters

Rich People

Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham (Hugh Bonneville).  The father.  Apparently he served in the Boer War with Bates.   His role in WWI is to stay home and not get killed, though wearing a uniform and having officer’s rank, as all nobles seem to get simply by being who they are.  He’s a tad arrogant but very just, and overall just plain cool.

Lady Cora (Elizabeth McGovern).   Half American?  All American? I can’t remember.  But she’s also very cool.  Occasionally she fights with him but mostly they get along.

Violet Crawley, Countess of Grantham (Maggie Smith).  Lord Grantham’s mother, aka The Chicken Lady.  A very shrewd woman who doesn’t mind putting people down in a clever way.  Her insults are one of the best things on this show. [Cue Kelso: “BURN!!!”]

Mary (Michelle Dockery).  Oldest daughter, she has to marry Matthew because the prior heirs went down on the Titanic.  Pretty but very arrogant and not above screwing around.  I found her somewhat annoying.

Cybill (Jessica Brown Findlay).  Youngest daughter. Attractive and NOT arrogant.  She wound up with Branson, much to everyone’s surprise.  But she is super cool.

Edith (Laura Carmichael).  The Ugly One.  Despite this she’s mostly sympathetic and sets up her own magazine down in London.  And she wins big time later, but she has to go through a ton of crap before.

Matthew Crawley (Dan Stevens).  The sudden heir, he’s actually bourgeois – middle class -and a lawyer.  He serves in WWI as an officer and somehow survives.  I liked him the most.

Isobel Crawley (Penelope Wilton).  His mom, kind of a busybody and somewhat clueless, but sympathetic nonetheless.

Poor People Who Live In the Dungeon

Carson (Jim Carter).   Here’s…. JOHNNY.   I found it remarkable that the #1 Butler was far more arrogant than any the nobles he serves.  He’s stuffy, uptight, has practically no sense of humor and generally unlikeable.

Mrs.  Hughes (Phyllis Logan).  Pretty much the top female servant, she has a heart and serves as a safety valve from Carson’s anal retentiveness.

Mr. Bates (Brendan Coyle).  I am convinced this guy was in prison before.  The quiet but menacing badass.  Don’t f**k with Bates.  He’s #2 after Carson.

O’Brien (Siobhann Finneran).  Essentially the female version of Carson, but briefly aligned with Darrow until her nephew shows up and puts them at odds.  I believe she’s Lady Cora’s maid.

Anna (Joanne Froggat).  A female servant, Mary’s maid, who hooks up with Bates.  Attractive and smart.

William.  A male servant, he serves in France with Matthew Crawley, though as an enlisted man.  He makes it back… or does he?   He’s set up (briefly) with Daisy, which gives her an opportunity to show her unique stupidity.

Mrs Patmore (Lesly Nicol).  The chief cook in the kitchen.  Kind of dumpy and an improbable madam.  Mostly she tries to keep Daisy from screwing things up (with modest success). 

Darrow (Rob James-Collier)  One of the lesser butlers – these subordinate titles went over my head, but suffice to say the underlings were VERY sensitive about their ranks in the house.  Darrow was ruthless and generally had some sort of scheme going, typically blackmail.  He didn’t get along with anyone else and Bates in particular had his eye on him.  Although his social life was nil, we know he favored the guys.  Mostly unsympathetic until the end. 

Tom Branson (Allen Leech).  The family’s socialist chauffeur who bounced up across class lines even to his own surprise.  Another sympathetic character.

Daisy (Sophie McShera).  Ugly, stupid and arrogant is a bad combination.   She’s a kitchen cook.

Game of Thrones.  Iain Glen (Ser Jorah Mormont) plays an arrogant newspaper guy who is briefly engaged to Mary (S2), and Rose Leslie (you know nothing, Ygritte) is Gwen Dawson, a maid (S1).

Remarkably, the Rich People aren’t nearly as arrogant as the Poor People who work for them.  Probably that’s because the upper class have their positions by birth (until death) and while they do have many concerns, losing their position is not one of them.  The poor people have to take what they can get, so when they do get something – a posh job in a fancy house – they jealously guard it.  But Carson takes it upon himself to be arrogant and stuck up on BEHALF of his lord, holier than thou, as it were. 

Also, we assume “nobles” have money, but not necessarily.  Many have the title and nothing else.  Around the turn of the century, many wealthy Americans were amassing huge fortunes, much to the jealousy of poor nobles, and intermarrying with British nobles in mutually beneficial arrangements.  Of course, the merchants and bankers were rich long before the Rockefellers.  While this business of nobles trading titles for wealth isn’t so big here, poor or cash-strapped nobles, including the Granthams themselves, do figure substantially here.

Although it covers the whole time of WWI, very little of the show takes place in France – much to my annoyance.  Likewise, the Nazis do their mischief off camera.  More annoyance.  However, the story lines and plot twists, while nothing earthshaking or mindboggling, are still substantial enough that there’s an element of surprise which keeps the show interesting.  Mainly you care about these people and want to see what happens to them.  What I like the best is the way the Rich People – particularly Robert – are not assholes.  They’re genuinely warm and friendly to the servants and help them out.  Noblesse oblige, perhaps, but sincere and substantial.  For his part, Tom Branson starts off worshipping Bernie Sanders but comes around to Gary Johnson’s viewpoint soon enough.  The combination of compelling characters and active plot changes kept the series interesting and watchable – in fact, all the way to the end with no perceptible “peak” or “shark jumping”.  Bravo!

Brian vs Axl

Recently I had the immense good fortune to experience what will possibly be the second to last AC/DC concert, and the last in my area, at the Verizon Center in DC.  Many thanks to my brother Matt, who took me to the show.  Amen!

The concert was originally scheduled for March 17, but had to be postponed when singer Brian Johnson was advised by his doctor to quit touring or lose his hearing.  After much confusion, the band agreed to have the infamous, erratic, and heretofore unreliable Guns N’Roses singer W. Axl Rose take over.  This was even more remarkable as he had also reconciled with his former GNR bandmates Slash and Duff McKagan, and was touring with the revamped GNR at about the same time.  So there was ample speculation as to whether this would work.  Now we know.

The band went on around 9 p.m. and played for a solid two hours, not counting the encore.  Now that the tour is over I can disclose the setlist without ruining it for anyone:  Rock Or Bust, Shoot To Thrill, Hell Ain’t A Bad Place To Be, Back in Black, Got Some Rock’n’Roll Thunder, Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, Rock’n’Roll Damnation, Thunderstruck, High Voltage, Rock’n’Roll Train, Hell’s Bells, Given The Dog A Bone, If You Want Blood (You Got It), Live Wire, Sin City, You Shook Me All Night Long, Shot Down in Flames, Have a Drink On Me, T.N.T., Whole Lotta Rosie, Let There Be Rock, and (encore) Highway to Hell, Riff Raff, and For Those About To Rock (We Salute You).  The last show in Philadelphia added “Problem Child” to the encore.

As the setlist indicates, the band dipped deep into its Bon Scott repertoire to our immense surprise and satisfaction; as Matt noted, in Johnson’s absence the band was free to play more of Bon Scott’s material.   I found Axl’s inter-song banter somewhat unintelligible and obtuse – similar to Ian Gillan – but his vocals and delivery were spot on, both for the Johnson material, but also for the Scott material, though with regard to the latter he appeared to be doing his own impression of Johnson singing Scott’s material.  Well, I can’t and won’t complain.

Brian vs. Axl.  Let me start by saying that I have always been somewhat ambivalent about Axl Rose.  With regard to his singing ability, Rose has a refreshing variety of singing styles, not just one.  Appetite For Destruction, Use Your Illusion (I & II), and GNR Lies, (and, for that matter, Chinese Democracy) show his impressive range – leave aside his myriad attitude problems and other eccentricities, as a singer he is VERY good.  

Contrast this with Brian Johnson, who from Back In Black to Rock Or Bust has a grand total of ONE singing style, a raspy shriek which has not improved over the years.  He could not sing “Ride On”, much less “Patience”, “Used to Love Her”, “Sweet Child O’Mine”, or “Estranged”, and his delivery of Bon’s songs is barely adequate and NO improvement.  So as singers, Axl is clearly superior to Johnson.

As musicians?  By that I mean, showing up on time, getting along with your bandmates, cooperating in the studio and on tour, and overall doing what you have to so the band puts out albums and tours effectively.  By that standard Johnson was clearly superior.   Axl, for all his talent, seemed to degenerate into a spoiled child for many years.  Chinese Democracy took far too long to come out and was at best mediocre when it did, although Use Your Illusion should really be condensed down to one superlative, classic album instead of two albums with some excellent songs and lots of inane filler.  It took Axl all this time to surgically remove his head from his ass and get back with Slash and Duff, each of whom were capable of putting out material and touring with other bands while Axl was …doing what?  

Meanwhile, Brian Johnson sang on Back in Black, For Those About To Rock, Flick of the Switch, Fly on the Wall, Blow Up Your Video, The Razor’s Edge, Ballbreaker, Stiff Upper Lip, Black Ice, and Rock Or Bust, and until his doctor pulled the plug on him, reliably toured all those albums without any fuss or bother.  I suppose his blue collar upbringing in Newcastle instilled a strong work ethic which I have to admire.  As a musician, Johnson clearly beat Axl.

As persons?  I read Johnson’s book, Rockers and Rollers.  This was written BY him (with some assistance), not an expose by someone else intended to make him look bad.  Yet it makes him look bad.  He prattles about Geordie (like we care), his rare mentions of AC/DC are put-downs of Angus and Malcolm, and he brags about racing cars as a hobby – without mentioning Nick Mason.  Overall somewhat of a jerk, but even so, not nearly as petulant and spoiled as Axl.  In that regard I’d call him a bit better than Axl. 

When the AXL decision was announced, a substantial outcry went up.  Axl? In AC/DC?  I suspect 90% of that opposition was because it appeared that Johnson - who up to this point was 100% reliable, as noted above, for 36 years - was being summarily dismissed due to factors beyond his control and the heretofore ne'er-do-well, spoiled child Axl was given the job in his place.  Certainly, viewed in that context it looks unfair to Johnson and an equally inequitable windfall to Axl.  "The show must go on" sounds awfully harsh, but recall that Johnson replaced Bon in mere months, so he was also the beneficiary of his predecessor's bad luck.  But I believe that, notwithstanding his prior track record, Axl delivered the goods and got the job done.

Brian vs. Bon.  Maybe a bit unfair, but I’ll do it anyway.  Bon’s voice was much better than Brian’s, by far.  No contest.  In terms of material, look at the Bon albums.  High Voltage (US/Europe and Australian), TNT (Australian), Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (US/Europe and Australian) Let There Be Rock, Powerage, and Highway to Hell.  All decent albums, with the last three being superb classics.   Six albums from 1975 to 1979 – just four years. 

Brian Johnson’s era has 10 albums from 1980 to 2014, 34 years.  Of these, one classic, two are very good, and the rest are highly mediocre, including two stinkers, Fly on the Wall and Blow Up Your Video.  Fortunately for us fans, the band mostly tended to ignore the crap in concert, giving up sets which were 40% Back In Black, 40% Bon Scott, and only 20% new stuff no one wanted to hear.  

Fortunately, this time around, Axl & Angus – supported by Stevie Young, Cliff Williams, and Chris Slade – played plenty of stuff we wanted to hear.  With the cannons roaring, this band literally went out with a bang.    

Widespread Panic

…aka “Widespread Picnic”, or “Widespread Panic at the Disco”.   I mentioned this band briefly in my more recent revisit to the issue of jam bands, but now having actually seen them in concert (Coney Island, Ford Amphitheater, Saturday, September 10), I can comment a bit more about them.  I’ll also comment on the Grateful Dead and the jam band scene in general. 

Like their comrades the Allman Brothers’ Band, WP are from Georgia.   The Grateful Dead had Jerry Garcia (and upon his demise, Bobby Weir), and Phish have Trey Anastasio, another guitarist-singer.  For WP, it’s John Bell, who sounds like a Southern Jim Morrison.  They have twelve studio albums, of which I have the first two, Space Wrangler, Widespread Panic (self-titled), and the most recent three, Free Somehow, Dirty Side Down, and Street Dogs.  The material is heavier and more rock-oriented than the Dead or Phish, so I find it a bit less tiresome than either of those.  Like those bands, in concert you can expect a different set each night, and two full 90 minute sets split up with a brief intermission.  Not wanting to risk confusion in Manhattan at late hours, I took the subway back to Port Authority after the first set, and availed myself of the band’s website to download the entire show once I got back home. 

Having that option was nice and impressive in its own right.  Phish sell packages where you can download the entire tour, and again having a different set each night makes that worthwhile.  Pearl Jam and Clutch are the only non-jam bands I’m aware of who vary up their setlists. I wish more bands would do it.  On this final tour Black Sabbath played literally the same set each night, though they did add in a few more obscure songs.  On the other hand, the tie-dye shirt I got from the parking lot far exceeded the paltry selection WP had at its own concession stand.  I guess you can’t beat everything.  Perhaps they don’t bother because they know the bootleggers are better at making shirts than they are.  Anyhow.

The Parking Lot.  Here’s where I’d like to veer off from talking about WP in particular and address a specific element of jam bands in general.   I already mentioned the variable set lists, but the parking lot scene is worth mentioning.

            I’m not going to claim to be a huge veteran of the jam band scene.  Of the 200+ shows I’ve seen, the vast majority were standard rock concerts.   The doors open at 7 p.m., the opening act goes on at 8 and plays until 8:45, and the headliner goes on at 10 p.m. and plays until 11:30.  You have reserved seats and only get there early if you have a specific interest in the opening act.  100% of your purchases are inside the venue, typically a t-shirt and maybe a beer and pizza or nachos.  That’s Heavy Metal Parking Lot, the majority of my concertgoing experience from 1984 to the present.

The jam band scene is different.   Although the WP show had a modest parking lot, and I’ve been to the scene at a Jerry Garcia Band show (at the Cap Center), my #1 parking lot experience was at the Grateful Dead show at RFK Stadium in June 1992.  This was well before I actually got into the Dead, but did recognize “Casey Jones”, a song which rarely gets played lived notwithstanding (or perhaps because of) its popularity.   As Jerry Garcia died in 1995, this was the tail end of their original run.  After he died the band reunited a few times again as “The Dead” (which I’ve seen) with Bobby Weir in the Garcia role and often with guests, e.g. Warren Haynes of Govt Mule (2003) and more recently John Mayer.  So I can’t even really claim to be a big Dead veteran.   My cousins saw the show in Egypt in 1978.  They have me beat there.

Anyhow.  I got there at noon (this was a Saturday), and my law school buddy Bloss showed up at 1 p.m.   By 2 p.m. the parking lot was full.  We’re talking about the entire parking lot at a football stadium.  Ironically, all this time I’ve been a Vikings fan I’ve never actually tailgated at an NFL game.  I’ve never even been to Minnesota, and the only Redskins game I’ve been to was at FedEx Field; my RFK visits were all for concerts.  What passes for psychedelic tailgating at the Grateful Dead show at RFK includes:

1.  Food.  Some of it is that bizarre falafel stuff that only hippies eat.  The rest was regular stuff like hamburgers and hot dogs – plus soft drinks, water, and beer.

2.  T-shirts.  Of course, the well-done tie dye shirts were common.  I even saw a tie-dye vendor at the WP show on the Coney Island boardwalk.  These are high quality.  But there were also some very clever Calvin & Hobbes shirts, even a Calvin vs. Bart Simpson bong-off deal.

3.   Bootlegs.  Actually, back in 1988 my buddy Baron sold bootleg Pink Floyd photos (taken at the Philadelphia show the prior fall) in the parking lot at RFK for the Pink Floyd show (A Momentary Lapse of Reason tour).   Our buddy Rob traded some pics for drugs; I simply sat down with the main stash and read Ayn Rand books.  I don’t recall much traffic in bootlegs at the GD show, though in the days before the Internet was popular (1992) this would have been more prevalent than it is now.  

4.   Drugs.  Remarkably, despite all the drugs for sale, the cops were MIA and I didn’t see anyone busted.  Obviously marijuana is the most popular, but “doses” (LSD), mushrooms, and nitrous oxide (N20) sold out of tanks and by the balloon full, were also available.  I overheard one guy joking that it was a de facto drug bazaar. 

I’m not at liberty to disclose or reveal which drugs – if any – JB and I purchased and/or consumed, but suffice to say that if anyone was looking for such items and had no personal supplier, this was the place to find it.  On the other hand, putting too much emphasis on drugs is a mistake.  The band, the music – the unpredictable set lists varying night by night for the entire tour – the entire experience was unique.  I can say with the utmost confidence that, notwithstanding my limited sample size of ONE, the more seasoned veterans going back to the 70s and 80s will confirm this: there was nothing like a Dead show. 

At 7 p.m. the Steve Miller Band went on, but Bloss and I didn’t go into the stadium itself until just before the Dead were due to go onstage.  I had tickets for section 3 million something, seats we never saw.  We just went down to the field and joined the crowd, with no hassle.  By beginning of set two, which started with “Corinna”, I had moved close up to the stage.  We stayed to the end:  the encore was “Baba O’Riley” (Who cover), and “Tomorrow Never Knows” (Beatles cover).   A few years later, after I finally “got into” the Dead, my friend Ken gave me a bootleg of this particular show, which I listen to from time to time (minus “Drums/Space”, which I regularly ignore). 

[Incidentally, I did go to see the Dead once more before Jerry died, in 1995.  This time around I did not hang out in the parking lot but simply went into the show.  It was raining, unlike the beautiful summer weather in 1992.  I blame the weather for not cooperating (but the heat came ‘round and busted me for smiling on a cloudy day).]

It’s tempting to bust on the audience as tripping hippies who think they’re amoebas. There are a few spinners – zoned out trippers spinning around to the music – but my contrast was this.  The month later, in July 1992, my brother and I went to RFK to see Metallica and Guns N’Roses, with Faith No More opening. The crowd was hardcore assholes from wall to wall.  Although this was music I much preferred and related to, the audience was not nearly as cooperative and enjoyable.  I’d take a comatose, shrooming hippie over an overintoxicated, belligerent Metallica fan picking fights with everyone around him.  The floor scene at the Dead was mellow; the floor scene during Metallica was an entire crowd fighting itself.  It’s definitely two different scenes…man.

War of the Worlds

I recently finished reading the original H.G. Wells story, War of the Worlds.  Before that I had seen the classic 1950s film, and the more recent Tom Cruise version.   But I had never read the original.

Mars Attacks.  We don’t know why.   They’re nasty aliens in big spaceships.   They are hostile and do not communicate with us by any means.  They use heat rays and black poison gas to kill us.   All of our weapons are completely useless against them.   The original takes place in England in the late 1800s, so the best anyone can do is shoot shells at the Martians, which knocks out a total of ONE Martian walker. 

Well, all our best weapons can’t stop the Martians, so they take over the world?  Not so fast.  It seems the Martians have no natural immunity to bacteria, so their invading army comes to an abrupt halt, and their fearsome machines shut down cold and quiet, as our unseen allies dispatch the entire Martian army on their own.  “…and there was much rejoicing…!”

Original (1897).  Not too hard to read, told in the first person by the “humble narrator”, who I imagine speaking with Malcom MacDowell’s voice, thanks to “Time After Time”, the sci-fi movie wherein the “A Clockwork Orange” actor played Wells, who had travelled to early 1980s San Francisco to track down Jack the Ripper (David Warner).  Anyhow.

1938 Radio Broadcast by Orson Welles.   The Martians land in New Jersey.  Basically the same as the book, except in New Jersey instead of London.  It’s well done, so any Wells/Welles fan should listen to it at least once.

1953. I consider this film the definitive version.  Instead of London or New York it’s Los Angeles that gets attacked.  By now humans have deadlier weaponry with which to defend against the Martians, but even a hydrogen bomb has no effect on them.

Mars Attacks! (1996).  Not really an adaptation per se so much as a deliberate spoof.  It’s silly – instead of bacteria, the Martians are defeated by hearing Slim Whitman’s “Indian Love Call”.  It does have an all-star cast - Jack Nicholson plays the US President - and the irreverent plot makes it fun to watch…at least once. 

2005.  Essentially a remake of the 1953 film with Steven Spielberg providing contemporary special effects and Tom Cruise as the lead hero.   Cruise’s character starts in Bayonne, NJ and tries to get to Boston.  I consider this worth watching once as a comparison to 1953, but it really doesn’t add much to the prior version.

One World Observatory

Last weekend I finally made it back up to the WTC since the observation deck was opened in the new (single) building, One World Trade Center.

Back in the summer of 1988, we visited the observation deck at the prior Twin Towers.   These were originally built in 1974.  We had been to Manhattan a few times in the late 1970s but only visited the Empire State Building (ESB).  

Observation Deck.  This was in the South Tower.   Having previously experienced the ESB, I was disappointed with this.  First off, the ESB is in the middle of Manhattan (34 & Fifth Ave) so the view is more even around.  South of the WTC is mostly ocean, though you can see Liberty Park, Ellis Island, Staten Island, and the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in the distance.  Second, the windows of the deck were about 50 feet in from the edge of the building.  That took away much of the drama.

1993 Bombing.   A pair of Pakistani yahoos blew up a Ryder truck in the parking garage.  Six people died, and the garage was heavily damaged, but obviously the towers did not collapse.  This lulled us in to a false sense of security.

September 11, 2001.  This time around 19 hijackers learned to fly planes, took over 4 jets with box cutters, and crashed all four of them.  One crashed in the countryside of western Pennsylvania (we drove by the site on our way to Cleveland this summer), another crashed into the Pentagon, and the two others brought down the Twin Towers, as we call them. 

Current Deal.   The site of the original Twin Towers is marked with big square fountains.   The new WTC is a single building, which opened in November 2014, and its Observation Deck (One World Observatory) is finally open.  You take an elevator (?? You don’t walk up 102 stories?) which shows you Manhattan’s development.  Then you come out and browse around.  There’s a gift shop, a café, and a restaurant.  But the best thing is that the glass windows are at the very edge of the building, not 50 feet in.