The IT Crowd

*Image from TheTVDB.

Title: The IT Crowd

Genre: Situational Comedy
Created By: Graham Linehan
Starring: Chris O'Dowd, Richard Ayoade, Katherine Parkinson, Matt Berry
TV Run: February 2004 - July 2010 (Channel 4)
Seasons: 4 Episodes: 26 





Available on Netflix as of this post: Click here.


Full disclosure again, I have a thing for British comedies. I don't know why, I think the dry wit just works for me. The IT Crowd is a brilliant show, the characters are loveable, and it is one of the few shows that I have been able to watch multiple times without getting sick of it.

Characters:

*Image from Channel 4's website.

Roy Trenneman (Played by Chris O'Dowd)

One of the two IT professionals at Reynholm Industries. He is Irish and generally a slacker. He is often seen as less naive than his counterpart Maurice Moss. Doesn't seem to particularly enjoy his job in IT.

*Image from Channel 4's website.

Maurice Moss (Played by Richard Ayoade)

The other IT professional in the series. He is your socially awkward, incredibly intelligent, incredibly geeky, and relatively naive individual. He plays a brilliant counterpoint to Chris O'Dowds character Roy. Also probably my favorite character in this series.




  

*Image from Channel 4's website.

Jen Barber (Played by Katherine Parkinson)

The new "relationship manager" of the IT department. She is definitely a people person, but lacks any sort of computer knowledge. She lies on her CV to get the job and is placed as the manager of the IT department. Her lack of knowledge is a common joke point during the series.

*Image from Channel 4's website.

Denholm Reynholm (Played by Chris Morris)

The founder of Reynholm Industries. A bombastic, boisterous, no-nonsense kind of guy that expects to get everything he wants. His character is one of the most absurd of the series.



  

*Image from Channel 4's website.

Douglas Reynholm (Played by Matt Berry)

The son of Denholm Reynholm and somewhat has a similar feeling to Austin Powers. He is driven by sexual innuendo, is incredibly personable, and is also quite naive.







This show definitely has a bit of a computer geek slant to it, and while you don't have to be a computer geek to find it funny, I think it definitely helps to be one. If you are employed as an IT person you'll probably find this show even more identifiable. I don't often consider shows as part of a "favorite show of all time" list, but if I did have one this would certainly be on there.

If you're worried that it'll be too geeky for you, don't worry about that. The introduction of Katherine Parkinson's character "Jen" will even out those feelings for you, her character "degeekifies" things during the show quite a bit, and the common clash between the geeks (Roy and Moss) and the non-geek (Jen) is something that makes the show quite entertaining to watch.

So enjoy, and happy watching!  

Sleepthief - Labyrinthine Heart

Artist: Sleepthief

Album: Labyrinthine Heart

Genre: Electronic/Pop
Released: August 31, 2009
Label: Neurodisc
Producers: Justin Elswick, Israel Curtis



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Recommended
Relistenable
Spotify
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Track Listing:

1. "Here I Confess" featuring Joanna Stevens (4:26)
2. "World Gone Crazy" featuring Coury Palermo (3:54)
3. "Skimming Stones" featuring Kirsty Hawkshaw (3:49)
4. "Labyrinthine Heart" featuring Jody Quine (4:07)
5. "A Kind Of Magic" featuring Zoë Johnston (4:02)
6. "A Cut From The Fight" featuring Kristy Thirsk (3:50)
7. "Rainy World" featuring Caroline Lavelle (5:10)
8. "Ariadne (The Dividing Sea)" featuring Joanna Stevens (3:48)
9. "Reason Why" featuring Coury Palermo & Zoë Johnston (4:26)
10. "Fire King" featuring Jody Quine (3:29)
11. "Reversals" featuring Kristy Thirsk (4:00)
12. "There's Something Going On" featuring Roberta Carter Harrison (4:34) 

Woo, that's a lot of featurings. Sleepthief is a recording project by Justin Elswick. The style of the music is strongly electronic (as evident with the background beat in most of the songs). Overlaid on top of this electronic backing are the vocals from the many featured artists from all around the electronica sphere.

I have done my best to link to the artists official websites in the above track listing, but some did not have one available.

So with no further ado, let's break down the tracks.

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Track 1: "Here I Confess" featuring Joanna Stevens (4:26)

The album begins with this very solid mellow track. We open with a piano run followed quickly by some lovely vocal layers. The electronic background kicks in shortly before the lead vocals kick off. Joanna Stevens is one of my favorite vocalists on this album. Her vocals have a nice timbre that is easy on the ears. A nice string arrangement follows throughout the album adding a nice soft touch to the song.

The first half of the song is very mellow with vocal and string layers surrounding you in sound. Towards the middle to last third of the song we have a quickening of the strings as the vocals flourish. The song slowly ends as the vocals peak and then fade.


Track 2:  "World Gone Crazy" featuring Coury Palermo (3:54)

The second track has a much more upbeat tempo to it. "World Gone Crazy" was remixed multiple times and released as an EP in December of 2009. 

This track starts right up with the electronic backing. Coury Palermo's vocals swoop in about 20-30 seconds in. The driving beat of the electronic counterpoint with the smooth vocals that Palermo produces. The chorus section brings cranks up the electronic layers while Palermo's vocals remain steady throughout. We have a short instrumental break about 1:30 in with strong strings taking the forefront.

Palermo reenters and more vocal layers added. We start getting a nice threaded vocal run about 2:40 into the song. Vocal harmonization layers dominate the sound as Palermo's vocals are harmonized with one another. Towards the end of the song we start getting a nice string melody that complements the Palermo harmonization very well. 


Track 3: "Skimming Stones" featuring Kirsty Hawkshaw (3:49)

This is another one of my favorite tracks on the album. This is another relatively mellow song. It starts with a nice vocal flourish by Hawkshaw with a steady string run in the background. Hawkshaw's vocals begin about 0:18 into the song. Hawkshaw's vocals have a deeper tone to them. There's a nice guitar arpeggio running throughout most of the song.

Goosebumps starting at about 2:00 and crescendo at 2:08. We start getting an interesting vocal layering going on. 2:28 the song mellows out again and Hawkshaw comes back in with her sultry vocals. A soft vocal harmony layer continues in the background.

Goosebumps starting at 3:23 again. We have that beautiful vocal layer harmonization from before, except add a nice foreground vocal layer from Hawkshaw. The song gently decrescendos.

 
Track 4: "Labyrinthine Heart" featuring Jody Quine (4:07)

The title track to the album, and probably one of the strongest songs on the album. Jody Quine's vocals are beautiful here. We start with an interesting piano and electronic layer. Quine's vocals enter around 0:27. A soft string arrangement follows her lush vocals throughout the majority of the song. 

Around 1:10 we start getting this nice counterpoint harmony with Quine's vocals still dominating the track.

Goosebumps at around 1:34 as a beautiful vocal harmonization takes over.

At around 2:15 we get a sort of whisper vocalization part with a sharp string melody. Quine enters back in around 2:40. We get that counterpoint harmony again.

Goosebumps at about 3:04 again when we are greeted with that beautiful vocal harmonization again.

The song leaves the vocal track and a soft instrumental leads us out.


Track 5: "A Kind Of Magic" featuring Zoë Johnston (4:02)

This is probably my least favorite track on the album. The song itself isn't bad but for some reasons the vocals and lyrics don't really work for me. The song starts with soft instrumentals that lead into Johnston's vocals. Her vocals are solid but as I said the timbre of her voice doesn't seem to agree with me.

We have the vocal harmonies that prevail throughout the track (which is a common theme on this album).    

Around 2:19 we get a nice vocal variation where the strings swell and the lyrics flow gently through the middle. For much of the remainder of the song we have the same soft instrumental and electronic background with Johnston's vocals remaining throughout.


Track 6: "A Cut From The Fight" featuring Kristy Thirsk (3:50)

This is another one of my favorite tracks either my favorite or second favorite. Kristy's Thirsk's vocals are excellent in this track. We start with a strong electronic beat and the sort of "whisper" vocals. 

Around 0:30 Thirsk's vocals enter set against a nice electronic beat. Thirsk does a lot of upper range work. A gentle driving electronic line goes with the drawn out vocal lines.

If you have a good sound system (or good headphones) that have a nice bass range, the bass line on the song comes through during the entirety of the song.

You won't find a lot of lyrical variety in this song, but it manages the repetition with enough flair to keep the song from sounding strained or boring.


Track 7: "Rainy World" featuring Caroline Lavelle (5:10)

Another solid track featuring Caroline Lavelle. We start with the usual soft electronic beat and Lavelle's vocals come in around 0:30. Her vocal timbre has a nice mellow kind of sultry timbre to it.

Again if you have a system with a nice bass range on it, the bass line on this song comes through very strongly as well.

This song is dominated by the vocals and not a lot of instrumentation (electronic or otherwise) really comes through until around 1:50 when we have a nice instrumental flourish. Lavelle's lyrics pick up again around 2:07.

Another instrumental flourish happens around 3:40. We get a nice sort of melodic cello part that comes through here. Lavelle picks it up again around 4:09 except now there's a much stronger instrumental backing to her vocals. You can feel the tension rising at this point. Continuing until the gradual fade out.


Track 8:  "Ariadne (The Dividing Sea)" featuring Joanna Stevens (3:48)

Another track featuring Joanna Stevens. Much like the first track her vocals dominate the soundscape here with light counterpoint vocals accenting. The harmonic counterpoint continues through a good portion of the song.

Around 2:30 the tension in the song starts building. With the vocal flourishes increasing. Around 2:50 we get a stronger vocal harmony as the tension continues to rise. Stevens keeps up with her main vocal line. Until the song gradually decreases the tension towards the end leading us out nicely.


Track 9:  "Reason Why" featuring Coury Palermo & Zoë Johnston (4:26)

Here we have another track featuring Palermo and we add Johnston to the mix. The song begins with Palermo's vocals and a soft piano backing. There is a ton of vocal layering and combination in this song. Palermo and Johnston hand off the vocal line, and their vocals sound nearly the same in terms of timbre and pitch that it becomes hard to discern when they switch.

This sort of vocal layering is common in many Sleepthief songs, but it becomes difficult to differentiate between Palermo's and Johnston's vocals as they are singing at almost exactly the same pitch and timbre. At 1:35 you hear more directly from Johnston

Throughout the song we have this really beautiful piano line that dominates most of the rhythmic background to the song. Around 3:00 we have the two vocalists enter again and this is where the goosebumps start. 3:30 the song starts to crescendo a little bit as the vocal harmony continues. Finally a gradual decline into the next track.

Track 10: "Fire King" featuring Jody Quine (3:29)

Now I loved Jody Quine in the title track Labyrinthine Heart on this album, but this track in general I did not favor as much. Quine's vocals are solid throughout with the common vocal harmony and strong electronic backing, but the lyrics don't really work for me here.

I like the little vocal echo we get at certain points in the song which add a little to the harmony happening throughout. We hear this very strongly at 2:03 when we get a nice break from the main vocal track. Again the bass line runs strongly throughout this song.

The song continues on this same path until the gradual fade out towards the end setting us up for the next song. 


Track 11:  "Reversals" featuring Kristy Thirsk (4:00)

Another of my favorite tracks on this album. This song is a little more on the melancholic side. We still have the strong bass line and solid electronic backing. However, the vocals and lyrics here makes the song very sorrowful sounding.

Thirsk's vocals dominate this song and the instrumentation stays subdued throughout the track. We have that vocal harmony again that Sleepthief loves using, and it certainly feels like the tension is slowly rising throughout this song.

Around 3:00 we start getting that goosebumps feeling again. With vocal flourishes at 3:27 increasing the tension there as Thrisk really carries the vocals well here. As the song nears conclusion we get that soft fading of the vocals again as everything calms down again easing the tension.


Track 12: "There's Something Going On" featuring Roberta Carter Harrison (4:34)

Okay, so we had Reversals just before this track which was very sorrowful and melancholic sounding. Then we rip into "There's Something Going On" featuring Roberta Carter Harrison. This track immediately pumps the tempo up and drives the bass line hard right from the get go.

We also get that nice string backing as Harrison's vocals enter. It seems that a lot of the Sleepthief featured vocalists have a sort of lower timbre to their singing which isn't a bad thing.

We drive into the chorus line around 1:14 with the electronic beat picking up here and Harrison continuing her solid vocals.1:55 we get a nice back and forth between Harrison's vocals and a sharp instrumentation response.

Around 2:50 we break into a nice instrumental part with the electronic influence shining brightly here. Harrison sort of switches to the background for a minute while the instrumentation takes the foreground. Right after this point we get back to that Harrison foreground vocals with instrumentation response flourishes.

Towards the end we wind down again as the music slowly fades out.

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Right, that was a lot of text and if you are still reading at this point I congratulate you. (: This is what you can come to expect from my music reviews. I like to go as in depth as possible on a per track basis, and give you a little stream of consciousness as I'm writing about those tracks.

Anyway, I definitely recommend this album. It is a bit hard to find it in physical format (on Amazon anyway). It is available on Spotify if you use that service, also on various other Internet music streaming services. You can buy a digital version of the album directly from the Sleepthief website.

The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach

The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach

ISBN: 0316126675   ISBN13: 9780316126670
Pages: 544
Genre: Fiction, Sports, LGBT
Publisher: Back Bay Books (Paperback)
Published: 2012/05/01 (Paperback)

 

 

 

 

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Page-Turner

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Full disclosure, I am a baseball fan. This probably weighs on my positive view of this book. I destroyed this book. (No I didn't burn it). I mean the book is over 500 pages and I read it in about six days. How fast do I normally read you ask? Certainly not 100 pages a day. Probably closer to 25-30.

That being said this is a very light read. The plot line was decent, but the biggest issue I had was character abandonment. The main character in the book is Henry Skrimshander (I love the names in this book by the way) who is an outstanding shortstop. At the beginning of the novel there is a lot of time spent on developing Henry's character, but towards the middle he kind of gets abandoned as other plot threads and characters are pursued. The book does pick up on Henry again but not until the end of the novel.

There are four main plot threads that are followed in this book. Thread one is Henry's meeting Mike Schwartz. Mike Schwartz becomes a personal coach and trainer of Henry after seeing Henry's incredibly fielding prowess. They train relentlessly to build up Henry's physical abilities.

A second thread revolves around Guert Affenlight, the President of Westish college, and his struggles with sexual identity. Guert realizes his attraction to Owen Dunne and tries to make sense of his feelings and how to handle them properly.

A third thread is Pella Affenlight. Yes she gets her own thread. Pella is the daughter of Guert Affenlight. She drops out of college to marry an older man and leaves him without his knowledge. She decides to start attending Westish college, and immediately gets involved with Mike Schwartz.

The fourth plot thread is, of course, the progress of the Westish baseball team. A team which has not won a championship in the 100 some years they have existed. However, after the addition of Henry Skrimshander and his rapid improvement on offense, the team starts winning for the first time in school history.

This book takes us through the up and down struggles of life from the viewpoints of multiple characters. From baseball wins and losses, team meltdowns, relationship debacles, and societal prejudices this book addresses them all. Overall, I really enjoyed the book, and I think even if you aren't a baseball fan it is worth a read.

Character Review

**Warning May Contain Light Spoilers**
 
Main Characters:

 

Henry Skrimshander  - The main character of the story. Has an affinity for a (fictional) Cardinals shortstop Aparicio Rodriguez (author of the Art of Fielding within the novel). Becomes very dependent on Mike Schwartz early on in the book. A generally likeable guy, but lacks the ability to form relationships outside of Mike Schwartz. Focuses entirely on baseball training.


Mike Schwartz - The leader. The team captain. Justifies his existence through his own successes. Begins suffering from his own physical inadequacies (bad knees) that will keep him from pursuing sports beyond college. Suffers from anger issues and falls into a pit of drinking and narcotics (think prescription painkillers) abuse. Becomes involved with Pella Affenlight shortly after her arrival to Westish College.

Owen Dunne - Probably my favorite character in the book. We meet him at the beginning of the book as he is Henry's roommate in the dorms. Owen is incredibly intelligent and very well read. He identifies as a homosexual and ends up getting involved with Guert Affenlight, the president of Westish college. He spends most of this time on the Westish bench (until later in the novel) usually reading a book.

Guert Affenlight - President of Westish College. He discovered unpublished papers by Herman Melville which rocked him to academic success. He returns to Westish and becomes the President of the college. Suffers throughout the book with sexual identity after he discovers his attraction to Owen Dunne. He is one of those amiable college Presidents who knows everyone's name (well except maybe the real new people).

Pella Affenlight - The daughter of Guert Affenlight. She leaves her husband (who she dropped out of college to marry) to head to Westish college on her own. She likes to think of herself as a strong independent person, but is really rather dependent on other people. She quickly becomes with Mike Schwartz after arriving in Westish College.

Here I go again..

On my own.. going down the only road.. Oh hello there.

So, I made a blog years ago (many) and like most new bloggers abandoned the project. In all likelihood the same thing will happen here, but hopefully it'll stick around! You have stumbled on my personal reviews of my favorite media artifacts (books, music, movies, and TV).

A little about my tastes.

I listen to almost every kind of music. (Oh here we go with another "oh I listen to everything" guy.. pfft). Okay now just hold on. I know it's pretty cliche to be one of those "eclectic types" who listen to everything, but I'll try to keep it interesting for you. That being said I do tend to lean towards certain genres (aha! a faker!). I lean towards epic sounding music.

Epic sounding music? Well that means a lot of things. I enjoy demanding instrumental parts (huh?), think Dream Theater. I like epic instrumentation usage which throws every instrument (maybe even a kitchen sink) at the song. A group I've come across recently that fits this bill is Globus. This is bleeding into my first review post so I'll save more on Globus for later.

So.. demanding parts.. epic.. sounds not very pop. Okay, I'll admit I don't listen to a lot of Top 40/Pop sorts of music. So if you're looking for the review of the newest radio single, you probably won't find it here (unless your radio station plays Dream Theater or Epica in which case you might. Also tell me where you live so I can move there.)

Hey I thought you said something about books!

Oh yeah! So, I like reading. I wouldn't classify myself as a "voracious" reader, but I do read every day. (Not voracious huh?), according to my Goodreads I thumbed through about 28 books last year. I'm hoping with some motivation I can increase that number.

So.. what do you read?

I read mostly fiction (sorry non-fiction people). Literary and genre. I am trying to read a wide variety of authors from all over the world, and hope to share what I find with you.

Examples?

I mix in classics (which were dreadfully withheld in high school and college) along with contemporary literature. I'm also a geek and sometimes read science fiction and fantasy. The last three books to date that I have read were Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (the 1818 version of the text for those of you that pay attention to those things), The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach, and The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood.

You don't listen to Top 40/Pop does that mean you don't read bestseller list things?

Yes and no. The Art of  Fielding was a NYT Bestseller, but I had discovered the book through other means. Being on the bestseller list doesn't disqualify a book, although I find a lot of the books on those lists I won't end up reading. Also, I don't often read Young Adult books (sorry Harry Potter fans) or romance-centric books (sorry Harlequin fans).

Much like music I have ways that I lean. I like speculative fiction. Speculative fiction (isn't that science fiction?). Here's how I describe speculative fiction, it has threads of science fiction (sometimes fantasy) but tends to be more "realistic" and reaching only slightly further into the future (like what could happen 20 years from now). So, take from that what you will.

Hey what about spoilers?

My reviews will not contain spoilers. However, if I feel the strong urge to provide a spoiler it will be clearly marked. Generally speaking no spoilers will be provided. 

Movies?

My movie likes are pretty wide ranging too. I don't watch as many recent movies as I'd like, but I do try to keep up with the latest movies. I don't really have a slant towards a specific genre here, but I do like dark comedy and mind-bending movies.

TV?

Much like my movie likes my TV watching (although limited) is pretty ranging. The only TV I don't watch is reality TV. So your American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, Honey Boo Boos, swamp people, type shows will not be reviewed here. Think more things like The Sopranos, Modern Family, The IT Crowd (I do love my British shows), and things of that nature.