Seb Palmer

NB – Another ancient/archival entry! I’ll be doing a fair few of these; moving stuff off my iPhone(s), and on to the blog.

We in the UK can be a bit sniffy about our cousins across the pond over some issues, and decent TV documentaries would be a case in point. I recall seeing a British film-maker, I forgot who now, recalling with great exasperation the total disinterest in factual TV in the US, let alone in in-depth historical series, when he was attempting to raise finds for a factual programme. However, we’re dealing here with America’s own domestic history, and no doubt that helped the Burns brothers get their film made.

I never saw the original set, so can’t judge if this remastered version is a marked improvement or not. But I can certainly say that it’s a terrifically engaging and rewarding study. At the time of writing we’re two-thirds of the way thought the nine-episode series (there are 6 discs: five for the series, and a sixth with bonus materials). The episodes vary in lengths, ranging from about an hour, to over an hour and a half. So that’s about 10 hours in all.

There are a number of very good aspects to the series: much use is made of actors voicing the words of the protagonists, and this is done very well (with such luminaries as Garrison Keillor, Kurt Vonnegut, Morgan Freeman, Jeremy Irons and even Derek Jacobi amongst the ‘voice talent’) – and there’s much that is poignant or witty, and sometimes both; this was one of the first major wars to be heavily photographed, and the images are incredible, both evoking an era that’s almost Napoleonic, and yet becomes almost contemporary via these amazing images; good use is made of attractive maps throughout the series; there are some very eloquent and interesting talking heads, with ACW buff Shelby Foote stealing the show with his erudite but avuncular mix of knowledge and southern charm.

The use of music and landscape in the series is extremely good, to the point that it is mesmerisingly seductive, which makes for very enjoyable viewing but might perhaps also sit somewhat oddly with the very macabre nature of the subject. Another clever ploy is that not only is there great reliance on first hand accounts, but they also ‘follow’ the fortunes of key players, and these range from the famous Titans, like Lincoln, Davis and generals like Grant and Lee, to the likes of mere cannon-fodder, such as Sam Watkins (Confederate) and Elijah Hunt Rhodes (Union).

There are numerous points where, if you’re anything like me, you might well be moved to tears, as when Sullivan Ballou writes to his wife not long before the first battle of Bull Run, or when you hear some of the stirring words spoken on the topic of the emancipation slaves. I might come back to this review and amend it once we finish the series, but so far, so very, very, very good indeed. 

NOTES

Disc 1 – The Cause:

‘That which is not just is not law’ ‘I am in earnest, I will not equivocate… I will not retreat a single inch, and I will be heard’ – William Lloyd Garrison

Ep. 6

From The Wilderness to Cold Harbour (1)

We walked in the shadow of death (2)

Fifty thousand dead (3), men fall like leaves (4)

Cross the Chickahominy, on to Petersburg (5)

I begin to see it, you will succeed (6)

1 – narrative

2 – ?

3 – narrative

4 – Mary Chesnut

5 – narrative

6 – Lincoln 

NB – I don’t know when I read this, or wrote what follows. But these are notes I made on this book, many (dark sided) moons ago…

10 – JH says that RW, like DG, ‘is destined to toil in the slipstream of the music he created in the 1970s.’ This puts me in mind a little of something Grayson Perry said in his a Reith lectures, re shock of the new, originality, etc. Perhaps find that quote, and work it in re theme of ‘slipstream’?

11 – DG on success of DSOTM: ‘you hit that strange impasse where you’re really not certain of anything any more. It’s so fantastic, but at the same time, you start thinking, “what on earth do we do now?”‘

21 – ‘the thrilling sense of possibility’ in light of success of Beatles & Stones (& ‘thawing of social strictures’ etc, on p. 22).

22 – ‘a slow-building cultural upsurge’ ‘new emphasis on the freeing of the individual’ etc., ‘multi-coloured hedonism’ & so on. ‘The aim of the alternative culture was … to break down barriers…’ Richard Neville (Ed. Of Oz). 

23 – RN ‘There was something incredibly oppressed about the mass of grey people… With a bit of sexuality and exciting music and flowers … somehow the direction of society could be altered.’

25 – NM re flower-power era: ‘I never really thought it was a good way of designing one’s future.’

31 – interesting stuff re R D Laing & his Politics Of Experience, etc., re schizophrenia as ‘rational desire to opt out of impossible circumstances.’ 

32 – ‘underlying all this [Laing] was the belief that society so squashed individual potential that mental dislocation was inevitable.’ Laing: ‘The ordinary person is a shrivelled desiccated fragment of what a person can be.’ PJ ‘Is the madman speaking truth?’

55 – pink Floyd in 1969: ‘in fairness, there was a lot of such poorly realised, loose-ended stuff around in 1969. It was also the year that John Lennon and Yoko and they released the unlistenable life with the lions and wedding album… albums that sought, in their own ill-advised way, to test both their audiences expectations and the limits of musical orthodoxy.’ ‘Even their most quixotic music tended to be received with the generosity of spirit and different times would probably have denied them.’

[try and find Aaron Copland quote about skilled listening: where did I see that? Think I saw it on a Mosaic records email]

Musical roots for pieces from Dark side of the Moon go back as far as Zabriskie Point soundtrack e.g. Rick Wright’s ‘violent sequence’ music, which later formed the basis of ‘us and them’

60 – ‘I’m caught up in the whole pop business machinery’ RW 

85-6 – Brit tour ‘commenced on 20 January 1972’ … ‘shows were often accorded the quiet respect that greets classical recitals.’ ‘The human bedrock of all this were crowds of music obsessed young men… atmosphere of hushed reverence.’

87 – re 1st dates: ‘A number of accounts … [inc. Nick Mason’s autobiog Inside Out ] … 17 February… [but actually] 20 January in Brighton.’ This 1st unveiling foundered on tech difficulties, so DSOTM ‘suite’ was 1st premiered the next night (‘along the coast in Portsmouth’). 

88 – There’s a bootleg recording of the Brighton gig, and Harris dissects it, in relation to the final recording. V interesting! Clearly an evolving work in progress: ‘a great deal of what we now know as TDSOTM was in place, but it was still some distance from full realisation.’

One interesting reflection on all this is that Floyd were publicly developing their art: although they had a massive (9 ton!) lighting rig and a massive quadrophonic PA, the heart of the enterprise, the music itself, was work in progress. It all depends on what bands and audiences want: sometimes both can enjoy the excitement of risk and new territory being explored and annexed; at others both band and audience are reassured by familiarity, certainty and mastery. Either way, it can be interesting to contrast the edgier artsier approach with the more ‘showbiz’ idea of an exact and polished performance

An absolute classic…

Watch on BBC iPlayer. Or see it on YouTube:

There was a time not long back when the ‘[w]itless brand managers or evil cultural terrorists’ that have infiltrated the venerable BBC started butchering this sacred music.

Read more about that sorry episode here. Fortunately – or so it seems (watching snooker today, on the iPlayer) – ‘Drag Racer’ been restored to a more natural state.

It’s great hearing from the horses’ mouth, about Doug playing and recording all the parts himself, on an early four-track ‘domestic’ tape recorder.

Oh frabjous day…

Calloo callay!

After about five years growth, our green room wisteria is finally flowering.

I really like this film. Part of the so-called ‘Revisionist Western’ movement, it starts out seeming quite pedestrian, but gets pretty gritty and rough.

The cast is good. As is the acting. The locations are great. Script and direction are ok. The basic plot is that …

I did an early shift today. Again. Same as yesterday. Quite pooped.

Got home early enough to have a cheap n’ cheerful ‘Spoons brunch. We even had a pudding, in celebration of Teresa (& I) finally using her printing press.

Back home, out in the garden, in glorious sunshine. Bliss! Did a little art tweakage, on some previously unfinished pieces.

Actually did some work on them at the pub, as well:

It was just two degrees Celsius, when I was getting up and leaving for work, around 5-6 a.m. And it felt like zero. Now it’s allegedly 16°, but feels more like 21°!

This is the best of my first baby steps in printmaking. Two card plates. They’re supposed to align, roughly. I got the alignment all wrong!

Getting the amount of ink on the plates right is key. Soaking the paper onto which you’re printing is also important. Although how you do that – a misting spray, perhaps? – on multiple layer prints? I’m not sure.

It’s early days for us, of course… Day one, to be exact. But what fun! And we’ve got a lot to learn (and re-learn).

I scribed more linear ‘detail’ on the main plate. But forgot to re-shellac it… doh! And getting the inking right!? Nowhere near getting that right, yet.

The above is the nearest I got to getting the plates aligned as intended. Sadly the inking and printing are altogether more sketchy and random.

So… not one of these has come out as intended. Bug it’s all good. All learning and experience. We were both quite slapdash in our printing today. But enthusiastic.

A fascinating strand of cultural history… and you can view/read a whole book on this topic, Children of The Sun, online.

I do love zooming in on and cropping my art works. I feel the process yields new and unexpected but usable imagery.

I’d like to experiment with printing processes – perhaps collagraph and monoprints? – and see if I can achieve something in that line with this imagery.

There’s something a little bit Blakean going on here, I think. That’s definitely something to explore further.