Blackbeard's Delight

Britain's Got Talent

Well fuck me i did not think I'd be watching the final of Britain's Got Talent on a Sunday evening (i wrote this a little while ago and left it in my drafts while a found a picture, then completely forgot about it).  In total i watched one episode last week and the final tonight and it was actually very good.  Not because Britain has proved itself a hotbed of musical and performing ability (there was an awful lot of crap in the episode i watched towards the beginning) but because of the raw human emotion on display and the fact that it illustrated one of life's greatest lessons.

Connie and Paul were by far and away the best acts on there and either could have won.  Personally I'm glad it was Paul.  But i think the real reason the both of them touched everyone was not because of their amazing talent .  Connie was a reminder of innocence that we have all too easily forgotten, a snapshot of a time in your life  when the world is a wondrous place and when anything was possible.  "what do you want to be" was a completely open ended question and it was answered without reservation, hesitation or fear.

Paul Potts touched everyone because at the beginning of the show he was unsure, hesitant and afraid.  Yet over the 9 days or so since the show started he grew in confidence and began to believe in his own abilities after seeing and sensing the reaction of the general public to his singing.  The performances of both Connie and Paul told great stories, and that's why people loved them.   

But i think the lesson lies in something else.  For me, both Connie and Paul are examples of people doing something they love, not for any other reason than that they love it.  They both truly love singing and they sing their fucking socks off with a palpable joy that jumps out of the screen and grabs you by the throat.

And if we take anything away from a"Britain's Got Talent" it should be this:  nothing brings us more happiness than doing something we truly, intrinsically enjoy for its own sake.  When was the last time we did something for no other reason than we truly, truly enjoyed it?  Not to impress anyone, not to get fit or lose weight, not because it's the latest cool thing to do and we've seen it in Heat or on Coolhunting or in the Sunday Times magazine.  But because we just love doing it.  We should then ask ourselves why we do not do that thing more often.

Young@Heart

Last year More 4 screened a documentary following the Young@Heart chorus touring round Europe. 

This is no ordinary choir, all the members are above the age of about 75 (one of the first members had fought at the Battle of the Somme as a 16 year old) and they sing well known cover versions by the likes of The Rolling Stones, The Ramones and Frank Sinatra.  I wanted to write about this before but i couldn't find any footage of the documentary.  However, i received an email alert recently with a link to some footage on You Tube.

This is a clip of one of the most moving parts of a truly moving documentary.   Fred Knittle and Bob Salvini, two members of the chorus, were scheduled to sing a duet of Coldplay's "Fix You" during the tour but Bob passed away in the run up to the show, so Fred had to sing the song on his own.  I'm not a big Coldplay fan, but Fix You is a one of their best songs, which becomes even better in the context of Fred, Bob, and the whole Young@Heart chorus, who prove that it is never to late to do something great.

Magical stuff.  You can download the track, and learn a bit more about Fred Knittle, here.

 

The good, the bad, and The Wire

It's good to see that The Wire has been getting such good press recently, just as the 4th series comes on to FX Channel in the UK.  I've only seen series one and two but it is without doubt the finest TV drama i've ever seen.  I've had the pleasure of watching them on box set rather than one per week on TV, and i cannot wait to see the 3rd series.

There are going to 5 series in total, each focusing on a different institution in the city of Baltimore.  The show's creator, David Simon, quite rightly claims that the series is more novel than typical television programme.  The complex set of characters, the interweaving story lines, the lack of simple answers, the far reaching narrative, all add up to a truly amazing show.

It is the unflinching, unapologetic portrayal of American inner city life which is so unlike anything else on television.  For instance, there is no score to The Wire simply because there is no score to life.  The only time you hear music is when it's  blaring out of someone's apartment or car.  There are no "good" or "bad" guys, there are just people, with all their frailties, their imperfections and contradictions.

The bravery of the show's creators derives from their disillusionment and anger at the situation their city is now in.  In a fascinating podcast on HBO's website David Simon talks about trying to dispel the ultimate myth that large portions of people still cling on to in his country, that "if you work hard and do what your told America holds a place for you".  He challenges that this simply is not the case anymore, and the writers and creators of the show illustrate this in the most honest way possible, bringing us crashing down to earth via the escapist medium of television.

I'm going to write more on The Wire but i just wanted to get this down while it was fresh.  In summary, it's frigging awesome.

Also a great example of user-generated content with this spoken word battle.

This Life

Contrary to what most people, and papers, seem to think i really enjoyed This Life +10.  It was just great to see them all back together again.  I was 15 and 16 when the first and second series were aired so i looked up to the characters, and ina  sense i've grown up with them, albeit a few years behind.  It was a tough job to try and cram 10 years worth of history and baggage into an hour and a half but i think the writers did a great job.  The thing that really stcuk out for me, and which was so great about it initially, was the realism.  The fact that they are not perfect, they all have problems and issues, no one has "made it".  In fact it highlights the absurdity of the term "made it" because it's all relative.  Miles has made it as an author and Milly as a mother, bnut they each have there insecurities, fears and problems. Ditto with the others.  this is how life is. 

What was so great abvout the first series was that for the first time 20 somethings were multifaceted characters.  they were educated but stupid at times. They had greaty careers but were unsure about them.  they had relationships but cheated and were cheated on.  They took drugs but weren't drug addicts.  they lived in london in a big house but were also often skint.  this is what living in London is like, and what being a young person is like, and ity's what being a human being is like.  People are complex, and contradictory and in a constant state of change.  Learning, growing, making mistakes, meetig new people, changing.

In a nutshell, this is why This Life is great, and why +10 was so good.  It showed everyone in all their glory, warts, faults, insecurities and all.  It didn't resolve everything, but in life, rarely is anything completely closed and complete, it just moves on and grows into something else.