A FEW THOUGHTS ON TRUE DETECTIVE SEASON ONE

Here are my thoughts on the excellent first season of the TRUE DETECTIVE series.  SPOILERS are present of course!

1.) I originally didn’t get into this series.  While it has great performances and great atmosphere, I found the plot to be not that complicated and a bit pedestrian.  Well, after finishing the series, I came across this quote in Rolling Stone’s review of the series “The journey is more important than the destination” and that too me is what it’s about. The story told here is secondary to the people that inhabit it and where they are operating.

2.)  I believe that distractions play a big part in the story.  The evidence of the recently painted house that is the big discovery that points them to the killer was there for quite some time but Cohle was wrapped up in drugs and his own weirdness and Hart with his wife and the cheating and the fallout from the divorce as well as their dislike for each other.  Once they got back together and got their heads straight, they figured it all out.

3.)  What about the finale?   Reading a lot of complaints today but to me it made perfect sense. Any mystery worth its salt has red herrings and TD is no exception.  Just because they hinted at something doesn’t mean it has to come true.

4.)  In regards to not catching all the members of the cult, I think Cohle was right when he said they got the one they’d been chasing.  The murder cult actually broke up sometime in the 90’s but Errol Childress kept on killing because he enjoyed it.  When the cult was in existence, he was their main servant.  He would find the girls, kidnap them and after the cult had their weird ceremony involving rape and torture, he would kill them and clean up.

5.)  What about Cohle’s Synaesthesia ?  He did say that the hallucinations he had stopped once he stopped taking drugs but he said that in the present day to the detectives who suspect him of murder so who knows.  I still think that was a delusion at the end, the otherworldly portal he saw in Carcosa.  I think all the supernatural stuff in this series was a red herring.

6.)   Cohle’s appearance before the two detectives investigating the new case in 2012 in the first four episodes was a performance of sorts.  It reminded me of THE USUAL SUSPECTS but in this case Cohle was pretending to be a useless drunk and a weirdo to pump them for info.  We see when he meets up with Hart again that he is still a good detective and has that storage locker full of investigative material.

7.)  Something interesting I noticed – The drawings Hart’s daughter did in episode 3 (which combined with some other things made it seems she was a victim of molestation perhaps by the same cult) don’t look like her having sex, they look like Errol Childress and his wife/sister/mother/lover

8.)  Possible twists that didn’t happen – One I thought of was that not only is Hart’s creepy stepfather-in law molesting his granddaughter and is involved in the cult but Hart’s ex-wife is also in on it.  She murders Hart at the end but Cohle figures her out and get her before she gets him.

9.)  Another great thing worth noticing was the dialogue especially Cohle’s speeches on  human existence.  I’ve never seen a detective show or movie with such great extended conversations

10.)  Comparisons with other shows?  Well one I thought of while watching TD was TWIN PEAKS without the sense of humor but with the odd characters, the supernatural intruding on a case, and the creative use of natural settings. 

11.)  The soundtrack by T Bone Burnett was great especially his opening credits tune.  I also liked how music was used in particular hearing “Did She Jump or Was She Pushed?” by Richard and Linda Thompson in episode 7 as Cohle meets Maggie in the present day.

12.)  This was one of the rare times when a happy ending made sense 

RECONSIDERING WILD BEASTS PRESENT TENSE PLUS NADINE SHAH LOVE YOUR DUM AND MAD

After listening to Wild Beasts PRESENT TENSE a few more times, I really feel I didn’t do it justice in my review earlier this month (see a couple entries in my blog before this one).  It really is the perfect balance between what made them great musically in the first place and a refinement of their sound that doesn’t ruin them or get too far away from what they are all about.  The songs may be be their best bunch yet – Mecca, Wanderlust, Nature Boy and perhaps their greatest song of all time A Simple Beautiful Truth.

Nadine Shah’s debut album LOVE YOUR DUM AND MAD is really powerful with great creeping majestic arrangements.  Shah’s voice hits you on many levels raising the hair on the back of your neck, causing a twinge in your heart.  The songs showcase not only Shah but also the guitars and the melodies.  I hear a lot of comparisons between Shah and PJ Harvey and Nick Cave but unlike the both of them she can a.) Really sing b.) Really spin a catchy tune.  Best songs – To Be A Young Man, The Devil, Floating, All I Want.  

EGYPT, UKRAINE, VENEZUELA, AND NED (THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR DEMOCRACY)

NED (The National Endowment for Democracy) was established in 1983 by funds allocated by the US Congress.  In those days, it functioned primarily for the promotion of democratic infrastructure in communist countries.  Right wing dictatorships friendly to the USA were more or less exempt from NED’s attentions during the Reagan years.  Even though NED receives funds from the US government, it functions independently with not much oversight.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, NED disappeared a bit from the public eye although its funding actually went up from 15 to 18 million in the 80’s to 25 to 30 million in the 90’s.  Still, failed efforts were made by the congress to kill it and it was not so important an organization to worldwide imperialist status quo in the Clinton years.

Then the Bush Administration came into power, 09/11 happened, and NED all of a sudden roared back with a more expanded mandate – Not only autocratic regimes were to be targeted but also democracies that refused to toe the West’s line of capitalist exploitation.

This culminated in recent events in three different countries.  In Egypt, NED contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to Anti-Morsi activists( including those who advocated violence against civilians and against mosques) as well as former members of the Mubarak dictatorship.

In Ukraine, NED was key in mobilizing forces against democratically elected Viktor Yanukovych.  NED set up so-called student reform groups which are really just muscle, thugs, to riot and cause trouble.  In Ukraine, many of those in those so-called student groups were Neo-Nazis, skinheads, right wing haters.  A lot of NED’s activity is also geared towards the press and how they interpret an action such as a coup or a revolution.  They manipulate the press with bogus data using right wing organs such as the Washington Post to name an example and interfere in elections.   

In Venezuela, NED has done much the same. They very involved in the coup that temporarily displaced Hugo Chavez as president in 1992.   Chavez knew they were the enemy and indentified them publicly taking steps to make sure they could not cause trouble on his watch.  Unfortunately, Hugo Chavez has passed away and his predecessor is not as strong a figure so NED has once again put its operation into full swing – Riots, thuggery, press manipulation.

So what is NED’s agenda?  NED isn’t so much an organization for the spread of democracy as it is an organization for the spread of capitalism.  Unfortunately, that means in many countries such as the three I have mentioned true wealth ends up being in the hands of a very small group.  This is what Hugo Chavez fought against, what Morsi started to fight against in Egypt.  It should be noted that the NED backed winner of the 2004 Ukrainian election, the so called “Orange Revolution”, Viktor Yushchenko was a former banker who believed in “austerity” a code word for punishing poor people and rewarding even more those at the top.  The IMF is often in cahoots with people like this.

In the case of Ukraine, the 2010 election winner Yanukovych had been elected on a platform of staying neutral no NATO but no Russia either.  However, in 2011, he became aware of efforts by NED and other shadow groups sponsored by the West in mobilizing weapons, money, manpower against him.  He predicted his fate in a speech in 2011 and started the natural shift back towards Russia and against EU membership.

NED is the vanguard of a dying, evil empire and that empire is the United States.  It dominates through bullying and thuggery but those days can’t last long.  The fact they can no longer keep their plans secret is a big step.

I share many people’s general disgust at Vladimir Putin (his corruption, his homophobia, his autocracy) but supports his efforts in standing up to this attempt at fascism.  Imagine if Russia tried what NED (on behalf of the US government) is trying in Mexico....

MUSIC ROUND-UP - MARCH 2014

Cheatahs – CHEATAHS

The Cheatahs debut record is a competent showcase of the band's less stodgy take on Shoegaze.  Their version of Shoegaze really swings.  Songs like Leave that Remains and Geographic bubble up big and alternate speed and fuzziness.  Only weak spot is the generic vocals but the music is good enough you don’t really care about the vocals.

Phantogram - VOICES

Phantogram combines the age old combo of female torch singer with a guy behind machines that make the usual feet moving beats and rugged new wave soundscapes (and also chips with a couple vocals and harmonies).  This is quite a pretty take on this, quite a good collection of songs.  My favorites are Nothing but Trouble and I Don’t Blame You.

Wild Beasts - PRESENT TENSE

For the Wild Beasts fourth album, they’ve taken the high pinnacle drama and castrato vocals of the first two records, acknowledged the heavier keyboards of the third and topped it off with a more rhythmic guitar sound that anchors the whole thing.  It’s an improvement from their last record which had too much technology but still is not on the power level of their first two.

A RECENT ARTICLE ABOUT ME AND MY POETRY

Nice article....Hits all the important points

http://www.ipohecho.com.my/v3/article/2014/03/01/ipohs-unheralded-poet