Song of the Day #2,172: ‘Less Than Zero’ – Elvis Costello

costello_uselessMy desert island countdown continues (see Monday’s post for the full explanation).

Desert Island Musical Artists – #2 – Elvis Costello

Costello would be a strong candidate if I could bring only one musical artist to my desert island, because his discography has spanned so many genres.

Punk, country, rock, pop, folk, classical, easy listening, jazz, funk — he’s a one-man record store. And I could spend many a moonlit night trying to dig out the meanings in his kaleidoscopic lyrics.

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The best T.V. season ever?

sawyerOver the past 5-10 years, television has increasingly taken over as the dominant filmed art form in terms of quality. There have certainly been many great theatrical films over that span, and it’s still tough to beat the experience of the big screen, but television’s ability to tell complex tales across multiple seasons and to evolve characters over many years is unique.

I don’t know when the switch came from episodic television that was truly episodic (with each hour or half-hour essentially self-contained) to the complicated mythologies that are so common today. Perhaps it was Twin Peaks or The X-Files, or something earlier that I’ve never seen.

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