"In De Uren Van De Middag" by Rob de Nijs (1973)

Now, this is me trying to learn the language and to find out more about the place where I live - for some reason, it seems that memorising the music lyrics works out just fine as a learning tool for me. I am seriously studying the lyrics, trying to understand them without translation and listening the sound of the language. The obstacle here is that traditionally many of Dutch artists were dismissing the native language and insisting on English - so it helps to search out for the ones who had stuck to their guns and decidedly created music in Dutch, like this guy. I have rare experience to hear a music icon as Rob de Nijs for the very first time and to soak in his music without any previous knowledge or prejudice. Previously I heard his 1964. album "Dit Is Rob De Nijs" which was very pleasant slice of 1960s pop but nothing special - kind of Dutch Cliff Richards. 

It took me some time to continue with his second album "In De Uren Van De Middag" (In the afternoon hours, yay I don't need a dictionary) that for some reason didn't register with me on the initial listening, but suddenly yesterday was just a perfect day or maybe I was simply more focused and suddenly everything clicked and I found myself enjoying the album immensely, reading the lyrics and basically getting it for the first time properly. First of all, this is not just another copy of some American star but a genuinely brilliant collection of original songs by Boudewijn De Groot who completely sidestepped the banal stereotypes and created quite inspired bunch of songs with characters from the history like "Jan Klaassen De Trompetter", "Malle Babbe", "Dag Zuster Ursula" and "Leonardo"  (about you-know-whom) - it sounds ambitious but its actually surprisingly engaging because its combined with a very gentle, country-pop from the early 1970s (I would dare to compare it with John Denver or Jim Croce perhaps) and music is intoxicating even without understanding the lyrics - once I got my head around translations, however, the album was constantly played on replay. 

Title "In De Uren Van De Middag"  comes from the opening line of the closing song "Meisje In Engeland" which is all about gentle goodbye to a girl who has moved on with her life and its actually very beautiful song, in fact the whole collection is so strong that is almost impossible to recommend one song instead of another, because it looks as one of those classic albums where true gems shine better after repeated listening, when we can focus behind obvious hits and pay more attention to the rest. I kind of suspect that the album works so well because the best songs were carefully arranged somewhere halfway trough the collection, not at the predictable way at the start - just when the listener starts really enjoying the music, you have five massive classics positioned one after the other ("De Avond" just one of the many) so it feels as the whole album just gets better and better. I absolutely love this. 

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"The Crown - Season One" (2016)

Well, I'll be darned - I have just found a TV show that actually appeals a lot to me - and I am usually not interested in TV shows at all, because for some reason I refuse to be sucked into a vortex and dislike anything with a hype. But curiosity made me have "just a peek" and now I treat myself with a episode each night, enjoying it thoroughly and even later visiting youtube  to see real faces and events described here.

The story is about - guess what - British royal family Windsor and it starts in late 1940s when young princess Elizabeth (Claire Foy) is supposedly still many years from replacing her father on a throne. What nobody knows is that the king is deadly ill with a lung cancer and he hides this from everyone, including his own family - only prime minister Winston Churchill (John Lithgow) knows this, because he is told about everything. We follow courtly intrigues, whispers behind the fans, we witness the animosity and the hostility, court protocols that must be respected and often cumbersome traditions that Elizabeth must overcome while trying to do the right thing and please everybody. The whole show is filmed like the most glamorous MGM extravaganza with seemingly unlimited budget, everything looks genuinely sumptuous and we have pleasure of glancing into completely another world where royals never dress themselves up and even as they talk in private, the servants are here to collect discarded shoes and to help with the clothes - of course, royals don't really do anything, it is the cabinet with ministers who is making decisions while King is duck hunting and even than, servants are carrying and re-filling his gun. Men spend their afternoons drinking and laughing in a gentlemen's clubs, while ladies all look extremely bored and long-suffering under all those pearls and hats. There is a definitely a feeling of a gilded cage and a certain sinister claustrophobia here, because nobody is ever alone and there are no such things as secrets - even when princess Margaret (Vanessa Kirby) is phoning her sister for a completely private conversation, Winston Churchill is immediately notified and he is listening on the other side. You see, there is no such thing as privacy - everything Windsors do is of a great national importance and neither Elizabeth, nor her handsome new husband (Matt Smith) can't do whatever they want, they must respect the tradition and listen what the cabinet suggest - Elizabeth will sometimes put her foot down, but most of the time she will find the way to balance both what is expected from her with what she wants. 

Sure, I understand this is a fictionalised account and not really exactly what happened but its done with great attention, care and respect towards Windsors - I can't imagine anyone in Buckingham palace being offended with episodes I have seen so far, because family is shown as basically close-knit, strong and powerful. Yes, they privately despise king's older brother Duke of Windsor (Alex Jennings) who abdicated so he could marry commoner Wallis Simpson (Lia Williams) but he is shown as a bitter, vindictive man reduced to beg finances from the family he left behind and accepting embarrassing photo interviews from magazines who are paying for visiting his home - incapable of doing any real work, Duke simply wants money to continue living exclusive high life or as Wallis said to one journalist "we love to entertain". On the other hand, we are also informed how ministers circle around elderly Churchill like vultures but nobody dares to say anything to his face - they find him too old to make any decisions but he is way too clever and powerful figure to just be swept aside. The fact this is a TV show about real, historical characters and the things that actually happened (like great smog of 1952.) makes this hugely attractive and watchable, I am really excited with everything and I think its brilliant. Of course, I understand this should be taken as a real proof that things really happened this way, but it goes a long way to explain at least what happened and it shows Queen Elizabeth as a human who is actually likeable and not just intimidating. (I have seen her once, in real life, when I lived in London). 

"Da L' Se Sjećaš" by Krunoslav Kićo Slabinac (1986)

Sad news - Kićo has passed away today at respectable age of 70+ and I got inspired to re-visit this mid-1980s LP that I don't remember ever listening before. It is actually not really a "new album" but a collection of his biggest hits up to that point, re-recorded again as it was a practice in 1980s - I never understood the logic behind it, because radio and listeners always preferred hits in their original versions, but many artists were doing this, perhaps in attempt to modernise their old music. Like many of the singers of his generations, Kićo started as a young rocker with a genuine band, just to embrace mainstream pop festivals and "schlager" music, which brought him to wider audiences and he successfully juggled genres as highly popular host on TV shows - a genuine charmer, Kićo could do anything, from Elvis to standard traditional folk material and Christmas music - in fact, his 1983. Christmas LP came as a brave statement at the time when this was not accepted in the country.

Hrvoje Hegedušić and his team of studio musicians have wrapped all these re-recordings in a mid-1980s sound, so you can expect a lot of synthesisers but to be honest, this didn't bring anything new or fresh to original songs that were already well-known in original versions. Kićo peaked commercially in the 1970s and subsequently merged in the background together with most of the artists from that particular generation, while new, angry young artists took the spotlight. As this albums shows, he still had that attractive voice but he also mellowed perhaps too much for his own good and all these generic ballads didn't really create any excitement - naturally, nothing wrong with the music here, these are all pop classics from a specific era, but if you want to hear "Zbog Jedne Divne Crne Žene", "Plavuša" or any of these songs, you would be better off with original singles - to my ears the cold, 1980s production just sounds aseptic and sterile. 

Just like Dalibor Brun and Darko Domijan, Kićo was one of those people who knowingly and decidedly swapped youthful energy and enthusiasm for middle-aged conformability and large part of his work was focused on pleasing mainstream audiences - this collection focuses on his pop festival incarnation, but he also showed great affinity for traditional folk music. 

Old SF movies

Recently I treated myself with some very good old SF movies, kind of things I would usually watch with my parents on a Sunday afternoon after the lunch, when our bellies are full and the house still smells on food - we would enjoy a dessert and watch some family movie together. Both of these old classics were mildly scary but in a good way, since we all understand this is just a campy fun and viewer can easily slip to WC without missing a beat.

"Invasion of the Body Snatchers" from 1956. was remade twice more and this is actually the first time that I have seen the original that in my opinion completely eclipses the newer version away. As a kid I saw 1978. movie with Donald Sutherland (which was not bad at all) and Nicole Kidman was in 2007. movie but this old, black & white 1956 felt like a real deal to me, definitely because I absolutely love old black & white movies and there was something in it that reminded me on "Twilight Zone" and all those fantastic, classic TV shows - kind of small budgeted but it didn't matter, the story was gripping and captivating even without any supersonic special effects. Kevin McCarthy was perfect as a doctor caught into surreal experience where the small town gets invaded by Alien seed growing into human replicas. The role of his girlfriend Dana Wynter was very typical of the times - she was here to be beautiful and decorative distraction, but the moment when the things starts cooking, she is just a weak nuisance who can't run, hide or do anything physical. And this is perhaps the biggest difference between the movies than and now - nowadays we would just accept as natural that the girlfriend could fight, run, drive the car or do anything that main protagonist can do but back in the 1950s women were supposed to be fragile and delicate. I actually wanted Kevin to drop annoying girlfriend and let her die, because she was just whimpering and creating troubles instead of being helpful. 

"The Blob" was made just two years later but it feels like something out of the 1960s because it has a stunning colours, usually found in glamorous MGM musicals. From the first moment we hear fantastic, catchy title song (composed by young Burt Bacharach, of all people) we know this is going to be something fun, nothing scary or serious. Young Steve McQueen is the main character and he is all about cars, girls and saying "yes, sir!" to local policemen who threats him with telling his father that he drives to fast, backwards or whatever. His girlfriend is not so annoying, but she is also not very important either - when Steve goes to check what is going on and where is this strange noise coming from, she stays in the car, therefore when police later ask her did she see anything, of course she didn't, because she was a good 1950s girl and was not even looking. The alien creature is of course a blob that just rolls along and I am not exactly sure why is everybody screaming, since my first reaction would be to come close and inspect what is this strange mass wobbling around - but hey, this is a campy movie so the nurse screams terrified because a blob/pencil/trash bin is coming close to her. It was great fun but nowhere close to excitement of Body snatchers which I really loved and could watch it again. I don't have desire to re-watch "The Blob" again.