More Bowie DVDs and WTF SEAN BEAN AS NED STARK, REALLY?
I watched two more Bowie DVDs: Black Tie White Noise (1993) and VH1 Storytellers (1999).
The thing is, Bowie as an older man is wise, funny, cultured, entertaining, charismatic, and… just not 1/10 as interesting as crazy fucked up genius 70s Bowie. You get the sense that he uses his charm and sense of humor to deflect his interviewers and avoid revealing anything particularly personal, whereas in the early years of his fame he was often quite passionate and sincere about whatever disturbing, odd, interesting things happened to be going on in his head.
(Or maybe he just grew up and mellowed out. *shrug*)
Black Tie White Noise is just videos and live footage from the album of the same name, intermixed with interview footage of a genial Bowie chatting about the genesis of the songs and about his artistic philosophies. It’s all interesting and cute if you’re a Bowie fan, but I don’t think there’s anything in there that would make you a Bowie fan if you weren’t one already. The music is… I guess the kind of music that middle-aged people listen to? It’s very jazzy. I don’t know, sorry. It’s not my thing.
I love one song (and its video): “Jump They Say,” which is dark and interesting in a way that just highlights how not interesting the rest of the songs are. I wasn’t surprised to see that the video was directed by Mark Romanek, a bit before he did NIN’s “Closer”–it’s brighter but similarly eerie. And I do like one other song/video, “I Know It’s Gonna Happen Someday,” which is awesome mostly for meta reasons: it’s 1993!Bowie doing an impression of 1974!Bowie doing a cover of a Morrissey song inspired by 1972!Bowie. (Mostly it’s just fun to watch 1993!Bowie sing in the over-the-top plastic soul Young Americans style.)
The rest is forgettable. Not an essential DVD–I returned it to Netflix and don’t intend to buy a copy.
VH1 Storytellers is better, but not as good as I hoped–I was disappointed by the ratio of talk to music. I really wanted to hear more stories! Bowie’s between-song chat was the interesting part–he tells little anecdotes about the eras the songs are from, which are interesting and thoughtful and usually funny. The performances are… fine… but mostly it’s, y’know, like something you’d see on VH1. Too staid, toned-down, middle-aged, bland.
The song selection was hit or mix, and it seems like some of the better choices got left off the TV show and only appear here as bonuses with the between-song chat cut out (no fair!!!) — “Always Crashing In The Same Car” in particular is one of the best and shouldn’t have been treated like an afterthought. A lot of the songs are bland ones from “…hours,” and even with the interesting choices, the arrangements aren’t ambitious (“Drive-In Saturday” should’ve been a lot better).
But there are some really cool bits. It’s great to see Bowie at this age covering 1965’s “Can’t Help Thinking About Me,” the first single he released under the name David Bowie. He introduces it by mocking some of the hilariously bad lyrics, but hey, he wrote them at, what, 18? Anything you do at that age is forgivable. And actually, the song is a wonderful choice to perform at this kind of career-retrospective event, because it’s all about the uncertainty of growing up, being torn between childhood and adulthood, and wondering if you’re going to make it on your own in the world. You’ve got to figure the kid who wrote that never would’ve imagined where he’d end up, as one of the most successful musicians in the world, performing that song to an adoring crowd 35 years later.
I was also surprised at how good the cover of “China Girl” was, and at how thoughtful his intro was (it was a story about Iggy Pop in a Berlin punk club at the anniversary of the building of the Wall that segued perfectly into the invasion/exploitation theme of “China Girl”). But my favorite was “Word on a Wing,” which is particularly effective because it’s such a sincere song from an artist usually known for his ironic distance. His intro to it is great because of its honesty (couched in the protective mechanism of humor but clearly heartfelt and a bit uncomfortably revealing). He explains that the mid-70s was the darkest period of his life and that “Word on a Wing” was a cry for help, and then performs a wonderful version that makes me glad I bought this DVD. “Word on a Wing” embodies a sense of the longing for transcendence that underlies a lot of Bowie’s work, but it’s never more explicit than here.
(Although, hey VH1, I could really do without the distraction of the closing credits over the song! :P)
And in other news, Sean Bean has been cast as Ned Stark in HBO’s adaptation of A Song of Ice and Fire.
I’m… confused.
On the one hand, I love A Song of Ice and Fire and I love Sean Bean, so… yay!
But… but… Ned Stark? Does he have to be Ned Stark? Can he shave his head and be Tywin Lannister instead? Can we get him a TARDIS and have 30-year-old Sean Bean play Jaime Lannister? Ned Stark is a boring goody-two-shoes loser! Sean Bean is better than Ned Stark. Bean’s whole schtick is being able to play dark, disturbing, complicated characters, the opposite of humorless honor-bound Ned. Does this mean they’re going to change Ned? Because I don’t want to have to like Ned Stark!
The only reason I got into the books was because I was so surprised and happy that ![[info]](http://stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
grrm killed off Ned! The whole point is that he’s the typical righteous fantasy hero and this isn’t a typical fantasy. If they make Ned interesting, they destroy the reason I fell for the series. But if they don’t make him interesting, they’re wasting Sean Bean!
And then there’s the fact that I’ve always pictured Jaime Lannister as very similar to young Sean Bean (thanks to queenofthorns who helped get me into the series in the first place). Ned and Jaime are opposites and enemies, but if Sean Bean is Ned, then am I going to side with him or with Jaime? And how can I picture Jaime like Sean Bean if Ned is Sean Bean? And that’s not even getting into the fact that Sean Bean is way too old to play Ned Stark!
And… and…
*does not compute*
*brain explodes*
Current Mood: 
confused & confused
7 Responses to “More Bowie DVDs and WTF SEAN BEAN AS NED STARK, REALLY?”
Nos on July 20, 2009 5:06 pm | Link
I think it will be good. At least he kinda looks like how I pictured Ned (if not a bit older). And he’s a good actor so I am sure he can pull off dull as dishwater. :p I am ridiculously excited about it. I cannot WAIT for the Jamie casting though. Him, Tyrion (who, while to pretty, is damned perfect anyhow), Brenne, and Dani are my favorite characters. I like Jon too but meh.
Why did they have to cast the beggar king as someone so hot? *flails* Well, the dragons are all very pretty, so I guess it makes sense, but man…
They had better not drop the ball with Jamie though. *can’t wait*
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rusty-halo on July 20, 2009 5:39 pm | Link
Jaime is the important one. I’m so worried–it would be so easy to screw him up. He’s pretty much the make-or-break issue of the series for me… if they get Jaime wrong, what’s the point? (Yes, I am single-minded when it comes to my OTCs!)
I’m worried about Brienne, too. I’m afraid they won’t be able to resist the temptation to make her Hollywood-ugly (aka smoking hot but dressed in something mildly unflattering). The whole point of Brienne is that she really has to be ugly–her character is all about the contrast of her good heart with her hideous appearance, another challenge to the traditional fantasy “beautiful = good, ugly = bad” trope, especially when it comes to women. (And, okay, Jaime’s redemption won’t be nearly as moving if people can just argue that he was inspired by Brienne’s pretty face rather than her noble soul.)
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention how glad I am that they cast Harry Lloyd as Viserys! He’s *perfect*! I can’t think of any other actor of that age and those looks who could pull of the smarm and cruelty necessary for the character.
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queenofthorns on July 20, 2009 7:53 pm | Link
Hee! I AM HAVING THE SAME CONFLICT ABOUT NED. Now, I don’t actually HATE Ned, but he’s kind of … well, dumb about stuff like honor (I mean, Jaime can be honorable in a smarter way, and while it’s excusable that an eighteen-year-old Brienne can be a bit naive, Ned should be a lot more worldly wise than he is. SIGH!)
Also, like you, I’m really worried that they’re planning to age up the whole adult cast to fit in with SB’s age … Because one of the HUGE POINTS about Jaime is that he gave up his inheritance and joined the KG at fifteen (at fifteen, he’s a boy who’s easily led by the physical intensity of his relationship with Cersei; if he’d done it at 25, he’d just be an incest-crazed moron, y’know?) And he kills Aerys when he’s seventeen – that’s so key to who Jaime becomes, because his ENTIRE ADULT LIFE is stained by this act which is actually very righteous. Again, if he’s 25-27 when he kills Aerys, then his refusal to explain his reasons is a lot more … silly? I dunno, Jaime doesn’t work for me if he’s an older man when the backstory happens.
OTOH, casting Sean Bean is probably a good sign that HBO really wants to produce this show, and I’ve LOVED many HBO shows a whole lot and it might be really good.
*is weirdly unhappy*
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rusty-halo on July 20, 2009 8:05 pm | Link
It reminds me of what they did with the Harry Potter films–they cast the adults so old that their stories lost a lot of impact. The whole point is that characters like Remus, Sirius, and Snape were young and naive during the war (which also ameliorates a lot of the irresponsible shit they did) and that the war permeates their entire adult existences, that it utterly changed who they grew into as people.
As you said, the same is true for Jaime. His journey is one of discovering that the person he was shaped into by his youthful experiences is not the person he wants to be now. But if he wasn’t youthful during those experiences then they are a whole lot less forgivable, and a lot less convincing as defining character experiences.
I’m really worried about Jaime’s story overall–it would be so easy to get wrong. And a big part of ASOIAF is its subversion of fantasy cliches, but it starts out embodying them before it tears them down, and I worry that it’ll get caught up in the embodying part and miss the tearing down part. I mean, on some level it has to if it follows the plot, but if (as in the leaked script) they’re making Ned more of a badass, I worry that they’re undercutting a lot of the cool parts that come later.
I think the key is just… not to get too invested in this. If it’s good, yay!!!!!!!! A nice surprise. But if it’s bad, well, whatever, what do you expect from a TV adaptation? Y’know. Because I worry that I will be bitterly disappointed if I get my hopes up.
Plus it’s really important that they cast someone hot as Jaime! If they fail there, the whole thing will be ruined for me! [/shallow]
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queenofthorns on July 20, 2009 8:11 pm | Link
Hee! I know what you mean about the Jaime casting being the make-or-break part. I’ve seen people suggest Kevin McKidd and NO NO NO NO NO! He’s a wonderful actor, I loved him in “Rome” but he is in no way hot enough to be beautiful after a year in Riverrun’s dungeons :P They need someone with a huge amount of charisma and I hope they just go with someone unknown who is also hot and a really fabulous actor. Because I am not at all demanding.
Actually, I’m conflicted about watching this in any case. I loved the “Lord of the Rings” movies, but I kind of hate that I can no longer read the books without visualizing the characters from the movies instead of the ones who used to be in my own imagination. I think this process would be even more painful with an unfinished series like this one.
On the other hand, if I’d written an awesome book and it were to be adapted, and SEAN BEAN were going to be in it, I’d be pretty excited too.
*CONFLICTED*
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rusty-halo on July 21, 2009 11:14 am | Link
I would say be happy about how exciting this is for grrm, but be nervous about how it’ll be for you? I mean, you didn’t write it; you’re not obligated to be personally invested in the adaptation! If you find it’s negatively impacting your view of the characters, you can always stop watching.
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