March, 2021 - The Constant Bleeder

(1967; director: Patrick McGoohan under the name Joseph Serf)

This dark-hearted episode pulls off a trick that few TV shows or movies ever manage to do with a straight face. The Prisoner as a whole is like that, but this installment really goes for the gold.

Here’s what it does: Through the sheer power of its otherworldliness, “Many Happy Returns” absorbs you in a scenario that makes no rational sense.

I’m not talking about mere “suspension of disbelief”. That’s the agreement between you and the creators that you’ll buy into the idea of, say, Batman for the sake of the ride.

No, I’m talking about a story that lays some HUGE whoppers on ya. A story that depends on telling you that 2 + 2 = 8. A story that makes leaps in logic that would make Edward D. Wood Jr. say “Wait, hold up, you can’t do that.”

In lesser works, overpaid writers and directors will try to sneak some bullshit past you, but you–yes, you–spot it because you’re not as dumb as they hope you are. At best, you laugh at it. At worst, you feel cheated.

When it’s effective though, it’s like you got slipped some good acid and you really don’t care anymore about how time and space and gravity work.

The Prisoner does that to you.

Continue reading “THE PRISONER #7: Many Happy Returns”

Frank Black
Frank Black
1993, 4AD/Elektra

In the Pixies, Black Francis wrote fun, memorable songs about surrealism and aliens, but he didn’t get really weird until he flipped his stage name and became rock music’s top science nerd.

Why the change? The break-up of the old band was just that bitter, I guess. He had to wash it off. Treat it like something best forgotten. He wouldn’t even play Pixies songs live for five years.

There was also something punk rock about it in an old school way. It gave off street cred. In their early 80s heyday, the likes of Black Flag and Husker Du played live shows typically dominated by their new stuff even when it wasn’t yet out on a record. Leaning on your past is what tired old rock stars do. Real motherfuckers move forward.

So, on that note, meet Frank Black, 4AD’s newest pop sensation! Hear his hopelessly strange “debut” of brilliant songs that surf on waves of crisp, synthetic sounds. It was also his best and most eccentric work yet at the time.

Continue reading “Frank Black-O-Rama! #6: FRANK BLACK”