The House of Shazam
Been watching a lot of House over the last month or so. Will have binge watched the entire eight series by April I think. I’ve seen every episode before over the years it was on. It was made between 2004 and 2012. I think Hugh Laurie was the highest paid TV star in Hollywood for a time then. The series were long compared with many series these days. I mean over twenty episodes per series is epic fir a fifty minute programme. I could only dream of twenty episodes of The Expanse per series. That's a wapping 176 episodes. Wow! And throughly bingeworthy too.
Going back to House though has been good. Such great characters throughout the show and nice long threads throughout it. House is such a tragicomic flawed individual, that gives laugh out loud moments with his ill thought out (or quite brilliant) schemes, and so sad with his addictions and fear of love and getting close to people.
His various team members are always fascinating characters too with plentiful flaws that make you hate or pull for them whenever they go off piste or get back on their inevitable rails.
One of the best things about it for me is the music. Whoever picked the songs can select my music playlist any time. In fact I wonder whether they’ve been through CD collection at some point.
The end of each episode always brings a song in while they show the various characters doing their thing; usually thoughtfully and/or with drink, drugs or sex. These songs are always great. ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want’ by the Rolling Stones is one of the most famous ones, that gets referenced several times, that most people will know. But they use lots of artists that are less well known - and straight out of my CD library - like Iron & Wine, Josh Rouse, Bon Iver, Ben Harper, Richard Thompson, and Wilco.
Several times I’ve had to use Shazam (a smartphone App) to identify the end song. I can’t believe now how quickly that Shazam can identify the track and artist from the tiniest of listens. It is great to have that ability, but I find it a bit scary how tech can listen and regurgitate the information to you.
If you haven’t used Shazam, or have no knowledge of it, it’s a free app that will listen to music around you, be that in a film or TV programme (though not whilst characters are talking through it of course), or while you’re listening to the radio after you’ve missed the intro, or in a pub etc (when they are back open). You just ‘Shazam’ it - which just means pressing the button in the App - and it will listen and report back to you the answer. It won’t be able to do it if the music is too quiet or there is too much background noise, but if the volume’s right my god it so good and mighty, mighty quick. And so far I’ve never seen it throw out a wrong answer.
If you’ve ever heard a song somewhere that you’ve liked but never hear what it was then this is the answer to your dreams. But like I say, a little bit scarily good. What else are your phones and apps listening to and regurgitating elsewhere? Best not think about that - or at least don't verbalise it in listening distance of your phone.
Going back to House though has been good. Such great characters throughout the show and nice long threads throughout it. House is such a tragicomic flawed individual, that gives laugh out loud moments with his ill thought out (or quite brilliant) schemes, and so sad with his addictions and fear of love and getting close to people.
His various team members are always fascinating characters too with plentiful flaws that make you hate or pull for them whenever they go off piste or get back on their inevitable rails.
One of the best things about it for me is the music. Whoever picked the songs can select my music playlist any time. In fact I wonder whether they’ve been through CD collection at some point.
The end of each episode always brings a song in while they show the various characters doing their thing; usually thoughtfully and/or with drink, drugs or sex. These songs are always great. ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want’ by the Rolling Stones is one of the most famous ones, that gets referenced several times, that most people will know. But they use lots of artists that are less well known - and straight out of my CD library - like Iron & Wine, Josh Rouse, Bon Iver, Ben Harper, Richard Thompson, and Wilco.
Several times I’ve had to use Shazam (a smartphone App) to identify the end song. I can’t believe now how quickly that Shazam can identify the track and artist from the tiniest of listens. It is great to have that ability, but I find it a bit scary how tech can listen and regurgitate the information to you.
If you haven’t used Shazam, or have no knowledge of it, it’s a free app that will listen to music around you, be that in a film or TV programme (though not whilst characters are talking through it of course), or while you’re listening to the radio after you’ve missed the intro, or in a pub etc (when they are back open). You just ‘Shazam’ it - which just means pressing the button in the App - and it will listen and report back to you the answer. It won’t be able to do it if the music is too quiet or there is too much background noise, but if the volume’s right my god it so good and mighty, mighty quick. And so far I’ve never seen it throw out a wrong answer.
If you’ve ever heard a song somewhere that you’ve liked but never hear what it was then this is the answer to your dreams. But like I say, a little bit scarily good. What else are your phones and apps listening to and regurgitating elsewhere? Best not think about that - or at least don't verbalise it in listening distance of your phone.
blog comments powered by Disqus