(no subject)

Something I can't help wondering while watching Barry is if acting classes are really like that in real life. I just watched the episode where Sally hits Barry and grabs him and starts telling him she's going to leave him, half in character and half out, and instead of reigning her in and pointing out that hey, you might be taking this a little too far, that's your real-life boyfriend over there and he's clearly uncomfortable with this, Cousineau instead encourages Sally and tries to get Barry to appreciate how she's "helping" him stay in the scene. I feel like that's part of what the entire second season was about- the blurring of boundaries between stage and reality. Barry is extremely timid and apprehensive in his acting approach because he doesn't want these terrible things to reflect on him. He knows he's a bad person but he's so afraid to admit it to himself that he can't get into character as Sally's abusive ex, and he wants to rewrite his personal scene to reflect something good because he doesn't want his defining moment to be him killing an enemy in war and feeling proud to do it. (And I love how all these shallow LA actors in the class are jealous of Barry for having been to war, because they wish they could draw on trauma for their acting the way he does... It's so sick and it's so great.) Meanwhile, Sally can't stand to be seen as the weak woman who stayed with her abusive husband for years, but when she finally tries to bring her truth to the stage she chickens out- and is highly praised for it. It's like Fuches says, the guy who made that speech in Braveheart just got killed like everyone else, but people ate it up because it made for a better story. Sally's work is inauthentic and critics rave over it, but she feels personally dissatisfied even though all she's ever wanted is success. The stage vs. reality/appearances over interior thing extends to Barry & Sally's romantic relationship, too. Neither of them SEE each other. (I think I mentioned this in a post before so I'll refrain from going further.) Anyway, in short, are acting teachers really that fucked up? Do actors really behave like that? I wouldn't be surprised, since the writers of Barry did their research on pretty much all counts. I cannot WAIT to see where this show goes in season 3.

(no subject)

Just rewatched "ronny/lily" and I gotta say, I love that episode mainly for the fight scenes. I'm sure anyone who loves it agrees with that statement, but it goes deeper than that for me, because something I've always wanted to write into an action narrative is a fight that takes place in a public area- specifically, in my head, I wanted a fight in a clothing store at a shopping mall, a place where lots of civilians would be in harm's way and would be running from these two people duking it out. A place so innocuous and artificial and mundane, you would never expect for any kind of physical violence to take place there, out in the open. That's EXACTLY what Barry does with its closing fight scene in the convenience store. The Tae Kwon Do moves are a bit slick, but other than that, there's nothing too fancy or flashy about it. Just two guys trying to beat the shit out of each other (while one has a broke trachea and the other has a massive stab wound), in the artificial glow of the store's lights overhead, while customers flee for their lives out the front. Shelves get knocked over, stuff spills on the floor... It's just so great and exactly the type of thing I envisioned so long ago. I also love the kitchen scene where Lily is flying at Barry, because again, it's such a mundane setting, and it's just so gritty and real (minus her elaborate jumps of course). I really, really hope we get another episode like "ronny/lily" in the next season.

60's girl groups led me to Wondermints...

Wondermints were a power-pop band who formed in LA in the 90's, consisting of Darian Sahanaja on lead vocals and piano (one of my many musical crushes, which is to say I have a crush on him based solely on his musical talent and nothing else), Nicky Wonder on guitar (sadly, he passed away just last year), Mike D'Amico on drums, and Probyn Gregory on a plethora of instruments, most of them from the brass family. Currently the living members are known for touring with Brian Wilson as members of his backing band, but in the 90's, wondermints released four albums (that I know of) and did a lot of shows with the local music scene in their area of LA.

Which brings me to this performance:

Watch on YouTube

Just imagine walking into a bar and seeing a band with a French horn player in it. Actually, just the fact that some band members are only there to do backup vocals and the French horn and recorder parts, and the singer is playing keyboard on the harpsichord setting... It's too much for me to handle. That would NEVER happen in my local music scene. The consensus seems to be "it doesn't have to sound exactly like it is on the record" (speaking of which, something that really pissed me off once is me describing how I wanted a song to sound, I don't even remember what it was about it, to my mother, and her first reaction was "how are you going to do that live?" ????). But like... these guys knew all about "playing the studio" and how each recorded sound is important to reproduce, and THAT is precisely why they're playing with Brian Wilson today.