The Rewind Button: Who’s Next

Posted on 2012/11/012012/11/06 by Jason Hensel

The Rewind Button is a group blogging project that I’m participating in. We’re taking on Rolling Stone‘s Top 40 albums of all time and writing our own reviews of them.

The Who is one of those bands that a lot of my friends go apeshit over, but one that I’ve never latched on to. When I hear “My Generation” or “Baba O’Riley” on the radio, I probably won’t turn them off. But I’ve never purposely listened to one of their records until now.

And I’m going to have to say that Who’s Next is, well, okay. Maybe it’s because I’ve heard songs such as “Behind Blue Eyes,” “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” and the aforementioned “Baba O’Riley” so many times that they’re nothing new to me. In fact, my favorite song from this album’s recording session wasn’t even on the proper release. “Pure and Easy” is a bonus track on a 1995 release of Who’s Next.

Just naming those songs puts them in my head as ear worms, which can be considered a success if one doesn’t want to be forgettable. However, I don’t care what album those songs are on, because they’re from The Who and not a certain product. Does that mean the album is a failure if they wanted to create something well packaged and whole? Maybe. Maybe not. And much like my wishy-washy answer, this album is a take-it-or-leave-it one for me.

Please visit these other blogs participating in The Rewind Button project:

Betty Livin

Love As A Verb

Life Doesn’t Have to Suck

Renée Sylvestre-Williams

Sara Bynoe

Musicqwest
Be a River With Me

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The Rewind Button: London Calling

Posted on 2012/05/032012/05/11 by Jason Hensel

The Rewind Button is a group blogging project that I’m participating in. We’re taking on Rolling Stone‘s Top 40 albums of all time and writing our own reviews of them. There will be a new album and review each Thursday.

London Calling
33-year-old male
London, England
seeking males and females, 17-64

Have Kids: No

Want Kids: No

Ethnicity: White

Body Type: Skinny

Height: Tall

Religion: No comment

Smoke: All the time

Drink: All the time

Favorite Hot Spots: The Black Swan, Dingwalls, various pubs around London

Favorite Things: Rockabilly, ska, reggae, punk music, drugs, football, talking politics

Last Book Read: I read newspapers all the time, more so than books.

For Fun: I love to rebel-rouse. All my friends would call me the life of the party. And music. Oh my god, music is my life. Well, that, and playing football. When I’m out at the pub–I go there a lot–people say I’m pretty surly. I’m not really. I just come across that way because, you know, there’s so much wrong in the world and I feel people should do more to correct it. I seem to just take it upon myself, and that makes me a little sour toward people. I think people should be allowed to be themselves, but society constantly pushes them into the cubes and tries to form them into blocks that they can stack one on top of the other. I’m want to topple that stack. I want to throw a beanbag into and bring it all down. That’s how I know I’m winning in this world, that’s how I know I’m somebody. But, man, it’s so hard. So most of the time, I just chill in my room with beers and friends and we listen to some music. We don’t care what kind. If we enjoy it, we listen to it. That’s why people call me a punk, because I don’t give a fuck. But I do in a way. It’s weird, I only care because I want to care, not because someone tells me to care. That’s what’s fun to me. Doing things my way and not boxing myself in. If you’re cool with that, write me.

Please visit these other blogs participating in The Rewind Button project:

Betty Livin

Love As A Verb

Life Doesn’t Have to Suck

Grad Student By Day

Renée Sylvestre-Williams

Sara Bynoe

La Belle Vie
Musicqwest
Zachary Stevenson
1throne: King of the Internets
Be a River With Me

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The Rewind Button: Exile on Main St.

Posted on 2012/04/262012/05/01 by Jason Hensel

Since the Rolling Stones are masters at creating music based on influences, I thought I’d do the same for my review this week. I asked friends on Facebook and Twitter to send me adjectives to describe Exile on Main St., and I took those words and crafted my own short review. I packaged it all on Storify.

Please visit these other blogs participating in The Rewind Button project:

Betty Livin

Love As A Verb

Life Doesn’t Have to Suck

Grad Student By Day

Renée Sylvestre-Williams

Sara Bynoe

La Belle Vie
Musicqwest
Zachary Stevenson
1throne: King of the Internets
Be a River With Me

Send to Kindle

Review: The Night Season

Posted on 2011/11/21 by Jason Hensel

Ah, the family drama. What’s more fun than to learn about others, and what’s more disappointing than finding out that they’re just like you? I guess that’s the beauty of universal truths. Not handled well, though, these truths can drive you mad with boredom.

This is the case with The Night Season, by Rebecca Lenkiewicz, a play meandering for truth and completion. And what it does find is no different that what is found in hundreds of other stories. Some will welcome the familiarity. For others, knowing how it concludes before arriving at the end is an exercise in patience and concentration.

In the play, we witness a family drama set in Sligo, Ireland, which was once home for poet W.B. Yeats. Lenkiewicz–inspired by Yeats’ work–doesn’t handle language or image quite as well as her muse. However, like Yeats, she’s earnest with her ideas.

The family consists of three sisters (Judith, Rose, and Maud), a single father (Patrick), and a grandmother (Lily). The mother is never seen and living off in London, having left the family 15 years ago. This is the family’s underlying angst. Their need for love manifests itself in several ways. Rose sleeping with a visiting actor (playing Yeats…yes, Yeats, in a movie), Judith’s on again off again affair with Gary, and Maud’s care for her absent husband are the three most blatant examples. Patrick’s interest in a bartender with big breasts and Lily’s childlike adoration for the actor add levity to a play carrying a lot of woe-is-me weight.

Though filled with stock characters (e.g., the flighty grandmother, the drunken dad) and clichéd scenes (I won’t give away the ending), the writing’s structure is interesting enough to keep you reading. In fact, it feels like a screenplay, with quick, short scenes and various locations throughout its pages.

That’s actually what this play needs, to be made into a movie. If so, it will do well on Lifetime, where its tale of unrequited love would fit right in with that network’s programming.

With The Night Season, we have a so-so play by a promising writer whose ideas are still finding a foundation. Let’s just hope in the future, it’s one we haven’t seen before.

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