I am a big Ricky Gervais fan. I watched him back in 2000 with the British version of The Office, also known to us hardcore fans as The Office. I like pretty much everything he has ever done. There was a TV show that was recently lanched in the U.K. called Derek. (It is now available in North America on Netflix.) It's a quirky television show about a simple person who works at an old folks home. It's not really a very funny show, but it is really heartfelt and more like comedy-drama. A dramedy? A coma? In any event, the show is really moving, because we get to watch Derek (Ricky Gervais) interact with friends and clients (who are mostly old people waiting to die in the home).
The music on this show is fantastic. I am not a big fan of classical music. To me, it is old person music. I am not an old person! I can walk up a flight of stairs. I know how to use a self-checkout machine at the supermarket. I am young, dammit!
The composer of the classical music that was used in the show is an Italian musician named Ludovico Einaudi. I grabbed one of his albums and absolutely fell in love with the music. Instead of thirty violins all battling it out like crazy chickens in a small coop, the music is melodic and simple. Check out his song Ancora here:
Of course, the snobby snobs have to come down from their snobby ivory tower and criticize that Ludivico Einaudi is too simple—that the masses may like it, but he is not considered "real" classical music. I love this. I am gladly one of the heathens who doesn't get classical music. It's too complicated and quite frankly, I don't really enjoy it. So I love this criticism. I truly do. Let me explain: I am a huge KISS fan. I love those old dudes dressed up in spandex breathing fire and setting off pyro. The critics Hate KISS. Yes, that was hate with a capital H. So to me, Ludivico Einaudi is like the KISS of the classical world. (He does not, to my knowledge, spit fire or start every piano concert with "who's ready to rock???"
I really like melodies (which is why I like KISS and 1980s cheesy music. You spin me right round baby right round—where was I? Oh right. This is one of his biggest mainstream songs, called Divenire:
It's like most art: either you like it, or you don't. I like it. Even if he doesn't shoot fireworks and have a 20-foot tall drum riser.
