Tag: dark

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The Day I Cancelled Netflix

Wow. 2011. That’s a long commitment. It was a DVD service then. My computer had a slotloader drive. They’d get just about anything you asked for, if you waited long enough.

Then they added streaming. That was fun.

Then they tried to split discs and streaming, and had to do a desperate volte-face.

Eventually, they dropped discs anyway.

Original productions. Some bad. Some great. Most average. Most expensive, until they weren’t. Three seasons of Dark, but 1899 only survived one. The streaming wars peaked. No one could burn money like they used to.

But they were profitable.

And, although profitable, they wanted more.

We all dropped cable, because it cost too much, and was full of loud ads and cheap garbage shows. Then the streamers all… wanted to make cable again.

But this time it’d be 100% vertically integrated. Watch it here, or don’t watch it at all. We hated that, but the suits loved it. Dark again… Dark had the best soundtrack of any tv show to date, but you couldn’t buy it. You had to build it your own damn self.

Rubbish.

Buy a great show, so you could watch it without internet? Forget it.

Rubbish.

And that’s the world–that’s the market Netflix gave us.

They make more per customer if they show us ads. So why not jack the prices up? Again, and again, and again… Finally, they were going to switch us automatically to an ads plan. Or charge more for the same thing. No, not worth it.

2011. Damn. But, money only understands money. Getting it, or losing it.

FAFO.

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A Netflix “Dark” Soundtrack for Purchase on iTunes

Here’s an (unofficial) soundtrack album for the 2017 Netflix series “Dark,” for iTunes downloading:

  1. “Industry” – Mire Kay [iTunes $1.29]
  2. “Anthricite Fields: IV. Flowers” – Julia Wolf, Choir of Trinity Wall Street, Bang on a Can All-Stars & Julian Wachner [iTunes $0.99]
  3. “The Look of Love, Pt. 1” – ABC [iTunes $1.29]
  4. “Familiar” – Agnes Obel [iTunes $1.29]
  5. “Keep the Streets Empty For Me” – Fever Ray [iTunes $1.29]
  6. “Me and the Devil” – Soap&Skin [iTunes $1.29]
  7. “Enter One” – Sol Seppy [iTunes $0.99]
  8. “Es wird ja alles wieder gut” – Detlev Lais [iTunes $0.99]
  9. “When I Was Done Dying” – Dan Deacon [iTunes $1.29]
  10. “I Ran (So Far Away)” – A Flock of Seagulls [iTunes $1.29]
  11. “Wishing Well” – Stomper feat. Lucy Topps [iTunes $1.29]
  12. “Cow Song” – Merideth Monk & Collin Walcott [iTunes $1.29]
  13. “A Quiet Life” – Teho Teardo & Blixa Bargeld [iTunes $0.99]
  14. “Goodbye” – Apparat & Soap&Skin [iTunes $1.29]

The above is based substantially on Cinema Lumina’s streaming Apple Music playlist, with Marcin Tomaszewski’s Spotify playlist, and the sleuths on Tunefind.

Play time is a satisfying 1 hour 2 minutes, and the total cost a less-so $16.86. If you’d like to save a few bucks, I’d recommend omitting the just-barely-a-song “Cow Song,” the unintentionally creepy postwar German hit “Es wird ja alles wieder gut,” and ’80s crap “The Look of Love” and “I Ran.” (Nostalgia? I was there, Gandalf! In the 1980s. I was there when the strength of men failed…)

Besides the (unavailable) score itself, there are some omissions. On the out-of-place counterpoint song front, I prefer the Flock of Seagulls song to “You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)” by Dead of Alive [iTunes $1.29] simply because it’s less annoying (and lacks even the freaky faux-sincerity of ABC). It also appears only briefly as music heard by characters, in continuity. Likewise “Irgendwie, Irgendwo, Irgendwann” by Nena [iTunes $1.29], old standby “Shout” by Tears for Fears [iTunes $1.29] and the two barely-heard generic metal tracks, “Rücklauf” by Marathonmann [iTunes $1.29] and “Pleasure to Kill” by Kreator [iTunes $1.29]. Roomful of Teeth’s odd experimental vocal track tends to fade into the general noise ambiance of the show’s sound mix, but the track is “Partita: III. Courante” [iTunes $0.99]. Likewise Ben Frost’s pleasant but forgettable “Snow” [iTunes $1.29]. Finally, there’s a Mimi Page track supposedly called “Nightfall,” but I haven’t been able to locate it.