Smallville season 8 kicks off

Kal-el

Whew. Just cant believe that Smallville is already on its eight season. I’m a  big fan of this show, but for sure you cannot pin me down as one of those who have been regularly watching this series when it debut in early 2000s. I’m just a newbie when it comes to Smallville, but this series took my attention and my fondness for the show grew and grew. I watched seasons 1 to 6 in two months I think, and right after work I would usually spend all my time knowing who Kal-el, Chloe and Lana are.

This series was also my source for 90s songs, songs that I know I love but somehow has forgotten all about it. This is where I discovered my fave ‘Mad World’ by Smallville. This for sure will figure i my top 5 best songs of all time, at least for me. So back to the eight season of the show, Smallville debut September 19 in US. This is seen by many as the pivotal point for the show. Will this be the end of Smallville? The Lex Luthor character is taken out of the show, and whoa even Lana Lang was taken out of the series! But for the fans of Lana Lang-not me!- the character will be present on some episodes, midway of the series. Also the creators Al Gough and Miles Millar are out of the show as well and I don’t know why. In the absence of these two writers, four writers are introduced to the show. With some key figures leaving the show, new faces will be seen as well. Oliver Queen character is coming back and this character will be one of the show’s regular. One villain is inserted in the new season, and that’s Tess Mercer the new head of LuthorCorp. Davis Bloome who plays the paramedic will be present as well, and this is the show’s version of Doomsday. Now, I’ll need to watch the season premiere.

Mad at Mad World

Forgive me if this is another Mad World song post. This happens when nothing productive happens to me in a day. Perhaps the last song post for the month?

I know that Tears for Fears is a dated 80s band. I know this band before, since my cousin is one of those fans of 80s pop and rock icons. His cabinet is full of cassete tapes collected over the years. Right now, he collects pirated concert DVDs and one of the artist that he liked is Tears for Fears. I never paid attention to this band. But things changed when I did my Smallville marathon two or three months ago.I think that the episode where a Tears for Fears song was played was on a season 2 episode. I remember that the song was being played while Clark Kent was all alone in his place of solitude, on the cave. Then song starts to stream in. I know from that moment that the song is eeriely familiar but I can’t seem to locate where and when I first heard it. It took me a few days to continously hum the song, and I made a few research over the net. After some time, I came to learn the fact that the song was from Tears for Fears. It was totally different from the original one, but you know instantly that this is way better than the original!

It was revealed that the Mad World song was intended as a b-side for Tears for Fears second single, Pale Shelter. When I first heard the song over Smallville, I thought how appropriate. It literally frames the scene, the mood and the condition of Clark Kent. Truly, we are living in a mad world. In fact, I even made my own twisted interpretation, ahem as always making Mad World a song for me. That the song talsk about the insensivity of the people around us and the growing alienation that we encounter as day goes by. But no matter how deep I and you go, the writers of the song says otherwise, Roland Orzabal said;

Lyrically the song is pretty loose. It throws together a lot of different images
to paint a picture without saying anything specific about the world

Added Curt Smith;

It’s very much a voyeur’s song. It’s looking out at a mad world from the eyes of
a teenager.

I learned as well that the song was covered by Gary Jules for Donnie Darko. I need to watch the film. Anyone has a copy of the movie? If the Mad World original is full of 80s fingerprints like synthesizers and percussions, the Jules version was stripped bare with piano and cello taking stage. I checked some info regarding the movie, and it seems that the movie is great as well.

I wrote this months ago.