SOUNDTRACK: BLUE ÖYSTER CULT-Imaginos (1988).
I think of this as the last BOC album (although they have released two since this one) because it was the last one that I was really aware of when it came out. My roommate Glen was super excited about it and we listened to it all the time. And even though I’ve said that Fire of Unknown Origin is my favorite BOC disc, I think this one may be better.
The story behind this disc is convoluted and strange. It was apparently written by Albert Bouchard as a concept album that was designed to be 2 or 3 discs long. He had started writing it as long ago as 1972. Two tracks appeared in 1974 (“Astronomy” and “Subhuman” (which became “Blue Öyster Cult” on Imaginos).
Because record labels suck, the disc never got released as intended. I’m not sure if it was ever even recorded in total. When Imaginos was finally released in 1988, it no longer resembled the original and the liner notes are not exactly accurate about who plays what.
The concept behind the disc (and the original liner notes do explain the “concept”) is pretty confusing (for a summary, the Wikipedia entry is pretty helpful).
But if the released tracks are any indication, the whole package would have been amazing. The songs retain the feel of the early 70s tracks, but they also feel updated to a more 80’s metal sound. “I am the One You Warned Me Of” is a great rocking opener with wonderful use of keyboards. What really sells the disc is the choral vocals, chanting/chorusing/adding incredible depth. The “your master is a monster” part of “In the Presence of Another World” is fantastic.
But the centerpiece is undoubtedly, “The Siege and Investiture of Baron von Frankenstein’s Castle at Weisseria.” The lyrics, the tension, the call and response are all fantastic. It is one of the most unheralded hard rock songs ever. And it deserves a wider audience.
We get a 14 year reprise of the classic “Astronomy,” this one is basically the same song but played differently, more epic. I’m always torn as to which version I like better. “Magna of Illusion” has a fun spoken part, “Grandaughter!” and continues the excellence of side two.
“Blue Oyster Cult” the remake of “Subhuman,” keeps the strangeness of the song (“Ladies, Fish and Gentlemen”), but sounds quite a bit different. It’s almost meandering on the original disc, a slow guitar solo and a Doors-sounding keyboard fill the track. On the Imaginos version, it’s much heavier, and the keyboard is a staccato piano. It’s also three minutes longer with the chanted “We understand. Blue Oyster Cult.” It’s almost unrecognizable, and yet those lyrics are unmistakable. The title track ends the disc with a catchy and cool riff and chorus.
There’s also a whole bunch of guests listed in the notes, including Robby Krieger, Also Nova (!) and Joe Satriani.
Imaginos was reissued recently but I’m not sure if it’s worth getting as it has no bonus anything on it (except corrected liner notes). The original recording sounds pretty poor (at least compared to other contemporary discs) but I’m holding off for the proper reissue (will we ever see the whole project?) that this disc deserves.
[READ: Week of March 15, 2010] 2666 [pg 466-513]
This week’s reading is the shortest amount for the entire book. It offers some new ideas and lots more deaths.
As the reading opens, Epifanio is continuing his investigation into the murder of Estrella Ruiz Sandoval. He tracks down two of her friends, both named Rosa (although neither is a Rosa that we have met before). After hanging around with Rosa for some time (and even going to her house) he learns that Estrella had been frequenting a computer shop owned by a blond blond man. Lately, he had grown angry with her.
The Santa Teresa police decide that there is one man behind the grisly unsolved murders (they focus specifically on the three women who have been brutalized in the same manner (don’t make me write it). And they discuss whether or not he is a serial killer. One argues that the serial killer is responsible just for the three recent deaths (that the others were done by someone else, but because they didn’t match the pattern, it can’t be the same guy). Another proposal is that the same man is responsible for all of the killings. But now, he is upping his gruesomeness because he feels cocky.
Epifanio takes Lalo to lunch where they eat posole (the recipe at this site does not include human flesh as Epifanio suggests the original Aztec meal did) and we learn that Pedro Rengifo is a narco (which is why he had so many bodyguards). [And here’s my ignorance: I can’t decide what it means to be a narco. I don’t know if I missed it earlier in the book or if it’s just assumed. Is he a drug trader? And if so why is he under police protection?]
Florita Almada appears for the third time on Reinaldo’s show, although nothing teribly exciting happens during it.
Epifanio then hunts down the blond computer guy. He is German born and a recently Americanized citizen who has moved to Mexico. He has a rap sheet in Tampa for abuse, assault and attempted rape. His name is Klaus Haas. Epifanio sees him at the store and waits. And waits and waits. Finally he is able to question him about the disappearance of Estrella. Haas says he recognizes her but little else.
Epifanio then follows one of Haas’ employees home. The young man, Juan Pablo Castañón, is watching TV when his mother leaves without saying anything. He is left to look after his infant brother (I assume brother). Epifanio and Lalo knock, make an amusing joke about not dropping the baby, and then stay to chat. The employee reveals that Haas has a few stores, and he has been known to beat his employees (although not him, specifically).
When they visited Haas’ other business, in Santa Teresa, the most notable thing was that of the two toilets, one was absolutely immaculate, so much as scrubbed after each use, while the other looked like it had not been used in years. It was filthy and seemed like it wouldn’t work, even though it still had running water [my movie-going mind imagines that horrifying things take place in this bathroom, although there is nothing in the text to suggest that]. They also find blood splattered around.
They arrest and interrogate Haas. He reveals that the blood is from one of his menstruating sexual partners (a cop suggests that only animals haze sex with a woman who is menstruating, Haas denies this). (However, in what has become a familiar refrain, the DNA samples from the blood were lost in transit to the lab). Haas is eventually jailed, although without any real evidence.
We follow Haas’ life in jail for a few pages. He is intimidating. He does not sleep at night, keeping everyone else awake by pacing and slapping his arms as if he were being bitten by mosquitoes. The other inmates get really angry with him (yelling stop making noise you gringo son of a bitch), but Haas threatens them that a giant will soon be coming to take care of all of them.
When Haas finally goes out into the communal yard (he had actually been sick with flu for a few days), he befriends three inmates (El Toremnta, El Tequila, and El Tutanramón). This third one, whose name is Ramón got his nickname because he watched The Revenge of the Mummy [which isn’t actually the name of one of the Mummy films] so many times, his friends started calling him not Tutanramón–but I love that the narrative questions the veracity of this origin story). And, he seems at peace with the other ones, even those who were upset with him. He doesn’t buy drugs, but he does buy a soda (I’m intrigued that men sell soda out of coolers in the prison yard).
A prisoner named El Anillo (The Ring) tries to rape Haas. Haas, who is bigger, more or less laughs it off, and El Anillo says no offense, that he was expected to do so to keep his image. He really didn’t want to. Despite not seeming too upset, as payment Haas has El Anillo bend over and he slowly inserts a shiv where Anillo…well, you get the idea. I’m not sure if/how Anillo survived that.
Haas then asks his lawyer for a cell phone. His lawyer demurs, but Haas insists. Haas then proceeds to sell them in the prison. First he charges three times the original price, and the next time he charges five times.
We then learn about some of the other inmates, two in particular: Farfán and Gómez. They are two of the ugliest men Haas has ever seen and he expects trouble from Farfán in particular. But they are in their own world and give him no grief. Farfán and Gómez were a couple. The first time they’d met, Farfán raped Gómez, but during a second altercation, Farfán presented himself to Gómez and they have been together ever since. Haas can’t imagine getting turned on by either one of their asses:
Raping women and then killing them seemed more attractive to him, more sexy than plunging a cock into Farfán’s oozing hole or Gómez’s hole full of shit (488).
After being in the prison for 15 days, Haas held a press conference. Four Mexico City reporters attended, including Sergio González. Haas told everyone that there were all kinds of scary things going on in Santa Teresa and that he was innocent. As González left the conference, Haas’ lawyer slipped him a piece of paper with Haas’ cell phone number. When González calls, Haas, in a roundabout way, asserts that the prisoners all know he is innocent because they know who is guilty, and with time, he says he will find out who it is.
Of course, everyone is scandalized that a prisoner was able to call a press conference. And in a personal conference that was overheard by Inspector José Márquez that Enrique Hernández twisted the warden’s arm to give Haas what he wants. Hernández was thirty-six and had worked for Don Pedro Rengifo. Inspector Juan de Dios Martínez wants to know what’s in it for Hernández. He’s not doing it out of friendship, since he had no friends.
Two more bodies are discovered basically across the highway from each other. There is an argument as to whether or not they were killed at the same time. Then two dead women were found in December 1995. The first one was found in a local make-out area. One of the arresting officers, Jaime Sánchez, pulled out an unauthorized Magnum Taurus on the kids there. This kept the peace while they interrogated everyone, but the killer was never discovered.
The second death was, in fact, Officer Sánchez’ wife, whom he killed with that same Magnum.
In January 1996, Haas called another press conference. Among other things he noted the similarity between the death of the woman he was jailed for (Estrella Sandoval) and the recent death of Michelle Requejo (for on thing the rope used to tie them was the same, and the knots were identical. And, hey, more deaths are happening while he’s in jail.
Speaking of consistencies, most of the deaths also had a fractured hyoid bone. I had never heard of the hyoid bone. I had let it slip by, but having seen it so many times, I had to look up and see exactly where it is.
During that time, the number of women to join the WSDP protest group jumped to 20.
More unidentified women were killed between Jan and March 1996. And then in April, Florita returned to the air with a group of activists from WSDP. They flat out addressed the laziness of the police, the corruption in Sonora, and that the state governor José Andrés Briceño needed to find a solution to all of this. This outraged Reinaldo’s producers and he was almost fired.
Reinaldo called a radio station in L.A. and commiserated about a similar serial killer who attacked gay men in L.A. (In fact, they made a movie out of it starring Keanu Reeves and the guy with the same name out of the Salinger novel). Reinaldo (who it suggested is gay) has never read Salinger. [I can’t find anything about this movie, although thee is a movie called Cruising, starring Al Pacino which sounds pretty close.]
In an interesting twist on all the deaths so far, a woman was found who was identified and buried. Her name was Ana Hernández Cecilio. Three days later, the real AHG turned up, alive. She was identity was even confirmed by her parents. They exhumed the body and through a series of events Arturo Olivárez arrested on a soccer field. He admitted to raping and killing his wife and leaving the body by the side of the road. At this point, I confess to not being able to keep the dead bodies straight, so I’m not entirely sure if she was the fake AHG or not. I’m not entirely sure if it’s worth really trying to keep everyone straight, either.
In Mexico City, a feminist group called Women in Action (WA) made a TV appearance denouncing the deaths in Santa Teresa. They asked the government to send Mexico City investigators to Santa Teresa because they clearly can’t handle all the crimes. They approved of what WSDP was doing but also felt that Florita was using them when she brought them with her on TV.
We leave this week’s reading with Elvira Campos wondering if all of Mexico has gone crazy. She wants to talk to Juan de Dios Martínez about all the killings, but feels that if she did it would somehow bring them together in a relationship. And maybe she’d just kill herself when she turns 55. Or maybe 56.
COMMENTS
As the deaths become more gruesome, and the crimes become more spectacular, I’m finding myself become less interested in their details. There are just so many dead women, that it’s exhausting tying to keep everyone straight without writing down their names and details. And, unlike say, Infinite Jest, where a detailed account of the book is if not essential, then at least rewarded, I’m not convinced that there is any reward for working extra hard on these poor women. Is that the point? Maybe.
I’m also interested in the way the killer(s) are not only not being found, but are not even leaving clues. Popular culture has me believing (to quote Raising Arizona) “everyone leaves microbes and shit.” And yet I’m not entirely sure whether Bolaño is pointing out the incompetence of the Santa Teresa police force, or trying to show the real difficulty in tracking down a killer. Although I definitely think he’s trying to point out the incompetence (or deliberate evasion) in the constant lost evidence.
Despite the numbness of my mind, I am finding the non-deaths section to be very scintillating. It’s almost as if he’s using the death sequences as a way to slow down the pacing. The inspectors, while not actually getting closer to solving the crimes, are gaining more and more pieces of the puzzle. And the whole sequence with Haas was really intense.
I’m still fairly certain that this section is not going to end in a “satisfying” way, but I’m very curious if he’s going to try and put any kind of closure on it.
For ease of searching I include: Bolano, Blue Oyster Cult
Hi Paul,
as you probably have already found out, narco is a drug dealer, usually high up in the organization (that is to say, a dealer is generally not referred to as a narco).
I too doubt that the quantity and particular circumstances of the murders will amount to anything in the end, and in such a case all those pages represent a really harsh (albeit deserved) criticism of the mexican justice system to which many of us (mexicans) ascribe to consciously or unconsciously. However I do feel that more deaths would add little to the numbness that the previous pages have already generated and mostly, it feels to me like a snuff film (Is that what he’s going for? A snuff film that you cant stop and cannot help but stare while your mind flies somewhere else?). Still, I have much faith in Bolaño’s writing, and I will be very happy if something that has not crossed my mind about this section makes it more relevant.
Eric, thanks. Yes, I kind of got to the bottom of narco. I assumed that was right (but I was surprised how hard it was to get a real definition).
I don’t know if you’v read further than last week’s pages yet. But I started this weeks today and (no real spoiler) the is a fairly lengthy discussion of snuff films. I wonder if that’s what Bolano is up to here.
I fear that I am beginning to despair a bit from all the murders (which is no doubt the point). But I really hope that something comes from it all.