Terry Moore–Echo #23 & #24 (2010)

SOUNDTRACK: PEARL JAM-Halifax, Nova Scotia, Metro Centre, September 22, 2005 (2005). This show came as a free download if you purchased Pearl Jam’s Backspacer CD. Pearl Jam live shows really showcase the band’s strengths.  And no shows are better than when they go to a place for the first time.  This was their first trip [...]

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James Joyce–[Week 8] Ulysses (1922) [Penelope]

SOUNDTRACK: SINÉAD O’CONNOR-The Lion and the Cobra (1987). I was tempted to say that this album came before all of the controversy.  But then, she’s always had controversy around her.  Just the fact that she had her head shaved was enough to incite some people to alarm (not to mention, we never received this more fierce looking [...]

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Eveything’s Gone Green (2006) [movie written by Douglas Coupland]

[WATCHED: August 26, 2010] Everything’s Gone Green I’m including this film because it was written by Douglas Coupland (and he’s one of those writers that I read a lot). Everything’s Gone Green is a story of suburban life in Vancouver.  As the film opens the main character gets dumped by his girlfriend and loses his [...]

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John Berger–”A Brush” (Harper’s, September, 2010)

SOUNDTRACK: A HOUSE-”More Endless Art” (1991). Lar, my encyclopedia of music, pointed me to this second version of “Endless Art” by A House.  The original was all male artists.  This follow-up is all female artists. I enjoyed this version very much, and it made me realize that I was tired of the original song because [...]

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Murray Bookchin–Social Anarchism or Lifestyle Anarchism: An Unbridgeable Chasm (1995)

SOUNDTRACK: PETE SEEGER-Greatest Hits (2002). Like Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger has been singing for the common man since forever.  Unlike Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger is alive and well and still kicking up a fuss. This collection of his songs is fascinating in that it shows a certain aspect of Pete’s music: his songs are designed [...]

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Berkeley Breathed–Bloom County: The Complete Library, Vol. 2: 1982-1984 (2010)

SOUNDTRACK: A HOUSE-Zop (1991). This is an EP that came out just after I Am the Greatest.  Released only in the UK, I found it used at Amoeba Records (I must have been on an A House binge at the time). The EP has 6 tracks.  The opener sounds like a slightly remixed version of [...]

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Anonymous–”Los Malos” (Harper’s, September 2010)

SOUNDTRACK: A HOUSE-I Want Too Much (1990). I Want Too Much saw a bit of a stylistic shift from the sort of generic indie rock of the first album.  Dave Couse’s voice begins to really come into its own with a lot of yelping and higher notes. The album overall is more experimental, a good [...]

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Nicholson Baker–The Mezzanine (1986)

SOUNDTRACK: A HOUSE: On Our Big Fat Merry-Go-Round (1988). I first heard of A House when “Call Me Blue” came on a Sire records sampler (Just Say Yo).  This was a good sampler of college rock music circa 1987, and “Call Me Blue” stood out for me. I had kind of forgotten about them until [...]

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James Joyce–[Week 7] Ulysses (1922) [Eumaeus, Ithaca]

SOUNDTRACK: A HOUSE-I am the Greatest (1991). A House were a Dublin band that released a number of great songs and a few good albums from the mid 1980′s until the late 1990s.  I loved A House (but never knew whether to file them under A or H).  They were a smart, often sarcastic, occasionally [...]

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Benjamin Percy–”The Complaint: Roberto Bolaño” (Esquire, September 2010)

SOUNDTRACK:  grouse Since this article is a complaint, what better soundtrack than a grouse. Although for cool grouse movies I prefer this one. [READ: August 18, 2010] “The Complaint: Roberto Bolaño” In a few short paragraphs, Benjamin Percy tries to undermine the literary value of Roberto Bolaño.  He complains about yet another posthumous release from [...]

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