SOUNDTRACK: HÜSKER DÜ-Metal Circus EP (1983).

After the insane hardcore mess of Land Speed Record, this EP is a bit of a change.  It’s still pretty hardcore, but now you can tell that the noisiness of the guitar is deliberate.  Bob Mould is playing around with multiple layers of feedback and distortion to create a wall of noise that sometimes hides, sometime accentuates the overall sound.

What strikes me as odd in retrospect is that I think of Bob Mould as one of alternative rock’s poppier songwriters.  And yet when you listen to this disc the two poppiest (which is a relative term to be sure) tracks are by Grant Hart.

The first two tracks are fast and furious.  But what separates them from 4 x 4 hardcore is, mostly Greg Norton’s bass.  He’s all over the place.  There’s also some diversity within the songs themselves (a little guitar squeal in “Deadly Skies”).

“It’s Not Funny Anymore” (Hart’s song) is surprisingly upbeat (with guitar harmonics) and is not quite as noisy (although it’s still pretty noisy, and is not going on the radio anytime soon).

The next two track are more of Mould’s screamy hardcore.

The longest song (4 and a half minutes) is also by Hart. “Diane” is a creepy song about abduction and murder (yet with something of a  singalong chorus).  I actually know the Therapy? version better because I had listened to that disc a lot when it came out.  But the Hüsker’s version is even creepier.  Wikipedia says it is about a real incident (which makes it less creepy than if Hart has made it up, I suppose).

It ends with Mould’s least hardcore song, although the guitar solo is pretty insane.

And then it’s over.  7 songs in twenty minutes.  That’s nearly half as many as on Land Speed Record.  You can see the songs changing already.  Just wait till the next disc!

[READ: June 29, 2009] McSweeney’s #5

McSweeney’s #5 plays with cover ideas again.  On this one, the cover idea is actual different covers and slipcovers.  The book is hardcover, with three different cover designs.  It also has 4 different slipcover designs. The colophon explains that if one wanted one could have requested for free) each of the cover designs because they did not intend to make people buy multiple issues.  Click on the covers to see them enlarged on flickr (all images are copyright McSweeney’s).

This is the Koppel front cover.

I will quote from the McSweeney’s site their description of the covers:

As many of you know, the new issue of our print version is out, and by now is in most stores. This issue is a hardcover book, and features four different dust jackets. One dust jacket has on it a man who seems to be suffering from terrible skin lesions. The second cover looks very much like the cover of Issue No. 1, with the addition of a medical drawing of a severed arm. The third cover is blank, with all of its images hiding on the back. Hiding from the bad people. The last cover is just red. Or, if you will, simply red.

In addition, under each dust jacket is a different cover. One features pictures of Ted Koppel. One features new work by Susan Minot. And a third features a variation on the second cover, described above, though this version is legible only with aid of mirror. This inner cover also is featured under the red dust jacket.

I was quite surprised when I took the slipcover off mine, as it is possible that I have never done so before.  I have the Ted Koppel cover (which, all things considered, is pretty cool).  My slipcover is blank on the front (very odd) with the half-face design on the back cover.

This is the Koppel back cover.

The colophon also explains that they will allow authors’ stylistic quirks to remain, and not to be uniform in their publishing appearance.  This seems especially relevant about Elizabeth Klemm’s “Mr. Squishy” which they left unchanged at all…notable in that there are a typographical glitches left in.  (where the double dash is rendered as an æ because it is translated from a different program).  Oh, and they are using a larger font size. 11.2 up from 10.5.

They also admit that they are publishing some “normaler” fiction.  “The Days Here,” “Soot,” “The Observers” and “The Hypnotist’s Trailer” are all un-self conscious, and thus threw the editors for a loop.  The colophon includes a chart showing the appeal of certain subject matter and themes: Stories involving interactions between motorcycle gangs and octopuses that talk is a +40, while A story that involves relationship problems being dealt with in a fabulous Manhattan apartment is a -55.

They also admit that LaFarge’s story has already been published elsewhere (in 6500 Magazine, which I had heard of but which I can’t find anything about anywhere).  They then say which award (and the monetary amount) the authors should win for these great stories.

The Submissions policy is included with a circular chart showing how many people that got published this time around were actually unknown to the editors (48%).

The next page is 64 thumbnails of previous McSweeney’s issues all shrunk down so that you can see the all 64.  Some stories are quite apparent: Marfa, the Supreme Court basketball one and Symmes Hole.

The contents page is quite helpful this time around. It gives the author, the title, what type of story it is, the subject matter or theme of each piece, whether or not it is humorous (this so that people would know whether or not to describe McSweeney’s as a humorous publication, the degree of difficulty of the piece and the page number.

Genre Types include: (F) Fiction, (NF) Nonfiction, (F/NF) Fiction/Nonfiction Hybrid, (E) Essay, (T-P E) Thought-Provoking Essay, (DE) Dumb Experiment, (I) Interview with Ted Koppel or Joshuah Bearman’s Dad (FARPiMA) Fiction about Relationship Problems in Manhattan

Difficulty levels: (E) Easy and Enjoyable, (M) Enjoyable, but moderately difficult (SD) Enjoyable but somehow more difficult, (D) Difficult (and yet still enjoyable), (VD) Very Difficult (but fun when parsed), Ch (Challenging) (RS) Rural Setting, (M) Talk of Life on Mars.

There is also more discussion about the wonders of Iceland (and the baby bird nest that they found).  As well as the affordability and timeliness of using a publisher in Iceland (and how they would print faster–including shipping by boat–than the publisher right there in Brooklyn).  And also how the quality of the work is so good that it’s absurd that publishers publish expensive yet crappy looking books.

DIGRESSION: My coworker was just browsing the issue and–I kid you not–marveled at the quality of the publishing, how it was stitched in, the way they don’t anymore.

Also: a large ad for The Neal Pollack Anthology of American Literature: the first book published by McSweeney’s, and as such it is our obligation to purchase one.  [It is also very created very well by Oddi Publishing in Iceland).

LETTERS:

COURTNEY ELDRIDGE
Shows several examples of stories that are in her "will not complete" file.

GARY PIKE
A dream about a land of nothing but domes.

SARAH VOWELL-Nationalism Round up #2
Sarah feels awkward about the 4th of July and actually told a company to remove the promotional flag that they placed on her (and everyone else's) lawn because the flag symbolizes the freedom to not have that done to her.  Part Two discusses the feeling of warmth she gets from a NYC subway sign that informs all passengers that if they are sick, they will not be left alone.  She secretly hopes someone gets sick so she can offer, at the very least, a tissue.

GARY PIKE
A second dream.  This one about the Pike's son flying a plane at an Air Force base.  The flight lasts several days and, despite the fact that the dreamer was in the plane with the son at times, when the plane lands, the son is pronounced dead.  The son died in a seated position, but how will he fit in a coffin that way?

LYDIA DAVIS
This is a discussion about Davis' piece.  (See the piece below for more details about these letters).  There are several letters that go back and forth and it is nice to see how accommodating the editors are to Davis' suggestions and preferences.

THE MAIN STORIES

KELLY FEENEY-"The Days Here"
A story in 11 parts.  Most parts are very short.  I'm not entirely sure what is happening as some details are left out.  However, the narrator is in a hotel.  She used to work for people who are now dead, and she is writing a letter to one of them.  The individual sections were rather compelling, although as a whole, I'm not sure what happened.

RODNEY ROTHMAN-"My Glorious Publishing Empire" including: "An Excerpt from The Rodney Rothman Holy Bible in Italics," "Excerpt from The Rodney Rothman Underlined Holy Bible in Italics," "Excerpt from The R. R. Underlined Holy Bible in Small-cap Outline Italics," and "Excerpt from Rodney Rothman's 'Rollercoaster'"
This first piece describes Rothman's attempts to get published via iBiblio and Xlibris.  Not just a book, mind you, but an empire!  So he takes the bible and prints them in the above mentioned styles. "Rollercoaster" is a pretty darn funny novel, excerpted here, and I wonder exactly what Xlibris thought of it.
None were accepted for publication.

PAUL COLLINS-"Solresol, The Universal Musical Language"
Paul Collins does it again.  He finds a mysterious figure and reveals all.  In this case, Francois Sudre.  In the 1820s, Sudre created a language based on the 12 notes of the musical scale. He shortened it to 4 notes for the military, but eventually settled on a simple 7 note language based on Do Re Mi So Fa Ti Do.  I won't go into details because that is what the article is about, but suffice it to say that Sudre's language was simplistic but very effective at allowing people with no common language to communicate through musical notes.  It also worked for the blind, deaf and mute (when he transferred it to a series of pressure points on the hand).  Sudre spent a fortune promoting his creation.  But despite praise from every corner of Europe, nothing ever came of Solresol.   There's some info about Solresol here, as well as a Wikipedia entry here.  And a lengthy explanation of the grammar of Solresol here.

ALASTAIR REED-"From: Anecdotes"
An amusing one page anecdote.  This one is about Borges and his travels as a blind man around Buenos Aires.  It includes a very funny example of the blind leading the blind.

BEN GREENMAN-"My Hopes and Dreams"
This is a detailed look at the short piece that Greenman is currently writing.  He explains what he hopes to write, how long it took him to write what he did; his percentage chance of finishing the hoped-for story (20%) and of finishing this very piece (90%).  It is unclear if he actually finished it.  It is all very meta-.

CHAD WILLENBORG-"Soot"
A "real" short story.  This concerns a young man and his father.  They work at a crematorium.  They learn that Fr Don, a defrocked priest who left the church to open a record store and was generally quite cool, has died.  He is currently in their possession.  The story leads to the young narrator's reminiscence of a dinner he had with Fr Don, wherein he discussed his reasons for leaving the church.  It's quite a moving story.

LAWRENCE WESCHLER-"Convergences"
The first convergence is about Trees and Camera Obscura.   Camera Obscura is the technical method of putting a small hole in an object and having an image projected behind it turn out upside down. Often seen in a pinhole camera.  The trees are connected at the idea of how weird it would be to see a full sized tree upside down. I found this to be the least interesting Convergence.  However, there is a postscript about David Hockney who posits that Carrivaggio may have used this technique to paint his pictures (as there are no sketches or papers left from his ouvre.  This was fascinating and cool, and a somewhat subversive idea.

The second Convergence also relates to trees.  It concerns how the internet and our brain patterns (as well as family trees) use this basic layout of tree-ness to show branches and roots. It was very short, and was mostly theoretical, but it was cool (especially the pictures!)

R.J. CURTIS-"Solicitation"
This brief story concerns a woman who lives in a bad neighborhood where people come to her door to ask for money for crack.  It ends in a rather hazy way.

SUSAN MINOT-"This We Came to Know Afterward"
This is a horrifying non-fiction piece about abducted children, especially girls in Uganda.  The truth behind these poor girls' lives of violence, rape and enslavement into a rebel military group is in a word, really really depressing.  Especially since nothing seems to get done about it.  A real eye-opener.

DANIEL O'MARA-"Letter to Hugh H. McColl, CEO of Bank of America," "Letter to Robert G. Miller, CEO of Rite Aid," "Letter to Peter I. Bijur, CEO of Texaco," "Letter to Christopher M. Connor, CEO of Sherwin-Williams," "Letter to David I. Fuentes, CEO of Office Depot"
These are all single page letters to these various CEOs.  Each letter is written from the pint of view of a dog.  In each letter the dog writes about how fast, how very very fast he is.  No replies are given.

PAUL LaFARGE-"The Observers"
This is the story that the introduction states is too normal for McSweeney's.  And indeed, it is a pretty normal story (aside from the fact that the man builds an astronomical observatory in his backyard).  It is a very appealing story.  The man gets fired from his advertising job and leaves the city for the country. He moves back in with his father, in his boyhood home.  He has no plans, no ambitions, and feels uncomfortably like he did when he was a young boy.  The desire to build this observatory changes things. It gives him a plan and something manual to do.  He slowly becomes friends with the people in town, but once he sets his telescope on earthbound subjects, things in his life change dramatically.  This was a really cool story, simultaneously earthbound and fantastic.

LYDIA DAVIS-"Marie Curie, Honorable Woman"
In the letters section this piece is discussed between Lydia and the editors.  She explains the origin of the piece: Ms Davis was assigned to translate a "cute" biography of Marie Curie from French to English.  She selected several of the most awkward phrases and compiled a brief biographical sketch of Mme Curie.
I think a page or so would have gotten the point across.  As it is, it's like reading a badly translated book or instruction manual (but it's not funny like in English As She is Spoke.  I think if the story was translated into readable English it would make for an interesting biography, but as it is, its' just sort of clunky.  I learned a lot about Curie, though.

PAUL MALISZEWSKI-News, Good and Bad (cover version of "In the Mechanical Age," by Donald Barthelme)"
I have not read the Barthelme story, so I can't comment on it.
This was a surreal story.  It begins with a man's decision to read the newspaper every day, whether good or bad news.  It then morphs into a sort of prodigal son story.  The man's son returns after many years away, and then spends 8 years in his room.  This morphs into a story about the dad working in Siberia creating action figures.  Your guess is as good (or better) than mine on this story.

STEVEN BARTHELME-"The New South: Writing the Newsweek Short Story"
This is a hilarious piece about Barthelme's story for Newsweek. He assures us that he did a lot of research for the story and it is all true, except for...well just about everything.  He keeps backtracking about the truth of individual parts.  Very very funny.

BEN MARCUS-"Literary Enhancement Through Food Intake"
This may have been the most irritating piece of writing I have ever read.  In many ways it reminded me of the consuetudinary piece from Issue #31.  In this piece, Marcus describes the necessary diet and regime one must undertake to be, what, a good reader, a safe reader, I don't know.  Through ten laborious and seemingly endless pages, Marcus goes into great detail of all manner of foolishness.  It is all done so seriously, including things like putting a language cloth in your mouth and reading aloud with only vowels that it loses all ounces of humor.  But it is so absurd that it can't even be read as a mock-serious piece.  I actually had to read these ten pages in 4 separate attempts I found it so tedious.

ANN CUMMINS-The Hypnotist's Trailer"
This was a totally surreal story.  I often wonder what goes into making stories that are just so divorced from reality.  In this one, a woman goes into a hypnotist's trailer and, at the urging of the hypnotist, she removes her bellybutton.  The hypnotist morphs it from its small dying shape into a large floating peach, among other things.   Finally the woman's daughter, bored by the shenanigans drags the woman out of the trailer while she freaks out about leaving her bellybutton behind.  In the epilogue the hypnotist talks to himself and laments his state.  The ending was a little unsettling but otherwise the story was very cool and trippy.

SARAH VOWELL-"Ted Koppel Interview Re Marcus Aurelius' Meditations
A fascinating brief interview with Koppel.  It focuses almost exclusively on Aurelius' Meditations and how it can apply to everything in life.  Koppel gave a copy to Bill Clinton who claims it is his favorite book).  Makes me want to check out Meditations myself.

J. ROBERT LENNON-"The Accursed Items"
I'm not entirely sure what to call this piece.  It consists of about twenty items.  Each item is given some backstory about how it has become accursed.  It is a surprisingly emotional piece, given that most items get no more than three lines.  In a way this could be flash fiction in that a fairly deep story is told with just a few lines.  It is available in audio format on This American Life.  Truth be told, the audio version is even more compelling than reading it.

ELIZABETH KLEMM-"Mr. Squishy"
This is now the third time I've read "Mr Squishy."  I don't recall where the first time was--it may have even been in this journal when it first came in, although I don't think it was.  The second was when I read Oblivion some time ago, and now I'm doing it for the third time.

The third read is much better.  This is a difficult piece. The language is convoluted, the various plots overlap each other in awkward ways, and it is full to the brim of advertising jargon.  But once you understand that and you're able to parse the language, it's a mostly rewarding story.  I say mostly because although we pretty much know what is going to happen there are still one or two things left utterly unresolved.  And that's a bummer.  To put in so much work and not get rewarded is kind of....

The plots include: a focus group learning about, and eventually commenting on the new snack food confection Felonies!  [In light of recent events, someone ought to make this snack food in memorium...it sounds delicious].  Schmidt is the man who is running this focus group.  While he is giving the presentation, he daydreams about a number of things including a) the woman in the office who he would love to get intimate with but who he is too afraid of to talk to b) how he would love to advance in his job but even an advancement wouldn’t be as satisfying as when c) he was younger and thought he could change the advertising world with his ideals (thinking about how Tylenol acted so swiftly to the cyanide scare of 1982) and d) how easy it would be to inject ricin into any Mr Squishy product after he had concocted some in the lab in his apartment.

The third(ish) plotline concerns the man who is climbing the outside of the building.  He has suction cups on his hands and feet (and head) and scales the outside of the building to the 18th floor (which is the floor on which the focus group are meeting).  He also has a shotgun.  This story is left unresolved as far as I can tell.

The confluence of stories is fueled by incredibly minute details and hyper-aware language of people’s behaviors, both in the room and in general.  It also zooms in on people’s tic and idiosyncrasies and shows a staggering knowledge of just about everything including physics, advertising jargon, and crowd behavior.

The insight into marketing, while certainly not new (as evidenced by the idea that the young men in the room are also savvy about marketing, is nevertheless, very detailed.  And, frankly far more informative than anything else I have seen.  I tend to trust this author when it comes to things like this, as it seem like once an idea is discovered, it is followed to the nth degree.  So yes, major fun in dissecting marketing.

It is an intense story, but careful reading is quite rewarding.*

COLLEEN WERTHMANN-”Hot Sex Story Lost in the Thicket of Humanity”
The title of this story tells the whole thing, even if it doesn’t seem to.  Basically, the story starts with a very sensual description of a young woman.  She is driving in her convertible, wearing short shorts with no underwear and a tank top with no bra.  She is heading to the grocery store. When she gets there she sees that the building is on fire. Firemen approach.  She recognizes one and starts talking with him.  He is very handsome, their eyes meet, and she can’t help but notice his muscular body.  They start talking about his brother whom she recalls from school.  And, basically the whole story proceeds like this, with sexy set ups that are undermined by reality.  Funny and frustrating.

JASON OCKERT-”Mother May I”
A disturbing story about a daughter getting pregnant.  At one point she is chained to a radiator.  But, as the story progresses, it clarifies itself a little more.  The pregnant woman’s mother is in a mental institution.  And, in the most interesting part of the story, the young girl brings balloons to her mother; they write notes on index cards and send the balloons up in the air.  As the mother deteriorates she stops writing altogether, she just doodles.  The daughter is convinced that the mother wants her a child, and as her final gift, she decided to get pregnant in the most repulsive way I can think of.  She goes to a park where kids have sex and…no I can’t say, you’ll have to read it.  A very sad tale, with moments of humor thrown in.

JOSHUAH BEARMAN-”Second Interview between Joshuah Bearman and His Father.”
I really enjoyed their first interview in the last issue.  This one is a discussion of water on Mars.  Bearman’s father is involved in what I believe has become the Mars Rover. It was unnamed in this interview, but it discusses going to Mars and taking samples (they assumed the mission would launch sometime in 2005).  The interview is casual and very funny with Bearman’s father getting exasperated about questions about Gort from The Day the Earth Stood Still.  It is a rewarding and quite satisfying piece nonetheless.

* Yes, I am aware that this was written by David Foster Wallace.

For ease of searching I include: Husker Du

SOUNDTRACK: HÜSKER DÜ-Land Speed Record (1982).

Mentioning Hüsker Dü during the Replacements reviews made me bust out their records too.  Land Speed Record was their first release, and it always amazed me that their first record was a live record.

It is an amazing blast of hardcore punk.

It is poorly recorded, stupidly fast and impossible to follow.  The CD is divided into two track (sides one and two) despite the 17 songs.  Most of the songs are simple, balls-out screaming punk.  In fact, it’s surprising how much you can tell it is Hüsker Dü given how shouty Bob Mould sounds.

In truth, it’s not entirely impossible to follow one song to the next (there are times when you can hear the choruses (“Guns at My School” and “Do the Bee” stand out).  But really it’s a pretty shocking discovery for anyone familiar with their alterna-pop that would come later.

The one real highlight is the final song, “Data Control.” It slows the pace and adds some mood (although it’s not that easy to discern).  But it contains a great deal of depth (for this album) and suggests that maybe the Hüskers were going to be more than a simple hardcore band.

The funniest part is that after the 25 minutes or so of noise, Bob Mould says, “we’ll be back for another set.”

[READ: Week of June 22, 2009] Infinite Jest [78 pages + endnotes]

So as I said, I’m going to be doing this Infinite Summer thing, reading 75 or so pages every week.  I haven’t figured out what I’m going to say each week, just some observations and characters to help keep things straight.  But there will be spoilers, so be warned.

Having read this before certainly helps put some context on things, even if I don’t remember a lot of the book.  But, for instance, it helps to know ahead of time that the “Year” chapter headings have been subsidized.  However, I don’t remember the chronology of them at this point.  See below, footnote endnote for more on the chronology.

The characters:   (as of page 78):

Hal Incandenza.  Tennis  prodigy.  We have seen both his failed attempt to gain admission to the University of Arizona, and as a young boy eating mold.  We have followed Hal more than anyone else thus far and he seems  to be the main character.  Hal smokes pot quite a lot, often going way out of way to disguise said fact even from those who knows he smokes.  Hal is something of a genius, spending much of his time reading far beyond his expected level.  We have also saw a meeting with a conversationalist in which we can’t tell if Hal is crazy or not.  (More on this in a moment).

Mario Incandenza.  Hal’s younger (?) brother who is not all there.  We’ve only had one scene with him, and he was half-asleep.

Orin Incandenza. Hal’s older brother is a professional football player First in New Orleans then in Arizona).  He is a punter.  And he has issues of his own. One includes copiously sweating during sleep.

Avril Incandenza. Hal’s mother.  She’s known as “Moms” by her kids.  She is nervous but proud of her kids.  She is also an accomplished academic.  She lives at E.T.A. and, after the death of her husband, refuses to exit the academy’s underground tunnel system.

James Orin Incandenza. Hal’s father, known as “Himself.”  Founded the E.T.A. Enfield Tennis Academy, an accredited boarding school where all of his kids have attended.  Much of the action of the book takes place here.  He is also a prolific filmmaker and in the Year of the Trial Size Dove Bar, he committed suicide.

Erdedy.  At present he is impatiently waiting for his weed to show up.  We get a very detailed look at his paranoid character and the bug that lives in his shelving.

Bruce Green and Mildred Bonk.  We see them in middle school and then as adults living in a trailer park.  Mildred was a heartthrob in 6th grade and Bruce couldn’t even talk to her.  Bruce eventually won her over.  Erdedy’s dealer lives in the trailer park with them.  The interconnectedness has begun!

Erdedy’s dealer.  Lives with lots and lots of snakes (that’s the only thing said about him thus far).

The medical attache.  He is unrelated to any other part of the story.  But since I know what happens to him (and won’t reveal it yet) it makes his weird story very compelling.  The last time we see him, he is comatose in front of a videotape on infinite loop. His wife has just discovered him and what he was watching.

Unnamed girl.  From the projects of Boston.  Her vernacular is difficult to follow along with and her story is not a happy one.

Don Gately.  A drug addict who is also a professional burglar.  He gets revenge on an A.D.A. with a rather unspeakable violation of personal space.  And then is arrested for an accidental homicide.  At this point it seems like his entire story has played out already.  One wonders if he’ll reappear.

Kate Gompert.  A young girl on suicide watch at a psychiatric ward.  She reveals to her doctor that she thinks the cause for some of her horrible feelings–not depression, just pain–may come from withdrawal symptoms from Bob Hope (pot).  She also reveals that her dealer is the same man that Erdedy is waiting for.  Her section was quite lengthy.

Jim Trolsch. One of many friends of Hal’s at the E.T.A.  In one section, he had come down with a monster cold.  He is also fan of narrating tennis matches that he watches on TV (to the irritation of all).

Pemulis.  Trolsch’s roommate.  He has has some background, but nothing sizable yet.

The plot:

So far, most of the action has focused on Hal and his tennis career.  At some point, Hal has gone from nervous genius to babbling idiot.  The rest of the characters have had various run ins although most have been solitary incidents that don’t seem to connect to much of anything else yet (except for Erdedy’s dealer).

There have also been lengthy architectural digressions about the layout of the E.T.A.

The endnotes were infrequent at first, but then they came fast and furious.  Most have given detailed information about drugs (legal and il-), except for a lengthy (8 page) endnote about James (Himself)’s filmography.  While most of these endnotes have been almost literally academic paper-type endnotes, the filmography is an instrumental look into the workings of the book.  In addition to giving historical information (he shot documentaries) it also reveals the chronology of the Subsidization of the calendar.  From this footnote endnote we learn that sometime after 1997 the calendar was subsidized.  The first three years after subsidisation are:

Year of The Whopper
Year of the Tucks Medicated Pad
Year of the Trial Size Dove Bar

Three more years that we know of so far include:

Year of Glad
Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment
Year of the Dairy Products from the American Heartland

Chronologically speaking, we also learn that during the Year of the Whopper, came the continental reconfiguration…we’re not exactly sure what that is, but we know that there is a lot of tension between the U.S. and Canada.  There are Quebec separatists (of which Avril was one in college). There have also been numerous riots around the U.S. one apparently having to do with language.

We also learn (so much information in a footnote endnote) that the scene where Hal is talking to a “conversation specialist” is a film by Himself.  Whether that earlier scene actually happened or was just a film is still up in the air.

There are also a surprising amount of characters who smoke pot.  I must have not really paid attention to it the first time around, but virtually every character does some kind of drug.

For the most part the language has been manageable, with the occasional supra-lengthy sentence giving rise to humorous qualifiers that he, DFW, felt were necessary for you, the reader, to keep all of the pronouns and other ephemera, straight.  A few scenes have gotten bogged down by technical jargon, and that scene in projects was very difficult to get through.  Otherwise the book is quite funny (in a weird sort of way).

Looking forward to week two!

For ease of searching I include: Husker Du

SOUNDTRACK-THE REPLACEMENTS–All Shook Down (1990).

And here we come to the end of the recorded history of the Replacements.  7 albums (and an EP).  4 and a half hours of recorded music.  And a steady maturation from drunken punks to elder statesmen.  Or really statesman (Paul Westerberg at the ripe old age of 31!).   All of the reviews state that this was originally designed as a Westerberg solo album, and that the band barely played together on it at all. And it shows.

To me, this album just isn’t very good.  It’s not that the songs are bad…I ‘ll always admit that Westerberg is a great songwriter.  I’m just not inspired by them.  The single, “Merry Go Round” is the most (there’s that word again) mature sounding rock tracks that Westerberg has written.  And “Nobody” is a decent acoustic type rocker (although the drums are kind of boring).  “Bent All Out of Shape” shows promise but never lives up to it.

“Sadly Beautiful” is another of Westerberg’s solid ballads.  But it doesn’t stand out because the rest of the album isn’t that radically different.  “Someone Take the Wheel” and “When It Began” are decent rockers, but the rest of the album is just sort of…there (except for the awful duet with Johnette Napolitano (whom I used to like but who i just find annoying all these years later).

Westerberg went on to do about a half dozen solo albums but I haven’t heard any of them.

There’s nothing wrong with a songwriter maturing, especially if you get to mature along with him or her.  It’s just such a surprise to see it happen so quickly.

[READ: June 15, 2009] Natural Novel

My coworker and I were experimenting with our library’s catalog.  We started searching for books in specific languages.  We noticed that Bulgarian was one of the languages, and were surprised that our branch had anything in Bulgarian.  It turned out that there was one book that was originally written in Bulgarian but which had been translated to English.  It was this book. It sounded bizarre and fascinating.  And it was only 136 pages.  How could I pass it up?  And what would it be about?

Well, that’s hard to answer.

The premise of a “natural novel” is that it is meant to be a man’s attempt to deal with the dissolution of his marriage.  He starts to talk about the divorce several times, but he can’t really come to terms with it, and so, rather, he gets involved with other things.

One chapter is devoted to the history (and importance in history) of toilets.  Another chapter deals with an attempt to write a novel consisting only of verbs.  And flies.  Lots of flies.

But let’s back up.  The book begins as a story by Georgi Gospodinov.  The first two chapters talk about his impending divorce from his wife Emma.  He has just learned that she is pregnant.  But he also knows they haven’t had sex for months.

The third chapter is the editor’s note (yes, you can tell something is up when the editor’s note shows up three chapters into the book).  The editor explains that he is a newspaper publisher, and he received this anonymous manuscript in the mail.  He decided to publish excerpts in the paper in hopes that the author would come forward.  Rather, the author’s wife (or ex-wife) shows up and says that it is her story.  Her husband is Georgi Gospodinov.  The editor. startled, reveals that his name is also Georgi Gospodinov.

Okay.

Georgi, the editor, decides to publish Georgi, the writer’s, book.  And we learn that Georgi was obsessed with movies, pop culture, toilets and a giant wicker chair.  He had spent half his paycheck on this giant chair, which is simply magnificent.  This chair goes with him through his various adventures (fictional or otherwise).

But onto toilets. He and his friends are avoiding the topic of his wife, so the discussion naturally turns to toilets, and the wonderful graffiti that is written there.  In fact, they wonder why, since toilets are such an essential part of our lives, how could they be left out of all popular culture?  Thank you, then Quentin Tarantino for putting one in Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs!

And speaking of feces, we must talk about the fly.  It can invade our dreams (the buzzing is usually masqueraded as a mechanical sound).  It has multiple eyes, refracting pictures into many different angles.  And, in a later chapter, he has a rather detailed conversation with F., the fly in his house.

And from insects we move to plant.  As Gospodinov is a naturalist, there is a lot of talk of plants.  Georgi tells a story of an old man who moves to a village where he starts a large garden.  He plans his garden as if it were a clock.  Certain flowers bloom at specific time of the day, and he would arrange them accordingly.

He stays out of site from most of the village, making an occasional trip to the post office, but little else.  The villagers demand to know what this strange man is doing.  The post officer tells them that he sends a postcard to two different women every month.  And all it says is that he is waiting for them.  He also sends a letter to the UN.  He eventually dies, alone.  And all that is left is his handwritten book, Notes of a Naturalist.

This book is the next chapter, and it is the longest chapter in the novel.  The Naturalist, sitting in his wicker chair, growing his garden, believes he has found the secret of words, and how words can cause so much damage in the world.  If only someone would listen to him. Why doesn’t the U.N. respond?

What if, rather than the naturalist, Geoegi should write about a tramp.  He would have to live as a tramp to understand exactly the life of a tramp.  He would grow a beard, he would live on the streets.  He would stop going back to his house.  He runs into his old friends.  They don’t recognize him in his current state.  He talks to them in language they understand.  They like him and invite him to share dinner with them, even if he does look like a bum.

How will it end?

So, as you can see, this was a pretty weird book.  If you like your books postmodern and essentially plotless, this was a good one.  If it had been very long I’m not sure I would have read all the way through to the end.  But it was short and the chapters were almost all two or three pages long.  I’m glad I read it. Although I’m not entirely sure what it was all about.

I just clicked on this link which contains multiple reviews of the book.  And I feel compelled to add a postscript in reply.  They observe that the book is smart and fun.  And I agree.  Even though the book was without a real plot, the individual chapters were intriguing, and followed through on the idea presented.  And, with the pop culture references (and toilet humor), it was entertaining.

Another reviewer mentions the honest appraisal of life in post-Communist Bulgaria. And yes, I guess this is a pretty honest picture of it (for what I know of post-Communist Bulgaria, anyway).  So, for that, it is a good book.

Just don’t expect a happy ending.  Or an ending at all, really.

SOUNDTRACK: THE REPLACEMENTS-Hootenanny (1983).

This is the second full length from The Replacements.  For a band that just released two punk albums (one’s an EP), naming your new one Hootenanny is pretty ballsy.  As is the fact that the first track sounds like, well, a hootenanny (even if it is making fun of hootenannies.)

However, the rest of the album doesn’t sound like hootenannies at all.  In fact, the rest of the album is all over the place.  I don’t want to read into album covers too much, but the design has all 16 titles in separate boxes in different colors.  It suggests a little bit of stylistic diversity inside.

Just see for yourself:  “Run It” is a one minute blast of some of the punkiest stuff they’ve done. (It’s about running a red light).  Meanwhile, “Color Me Impressed” marks the second great alt-rock anthem (after “Go”) that Westerberg has put on record.  “Willpower” is a sort of spooky ambient meandering piece that, at over 4 minutes is their longest piece yet.  “Take Me to The Hospital” is a punky/sloppy guitar song.  “Mr Whirly” is sort of an update of the Beatles’ “Oh Darlin.’”  “Within Your Reach” is technically the longest Replacements song to date.  It starts with a cool flangy guitar sound that swirls around a fairly mellow vocal track (this song was featured in the end of Say Anything.  John Cusack cranks the song up past the red line).  “Buck Hill” is an (almost) instrumental.  “Lovelines” is a spoken word reading of personals ads over a bluesy backing track.  “You Lose” is the first song that sounds like another one…a sort of hardcore song.  “Hayday” is a fast rocker like their first album.  And it ends with “Treatment Bound” a sloppy acoustic number that sounds like it was recorded in a tin can.

As you can see, this album is all over the place, and almost every song sounds like they may not make it through to the end.  Yet, despite all of the genres represented, the band sounds cohesive.  The disc just sounds like a band playing all the kinds of music that they like, and the fact that there are a couple of really lasting songs on the disc makes it sound like more than just a bar band.

I feel as though not too many people even know of this disc (it was the last one I bought by them, as I couldn’t find it for the longest time).  But in reading reviews, I see that people seem to really love this disc.  I enjoyed it, and, like other ‘Mats discs, it’s certainly fun, but I don’t listen to it all that often.

[READ: June 9, 2009] McSweeney’s #31

The latest issue of McSweeney’s has a totally new concept (for this journal, anyhow):  They resurrect old, defunct writing styles and ask contemporary writers to try their hands at them. I had heard of only two of these defunct styles, so it was interesting to see how many forms of writing there were that had, more or less, disappeared.

Physically, the issue looks like a high school yearbook.  It’s that same shape, with the gilded cover and the name of the (school) on the spine.

Attached to the inside back cover is McSweeney’s Summertime Sampler. As far as I know this is the first time they have included a sampler of multiple upcoming works.  There are three books sampled in the booklet: Bill Cotter’s Fever Chart; Jessica Anthony’s The Convalescent & James Hannaham’s God Says No. I enjoyed all three of the pieces.  Fever Chart has stayed with me the most so far.  I can still feel how cold that apartment was.  The Convalescent begin a little slow, but I was hooked by the end of the excerpt. And God Says No has me very uncomfortable; I’m looking forward to finishing that one.

As for #31 itself:

The Fugitive Genres Recaptured (or Old Forms Unearthed) include: pantoums, biji, whore dialogues, Graustarkian romances, nivolas, senryū, Socratic dialogues, consuetudinaries, and legendary sagas.  Each genre has an excerpt of an original writing in that style.  Following the sample is the modern take on it.  And, in the margins are notes in red giving context for what the author is doing.  I assume these notes are written by the author of the piece, but it doesn’t say.

I’m going to give a brief synopsis of the genre, but I’m not going to critique either the old piece or whether the new piece fits into the genre exactly (suffice it to say that they all do their job very well).

PANTOUM

A poem composed in quatrains.  They key is that the second and fourth line of the first stanza reappear as the first and third line of the second stanza and so on.  At the end, the first and third lines of the first stanza then reappear as the second and fourth line of the final stanza. Manipulation of the repeated lines is encouraged.  Hard to explain but easy to see once you start reading.

ORIGINAL PANTOUMS:   The example is from an anonymous author (circa 1440 AD) from Malaysia.

I am not a fair critic of poetry.  So I’m just going to say what I thought of them.  As you can imagine, it’s challenging to make these interesting with all that repetition.  And I have to say that the repetition sometimes makes it hard to keep everything straight.

JENNIFER MICHAEL HECHT-”Circus”
I was confused by this one.

BEN JAHN-”Milltown Auspice”
I rather enjoyed this one.

TONY TRIGILIO-”Jack Davis”
This is about Jack Ruby, Oswald and JFK.  It is fascinating to see this historical information (along with, I assume, made up details) done in this style.  Pretty cool.

BILL TARLIN-”Panteentoum”
I was able to follow this one quite easily.  Maybe the simplistic threats and violence promised at senior prom were easy to relate to.

TROY JOLLIMORE-”Gate”
Lyrical and pretty, but I got lost in the meaning.

JOEL BROUWER-”Direct”
A weird poem that kept reasserting ice cream and feces.

NICKY BEER-”Crackpot Arctic Octopus”
A surreal portrait of an underwater carousel.

WALKER PFOST-”The Most Natural Thing in the World”
Again, the violent ones are so easy to follow.  This one is about how the joy of killing people, about 70 in total, is infectious; soon everyone is doing it.

WHORE DIALOGUE

An early type of erotic writing, combining bawdy tales of sexuality with an educational veneer.  The dialogue is usually between a young virgin (often just before her wedding night) and an experienced older, married friend.  There’s usually a section for before and after the wedding, as well.

ORIGINAL WHORE DIALOGUE by NICOLAS CHORIER-”A Dialogue Between a Married Lady and a Maid” (1660 AD). [excerpt]

I was surprised at just how explicit this was!  For even though he typed C–t and P—k, he left in clitoris.  And when Octavia says she can almost thrust her whole hand in, well, imagine my surprise!

MARY MILLER-”A Dialogue Between Two Maids in the Twenty-First Century, One of Whom is Skeezy”
This was really funny and very enjoyable.  It was funny to think of a 21st Century version of this story since the original is written in such an archaic style.  But indeed, they mention Sarah Jessica right away, so you’re pretty assured of the time period.
Ashley has signed a pledge not to have sex till she and Brian are married, but she needs to know from Marci what the dealio is.   The original story’s dialogue seemed stiff (heh heh) and formal, while this one seemed like it could be an actual dialogue between friends.  The middle part discusses Ashley’s new rabbit vibrator.  In the end: The sex is okay, and will no doubt get better.  Despite the discussion of anal sex, the 17th century story was actually more explicit!

LEGENDARY SAGA

Written several hundred years after the events, these sagas chronicled famous Scandinavian adventurers of the tenth century.  They included mythology and cosmic hyperbole.  The lust for fame and glory often comes at the loss of their own life, but that’s a small price to pay, right?

ORIGINAL LEGENDARY SAGA: This excerpt is from an anonymous Icelandic author circa 1310 AD.  It is based on historical figures.

Although I have never read a historical saga before, I knew what to expect: honor, bloodshed and familial pride.

WILL SHEFF-”Black Metal Circle Saga”
The inspiration for this Saga is the Norwegian black metal scene.  In real life, Euronymous of the band Mayhem was stabbed twenty-three times allegedly by Count Grishnackh from the band Barzum.  There were also several church burning around Norway.
The tale is told in several sections, with many of the section having heavy metal titles: War Pigs, Raining Blood etc.
This relates the story of several generations of men who reigned over Vingulmork.  The saga is one of death and revenge.  It would be far too long to recount, but it felt very authentic.  It doesn’t make me want to read more Sagas, but I did enjoy this one.  The supernatural elements were all pretty cool.

BIJI

Biji is sort of a notebook, which contains legends, anecdotes, scientific notes and local wisdom.  Accounts of everyday life mix with travel narratives as well as lists.  It is meant to represent a picture of the culture at the time of writing.

ORIGINAL BIJI (written in China from 220-1912 AD): by DUAN CHENGSHI-”Youyang Zazu”  [excerpt].

Its hard to imagine that this is a “style,” it’s such a mishmash of item.  But at the same time, it’s hard to imagine that ever went out of favor.  The various elements meld together to tell a good story.

DOUGLAS COUPLAND-”Survivor”
Coupland is the ideal writer for this format as, frankly, I think of his work as already very Biji-like.  He throws in excerpts from various things in all of his books: snippets of online code or pictures or other factual elements that place his work at a particular moment in time.
“Survivor” is the story of a man who is part of the film crew for Survivor that’s set on the Kerguelen Islands.  The story was hilarious.  It skewers reality TV, especially as seen from the camera crew (a viewpoint you don’t get too often).  Some of the factual things thrown in include Traveler’s Alerts for diseases, Menus on the CBS Yacht and actual urls for Survivor-type YouTube videos (which are funny to see written out in a story).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWIBp0IrXEE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AzYmJiVDqU (no longer available)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__srsDMKo9k
And when you think that the story is just going to be about the contestants on survivor things take a turn for the worse: A serious disaster hits the outside world, closing airports and rendering everyone helpless.  Will the Survivors survive?  What about our camera crew?  The story turns dark very quickly.

NIVOLA

These seem to have been written exclusively by Miguel de Unamuno.  According to him, a nivola has no plot (or an existential one, anyway) and that it makes itself up as it goes along.  And, really it’s the characters who are doing the work themselves: rebelling against their creator.

ORIGINAL NIVOLA: by MIGUEL DE UNAMUNO-”Mist” (1914 AD) [excerpt].

Surrealness in writing.   I wonder if anyone bought his books.

JOY WILLIAMS-”Saved”
This was a weird (no kidding) piece that I enjoyed quite a lot even if it had no plot to speak of.  Cinnabar’s mother, Snow, [I'm not calling you that name, mother] is an intellectual in town for a conference about Chester Owens.  It’s at the Chester Owens estate although he won’t be in attendance as he is sick.  Lots of platitudinal nonsense is spewn about by intellectuals.  This is, in turn mocked both by Snow and several other characters.

Example: Snow said to no one in particular, “Darwin initially though fish designed their own eyes.”
“Gosh,” someone said, “that fits right in with the talk I’ll be giving after lunch.”

I’m not sure how popular existential novels will ever be.  But as for this one, if you don’t care where it goes, this is an interesting story.

SENRYŪ

These are short unrhymed poems similar to haiku.  They are three lines long and no more than seventeen syllables.  They address human nature rather than the physical world (which is the domain of haiku).

ORIGINAL SENRYŪ: circa 1700s, all anonymous.

Why should haiku
get all the fame?
Senryū are fun too!

NICKY BEER, DAN LIEBERT, DOUGLAS W. MILLIKEN, BYRON LU and CHRIS SPURR all write enjoyable Senryū.  I won’t bother reviewing them, though.

SOCRATIC DIALOGUE

These are discussions between students and a learned elder.  They covered many topics and were set in a place where small talk would be common.

ORIGINAL SOCRATIC DIALOGUE:  by Plato “Republic” (380 BC) [excerpt].

I was a philosophy major, and I studied Plato very thoroughly. I always enjoyed the Socratic dialogue.

DAVID THOMPSON-”After Citizen Kane”
This is a very funny dialogue set in an urban square in the world to come.  In it, Susan Sontag, Franz Kafka, Charlie Chaplin, Virginia Woolf  and Ernest Hemingway discuss that in 2012, Sight & Sound magazine will ask critics and filmmakers to vote for the ten best films ever.  The debate centers around Citizen Kane (and there’s a cameo near the end from Orson Wells).  The discussion is fast and furious, with gentle ribbing and cleverness all over the place.  Thompson a has a great sense of the voices of each of these people.  Charlie Chaplin feels under-represented in the contest; Virigina Woolf always votes on American Idol.  Hemingway thinks Fed Astaire lacks substance.  It’s very enjoyable.

GRAUSTARKIAN ROMANCE

This was a brand of adventure writing set in an around invented countries.   Ruritania was the first but  Graustark was the most popular, with many different authors setting books there.  Despite being written in the early 20th century, they featured Victoria nostalgia with monarchies, princes and damsels in distress.

ORIGINAL GRAUSTARKIAN ROMANCE: by GEORGE BARR McCUTCHEON–”Beverly of Graustark” (1904 AD) [excerpt]

I am fascinated that this fictional world would be used by multiple people.  It would be like setting your new novel in Hobbiton but not getting sued by the estate of Tolkien.

JOHN BRANDON-”Feasts and Villains”
There were two story lines in this piece, and I fear that I got lost with one of them (in fact it seems like that one story line drops of entirely, unless they merge and I missed it). But regardless, I enjoyed this surreal tale. One of the qualities of Graustark (or in this story Graustork) is that only certain people are allowed to go there.  Meaning that nature will keep people away who do not belong.  Dunne is en route there for a very special financial deal.  On the plane he meets Beverly, a young man with no fixed destination who takes a shine to Dunne (much to Dunne’s dismay) and decides to tag along.  Dunne is constantly prevented from completing his travels: the plane is grounded, the bus breaks down, they try on horseback.  He even gets into a duel!
A surprise twist throws a new light onto everything that’s been happening, making this story not only weird but also wonderful.   I don’t imagine this style ever getting fully resurrected but it would be interesting to see what other authors might do with it.

CONSUETUDINARY

These were kept by monasteries in the Middle Ages.  They are detailed instructions for day-to-day life.  They listed everyone’s specific duties; they also kept a record of everything that was to go on in the monastery.

ORIGINAL CONSUETUDINARY: From The House of St. Swithin in Winchester, England (1349 AD)

There’s a reason this style went out of fashion, and why no one would every write one of these today, unless they were in a cloistered monastery.  This was my least favorite genre, and it took me ages to finish.

SHELLEY JACKSON-”Consuetudinary of the Word Church, or the Church of the Dead Letter”
I just could not get into this piece.  Jackson states that she had started the Shelley Jackson Vocational School for Ghost Speakers and Hearing-Mouth Children. The purpose of this school is to talk to the dead.  The consuetudinary covers all of the specific details of this School/Church and all of the various things one must do while in attendance.  It includes a calendar of activities as well as ritual and exercises.  The exercises mostly consist of  eating paper and creating spitballs.  If this was meant to be a parody, it wasn’t terribly funny. If it was meant to be deep, I missed the point.  It was kind of a shame to end with this one, since so many of the other ones were more enjoyable.  But at the same time, it was a thankless challenge to take on this task and try to make it interesting.

Overall, this issue was a lot of fun.  I always like getting introduced to new things (even if they are old things).  I doubt there will be a resurgence of any of these genres anytime soon, but I just flew through the entire book.  This was a cool change of pace from the usual collection of stories.

For searching purposes I include: senryu

SOUNDTRACK: THE REPLACEMENTS-Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash (1981).

Since I’ve been talking about The Replacements so much, it made me want to go back and listen to their stuff.  The Replacements are the quintessential band that “grew up” or “matured” and for better or worse sounds utterly different from their first album to their last (a span of only nine years!).  In fact, I don’t imagine that there are too many people who would enjoy all seven of their discs.  One suspects that if the band themselves were given a copy of their All Shook Down disc in 1981, they would have smashed it.

So this was their first release. It has 18 songs in about 30 minutes.  That’s pure hardcore, right?  Well, not exactly.  Even though the songs are short and fast and quite sloppy, there’s something about Paul Westerberg’s voice and delivery that makes these songs seem not quite hardcore.  He enunciates!  And you can understand him most of the time. And, maybe this is a better indicator: there’s parts to these songs, it’s not just breakneck pacing.  They also have song titles that belied how good their song writing would become.  Like: “Shiftless When Idle.”

In fact, “Johnny’s Gonna Die” isn’t fast at all.  It shows what the kind of songs that they would eventually write: literate and moving indie rock.

There must have been something in the water in 1981 in Minnesota.  Hüsker Dü, the other amazing punk outfit out of Minnesota (referenced in the ‘Mats song “Something  to Du”) also put out a blistering live hardcore record in 1981 called Land Speed Record (17 songs in 26 minutes, listed as 2 tracks on CDs because they don’t pause in between songs).  Like the ‘Mats, Hüsker Dü wouldn’t recognize their later incarnations in 1981 either.  And why are The Replacements abbreviated as The ‘Mats?  I don’t know.

But this ‘Mats record is the kind of sneaky record that can get you to enjoy punk even if you don’t think you like it.  There’s something so fun about Sorry Ma, that you don’t really notice that it’s all done so fast.

[READ: May 22, 2009] “My Great Depression”

This essay collection is tough to catalog.  Do I include all of the authors in the title of the post, do I pick selected ones, or just go with none.  Yes, go with none.

Harper’s asked ten authors/artists to send stories from the near future, after the economic collapse of the country. All of the pieces are three columns or less, and some are more enjoyable than others.

KEVIN BAKER-”Change Without Movement”
The premise of this piece is that it is an excerpt from a book called The Chinese Century.  It is an academic look at Obama’s four years as President: how his plans and laws were shot down by Congress, how nothing was achieved, and after admitting exhaustion, how Obama just gave up on us.  Bush-like Republicans returned to prominence, and their economic policies  sealed the deal for the end of American dominance, giving rise to the Chinese century.

THOMAS DE ZENGOTITA-”Reframing Your World”
Now that the entire world is recessed, it’s time to take a page from television:  Make life a game, a challenge, an opportunity, a reality show.  If you can’t reframe yourself into a reality star, then why not treat everything like a challenge on a game show: putting food on the table when you have lost your job, for instance.  This was pretty funny.

JAMAICA KINKAID-”Lack, Part Two”
I feel like I’ve known of Jamaica Kinkaid for years, and yet I don’t think I’ve ever read her before.  This is an interesting look at how a poor young girl, who has virtually nothing, moves to the United States and begins to acclimate to the the new world.  It is only after the economic collapse that she realizes how much her life is reverting back to those days…and how she is unprepared to deal with it.  This was the most “short-story” like piece in the collection.

RUBEN BOLLING-”Our Coming Depression Funnies”
Bolling is the artist behind the Tom the Dancing Bug comic strip.  This little cartoon shows what the funnies will look like in a few years.  It includes parodies of The Family Circus (The Family Oval–with an amusing play on the Not Me Ghost); The Lockhorns (The Bickers); Dilbert (Doible–deadpan and on target); I don’t know this one (Forrest Greene); Garfield (Wilson–an amusing play on the ubiquitous Monday joke); and another one I didn’t recognize (Al ‘n’ Harriet).  I always enjoy parodies of bad cartoons.

COLSON WHITEHEAD-”The Great Reboot”
This was an amusing look at how 2009 is shaping up to be like 1977 (April 1977 to be exact).  And how that year was pretty bad for most Americans, but–hey we produced Star Wars in that year too.  It is quite funny and strangely uplifting.  My only beef with it is that he sets the beginning of “the end” at November 26, 2009, and then notes that most of the cable companies had gone bankrupt so that only the three major network channels, TBS and HBO were still on the air (a distant possibility) but also that FOX has long been extinguished.  I feel you can’t set a story six months in the future and then say something is long extinguished is it is still around at the time of writing.   This is somewhat absolved by having the entire internet collapse from everyone watching “Gonad Monkey” at the same time on YouTube was damn near genius.

SIMON CRITCHLEY AND TOM McCARTHY-”Interim Report on Recessional Aesthetics”
Simon Critchley and Tom McCarthy founded the International Necronautical Society (INS) in 1999. It is a reality based/reality mocking avant garde art project.  Critchley himself is a philosopher at the New School for Social Research.  With that in mind, this “official Document” was commissioned by the Obama administration.  It uses historical literature to forecast what should be done in the future.  Fist: The Merchant of Venice (Shakespeare) predicted the current crisis.  Second: Finnegans Wake (Joyce) shows the value of using counterfeit money–something Obama should strongly consider; finally, As I Lay Dying (Faulkner) shows that recessions are at the heart of all of life.  Clearly this was a highly theoretical piece; I didn’t enjoy it as much as I should have.

DAVID REES-”One Year Since the Collapse”
David Rees wrote the hilarious Get Your War On cartoon.  He officially ceased publication when Obama was elected, even if the war is still going on.  This piece uses the same techniques of that cartoon (clip art style people saying completely unlikely things) to show what we have come to.  I didn’t enjoy it as much as GYWO.

SHERMAN ALEXIE-”Green World”
This piece is also a short story, and I enjoyed it very much.  In it, the narrator has gotten a job cleaning dead birds from underneath all of the wind turbines outside of an Indian Reservation.  He meets one of the Indians who is remorseful that his tribe allowed the turbines and the death that they cause.  It is quite a moving piece.

BEN MARCUS-”My Views on the Darkness Are Well Known”
An interview with a man who has moved into a cave, and encourages everyone else to do so. I would have liked this to be funnier, or something.

BEN KATCHOR-”A Child Ponders the Ruins of the 21st Century”
A full-page, color cartoon about a child dreaming about how giant stores like “Mite Aid” with 7,500 square feet of space could possibly have sold the same number of things as their local, cramped variety stores now do.  Weird and sad.

I guess you have to go into this section of the magazine expecting to be depressed, given the topic at all.  It was nice that there was a little uplift in some of them.

For easier searching I’m also adding this spelling: Husker Du.

SOUNDTRACK: The Core: WVPH, 90.3 FM.

The Core is also from Rutgers University.  How do they have two radio stations?  Interestingly, the station is shared with Piscataway High School.  For several hours a day Piscataway High School takes over the airwaves.  Although I admit that I have not listened to any of the PHS stuff because the first block is at 6 in the morning, and the other block is from 1- 3PM.

The college folks, however, play a pretty excellent selection of alternative music.  They’re not quite as indie and out there as WRSU, but they’re not commercial either.  To me, they’re more of the kind of college station I’m used to from my days as music director at the University of Scranton.

In the few days that I listened, I heard a lot of familiar alternative artists, with a nice focus on new bands.  What I especially liked about the station was that they didn’t play too much in the way of commercial alternative (your U2s and R.E.Ms who were once alternative but are now mainstream).  Rather, they played bands like Art Brut, The Decemberists, Portishead and Neutral Milk Hotel: bands that many people have at least heard of, but that you won’t find anywhere else on the dial.

This is the station that I would turn to most if my CD player busted permanently.

The only thing I didn’t like about it, but which also reminded me of my days as a DJ, was that college DJs tend to talk A LOT.  We all think that we are imparting precious wisdom to the masses.  And often, that is true.  Although in this one case, the DJ said that the name of the band was Art Brut Vs Satan, which is in fact just the album name.  (See, I’m still a pretentious music snob!).   However, when I’m having dinner and reading a book, I don’t need a seven minute update about that last concert that you went to.

[READ: May 19, 2009] Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

When I first heard about this book (as a punchline on Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me at my brother-in-law Tim’s house), I couldn’t believe it was real.  I was so intrigued by the concept, and then so impressed by the reviews, that I couldn’t wait to read it.

And this book does not disappoint.

For those out of the loop: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is, as the title suggests, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice with good old zombie action thrown in.  Elizabeth and Darcy… What?

Yes.  Zombies.

Seth Grahame-Smith has taken Pride and Prejudice, changed a few details and then added an entire…well, subplot is not right…more like an underlying condition to the story.  It turns it from a story of love and marriage into a story of love and marriage amidst zombie brain-lust.

I am citing Buffy the Vampire Slayer as a point of reference because, like  Buffy herself, Elizabeth Bennet, the heroine of P&P&Z, is a smart, sassy young woman who has been trained in the arts of zombie killing.  Unlike Buffy, where very few people are aware that there are vampires roaming LA, in P&P&Z everyone knows about the zombies, they just don’t like to talk about it much.  But the zombies are an every day nuisance.  In fact, much of England–London in particular and the village of Meryton where the book is set–are overrun with these unmentionables.

The five Bennet girls have all trained in China to be martial arts experts.   Elizabeth, especially, is noted for her skill and prowess with a sword, a musket and even her bare hands. Her elder sister Jane is also a great fighter.  But her three younger sisters, while decent are a bit more flighty and are more interested in boys (or gentlemen) to be of great use in the fight against Satan’s army (although they do hold their own in a number of fights).

While this is all going on, the Bennet girls must concern themselves with marriage.  Since their father has no male heir upon his death, Hertforshire, their home, will become the property of their closest male cousin, Mr Collins.  They know very little about Mr. Collins, but fear that he would put the girls and Mrs Bennet out when he ultimately receives the property.

As it turns out, Mr Collins is a decent enough fellow.  He’s fat and ungainly and no use when it comes to zombies, but he does have eyes on Elizabeth.  The Bennets are delighted that this would allow them to keep their house.  To her mother’s horror, Elizabeth spurns Mr Collins’ advances and sends him away.  Mr Collins bounces back, however, right into the awaiting arms of the Bennet’s neighbor, Charlotte.  Charlotte, unbeknownst to anyone save Elizabeth, has recently been bitten by a zombie and will slowly turn into the living dead.

The bulk of the rest of the story concerns the burgeoning relationships for Jane and Elizabeth.  For Jane it is Mr Bingley, the new owner of their  neighbor’s property.  Bingley takes a keen interest in Jane but then mysteriously leaves the countryside for London and is seldom heard from for the bulk of the summer.

Elizabeth, after spurning Mr Collins continually runs into Mr Darcy, Bingley’s best friend and companion.  Unfortunately, she absolutely detests him.  When Elizabeth first encounters Mr Darcy he is an appallingly uncivil person: rude, overbearing and generally awful.  She finds him so contemptible, that she is hardly surprised to learn later that Darcy soundly beat Mr Wickham and hospitalized him for a twelve-month period.  Mr Wickham is a dashing gentlemen who comes to several of the Bennet’s balls.  Elizabeth likes him, and is quite affronted on his behalf about Mr Darcy.

And yet Darcy is a masterful zombie killer in his own right.  He is also the nephew of Lady Catherine de Bourgh, a wealthy Lady and renowned zombie slayer. Lady Catherine takes an instant disliking to Elizabeth: first because she was trained in China, not Japan; second because she does not have a band of ninjas at her disposal; third, because she has no standing; and fourth because she is led to believe that Mr Darcy is interested in her, when he has been long designed to be married to Lady Catherine’s own daughter.

When Darcy eventually reveals that he is interested in Elizabeth, she is so taken aback at his gall that a bruising fight ensues leaving Darcy wounded and Mr Collins’ study quite the worse for wear.

But as is the way in small social circles, Elizabeth and Darcy’s paths cross in unexpected places, and in various ways.  She slowly learns that what she heard about Darcy and Wickham was not entirely true.  And when Wickham runs off with Elizabeth’s sister Lydia, Darcy feels terrible for not revealing the true nature of Wickham’s character.

Will all of the stars align to bring these couples together?  Will they be killed by zombies?  Will Lady Catherine use her physical strength  to alter the outcomes of things?  Will Mrs Bennet ever stop vomiting?  Will Charlotte succumb to the zombie curse before anyone realizes she’s barely coherent?  Will Mr Bingley return and say why he was blowing off Jane?  And what of Mr Darcy’s trousers?

I enjoyed this story immensely.  I had read Pride & Prejudice years ago and found it a fine read.  I am older and wiser and a better reader now, so I am sure I would find P&P to be an enjoyable read unto itself.  But I was surprised by how wrapped up in the plot I became.

And let’s set the record straight: This book IS Pride and Prejudice.  Grahame-Smith has taken the actual text of P&P and left it unaltered for large stretches.  And what is amazing, if you read P&P&Z critically or at least carefully (and compare it to P&P itself) you will be amazed at how often Austen’s writing lends itself to this sort of alteration. [The whole text of Pride and Prejudice is available online from Google Books here].

In many instances, Austen’s verb choices seem like Grahame-Smith may have modified them, but he hasn’t.  In this sentence, Mr Collins is simply talking to Darcy: “With a low bow [Mr Collins] left her to attack Mr Darcy whose reception of his advances she eagerly watched.”  That’s all Jane Austen.

There is also a regiment of soldiers stationed not far away.  The reason is never explained in P&P, so Grahame-Smith has enlisted them in the fight against zombies.  There’s also a lines like this one, which I was sure Grahame-Smith added, but which is right there in the original.  When a paramour for Darcy belittled Elizabeth about her leathery skin, Darcy noted that “he perceived no other alteration than her being rather tanned— no miraculous consequence of traveling in the summer.”  Fascinating.

Of course, Grahame-Smith does add a lot of things that are not in the original.  He liberally sprinkles references to sparring and dojos throughout the book.  But they don’t stand out, because Grahame-Smith has really picked up on Austen’s writing style.  Obviously he adds massive zombie battle scenes too, but it is these seemingly throwaway references to blood, battles and training that keep the major zombie scenes from seeming out of place.

He has also altered little things in the book.  Instead of playing lottery, the families play Crypts and Coffins.  Instead of going for a walk in the park, they walk to the Burning Fields where they incinerate zombies.  He even kills off a couple minor characters!  And, he throws in comments that are risque and far more shocking  than anything else in the book.  For once you become accustomed to the formal mannerisms, hearing a passage like this almost seems outrageous:

Elizabeth recalls she has his ammunition in her pocket: ” ‘Your balls Mr. Darcy?’ He reached out and closed her hand around them and offered, ‘They belong to you, Miss Bennet.’ Upon this their colour changed, and they were forced to look away from one another, lest they laugh”

It is also surprising at what a strong, vibrant heroine Elizabeth is, regardless of the zombie training.  Jane Austen has created a character that is forthright and unafraid.  Although I am not well versed in the period, Elizabeth seems like quite the proto-feminist character.  For even though she does wish to get married, she is also quite independent and speaks her mind without fear of reprisal.  Making her a master fighter isn’t that big of a stretch.

I though I might re-read P&P now that I’ve finished P&P&Z.  But I feel like I know the real story well enough that I wouldn’t want to reread it just yet.  But someday down the line I’ll try it without the zombies.

And, while I don’t know if this was one of Grahame-Smith’s intentions, but if you read P&P&Z, it is not unlike reading the original.  Since much of the plot line is exactly the same, if you finish P&P&Z you can, with a clean conscience say that you’ve read P&P.  So, if you know someone who is reluctant to read P&P, tell them to pick up a copy of P&P&Z.  Just make sure they don’t tell their teacher about the zombies.

And at the end of the book, the author provides discussion questions for the reader.  They are rather ridiculous and are quite amusing. An example:

The strange plague has been the scourge of England for “five-and-fifty years.” Why do the English stay and fight, rather than retreat to the safety of eastern Europe or Africa?

or, my favorite:

Some scholars believe that the zombies were a last minute addition to the novel, requested by the publisher in shameless attempt to boost sales….  What do you think?  Can you imagine what the novel might be like without the violent zombie mayhem?

Despite my raves, this book may not be for everyone.  Especially if you don’t care for zombies or martial arts stories (if you don’t like those, I’d recommend the original).  There are a few gross moments, but they are few and far between.  Nevertheless, if you’re at all intrigued by the book, I totally recommend checking it out.  After all, it’s a classic (sort of).

SOUNDTRACK:  PEARL JAM-Live on Two Legs (1998).

This is the first official Pearl Jam live release.  It is compiled from a number of different concerts, yet it flows pretty seamlessly. It highlights how much faster many of the songs became during their live shows.  This increased their power almost uniformly.

This disc also works as, not really a greatest hits, because there are plenty of hits left off the set list [most of Ten, notably] but maybe a greatest hits of all the non-Ten songs.

A track listing would be the most sensible way to cover what’s on here, since  it is uniformly solid and enjoyable.  And I don’t have too much to say about each track.

Corduroy-Vitalogy
Given to Fly-Yield
Hail Hail-No Code
Daughter-Vs
Elderly Woman-Vs
MFC-Yield
Go-Vs
Red Mosquito-No Code
Even Flow-Ten
Off He Goes-No Code
Nothingman-Vitalogy
Do the Evolution-Yield
Betterman-Vitalogy
Black-Ten
Fuckin’ Up–This song bears a mention as it is a cover.  This is their first recorded cover of a Neil Young song.  Later, this song and “Rockin’ in the Free World” became staples of their live shows.  On here, they play a gorgeously sloppy rendition of this track.  It perfectly encapsulates the record: raw energetic and more than a little vulgar.  Perfect.

The set list also belies the fact that No Code isn’t as popular of a disc as the others.  There are three tracks from each of their records (except Ten which has two).  And the No Code tracks sound as good as the rest.

This is a good representation of Pearl Jam around this time, and it’s a good place to investigate their live sound (until you’re willing to take the plunge into the 72 self released live discs).

[READ: 2004 or 2005] The Plot Against America

DIGRESSION: I read this book a few years ago, and I didn’t remember the details all that well.  However, the overall story had a pretty big impact on me–especially in that it made me want to read more Philip Roth.  So, I’m going to include it here.  Some of my summary comes from other sources, but I do include my own recollections too.

I’ve never read Philip Roth before reading this novel.  Despite all of his famous works, he’s always slipped under my radar.  But the urgency and political nature of this book made me want to read it right away.

What was so interesting to me about the novel was that, even though it is a fictionalized account of things that didn’t actually happen, I didn’t know a lot of the history behind the story.  And so I actually wound up learning a bit of American history from this novel.

The basic thrust of the story is taken from actual history.

Charles Lindbergh flew a non-stop flight from Long Island to Paris in single engine plane the Spirit of St. Louis. Lindbergh received the Medal of Honor and instantly became a hero.  Shortly thereafter his baby son was kidnapped and killed.  He also became an important military figure.

At the dawn of World War II, Lindbergh resigned his Army commission and became the public spokesman for the antiwar America First Committee.  The committee, following the Monroe Doctrine, believed that the United States had no business intervening in the escalating war in Europe.   They sought a neutrality pact with Adolf Hitler.  Lindbergh gave speeches declaring that the Roosevelt administration, the British, and American Jews were the only ones interested in pursuing American intervention in the European conflict.

This is all true and actually happened.

Whether or not Lindbergh was a Nazi sympathizer, Antisemitic or simply naive is still up for debate.

Lindbergh’s was very popular and several Republican leaders suggested that he run for President against Roosevelt on an anti-war platform.

This last thing, running for President, he never did.

This part does not figure into the novel, but it does impact one’s opinion of Lindbergh:  After Pearl Harbor was bombed, he changed his opinion and not only wanted to engage in the war, he tried to get reinstated in the military to assist in the war efforts.

However, the novel supposes that he did run for President and that, given his enormous popularity, he defeated Roosevelt handily.  President Lindbergh signed the treaty with Germany, and agreed not to get involved in the war.  The President also established congenial relations with Hitler.  As such, the U.S. becomes slowly but exceedingly Antisemitic.

With all this in mind, the story is actually about the life of young Philip Roth, growing up in Newark, New Jersey, in a working-class Jewish community.  Philip and his younger brother agree with their dad’s position that Roosevelt was a great President and that, of course, they should intervene in Europe.  As Lindbergh rises politically, the streets of Newark, and Philip’s father specifically, grow nervous as the specter of a Nazi sympathizer may be elected President.

During the Presidential campaign, it is the Democratic party that is trying engage in war, while the Republicans are the doves.  Indeed, the Republican campaign slogan of 1940 is: ”Vote for Lindbergh or vote for war.”  And this slogan convinces the American people.  Lindbergh wins in a landslide. And Antisemitism slowly creeps across the country.  A trip to Washington D.C. which is meant to enhance the Roth children’s appreciation for their country causes incredible stress for the Roths as they are called Antisemitic names and refused admittance to hotels because they are “full.”

Tensions run high in the Roth household, especially when Philip’s cousin Alvin joins the Canadian army to fight Hitler.  He is wounded in battle and sent home with his leg amputated.   Much of the book is spent looking at Philip’s ability (or lack thereof) to cope with his cousin’s presence.  He feels like a crutch for his cousin, both physically and mentally, and he is unprepared to deal with it.

Meanwhile, Philip’s brother is sent to Kentucky as part of a “Just Folks” program which is promoted as a way to get urban kids (read: Jews) into the heartland (read: Christian heartland).  The underlying idea is to break up Jewish families, although in reality the program is very attractive to young Jewish boys who get to work outdoors in a rural setting.  When Philip’s brother returns home with an accent an an affinity for Lindbergh his family is not happy.

As Lindbergh’s presidency continues, the anti-war movement helps to spread Antisemitism even further into the country.  Since the US is not an active participant, there are grumblings that the Jews are responsible for the war.  It’s not necessarily an agreement with Hitler, but since Jews are Hitler’s enemies, and Hitler is our ally, any enemy of our friend is an enemy too.

As part of Lindbergh’s presidency, he makes a point of flying places on his own, often spontaneously.  Then, one day, mysteriously in flight, he disappears.  For several days, the country is without a leader.  Vice President Wheeler uses this as an opportunity to push his more aggressive Antisemitic platform.  During the few days that Wheeler is acting President, Martial Law is declared as riots break out across the country.

The story of the Roth family follows this trajectory as well.  The Roth’s former neighbors, the Wishnows, had moved from New Jersey to Kentucky.  During the riots, the Wishnow’s son Seldon places an emergency call to the Roths.  The end of the book deals with the tensions in the South as the Roths try to assist Seldon during this crisis.

I’ve given away a lot of details of the book, so I won’t spoil the ending.  But I will say that many people criticize the ending as being too convenient.  I can honestly say I don’t recall how I felt when I read it, but I don’t recall feeling gypped by it either.  In fact I found the book to be one of the most enjoyable stories I’ve read in a long time.

About the book generally: the narrator was a very strong one.  The details of the kids’ lives were just wonderfully told.  We get to see all of Philip’s neuroses, irrespective of Lindbergh.  And we see the family’s difficulties grow as the political troubles escalate.

The book’s epilogue includes a lot of historical information to “back up” the assertions of what could have happened.  Roth is not trying to promote conspiracies or anything like that, he just wants to show the basis for this fantastic story.

I’m often disappointed in myself that I haven’t read more Philip Roth.   I definitely want to read more of his books.  And I’ll get to them someday.

SOUNDTRACK: THE SMITHS-The Queen Is Dead (1986).

Years ago, when I was a young metal head, my friend Garry expanded my musical palette by introducing me to a lot of college rock (or whatever it was called back then).  The album that had the most impact on me back then was this one, The Queen Is Dead.

Unlike most listeners and fans of The Smiths, I was first drawn to them because I found this album to be very funny.  Now, true, Morrissey is a funny, literate writer, but the general consensus is that the Smiths are mopey, sad, depressive, you know, goth.  I guess I was more interested in the words than the music at the time?

And of course, it was “Bigmouth Strikes Again” that really sold the deal for me, as “Now I know how Joan of Arc felt…when the flames rose to her Roman nose and her Walkman started to melt,” is pretty twisted and funny.  [To the sticklers: all these lyrics are paraphrased somewhat].  And “Vicar in a Tutu” is weird and wonderful, with a rollicking skiffle beat that propels the song at a mighty pace as the vicar “comes sliding down the banister.”

Even “There is  Light that Never Goes Out” is a depressing sing about dying together, and yet the phrasing is pretty darn funny: “If a double-decker bus crashes into us, to die by your side is such a heavenly way to die.”  And lest we forget the peculiar disc ender, “Some Girls are Bigger Than Others.”  Certainly a true statement regardless of whatever he’s talking about.

My introduction to this disc was in the days of cassettes, and we listened to side 2 a lot, but side 1 is also fantastic.  The title track is a great opener: fabulous melody, rocking drums and a great verse about Morrissey breaking into the palace and being told by the Queen that he cannot sing.  Next, “Frankly Mr Shankly” is a 2 minute poppy song, also twisted, with lines about “making Christmas cards with the mentally ill.”  And “Cemetery Gates” is a twisted little fun piece which namechecks Keats, Yates and Oscar Wilde.

And lest we forget the rest of the band, the music on this disc is varied and wonderful.  The music of “The Queen is Dead” is funky bass, smashing drums and the gorgeous guitars of Johnny Marr.  Since The Smiths broke up, Morrissey has been in the spotlight far more than Johnny Marr.  Morrissey’s solo career is flying pretty well these days, while Marr has been a sideman in a lot of different  bands (currently Modest Mouse).

Johnny Marr’s guitar playing has always been a fascinating mix of textures and effects.  No one would say that he was a show offy guitarist–I don’t think there are any solos in his career at all–but the sounds he creates are weird and more than appropriate to the songs.  I’ve been playing guitar for years and I’m not even sure how he makes some of those sounds.

The Smiths were a great band, and this is one of my favorite albums.

[READ: April 10, 2009] Daylight Runner

My friends Louise and Ailish told me that they met this author in their hiking group.  I imagine all kinds of interesting Irish folks climbing the coastline of Ireland talking literature….  Anyhow, when they told me about this author I pictured a fledgling writer who was trying to get his book published…and they read it and thought it was really good.  I was intrigued, and Louise said she’d send me a copy.  And she did.

What I didn’t realize is that she was able to order it from Amazon, and that McGann is a rather prolific author in Ireland.  He is primarily known for his kids and YA books.  So they know a widely respected and published author.  That is almost as cool as my friend Christopher being taught by Roddy Doyle before he wrote The Commitments.

Oh, and as for the weird title listing.  Faithful readers know that one of my pet peeves is when publishers release a lame cover for the American edition of a book.  Many is the example I have shown.  Well, this book has an even more egregious alteration: the title of the book has been changed from the Irish edition to the American one.  And I’m not talking about the switching of one word (Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone becomes Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone because apparently Americans would be put off by this unknown author and her high-falutin philosophers…and they must have been right!  Look how well the American book did).  No, in this case, the book title is changed from the rather cool Small Minded Giants to the utterly lame and not in any way applicable to the book Daylight Runner.  When we get to the story you will see that aside from the fact that the main character is on the run, “daylight runner” couldn’t be further from anything to do with the story. Gah, marketers.

So, what’s the story about.  Well, Sol Wheat is an amateur boxer in high school.  His classmates sort of ignore him as he’s rather focused on his training.  Even kids he used to be friendly with, like Cleo, who is the lead singer and guitarist for a popular punk band in school, has little contact with him.

Then, Sol’s father, Gregor, doesn’t return home from work for three days straight.  This is something that he has never done, especially since Sol’s mom and sister were killed in an accident a few years past.  One day, Sol comes home from school to find his flat ransacked, something which Sheol assumes has to do with his Gregor’s gambling and the reason why he hasn’t been home.  Sol is apprehended by the police who say that Gregor is wanted for murder.  Sol is dragged down to the station where he is harshly interrogated until his teacher Ana shows up to drag him away.  Since he has no family to stay with, and has the police and unnamed thugs after him, Ana invites Sol to stay with her and her roommates for the time being.

Sol spends much of the book trying to figure out who he can trust.  Can he really trust Ana?  What about Cleo, who becomes intricately entwined in Sol’s story when her apartment block becomes a target of the Clockworkers?  And what about Maslow, the man his father sent to protect him while he went into hiding?  If he’s such a good guy (and he has proven himself with Sol many times) how can he be so flippant about killing someone?

And what about the stability of the dome?  Can people continue to live with the Machine generating all of their power, or are the Dark Day Fatalists correct that they are living a fool’s life inside a domed city with no contact from the outside world.

Oh, didn’t I mention that? Yeah, this story is set in the future, after the next ice age when the majority of the world have been frozen, and average temperatures outside hover around -70 degrees Celcius.  The city of Ash Harbor was built as the Ice Age was coming.  It was the only city built as a dome, destined to withstand the freezing temperatures.  And as they lost contact with the other civilizations around the world, the inhabitants of Ash Harbor began to believe that they are the only people left alive, and that their creaky old system, built so many hundreds of years ago really is a creaky old system.

The thing is though that most people don’t realize it, they go about their daily lives powering the machine that generates life in the city.   Very few people question anything that happens in Ash Harbor.  And that included Sol until his father disappeared, and there was a disastrous crash of a transport crane while his class looked on in astonishment.

So Small Minded Giants turns out to be a pretty cool good cop/bad cop/who-can-you-trust mystery set in a dystrophy sci-fi realm.  And there was a lot to this story that I enjoyed very much.  The pacing was excellent, the characters were cool, with interesting quirks, and the conceit of an entire domed city complete with a machine running it (and detailed explanation of how it worked) was very cool.  He also created new materials (“denceramic” whatever that is), makes up the bulk of the city.

Some of the things I found tough going about the book were these entirely made up things: what the hell is denceramic, and what are all these odd technological things that are going on around the city.  Normally I don’t mind when the exposition is left out, but if you’re inventing a new world, I like to have my hand held a little bit.  It felt more or less like the second book in a series, and all of the exposition had been in the first book.  Really, it’s not that big a deal, but given how detailed he was about so many things (at times too detailed, and at other times repetitively detailed) it was weird that I felt so in the dark about so many things.

The other thing that I was surprised about, and which turned me off a little, was just how violent the story was.  There’s an awful lot of shooting and bone breaking and relatively explicit descriptions of such things.  Now, I realize that that’s part of the story and it really adds a lot to the danger level.  I was just surprised (especially given the friends who recommended it).

Online reviewers say that this book is very different from his other books (most of them suggested that his young readers should stay away from it).  So, I’m curious to see what else Oisín has written. If anything else is available here in the US, (original name or not) I’d be interested in checking them out.  And someday when our family finally gets over to Irleand, maybe we’ll go walkabout with the man himself.

Oh, and the book has a character with a great Irish name: Faisal.

For ease of searching I include this spelling: Oisin

SOUNDTRACK: THEE SILVER MT. ZION ORCHESTRA & TRA-LA-LA BAND-Thirteen Blues for Thirteen Moons (2008).

I’ve enjoyed most of the output by (A/Thee) Silver Mt. Zion (Orchestra (& Tra-La-La Band)) over the years.  So, I naturally picked up this one when it came out.  And I’m torn by the record.

This disc contains 4 lengthy tracks.  But unlike fellow Constellation label mates Godspeed you Black Emperor, they are not orchestral pieces that ebb and flow until they reach a climax.  Rather, they are almost punk-orchestral pieces.  They have different sounds throughout the disc, sounds that are powerful, tender, angry and very raw.

And musically I think the album is pretty great.  The problem I have, which I hadn’t noticed on previous releases, was how much I don’t like singer Efrim’s voice.  He simply doesn’t have a very good or strong voice.  It sounds weak and exposed, and, given the content of what he’s singing about, that is either perfectly appropriate or wildly off base.  It seems to work well on “1,000,000 Died to Make This Sound” and yet for “blindblindblind” I just want him to be quiet and let the gorgeous backing choir take over.

And that’s the thing about SMZ, the backing vocal chantings are sublime: whether they are beautifully supportive or disconcertingly discordant, they are perfectly apt to the songs.

I guess when I think of SMZ I think of them as a collective band, an orchestra who works together to create their sound, and in many instances on Thirteen…  Efrim just stands out too much.  And who knows, maybe that’s the point, maybe that’s the punk aesthetic they wanted to bring to the album, I just think it takes a little something away from the beautiful noise they make.

[READ: March 4, 2009] “The Daughters of the Moon”

This is the first piece I have read by Italo Calvino.  Calvino’s name has been around for ages, but I honestly didn’t know a thing about him.

This story was written in 1968 (and was just translated into English) and as soon as I began reading it, I knew that it was a dated piece.  Not because of things like mentioning Life magazine, but because the naked women that populate the story were all referred to as “girls.”  And there was something about it that made my pop culture references hit upon Woody Allen’s early 1970s movie where he calls all the women that he’s interested in “girls.”  It seems strange that that stood out to me so much, but it just came across as something that a writer wouldn’t write anymore, or even pre 1960s.  At least as far as naked women were concerned.

And, about the naked women…

The story concerns the disintegration, capture and removal of the moon.  It is told by Qfwfq, who fills in the details of this extraordinary event.  Despite the fact that the narrator is named Qfwfq and it concerns the destruction of the moon, the story is set in Manhattan.

The moon is off course, it is wobbly and disconsolate.  And so are the residents of Earth.  One night, when Qfwfq is passing Central Park, he sees a naked woman in the park; she has removed all of her clothes and is lying prostrate to the moon.  She climbs on to his car and they race across the city to a large junkyard, where she and many other naked women support the moon with their power.

But soon a crane comes and tries to add the moon to the junkyard’s pile of old, discarded materials.

The story is a thinly veiled allegory of consumerism and disposable culture.  And I suppose that the allegory is so thinly veiled that I found it a little too obvious.  Maybe, it’s because the story is nearly 40 years old, and the topic is always in discussion now, but it seemed very obvious to me.

SOUNDTRACK: THE FLAMING LIPS-Oh My Gawd!!!..The Flaming Lips (1987).

The cover of this disc makes a statement.  And it should tell you everything you need to know about the music inside.  It’s got skulls and psychedelic colors and Oh My Gawd!!!  And yet, it doesn’t, exactly.  It’s not quite as out there as the cover might make you think.

Because it’s funny how much this disc’s first song sounds like the Replacements (except where he starts singing about his brains falling out and everything exploding…not quite ‘Mats material).  But Wayne sounds like early, sloppy Paul Westerberg, and the riffs are not too far off from some of the early ‘Mats records.

Even the wonderfully titled 9 minute epic  “One Million Billionth of a Millisecond on a Sunday Afternoon” isn’t quite as much of a freak out as you might expect.  In fact, the early instrumental part is one of the prettiest melodies they’ve done.  It is particularly interesting given its sparse instrumentation.   The song does eventually drift back into earlier Pink Floyd territory (“Astronomy Domine” etc). But it’s “The Ceiling is Bendin’” that is the freak out you’re looking for, with a fun drum fading and the chaos.  “Maximum Dream for Evil Kenevil” on the other hand is a noisy mess (a fun noisy mess, but a noisy mess nonetheless).

It’s clear that they’re doing some good experimentation with audio effects.  And yet “Can’t Exist” is a delicate little song with just a light touch of feedback.

The first half of “Prescription: Love” is a rocking instrumental that would not sound out of place as a Nirvana B-side (but since it came before Nirvana, let’s say maybe on an SST Records track.  The second half returns to the garage rocking sound (with some funky deep vocals dubbed on…the first of many experiments with voice on future albums).

“Ode to C.C., Pt. 2″ feels like it’s going to take of in an explosion but never does. But it has the excellent line “Hell’s got all the good bands anyway.”  “Can’t Stop the Spring” is another fantastic riff rocking song, and it starts and end with a classical music sample.  [Which I can't place right now, sadly].

The disc ends with “Love Your Brain,” a 7 minute piano workout –which ultimately ends in the destruction of the room.  It sounds like every instrument in the place is destroyed.

So this disc expands the sonic weirdness of the Flaming Lips’ first disc, and it also showcases their growth as musicians.  It’s not a brilliant album by any means although it is quite good.  The most interesting thing is seeing how much they are experimenting with sounds now, and how it will pay off for them later on.

[READ: Late 2006 & December 2008] Winkie

I read this book two years ago, and my memory of it is not that great.  I’m only including it because I really enjoyed it at the time, and would like to make some record of having read it.

UPDATE: I have decided to re-read this book while on P breaks at work.  I am now utterly unsure whether or not I read the book fully last time.  I have just finished it again, and I was totally surprised by so many things (although one or two things did trigger my memory) that I really had to wonder if I finished it.

So, the story is about a stuffed bear named Winkie.  Winkie was a beloved toy of the Chase family and most recently of Clifford Chase [see author's name now].  As the story opens, Winkie, the stuffed bear, is being tackled by the FBI as they arrest him for terrorist activities.  [You can re-read that sentence to see if your brain digested it.]

The story flashes back to Winkie’s life.  Winkie was a gift to Clifford’s mother, Ruth.  Ruth loved Winkie, although at the time, Ruth had named her Marie (to this day, Marie/Winkie is confused about her/his gender).  Marie has recollections of coming home to Ruth, and of many incidents in which Ruth showered Marie with affections or abuse.  From the very start Marie was easily offended, and tried ever so hard to move her limbs and show consciousness.  She never managed it; however, all the while she learned and observed.

After she is injured by the FBI and placed in a hospital, Winkie/Marie befriends a a cleaning woman named Francoise.  She is a lesbian immigrant who quite sensibly sees that Winkie is a stuffed bear, not a person.  She stitches up Winkie’s wound (while the doctors just look at him in a baffled state) and is, naturally, arrested as an accomplice.

Winkie is assigned a lawyer with the rather obvious name of Unwin.  It’s something of a poor joke but it slips past pretty quickly, and given Unwin’s characteristics, it’s not that bad.  Plus, later in the story Unwin addresses his name directly, thereby letting us all know we’re in on the joke.

Back to flashback: as the Chase family grows, and Ruth forgets about Marie, Ruth’s children dig her out of the attic and play with her.  Cliff Chase, Ruth’s youngest boy discovers Marie and rechristens her Winkie (so she is now a boy). Winkie finds this change thrilling, but she is internally tormented at being tossed around (literally and figuratively) from owner to owner.  In a funny moment, later, when Winkie is on trial and the spectators discover this evidence of transgenderedness, they are outraged!

As Clifford gets older, he forgets about the bear.  We see the loneliness that Winkie feels as he his neglected and only held once in a while.  He is even ignored during a New Orleans hurricane. Having had enough, Winkie thinks about moving his limbs…and is able to.  He jumps out a window and runs away.  Just like that.

Part Two opens with a series of surprises.  We finally meet the hermit who lives in the woods (in the shack where the FBI captured Winkie) and mails bombs to people.  (He’s not the Unabomber…in fact, he was a classmate of the Unabomber).  Then we see Winkie have a baby!  Baby Winkie is a small version of him/herself.   She is wise beyond her years, is made of stuffing and is irresistible to the crazy hermit bomber.  In short order the bomber has captured Baby Winkie and is trying to learn more about her.

It is this incident that sets off the events of Winkie’s capture.

The bulk of the rest of the book is taken up with Winkie’s trial.  The details of it are outrageous, frequently hilarious, and generally absurd.  The trial lasts 18 months and Winkie is called a master of disguise, a terrorist and is accused of some 9,678 crimes.  No one will stick up for the bear, except perhaps for one past owner.

And I’ll leave off there….

The book is surprisingly moving, as you really get into the emotions of this wholly innocent creature.  It is also clearly meant to be a parallel to the post-September 11th overreaction and removal of civil liberties.  The only problem is that the proceedings are so over the top that they almost overstep their usefulness as satire.  The jury being curtained off so no one can see them is a good jab at corrupt trials, but having actors portraying the girls from the Salem Witch Trial saying how Winkie possessed them is funny fiction, but very broad satire.

Another unusual subplot is that five year old Cliff keeps, well, shitting his underpants.  This has led me to to create a new category called “soiled underpants” because this is now the second book where a character (not a baby) does this.  And I chose the word “underpants” because in a Futurama DVD commentary (“The Honking”), Matt Groening and Ken Keeler theorize that the word “underpants” is 20% funnier than the word “underwear.”

The story also has several pictures of Winkie, a rather horrific looking creature, to be honest.

Again, I’m not sure why I didn’t remember much of this book from the first time around.  I definitely enjoyed it this time, although some sections were a bit too long (which is a shame for a 236 page book).  It was still very funny and, again, it was surprisingly moving.