SOUNDTRACK: DARK WAS THE NIGHT-That Disc (2009).

The second disc in this set is a somewhat more raucous affair than the first (which was pretty much all acoustic performances).  On the surface, this seemed like the better disc of the two.  I like so many bands on this disc: Spoon, Arcade Fire, My Morning Jacket, The New Pornographers, Stuart Murdoch, Blonde Redhead.

And the disc starts out really great. The Spoon track, “Well Alright” may just be my favorite song on the whole compilation.  The Arcade Fire are typically great.  Beirut, whom I’d not heard before have a great track and My Morning Jacket’s song is very good, in a mellow sort of way.

From there, though, the disc kind of goes downhill. The Sharon Jones track is okay.  Dave Sitek’s (of TV on the Radio whom I love) track is fine.  It’s very basic, especially for him.  It has grown on me somewhat, but it’s nothing too exciting.  The New Pornographers track is catchy but nothing amazing.  Even the Stuart Murdoch (who has never done a bad track) song is mild at best.

But Riceboy Sleeps, which is a side project from the amazing Sigur Rós just kills the disc in its tracks.  The thing about Sigur Rós is that if you’re not in the mood for them, they are too ponderous by half.  So, in the midst of these kind of rocking songs, this 9 minutes ambient instrumental is just death.  And, it’s followed by a dreadful version of “amazing Grace” by the usually delightful Cat Power.

And then comes the Conor Oberst song.  This is the second song by him that I’ve listened to in a short period of time (the other was on Future Soundtrack of America).  And I just don’t get this guy’s appeal.  I feel like I must be a crotchety old man thinking this but I’ll say it: he sounds like a total knockoff of Paul Westerberg.  And the weird thing is, he sounds like a 19 year old P.W. singing the songs of the middle-aged P.W.  “Lua,” the track on here has some clever wordplay, but the melody of the song is pretty much note for note of The Replacements “Sadly Beautiful.”

And at this point in the disc I never even give Blonde Redhead and Kevin Drew a fair chance.

Track sequence means a lot, and I fear they do a disservice to the disc on this one.  I’m still a fan of Disc One and there’s a number of great tracks on Disc Two, but I was rather disappointed by this one.

[READ: December 22, 2009] Love as a Foreign Language Vol. 2

This volume concludes this engaging romance from Oni Press.

I was a little concerned as the volume opened because the Joel-Hana budding romance is derailed by a couple of silly misunderstandings.  (I was afraid we were heading towards TV-slapstick territory).  But, they proved to be just a few moments of comic relief in what was heading into a pretty emotional conclusion.

There’s also the sudden realization/crisis that his fellow teacher, the fun and flirty British woman also has a thing for Joel (what’s a guy to do with two women into him?  And realistically a British romance seems more feasible than a Korean one).

So, there’s not a lot more to say about this book without giving away the various exciting plot points.  Suffice it to say that the ending is quite dramatic.

I was not at all disappointed with this volume, and the author’s note at the end was kind of an unofficial epilogue that explained the origins of the story in very satisfying detail.

It’s a great, tender book and a fantastic graphic novel.

SOUNDTRACK: KISS-Alive! (1975).

This was the first Kiss live album and was the album that broke Kiss worldwide.  I’m not entirely sure why a live album of songs that didn’t sell very well would do better than the original studio albums, but so it was.

And, yes, the live recording is pretty awesome.  It is clearly a collection of greatest hits off their first three records, and the band sounds on fire: the songs are heavier and faster and largely more consistent than some of the odder tracks on the original records.

There has been considerable controversy about whether the album was overdubbed.  Wikipedia lists a few different possibilities for what originally recorded sounds were kept for the disc.  It never occurred to me that the disc might be overdubbed (and honestly that doesn’t bother me all that much).  But since I had the pleasure of watching Kissology recently, and I could see the state of their vocals live, it would surprise me entirely if the vocals were not overdubbed.  Not because the band didn’t sound good live (they did), but because they were very sloppy with their vocals, consistently leaving off the ends of lines and things like that, and the disc sounds perfect.

Of course this is all nitpicking.  Alive! is a fantastic document because the live versions add a lot of punch to the originals.  But on top of that, you get fun extras like the drum solo and banter of the 12 minute “100,000 Years” as well as Paul’s drinking banter: “I know there’s a lot of you out there that like to drink…vodka and orange juice!” (How can you pass that up?).  It’s hard to pick highlights from such a good record, but “She” is a particular one with Ace’s wild guitar pyrotechnics.  Right on to the end, the disc is a rocking good time.

It’s also funny to hear that “Rock And Roll All Nite” is not the final encore; rather it is the next to last track with “Let Me Go Rock n Roll” being the BIG FINISH.  That’s the last time that THAT would happen!

[READ: December 28, 2009] The Elfish Gene

I happened to pass this book in the New section of my library and I loved the title.  I read the blurb, made a mental note of it, mentioned how much I liked the title to Sarah and then more or less forgot about it (although, actually, I still see it every day, as it’s always facing out, cover forward).

Imagine my surprise to see that Sarah got it for me for Christmas!

So, yes, this is the best parody-titled book that is not a parody or a make-a-buck joke book that modifies a popular title.  Rather, it is a memoir of a British guy who spent his teen years utterly absorbed in Dungeons & Dragons.  But I must disagree with the Christian Science Monitor’s review as “laugh out loud funny.”  I only laughed out loud once in the book (the dog walking scene is hilarious), but that’s because I don’t think it was meant to be funny (at least I hope it wasn’t).

I’ve said before that I’m not a big fan of memoirs in general.  I find them mostly to be a big “so what,” and often without the subtlety required for a good novel.  But the topic here was delicious enough for me to dive right in.  And I think that this book, which I absolutely enjoyed, sort of proves my theory.

Barrowcliffe has done nothing worthy of anyone caring about.  He’s just a guy who played D&D, so when checking out the book, you kind of feel, so what?  Plus, the book is completely unsubtle, with him summarizing his attitude over and over and over.  But nevertheless, I could not put it down. I was hooked from the opening and was totally intrigued all the way to the end.  (I even put down the book I had been reading to speed right through this).

And yet, Barrowcliffe himself is so unlikable.  And not, as he suggests, because of the D&D.

From the get go, Barrowcliffe basically says that his obsession with D&D made him a loser, and worse, an unlikable loser.  And so what we get is the author’s detailed love affair with fantasy which is perpetually undermined by him regretting that he spent so much of his life doing it.  But as you read the details of his obsession and the fun that he was having in chapter after chapter, this regret, this embarrassment, this humiliation is totally misplaced.  For it is not the D&D that makes him the way he is, it’s a combination of where he lived, the time he grew up, and his rather bad personality.

But let’s get back to basics.  Barrowcliffe grew up in the 70s in Coventry, England, which was pretty much the middle of nowhere.  And this was a time when there was no way to connect to other people aside from going up and talking to them (phone were prohibitively expensive, and obviously there was not internet).  The author was a nerdy kid who willingly accepted the nickname “Spaz” and actually told people to call him that well into his teenage years.

In school, he found a fantasy wargamers group and discovered that he really enjoyed it.   They would create alternate histories of battles and conflicts (I imagine it like an advanced Risk).  One of the main guys in the wargamers group told Mark about D&D.  None of them could afford it as it was an import from America (and cost like £7).  But the author had saved up a few pounds and mail ordered it (the small white box of original D&D which I have, although I ordered it much later).  And what happens when the set arrives is a nutshell version of Barrowcliffe’s life: the other kids are thrilled that he bought the game, but unfortunately since it’s his game, that means that he has to play with them.  He is loud, obnoxious and opinionated.  And unfortunately he doesn’t have that much original thought to keep up with anyone else.

Around the same time that Barrowcliffe was playing D&D, so was I. I’ve included the covers of the 5 first edition books that I own at the side here.  If yo click on them you can buy them too!  Sadly, my original copies are obviously worth nothing if you can buy them for $12, eh?

I started a few years after him and I am also about five years younger than him.  But I am well aware of the mania that D&D produces.  I created characters all the time.  I played with friends.  I joined a group at the library and I read a bunch of fantasy.  So I know what the author is talking about.  The big difference between us is that I didn’t get outrageously obsessed with the game.  The friends I had also liked playing the game, whereas Barrowcliffe made friends through D&D.

D&D attracts all manner of people, but without a doubt the most obsessive gamers tend to be obnoxious, opinionated, condescending and persnickety.  And that’s fine (the game encourages people to feel superior about themselves).  if you act this way while wargaming.  But once you start acting this way in real life, well that becomes a problem.  And if all your friends act that way and you have no other friends to temper them, you become that person yourself.  And this is what happened to him.

So, for Barrowcliffe to blame D&D for his lack of social life is just false.  Not to mention he got a girlfriend at a far younger age than I did, so his social life was better than mine.  It’s quite clear that he has a certain personality which was magnified by the people he played with. And that judgmental personality is still evidence as he writes this book.

He explains that when he was a kid his D&D friends got him into heavy metal (also true for me), but now, his adult self sets out dismissing heavy metal as a stupid genre, just as he dismissed non-metal when he was a teen.  I take personal offense at his mocking of Black Sabbath.  Because even though I like the band that his mature self is now into, I’m not going to dismiss the music that I loved as a kid.

Eventually, Barrowcliffe, grows up, goes to college, acts like a total jerk until he cops on that he’s being a jerk and then somehow gets married.  And yet even at the end of the book he’s still judgmental (against fatties).  His saving grace is that he realizes these errors and apologizes for them (as he retroactively apologizes for his bigoted views as a teen).

But I fear that he overcompensates by disparaging his entire life rather than just his bad behavior.  In fairness, he does include one line in the book where he says that D&D was not to blame for his behavior (phew), but that seems to be undermined by all of the preceding chapters which pretty much imply that it was all D&D’s fault.

What’s especially weird though is that he defends D&D against all the weirdos who were sure that it led to satanism and all that jazz.  It feels like he can’t decide if he’s bashing or enjoying his younger self.  And that conflict is a problem for a memoir.

The thing is that Brrowcliffe clearly is a creative person, and fantasy was  a perfect outlet for a creative kid in what seems like the wastelands of Coventry in the 70s.  The fact that he cultivated the role of an outsider is not surprising when you don’t like anything around you.  And I can’t help but think, with his personality, that if it were not for fantasy that he would have been doing far worse things than inventing characters.

Having gotten that gripe out of my system, I really loved the book.  I enjoyed reading about his obsessions, and about the characters he created, the games he played and even the unlikable people that he hung out with.  I would love to have heard more about Billy during the intervening years, and was sad to hear how he turned out).

Barrowcliffe became a professional writer of fiction and non-fiction (and a stand up comic? really?).  Although many of the example of his earlier writing he mocks as being over the top (which they were), no doubt the fantasy worlds he created were essential to his eventual career.

The strangest thing about this book which more or less trashes D&D is that the target audience has got to be D&D players.  I can’t imagine any non D&Der seeing that title and saying, ooh, just what I wanted to read!  Because yes, D&Ders are still the butt of jokes, except in Freaks & Geeks where even the cool guy gets into playing it with the geeks–hooray!).  And yes, even I find obsessive D&Ders to be offputting (but that’s more about obsessive personality types than what they are currently obsessed with).  So, to write this book and essentially mock D&D players (which he does) seems to be shooting your target audience in the foot.  Weird.

So, overall, I really enjoyed this book.  No, really, I did.  I honestly couldn’t put it down.  I couldn’t wait to see what was going to happen to him next (and there are so many interesting friends and situations described).  And I loved remembering all of the books that came out and making sure to get the latest one (I’m surprised he never mentioned my personal favorite, The Fiend Folio).  I even enjoyed remembering the die rolling and seeing the cool campaigns that they go on.  I just flinched whenever he held D&D responsible for what was clearly his own personality defects.

So, if you like D&D be advised that you may be on the receiving end of some abuse.  But if you used to play D&D and have long since given it up, it’s an amusing book to reminisce about what you used to do (written by someone who was clearly more obsessed than you).  It’s also interesting to see it from a British perspective, where it wasn’t as readily available (even if all the best fantasy bands came from Britain.  Come on, Barrowcliffe, you’re going to mock Saxon?).

We all regret things that we did in our childhood, but to dismiss them and assume that they are the cause of our lameness is not a valid excuse. Of course, having said all that, I suppose a memoir about playing D&D with no regrets wouldn’t be quite as dramatic, so what do I know.

The book also made me go online and finally track down some Hawkwind (after learning about them from The Young Ones nearly 25 years ago: “Play some Hawkwind or Marillion!”).

SOUNDTRACK: KISS-Dressed to Kill (1975).

I feel like I used to  give this disc short shrift because (horrors) its cover is in black and white.  But, unlike the first two discs which were heavy (poppy, but heavy), Dressed to Kill is very anthemic and, well, a little wimpy.  Despite these caveats, I still know every word to the disc, and I do rather enjoy it.

In fact, the first four songs on the disc are not featured on Alive!.  It starts out really poppy with “Room Service” which has a pretty wild guitar solo.  The next track, “Two Timer” is a Gene-sung slow track which even has Gene getting into a spoken word bit: “That’s the truth baby, you’re a two timer.”  “Ladies in Waiting” is one of those fun Kiss songs that starts out a little off-sounding but ends up being a really poppy singalong.  “Getaway” continues a trend of songs that Ace wrote but which Peter sings.  (Evidently Ace didn’t feel confident in his vocals yet).  The side ends with the cool “Rock Bottom,” a slow, pretty guitar intro opens into a rocking song.

This is the rare Kiss disc where Side Two has more hits than Side One.  “C’mon and Love Me” (an unusual request, frankly) is a fun rocker with a lot of baby baby’s.  “Anything for My Baby” is a really upbeat song which amuses me for all of the things that he swears he would do for her: steal, wheel and deal, crawl or kneel, etc.  Next is “She,” one of the all-time great Kiss songs.  It’s heavy, it’s menacing, it has an awesome guitar riff and a great guitar solo.  The fact that they tucked it away in the middle of side two is really weird.  “Love Her All I Can” is a fast rocker that’s followed by Kiss’ most popular song of all time, “Rock And Roll All Nite.”  At this point in my Kiss listening career I’m a little tired of this song.  It’s a very catchy anthem, no doubt, but it’s really not a very good song as far as Kiss songs go.

The recordings for the Kiss Alive! disc were taken on the Dressed to Kill tour and yet the live album has the fewest songs taken from this album.  It’s kind of funny that their most popular song comes at the end of this disc.

[READ: December 22, 2009] Wet Moon

This is a fantastic goth-inspired graphic novel with the absolutely worst title ever.  Wet Moon is the name of the town the book is set in, but it is never mentioned beyond the welcome sign, and I just can’t imagine what inspired the name.

Okay, actually, I just looked up wet moon on Wikipedia, and found out that it is an astronomical term for when the “horns” of a crescent moon point up, away from the earth (like devil horns).  And so I completely take back my complaint, as I now think the term is pretty cool and very appropriate.

And that is the only thing that I find disagreeable about this book.  (Well, actually I don’t like the lettering either, but more on that on a moment).

The town of Wet Moon is a college town where goths live and thrive (and no doubt many fans of the book wish the could live there).  Our heroine is Cleo, a young, slightly overweight goth with a pierced nose and bottom lip.  She has just moved out of her parents house and is living on campus.  (There is an implication that her house is a dorm, but if so, it is the single most beautiful dorm ever, anywhere, so I’ll pretend it’s an apartment–I mean, there’s a walk-out balcony for cripes sake).

Anyhow, Cleo’s friends include Trilby, a rambunctious skinny punk (you can’t be blonde and goth, right?).  She is foul-mouthed and a ball-buster.   Audrey is a beautiful black woman who is the least punk of all the girls, but who is good friends with everyone.  Mara another black girl is a scary punk with spikes in her nose and under her bottom lip.

Cleo’s new roommates are Natalie (we don’t know much about her yet) and Malady (a black woman with blonde dreadlocks and a lip ring).  Their first introduction comes when Malady finds Cleo bent over the toilet throwing up.

And that introduction kind of sums up the way Cleo feels these days.

The story is largely plot-free in this first book.  We meet Cleo’s friends and hear them bicker with each other.  They go to a goth club where the underage Trilby gets drunk.  And Cleo goes to her first class, which she flees from as soon as she sees….

Well, actually I don’t know who the person is.  I’m not even entirely sure if the person is a man or woman (s/he’s very tall with long hair and an intense demeanor).  Cleo has seen this person a couple of times and s/he has made her nauseous each time (there is clearly a past between them, although it is not explained).

There’s also a scene in a Denny’s which I found rather amusing.  The kids are smoking and cursing while Trilby tells them that she is supposed to be meeting a guy for a possible date.  The reactions of the friends was totally believable.

Cleo also discovers the phrase “Cleo Eats It” all over town.  Since she’s the only Cleo any of them know, she assumes someone has it in for her.  (Although I secretly hope it’s a new band in town).  Cleo does have an enemy around town, however.  She’s a former friend and she is certainly spreading bad tidings about her.

The really fascinating story line concerns Fern.  Fern is a completely hairless (the only nudity we see concerns her) woman with crazy piercings (she has rings in her back (ow!)) and what I believe is an amputated arm.  It’s unclear who she is or what her story is, but as the book ends she expresses and interest in Cleo.  Hmmm.

I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed this story.  I had my own tiny goth phase (although again, being blond is quite a hindrance) and am still friends with people who are, so I appreciate the scene.  All of the characters are compelling and interesting.  Not all are likable, and I think that’s what keeps the story believable.

But beyond that, the artwork is simply amazing.  Cleo is rendered so wonderfully, with such love and detail.  There’s even a sequence where Cleo is examining herself in the mirror and it’s a grand opportunity for Campbell to show off his incredible detail work with faces.  Cleo makes all kinds of funny faces that people make in the mirror, and the renderings are spot on.

And, of course, its nice to see normal looking people in a book.  These women are wonderfully shaped, they are believable.  Even skinny Trilby is believable-skinny not supermodel-skinny.

Emotionally, the story feels real too.  The cast is mostly women, although there are a few men in there too.  And the interactions between women and men are believable (although it is clear that Campbell writes women better than men, as the male characters are mostly peripheral). In many ways it reminded me of a punk version of Alison Bechdel’s Dykes to Watch Out For (and who would have thought when DTWOF came out that there would be anything more subversive than that?).  It is multicultural, accepting of different sexualities and is a fully formed, self-contained universe that gently pokes its head into the real world.  It’s fantastic.

The only gripe I had was with the lettering.  It feels very sloppy to me.  I suppose it kind of works in the context of these characters, but it doesn’t feel intentionally sloppy, it feels a little hurried (like words don’t fit properly).  I’m not sure what to make of it, but honestly it doesn’t bother me that much. It’s just at little surprising since he takes so much care with the rest of his page.

There are a total of five books in this series, and I can’t wait to read the rest.

Ross Campbell has written a few different graphic novels, but this is my first exposure to him.  I’m definitely going to be looking into some of his others, too (The Abandoned & Water Baby seem like good contenders).

SOUNDTRACK: DARK WAS THE NIGHT: This Disc (2009).

This compilation was released to benefit the Red Hot organization, who raises money to fight AIDS.  I’ve gotten about a half dozen or so of their compilations over the years (and was surprised to see that they have released about 2o of them!).

This collection is a two disc set of contemporary cutting edge indie rock bands.  And, when it came out it was definitely billed as a who’s who of cool.  The first disc is more or less an acoustic/folky collection of songs.  While that’s not entirely true, the discs are more or less broken down that way.  The artists include David Byrne & The Dirty Projectors, Jose Gonzales, Feist (on two tracks), Bon Iver, The National (a band I don’t know but whose song I love) and Iron & Wine.

Probably the coolest song of the disc (although not my favorite) is Kronos Quartet’s take on Blind Willie Johnson’s “Dark was the Night.”  For years, Kronos has been interpreting rock and other genre songs to fit into their string quartet style.  And this song sounds amazing.  I’ve no idea what they’re doing, but they turn their standard quartet instruments: violin, cello, etc into really cool blues sounding strings (even a slide guitar at one point).  It’s really amazing.  As I said it’s not my favorite track, but it sounds great.

The Decembersists contribute a 7 minute song (that I believe is new as I don’t recognize it).  It’s very good, but it seems like the kind of song that normally would have had a lot of effects/orchestration on it.  And this is an acoustic rendition, so it sounds more sparse than I would think.  It’s still very good though.

Finally, the disc ends with the weirdest track, an 11 minute freak out by Sufjan Stevens.  Every time you think it’s going to end, it morphs into a new instrument which continues the track.  It works well as a soundscape, although it’s a bit tedious in comparison to the rest of the disc which is largely concise acoustic gems.

Disc one is a great collection of tracks, and the overall style works well together.  It’s a very worthy collection of songs and it’s for a good cause.

[READ: December 18, 2009] Love as a Foreign Language 1

This graphic novel is the kind of great romance story that I’ve come to expect from Oni.  It is clever, it is funny, it plays games with pop culture and, of course, the writing and art are fantastic.

Joel is a Canadian living in Korea teaching English to native Koreans.  The book opens with the 4 H’s of culture shock: The honeymoon (you love the place), the horror (you hate the place), the humor (you accept the place and its flaws) and the home (you see yourself living there).  Joel is clearly in the horror stage.  He hates everything about Korea, especially the food. Joel has a few months left on his contract but he wants to get out of it and just go home.

He is sick of eating take out, he is sick of eating the red (spicy) things in every meal, and he is sick of standing out (he is blond and about 6 foot tall, easy half a head taller than most of the Koreans).  He also speaks virtually no Korean, so he imagines that everyone is talking about him (a glossary in the end of the book explains what everyone is really saying around him).

But if he leaves early, he loses a lot of money as well as airfare home.  To complicate matters, the owners have asked him to stay on for another year because they are so busy.

There are a few other teachers at the school as well, of course. There’s a loud Korean-American (this is his first time to Korea) who just wants to go out and party, there is a very helpful British woman (still in the honeymoon phase) and of course, there are the owners of the school: Mrs Park, Miss Park and Mrs Park (no relation).

He has finally made up his mind to leave early, when a new secretary is hired.  She is a beautiful woman named Hana.  Joel met Hana once before and he has been awkward and tongue-tied every time they are together.  He knows (or is told) that he has pretty much no chance with her (no Korean family would let their daughter go with a Westerner), but he is smitten nonetheless.

And, it seems, she is quite fond of him, as well.  What’s a young Canadian to do?  Wait for Volume Two, evidently, because Volume One ends on a great cliffhanger.

The story line in this book is fantastic.  Joel is likable, despite his grousing, and the other characters round out his experience well.  But it’s the art that really sells the book. The lines are thin and very detailed, the drawings and backgrounds are gorgeous.  The expressions are breathtaking.  Most of our encounters with Hana show just how shy she is, and they are stunning.  And Joel himself is given amazing breadth of emotions.  Even the cockroach that lives in Joel’s apartment is rendered wonderfully (I especially enjoy that the cockroach is given a “love heart” even when Joel tries to flush it down the toilet).

There’s also the wonderful introduction of Let’s Go the “learning English” TV show for kids.  It is wonderfully surreal (and made even more surreal when Joel dreams about the show) as the children chant a phrase of the day, like “big eyes!” (from red riding hood).  Many of the background characters speak Korean, with Korean characters.  So you get an idea at least of what the language looks like, even if you have no idea what they are saying (there is a translation guide in the back).

I’m really excited to finish the story, all the plot points are in place to make this a very satisfying conclusion.

SOUNDTRACK: KISS-Kiss (1974).

I’ve always loved the first Kiss record.  Everything about it is over the top, and I can’t imagine what people thought of it when it hit shelves back in 1974.

And yet, for such a preposterous looking record, the tracks are really great.  The music is a mixture of pop, Rolling Stones rock swagger, Beatles harmonies, and a sort of proto-heavy metal.

“Strutter” proves to be a great opening track with a great riff and fun vocals.  And it’s just one of thousands of Kiss songs about hot chicks that, because of its metaphorical/obscure lyrics is less offensive than it might have been.  “Nothin’ to Lose” is another lyrically inscrutable song that I’ve always assumed was very dirty: “Before I had a baby, I tried every way.  I thought about the back door.  Didn’t know what to say.”  And yet it is so outrageously poppy that no one minds singing along.  “Firehouse” is a wonderfully over the top song with great falsetto vocals and an awesome solo from Ace. “Cold Gin”  is another rocking classic with cool basswork and guitar solo notes over a standard rocking verse.  Side one ends with”Let Me Know” a pop song hiding under the guise of a heavy rock song.  The song is such a poppy bit of fluff (check out the soulful harmonies before the ending guitar solo kicks in), but it works wonders.

Side Two starts with a silly cover of “Kissin’ Time” that of course is appropriate for this band (and if they went for a more poppy sound overall, this would have been their anthem, no doubt).  “Deuce” follows, and it blasts forth with some heavy stuttering and slighty off-sounding guitars.  It also has the best opening lyric ever: “Get up and get your grandma out of here.” Which is later followed by one of the top ten Huh? choruses off all time, “You know your man is working hard, he’s worth a deuce.”  (Rampant speculation as to what a “deuce” was in 1974 can be found online).  I’ve always loved the ”Love Theme from Kiss” which is possibly the most hated pre-disco Kiss song that I can think of.  It’s a weird pseudo-middle-eastern instrumental that I’ve always thought was trippy and funny.  And then comes “100,000 Years,” another one of my favorite songs.  Again, the lyrics are just bizarre (and I’ve always mis-heard them until I looked them up just now: “How could you have waited so long, it must have been a bitch while I was gone” (I’d always thought the “it” was actually “you” which means the song isn’t as nasty as I ‘d always thought).  So, it’s sort of like The Odyssey, then.  But musically the song is just phenomenal: a great guitar riff over simple bass notes and a staggering guitar solo.

The disc ends with the outstanding “Black Diamond.”  There’s so much to love about this song.  It’s a gritty tale about life on the streets.  It opens with a pretty acoustic guitar ballad sung by Paul.  Then, after the awesome “Hit it!” the song kicks in powerfully.  Peter takes over vocals, and his rough voice works perfectly.  It’s only five minutes long, but it feels like a great epic track.  No the least of which is because the song ends with a cool concept: a single note, punctuated with drums, that is slowed down (from the original taped master), getting slower and slower making the notes sound heavier and heavier, slower and slower.  You can even hear the drum riff played at a by-now snail pace.  It’s very cool.

This is really a great album, and it’s somewhat overshadowed by their mid 70’s more famous music.  And if you like 70s rock but don’t think you like Kiss, this is one disc you can sneak into your collection.

[READ: December 20, 2009] The New Sins

I’m not entirely sure what to make of this.  I bought it from McSweeney’s in their attic sale for a couple of bucks.  David Byrne is Talking Heads David Byrne, so everything he makes is arty, avant garde and hard to fathom on a first listen/view.  But I’m unlikely to read this again, so he gets a cursory attempt here.

The New Sins purports to be a collection of what the “new” sins are.  It’s also written as if it were an ancient text that was recently uncovered and translated into English (although obviously, the word choices are laughably not ancient (web design, for instance).  Basically, what you get is a list of behaviors that until recently were not sins but which are now.  The odd thing about the book is that the sins are not an obvious parody of virtues or anything like that.  He doesn’t just say that kindness is a sin, he adds that ambition is a sin as well.  So it’s not even simple inversion.

As such, it comes off as parts criticism, humor, and misanthropy.  I’m not sure how effective it is at any of them.  There are a few dry funny things, but the interesting thing is that the book is designed as a pocket Bible.  Its cover looks like one, and inside it has red words and lots and lots of pictures (that I believe Byrne took, and Dave Eggers had a hand with).  That led me to think it would be a direct Bible joke.  But it isn’t.  It’s a peculiar work, to be sure.

It’s also bilingual.  That’s right, flip it over and read it the other way and it is all in Spanish.  (I did a very loose translation of a few pages and it is a legitimate translation, not a funny or silly one or anything).  But the pictures that fill the book (and which “accompany” the text) are different in the English and Spanish sides.

And it’s really short too.  About 100 pages per side with a picture on every other page.

I’ve no idea who the target market for this was. I’ve resisted a lot of Byrne’s print work because it seemed like it would be just like this.  So, at least I confirmed my suspicion.

SOUNDTRACK: BLACK SABBATH-Sabotage (1975).

Sabotage seems to be somewhat forgotten (maybe because of the creepy cover art 0f Ozzy in a kimono and fascinating platform shoes, Bill Ward in red tights with a codpiece (and visible underwear on the back cover), and Geezer and Tony’s mustaches).
But this album rocks pretty hard and heavy.
“Hole in the Sky” is a sort of spastic rocker with Ozzy screaming vocals over the top of the rocking track.
“Don’t Start (Too Late)” is the by now obligatory acoustic guitar piece.  But this one is different, for it has some really wild and unpredictable aspects to it.

“Symptom of the Universe” is another classic Sabbath track, a blistering heavy fast riff with the wonderful Ozzy-screamed: “Yeaaaaaahs!”  It then surprises you by going into an extended acoustic guitar workout for a minute and a half at the end.

“Megalomania” is a slow ponderous piece. Unlike the psychedelic tracks from the previous records, this one moves along with a solid back beat. It also has a great bridge (“Why doesn’t everybody leave me alone?”). They definitely had fun with the effects (echoing vocals, etc.) on this one.  And, like their prog rock forebears, this song segues into another rhythm altogether when we get the wonderfully fast rock segment.  And the humorous point where the music pauses and Ozzy shouts “Suck me!”

“Thrill of it All” is a pretty good rocker, which after a  pretty simple opening morphs into a slow, surprisingly keyboard-fueled insanely catchy coda.  “Supertzar” is a wonderfully creepy instrumental.  It runs 3 minutes and is all minor-keys and creepy Exorcist-like choirs.  When the song breaks and the bizzaro Iommi riff is joined by the choir, you can’t help but wonder why no horror film has used this as its intro music.

“Am I Going Insane (Radio)” is a very catchy keyboardy track.  It clearly has crossover potential (although the lyrics are wonderfully bizarre).  But it ends with totally creepy laughing and then wailing.    “The Writ” ends the album. It’s another solid rocker and it ends with an acoustic coda with Ozzy’s plaintive vocals riding over the top.

Sabotage has some truly excellent moments.  It’s just hard to fathom the amount of prog-rock tendencies they’ve been throwing onto their last few discs (we’ll say Rick Wakeman had something to do with it).

Black Sabbath made two more albums before Ozzy left.  I haven’t listened to either one of them in probably fifteen years.  And my recollection of them is that they’re both pretty lousy.  Maybe one of these days I’ll see if they prove me wrong.

[READ: December 16, 2009] McSweeney’s #7

This was the first McSweeney’s edition that I didn’t buy new.  My subscription ran out after Issue #6 and I never saw #7  in the stores.  So, I recently had to resort to a used copy.

This issue came packaged with a cardboard cover, wrapped with a large elastic band.

Inside you get several small volumes each with its own story (this style hearkens back to McSweeney’s #4, but the presentation is quite different).  7 of the 9 booklets feature an artistic cover that relates to the story but is done by another artist (not sure if they were done FOR the story or not).  I have scanned all of the covers.  You can click on each one to see a larger picture.

The booklets range from 16 to 100 pages, but most are around 30 pages.  They are almost all fiction, except for the excerpt from William T. Vollman’s 3,500 page Rising Up and Rising Down and the essays that accompany the Allan Seager short story.

KEVIN BROCKMEIER-”The Ceiling” [cover by Eric White]
The basic plot of this story is quite simple: a large black square appears in the sky one day.  Slowly it sinks towards the earth, growing larger and larger.  Despite the somewhat Stephen King-like nature of the premise, the story is really all about how people live their lives: specifically, how one man’s family acts during this crisis.  I enjoyed the story quite a bit.

However, I was confused by the beginning.  The opening scene is at the son’s  birthday party.  There’s a lot of detail given, but it doesn’t seem to have much to do with the rest of the story.  It begins with the son telling a fictional tale about himself in a hot air balloon with the father noting, on a separate line: “This is a story.”

It seemed like this was all a set up for something special.  And I’m just not sure how that ties together with the rest of the story.  But I’m not too worried about it as I enjoyed the piece as a whole.

ANN CUMMINS-”Red Ant House” [cover by Tim Bower]
I really enjoyed Cummins’ story in McSweeney’s #6, so I was excited to read this one.  The red ant house is a house down the block that is infested with red ants.  A new family moves into the house and the daughter of that family immediately latches on to the narrator of the story, Leigh.  Leigh is one of 6 kids whose mother is pregnant again.

The new girl, Theresa Mooney, lives with a man who is not her father and a woman who is her mother.  The man seems to have families all over the place.  None of this is good news for Theresa Mooney, especially when Leigh and her siblings decide to point it out to her.  Despite her best intentions however, Leigh and Theresa become friendly, and their bonding is complete when they dare each other to do something risky.

This story didn’t blow me away as much as the previous one, but there was something oddly affecting about it.

A.M. HOMES-”Do Not Disturb” [cover by Melinda Beck]
This is a very prickly story.  It can easily be summed up by the exchange: “You knew I was a bitch before you married me, say something original.”  In the story, a man and his wife are quite obviously falling apart (as individuals and as a couple).  Before the evening’s events, the couple had yet another huge fight.  And he thinks, yet again, of leaving her.  But that night, during dinner, she becomes gravely ill.

Since she is a doctor, she is reluctant to go to the ER, but after several hours of agony, she relents.  She is diagnosed with cancer.  But this diagnosis, rather than softening her, as everyone suspects, just makes her more prickly, more demanding, even less compassionate.  But he can’t leave a cancer-riddled wife can he?  Even if she pushes him out?  This was a very dark story, but it was very powerful.  And, as with all of A.M. Homes work that I’ve read, it was very good.

MICHAEL CHABON-”The Return of the Amazing Cavalieri” [front & back covers by Chris Ware]
I loved The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay when I read it a few years ago.  I was delighted to discover that this story (the cover art suggests it is an “Un-Told Tale of Kavalier and Clay”) was included here.  Sadly for me, I don’t remember too many details of the novel (it was like ten years ago, right?).  Happily for me, they are not relevant to this story.

This piece concerns Cavalieri himself.  He is walking to school with his nephew and the fear and dread he had during grammar school is rushing back at him.  Cavalieri’s nephew has promised his class that The Amazing Kavalier will perform some magic tricks (maybe even escape from a safe!) for Sharing Time.  Cavalieri susses up the class and decides that they are at the perfect age to be simply skeptical.  He grows more nervous as Sharing Time approaches.

He proceeds to perform his simple tricks, but when he suspects that the kids are not all that impressed, he attempts one grand feat.  I enjoyed this story immensely and it makes me want to re-read Kavalier and Clay (or at the very least Maps & Legends, which is sitting on my bedside right now).

The cover art by Chris Ware is, of course, fantastic.  The front cover is designed to look just like a comic book.  And the back cover is even more fun (in a sick and twisted way) as an ad for how much your life will suck if you have a baby.

HEIDI JULAVITS-”Little Little Big Man” [cover by Elizabeth Kairys]
This is, frankly, a bizarre story.  It involves a tiny man named Big who works for a rodeo.  And beyond that the story is full of what I can’t decide is fantasy, magical realism or just hallucinations.

Big becomes involved with a large woman who carries him over her shoulder (his face getting caught in her skirt ruffles as it bumps against her behind).  This part was very funny.

They become serious and settle down.  He grows unhappy and winds up spending a lot of his time climbing into her uterus to read the graffiti that her six children have written in there.

[Pause for people to digest that sentence].

So I’m not sure what to make of details like that.  There are questions of impotence, unfaithfulness and pseudo-bestiality.  And while I understand what happened plot-wise, arriving there was a very bizarre path.

J.T. LEROY-”Harold’s End” [cover by Sharon Leong]
Of course, now we know that J.T. Leroy is a fraud or a pseudonym depending on your opinion of the author’s stunt.  It makes it hard to read this for the first time without having the author’s reality impinging on the story.  I’m not sure if I would have been quite as cynical about the story if I didn’t know what I know about Leroy.  But I an inclined to think that I would have been at least suspicious of the details of the story anyhow.

The basic premise here is that a man approaches a group of kids on the street.  They are suspicious of him (is he a cop, a social worker, a john?), but when they see he is handing out free needles, they relent.  He singles out one boy and invites him back to his house, where they shoot heroin and hang out for an extended period of time.  A single event (that I will get to in a moment) happens which causes friction between them and the boy is asked to leave.

I was immediately suspicious of the story because the kids seem completely unreal.  I’m not even sure how old they are supposed to be.  They hang out on the curb but it’s unclear if they are trying to score drugs, if they are trying to score dates or what.  The only thing we know is that they all have pets (a rat, a pit bull and a boa constrictor)  hanging out with them.  And, the kids tell the man that all of their pets have pedigrees (in far more exacting detail than one might expect a kid to know).  The title of the story comes because the boy who the man brings home did not have a pet.  Along with the heroin, the man gives the boy a snail named Harold as a pet that he can take care of himself.

So, despite the fact that the man is in the role of chickenhawk for this young boy, nothing sexual ever happens between them, except for the event that causes the friction (which is wholly unexpected and really rather disgusting).  But it’s not even entirely apparent afterward why the man is upset (because it didn’t work? was he just embarrassed?).  The whole scene from start to finish seemed unbelievable.  Finally, as the story ends, we see the boy is too squeamish to clean out the snail’s poop, yet moments later he willingly dives into a dumpster (not to mention the disgusting scene above).  It just doesn’t add up.

The whole story rang false to me.  Maybe it was meant to be over the top; maybe it was meant to be surreally funny.  Maybe it was a hyperreal or fantasy look at kids on the street.  But I don’t think so.  It was just creepy.

COURTNEY ELDRIDGE-”The Former World Record Holder Settles Down” [cover by Katherine Streeter]
This is one of the longest stories that McSweeney’s has published.  It’s 75 pages.  And, what is so great about it is that it never feels like a long story.  And what’s even better is that the story goes through many twists and turns to end up in a sad but interesting place.

I loved the fact that the story begins by talking about the narrators’ husband.  And he is a bowling dork.  He loves bowling, he bowls all the time, and he has even gotten the narrator–a hipster New York woman who only thought of bowling ironically–to enjoy bowling.  As well as other sports, too.  He gets her to watch and enjoy baseball (and she develops a mad crush on Don Zimmer (!)).

But back to bowling.  Her husband, Joel, gets very mad at himself if he doesn’t bowl well.  And his mood stays dark for quite some time.

But.  He’s not the titular record holder.  The world record of the title comes as a complete shock (and I won’t reveal it).  But once we learn of the record, everything in the story changes (except they still love bowling).

As the story progresses, we learn more and more about the narrator and how much her father’s disappearance had affected her.  And how much she hates to talk about her past.  And how much she loves her husband for not pushing things about her past.  Until he does.  And then things comes to a head.

There’s so much going on in this story, and it all starts so simply as a bowling tale.   It was a great, great story.

WILLIAM T. VOLLMAN-”The Old Man:  A Case Study from Rising Up and Rising Down“
This is a 100-page excerpt from Vollman’s 3,500 page study of violence called Rising Up and Rising Down (which I will never read).  This excerpt is a case study, written in 1995 and concerns Muslim terrorists in Thailand.

The excerpt reads like a real-life version of Apocalypse Now.  Vollman is in Thailand trying to get an interview with The Old Man, the reputed head of PULO, the Pattani Unification Liberation Organization.  Vollman interviews (with his faithful translator D.) citizens of Thailand and Malaysia as well as political figures and former members of PULO.

The main problem I have with the excerpt is that the context is left out.  We never learn who D. is or how he met her.  And, we have no context for WHY he wants to do this.  He spends days and days negotiating with bureaucrats, thugs and taxi drivers only to ultimately end up right where he started from.  Is it all in aid of this book?  I’m not entirely sure.  I’m sure that the full text covers this, so it’s not really a compliant.  I just wish I had a little context  for this daunting piece.

As for the piece itself although it is a look at only one instance of violence, it is still fascinating to hear people involved in this organization (the quotes are direct in broken English, lending credence to the authenticity).  And it is fascinating to see the kind of security that this man, the head of a terrorist organization, has and yet doesn’t have (and the difficult in actually finding the man).  And to hear how much is hidden in plain sight about members of the organization is rather surprising.

No answers are forthcoming about the why’s of terrorism (maybe they are answered in the big book).  But Vollman is a dogged investigator and an excellent writer.  And although I don’t want to say I enjoyed the excerpt, I’m glad I read it.  (But I’m still not going to read the 3,500 page version).

ALLAN SEAGER-”This Town and Salamanca”
Seager is a once-revered writer whose work has largely gone out of print.  This booklet contains this short story as well as some commentary from others.  The three nonfiction essays attached add a lot of backstory, and certainly allow the reader to learn a lot more about his work and about Seager himself.

I didn’t think I would enjoy the story all that much.  They way it opened, I feared it was going to be a travelogue.  But as it progressed I found it really enjoyable and surprisingly deep.  The premise is that in his youth, John was a world traveler.  He built a boat and sailed to Cuba.  He joined the army to learn how to fly, and then he left the army and then he rejoined the army once again.  He learned to fence in Italy and France.  And then he returned from Salamanca to settle down in “this town.”

The story is really about the other residents of the town and how they more or less hung their hopes and dreams on his journeys, since none of them would ever leave the town.  They relish his stories when he returns and ask for as many details as they can get.  And his details are juicy and quite delightful.

But when he settles down in his home town, everyone is a little disappointed that their wanderer has stopped wandering.  It is a simple no-frills story, and was quite effective.

JOHN WARNER-”Allan Seager: An Introduction”
Warner provides a brief sketch of Seager’s life: his rise to fame as a short story writer (and the numerous places that have published his work: Esquire, The New Yorker, Playboy) and his eventual loss of recognition.  He also fills in details about his personal life (and health).

JOAN FRY-”Colorless in Limestone Caverns: a remembrance”
As a student, Fry set out to seduce Seager.  She was ultimately successful.  But their relationship proved to be a terrible hindrance to her creative writing (although she wound up being the impetus for one of Seager’s own stories).  She spent much of their time together trying to get away.  I actually found this true story to be slightly more compelling than Seager’s short story itself.

STEVEN CONNELLY-”Man is Born For Sorrow as the Sparks Fly Upwards: a remembrance”
Connelly was a student of Seager’s.  His essay here describes how autobiographical “This Town and Salamanca” is.  Seager also traveled the world and then settled down in his home town to write.  It also describes him as a wonderful teacher, who knew as much about James Joyce as anyone.  Seager was inspirational for Connelly as well as many other students.

~~

McSweeney’s #7 is another great collection of stories.  It was absolutely worth tracking it down.

My original post for this story is largely correct (aside from the fact that the first version I read was lacking the final four paragraphs!)  And so I’m posting it here, but I’ll make changes as necessary:

In the story, a man inflates a huge irregularly shaped balloon in Manhattan.  It takes up several city blocks and, in places, it rests against the skyscrapers.

And that’s it.

Well, not exactly.  The story is about people’s reactions to this enormous thing that takes up the entire sky but about which there is no explanation.  The narrator states that people might have felt better about it if it had an ad or a “message” on the side, but no, his balloon is just soothing earth tone colors.

The story doesn’t end, exactly.  It just sort of stops. [THAT WOULD BE WRONG!]  But the discussion of people and their attitudes and reactions is certainly interesting and says as much about the author as it does about the narrator.  Most critics agree that the story is something of a metaphor for his own art, and that is pretty obvious to see.

Okay, so as I noted, a man inflates a balloon in New York City.  He does it in the middle of the night so when people wake up the balloon is just there, with no explanation.  And it is a large balloon, taking up many many streets.  It reaches up to building tops and kids play on and under the balloon.  But mostly people seem to wonder about it.

One thing I enjoyed about the story is the absolutely innocent nature of it.  I was trying to imagine such a thing as this story happening in 2009, and realizing that you could never do it.  You could never even propose a balloon aloft in the city with no explanation.  Security would be way too intense, and people simply wouldn’t stand for the mystery.

But in 1968, this premise (even if absurd) is delightful.

Now that I have actually finished the story (and yes, I’m still annoyed that this version online was incomplete but somehow passed off as a complete story) my opinion of the ending is radically different.  It doesn’t “just stop.”  In fact, we (the readers) learn why the balloon was inflated (although the citizens of New York do not).  The narrator inflated the balloon for twenty-two days because his beloved was away.  And such a charming and surprisingly sentimental reason is delightful given the analytical nature of the bulk of the story.

This now being my third reading of the story, I find it very engaging.  And I can easily see why it is considered one of his best.

SOUNDTRACK: KATE BUSH-Aerial (2005).

This was Kate’s first release in 12 years!  There’s a part of me that would expect unparalleled genius to emerge from a 12 year hiatus, but realistically, what we get is a more mature and confident singer, and songs that sound very much like Kate Bush songs. There’s not a lot of experimentation, although there is a song cycle (two in fact) to hold the disc together.

The first disc (for there are two, totaling about 80 minutes) is listed as “A Sea of Honey”

It opens with “King of the Mountain” a great upbeat single.  Next is “Pi” a fascinating song in which Kate sings out the decimal places of Pi (3.14…).  It’s airy and ethereal, and pretty neat.  “Bertie” is an adorable ode to what I assume is her son. It’s a very sweet love song to a child.

“Mrs Bartolozzi” opens with a piano sequence that sounds very uncomfortably close to a Phil Collins.  And, later in the sings she sings a “sloshy sloshy” part which is pretty odd.  But despite all of this, the song is closest to the Kate of old.

“How to be Invisible” has some really cool choral effects (and is a very neat concept lyrically).  It also features a very nice guitar line that sneaks out of the musical tapestry from time to time.  “Joanni” rocks in Kate’s inimitable way (and it’s about Joan of Arc).  It has also got some fun and funny parts the reflect the Kate of old (screaming vocals way down in the mix and “Mmm Hmms” that are kind of silly).  The disc ends with the gorgeous ballad “A Coral Room.”

The second disc “A Sky of Honey” is more of a complete song cycle (It starts with a Prelude AND a Prologue).  There’s a couple of short songs (90 seconds each) thrown in the middle.  My favorite is the final track, “Aerial” which has a cool dance rhythm (that seems so unlike Kate) which propels the song almost magically.

Overall, this disc doesn’t overwhelm me as much as say Hounds of Love, but it’s a really solid disc and I’ve found myself listening to and enjoying it a lot over the last few weeks.  It’s nice to have Kate back.  I wonder how long it will be for her next disc.

[READ: November 27, 2009] Unspeakable Practices Unnatural Acts

After reading (the incomplete) “The Balloon” (see the post), I decided to give the entire collection a spin.  I didn’t really enjoy the short stories I had read in Harper’s, but I did enjoy “The Balloon,” so I thought it would be worth investigating Barthleme (a little) further.

This collection is a mix of utterly absurdist stories (many of which seem to have multiple vantage points that I found rather difficult to keep track of ).  One of the most noteworthy things about the collection is that it seems to me to be very topical circa 1968.  And I think I’m missing a lot of what is happening in the stories.   I’ll cite examples below, but oftentimes I assume that I’m just not getting something that I should be getting

The opening story “The Indian Uprising” was one of those stories.  The premise seemed pretty enjoyable: a modern city is attacked by Comanche Indians, and I understood that part, but I don’t know where it went from there.  Characters came in, points of view changed, I’m not even sure what happened.  I probably wouldn’t have read the whole collection if I had started with this one.

“The Balloon” I’m going to give its own post to make up for the previous one.

“This Newspaper Here” is another weird one (okay they’re all weird) in which the narrator (a dirty old man) repeats phrases (“The little girl come along come along dancing doggedly…”).  It gets rather dark and is actually amusing in its darkness.

“Robert Kennedy Saved from Drowning” is a series of sections with their own titles (“K. at His Desk,” “K Reading the Newspaper” etc).  I’m not sure if Kennedy was alive when this story was written, so I’m not exactly sure what to make of it.  This 1968-era work is especially tough for me to pin down because there was so much going on culturally but since he’s in the middle of it, I’m not sure if there’s a side point or a specific point or if he’s just reflecting the craziness at hand.

“Report” was one of my favorite pieces.  It was a much more straightforward, wonderfully observant anti-war piece. And it ends with a great punchline (even though it’s not funny).

“The Dolt” was also great.  In it, a man is planning to take (for the third time) the National Writers Examination, which will (apparently) guarantee him a job as a writer (which is funny in and of itself).  His wife is beleaguered by his failures at this test, but when he finally reads what he has written, she gets turned on by his proficiency.  Good stuff.

“The Police Band” was also rather fun. I suspect there is a lot more at work that what a surface reading would propose, but then again, this may be another circa 1968 political story that I’m just not getting the full impact of.  Nevertheless, the premise, that the police have a band, a musical band, that lies in wait ready to be called into action in the event of an emergency was quite delightful.

“Edward and Pia” and “A Few Moments of Sleeping and Waking” both follow Edward and Pia. I found the first one to be a weird jumble of misunderstandings and deliberate confusions.  The second story was a bit more fun as a third character is introduced and dream analysis is proposed.  Pia reveals secrets about herself but then invents things too.  A dysfunctional relationship if ever there was.

“Can We Talk” is one of those stories where I enjoy the language (“he tickled the [door]bell”) but which elude me when I try to see the whole story.

“Game” was wonderful.  Two men in an absurd situation (and how many stories/movies/TV shows have used this premise since then) try to deal with each others’ neuroses.  These two men are placed in charge of a very important job.  But when the short tenure of their job is extended indefinitely, their facades begin to crack.  The way the story is written, it seems that neither man is aware of the other’s secrets but clearly they are, or are they?  An enjoyable descent into madness.

“Alice” is a story with no punctuation  it is a rumination about Alice whom the narrator wants to fornicate   but the lack of punctuation while liberating makes you work extra hard for this story which is ultimately just about a man who wants to sleep with another man’s wife

“A Picture History of the War” I found kind of annoying. Military stories are usually lost on me as I know virtually nothing about the military at all.  This one has amusing repetitions of the same passage as a man relates his story to different people.  Ultimately, I felt the story dragged too much.

“The President” was a weird little story (and the first one I read in the collection).  The narrator is not altogether sympathetic to the new president.  I couldn’t help read this in terms of our new president, which didn’t help matters.  It’s funny, though, how the story about the President ultimately hangs on a woman who sings at a party.

See the Moon?” is a fascinatingly odd story about lunar hostility.  This story also seemed a little too long.

And that is one of the basic things I noted about Barthelme: the shorter the story, the more I enjoyed it.  He seems to edit himself much more efficiently when he writes less than 10 pages.

This collection is definitely not for everyone.  You need an affinity for the absurd to enjoy this work.  Even the most straightforward stories are a bit off-center.  I also found myself being less impressed by his work than I likely would have been if I read it 40 years ago.  His work is described as groundbreaking.  And, I assume that that is true.  But now, 40 years later, a lot of the things he likely invented have been done by others.  And probably by others that I have read.  So, it doesn’t seem that exciting. And that is one of the problems of reading a work so much later than it was written.

Havign said all of that, I think I have gotten my fill of Barthelme, and I doubt I’ll read anything else by him.

Many many years ago, I discovered Might magazine.  It was a funny, silly magazine that spoofed everything (but had a serious backbone, too).  (You can order back issues here).  And so, I subscribed around issue 13.  When the magazine folded (with issue 16–and you can read a little bit about that in the intro to Shiny Adidas Track Suits) it somehow morphed into McSweeney’s, and much of the creative team behind Might went with them.

The early volumes (1-5 are reviewed in these pages, and the rest will come one of these days) are a more literary enterprise than Might was.  There’s still a lot of the same humor (and a lot of silliness), but there are also lengthy non-fiction pieces.  The big difference is that McSweeney’s was bound as a softcover book rather than as a magazine. And, I guess technically it is called Timothy McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern as opposed to Timothy McSweeney’s Internet Tendency.

Issue #6 came with a CD of music by They Might Be Giants.  And from then on it was anybody’s guess what the next issue would look like.  (This Wikipedia page provides a nice summary of all of the issues that have been published, including authors).

The latest issue (#33) is being printed as a newspaper (just to give an idea of the diversity of product here).

The books (for most of them are books, despite the above newspaper) come out occasionally.  I gather it was supposed to be a quarterly, but I don’t know that they’ve ever really kept a schedule. Many of the books are hardcover (beautifully bound).  Some have been paperbacks.  Occasionally they come in a fancy packaging (boxes, slipcases etc). You never know what you’re going to get, which is a lot of the fun.

Although you do know that you’re going to get quality short stories.  The list of fantastic (and well-known) authors grows and grows. (Just a few: Michael Chabon, Stephen King, David Foster Wallace, George Saunders, Roddy Doyle, A.M. Homes, and Joyce Carol Oates.)  And mixed in with them are less well known (ie. more indie) authors, as well as occasional unknowns.  And even if I don’t love every story, I know that they’ll all be worth a read.

McSweeney’s itself has grown from a publisher of this quarterly to include an empire that publishes books (their book of the month club is the way to go), an official periodical (The Believer), and a video magazine (Wholphin).

I am probably a little too steeped in McSweeney’s-world, but I’ve never been disappointed with a release of theirs (okay, that’s not true, they have published a few clunkers).  I’m always excited to get the box with the little chair as the return address.

And, of course, I began a Wikipedia page of all of the McSweeney’s Books. I’m delighted to see that folks have been adding to it!

Original mention in Periodicals Page:

McSweeney’s. Technically a periodical. A collection of short stories and things like it. I’m usually too overwhelmed by the time this comes in, and frankly, I am many many issues behind on reading this. However, I plowed through 21 and 22 recently, and just got 23. So, I’m looking forward to it and its brethren. I got turned onto McSweeney’s because I used to subscribe to MIGHT magazine (R.I.P) which was a hilarious magazine ala Spy (R.I.P). Might ran for a dozen or so issues and then strangely morphed into McSweeney’s. I think somehow my subscription ran over into McSweeney’s and the rest is 23 issues of fun!

SOUNDTRACK: TINDERSTICKS-The Hungry Saw (2008).

It was the releases of this Tindersticks disc (their first in 5 years) on the venerable Constellation Records (in North America) that inspired my trip through their back catalog. I was completely surprised to see them released on Constellation, as the band doesn’t exactly fit with the label’s stereotypical style (although, realistically with the last dozen or so releases, Constellation has really expanded the kind of music they release).

And this is a fantastic Tindersticks release!  There’s not a bad song on the disc. And, even though nothing is as immediately gripping as say “Can We Start Again,” the disc contains some of the band’s strongest songs.  “The Hungry Saw” is simply amazing, both lyrically and in its catchy (yet creepy) chorus.  But the highlight is probably “Boobar, Come Back to Me,” a song that begins slowly and builds gloriously, including a call and response segment that makes this song really swagger.

“Mother Dear” features a strangely comical musical episode.  In an otherwise very mellow piano based track, right in the middle of the song, come slashing, somewhat atonal guitar chords.  It’s as if a more rocking song is trying to overtake the mellow track.  (The coup is rebuffed, though).

The biggest thing to note about the disc is that longtime co-songwriter Dickon has left the band.  And so, some of the co-writing duties have been taken up by David Boulter.  While it is obviously sad that Dickon has left, Staples seems revitalized on this disc, and Boulter’s additions (especially his quirky instrumentals) bring a new point of view to the proceedings.  Also of note is something of a return to the orchestral style (albeit a much more understated version).  However, different songs emphasize different aspects: horns on one, strings on another, but always underscored by the ubiquitous Hammond organ.

It’s not a radical departure or anything like that.  It’s more of a continuation after a well earned vacation.  And it’s certainly their strongest release since their first four.

[READ & WATCHED: October 2009] Souvenir of Canada, Souvenir of Canada 2 & Souvenir of Canada (the movie)

I got the first Souvenir of Canada when it came out.  (I was on a big Coupland kick and may have even bought it in Montreal).  I didn’t get #2 when it came out, probably because I didn’t really invest a lot of effort into the first one.  But after recently reading City of Glass, I wanted to get a little more involved in Coupland’s visual art.  So, I picked up #2 and, while investigating this second book, I discovered that he had made a film of the books, too.

Coupland explains in the introduction that this book is his personal vision of what Canada is like. It is designed for Canadians as something of a nostalgia trip, but it is also something of an introduction to unseen Canada for non-Canadians.  And so, what you don’t get is pictures of mounties and Tim Hortons and other things that fit the stereotypical Canadian bill. Rather, you get things that are significant to Coupland (and maybe the average Canadian born on the West Coast in the 60s).

He begins with Baffin Island and moves more or less alphabetically through significant things in his Canadian existence: chimo (the short lived Canadian greeting), wonderfully aggressive anti smoking ads on packs of smokes, the Group of Seven, Inuksuit rock statues (like on the cover of this Rush album), the maple leaf (the flag’s only been around since 1967), ookpik, Poutine, stubbies, Trans-Canada highway, through to Zed.

Coupland give s brief paragraph or two (or more in some cases) about the item/idea/concept and how it related to his life.  It certainly provides an insight into a culture that is often hidden in plain sight (especially to Americans).

I especially enjoyed learning about Capitaine Crounche.

Pictures feature heavily in the book.  There are a lot of stock photos of various Canadian items.  And there are a lot of photos that Coupland has used by permission to enhance his descriptions.

Coupland has also created several “still lifes” which he finds to be quintessentially Canadian.  They feature elements from his childhood mashed together into a disconcerting yet oddly familiar scene. So there are beer bottles and electronic hockey games and Canada geese and all manner of things.  Although I have to say that I don’t find them very appealing as art.

The second book picks up where the previous one left off two years earlier.

The first book is more text heavy than the second.  This volume has a lot more photos (not original ones, more stock footage pictures, which I rather like).  It begins with some abstract ideas about Being Canadian, but moves steadily into the CMHC Houses (which will come into play for Canada House), the brilliant Robertson screwdriver, his mom’s kitchen (a favorite of mine), Terry Fox, Tranna (Toronto), Treeplanters , Y?? (airport designations…Toronto’s is YYZ, hey, like the Rush song!), through to Zut!

The Robertson Screwdriver looks like this. And it doesn't strip like a Phillips head.

This volume feels even more personal. He discusses the prevalence of Canada Geese (and that his family raised some when he was little).  There’s his mother’s kitchen and of course, Canada House.  Canada House was a project that DC undertook.  He found a CMHC house that was destined for destruction.  He was able to decorate it with his art to make it quintessential Canadian.  It is fascinating to see, and seems like it would have been quite cool to visit (for the two weeks it was in operation). The fact that he adds personal information about the experiment (people who visited and where they were from) is great.

As I said the pictures in the books are a lot of fun.  I loved the Eatson’s catalog from the 70s, and, of course, the shots from Canada House are wonderful.  DC also wrote a book about Terry Fox a couple of years after this, so the pages about him are quite moving.

This is a wonderful continuation of the series, and I think I wound up enjoying this volume more.

As far as I can tell the Souvenir of Canada DVD was recently reissued with this new cover (on the left).  I prefer the original cover (on the right) [or is that the U.S DVD release?].  I didn’t read about any real difference between the two editions, so I assume it is just repackaged.

The DVD is something of a video version of the books, but there are many differences. The documentary doesn’t go through either book with a lot of detail.  It does mention a half or dozen or so entries, and there may even be some quotes from the books.  For the most part, it contains a few highlights from the books, but it goes off on its own tangents quite a bit.  The film also features music from the New Pornographers, so that’s nice too.

The first notable thing to me was Coupland’s voice.  I have never heard him speak before and it was absolutely nothing like what I expected (especially how slow his pace is).

The main focus of the DVD tends to fall on the aforementioned Canada House.  Even though the pictures of Canada House in the book are very cool, I felt like the book didn’t show enough of this cool exhibition.  The centerpiece of the film shows Coupland picking, tearing apart, cleaning up and assembling Canada House.  We get to see a lot of the things that he talks about it the book, but we get a more 360 degree Canada House experience.  It’s very interesting.

Like the books, the film is one man’s opinion of what Canada is.  What I like about it is that it is a very uncommerical (and I think very Vancouver-centric) opinion.  It also reflects back onto Coupland’s childhood (in the lat 60s/early 70s), and I learned more about him in a few moments than in all of the book jacket blurbs I’ve read.  It comes across as so much nostalgia.  But it clear that Coupland loves his home land.  And it’s that kind of passion that makes any art compelling.

As I said, I found a lot of his still lifes to be to random at best (he says you have to be Canadian to really appreciate them, but I think even aesthetically they’re a little blah).  But the standalone sculptures are all pretty cool.  He made some lamps out of fisherman’s floats (which are HUGE!).  But the most interesting items are the quilts.  He didn’t make them, but he designed them and they are all very cool. I especially liked the $1,000 quilt which is made of 1,000 loonie coins.

It was also interesting to learn that the Canada House exhibit was exported to London (the final line of the movie is hilarious).

So, which is the best of the three?  Obviously I think the film is the most fully formed and three-dimensional.  (The Canada House thing is very neat). But the books are also a lot of fun too.  Even if you’re not especially interested in Canada, if you enjoy seeing pop culture before it gets assimilated into corporate culture, this is a fun look at what Canada used to be like.  And, of course, Coupland’s writing is always engaging.