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.

SOUNDTRACK: The Believer July/August 2009 Music Issue Compilation CD: “Fantastic and Spectacular” (2009).

After the globe-spanning CD in last year’s issue, the 2009 Believer CD returns to the dominant musical style of the first few.  This disc is a collection of unreleased, acoustic songs from the editors’ favorite singer-songwriters.

And, wow, check out the bands that are represented here: Sam Phillips, The Clean, The Waterboys, Lloyd Cole, Young Marble Giants, The English Beat, Lisa Germano, Unrest, Suddenly, Tammy!, The Lilac Time and Mary Margaret O’Hara.  It’s an amazing collection of artists who agreed to release these songs only to this Believer compilation.

The liner notes ask a few questions of each artist so you get a nice peek into their working styles.  And for a few of them you find out what they’ve been up to for the last few years.  Although, sadly Mary Margaret O’Hara (sister of actress Catherine O’Hara!) only mentions that you can get a copy of her only released album Miss America directly from her.  And since I thin it’s a great album, I’ll pass along her email for ordering purposes only: m2oh8 @ hotmail.com.

So, what do we get in this collection?  Sam Phillips provides a fantastic drum-heavy, 90 second song.  Robert Scott’s song is a delightful, simple acoustic track.  I’ve always liked The Waterboys, but Mike Scott tends to go on and on, and this track is no exception.  It’s very very catchy but it’s over 10  minutes long!  The consistently excellent Lloyd Cole doesn’t disappoint.  Phil Wilson’s poppy number is very good.

I’m surprised that I don’t have any Young Marble Giants in my collection, and Stuart Moxham’s song here makes me want to see what I’m missing.  I swore that Dave Wakeling of The English Beat was Bob Mould on this song, but as soon as I saw who he was I recognized that English Beat voice in a more intimate setting.

Mark Robinson of Unrest also records as Cotton Candy, and this absurdly poppy ditty (the only duet on the disc) provides the title of the disc and one of the truly happiest moments. Except, of course, for Beth Sorrentino from Suddenly, Tammy! whose song “Such a Beautiful Day” is absolutely wonderful.  And if it is any indication of the greatness of Suddenly , Tammy!  then their absence from the msuicial scene is a real shame.

Stephen Duffy who records as Tin Tin and The Lilac Time writes songs that are instantly memorable and catchy as anything.  This one is no exception. And the Mary Margaret O’Hara song is not quite as out there as you might expect from her, but it’s really quite good.  I wonder what she has been up to for decades now.

There’s a secret bonus track from a brand new New Zealand band called Haunted Love.  When this issue went to print they were about to release their first EP, and this track doesn’t even appear on that (it’s THAT secret!).  It’s a great song and I hope good things come to them.  It is also not acoustic, but everyone can break their own rules once in a while right?

This is another string compilation from The Believer.  The track listing is here.

[READ: December 16, 2009] “Diary of an Interesting Year”

So this story is, indeed, a diary.  It is written in several entrees.  And, as we learn from the first entry, the diary itself was a gift to the writer from G. for her 30th birthday.  And, although we don’t learn it from the first entry, we quickly discover that global warming predictions were accurate and, basically the earth as we know it is no more.

But what I liked about the writing was that it revealed this global catastrophe somewhat subtly.

The first entry mentions that the diary was not wet when she received it (hmm), but it’s not until the third or fourth entry when she reveals that G., an environmental pessimist, is actually delighted at the catastrophe that he predicted would come sooner rather than later.  Although you don’t get a lot of details, it’s pretty clear what happened.

And so we get a post-apocalyptic diary of a woman not only struggling to survive, but also dealing with a horribly irritating man.  There’s really no hope for her or anyone else in the story, but they press on as things continue to get worse and worse.  A new stranger enters the scene, which can only mean more problems.  His way of dealing with the catastrophe is far more violent than her.  And she immediately hates him, but he provides a few things (like alcohol!) that were not available before.

Each entry adds more horror to her story.

I really liked the way the author concluded this story.  I mean, it more or less guaranteed that she would be writing herself into a corner: how many ways can a diary story end?  But her solution was quite clever, even if it doesn’t offer very much in the way of hope for the diarist.

It’s available here.

SOUNDTRACK: The Believer June 2004 Music Issue CD (2004).

Every year since 2004, The Believer magazine has published a Music Issue which comes with a CD.

I recently received the 2009 CD, but I thought it might be fun to go back through the previous ones and see what kind of music they put on them since the beginning.  I was delighted to see how many bands I like now that I was either introduced to or SHOULD have been introduced to by these discs.

The inaugural issue was a fantastic collection of then-underground alt-rock (the issue also featured interviews with a few of the artists–you can see the Colin Meloy interview here).

The collection contains all previously released songs (I think).  But for me it was a great introduction to a number of bands that I didn’t know: The Walkmen, The Mountain Goats, Ted Leo + Pharmacists.  It also contained a new release by a band I did know, The Constantines.   And, this was my introduction to a band that turned out to be one of my new favorites: Death Cab for Cutie.

There’s a lot of great songs on here, and it would make a great hanging-out-at-a-party-with-friends soundtrack.  There’s not a lot of diversity on the disc which is a bit of  a bummer (although it’s good for a mellow party).  However, the 19 second blast of “You Got the Right” by the Tiny Hawks does break things up a bit.

But with a great collection of songs it would be wrong to complain.  For a complete listing (and another review) check out this page.

[READ: December 9, 2009] “The Use of Poetry”

Ian McEwan writes fantastically engaging stories about relatively simple things, oftentimes relationships.  And he has these relationships so well sussed out that a simple six-page story like this can pack in a ton of humanity.

In a post some time ago I wrote about how World War II affected Britain much more than it affected the U.S.  And, how artists of a certain age have found great drama from the war.  This story is no exception.  Except that the war veteran is not the main character.  But I loved this summary of the main character’s dad, the typical “stoic British man.”

Like many men of his generation, he did not speak of his experiences and he relished the ordinariness of postwar life, its tranquil routines, its tidiness and rising material well-being, and above all, its lack of danger–everything that would later appear stifling to those born in the first years of the peace.

That’s an amazing encapsulation of a generation of men.  And it rings very true to me.  But what’s more amazing is that that description is not even about the main character Michael, it’s about his dad, Henry.

The main character, Michael Beard, is a young man coming of age around 1967.  We learn very telling details about his mother and father (and their ultimately loveless marriage).  And then we follow Michael as he moves to school to study Physics.  While in school he becomes aware of Maisie Farmer (such a wonderful name); she is stunningly beautiful and absolutely not interested in him.  Michael pursues her nonetheless.

In just a few short paragraphs we learn an awful lot about Michael.  He is quite confident in himself, yet he has a fear of arts students who seem so superior to him, so judgmental.  When he learns that Maisie is studying Milton, he decides to break out of his comfort zone and read some of Milton’s poems in a classic attempt to woo her.  And it works.  He soon finds himself reading more and more Milton to keep up (despite the fact that she is not learning Physics for him).

He finds Milton to be completely easy (even if he doesn’t like all of it), and this frees him up to no longer fear the arts students.  And with this weight lifted from his shoulders, it frees him in other areas too, and he begins to embrace aspects of the late 60’s counterculture.

The rest of the story follows the rise and ultimate decline of their relationship (no spoiler there, it says early on that he was thrice married).  Maisie loses interest in her schooling and becomes very interested in feminist theories.  She concludes that she cannot remain in the marriage with him.  And Michael’s reaction to this revelation was fantastic.

Ultimately, it is Michaels’ humanity that makes this story really special.  Watching him deal (however slowly) with a shocking revelation from his mother.  Watching him deal with his emotionally distant father, and of course, watching him seduce a woman with somewhat false pretenses but then realize how much it really affected him.

For a story where not a lot happens, it’s quite deep.

It’s available here.

SOUNDTRACK: BLACK SABBATH-Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (1974).

Henry Rollins, on Think Tank talks about the “el niño” storms from several years back.  And he says that el niño means “little boy,” but the damage the storms did means they should have called it something scary and powerful like “The First Four Black Sabbath Albums.”  I have to say that leaving out this fifth album is a great disservice to the power of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath.

“Sabbath Bloody Sabbath” opens the disc kicking and screaming with a wonderfully raw guitar riff.  Strangely, for such a powerful opening, it then segues into a very gentle almost loungey section (which hilariously, is the section where he screams “You bastard!”).  But when we hit three minutes, the song really catches fire.  The heavy pounding riff, the screaming vocals, the end of this song is astounding.  And it explains why this song is covered so much (Anthrax, The Cardiagns).

“A National Acrobat” follows with another great riff.  As the song progresses, the bridge section, rather than going more ballady turns a bit more psychedelic with some cool effects on the guitars, yet it maintains the heaviness of that great riff.  It ends with a rip-roaring guitar solo and speeding end.

“Fluff” has always been one of my favorite acoustic numbers.  It’s a very delicate acoustic guitar picking piece that builds in complexity as pianos are added over it.

“Sabbra Cadabra” is another great, fast rocker with a clever name.  This one is a love song, which seems weird, but it works.  Of course, here’s where the real weirdness kicks in: Rick Wakeman (yes, that Rick Wakeman) plays synths and pianos in the middle section.  What is totally fascinating about this, though, is that this keyboard-heavy section is not a ballad, it’s heavy guitar with a piano solo or psychedelic-wash feel.  It doesn’t detract from the heaviness of the song, but it introduces a weird almost Jethro Tull element to the proceedings.  It’s pretty cool.

The second side sees the band experimenting even more.

“Killing Yourself to Live” is  decent B-side rocker, that’s mostly a chance for Tony Iommi to play some wicked solos.  It also has several different parts to it (Sabbath is totally a prog rock band, eh?) and ends with a heavy boogie rock section.

After the fierce ending of “Killing,” we get another cameo from Rick Wakeman, who plays the bizarro-wah-wah’d keyboard intro of “Who Are You?”  This is probably the closest to a ballad that this album produces.  It’s slow, is propelled entirely by keyboards, features virtually no guitar or bass and has a delightfully pompous middle section with martial drumming and piano.  But the keybaords are thankfully weird enough to prevent this from turning into another crossover attempt.  And the lyrics are kind of dark and twisted .

“Looking for Today” brings the guitars back with what is probably a classic Sabbath sounding track.  It’s not amazing, but it’s a solid rocker that drifts into a crazy middle section chock full of acoustic guitars and, wait for it, flutes!  It ends with an upbeat coda that sounds not unlike some of the songs Ozzy would make on his later solo records.

“Spiral Architect” is a string laden track that gets a little  bogged down by the strings towards the end.  It has a cool weird riff that opens the song but by the end it’s almost entirely strings (and the heaviness is pretty much gone).  I’ve always liked this album so this doesn’t detract from my enjoyment of the song, but I have to assume that metal fans were a bit disappointed by this.

So Black Sabbath, despite being the godfathers of heavy metal were actually quite experimental in their day.  Even if the cover depicts a writhing figure on a bed that is labeled 666!

[READ: December 7, 2009] “All That”

I was delighted to get the email from The New Yorker today which notified me that this new issue had fiction from DFW!  What a nice surprise.  The problem is that it’s going to be maddening deciding whether this is an excerpt from The Pale King or some other unfinished piece or what.

I’ve learned from previous DFW pieces in The New Yorker not to assume that this is a short story.  Which is good.  Because as a short story it doesn’t have a very solid resolution.  However, I think it is one of his best pieces of (short) fiction in quite a while.

I don’t want to spend time speculating about where this piece belongs or even comparing it to the other excerpts from The Pale King.  But I can certainly see this character fitting in to a much longer narrative (and I rather hope that he is in The Pale King).

But enough of that.

This excerpt shows a character who admits he is neither an academic (like his father) nor very good with words.  He is trying to relate a time from his childhood.  Specifically, he talks about a cement mixer which he received when he was 5 or 6.  At this point I must disagree with the narrator when he says that “There are little boys who like trains and little boys who like vehicles–I liked the latter”).  My son likes both and often plays with both at the same time.  But I suppose that in theory that dichotomy could be true.

Anyhow, the point is that the narrator loved this cement mixer.  And one day, his mother told him that it was magical: she said the hopper, where the cement is kept, would spin when he dragged the truck by its rope.  But only when he wasn’t looking.  And so, he spent most of the next six months trying to “trick” the truck (which was nailed down and could never move) into revealing this magic trick.

While that’s a cute, if a little sad, story, the real power comes from the narrator’s analysis of his parents’ reason for telling him this and their anguish over watching their poor little boy try so hard to “see” something that didn’t exist.

It is this reflection about the narrator’s parents that is at the heart of this piece.  And it is quite a treat to read his warm recollections of his childhood (that seems so rare in literature).  The excerpt closes with a snapshot of father-son warmth which I thought was absolutely delightful.  (Yes, the story resonated with me quite a bit).

No doubt in the full story, this character will have some pretty rough times (I mean, who is he reciting this story too?  It’s got to be a counselor of some sort, right?  He says he’s going to go back and re-edit the story later), and that’s what makes for great drama. But I was pleasantly surprised at how well this story moved along without any real external conflict.

As I said, I hope this is an excerpt; I look forward to finding out more about the context for this character.

It’s available here,

SOUNDTRACK: BLACK SABBATH-Master of Reality (1971).

This album seems to have directly inspired more bands than any other Sabbath record.  There’s the band Masters of Reality (who I’ve never heard) and there’s the 1,000 Homo DJ’s EP and blistering cover for “Supernaut.”

This is one of my favorite Sabbath discs, even though, or maybe because there aren’t as many hits on it.  The story goes that since Tony Iommi had his fingertips cut off (!) he had to downtune his guitar so the strings would be looser and therefore less painful to play.  As such, this disc introduces a sort of “classic” Sabbath sludgy sound.  But even though this album doesn’t get a the airplay of Paranoid any metal fan knows a few of these songs.  “Sweet Leaf,” for instance, is quite well known.  It also makes me laugh because it is so clearly pro-drug (after all those anti-drug sings on the first two discs).  And of course, it opens with that great echoing cough (which I now assume is from someone toking up).

“After Forever” is one of those great Sabbath songs where Geezer Butler’s bass fills stand out throughout the bridges.  It also features one of Tony Iommi’s strangely “happy” sounding opening chords  The song itself is pretty dark but the chords are so upbeat!  The song has a lyric that I found shocking as a kid: “would you like to see the Pope on the end of a rope, do you think he’s a fool?”  And of course, the guitar solo flies wildly around your head from one speaker to the other.

“Embryo” is a strange middle eastern sounding 30 second instrumental that segues into the awesome “Children of the Grave.”  It’s one of those Sabbath songs that sounds menacing all the way through.  There’s a weird clicking sound in the verses that I assume is Geezer Butler’s de-tuned, incredibly loose bass strings slapping the fretboard.  And, of course, it ends with a wonderfully warped ghostly guitar feedback sounds and the whispered “Ch ch ch ch children.”

The second half of the disc is quite different from the first.  “Orchid” is a delightful 90 second acoustic guitar workout.  And it segues into “Lord of This World” a real rock and roll sounding song (featuring some great Ozzy screaming).  “Solitude” is like “Planet Caravan” from Paranoid, in that it’s a slow, trippy psychedelic sense (is it possible that Sabbath didn’t know that they were a metal band?).

Finally comes “Into the Void.”  This was one of the first songs I’d ever learned on guitar.  My guitar teacher liked the down-tuned low E string aspect of it, and I still enjoy playing it today.

As my friend Andrew pointed out the other day, John Darnelle from the Mountain Goats has written a 33 1/3 book about Master of Reality.  While I haven’t read it yet, Darnelle is pretty cool, so I assume it’s a great read if you like this disc.

[READ: November 30, 2009] “Loggerheads”

Not every David Sedaris piece is funny.  We know he’s not a comedian, per se, although he is certainly a humorous writer.  We also know that some Sedaris pieces are kind of disgusting.  He tends to delight in the grotesque.  However, in this piece he combines the disgusting with the non-humorous to create a very unsatisfying piece.

As it opens, we see Sedaris snorkeling and getting lovingly nudged by a giant turtle. The image of him swimming at all is pretty funny but imagining him interacting with nature is almost impossible.  He then talks about being in a jungle and getting bumped into by a monkey.  This reminded me of my honeymoon where at the place we stayed there were monkeys in the trees, which was pretty wild and exciting.

So, that’s all well and good.  But then the story devolves into an extremely unpleasant tale of a young Sedaris and friend systematically killing wild life.  Not in a murderous rampaging way, but in a stupid-kid, neglect-them-until-they-starve-to-death way.  And there’s really no satisfying ending for all of that.

He is, of course, regretful about that behavior, and justifiably cranky that his parents didn’t assist, but still, who wants to read about that?  So now instead of thinking of Sedaris as blithely going through life as a snarky gay man, my image is tempered with him as an animal killer.  And I didn’t even get a chuckle at the end.

SOUNDTRACK: BLACK SABBATH-Black Sabbath (1970).

I’ve talked about Black Sabbath quite a bit, so why not take a look at their records directly?

One of the fun surprises about their first disc is the stereo mix (although it was 1970, so maybe one shouldn’t be surprised).  Guitar in one ear, bass in the other and sometimes only a guitar solo in one ear with nothing else going on!  The other surprise is that even though Tony Iommi’s guitar is on fire and he has huge lengthy guitar solos (the one in “Warning” is like 8 minutes long), the other members, especially the drums, really come to the fore.

What can one says about the title track?  The opening thunderstorm (with creepy bell tolling) sets the mood perfectly and then the killer riff kicks in and Ozzy Osbourne’s weird, loud, somewhat whiny and frighteningly frightened voice asks “What is this that stands before me?”  It’s a slow song, especially for one that spawned a genre of fast heavy metal, but it sense of ominousness is tangible.

“The Wizard” undermines everything you think you know about heavy metal since it begins with a harmonica.  However, it is a pretty creepy harmonica, and the melody is certainly spooky.  What’s so fascinating about the song is the drums.  While the whole band plays the somewhat odd riff, the drums have a huge place of prominence in the song, with little snare drum solos after each line (and a prominent cowbell at one point).  There are some wild guitar solos, but you wouldn’t be crazy thinking that this was the  drummer’s band.

The next song is listed as four songs: “Wasp/Behind the Wall of Sleep/Bassically/N.I.B.”  “Wasp” is a short, fairly upbeat instrumental, but “Behind the Wall of Sleep” is where the words kick in.  It’s a pretty explicitly anti-drug song (“turns your body to a corpse”).  And I’m fairly certain there are two vocal tracks, one in each ear.  “Bassically” is the wild bass solo (again, taking away the dominance from the lead guitar). Which leads to “N.I.B”., one of the great, classic Sabbath songs.  An awesome bass riff that propels the song to its climax of “My name is Lucifer please take my hand.”  Although it also features a strangely plaintive refrain of “Your love for me has just got to be real.”

“Wicked World” comes in a little preachy and kind of out of place.  But mostly because it’s got a strangely jazzy feel. It’s not out of the ordinary in concept, it’s just a little less subtle than some of the other tracks.

“A Bit of Finger/Sleeping Village/Warning” is the ending trio of tracks (14 minutes in all) that are really hard to distinguish.  “A Bit of Finger” is a very short acoustic guitar solo (I assume, I mean, the “Sleeping Village” lyrics kick in pretty quickly). But I love that there’s a Jew’s harp in the background.  Then there’s a crazily long guitar solo.  Or, should I say there are two guitar solos: a different one in each ear.  I think that the solo is part of “Warning” (it’s the same melody after all) but who can tell.  “Warning” is another fantastic Sabbath song.  The bass line is great and Ozzy sings one of his oddly plaintive songs of loss: (“the feelings were a little bit too strong”).  But the middle section is an astonishingly long guitar solo, or should I say solos. This solo even stops at one point and he comes out with a whole new melody/solo after that.  And then another solo.  Most of the soloing is in the right ear, which leaves the left ear struggling in vain to hear what’s going on (it’s fun to listen with just the left ear phone in).  With about a minute to go, the song proper returns.  It’s pretty bizarre.  And maybe that’s when Tony Iommi’s ego was placated.

Despite this being one of the first really heavy albums, it still retains a bluesy/jam feel to it.  The songs are long, there’s wild freewheeling guitar solos, and the sound itself isn’t a constant bludgeoning (like later heavy metal), it comes in bursts, which somehow makes it more ominous!

It’s really tremendous.

[READ: November 27, 2009] “Midnight in Dostoevsky”

Although I don’t know where this story is set exactly, I can totally picture the scene.  And I am superimposing it directly onto a location from where I went to college.  I realize that’s totally wrong, but I couldn’t resist.  This story had very weird overtones to me and actually inspired me to want to write a story that has apparently been percolating in my head for years.  We’ll see about that.

Anyhow, as for the story itself, I confirmed my suspicion that DeLillo doesn’t write short stories too often.  According to his Wikipedia site, he wrote one short story in 2002, another in 2007 and then this one.

DeLillo is a postmodern master, which leads one to think that his stories will be convoluted and difficult.  But this story is pretty straightforward.  Two college kids, walking around on a cold winter day spot an old man walking toward them.  They create a backstory for the man and, in the end, attempt to confirm or deny what they have concocted.  Fairly straightforward.

But as with any great story, the real action happens in the characters’ heads, or in this case, in the narrator’s mind and his spoken dialogue with his compatriot.

The two boys are college students and they spend most of their time arguing.  But it’s a friendly, competitive arguing, with each one trying to best the other.  When they first see the old man walking down the street, he appears almost as an apparition; he’s practically unreal. When the boys witness him walking around town a few more times, they begin creating the man’s history.  They even have a fantastic argument about what kind of coat the man is wearing (parka or anorak).

What fills out the story is the narrator’s academic life.  He is taking a class with a wonderfully bizarre professor named Ilgauskas (clearly skimmed from the best quirks of DeLillo’s college profs).  Ilgauskas is a name that is crazily close to a college friend of mine, so there’s another reason why this story rings so close to me.  The one thing that saves the class is the beautiful woman that he sits opposite.  After class one day he accosts her about the professor (clearly hoping to get an inroad into her life).  But when she reveals that she has seen Ilgauskas off campus, at a diner (!), reading Dostoevsky (!!), well, the narrator becomes even more obsessed with the professor.

The stories of the professor and the old man collide in a fascinating way (even if only in theory).  And the friends’ argument continues until the very end.

I’m not entirely pleased with the way the story ended.  The last line was a great redemption, but I felt like the story went in a much darker direction than I wanted it to.  But hey, it’s not MY story.

As I said, I really enjoyed the story.  It was strangely meaningful to me.  I have been intending to read more DeLillo (I’ve only read Underworld), and this is inspiring me to do so.

It’s available here.

SOUNDTRACK: SONIC-YOUTH-the eternal (2009).

It was the release of this disc that inspired me to see what they’ve been up to since the 80s.  And, sometimes it’s really fun to root through a band’s back catalog to see what kind of progression they’ve made over the years.

There are three things that set this disc apart from  many other SY discs.

The first is the dual/harmonized vocals. I don’t recall ever hearing Thurston and Kim split vocals duties in a song before, least of which in a half-line by half-line way.  There’s also some points where they sing (sort of) harmonies.  It’s a really interesting addition to their sounds.

The second is the staccato playing.  In the past I’ve always felt like SY ’s sounds flowed over everything (even if it was noise, it was a continuous wash of noise).  On The Eternal, there’s three or four songs where the band plays a chug chug chug chug rhythm (with everyone playing along).  It’s most notable in “Anti-Orgasm,” where the chug chug part is accompanied by Thurston and Kim chanting uh uh uh on every beat.

The third is the bass.  The band has added Pavement bassist Mark Ibold to their lineup.  And as far as I can tell he does things on bass that Kim never did.  He seems to complement Steve Shelly as a rhythm section.  I always felt that Kim played something of a lead bass: she didn’t seem to go in for a notable steady bass rhythm (note on “Kool Thing” where her bass plays the main riff).  And since Thurston and Lee were often playing noise, it was essential for Kim’s bass to be more than just a rhythm instrument.  On this disc you have bass sections playing the song’s rhythm. Its a simple thing, something that all bands do, but it sounds so different for them.

They even mix up the song lengths quite a bit.  The opener is a two minute bit (with great lyrics from Kim: “What’s it like to be a girl in a band?  I just don’t understand.  That’s so quaint to hear.  I feel so faint my dear.”)   While “Anti-Orgasm” is over six minutes (three of the chug chug section and then three of an extended jam).  Lee’s awesome song, “What We Know” runs about 4 minutes.  And the final song, the very cool “Massage the History” runs over 9 minutes.

These elements give the band a revitalized sound.  And they sound like they’re really having a lot of fun. And boy are they rocking.  The band sounds heavy, they sound intense, and they sound great.  There’s not a bad track on the disc.

[READ: November 6, 2009] “Premium Harmony”

This story takes a look at a dysfunctional husband and wife on the way to Wal-Mart.  She wants to stop at the Quik-Pik on the way, to buy something that he thinks will be cheaper at Wal-Mart anyway.  This detour turns out to be significant, and nothing will be the same for them again.

I have to be this vague because saying anything more will give away too much of this rather simple story.

As with many Stephen King stories, I was gripped by it pretty quickly.  I was intrigued and somewhat entranced by the story.  But when it was done, I realized that it didn’t have any real emotional impact.  There wasn’t enough of an investment in these characters for me to care about what happened to them (although i really enjoyed it while reading it).

It reminds me of friends who tell a really great compelling story while you’re hanging out.  The story’s about their bosses or whomever (someone you don’t know) and it’s really funny.  But you forget them as soon as you start to head home.

You can read it here.

SOUNDTRACK: KATE BUSH-Never for Ever (1980).

With this disc, Kate Bush totally blew me away.  The leap from Lionheart to Never for Ever is monumental.  And Never for Ever was the first record by a solo British female to go to number 1.  Even 29 years later, this album still sounds fresh, current, a little bonkers, and totally amazing.

Kate is still pretty out there (there’s some wild screams and howls on a lot of songs), but she has really mastered the art/prog rock sound.  The disc starts out with “Babooshka” a wild romping rocker that, once again, sounds simple, even silly (chorus: “all yours babooshka babooshka babooshka ya ya”), but which has a rather sophisticated premise (of a married couple looking to cheat on each other but actually dating themselves).  The next song “Delius (Song of Summer)” shows some of the fun new sonic elements she’s added to her repertoire.  She adds a deep bass vocal singing along with her (it’s as absurdly deep as her voice is high). The “ta ta ta” section, the operatic chorus, and the jaunty piano play off each other perfectly.  I have no idea what the song is about, but I adore it.

“All We Ever Look For” has a wonderful part where footsteps walk across your headphones and open different doors.  Behind each door is a different sound (a chorus singing (but I can’t place what), birds singing, the rapturous applause, until the song kicks back in.  It’s very cool.

Side Two opens with “The Wedding List” a wonderfully weird, intense song that has interesting whispery bits (headphone friendly again) but then ends with awesome banshee howls. It’s inspired by François Truffaut’s film The Bride Wore Black.

But for me the song that distinguishes this disc is “Violin.”  It’s an ode to, yes, the violin, (chorus: Get the bow going! Let it scream to me: Violin! Violin! Violin!) and it is theatrically over the top.  It references Paganini (which completely makes sense).
but it also features a blistering electric guitar solo.  It’s entirely possibly that listening to the song a lot leads to madness, but I’m okay with that.

It’s followed by the dreamy delicate, “The Infant Kiss” which, lyrically is about a woman who falls in love with a little boy because the spirit of an adult man is inside him.  (Yea, that’s pretty wild, but it’s inspired by the film The Innocents). The disc ends with “Breathing” a look at life after a nuclear blast. It’s creepy and weirdly compelling and absolutely catchy (“chips of plutonium are twinkling in every lung”).

Musically, the disc contains a wonderful variety of sounds and textures.  Kate has her bassist play some awesome watery fretless bass, and there’s some great use of the Fairlight CMI (the first digital sampler).  There’s orchestration, synths, analog instruments, whistles and pianos and all manner of things.  Why, her brother Paddy alone plays: Harmonica, Mandolin, Balalaika, Sitar, Koto, Banshee, Saw and Mando.

And there’s not a bad song on the disc.  There is so much experimentation that it runs the risk of losing track of itself, but Kate is an artist and she knows exactly what she wants.  And she keeps the disc from getting out of control.

On her next couple of discs, she picks the best experiments and embellishments and really fine tunes her sound.  But for me, it’s the courageousness of this disc that makes it one of my favorites.  You have to suspend some disbelief, to really enjoy the disc but if you get it, it’s pretty amazing.

[READ: November 5, 2009] “Procedure in Plain Air”

I feel like this story is political but I can’t tell just how political it is trying to be.  The simple premise is that, while hanging out in front of his local coffee shop, Stevick watches a jumpsuited group of men dig a large hole in the street.  They block of much of the road, but cause somewhat minimal commotion with their efficiency.

Once they have finished, the jumpsuited men force a similarly jumpsuited man (who is bound and gagged) into the hole.  The rest of the story concerns the narrator’s interest and ultimate involvement in the situation.

The jumpsuits made me think of Guantanamo.  And I wondered if Stevick represented the average American’s observance of what went on there.  I don’t know if I’m reading too much into it (and I’m not sure if that even works as a metaphor).  Perhaps it’s just a surreal yet fascinating story about digging holes in the street and putting people into them.

Lethem’s stories are always thought-provoking, even if I’m not entirely certain that I’m thinking what he wants me to think.

It’s available here.

SOUNDTRACK-KATE BUSH-The Kick Inside (1978).

For the longest time, Kate Bush was my soundtrack for reading.  There was something about her voice and her musical style that I felt was conducive to reading (must be the Wuthering Heights connection).

This, her first record, was recorded when Kate was 19, and now that I’m older (and have heard her later discs) I can really hear how young she sounds.  And with that youth comes a certain degree of naivete.  If you bring any amount of cynicism to this disc, it completely crumbles.  I mean she’s a teenager in the late 70s, so there’s an awful lot of earnestness here.  There’s Buddhist chants, there’s a lot of well written feminist thought, there’s an interpretation of Wuthering Heights.  There’s even whale songs in between tracks!

But there’s also a lot of songs about lost love.  And the thing that is so strange about that is, if I understand her biography correctly, she was not terribly worldly.   So the songs about lost men or Berlin pubs or even pregnancy are unusual to say the least.  And they show a furtive imagination.

So, you get songs of love and longing.  Songs about “Strange Phenomena.”  But you also get some wonderfully weird lyrics, like my favorite couplet: “Beelzebub is aching in my belly-o / My feet are heavy and I’m rooted in my wellios”

And I just love the audacity of her writing a song about Wuthering Heights (and, yup, it got me to read the book).  Not to mention the audacity of the notes she hits in the song.

Because clearly the thing most notable on the disc is her voice.  She wails and screeches and hits notes that were previously unheard in popular music.  The chorus of “Over the Moon” is striking in its ambition.  And let’s not forget the outrageous opening notes of “Wuthering Heights” (she’s so out there that she had to re-recorded it for the greatest hits record to try to get more airplay).  But no matter how otherworldly and at times bizarre her singing is, there is no doubt that her voice is a phenomenon unto itself.  Just listen to the gorgeous control she uses on “The Man with the Child in His Eyes”).

As she got older, she reined in some of the excesses of her voice (while unleashing excesses in other areas!).  She would begin multitracking her voice for awesome effect, as well as using some surprisingly deep gutteral vocals on other songs.

Kate would go on to write a few brilliant records in to 80s.  And this is certainly a fun starting point.

Of course, I’m disappointed that the US cover is the one featured above, which is clearly dumbed downed for US audiences who didn’t get (or like) her.  Because check out the cool original cover.  I mean, I’m not even sure what it’s all about, but it’s certainly more interesting!

[READ: November 6, 2009] “The Godchildren”

I loved the premise of this story from the get go.  And I thought it was a genius way to bring together three strangers who know each other.  The three characters: Amanda, Susan & Chris are the godchildren of Vivien.  Vivien was a friend of each of their parents, but she herself never had any children.  So, it was agreed early on that the three kids would occasionally spend a day with Vivien.  But the parents soon lost interest in talking to Vivien and the kids’ visits became something of a substitution for the parents actually talking to her.

And so, for most of the kids’ young lives they would hang out together at Viviens’s house, but they would never see each other anywhere else.  I loved the idea that these three young people had a secret life together that they would never admit anywhere else.  In fact, when they were teenagers, the three of them were afraid they might run into each other out at the pub.

The story proper is set many years later, when the three children are grown and with children (but no longer spouses) of their own.  Vivien has just died, and they are called to her house to see if they want anything as mementos.  And so these three people who haven’t seen each other (or Vivien for that matter) in some twenty years are now thrust back together in a musty old house that is smaller than they remember and full of memories.

It was interesting to watch these adults regress into familiar personalities that they had when they were younger, while trying to retain their adult attitudes.  And it was even more fascinating to see what secrets were revealed as the story ends.  All of this emotional backstory and intrigue in a mere 6 pages.  It was a really compelling story, and quite frankly I would loved it to have been a lot longer.

It’s available here.

SOUNDTRACK: TINDERSTICKS-Live at the Botanique, 9th-12 May 2001 (2001).

This is called an “official bootleg.”  It must be very rare as I can’t even find a picture of it online.  My friend Lar must have gotten it for me, as I have never seen the band live and it was (apparently) only available at their shows.  Or maybe I got it online during the tour?  Whatever the case, it’s a great live selection of their later songs.

It’s a cool collection of songs from shows over the course of three days.  It’s also interesting that the track listing is five songs from one gig, then three from the final gig and two from the middle one.  The band sounds great (the live setting always suits them). On this disc, Paula Frazer sings the duet of “Buried Bones” and there are some nice backing vocals from Gina Foster and Viki St. James on the last two tracks.

It’s a rather mellow set list, but the crowd certainly enjoys it.  And, as this is something of a greatest hits (of the more recent tracks), I could listen to it all day.

There appears to have been only one other “Official Bootleg”: Coliseu Dos Recreios De Lisboa – October 30th 2001.  But I’ve never seen it.

[READ: October 25, 2009] “Three Fragments from a Longer Thing,” “Good People,” “The Compliance Branch,” “Wiggle Room” and “Irrelevant Bob”

These are the last pieces of uncollected David Foster Wallace fiction that I had left to read.  I saved this for last because, well, they are supposedly parts of the soon to be released The Pale King.  Some of these pieces are definitely from The Pale King (it states so in the magazine  openings).  A couple are possible contenders for The Pale King, but we won’t know until the book comes out (sometime in 2010, I’m led to believe).  I had read some of these pieces before but it is much more satisfying to read them together.

The strange thing for me about these pieces is that when I read the New Yorker titles initially, there was no indication that the pieces were excerpts.  They treated them as short stories (even giving them titles).  So, when you read them, they feel like something is missing (namely 900 more pages).  And in many respects, I think that’s bad for the author.  Sure its good to get the work out there, but when a story feels unfinished, it leaves a bad taste in the readers’ mouth.

All the bold text comes from The Howling Fantods.  He gives summaries of where the fragments come from.  And since he’s a much bigger DFW fan than I am, I’m going to assume that when he says something is from TPK, he knows what he’s talking about.

“Three Fragments from a Longer Thing”. Lannan Readings & Conversations; Dec. 6, 2000. [NOTES: In December of 2000, DFW read three pieces he referred to as 'fragments' and which he said were from a longer thing (possibly "The Pale King" but this remains unconfirmed). Listen to the reading here or read it, lovingly transcribed by yours truly, here.]

DFW read these pieces aloud in 2000.  [The audio, by the way is fantastic.  It really brings to life the technical and medical sections of the story.]  The Longer Thing is never specified, but it’s possible that it is The Pale King.  These fragments have no direct connection to the later fragments below, but with any DFW novel, you never know how people are going to connect in a book!

FIRST & THIRD FRAGMENT

The first and third fragments are about the same unnamed boy.  This boy, when he was six, decided that he wanted to press his lips to every single inch of his body.  It wasn’t a sexual thing, it was more of an ownership thing.  And so, he sets out to press his lips everywhere.  When he ends up dislocating something, the chiropractor shows him proper stretching techniques and ways to ensure spinal health (without actually asking what the boy was doing).

These chiropractic sections are filled with very technical medical passages.  But DFW has gotten his pacing down so well that after every couple of highly professional lines, he throws in a hilarious non sequitir.  (“No lollipops were anywhere in view.”)

The third fragment continues this boy’s quest.  He’s now older and is showing severe physical deformities from his stretching exercises.  He also acknowledges that some portions of his body will be extremely tough (like the back of his head), but he is determined.

I can’t imagine how this would fit into a larger novel.  The boy has virtually no connection to the outside world.  But I do hope it is, because I’d love to find out more about him and his family.  He spends hours at a time trying these crazy contortions.  Surely they must thing something is amiss.

What a strange conceit.

SECOND FRAGMENT

The second fragment concerns a different boy.  This boy is named Leonard Stesek and he is the most generous, thoughtful, giving boy ever.  And everyone hates him because of it.  And then they feel bad that they hate him, which makes them hate him even more.

This story was so funny for Leonard’s outrageously over the top safety procedures (calling his father every hour on the hour, except when the phone gets disconnected and then calling the phone company to get it fixed) and outrageous generosity (rather than accepting an ice cream from his dad, he requests the money go to UNICEF).

I loved this fragment.  It was funny and twisted.  As with the previous one, I absolutely cannot imagine what more he could do with this.  What would Leonard be like as a grown up??  And, I can’t imagine how it would fit in with a novel.

I mention these fragments not fitting because the excerpts below which are from the novel concern an accountant and his work and home life.  And he is clearly not one of these above boys.  But, given the disparate characters and character arcs in IJ, it’s not outside of the realm of plausibility.  I hope something more comes of these, but I’m satisfied with the fragments.

“Good People”. The New Yorker; Feb 5, 2007. [NOTES: Excerpt from "The Pale King." Read it here.]

This piece doesn’t say in the New Yorker that it is from The Pale King, but it is the same character as the later story that does, so…

This is a very affecting story about a young couple facing a very important decision.  I won’t say what the decision is, but it is quite obvious once the story gets going.  The story  concerns the awkwardly named Lane Dean. (It’s not easy to say).  He and his girlfriend sit by the river.  He is trying to get up the courage to talk to her, yet he remains in his head through most of the story.

There’s very little else to it, but it is powerful and very detailed.  As with many of these fragments, it is weird to read something that is clearly not complete.  This piece does work as a fragment, and you can definitely become invested in these characters. But it would be even better within a longer story.

“The Compliance Branch”. Harper’s Magazine, Feb. 2008. [NOTES: This excerpt from "The Pale King" was originally presented at a reading for le conversazioni on Feb. 7, 2006 as "Untitled Excerpt from Something Longer That Isn't Even Close to Halfway Finished Yet." This version was printed and distributed in a booklet, available here. The Harper's version is available here.]

Harper’s also does not state that this is from The Pale King, but given the work location of the unnamed character, it works quite well as part of the novel.

This is a twisted little story about the narrator’s Group Manager and his son.  From time to time the Group Manager brings his baby into the office with him.  He has a nursery type set up in his office. But that’s not important, because the focus is on the baby.  The baby is described as “fierce, intimidating, aggressive” as he hangs there in his papoose.

In DFW’s inimitable style, he describes the workings and contraptions of the baby gear as if he had never seen any of the apparti before (“a modern, ingenious mobile supporting device”).  After pages of being freaked out about this baby, the day arrives when he is asked to “babysit” the boy.  (The reasons why are part of the story and are a little too detailed to give here).  From there it just gets more surreal.

This hilarious passage will hopefully have a delightful payoff in the novel.  I enjoyed it immensely.

“Wiggle Room”. The New Yorker; March 9, 2009. [NOTES: Excerpt from "The Pale King." Read it here.]

I reviewed this piece back in March.

But having read the other fragments (especially “Good People”) at the same time as this one, made this one that much more powerful.  Lane Dean, having accepted his decision from the earlier story is now in a soul sucking job.  One where he watches the clock incessantly and thinks of the definition of the word “boring.”

He is an IRS auditor who must double check completed files.  And he hates it.

As the story comes to a close, he is visited by what may be a ghost or a spirit of the office.  He sits on Dean’s desk and talks to him about the word “boring” and then leaves.

The amazing part of the story is the intensely detailed opening pieces about boredom.  You can palpably feel the boredom that Dean is dealing with, and yet the writing itself is not boring.  That is no mean feat. I feel like the novel would explain more about this ghost figure (although with DFW, possibly not), but regardless, it will obviously feature more of Lane Dean and his life and challenges.

“Irrelevant Bob”. The New Yorker, WEB ONLY; March 9, 2009 [NOTES: A newyorker.com-exclusive fragment of probably an excerpt from "The Pale King" (this remains unconfirmed) presented as two scanned pages of annotated manuscript. Read it here.]

It’s barely worth mentioning this in a review. It is two pages long and ends in the middle of a sentence.  It is notable for the fact that it is manuscript in process, with corrections and editing comments.  So, for the DFW fan, that’s interesting.  The two pages concern an unnamed narrator (in first person) who is talking about his memory, or lack of it.  Not that he can’t remember things, but that everything he remembers is mundane and 1970s pop culture-y (the clothes they wore, the TV shows they watched (Saturday Night Live features prominently). And that’s about it.  It’s an interesting character set up, but it’s impossible to say anything more about it.

Included in the slide show are two art pieces from Wallace’s wife, Karen Green.  They’re pretty interesting and I have to wonder if they will be included with The Pale King (probably not).

Comments:

As I mentioned, many times, The New Yorker will publish pieces with a title, and it seems like a short story.  But fragments are not short stories almost by definition.  I can remember reading “Wiggle Room” and enjoying it but feeling dissatisfied with the end (and not in a DFW-the-story-ended-without-finishing way).  Knowing they are part  of a longer thing, and reading them together like this has done nothing but whet my appetite for The Pale King. Despite my initial concerns about releasing the novel without DFW’s final input, now I really can’t wait for the book to come out.