SOUNDTRACK: McSweeney’s #6 comes with a CD.
Most of the music on the CD is performed by They Might Be Giants (a rather perfect fit for McSweeney’s). Some other musicians who appear are: M. Doughty, Philip Glass, Michael Meredith. Roger Greenawalt & S.E. Willis
Instructions included with book:
#3. The compact disc contains music. There are 44 discrete pieces of music –“Tracks”–on this compact disc. Each Track corresponds to a picture, series of pictures, or story–a Piece–in this journal. When you are reading or looking at a certain Piece, we ask that you cue your compact disc to the corresponding Track on the disc. The appropriate track number will appear prominently, usually under the title of each Piece. Note: The track number will no appear on subsequent pages of the Piece.
#6. Please note that you may listen to Tracks without reading their Pieces and you may read Pieces without listening to their corresponding Tracks. But this is not recommended. You fucking bastard.
[READ: December 8, 2009] McSweeney’s #6
I’m finally getting back to reading some older McSweeney’s issues. This was the final issue that I received from my initial subscription. I distinctly remember being excited by the CD and maybe reading some of the book, but clearly never finishing it.
So yes, this issue comes with a CD. The intro note explains that each Piece in the book has an accompanying Track on the CD, and, you are to only listen to the Track that accompanies the Piece you are reading…never read a piece while listening to the wrong track. Ever! It explains that each Track has been created to be as long as it would take you to read each Piece. But there are obviously many exceptions. The first story for instance is well over ten pages but the song is about 5 seconds long. And, the Arthur Bradford Track is 8 minutes long when anyone could read the Piece much more quickly.
The bulk of the songs are by They Might Be Giants. Anyone who knows TMBG knows you can’t summarize their work, and this book exercise is ideal for them: there are several pieces that are just a few second long. But they also write some nice longer pieces as well. And, of course, they are perfectly suited for mood music that works well with the writing. Some of the songs have words which is a bit distracting while trying to read, but that’s okay. I did try my best to follow the prescription about only listening to the appropriate song, but I admit to getting off pace from time to time.
The notes also state that this was initially meant to be an all art issue. They abandoned that premise, but there is still a lot of very cool art work in it. There are excerpts from artists’ works, there are drawings by non-artists, there’s even a full comic sketch from Chris Ware!
This is probably one of my favorite McSweeney’s thus far. The music is great, the artwork is wonderful. Some of the short stories are really really short (a page or two) and most of those are just okay, but they are made up for by some really strong ones (Zadie Smith).
BREYTEN-BREYTENBACH-“(Notes from the Middle World)”
Breytenbach is a South African writer. I’ve found his work to be hard to read (because of th content) in the past. This piece I found doubly hard as it was very abstract (its about placelessness). The Middle World is meant to be the world in between realities. I can’t say I got a lot of it, although I understood the gist. This was apparently a speech, and I wonder if it would have worked better as one (with a handout).
KARL HAENDEL-various photos:
“Dollar for Dollar Invest in the Past,” “Oprah Helped Me Through This,” “It’s Getting Late”, “Mr. & Mrs. Nuclear,” “I Want It Faster Better Now,” “Grassroots Internet Revolution,” “Even My T-Shirt has a History,” “Lincoln, Washington,” “People Died Today,” “Be Kind and Gentle When You Have a Big Stick,” “Mona Lisa”
Haendel is an artist who (at least for these compositions) paints a few words onto white plywood and then photographs them in specific locations. You can tell by the title list above a little of the intent behind them. I enjoyed his pieces quite a bit. Although they work more on a “huh” or perhaps a “yes!” level than as brilliant works of art. The exception is Mona Lisa where the plywood has a print of Mona Lisa attached sideways to a car which is parked in front of an Art Gallery.
STEVE FEATHERSTONE-“The Garden of Eden”
A very short piece (one paragraph) about a man whose father is intending to build the Garden of Eden in his yard. Details are given, which are undermined by the story’s conclusion. More of an exercise than a story, it’s hard to say much about it.
IAN FRAZIER-“Eulogy for Saul Steinberg”
This is a loving look at Saul Steinberg. I didn’t know a thing about Steinberg before reading this, but I was charmed by the man and found this to be very enjoyable piece.
The song for this piece is John Linnel’s solo song “West Virginia.”
W. KOENIGSTEIN-“W. Koenigstein’s Colossal Outpouring: Affair Number Six”
With an Intro by Lawrence Weschler (more about him later). Koenigstein created delightful landscapes with very simple line drawings. This showcases several of the pictures from one notebook (And details his rather obsessive work).
SEAN WILSEY-“Marfa, Revisited”
This is a continuation of the Marfa saga that Wilsey wrote about in McSweeney’s #2. Unlike that first piece, which was lengthy and packed with information, this Revisiting is a bit more fun. It is broken down into several small sections of examples of the quirky kinds of things that happen when you visit Marfa. It is full of interesting characters, probably none of whom are unique to Marfa, but for whom Marfa was probably like a calling card.
The song for this piece was written and performed by Michael Meredith.
AMY SILLMAN-“Untitled”
A painting, part of a 35 foot long painting. See samples of her work here.
ZADIE SMITH-“The Girl with Bangs”
This is the first Zadie Smith piece I’ve read since enjoying On Beauty. It’s an older story (published after her forst novel), and I think it’s great. The premise is that the narrator, a woman who usually dates men falls for a woman with spectacular bangs. The narrator now understands what men go through when they’re rendered speechless by a beautiful woman. It’s a funny and insightful piece and showed that Smith was a great writer, with an excellent grasp of emotions even then. I fully intend to read the rest of her work, and this was a great impetus to find that first novel.
The story ends with a blank page that notes that Smith’s story used to be longer.
CANDY JERNIGAN-“Excerpt from 99 Blue Rocks”
Candy Jernigan and her partner Philip Glass traveled to Nova Scotia. He composed and she drew pictures of rocks. Here’s a sample of many of these drawings. And they are technically brilliant. Most of them look like photographs. But beyond that, the rocks also seems to have, if not personalities, then at least some kind of quality that makes them seem like more than “just rocks.” It’s pretty amazing.
The music for this piece is written and performed by Philip Glass
ROY KESEY-“The Workshop”
This piece is a sort of fable about patience. When a man is told to make an airplane out of a paperclip, he is perpetually sent back to work on it until it is done correctly. The reaction to his success, and the conclusion of the piece are quite delightful.
GINA O’MARA-“After This, Everything Got Louder and No One Could be Heard”
This very short piece concerns the creation of a whale, out of the ether. Something of a creation myth. I’m just not that inspired by these shorter pieces.
ANN CUMMINS-“Billy by the Bay”
This is a funny/sad story about Billy. Billy’s night has gone from awesome to terrible when he is publicly humiliated in from of the woman he was planning to hooking up with (she promised to feel his balls!). Billy’s revenge is sweet but short-lived and is packed with adrenaline (and his large balls).
The accompanying song is Ann Cummins herself reciting the last six or seven paragraphs of the much longer story. It’s fun to hear the author getting into her story. Performed by Ann Cummins with S.E. Willis on piano.
WALKER EVANS-“The Deltiographs of Walker Evans”
A deltiograph is a picture postcard. Walker Evans collected over 9,000 penny picture postcards. They are preserved in a gallery. Several are shown here and they are really quite neat. They are either drawings or colored photographs from all over the country circa the early 20th century. There’s some really cool stuff here. I wish they were online for more thorough viewing.
The song is by Erika Kawalek with Roger Greenawalt on banjo.
BARRY BLITT-“Barry Blitt’s Vacation Postcards”
Blitt is an artist whose work is very familiar (he has done many New Yorker covers (including this week’s with President Obama and Santa Claus). This is a collection of postcards that he designed and drew. (He even includes the note inside the “place stamp here” box). There’s a short interview with him which is also revealing. I enjoying learning about his technique, and of course, the pictures themselves are great.
JOHN WARNER-“Tough Day for the Army: In the Beginning”
A weird little story that begins with he Army and ends with professional food photography. I’m not entirely sure how they got from point A to point B.
LYDIA DAVIS-“Oral History with Hiccups”
This story was in Lydia Davis’ book Samuel Johnson is Indignant. I found this to be one of her lesser pieces, although it is mildly amusing. There are graphic representations of hiccups in the story.
LAWRENCE WESCHLER-“Convergences: Gazing Out Toward: Kret/Friedrick/Diebenkorn”
Weschler’s Convergences book is pretty great. This is another excerpt that was eventually put into the book. In this one he looks at several pictures of people gazing, whether at the viewer, at a sunset, or into the hazy distance. Weschler’s pieces are always fascinating.
CHRIS WARE-“Sketch for Little Lit: A Very Sad Story About a Frog and A Banjo, Not at All Appropriate for Children”
Little Lit is a cool series of comic for kids. This sketch was done for the inaugural edition. However, if you know Chris Ware, you know that his stuff is not for children. He somehow managed to rein this in and make it more kid friendly, but as it stands in this sketch, the piece is twisted (and quite funny). The best thing about this piece here is that it shows Ware’s sketches. So if you’ve ever wondered how he does his letters/figures, here’s a great chance to see them. (It’s very cool).
The song is performed by M Doughty
SASKIA HAMILTON-“Robert Lowell’s Letters Containing Artwork”
This is a collection of poet Robert Lowell’s letters that contain art (he wrote a few when he was a kid, and then a few more much much later when his daughter was 13 or so). His art is not very good, but as Hamilton argues, it was very expressive and revealed a lot about him. It’s always fascinating to see an artist struggle (both before and after his success).
SAMANTHA HUNT-“Bathymetry”
A short piece about two sailors. The American sailor mentions a mermaid but is lucky to be drawn away to his duty before the French sailor can regale him with a story of his own about a mermaid. The mermaid story is pretty funny.
DAVE FORD-“Dave Ford’s Drawings by Trucks”
Dave Ford set up an art studio in he back of his big rig. It consisted of two liter bottles filled with fluid suspended from the top of the truck with pencils attached to the bottoms. As he drove the truck the pencils would sketch out abstract “art.” It’s fascinating, even if the art isn’t that inspirational. But the picture of the bottles is pretty amazing.
MARK O’DONNELL-“Hard Truths”
Set up as a movie with stage directions, this piece is a series of clichés that attack each other in their attempt to get their messages across.
RICHARD ERIKSON-“Richard Erickson, Art Teacher Who Also Makes Art
Erikson’s art is fantastic. The titles bring wonderful insight into the simple pictures (crumpled jeans are named “elephant”). Great stuff.”
ARTHUR BRADFORD-“Roslyn’s Dog”
The song for this track is Arthur Bradford reading the entire story. Except…his ending is completely different in the audio versus the printed version. It’s hard to know which to review. The basic gist is that the narrator pet’s Rosyln’s dog which bites him. In something reminiscent of a werewolf movie (although not scary), he gradually tuns into a dog himself. In the printed version, the dogs run off together; in the audio version, a major twist is thrown in. I think I prefer the audio version, actually.
SHEILA HETI-“The Man from Out of Town”
This was a dark story which ended in a place that was surprisingly even more dark.
FRANZ SWANSON-“Slow”
This story is about an Indian named Slow, who will eventually grow up to be Sitting Bull. It mostly involves Slow chasing Crow. I wasn’t terribly inspired by this piece.
JUDY BUDNITZ-“Just Borrowing It for a Little While”
This was a fascinating story that left a lot to the imagination. Two girls are driving, when something bad happens and they are sent to community service as hospital candy-stripers. While there, they get into more (somewhat unintentional) mischief. Although I’m not entirely sure what happened, I enjoyed reading it.
LAWRENCE WESCHLER-“Convergences: Girls in Their Turning: Richter/Vermeer/Velaszquez”
Another Convergence which relates back to the previous one. This one is focused on girls turning away from the viewer. The main painting is Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring. I like this stuff quite a bit.
The song contains vocal samples of Robin “Goldie” Goldwasser.
TOMMY WALLACH-“The Life of Doug”
This story follows Doug, a loner and a loser who needs a new blender. While at the store, Jay convinces him to buy more things. We then look at Jay’s life, and then at Sam (Jay’s boss)’s life and then at Sam’s wife’s life and on and on until we get back to Doug for a satisfying circle. This story was light and fun, and I enjoyed it quite a but. Next.
MATT FAGAN-“Roller Coaster”
In this story a woman on a date tells her date about Fantasy Dates which were much better than this date.
“MARY GALLAGHER-A Brief Unrelated Companion Piece to ‘Roller Coaster’ Written Without Mr. Fagan’s Knowledge”
This story was tacked on at the end of “Roller Coaster.” It is two sentences about God and dignity.
AD REINHARDT-“Art in Art is Art-as Art (Art-as-art Dogma, Part III)”
This is a series of slogans or perhaps even a manifesto about what art is and is not. I can’t say it was that inspiring, frankly.
The song is excerpted from Free Cooperation’s “Our Master’s Voice” recorded in Warsaw, 1985.
The book ends with Contributors notes, song notes and a reproduction of the hand written musical score for the Philip Glass piece.
The back cover features excerpted lyrics from the CD and a place for the CD itself.
As I said, I enjoyed this issue quite a lot. The artwork (in full-color!) was great, and, of course, the music played a nice accompaniment.
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