Gary Shteyngart–“O.K., Glass” (New Yorker, August 5, 2013)

SOUNDTRACK: AMANDA PALMER-Amanda Palmer Performs the Popular Hits of Radiohead on Her Magical Ukulele (EP) (2010).

Amanda Palmer made an album of Radiohead covers ,as the title says, on her magical ukulele.

I love the retro cover (and the way Radiohead is written).  It looks like a kitschy piece of nonsense.  And yet, contrary to appearance, it is actually a very respectful and very enjoyable collection of covers.  Despite the title, the album is not simply her on a ukulele, but the uke is the main instrument on most of the tracks, and it works surprisingly well to convey Radiohead’s particular brand of angst.  And one nice thing is that I now know a lot more words to the songs.

“Fake Plastic Trees” is done entirely on ukulele, which works well as the original is quite stripped down.  The ukulele gives it the appropriate kind of mournful angst.  “High and Dry” adds a piano—just a simple one note backing sound in the beginning, but which contributes greatly to the song.  Palmer sounds a lot like Aimee Mann here—understated and untheatrical–she has a lovely voice.

“No Surprises” is a song that starts simply so the ukuleles is well suited to it.  As with the original , the song builds, but much more simply here, with a pretty piano melody.  And her overdubbed voice works very well at the end.

“Idioteque” is absolutely great—she really captures the angst of the song and the ukulele in no way makes it a novelty—probably because the song is full of piano and great percussion.  The fact that the original is so techie and her version is so analog and yet it sounds this good is really a testament to Palmer’s transcribing skills.

“Creep” is done only on ukulele but the real instrument is her voice—where she manhandles the melody and whips it to all her needs—it’s a bravura  performance.  “Creep” live (a bonus digital version) is a bit more dynamic than the studio version as she plays off the audience.  And man she really shows off her voice at the end.

“Exit Music for a Film” opens on piano.  And adds strings. And adds more and more (allowing Palmer to exhibit her inner showwoman to really wail on the song).  Indeed, despite the title of the album, there is no ukulele on this track at all.  And while that may be cheating, this version really sounds great.

Palmer continues to impress me, although as I said last time, I’m still not sure what her real music sounds like.

[READ: August 7, 2013] “O.K., Glass”

Gary Shteyngart was one of the first 100 New Yorkers to get to test drive Google Glass (you had to tweet why you wanted it and then pay $1,500).  I was interested to read this because I like Shteyngart anyhow, but when I saw the reason why he wanted Glass—because his novel Super Sad True Love Story deals with people using a similar technology and he wanted to have a sense of what it would be like to use one for the upcoming movie version—I was even more intrigued.  (I read an excerpt in The New Yorker and I remember that funny device—the äppärät being mind-bogglingly futuristic.  I really need to read the novel before it becomes even less mind bending.

So he wears it out into New York.  (He was supposed to wear it only about an hour a day but he was totally hooked and wore them all the time).  And mostly he talks about how weird it is to have people (young people) approach him to talk about Glass.  People are even taking pictures of him!  He’s like a celebrity!

And of course he gets down to details—you twitch your head (what I imagine as the clicking of a mouse with your temple) to activate windows.  There’s a scroll bar type thing on the temple of the glasses.  But mostly you interact with it by saying “O.K., Glass” and then telling it what you want to do.

Read Full Post »

Woody Allen—“Now Where Did I Leave that Oxygen Tank” (New Yorker, August 5, 2013)

SOUNDTRACK: BARENAKED LADIES-Stop Us If You’ve Heard This One Before (2011).

This is a “rarities” collection that was originally to be released as part of their released at the same time greatest hits.  I put rarities in quotes because the collection is actually rather disappointing–there are a lot of unreleased tracks, but they are primarily demos of more recent songs which don’t sound all that different from the actual recorded versions.  There are a few live tracks (the best thing on here) and one or two otherwise unreleased tracks–but not the unreleased tracks that came on that greatest hits record (Disc One).

“I Don’t Get It Anymore” is the only track on the disc that didn’t get a more formal release elsewhere (except for one obvious exception).  It is a slow ballad type song—the kind that BNL had been heading more towards as they matured. It’s a good, solid song and the combination of Page and Robertson makes this song always enjoyable.

“Yes! Yes!! Yes!!!” was released as a B-side (although this is said to be a “Stereo Mix” whatever that means).  “Half a Heart” was re-recorded for Are Men.

That leaves some demos and here’s where most of my complaints lie, for two different reasons.  “The Old Apartment” is nice to hear but it is an acoustic guitar version done solely by Page.  It’s also clearly an early version, because it lacks all of the oomph that makes the final product so good.  I know it’s a demo, but some demos are better than other.  The other bummer demo parts are actually too close to the final product.  “Second Best” eventually appeared on Everything to Everyone, this is a demo version  “I Can I Will I Do” is a demo that appeared on Are Me.  “Adrift” is a pretty, string-filled version of the song from Are Men.  The sad thing is I can’t tell what’s different about them.  The final demo “Long While” is a song that never appeared elsewhere (but would likely have appeared on Everything.  It sounds finalized and not like a demo and it, along with the first song are nice new tracks for fans.

There’s a remix of “One Week” which has been released already and which is frankly pretty boring.  It’s got a few extra lines sampled and a few extra sounds, but otherwise not all that different from the original.

That leaves the lives songs, which, as I said, are a treat.  “The Same Thing” is a very enjoyable live version.  The strange thing about that live song is that the crowd seems absolutely wild—full of screaming young girls.  It sounds a little phony given the BNL shows I’ve been to (were they that huge in 1992/93).  But those same cheers are on “Teenage Wasteland” a song which has not been elsewhere.  The intro to the song is very funny and the song itself is really good.  Shame it didn’t get an official recording.

The final track is the huge highlight though.  It’s a faithful cover of the Beastie Boys’ “Shake Your Rump.”  It is fun and surprisingly right on.  This recording comes from Santa Maria Hilton on 10/13/1994–they played this song a lot during that tour.

Those few highlights aside, this collection a pretty big disappointment.  BNL has some great stuff in their archives (including all of their earlier tapes that deserve a proper release).  Are the Ladies to mature to release this old stuff?  Let’s hope not.  It’s been 20 years after all.

[READ: August 7, 2013] “Now Where Did I Leave that Oxygen Tank”

I have been disappointed with a lot of Shouts and Murmurs lately—many feel like a one note joke that goes on and on.  And so I’ve gotten to the point where I read the first paragraph, determine if it’s going to be funny and more of ten than not, just skip it.  Short, humorous pieces take many shapes, and many people can do wonders in this format (Simon Rich springs to mind because her brings in a dozen different ideas in one piece).  Woody Allen is another for very different reasons.  He knows how to write short comic pieces that are a story unto themselves and which end up being very satisfying.

And this is a very good one, despite the somewhat unpromising title (and illustration which gives a bit away).

And yet, how’s this for a great opening that is ultimately full of misdirection:  “How my wife was able to transmute the ingredients of an award-winning recipe for chocolate brownies into twelve perfect squares of granite was a feat that only medieval alchemists could appreciate.”  The man ate the brownie and is in the dentist’s office.  Where he reads about patients getting things stitched up in them after surgery (6000 a year the USA Today says).

A lot of writers like to throw in absurdities, but to my ear absurdity either works great or falls flat.   Allen’s works great.  His protagonist is a playwright.  And his complaint is that a critic compared his recent play “to typhus.”  Outstanding joke.  The playwright has suffered from writer’s block, but now he seizes upon the lost items tidbit and works though a new play.

Read Full Post »

Shirley Jackson–“Paranoia” (New Yorker, August 5, 2013)

SOUNDTRACK: JACKSON SCOTT-“Evie” (2013).

What if My Bloody Valentine were a little creepier–playing with the speed of voices and using their hazy shoegaze sound to slightly more sinister ends.  You’d get something of what Jackson Scott sounds like on this track.

I don’t know who Jackson Scott is, but the NPR podcast that introduced me to him makes him sound like a very interesting guy (and that Melbourne is kind of a downer album.

This is a lo-fi recording (his first) that’s then played around with on the computer.  His voice is pitch shifted (which is what gives it a creepy feel).  But the guitars are beautiful and dreamy, floating to the outer reaches.

[READ: August 6, 2013] “Paranoia”

When I saw that Shirley Jackson was the author of this story I thought. “Isn’t she dead?”  [She is}.  And then I thought, “Did she write anything other than “The Lottery”?” [She did—6 novels, 4 short story collections and, gulp, 4 children’s stories].

I’m always confused when the New Yorker publishes a story like this.  Has it never appeared before?  Is it anthologized and they just wanted a story to fill the space?  Are they contractually obligated to run a “classic” song twice a year?   Whatever the case, I adored this story—which makes me think I should be reading more Jackson.

What I loved especially about this story is that as soon as I started reading it, I knew it was an older story—not because of any internal clues (it’s not until ¾ of the way into the story when he pays a nickel for a bus ride that an approximate date can be pegged to the story), but just the style, the spookiness without graphic-ness.  It’s psychological without being violent or necessarily creepy.  It feels like people don’t write psychological thrillers like this as much as they did.  And sure the thrills are mild, but they are definitely psychological.

The story is a simple one, an average man, Mr Beresford, looks like all the other average men coming home from work in NYC.  But Beresford remembered his wife’s birthday and is delighted that he bought her candies.  He plans to take an early bus home and take her out to dinner.  He’s very happy and looking forward to a nice night.

Until a man in a light gray hat, with a small mustache) approaches him.  He makes eye contact, seems to frown at Beresford and then moves on.  Beresford is confused by this, but puts the gray hat man out of his mind until he goes to climb on the bus and the same man pushes him from behind very hard until the gray hat is on the bus and the doors are closed in Beresford’s face.

Beresford is puzzled and more than a little annoyed. But he decides that his day is too good to be ruined by this man, so he puts him out of his mind and looks for another way home.

But then he sees the thin man again. And the man seems to be coming at him.  So Beresford hops into a souvenir shop to escape the man, but when he tries to leave the clerk accosts him and engages him to look at more things.  Then Beresford sees the gray hat man is approaching as well.  Now Beresford is really freaking out.  But what does this man want?

Read Full Post »

Daniel Alarcón–“Collectors” (New Yorker, July 29, 2013)

SOUNDTRACK: ROEDELIUS SCHNEIDER-“Umstuden” (2013).

I picked this song because I thought he had the same name as the character in this story, but he doesn’t.  Rats.

So this collaboration between electronic music pioneer (whom I’ve never heard of) Hans-Joachim Roedelius (who is 78!) and Stefan Schneider (who is much younger).  This piece is a largely a simple piano motif played over a pretty bassline.  (I assume this part if Roedelius).  Then after a few minutes come the effects and drums.  They are quiet and they add more texture than anything else.  But they also modernize this ambient track in a really interesting way–keeping it from getting too soporific (although the melody itself isn’t really soporific at all).  It keeps it lively and a little unexpected.

Although I’m not a huge fan of ambient music, I could see listening to more of this album.

[READ: August 5, 2013] “Collectors”

This story is constructed in a fascinating way.  Set in Peru, it opens with the story of Rogelio, a skinny boy who fails at school (later he is unofficially diagnosed with dyslexia).  He is unhappy at home, especially when his older brother Jaime moves to San Jacinto.  At age 13 Rogelio quit school and moved to San Jacinto to be with his brother.  They worked together making delivers and fixing up vehicles (and making a profit).  It slowly dawns on Rogelio that not everything they do is entirely legitimate, (especially since Jaime seems to have so much cash).  But he;s okay with that and asks no questions.

Then the story informs us in the middle of the second paragraph that Rogelio will wind up in Collectors prison (which I assume is infamous although I’m not actually sure if it’s real).   And sure enough about midway through the story we find out how it happened–Rogelio was carrying something (he didn’t know what) and he was searched by the police (who were looking for weapons).  We’re also told about Rogelio’s cellmate, Henry, who is nice to him.

Then we learn about Henry and how he wound up in prison.  He was a playwright.  And he wrote a (not very good) play called “The Idiot President” which the President (or someone) found offensive.  And soon Henry was regarded as a terrorist.  He considered it an absurd joke at first until the weeks turned into months and he was eventually shunted of to Collectors.

We learn about Collector’s prison, how Rogelio initially didn’t even have a cell–he slept under the stairs–until he was able to buy a cell (with money from Jaime).  Henry, because he had some money, was able to afford a cell and was very lucky to get a kindred soul like Rogelio.  The two actually become friends–talking and reading–and eventually become, dare they say it, lovers.

And they manage to survive in the prison by never upsetting the status quo and being able to read the feeling of the place (Rogelio grew especially good at that when he had nowhere to hide).

Read Full Post »

David Gilbert–“From a Farther Room” (New Yorker, July 22, 2013)

SOUNDTRACK: JOHN MARTYN-“Glory Box” (1998).

I learn about music from the most random places.  The other night we were watching the British dramedy Doc Martin (starring Martin Clunes and the wonderfully awful Lucy Punch).  Punch’s character was talking to a boy who is interested in her.  She mentions Portishead and how great “Glory Biox” is (true) and then they talk about John Martyn’s cover and how it’s even better (not quite).

I’ve heard of Martyn, but only barely.  The boy says that he has all of Martyn’s albums (which seems surprising as he has a lot).

I can’t guess too much about Martyn from this cover, but I’ll guess he’s a bluesy guy.

The cover captures the essence of “Glory Box” and then runs it in a totally new direction–low and rumbly (voices and guitars).  Interestingly, he shifts the song to the male perspective which makes the entire song have a totally different meaning.  Neat trick, that.

I don’t love bluesy music as a rule, but I really like this version.  Not enough to get his other music–and I do like the Portishead version better–but it’ still a nice discovery.

[READ: August 1, 2013] “From a Farther Room”

This story starts off pretty sanely and then quickly jumps in the realm of Wha??

As the story opens we meet Robert Childress.  He is a married man with children.  His family is away for the weekend and his wife has given him her blessing to go out and have fun.  He meets Stearns, a bachelor who takes him out eating and drinking and drinking.  There is talk of a strip club and lap dances but that idea is nixed.  Nevertheless, Childress is very drunk–so much so that he takes a limo home (at what cost?) and then has the bed spins during the night–with the expected result.

So far so normal.

The weirdness comes when he is awoken by his dog.  The dog who is nudging some… thing on the floor.  Which, when Childress looks more closely, reveals itself to be… alive.  Right where he threw up.  Did he throw up a living creature?

Read Full Post »

Joyce Carol Oates–“Mastiff” (New Yorker, July 1, 2013)

SOUNDTRACK: AMANDA PALMER–Live at Newport Folk Festival (2013).

Amanda Palmer has been in the news a lot lately, although more for her actions than for her music.  First she crowdsourced for her album (earning praise and vilification), she gave a TED talk about the experience and recently made the British tabloids because her nipple popped out at the Glastonbury Festival.  (Of course, unlike another famous incident like that. Palmer handled it wonderfully, criticizing not only the Daily Mail but also the entire media industry for caring so much about (female) nudity).  I’ve gained a lot of respect for Palmer in the last year or so and yet I (still) didn’t know all that much about her music.

So there she is at the Newport Folk Festival.  I don’t really know what her “normal” music sounds like, but nearly this whole set was performed on a ukulele (as befits a folk festival).  She plays a few songs on piano and also has some surprise guests–her dad (duetting on Leonard Cohen’s “One of Us Cannot be Wrong” and Neil Gaiman (her husband) coming out to sing the very disturbing song “Psycho”).  She also did a Billy Bragg cover (which was actually a cover of a cover, but Bragg’s version is more well known) of “The World Turned Upside Down.”

The rest of the set included, as I said, mostly ukulele songs (with an occasional foray into piano).  Some highlights include “Map of Tasmania” (a very funny song based on Australian slang) and “Coin-Operated Boy” a Weill-ian song (which is very vulgar).  The rest of the songs are long(ish) meanderings about Palmer and her reactions to life.  Her songs are interesting in their story-telling sensibilities.   Like, “The Bed Song” and “In My Mind” and “Bigger on the Inside” (which is her response to things around her and a fan’s questions to her–it’s very long and rather samey, but lyrically it’s quite effective).   Her delivery is a bit over the top (in perfect theatricality that some will hate).  Her melodies are quite nice (although it must be admitted the piano based song “The Bed Song” has some of the prettiest music)–you can’t really do a lot with melody on the ukulele.

My favorite song is “Ukulele Anthem” a funny song about rocking the ukulele.  I think it speaks to Palmer’s strengths–stream of consciousness, funny and sardonic lyrics set to a simple melody.  It’s a fun song to listen to and see how it evolves.

So overall I enjoyed this set quite a lot.  Although interestingly I still don’t really know what her music normally sounds like.  I assume she doesn’t often play the ukulele, but who knows.  This was an interesting set and Palmer is proving to be a fascinating person.

NPR had this show online although I don’t see it anymore.

[READ: July 30, 2013] “Mastiff”

I read this story the day after I read “Stars,” and while I know there’s no connection between the two, this story also features a woman walking in the woods.  She is also something of a misanthropist (“Sometimes, in the midst of buoyant social occasions, something seemed to switch off.   She could feel a deadness seeping into her, a chilly indifference…and the coldness in her would respond, I don’t give a damn if I ever see any of you again).  And there is a big dog (never described like a wolf but it is about as a big).  That’s a bit too much coincidence for me.   In fact, JCO is so prolific I wouldn’t be surprised if she read McGuane’s story on Monday and wrote her response to it for the following issue.

This story begins with a man and a woman on a trail.  They see a huge mastiff pulling a youngish guy up the trail.  The woman is terrified of the beast (and is embarrassed to have shown that to her boyfriend), but she has a huge sense of relief when the dog and the young man take a different trail.

Her companion makes a joke about the woman’s unease.  They have been dating for a short period and she hated her role in their relationship (she also hated that she was petite which tended to keep her submissive, anyhow).  She resents his comments but says nothing.  They continue hiking.

The man loved to hike and he asked her on this hike as a special treat.  He had told her to pack accordingly but she didn’t listen—no backpack, no extra layer, not even a water bottle.  This seemed to upset him (and made him patronize her).   [We have a third person narrator who is mostly with the woman but occasionally seems to peek into the man’s head—I found this a little disconcerting].  After a few minutes when they reached a plateau (and she was ready to leave), he took out his camera and started taking pictures—more or less ignoring her.

While the man is taking pictures she muses about him and her bad relationships in the past.   She as popular among her fiends, but she was insecure especially around men.  After the dog incident, she had made a point of being friendly to other dog owners (there were a lot on the trail)—just to show him, you know, that she wasn’t afraid.  She also spoke to the strangers, although he wondered, “What’s the point of talking to people you’ll never see again.”

As happens in a story named “Mastiff.” they run into the dog again.  There’s a part earlier in the story where we learn that she was attacked unprovoked by a German Shepard.  Once again, we have an unprovoked dog attack–the mastiff charges at her growling and snarling [although the breed is not known for this].  But then the man jumps in to save her—absorbing much of the abuse himself.

And suddenly the story goes in another direction, with the woman accompanying the man to the hospital, going through his things to find his cards and suddenly feeling much closer to him than she felt that far—being rescued will do that.

There were some wonderful turns of phrase that I liked: “Naked and horizontal, the man seemed much larger than he did clothed and vertical.”  Although I had to take issue with this character owning an art gallery—that easiest of cliche professions—although it wasn’t really relevant to the story.  But aside from that, this was an enjoyable fast paced story.  It explored people’s darker moments and used the dog as a catalyst for human interactions.

Read Full Post »

Thomas McGuane–“Stars” (New Yorker, June 24, 2013)

SOUNDTRACK: NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS-Live at SXSW [excerpt] (2013).

Nick cave performed at SXSW and NPR was there to record the show.

But for reasons only some people know, we only get to hear three of the songs. (Well, technically you can hear the whole thing here, but they only had three songs available for download–the video for which is also at the above link)

“Jubilee Street” builds from a slow piece to a wild and raucous explosion.  It is perfect Nick Cave.  I liked the record’s version okay, but man, live the Seeds just do no wrong—this version is better than the record by a long shot.  “From Her to Eternity” is a blast of excitement belying the age of the song (and of the performers).  It sounds as fresh and raging as it ever did.  “Push the Sky Away” ended the set, and it is a perfect ending to a show.  It’s an atmospheric masterpiece—moody and evocative, stark and enveloping—perfect in this live setting.

I was supposed to see Nick Cave live right after 9/11, but he cancelled his show.  I feel like I missed out on a good one. Maybe I’ll be able to catch him next time.

[READ: July 29, 2013] “Stars”

This story has got to be an excerpt.  There’s just way too much going on and a completely unsatisfying ending for it to be a short story.

As it opens, Jessica is walking through the mountains of Cascade Creek.  She is pleased to be alone—she is something of a misanthropist [“She didn’t play well with others.”].  But as she reaches a meadow, she sees a wolf trapped by its back leg to a stake.  And a man with a  gun.  She immediately runs over and tells the man he can’t kill the wolf [the way this section was set up, i knew she would say this and found her reaction unconvincing at best]. To her surprise, the man is soft-spoken and tells her calmly that even if she were to let it go, it would not show her the same mercy.  She says she’d happily shoot him so that he doesn’t shoot the wolf.  So he gives her the gun and says she’ll never do it.  Which she doesn’t.  And then the man kills the wolf.

The scene shifts to a coffee shop early in the morning.  She looks at the people walking around, and those walking their dogs and thinks maybe she would have been better off is she were a dog.  She is simply different from others. She walks fast everywhere—often people think she is rude when she barges past (and I guess she is– someone called her a “douche cannon” which is bizarre and rather amusing).  And yet for all her difficulties, she was currently seeing someone—Andy.  Andy was boyish and light, the opposite of Jessica’s darkness.  She wasn’t sure if Andy had a job (they hadn’t been dating long), but he did have an office—where she discovered he frequently bedded women. 

Read Full Post »

Rick Bass–In My Home There is No More Sorrow: Ten Days in Rwanda (2012)

SOUNDTRACK: PHISH-LivePhish 01-20 (2000-2002).

To my dismay, my friend Lar recently informed me of a terrible thing that is happening to Phish’s LivePhish series of CDs.  This series came out from 2000-2002 and consisted of 20 CD sets of full concerts.  The “nifty” thing about them was that they were packed in plastic sleeves (4 discs to a sleeve) which had three holes in them so you could store them in a binder (the LivePhish binder with secret pocket for your stash).

Well, it turns out that whatever material they used in the plastic sleeves leeched out of the sleeves and onto the CDs.  For many CDs, it left a goopy residue that wiped off with a little effort.  But on other CDs, the goop actually ate through the paint and, apparently (although I don’t know how) through the music.  When you look at the discs there are clear “holes” in the paint, so you can see right through the disc.  When you play the discs, it ate away at the music as well.

Since this was over a decade ago and Phish is no longer with Elektra and the collections are long out of print, it looks like fans are simply shit out of luck.  I have at least 8 sets that have at least one disc that was eaten away like this.

The shows are available for download at the Phish Dry Goods Store, but then you’re paying $10 for something you already own.

Those sleeves seemed like a great idea, but they clearly weren’t tested for long term durability.

I don’t believe there’s any recourse for this, but if you know of any, do pass it along.  I’m sure fans must have the concerts online somewhere too, but that’s not the point.  Seeing as how the sets are fetching as much as $300 on eBay (which I’m sure no one is paying), there was the possibility that these would have collector’s value.  But clearly not anymore.  Major buzzkill.

[READ: July 29, 2013] In My Home There is No More Sorrow

This book came with McSweeney’s 40.  It is a book unto itself, hardbound and with its own ISBN, so I didn’t feel compelled to read it right then (especially given that the subject was Rwanda and it didn’t seem like an especially happy book to be reading).

But I decided now I was up for it and so in I dove.  And it’s not an especially happy book to be reading.

Bass is a writer with many books to his credits (although I didn’t know him).  He was sent to Rwanda on an assignment.  I gather that as part of the assignment he was sent to teach a writing workshop to local writers.  (The actual purpose of the trip, as far as logistics goes, is a little vague I must say).

At any rate, bass and his family (his wife and teenaged daughter) went to Rwanda for ten days.  And the first few days are as harrowing as one might expect.  I was familiar with the atrocities in Rwanda, but only insofar as I had heard bits and pieces of the story from the news.  I had no idea about the extent of the violence–millions of Tutsis killed by Hutus.  Nor the extent of the way the survivors have dealt with the atrocities in the seventeen years since they happened.  Which is: they have created shrines to the dead and in many cases have not cleaned up or in any way hidden what happened.

And so , we have churches with blood on the walls where people were murdered (I will spare some of the details of the way the children were killed, but I will certainly never forget it).  The family also goes to a shrine where the bodies were exhumed and placed in this area for fuller viewing.  And the creepiest thing about this shrine is that the bodies were packed so tightly in the mass grave–with no oxygen and with quicklime poured on them , that they did not really decompose–they were more or less mummified–their skin just sort of shriveled.  These bodies are practically like living skeletons, left ion their death poses.  That’s another image I will not be able to expunge from my mind any time soon.

Read Full Post »

Michelle Tea–Mermaid in Chelsea Creek (2013)

SOUNDTRACK: HEY MARSEILLES-Live at the Newport Folk Festival (2013). 

For reasons I’m unclear about, the first two songs (at least the first two listed on the NPR web page, (“To Travels & Trunks” and”Gasworks”) ) are not included in the download.  But we do get the band’s introduction of themselves.  So maybe the NPR list is wrong?  Weirder things have happened.

The band drove all the way from Seattle and are pleased to announce that they are the first band to play the Festival (a nice, if insignificant piece of trivia).

Regardless, we get a solid 35 minute set.  The band opens with “Heart Beats,” a folky song.  Indeed, Hey Marseilles continues the tradition of large bands (6 members at last counting) who play folk music with lots of unexpected(ish) instruments.  But the singer sounds quite a bit like Ben Gibbard.  Indeed that first song sounds like a less commercial Death Cab for Cutie—you keep expecting a big commercial chorus to come but it doesn’t, and there’s something very satisfying about them not giving it to us.

Although the band does sounds quite a bit like DCFC (both in the voice and the arrangements), their instrumentation brings an unfamiliarity to the songs that makes them so intriguing—like when the accordion pops up put of nowhere in “From a terrace.”  Or other songs where strings fill out a song–not in a “look we’re unplugged” sort of way but as  natural part of the song.  I really enjoyed their songs and may track down their CDs (and their cool scarf).

[READ: July 3, 2013] Mermaid in Chelsea Creek

This was the second YA book that McSweeney’s has released.  It is (say it with me) the first book in a trilogy.   And I have to say that I really didn’t like the first 100 pages.

There were a number of small things that kept me interested, but for the most part I found the story pretty dreadful.  On a personal note I really didn’t like that the Chelsea Creek was not revealed to be in the Boston area until very far into the story.  I hated that it was so specific (Chelsea) and yet so generic (which of the dozens of Chelseas was it?).  But more importantly I hated that Sophie (the protagonist) and her friend Ella, play the ‘pass-out” game.  In the game, one of the girls chokes herself until she passes out.  The other girl watches and wakes the first up after about 30 seconds.  This is what they do for fun  This is their cheap high.  And it constitutes a large part of the beginning of the story.  So much so that when her mother finds out about it, she tells her doctor.  And what made it all the crazier was that her doctor reveals that not only did she play the pass out game as  a girl but she is sure her mother did too.  And her mother says yes.  What the fuck?  Oh and her mother is mean and overworked and exhausted and generally always ready to fight with Sophie.

I imagine that if I had another book with me on vacation I would have put this down and read that one instead.  But I pressed on, mostly because when Sophie passed out she saw a mermaid in Chelsea Creek, a filthy sewage filled river.  (The fact that Ella is a germophobe is quite funny, especially when Sophie falls into the creek when she passes out).  That kept me interested as did Dr Chen (the above doctor).  Because the Doctor keeps pigeons on her roof and she has tied flutes to some of their tails so that they make beautiful music when they fly.  This scene was so good–so briefly magical–that I forgave the rest of the book and gave it a blank slate.  I was bummed when the pigeons went away, but was delighted when they came back a little later, once the magic began for real.

And there is magic aplenty.  Especially as Sophie learns more and more about her family and neighborhood.

Read Full Post »

Max Barry–Lexicon (2013)

SOUNDTRACK: FRANK TURNER & THE SLEEPING SOULS Live at the Newport Folk Festival (2013).

Whenever NPR streams and saves festivals shows, I like to check out the bands I love (of course), but I also check out some of the bands I’d never heard of before.  And sometimes it leads to a fantastic discovery.  Like Frank Turner.  I had no idea who he was, but he was described as folk-punk which is quite accurate.  He reminds me of Billy Bragg in his younger, harder days.  Turner is British, he has a very thick accent when he sings and while he is nowhere near as political as Bragg, he treads in that same line of folkiness.

His lead off track, “Four Simple Words” (the words are “I Want to Dance”) begins as a folkie song, but it quickly morphs into a rollicking stomper (louder than most bands at Newport, he theorizes).  But a song like “Try This at Home” seems to speak to his overall ethos—music for the people by the people:

Because there’s no such thing as rock stars There’s just people who play music
And some of them are just like us And some of them are dicks
So quick, turn off your stereo Pick up that pen and paper
Yeah, you could do much better Than some skinny half-arsed English country singer

There are a few more specifically pointed messages like “Glory Hallelujah,” whose chorus goes “There is no-o-o God, so clap your hands together.”  As well as a funny (but not really) song which he introduces as being written because he read Gene Simmons’ autobiography.  Simmons says he slept with 4,600 some women which he knows because he has taken a Polaroid of each one.  Turner is appalled “what an ass” and wrote “Wherefore Art Thou, Gene Simmons” as a response.

But the majority of songs are about love and life, going home again and playing music.  And, in this live setting Turner is fantastic—getting the crowd to sing along, having great banter and being a wonderful showman.

The final song is a great sing-along with the simple but effective chorus of: “I won’t sit down and I won’t shut up.  And most of all I will not grow up.”  I’m totally enjoying Turner’s music and now I’m going to have to check out his actual releases (he has four or five).  See more about him at his website.

[READ: July 20, 2013] Lexicon.

Virginia Woolf has gotten a hold of a word which has caused untold destruction in a small town in Australia.  W.B. Yeats has sent T.S. Eliot and a non-poet named Wil to get the word back and, if possible to kill Virginia Woolf.

Intrigued?  Yeah me too.

I saw this book in Barnes & Noble and was really excited that Barry had a new book out.  And when I pointed it out to Sarah she said , “I already have a hold on it.”  So, when it came in I took it from her pile and now it has to go back before she gets a chance to read it.

Imprinted in the crazy cover image are a series of odd characters and amid them it says 4 why did you do it.  I was trying to figure out if there was more to this secret message, but there isn’t.  However, it is a clue to what lies inside.

I guess in the grand scheme of things, the story is pretty simple (if not a little confusing).  What I laid out above is the skeletal outline; however, Barry interweaves the story with past and future (and a whole lot of mind control) and he begins the book right in the middle of utter chaos.

Read Full Post »