SOUNDTRACK: PINBACK-“Fortress” (2004).
My friend Jay just introduced me to this band. I’m surprised I didn’t know them since they have been on Touch & Go Records and now Temporary Residence, two labels that I like.
He didn’t suggest any particular songs to start with, but this was the first one that came up with a search.
Over a simple guitar line a quiet voice sings near-whispered lines. The bridge moves up an octave or so, but keeps the gentle sway of the song. The chorus adds an angular dimension to the vocals but doesn’t change the gentle guitar melody–it’s an interesting example of contrasts working well together.
It’s a very pretty song and what I like about it is that based on just this one song, their other songs could go in any direction from here–more angular, more mellow, even heavier. I’m looking forward to hearing more from them.
[READ: September 29, 2013] The Strange Case of Origami Yoda
Clark brought home the second book in this series (Darth Paper Strikes Back) and seemed to enjoy it. I didn’t really know anything about the series so I decided to check it out, especially since we enjoyed Angleberger’s other books so very much.
This is a fairly simple story of some kids in 6th grade. Tommy is a sort of uncool kid. He’s shy and has no luck with girls. He’s not picked on (I liked that this story never got really nasty), but he’s certainly not a cool kid or a jock. He’s the perfect underdog character. For this book, he is assembling a case file about Origami Yoda.
Origami Yoda was created by Dwight. Dwight is a weird kid. We hear from his neighbor that she used to see him digging holes in his back yard and then sitting in them for hours. Dwight doesn’t seem to care about much–he wears crazy clothes, doesn’t do great in school and, weirdest of all, he wears an origami Yoda puppet on his finger. Seemingly all the time (possibly even in the bathroom).
But the thing is that people have been asking Yoda questions and he (well Dwight, with the worst imitation of Yoda ever) answers them. And, weirder still, the advice seems to be very good. Which is especially weird because Dwight is not very smart and doesn’t seem to follow any of the advice that Yoda gives to others. So what gives?
Tommy’s case file includes several examples of Yoda helping people. Each example is followed by Harvey’s dismissive comment. Harvey is Tommy’s friend who thinks that Dwight is weird and that this Yoda is just a dumb green paperwad. Harvey has pretty reasonable criticisms of everything Yoda says. However, while some of the things that Yoda says seem like common sense (according to Harvey) how does Yoda know there will be a pop quiz? (and why did Dwight do badly on it if he told others about it?) And how does Yoda seem to know if the girls in class actually like the boys?
The story is overall very funny. It seems true to sixth grade (the teasing seems genuine although perhaps a little sweeter than real teasing–I hope that the worst that ever happens to a sixth grader is to be called Cheeto Hog). And the ending was surprisingly sweet, tying up a lot of loose ends.
I’m not sure what my third grader would think of this story since it is mostly about boys and girls and he doesn’t actually like girls yet, but I’ll bet he would enjoy most of the short stories (and the drawings).
There’s also instructions for how to make your own Origami Yoda, which is quite thoughtful.
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