SOUNDTRACK: BOB MOULD-Tiny Desk Concert #381 (August 11, 2014).
Man, I leave the Tiny Desk concert area for a little while and they have loaded up ten shows already! How will I ever catch up? But more importantly, one of them is with Bob Mould! How about that? Mould has a new album out which I have been enjoying, but it’s really fun to see him in this Tiny Desk setting–just him and his electric guitar, bashing out four songs in 13 minutes and still playing in that low-slung style.
His voice still sounds great (even if it is a little disconcerting to see the bald, gray-bearded man with glasses who replaced the bratty punk Mould of old).
He plays two new songs from Beauty and Ruin “The War” and “Hey Mr. Grey.” He also plays an older solo song: “I Don’t Know You Anymore.” And since he’s playing them all from his fuzzy amp, they sound great together (even if the new stuff isn’t quite as catchy). After some chatting, he ends the set with a classic Hüsker Dü song, “Makes No Sense At All.”
It’s great to see him being funny and charming. And it’s even better to have him back and rocking.
[READ: August 1, 2014] Bone: Quest for the Spark 1
Many years ago I read and loved the Bone series. I have all of the books and even bought the individual issues (back when I collected comic books…they must be worth half of face value by now!). C. even started reading the Bone books a while back (we love saying “Stupid Stupid Rat Creatures” to each other).
But I honestly haven’t thought much about the series since then. So I was shocked to see this “new” book at the library. And even more shocked to see Shiegoski’s name on it (instead of Jeff Smith’s (which is there, fear not)). And then triply shocked to see that it is a novel with a few pictures and not a graphic novel at all. Whoa, consider my mind blown.
So this story takes place years after the events of the Bone series. Gran’ma Ben is still around and Thorn is queen now. But as the Prologue states, Queen Thorn is unwell. She is in a deep sleep and is ice cold. And Gran’ma Ben has the gitchy feeling that things are not okay. if none of that makes sense to you it’s because you’ve never read Bone. So, in a nutshell, most of the characters are people, but the Bone family are small, white, ghost-like creatures, very cartoony in a human world. They’re adorable and funny.
The heroes from the first series, Fone, Phoney and Smiley are not in this story. But there are Bones. Percival F. Bone is an adventurer. But he has to curb his adventuring spirit because he is watching his niece and nephew, Abbey and Barclay. The twins are always bickering because Abbey is 2 minutes older. But they are usually bickering to try to do more work aboard Percy’s ship Queen of the Sky. And yet they are nervous about his adventures because their own parents went on an adventure to the Valley and have not returned.
There are also humans. Tom Elm is the young protagonist of this story. He is a turnip farmer, or at least he is the son of a turnip farmer. His best friend is a raccoon named Roderick. Roderick talks, but only Tom can hear him. Lately, Tom has been having bad dreams, dark dreams.
There is also Randolf Clearmeadow, a Veni Yan monk, or former monk anyhow. He is now just a drunk. But he too has feelings from the Dreaming (the place which is harassing Tom so much).
And of course, there are Rat Creatures. There are two main, dopey ones like the Stupid Stupid Rat Creatures of old. They are excited to have a squirrel carcass (one of them names it Frederick). But they have stolen it from their leader (not Kingdok, but King Agak–who is just as fearsome).
One night, Tom is visited by a woman who has materialized out of trees and sticks. Her name is Lorimar and she is a spirit of the First Folk who lives in any organic materials. She says that Tom has been having visions from The Dreaming. The Nacht is coming to try to take over the Valley. And he sees a vision of people falling asleep into darkness. When he wakes, he family is consumed by the Nacht as well. Lorimar says it is his Quest to save the Valley from the Nacht.
Unsurprisingly, he needs to be helped by Percy and his niece and nephew. They rescue Randolf from jail and, very surprisingly, are told that they need the two rat creatures as well.
And once all of the pieces are lined up, that’s when the adventure really begins, in book two.
I didn’t love this book as much as the graphic novels. Perhaps I’m just used to the dialogue, and the extra words may have slowed the story down somewhat. It’s also a wee bit hard to get into the new characters. The old ones are so iconic, that I just want them to come back. The new ones are interesting but aren’t quite as interesting as the older ones (at least not yet). At the same time, it was wonderful to see all of the new art from Jeff Smith.
I’m intrigued enough to read book two, I just have to remember about it next time I go to the library.
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