[LISTENED TO: January 2017] A Dragon’s Guide to the Care and Feeding of Humans
We listened to this book on our recent trip to Vermont.
It was utterly unnerving to have the delightful Susan Denaker read this book because she was the author of the Penderwicks series which we love. And her voice of Batty in that series is identical to the voice of the main girl, Winnie in this series. But once we got past that (and it did take a while, we found this story to be fun and enjoyable.
But this story went in a direction I absolutely was not expecting–especially based on the title.
Each chapter has a heading like in an instruction manual for the care and feeding of Humans: If you value your happiness and sanity, take your time and choose your pet wisely. To train your pet you will need three things patience, patience and above all patience.
And it seems to start out with that premise in mind.
For this book is narrated by a dragon, known as Miss Drake. As the story opens, Miss Drake is in mourning because her pet, Fluffy, has died. Fluffy is the name she gave to Amelia, and older lady whom the dragon appeared to. When Fluffy died Miss Drake planned on going to sleep for 20 or 30 years to get over it. But just two days later, a little girl waltzed into her den–the girl had the key and everything! (more…)
I was in a sub shop the other day and saw a poster for Tigers Jaw playing (somewhat) locally. That was pretty neat as I had just seen that they played a Tiny Desk Concert. I hadn’t heard of them, but I was pretty excited to think that bands are willing to put up fliers around here.
The blurb says that the band “at one point, made yelping and earnest pop-punk before finding its way to intricate, and melancholy, pop.”
After the lineup shake-up three years ago, Ben Walsh and Brianna Collins both step into larger roles as the primary songwriters and singers, here playing songs from spin [their debut] stripped down to an acoustic guitar and keyboard.
They play three songs.
On “Guardian” the melodies are fantastic. I love the simple but powerful keys that occasionally play over Ben’s strummed guitars. And his chord choices are really interesting and unconventional. He has a really good voice and when she sings her harmonies during the chorus it’s really very lovely.
On “June,” Brianna takes over lead vocals and there’s some more prominent piano in the verse as swell. Her lead vocal voice sounds like a whole bunch of 1990’s female singers that I love and this song feels like it could easily have come from that era–Ben’s deeper harmonies are a nice addition.
“Window” has as simple but pretty piano. They sing a duet and sound great together.
There’s nothing new or outrageous about this band. They just play pretty music and sound great doing it.
[READ: December 15, 2010] “The Yellow”
I really enjoy a character who is judgmental and insecure. And that’s what we get here.
The story begins with coyotes and babies, but it’s really about a woman, a recent mother, who is concerned about her marriage. And a whole lot more.
She states:
Every real thing started life as an idea. I’ve imagined objects and moments into existence. I’ve made humans. I tip taxi-drivers ten, twenty dollars every time they don’t rape me.
But what has been keeping her up at night is that it has been 8 months since she and her husband had sex. She quips, “I had great hopes that the threat of Lyme disease would revitalize our sex life: will you check me for ticks.” But sadly for her, Lyme disease never really took off in California as it did on the West Coast. (more…)
I recently found out about Penguin Cafe from a piece on All Songs Considered. I learned that Penguin Cafe Orchestra was responsible for some cool/unusual classical/pop recordings back in he 1970s and 1980s. And it’s likely that if you listened to NPR back then, you heard some of their music.:
The music of Penguin Cafe is like no other. Its origins date back to the early ’70s, within fever dreams Simon Jeffes had that were brought on by food poisoning. In those dreams he imagined a dispassionate world “where everyone lived in big concrete blocks and spent their lives looking into screens. In one room, there was a couple making love lovelessly. In another there was a musician sat at a vast array of equipment, but with headphones on, so there was no actual music in the room.” Eerily accurate.
But he also imagined a place, the Penguin Cafe, where folks could gather, for pleasure, cheer and music. He wanted to hear what that music would sound like, and so created the Penguin Cafe Orchestra. I was always a huge fan of that original music; listeners of NPR may have heard it often in-between news stories during the many years I directed All Things Considered.
But Penguin Cafe Orchestra is no more.
While Simon Jeffes died in 1997, his son Arthur has been creating new music infused with his father’s original inspiration. He calls his group, simply, Penguin Cafe. You can hear Brazilian sounds in the rhythms, classical and minimalism in the strings, Asia in its harmonium, African sounds in the kalimbas. But honestly, it’s none of these; it’s a universal dream state.
If you’re looking to explore further be sure the listen to Penguin Cafe’s recent album The Imperfect Sea, which nods to Kraftwerk, Simian Mobile Disco and Franz Schubert. It’s none of these.
The band has a lot of strings: Oli Langford (violin) Clementine Brown (violin) Vincent Greene (viola) Andy Waterworth (double bass). There’s also a ukulele (Des Murphy) which you can’t hear too often, but it is notable on the final song.
“Wheels Within Wheels” is cover of a song by Simian Mobile Disco. It is nearly five minutes long with slow, building strings and a simple melody that seems to be never ending as it remains the same while the backing chords change. In addition to the strings, there’s a guy (Neil Codling) playing a dulcitone on top of the real piano (he’s holding his hand up by the end). And the percussionist (Darren Berry) seems to have a wooden plank to play on. He uses mallets on the wood to get quite a deep sound. It’s a really fun piece.
“Protection” has a catchy piano motif (played by Arthur with outstretched arm on the dulcitone) in 7/8 time. But everyone else plays in 4/4, so the motif changes every time. After a few bars, it switches to the real piano and the strings are really lovely while that’s going on. The ducitone player has switched to a large ukulele and the percussion consists of drums sticks on the piece of wood–fast clicking sounds.
“Ricercar” is an old renaissance Italian term. At the beginning of a fugue you embed a theme that is expounded on later. This song opens the album and few themes come back later in the album. Jeffes plays a quiet melody on the dulcitone. About half way through the song he opens the piano and seems to be dampening the strings with his hand while playing the notes. The percussion includes a shaker and the mallets on the wood once again. It’s upbeat and catchy and a lot of fun.
This is a really enjoyable show–classical music for people who like to have fun as well. As far as the original band goes, if you’ve heard anything by Penguin Cafe Orchestra, it’s probably this piece: “Music for a Found Harmonium.”
[READ: June 24, 2016] Amulet: The Stonekeeper
I have really enjoyed Kibuishi’s Explorer collections, so it seemed sensible to try out his Amulet as well. And what a great, interesting and unusual story it is.
Although I must admit I was pretty shocked by the fact that the main characters Emily and Navin are in a car accident in the prologue and their father is killed. What a way to start!
After the death of their father, the family (Emily, Navin and their mom) move out to an old country estate to get some perspective on things. As they begin to clean up the old house, they go into a room of inventions by their ancestor Silas Charnon. The story is that Charnon went missing one day and was never heard from again. While Emily is looking over some books, a creepy ghost creatures hovers behind her.
Navin and Emily look around (they don’t see the ghost) and soon, Emily puts her hand on a hand-shaped plate and a necklace–an amulet–is revealed. Emily puts it on and when Navin complains, she says he can wear it tomorrow. But that night the amulet speaks to her. It tells her to stay with her family and keep the safe–they are in danger. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: TROKER-Tiny Desk Concert #620 May 19, 2017).
Troker has instantly jumped to being my favorite jazz band. And why is that? because they have a turntablist and he is outstanding. He adds sound effects, solos and all kinds of great additions to their jazzy fare and elevates it to someplace exciting.
Which is not to stay that their jazz is poor, because it’s not at all. There’s a groovy keyboard sound, a sax, a trumpet and a fantastic bassist
“Principe Charro” begins with some fun keys (from Christian Jimenez) and a high bass line (from Samo Gonzalez) before the band enter the main horn riffs (all with a groovy bass line underneath). But it’s those turntables (from DJ Sonicko) that really stand out. I feel like in many songs you can’t always tell when a turntable is active, but it’s really apparent in this set. Check out around the 1:15 mark while there’s a solo and the turntable is doing a solo of its own–or adding effects to the end of the solos. And there’s a great moment around 2:30 where the turntable and trumpeter (Chay Flores) have a duel–all with a very cool, deep bassline underneath. There’s a sensational break with a great cheer before the song starts again–with the crowd fully behind them now.
“One Thousand Million Eyes” is normally an instrumental song (as most of their songs are), but they have a vocalist Solange Prat to sing lyrics. It’s interesting that the lyrics are in English since the band is from Guadalajara, Mexico and they speak only in Spanish (with subtitles!). There’s some outstanding turntable effects on this song–cool spacey sounds and what not. I like Prat’s voice, but I’m digging the instrumental side more.
I love the way the music starts out with some cool sounds from the turntable. And that thumping bass.
“Chapala Blues” is about a lake that’s near where they live. It’s got a great bass riff to open–slow and loping-with some great atmospheric sounds from the turntable. There’s even whale songs. The middle of the song has a great drum “solo” (from Frankie Mares) which isn’t really a solo, just the drummer having a ball while the horns are playing quieter music. Midway through, it gets very atmospheric with some cool synth sounds and a lone sax (from Chay Flores).
“Tequila Death” begins with some ticking clock sounds and a somewhat menacing, but then funky, bass line with a cool fuzzy effect on it). Like the other songs it is fun and dancabale. During the breaks they sample (on the turntable) the “one, two, tres, quatro” from “Wooly Bully” by Sam the Sham & the Pharaohs. It’s a great set and I really hope I can see them live sometime.
[READ: April 3, 2017] “Signal”
I enjoyed Lanchester’s previous story which was also about a very rich person in London. In this story it’s not the protagonist who is rich, rather it is his old, dear friend. Although, “Michael wasn’t my oldest friend and he wasn’t my closest friend, but he was older than any of the ones who were closer and closer than any of the ones who were older, so he had a special status, as part of the furniture of my life, the kind of friend who when you’re asked how you met you have to think for a while to remember.” I love that.
But the crux was that Michael was his richest friend–by a long shot. The story begins with the narrator telling his children “You aren’t allowed to ask for the Wi-Fi password before you say hello,” The kids point out that Uncle Mike is nice and won’t care. And the dad says, “that that is true, it’s just not what you do.” “You chat for a bit, and then you ask for the Wi-Fi password. It’s just one of the rules.”
I love also that the narrator doesn’t exactly seem to know why Michael is so rich. “He’d drifted through Cambridge doing something scientific–engineering or maths, I think it was.” And then after “going off to try something a bit different…he had ascended to some new stratosphere of international wealth.”
And, since he and his family were genuine friends of Michael, they reaped the rewards of that lifestyle whenever they hung out. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: SARAH JAROSZ-Tiny Desk Concert #324 (December 7, 2013).
I know Sarah Jarosz’ name from somewhere (anything spelled like tha I’ll remember), but I’m not sure where. It turns out that Jarosz plays awesome bluegrass.
Perhaps I’d heard of her because of her youth:
The singer and multi-instrumentalist first surfaced as an 18-year-old wunderkind with the release of 2009’s Song Up In Her Head, which generated the first of what will likely be many Grammy nominations; now a grizzled 22, she’s out performing songs from her fine new third album, Build Me Up From Bones.
performed with the aid of fiddler Alex Hargreaves and cellist . All
“Over the Edge” has a great riff. It starts out with Jarosz’ guitar (which is an 8-string guitar: twinned four string, so almost like a bass and yet strummed). She’s accompanied by a plucked cello (by Nathaniel Smith). And then her voice comes in: distinctive, raspy and really lovely. But it’s after the first verse when the guitar and cello both play that fast 8 note riff that the song really kicks into bluegrass territory. In the middle of the song, it’s fiddler Alex Hargreaves who throws in some great bluegrass fiddling lines. It’s swinging and rollicking and really fun.
“Build Me Up from Bones” is more folk sounding—her voice is beautiful and the melody of this song (which she plays on that 8 string guitar) is outstanding. There’s a cool alt-folk tone to the song, especially in the bridge. The cello is bowed, giving a rich sound before the violin (rather than fiddle) solo comes in.
For “Fuel The Fire” she switches to banjo. This is a great bluegrass song and that banjo sounds great. I’d love to see a double bill with her and Punch Brothers.
[READ: November 12, 2016] Gunnerkrigg Court 3 [23-31]
I really enjoyed book 2 of the series and was pretty exited to see that book 3 was already out–in fact books 4 and five have been released, too. This book collects Siddell’s online series–for frame of reference, this book ends with chapter 31 and as of May 2017 he is up to chapter 62 online.
I loved that Chapter 23 started with a totally different style–looking like a kind of sci-fi epic (and called Terror Castle of the Jupiter Moon Martians). But we quickly learn that this new look is a simulation–a kind of test for the main kids. But it’s very poorly made and they solve the mystery almost instantly. This plot leads to a couple of interesting revelations. That Parley has a thing for Smitty (everyone can tell but the two of them), and that Jones is becoming a fascinating and enigmatic important character. Reynard is also even funnier with his comeback “I think you detect a hint of shut your face” which Anni responds to with “Hah, Katerina must be helping you with your comebacks.”
The simulation room also allows for us to learn more about the origins of Reynard and Coyote. (more…)
Ashley Monroe is a country singer. She’s part of the new way of female country singers, most of whom I don’t really like.
But some of the folks at NPR music love country, so I’ll let the blurb do the talking for me:
The title track from Like a Rose tells an optimistic story of survival, the ambivalent ballad “You Got Me” chronicles ill-advised romantic obsession, and, of course, the Top 40 country hit “Weed Instead of Roses” functions as a playful, fun-loving mission statement. Speaking of “Weed Instead of Roses,” which closes this charming performance, Monroe says the straitlaced [Vince] Gill insisted upon the song’s inclusion on Like a Rose — even going so far as to declare it a condition of his producing the album. The guy knew what he was talking about, both in his support of the song and of Monroe herself.
“Like a Rose” is almost comical in how stereotypically country it starts out: “I was only 13 when daddy died /Mama started drinking and my brother just quit trying.” Good lord. At least it has a positive message.
She says that the melody for “You Got Me” came to her in her sleep and woke her up.
“Weed Instead of Roses” is a song she wrote as a joke when she was 19. She says her grandpappy first heard the lyric as “give me weeds as well as roses” and he thought that was right on because the weeds are just as important as the roses.
The song is definitely fun (and funny) but the whole set is way too twangy country for me. And IO find her back up guitarist/vocalist to be even more whiny/twangy than her. Yipes.
[READ: February 26, 2015] Gunnerkrigg Court 2 [15-22]
I was originally mixed on Volume 1 of this series, but I jumped right into this one and loved it from start to finish (even if I admit to not understanding everything that was going on).
The book, which compiles chapters 15-22 and some extras, doesn’t begin with any kind of recap, so you kind of have to catch up as you go along.
We meet the fairy from beyond the river who was turned into a girl. She is very upset that her friend is no longer friends with her. She assumes it’s because of her hair (which is now long). In an amusing sequence, she believes that if she cuts her hair short and spiky she will be friends again (with some other girl). She is delighted to learn she can cut her hair and it doesn’t hurt (then she attempts to cut off her finger).
But these cute one-off chapters are strategically placed between the more serious arc, which involves the awesome looking Muut (an owl head on a hunky man’s body) and the introduction of a short-haired woman who might be a teacher and who goes by the name Jones. She is a wise woman and an amazing fighter (she shows off by beating a man wielding a sword while she is unarmed). (more…)
Waxahatchee is pretty much Katie Crutchfield. The band recently played a show near me and I wondered if it was a band or just her.
This might be as intimate as hearing Katie Crutchfield sing in her basement. That’s where she and her sister would play guitar, write and sing songs 10 years ago, when she was 14. Katie and Allison Crutchfield had a band back in Birmingham together, The Ackleys; these days, Katie performs as Waxahatchee, while Allison’s band is called Swearin’.
The songs Waxahatchee brought to the NPR Music offices aren’t just stripped down for this Tiny Desk Concert, this is Katie Crutchfield as Waxahatchee, spare and exposed; this is what she does. Sometimes there’s a drummer (her sister’s boyfriend Kyle Gilbride) and at other times another guitarist, her boyfriend Keith Spencer (both play in Swearin’), but even on Waxahatchee’s second album, Cerulean Salt, there are plenty of bare-boned songs. This is intimate music for an intimate setting, as we got to stand in careful silence, listening intently and capturing this frail and powerful performance.
And all of that is true. These are pretty, quiet folk songs. They are so quiet it almost seems like she doesn’t have her amp on—you can hear her pick striking against the strings.
To me the power of these songs is in the lyrics, and yet the music isn’t boring or simple either. Her chords are always, if not interesting, then certainly spot on. But I keep coming back to the lyrics. Like the end of “I Think I Love You”
I want you so bad it’s devouring me / and I think I love you but you’ll never find out.
Her speaking voice is quiet too, and after the first song she admits, “This is one of the coolest things I have ever gotten to do.”
“Bathtub” has this wonderfully intense line:
And I tell you not to love me
But I still kiss you when I want to
And I lament, you’re innocent
But somehow the object of my discontent
And it’s fucked up, I let you in
Even though I’ve seen what can happen
The entire Tiny Desk Concert is only 9 minutes–which is simply too short. I know that the Tiny Desk Concerts usually have bands play 3 songs, but when they are mostly short ones like “Tangled Envisioning” (not even 3 minutes), they could tack on an extra one or two.
[READ: August 30, 2016] Science: Ruining Everything Since 1543
Zach Weinersmith writes the daily webcomic Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. I supported the Kickstarter project for this book because it looked frankly hilarious. The one thing I have to say off the bat is that I don’t love his drawing style. There’s something about it that I simply can’t get into. Even after two full books of these drawings, it just never gels for me. But that’s fine. because I’m here for the jokes. And they are awesome.
The book is comprised of the best religion-themes comic from the 13 years that SMBC has been around. There’s also a whole slew of comics that are exclusive to this book.
We are greeted with this: “For these drawings, the part of God is played by a giant yellow disc.” (more…)
