I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: SQUEEZE-Singles 45s and Under (1982).

This record came out in 1982. When I was in college in the late 80s, we used to joke that every freshman was issued a copy of Steve Miller’s Greatest Hits, because it was played virtually every day by someone. It seemed that Squeeze’s Greatest Hits may have been issued as an alternate. I never really thought much of this record back then. I enjoyed it, especially “Pulling Mussels From a Shell,” but I never really considered the quality of the record. Since then I learned that Difford and Tilbrook are up there with Lennon and McCartney and Jagger and Richards, or, if not that grand, at least with Forster and McLennon of the Go Betweens. So I grabbed this CD to play at a party and gave it some scrutiny, and I have to say it is a terrific album. I know for a Greatest Hits, it should be, but man, they can write songs that are stories, or observational or even funny and yet not sound twee or noveltyish. In fact, there is a lot about the songs on this CD that border on novelty, and yet they never cross the line into farce. There are strange sounds (especially for the time), there are different vocals styles, there are bizarro lyrics (what is “Pulling Mussels from a Shell” about, anyhow?), and yet it all stands up so well. Our man Richard Thompson even included “Tempted” on his 1000 Years of Popular Music quest. Strangely, I have never sought out anything else, either by Squeeze, or by the solo artists. This is particularly unusual for me, as I normally like to work around just the Greatest Hits. Somehow, though, this records seems to really hit the nail on the head. Wonder if I need to delve into them a little more though…

[READ: Fall 2006] JPod.

I fall smack into Generation X. I am practically its poster child. So, when Coupland’s Gen X book came out, I was all over it. I loved everything about it, the content, the design, the humor. Everything. This also coincided with a whole bunch of slacker-inspired art, but somehow, Coupland became the spokesperson for us all. Since then, Coupland has simultaneously been rather prolific and also kept a low profile (at least here in the U.S.) I have tried to keep up with his work, but it seemed like something always prevented me from reading him when I wanted to.

For instance, I brought Girlfriend in a Coma to read on my flight to Vancouver (ideal, I thought), but then the opening of the book describes a horrific plane crash. Needless to say, that book was not read at that time. Then there was Hey Nostradamus, with such an incredibly unappealing cover (again, yes, judging books by their covers); but Coupalnd is known for his visual represenation (at least in Canada), so it took me a while to read that one.

Speaking of Coupland and Canada, if you like his work generally, you should check out his nonfiction works. Here’s his official website, and his books Souvenir of Canada (1 & 2) are really cool works of photographic essays. He also worked a lot with Canadian magazines. I seem to recall him being a guest editor or something of a magazine I bought while I was in Torornto, but I don’t remember the name. At any rate, the man is prolific in his homeland.

So, let’s move on to JPod. On the surface it seems like a lame joke about iPods. And yet, it’s not. This is an office book similar to the great Microserfs. JPod was pretty largely criticized as not living up to the promise of Microserfs (which, all in all, sounds like a criticism levelled at we gen xers in general, so maybe that was the meta-point). But regardless of that, I found the book to be very funny, and incredibly dark. One of the critiques was that the book “wasted” a lot of space by inserting visual “jokes,” if you will. Pages and pages of binary code, or digits of pi, or other page-filling sections that do nothing to advance the plot. These same criticisms were levelled at Laurence Sterne with Tristram Shandy, way back when, and while Tristam is not exactly a spiritual father to that book, (that would be Pynchon’s Crying of Lot 49) there is certainly some connection to the manipulation of text and and the appearance of artistic layout. Maybe that makes the book superficial. Again, that seems to be the point, the superficiality of office jobs in general, and, perhaps life, in particular.

I’ll tell you that JPod stands for a group of people working in a cubicle “pod” whose last names all start with the letter J. But it’s also a funny/lame joke about iPods, and consumer culture. They work as video game programmers, and a continuing joke throughout the book is that the game they are working on is constantly be morphed from above, first being one type of game, then being another, more action-packed game that “the kids” will enjoy); however, the higher ups don’t want them to change any major aspects of the programing. The group ultimately decides to rebel by inserting an Easter Egg or cheat of some sort that will be akin to tagging their names on their work for all to see. It’s just that their Easter Egg is really bizarre and involves Ronald McDonald.

Speaking of bizarre, the subplots throughout the work are really strange, especially for a pretty grounded writer like Coupland. There are Chinese gangsters who abduct one of the J’s, one character’s mom grows pot for a living, and, the most meta-subplot comes when two characters run into “Douglas Coupland” who, it turns out, is a real asshole. He steals the main character’s laptop diary with the intention of publishing it as his latest book. And, since this book is in diary form….

Anyhow, I enjoyed this book very much. It may not be the best book ever, but it is certainly fun, just don’t try to find the wrong digit in the pi sequence, no one is THAT bored.