I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: HÜSKER DÜ-Warehouse: Songs and Stories (1987).

My friend Al, who introduced me to Marillion, also introduced me to Hüsker Dü (go figure). And he did so with this album. I think for big time Hüsker fans, this is something of a sellout, but for me, it is such a great poppy punk record. And it is clearly a lead-in to Bob Mould’s far more commercial solo stuff. I guess what is amazing to me is how it’s a pretty noisy album, and yet it was considered a sellout. By today’s standards, sure, it’s pretty commercial, but back in 1987, it was still cutting edge.

This album got me to check out the back catalog of Hüsker Dü records on SST. Even the crazy Land Speed Record on Alternative Tentacles (it’s a live record that is basically a blur, 20 minutes of noise, listed as 20 songs or something…a huge leap from that to Warehouse!). Their SST records aren’t recorded very well, which I think is why I don’t listen to them as much. They sound kind of tinny to me. Nevertheless, the song craft is great throughout their catalog.

Warehouse in particular is full of great songs. I hadn’t listened to this record in a while, but when I popped it in, I remembered the whole thing, and could still sing all the choruses, if not the verses. Mould and Grant Hart (what ever happened to him?) seem to be feuding for who could write the catchiest chorus, and as they broke up right after making this, I’m not sure what it says about their songwriting. Again, it’s an amazing departure from their earliest stuff, and man this one rocks!

[READ: October 3, 2007] The Navigator.

I stumbled upon this book when I saw that the author was going to be signing at my local Borders. I didn’t buy it, but I took note of the author (apparently I like to read books by Eoins).

The book is about Owen, a young boy whose father may have committed suicide and whose mother is severely depressed. His life is pretty dreadful. And then he discovers that a group of people have singled him out to help protect the world from The Harsh. The Harsh are a race of icy creatures who can control time. They have sent time spinning backwards, destroying all of humanity and all products of humanity. The people who found Owen–the Resistance–exist in a time island, and are protected from the destructive forces of time bending backwards and forwards.

The Resistance have been fighting for a long time against the Harsh, but the Harsh has gotten too strong, and they are depleting the Resistance. It is up to Owen to find the mortmain which will stop the anti-time machine and essentially set the world back on its rightful path.

The blurb on the back says “worth reading for the final scenes alone.” And with that I agree. The ending is really magnificent. Except that my heart filled with dread when I read these fateful words: END OF BOOK ONE. The problem is that the book seemed to have an impact on time in my existence as well. It felt like I was reading this book forever! I could polish off seventy pages at a lunch break and still have over a hundred left to go. I’m not sure why this book was so long. Or maybe it just felt like it.

I think there may have been five or six scenes too many. It seemed like Owen fell into one perilous situation after another, over and over again. And, of course, there were a lot of the requisite characters: the guy who distrusts the hero, but who isn’t a traitor. The actual traitor who’s just trying to help. And of course, the human bad guys who are assisting The Harsh.

As I said, the ending is very exciting, but the beginning is pretty tough going. Some other problems include some characters with tiresome accents, some really unfortunately named characters: Passionara, Mariacallas (really?!) and Whitwashisberd (I don’t even know how to say that). And, then, there’s the very unfortunately named boat: Boat. Always spoken of as Boat. “The all climbed onto Boat.” Weird.

Criticisms aside, the ending was very exicting. Some of the gadgets and vehicles are also pretty cool. The Q-Car in particular is pretty cool looking (there are half a dozen or so illustrations in the book). And the magno whips and other weapons are all pretty nifty.

McNamee typically writes adult fiction, including Resurrection Man, which I haven’t read, and this is his first time as a children’s author. I felt like he talked down to the audience a bit in the beginning (a lot of significant things were re-emphasized after a couple of pages), but I think I might check out Resurrection Man (after I read a whole bunch of other things first.)

For easier searching I’m also adding this spelling: Husker Du.

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