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Archive for November, 2007

Roddy Doyle–“The Dog” (New Yorker, November 5, 2007)

Posted in Foreign Books, Marriage Trouble, New Yorker, Roddy Doyle, Short Story, The Go! Team on November 7, 2007| Leave a Comment »

ny115.jpgSOUNDTRACK: THE GO! TEAM-Thunder, Lightning , Strike (2004).

goteam.jpgThe Go! Team have a new album out and so I dug out their first to see if I liked it enough to check out the new one. This first one is such a weird album. It feels intensely like what I would call a joke album. There are cheesy horns, crazy samples of cheerleaders cheering, and hooks hooks hooks! It all sounds like the soundtrack to the best 70s action TV show that never existed. And yet the whole thing works so well. It is just so damned catchy. I listened to it about 3 times today and never got sick of it.

I can’t really imagine how you would follow it up…more of the same would be lame, but where could you possibly go from there? I’ll definitely be looking into it.

[READ: November 5, 2007] “The Dog.”

My initial exposure to Roddy Doyle was through his early, funny stories (Woody Allen shout out, there). And as he continues writing, his stories get darker and darker. Not mean spirited or sadistic, just kind of sad and fate-filled. While I do miss the funny Roddy, this newer side writes so precisely and so beautifully that it’s hard to complain. (more…)

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What I learned…(15) [International Visitors]

Posted in Digression on November 7, 2007| 1 Comment »

Welcome, Jawilla, Bienvenue, Willkommen, Selam, Ghini vinishi, Tau mai, Dobre doshle, Witajcie, Kalos orisate, Hoan ging di lai kao, Tere tulemast, Wilicom, Welkom, G’day, and Hallo.

I recently installed a Sitemeter account on this blog. One of the best features about it is that it tells you where people are logging in from when they browse the site. This has been endlessly fascinating for me. I have one on the site where my son and daughter’s pictures are, so it’s usually pretty apparent which one of my friends have visited, but for the blog, it is amazing to see the international visitors. I was checking just now and I’ve had visits from Peru, Canada, Austria, Israel, Greece, the UK, Australia, Macedonia, Taiwan, Spain, Norway, the Netherlands, Ireland, Belgium, Estonia and New Zealand. For a geek like myself, this is unfathomably exciting. (more…)

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Paul Theroux–“Mr Bones” (New Yorker, September 17, 2007)

Posted in Marriage Trouble, New Yorker, Paul Theroux, Short Story, Swans on November 6, 2007| Leave a Comment »

ny917.jpgSOUNDTRACK: SWANS-Omniscience (1992).

swans.jpgWhen I was in college, I really liked the Swans. They were noisy as all get out, and were at the forefront of an industrial style that has since become mainstream. But at the time they were pretty scary.

I particularly liked Children of God, a great album split between noisy M. Gira songs and pretty, soft Jarboe songs. Shortly after this record they released a very soft record called The Burning World with a totally mellow cover of “Can’t Find My Way Home.”

I had sort of stopped listening to them sometime after college, and then my friend Lar got into them and found out that I had a bunch of their older, then out-of-print, records, so we started sharing them. I got back into them and was able to fill out my collection of Swans works, all except Omniscience. He made me a copy of it and I liked it, and I just found a used one for myself.

Omniscience is a live record which came towards the end of their career. And the amazing thing is how beautiful the record is, for the most part. There are still some noisy, bass-heavy parts, but Swans had changed so drastically from the noisy band of yore that Omniscience is practically atmospheric in feel.  There are some interesting samples of dialogue that are simply weird and arbitrary, but they do set a mood for the show.  But compared to say, Public Castration is a Good Idea, it’s soothing.

[READ: October 15, 2007] “Mr. Bones.”

This is the second story by Theroux that I have read. (The first one was in the New Yorker a few months ago, and is being released in a new collection of his shortly). I’d heard the name of Theroux over and over, but wasn’t really familiar with his work. The other story was set in India, as I’m led to believe much of his stuff is. So, this one came as quite a surprise. (more…)

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Back online.

Posted in Digression on November 6, 2007| Leave a Comment »

Must.  Start.  Reading.  Again. 

Okay, after some time off, I’ve been able to get a few short stories read.  So, I’ll be making up for lost time this week.  Lots of things to look forward to….

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