SOUNDTRACK: JENS LEKMAN-Night Fall Over Kortedala (2007)
My friend Eugenie introduced me to Jens. She put a song on a mix CD for me, 
and I really liked it. I picked up his EP collection Oh You’re So Silent, Jens. And he just released Night Falls last year.
Jens’ voice is unique. He’s got a Swedish accent, and his sing-speaks quite softly, so some of the words are quite heavily accented. And, his songs are quite fantastic. The lyrics are bizarre and wonderful. While his songs aren’t funny, per se, there are a number of lines that are just hilarious, even on multiple listens. In the past his songs were more or less acoustic affairs. On this one, he expands somewhat with some brass on a few tracks, some hip-hop flavorings and well, just about everything else.
Lekman released a twenty minute DJ track on his website last year. And it’s clear that the mash up qualities of that release influenced his recording sessions for Night Falls. It opens with the orchestral pomp of “And I Remember Every Kiss,” and the catchy, if inscrutable “The Opposite of Hallelujah. ” This leads to the great “A Postcard to Nina” which provides Jens’ loudest moment of a screamed/sung “Oh God, what have I done! I just came here to have some fun.” There is no screaming on the simple, gorgeous “Your Arms Around Me,” even though he cuts of the tip of his finger in it. “Shirin” is all about his haircutter (hence the album cover) and the repeated name makes for a lovely chorus. And, I can’t not talk about the last song “Friday Night at the Drive-In Bingo,” one of his most rocking songs (rocking being relative). It has a thrown-together, raucous feel, getting faster as the song moves along. It also has this wonderfully bizarre clarinet/saxophone/something line over the top of it that perfectly recalls an old-timey mournful swing band that you might hear at a church bingo function from thirty years ago. The song is funny and silly, and wholly enjoyable. And I can’t think of another song like it anywhere.
[READ: July 2, 2008] “The Magic Olympics”
There are two reasons why I’m mentioning this article. The first is that a few months ago I had read Paul Quarrington’s The Spirit Cabinet and had seen The Illusionist a couple days apart. This article also explains some magic tricks which, rather than spoiling the effect, really makes you marvel at the skill of the magicians. Two, the opening of the article reminded me a lot of Arrested Development, our beloved TV show. On the show, Gob was an illusionist in a magician’s guild. Not only do such guilds exist, but you can, in fact, be blackballed from them. (“The United States has three: the Academy of Magical Arts,the International Brotherhood of Magicians, and the Society of American Magicians.”) And you must belong to one to enter this International Competition. There’s also a guy who does a regurgitating trick which is exactly like Gob’s regurgitating key trick (except that it works in the article). I guess they did some real research into magic before writing Gob’s character.
So, this article is a fascinating look at Alex Stone’s attempt to win the 23rd “The World Championships of Magic,” this year’s held in Stockholm. Stone describes the contest in great detail, explaining that there are two main categories: stage magic & close-up magic. Stone works in sleight of hand, or close-up magic. He describes the acts that precede him, genuinely awed by some of the practitioners. I’m not going to give away the end in case you want to read it yourself. But there was some pretty extreme drama going on. I was amazed at how into the story I got, and how much I would like to see it myself.
In the magic community, Alex Stone is a joke. He is one of the few magician’s ever to be stopped during FISM (it is not called the Olympics of Magic) because the act was so bad.
I don’t know why he wrote the article, except to make a quick buck or because he has an act to grind. The bigger question is why Harper’s would run such an article.
By the way, so much of the methods he put in this article are just plain wrong. Alex Stone is completely clueless and has no idea of the methods used.
His greatest trick is getting this article published.
If you really want to read a great article on magic, Adam Gotnick wrote one in the New Yorker a few month ago.
Todd Robbins
Thanks for the comment! The only thing I know about magic is that I can make my three year old think a Cheerio came out of my nose. The one thing that Alex Stone made me appreciate, regardless of his motive was that magic isn’t easy. And that it takes lots of practice. The more I’ve been reading about magic lately, the more I realize how much people practice, and how they don’t seem to get the respect that they deserve for all the work they put into it. So, good on you, magicians, keep up the work!
As for this post itself, I’ve been wondering why it had gotten so many views lately…I didn’t realize I had jumped into a controversial topic! I had no idea about Mr Stone’s credentials or lack thereof. And, since I have no reason to doubt Todd Robbins’ comments, I’ll assume that he’s telling the truth. I’ll have to check out that New Yorker article now for comparison. Thanks for the recommendation!
The only this worse than incorrectly revealing magic techniques to the public, is bad mouthing other GOOD magicians and artists in the field. It is because of this article that I’m sometimes ashamed of magic in America. For a 13 page article!!!, I’ve never been so grim while reading a magazine article. The beauty of magic is the secrecy thats been charished and kept for centuries, and especially at an event like FISM, where performers from all over the world gather to share and respect the art of magic, for this article to make a media spill out of it, is just plain insulting.
The article by Adam Gopnick, already mentioned is quite good, and sheds magic in New York in a fun, enriching, and very positive way. I guess its only fair that we have another article, that is the complete opposite.
And by the way, if Mr. Stone can reveal his act publicly, one can only wonder how he got into the “Olympics of Magic” FISM, which is given the utmost respect.
I would hate to think what he performs in any show for any audience after reading that article.
Further, magic is not about how hard it is, but the message that we send to our audiences and allowing them to dream and watch something that is against what they know already, and therefore creating and illusion in their mind about what is really taking place.
I think I’ve made my point. I don’t mean to be so negative, I feel however, I must take a stand and voice my opinion,
“Now gooday”(A quote from “that 70s show”).
Thanks Magic Man.
It’s great to see people passionate about something. Especially something i didn’t know people were so passionate about (like the Pac Man article I read recently).
I had been thinking about whether or not revealing magic tricks was a bad thing or not. When you watch movies and they do crazy stunts/FX and you go “WOW, How’d they do that?” and then there’s a special feature and they show you how they did that, sometimes you feel cheated. “Oh, that’s how.” But sometimes you go, WOW, seeing them do that was just as cool as seeing the final product (I felt this way about a lot of the stunts in the Bourne Ultimatum). Is magic the same way? Where you learn how someone does and you just marvel that they can actually do it, or that they do it so well? I guess it depends on the viewer. There are some tricks where I’d love to know how it’s done, and some where I think I’m better off not knowing (that there actually two ladies in the box or whatever). I’m 3 quarters of the way through the Gopnik article, and I’m sure I’ll have something to say about it.
Until then, good day.
I say good day!
[…] piece was recommended by two people who commented on my post about Alex Stone in Harper’s Magazine. They both said that this was a far better, far more appreciative article about magic. And they […]