I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: STARS-Do You Trust Your Friends (2007).

Stars released Set Yourself on Fire in 2005. It was a surprisingly good and catchy pop album from a band I hadn’t heard of before. It was lyrically downbeat, and yet the choruses were sweeping and grand. A great paradox of a record that I liked very much.

Well, they gave the master tapes to a whole bunch of their Canadian band friends and had them remix or redo the songs. This collection is interesting in that the collective work is very strong and everybody makes a remix that is fresh and interesting. I didn’t know too many of the bands before hand (only The Dears) so the sound was pretty new to me. The Dears do an interesting thing with their track: they split their song into two songs, since the original had two distinctive parts. It’s a fun thing to hear.

Most of the roster comes from the Arts & Crafts label, so that may give you an idea of the sound; they include some dance remixes, some indie rock remixes and some straight ahead pop ones. Obviously, the original is better if only for the overall continuity, but this is an interesting and enjoyable listen in and of itself.

[READ: June 30, 2008] “Suicide by Fitness Center”

Joyce Carol Oates must talk in her sleep, and she must have a dictation service that records all of it. And her dreams must be very detailed and well written. There’s no other way that she can churn out the amount of material that she does. And, it’s amazing the variety of subjects these stories cover. She definietly has a dark streak in her subconscious and this story shows it off quite well.

The awkward title actually describes the action pretty well. The narrator is a woman who goes to a fitness center regularly. This center is rarely full when she goes, giving the whole place a sombre appearance. She imagines (or does she?) that she sees a fitness center cat (no one else has seen it) and when the cat appears by a club member, it means that member will die soon.

Sadly, that aspect of the story (the cat) is a little underdeveloped and doesn’t really wrap up too well.

The other aspect of the story is that the narrator has named all of the other regulars that she encounters at the gym: Carrot Top, Eggplant Man, Big Gus etc. She disdains most of the them for one reason or another, and is constantly surprised by their humanity when they interact.

But it’s the suicide part that we’re most interested in. The narrator convinces herself that she should try to kill herself through one of these machines. No real reason is given aside from general ennui. She tries running full speed on a treadmill to see if her heart will burst. Then, maybe if she is thrown from said treadmill, that will do the trick. Her attempts, along with much of the story, are somewhat hallucinatory. Making for a surreal story in style as well as content. She is broken from her suicide thoughts when one of the members passes out. himself. She is instrumental in reviving him, and the returns to her home life.

A weird little story that I enjoyed quite a bit while reading, but now thinking back on it, it wasn’t as fully realized as it could have been.