I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: [REVISITED] LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III-Strange Weirdos: Music from and Inspired by the Film Knocked Up (2008).

We used Loudo’s “Daughter” from this soundtrack in the birthday video that we made for my daughter.  (We also used Dolly Parton’s “Shine” for the first half).  Because we were listening to the song, I listened to the rest of the disc as well and wanted to make a few extra comments from the last review.

Overall, the disc seems much more upbeat lyrically than his usual fare.  He’s almost always funny, but on this disc, the humor isn’t as sarcastic.  Also, his voice seems gentler, too.  Is this the dawning of a kinder Loudon?  I haven’t heard his latest disc, so I don’t know.  But I really enjoy this whole disc.  The only exception is two tracks which are full band with backing vocals.  There’s something about the tracks being so polished that seem to take away from Loudon’s voice…and really its all about a guy with a guitar. But it’s a small complaint given how good the rest of the disc is.

As for our daughter’s video, we spent I’d say about ten or twelve hours editing, syncing, and making sure the video was more than just picture one, fade, picture two, fade.  We’ve made a video for each of the kids birthdays, but we’re especially proud of this one.  You can see it here:

[READ: November 25, 2008] “Natasha”

I read this story a few months ago, but felt I should re-read it given how little I remembered. So, I re-read it last night.  I think I was surprised by it because of how un-complicated it was (especially compared to Nabokov’s novels).  Well, I learned that the story was written in the 1920s, long before he had written Lolita or Pale Fire, or anything in English.  So, it’s entirely possible that this comes before he started fully having fun with language. Of course, I’ve not read any of his other short stories, either, so I don’t know what his stories are usually like.

This is, in fact, quite a simple story.  Natasha is a young woman whose father is deathly ill.  She is caring for him as best she can, but it is not easy for the her.  Her neighbor, Baron Wolfe is friendly with her father, but is also quite sweet on her.  (He seems much older than her, although it’s impossible to be sure.  But the name Baron Wolfe seems older, no?).  Upon feeling that her father is heading for recovery, Natasha and Wolfe go out for a day at the seaside.  They have a wonderful time together.  But things are not as they seem when she returns home.

What I missed the first time through was that the family are in exile.  Interestingly, since I didn’t know when the story was written while I was reading it, I thought that it may have been a World War II era exile.  But it’s not.  Obviously.  I don’t know much about that period in Russian history.  I guess it doesn’t change the story that much, although it does give some extra background to the characters.

The story isn’t quite as inspired as his later works, but it was still a solid, albeit sad story.  The story was unpublished until now, and it’s available here.