I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: Dungen-4 (2008).

Vill du tala svensk?

Even if you don’t speak or understand Swedish, Dungen plays music that is pretty universally understood.  The album feels more or less like an all instrumental affair.  There are some songs with words, but they are all sung in Swedish. So, no, I have no idea what he’s singing about, and in that respect it feels all instrumental.

Like the previous discs, 4 feels like a blast from the psychedelic days.  It is trippy, at times loud and raucous, (with some amazing guitar workouts) and even has flutes on a few tracks.

The big difference between this disc and the previous releases is that there’s a lot more piano.  This has an overall calming effect on the music.  And in some ways, I think I don’t like this disc as much as previous ones.

The piano really comes to the fore on track 2 “Målerås Finest” which to me sounds like a a tribute to one Zappa’s instrumentals (it reminds me of “Peaches en Regalia,” although I don’t mean to suggest it’s a rip off at all). “Samtidigt 1 an 2” are the major instrumentals of the disc.  They also remind me of Zappa in that they feels like a snippet from some crazy guitar jam session.  (Zappa releases a lot of  “songs” like this on his …Guitar… albums. On this disc, we’re privy to about 3 minutes of wild guitar solo but since they fade in and then fade out at the end we have no idea how long the jam went on.  The final track “Bandhagen” also feels Zappaeque, but maybe it’s just the staccato notes that Zappa also uses to such good effect.

“Fredag” has a feeling like some of the more otherworldly Flaming Lips songs.  And “Mina Damer Och Fasaner” has a choppy heavy metal sound that really stands out from the disc.

Really there isn’t a bad song on the disc, but for some reason it doesn’t move me quite as much as the others.  I don’t want to bring a negative vibe to the review.  I’m sure if this was the first Dungen CD I had, I’d think it was amazing, I just got spoiled by them.

[READ: February 14, 2009] More Information Than You Require

John Hodgman is a man you will no doubt recognize from the Mac Vs PC ads (he’s the PC). He’s also a contributor and guest on The Daily Show. When this book was released he promoted it on The Daily Show, and on the Sound of Young America. It sounded really funny. And I was delighted that Sarah got it for me for Christmas.

This book is a sequel to his first book: The Areas of My Expertise, which I have not read. It is so much of a sequel, in fact, that the page numbering starts where that book left off (ie, the first page of this book is 237, leading those who quickly check the length of the book to think that it is 590 pages. Another interesting (and ultimately maddening) quirk of the book is that there is text all over the dust jacket. It is in different fonts and in different directions and is something of a challenge to read. I enjoy challenges so that was okay, I was just bummed to find out that ALL of this text was just the same as the Introduction from the book. BOO!

So what is this book then? Well, this is a book of fake trivia. As with all examples of fake trivia there are elements of truth in the trivia (trivia not at least rooted in truth would just not be funny). The joke is mostly in seeing how much of the trivia is fake/silly. I give Hodgman and other creators of fake trivia (like Jon Stewart’s America) credit for being able to make up utter nonsense…not just bending the truth, but utterly obliterating it (like the Mole Men and Monticello joke in this book).

The problem is that it appears difficult to stop yourself when you’re on a role. And this leads to my problem with this book. It can be summarized by this example: Hodgman lists 700 Mole People’s names taken from a census (more on all of that later). And there is the list in the book: 700 absurd names and occupations of mole people. Now, surely anyone could have told him that 500 or even 200 would have been quite a funny, lengthy list, but 700 is not only overkill, it encourages ill-will from the reader. Now, maybe that’s the point, as Hodgman’s tone is somewhat insulting to the non-minor celebrity and non-millionaire (ie. YOU the reader), but at least that hostility is open and funny. This 700 mole people list and many other instances in the book demonstrate that a harsh edit of 1/4 or 1/3 of the work would have made the book so more successful (although maybe that’s why its called More Information Than You Require?)

Having said all that, what about the content itself?

Well, every page has a calendar date with a historical fact from that date (in a random year) in history. And some of them are very funny indeed. Example: April 29, 1874, PARIS: Designer Phillipe Camouflage announces the first personal cloaking device: a cloak. Not bad, right? Certainly not the funniest one, but it was short enough to retype. However, he also peppers these dates with two continuing in-jokes that really aren’t very funny: the first is that Richmond, VA is plagued by bad rain (frogs etc), and the second is the “Controversial Yale Feline Studies Lab” (which has various things happen to it throughout the book).   Given the creativity of most of the entries, the reliance on these two over and over seems like a Saturday Night Live skit that overstays its welcome.

The remainder of the book is full of some fun and interesting ideas: The Presidents of the United States: Are They the New Hoboes? (apparently Hobos were a big part of his first book (There’s also an especially funny shout out for Dick Van Patten’s Dog Food: Hobo Chili, which is absolutely real)).  The Presidents also come listed in a chart with very funny nicknames and a chart asking Hook for a Hand? (A surprising number of yeses); Was he a woman?; Was he black?

The “Advice, How to and Miscellaneous” section was also largely good, especially the explanation of the internet to non computer literate types. Another really funny section is “One of My Great Regrets” in which he lists the various editions of his book (including the remaindered edition).

The “How to Be Famous” section including what I assume are largely true stories about his life as a Famous Minor Television Personality are all very enjoyable, and his wit here is very sharp.

And yet the Gambling section just seemed too long and arbitrary to me. (although “Bar Bets You Are Sure To Win” was pretty darn funny).

And then we get to the Mole-Men. I confess right up front that I don’t get or care about mole-men even in jokes. I know I’m being too serious about that, but I have simply never thought the subject was that interesting. Back in 1995 when The Mole People by Jennifer Toth came out, it was a big deal all around Boston where I was living. I simply could not escape this book  (walls of display at Tower Records), and I just didn’t get it. And I’ve been unamused about Mole People ever since. (So John, I apologize that you picked the one area that makes me bristle (but I can still have a sense of humor about it)). I did enjoy the utter geekiness (but not the sheer number) of the 700 mole names and the fact that in addition to the “real names” like Farpatter Sickletooth, he also threw in some nods to other funny things like: Dr Steve Brule, and a few other actual people. But again, 700=too much.

Even though I thought that the mole person list was too long, I did enjoy the final section: “Some Lists I Confess to Compiling.” These lists were all pretty short…and I think the deal with this book is that the short sections are really very funny, while the longer ones tend to overstay their welcome somewhat.

Oh, and getting back to the dust jacket, probably the funniest thing in the whole book is on the reverse of the dust jacket: “A Taxonomy of Complete World Knowledge.” The footnote distinguishing Geeks and Jocks was so funny I laughed out loud and had to share it with several people. Now THAT’S what you want in a book.

So, overall, this one is a mixed bag. There are definitely share-with-a-friend sections, but there are also a lot of tedious sections too. My overall verdict is that while some of this made me laugh, I probably won’t read the prequel or the promised part three.