I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: MOGWAI-The Hawk is Howling (2008).

I’ve been a fan of Mogwai since I first heard of them back in 1997 with their Young Team debut.  They have progressed their sonic explorations of instrumentals into unimagined complexity and sonic booms.

I don’t think anyone walks around humming the melodies of Mogwai songs, but as soon as the songs start they are immediately recognizable, catchy and wonderful.  And this album is no exception.

The big difference on this disc is the amount of piano.  I always think of Mogwai as a squealing feedback production (although that’s not really true exactly), and I’m sure this isn’t their first use of piano on one of their discs, but it comes as a surprise to me that the disc opens with a piano melody (especially since the first single “Batcat” comes next and is one of the noisiest, most aggressive songs in their entire catalog.

“The Sun Smells Too Loud” has an amazingly catchy guitar riff going on which sustains it for the duration of the song.  And “Scotland’s Shame” also has a really great, albeit slower theme as well.

It’s a really strong showing from Mogwai.  It doesn’t feel as immediate or as intense as previous ones, especially their lats one, Mr. Beast, but it’s a great release nonetheless.

[READ: March 20, 2009] The Pharmacist’s Mate

I’ve had this title for a while, and I’ve been meaning to read it , yet for some reason I never did. I think I figured it was so short that I could read it at any time. And, following that logic, I finally decided to.  I was also very pleasantly surprised to see a blurb from Zadie Smith on the back, too.

So this story is about a woman’s attempt to get pregnant. It is also about the death of her father. And finally, it contains excerpts from her father’s journal when he was aboard a ship during WWII.

Now, there are millions of stories of women who cannot get pregnant. I know a few personally. And, they are all sad in their own way.  But if you’ve heard a story of a friend who can’t get pregnant why would you want to hear the story of a stranger?  And the answer to that question is in the way the story is told. And not to get too profound, but that very answer is why literature is so important.

Amy Fusselman has an amazing way with words.

She intersperses the story of her father dying with her attempts to use artificial insemination. Her father’s diary excerpts counterpoint the real, living essence of her father with the dying man that she watches over.

And her being a good writer allows her to really focus on the details of the experience, making it all the more real, and paradoxically, all the more universal.

Another fun aspect of Fusselman’s story is that she is a songwriter in (what sounds like a punk) band.  Her love of AC/DC adds a personal and interesting depth to someone that we don’t know personally.

I was very moved by this piece (all 86 pages of it). And, I am glad that I waited until after my wife was pregnant to read it, because the last line of the story adds wonderful resonance if you have personal experience with the audio of ultrasounds.