I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: HÜSKER DÜ-Candy Apple Grey (1986).

This disc seems to be universally panned as the worst Hüsker Dü disc (meaning it only gets 4 stars instead of 5) and yet I disagree.  Perhaps it’s because it was the second disc of theirs that I had heard and so it has always been more familiar, or maybe it’s because I think the sounds is fuller.

“Don’t Want to Know if You Are Lonely” is like the culmination of Grant Hart’s pop songwriting career.  Some say that the song is too stereotypically Hüsker Dü since all the parts fit together so well (as if that’s a bad thing).  “Sorry Somehow” is another shouting Mould gem that retains its pop sheen even with the noise.  And speaking of noise, the buzzsaw guitars that open the disc sound like nothing so much as the Jesus and Mary Chain.  Warner Bros must have been wondering what they got themselves into that their newly signed band opened their disc with that.

What’s most surprising about this disc though are the two acoustic numbers.  Hüsker Dü had obviously experimented before (see Zen Arcade) but these are the most delicate pieces they had written.  I mean, Bob’s voice is so delicate, it cracks in “Too Far Down” for goodness sake.  And “Hardly Getting Over It” would certainly be musically  familiar to anyone who knows Mould’s solo album Workbook.

It may not be a masterpiece, and I know that most Hüsker Dü fans don’t think that much of it, but it totally rocks my world.

[READ: July 6, 2009] “Childcare”

I had heard great things about Lorrie Moore. I bought her Birds of America and then just never read it. Then one day I was in my car waiting for some interminable thing or another and really wished I had a book with me. I decided to put Birds of America in my car. It’s a collection of short stories, so it seemed perfect. And then I never got in another situation where I was at an interminable wait and didn’t have some other book, too. So basically her book is still unread although now it is nicely beaten up. Sigh.

So this is my first Lorrie Moore story. She reminds me, at first thought, of Alice Munro (although she is not Canadian, nor quite so dark), because they both tend to focus on little events in people’s lives and how they can become defining.  Their stories are also small in scope, (in that not a lot “happens”), but are powerfully written and show a lot more going on underneath the surface.

In this story, Tassie Keltjin, a young woman who is just out of college goes in search of a job. She is looking specifically in the “childcare” area because she doesn’t really know what she wants to do for a real career.

She interviews with several women all of whom are conspicuously pregnant and make her a little uncomfortable (not because they are pregnant but because of their mannerisms).  The final woman she meets, Sarah, is not pregnant.  But Sarah explains that she will need Tassie full time as she plans to be getting a surrogate child very soon.  Sarah runs a local restaurant and works full time; all of her friends think she is crazy for getting a baby, but she thinks she (and her husband) are ready for it.  Nevertheless, Tassie will be employed most of the time.

By the time Tessie gets home, Sarah calls her and offers her the job.  But the condition is that she must start tomorrow.  For tomorrow they are  going to meet the birth mother at a restaurant.  She wants Tessie to be a part of every moment, because well, Tessie will be looking after the child so much.

Tessie agrees.  When they get to the restaurant, Tessie is shockingly understated in her response to meeting the birth mother, who arrives with her parole officer waiting in the car.  She has no visible teeth and shows open contempt for Sarah (who seems oblivious).  However, she does seem to try bonding with Tessie in her eye-rolling-at -Sarah mannerisms.  And that’s pretty much the whole story.

Except it’s not.  There’s so much subtext and unstated behavior that “Childcare” turns into a powerful and rather wrenching story.

I see what all the fuss is about with Lorrie Moore.  I’ll have to read Birds of America soon.

The story is available here.

For ease of searching I include: Husker Du