I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: SONIC YOUTH-SYR 6 Koncertas Stan Brakhage Prisiminimui (2005).

This CD sees Sonic Youth playing an instrumental background to three silent films from Stan Brakhage.  It reminds me of the Jem Cohen DVD in which A Silver Mt Zion play the music for the silent Cohen film.

Now obviously, we don’t see the films on the CD.  In fact, as far as I can tell it doesn’t even say which films they are (the credits are in Lithuanian).  So, it’s impossible to tell if the pieces are contextually good.

As for the songs themselves, there are three short pieces.  The first is about 25 minutes, the second about 14 and the last about 27 (even though the disc itself lists one piece at about 65 minutes).  The pieces are leisurely and very abstract.  There’s very little in the way of Sonic Youth in evidence: minimal distorted guitars (or much of any guitars).  Rather, there are effects, percussion and occasional vocals from Kim.  There are no hooks of any kind.  But then what would you expect from soundtrack work?

Unlike the other SYR discs which were all about improvisation, this one feels more like a composition: abstract, strange and a little disorienting, but a composition nonetheless.   I imagine that the films are dark and mysterious.

This disc falls in line with the style of SYR 4 Goodbye 20th Century.  If you’re not really sure about SY, but you like abstract soundscapes, this is a good disc to check out.

[READ: August 30, 2009] The Convalescent

I had read a sample of the book about a month ago and was very intrigued.  When the book came in the mail I was pretty excited to read it all.

But how to explain this peculiar book?  Rovar Pfliegman is a mute, crippled man who lives in a broken down bus on the side of the road–out of which he sells meat.  His meat is the cheapest and freshest in town so even though he sells it out of  a bus on the side of the road, he has many clients.

Pfliegman is Hungarian, specifically, he comes from one of the eleven tribes who migrated over the Ural Mountains.  (History records only ten tribes, and the word Hungarian stems from the word onogur, which means ten arrows.)  This eleventh tribe, the Pliegmans tripped over their own feet, growled at strangers, stole other peoples food and were generally outcasts even amongst outcasts.  As an example of the sort of tribe the Pfliegmans are, Rovar’s father after receiving a VCR in 1984 spent four minutes examining the buttons and one minute examining the manual before bashing it in the face.

And so, the book is split between Rovar’s life and the history of Hungary.  Specifically, those ten tribes and the Pfliegman clan of Hungary.  The Pfleigmans were the outcasts, useless weak lazy creatures.  There’s all manner of inbreeding and other questionable activities going on there.  And yet Árpád, the ruler, knows that the destiny of his tribes resides in the weakest members.  (That was prophesied to him, at any rate).  And so, the Pfiegmans become useful because of their ability to carve up meat.

Now, I don’t know a thing about Hungarian history, but the little fact-checking I’ve done indicates that most of the history is true (with some myths added in for good measure), except for the Pfliegman’s story.

But anyhow, the Pfliegmans are a thorn in the side of the Hungarian tribes. It began with Lili László, a large-thighed (and therefore very desirous) woman who would leg wrestle anyone.  When she is duped into wrestling the giant Szeretlek (which means I Love You) she uses some womanly wiles to defeat him.  But he is crushed when he realizes she was just pretending.

Lili’s prize is to bed Árpád.  She is not terribly thrilled about this, and it dawns on her that maybe Szeretlek is really her missing piece. Obviously Árpád is pretty pissed about this. And thus begins the Pfliegman line.

And Rovar is the last Pfliegman left.  His parents died when he was a child–leaving him emotionally scarred and destitute (but for the bus).  He has one friend, a bug called Mrs. Kipner (the story of the bug is pretty great in an of itself).  He also has a few books that people have left for him (or thrown at him).  So his library is random and rather absurd: Charles Darwin: The Origin of the Species; Peter Smith: Your First Hamster; Captain Jerry Aldini: The Complete Book of Water Polo, With Pictures; Madame Chafouin: Madame Chafouin’s French Dictionary; Issac Asimov: The Collapsing Universe; Anonymus [sic] The Rise and Fall of the Pagan Hungarians.  And, in a surreal moment or two, characters from the books come and talk to him.  (As does Carly Simon, who is depicted rather hilariously).

Rovar is a physical mess as well.  He limps, he barely bathes, and lately his skin has been peeling off in large chunks.  The only thing that keeps him going is Dr. Monica, who took pity on him and told him he could come into her office on Tuesdays (even though she’s a pediatrician).  The secretary of the office hates him and does everything she can to let him know that.  And yet these visits are all he has going for him.  In part because he loves (lusts) the Dr (and her round rump) and in part because she is actually helping him heal.

As the story progresses and details are revealed, the depth of the story grows truly amazing.   The two story lines of the historical Pfliegmans and the last surviving one parallel each other quite well.  And in a fun nod to anachronism, the Hungarian tribesmen speak in a 21st century language of colloquial cursing.  Like:

A single prayer could be heard echoing across the quaint medieval pastoralia… “O Lord, save us from the arrows of the Hungarians!”  Or the prayer heard somewhat more often: “Goddammit, we have to get those sons of bitches”–

The end gets even more surreal, and at first I thought a little too Kafkaesque.  However, there is enough set up in the early parts of the story to justify this strange revelation.

In and of itself, this story may not sound all that compelling: a creepy guy selling meat out of a bus and a pseudo history of Hungary.  And yet, the story was very compelling.  Rovar is incredibly sympathetic, but he is also quite funny.  And the Hungarian history is delightfully mythical.  The story is fast paced, often very funny and overall quite enjoyable.  I recommend it highly.