I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: JILL SOBULE-California Years (2009).

So Jill Sobule had the first hit single called “I Kissed a Girl” (that was sung by a woman).  And it was sort of a novelty hit, which is the kiss of death for any songwriter.  After most people forgot about her, I followed her career for a while.  And I found her follow up to “I Kissed a Girl,” Happy Town, to be a superb album and the follow up to that one, Pink Pearl ,was also really good.  And then she fell off my radar.

California Years is the first album that she self-released (and self-financed).  And it finds Sobule in find voice.  Her voice still sounds fantastic: strong and dusky, with a sly wink. When I first listened to the disc, I enjoyed it immensely.  Further listenings have revealed some flaws to me, which have lessened my enjoyment somewhat.  But before I nitpick, I’ll mention the highlights.

The first three songs are just top of the line.  “Palm Springs” opens the disc with a wonderful air of freedom.  “San Francisco” is another cool folky song, typical Jill.  These two are followed by one of Sobule’s excellent rocking/sarcastic/snotty songs, “Nothin’ to Prove” (catchy and snarky!).

After a few tracks, “Wendell Lee” resumes the fun with a list of all the people she’s dated and what they’re up to now.  “Mexican Pharmacy” & “Spiderman” are two fun/funny songs that close the disc nicely.  The final track is a list of all the people who gave her money to make the record.  It’s a catchy little tune even if you’ll never even try to remember the lyrics.

But there are a few clunkers on the disc. “Where is Bobbie Gentry,” when I first heard it, it was fun to guess that Bobbie had written “Ode to Billie Joe” (I didn’t know she had written it).  And this sort of update to that song (which I actually don’t like that much anyhow) sounded like a good idea, but on repeated listens it seems forced and rather silly (especially the “I was the baby…”) line.

There’s another weird song in the middle section: “Empty Glass.”  What’s weird about it is that Sobule doesn’t normally hold notes for very long, she’s more of a quick singer.  And I think her voice doesn’t really hold up to the chorus of “empty glass.”  My final gripe is with “Bloody Valentine” which begins with the exact same chord structure and vocal melody line as the first song on the disc.  Whenever it comes on I start singing “Palm Springs.”  It also ends with a weird little “rocking” section which simply doesn’t suit the disc.

So, overall it’s something of a mixed bag.  But the highs outnumber the lows by a long shot, and the highs are quite high.

[READ: October 13, 2009] “Among the Beanwoods,” “Heather,” “Pandemonium”

I’ve had these stories lying around for quite some time.  When I first saved them it was because I had just read McSweeney’s #24 which had a Donald Barthelme section in it.  I had read these short pieces then, but they didn’t leave that much of an impact on me, so I decided to re-read them now.

“Among the Beanwoods” & “Heather” are from the 1970s.  And “Pandemonium” was written just before his death in 1989.

And it’s here that I admit that I really don’t know all that much about Barthelme (even having read the McSweeney’s issue).   And I can also admit that I don’t really “get ” him.

“Among the Beanwoods” seemed to be a number of musings thrust together.  Although I absolutely loved the first two lines, “The already beautiful do not, as a rule, run.  I am, at the moment, seated.”  The story was very descriptive but I’m not entirely sure what it was describing.

“Heather” was my favorite of the three, because even though it had a very surreal premise, the “plot” was, well, comprehensible.  In this story, Sam returns from Nebraska to discover that the twins that he was dating have had a baby.  And it is his.  Both Hilda and Heidi are lactating, and both claim responsibility for the baby’s birth.  Sam wants to do the honorable thing, but how can he marry them both?  The story goes in even weirder directions than that basic oddity, but I rather enjoyed it.  It also mentions Missoula, Montana.  And since this is the third time in less than a month I’m creating a category for it.

“Pandemonium” is designed as something of a dialogue.  A narrator is relating a dialogue.  I think that the two speakers are trying to persuade the narrator of the events to follow (rather than one of the speakers being the narrator).  I also think that the narrator is Eve, the Eve mentioned in the story.  Basically, the two speakers want to have Eve “play” Eve (of Adam and Eve) in their event.  The “events” details get crazier as the story continues, until the denouement where we can all agree with the narrator (who I suppose is not Eve after all).

Part of what makes these stories so odd is their brevity.  And that seems to be Barthelme’s thing.  He’s sort of the father of flash fiction.  He also really eschews narrative, plot and most other things that we think of as being in stories.  I’ve mentioned before that I like experimental works, although I don’t always get them.  Some of these were perhaps a little too experimental.

Barthelme, I think will remain in the “un-gotten” category.