I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: COLIN MELOY-Sings Sam Cooke (2008).

I ordered this CD from the Decemberists website.  (Sadly Colin singing Morrissey is no longer available).   This is, as the title states, Colin Meloy singing Sam Cooke songs.

I don’t know much about Sam Cooke (although I knew a few tunes from this disc).  And, in my head, Sam Cooke doesn’t have a “catalog” of songs, like, say, Morrissey does. So, this came across as a disc of standards.  And as such it’s very good.

If you like Meloy, you’ll like this.  If you don’t, this isn’t going to covert you.  It’s basically just him and his acoustic guitar (and an occasional backing vocal) singing these songs.

I have always liked “Cupid” so it’s nice to have a rendition of it.  As for “Summertime,” I’m not sure why that’s considered a Sam Cooke song since it comes from Porgy and Bess.  I didn’t know the other three songs, but they’re all quite good, uptempo jazzy numbers.

This EP makes me want to investigate a Sam Cooke Greatest Hits, to see what I’ve been missing.  And maybe that was Meloy’s point all along.

[READ: January-February 2010] Shite’s Unoriginal Miscellany

I had ordered a couple of Schott’s Almanacs from the UK, because I thought it would be fun to see what was different about them from the U.S. versions (quite a lot actually).  And while browsing for them, I found this parody of the series.  So, for a few dollars used, I ordered it too.

Now any book that bills itself as “extensively researched, eccentrically compiled and irresponsibly written” pretty much lets you know what you’re getting.   And it does conclude its summary by saying, “more than 250 pieces of useless, misleading and possibly dangerous information.”  So, what might you expect?

This is a very strange parody of the series because it does three things at the same time:  1) It provides actual lists of actual things (which are, indeed, useless and silly).  2) It provides nonsensical/hypothetical questions (more on that shortly).  And 3) It has stuff that is clearly made up and intended to be funny (but often isn’t).

As such there is nothing wrong with having three different categories like this.  But, if you’re not sure which of the lists are true and which are made up, well, that’s a bit of a problem.

I rather appreciated the first kind of list best: real data about absolutely asburd things: So a section called A Few Little Hints shows drawings of 7 hints to make your life better: tilt the glass when pouring effervescent liquid to increase the surface; when warming boots, tilt the soles towards the fire etc.  There’s also a Really Stupid Crooks list, which, I assume is actual crooks and the stupid things they’ve done (and who doesn’t love that?).  I also enjoyed the Tests for Masculinity (which actually worked!).  Even Movie Titles Involving Cities was an amusing list.  And I loved things like Famous People with Pseudonyms and of course, Buffyisms.

So the second types of things were funny, once you accepted their absurd premises: But what are you supposed to do with things like Ordinary Fruits (kiwi, passion fruit etc).  Or Ways To End A  Romance: kill yourself, become a prostitute.  I did however enjoy the absurd categories like: Uncommon Expressions for Everyday Use and Important Lessons to Learn from the Movies.

But it’s the third group that just annoyed me.  Some Unusual Pets: stone, the common cold, velociraptor?  Or Dog Operas in which opera titles are changed slightly so that one word becomes a type of dog.  And is a category like Medical Professionals’ Abbreviations (The Ones Patients Don’t Usually See) true or not?  It seems like utter nonsense, but who knows? One or two may be true.

The thing is, that there are so many wonderfully absurd truisms that it’s just silly (not to mention confusing) to put in made up things too.

Still, overall it was a fun read.  And there were some very enjoyable sections.

Evidently there is an American edition, although I’m not sure if it’s any different.