I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: BARENAKED LADIES-Buck Naked (1989).

Although The Yellow Tape was the major catapult, their previous cassette (known as Buck Naked) was their first demo tape.  Wikipedia explains that it came in many versions with several covers.

The initial release had 5 songs.  The final release bumped it up to 15.

I wasn’t even aware of this cassette until I was browsing around for The Yellow Tape.  And, thanks YouTube for supplying all of the tracks.

The recording is just Steven Page and Ed Robertson and a couple of acoustic guitars. And it’s totally a home recording.  But for all of that, it’s delightful to see how fully released some of their songs were.  It includes these songs which appeared on later releases” “King of Bedside Manor,” “Great Provider” “Be My Yoko Ono” and “If I Had $1,000,000.”

The rest of the tape is a mix of a few silly things and a lot of not at all silly songs.

“Road Runner” is a cover. But not THAT cover.  Rather, it’s a cover of the Saturday morning Road Runner cartoon theme song: “Road Runner, the coyotes after you….” They also cover “Psycho Killer” which is pretty hard to mess up (their version is a good campfire version, although it devolves into nonsense).  “Rudi, a Message to You” one of the great, mellow ska songs also get something of  an acoustic cover here.  Although it’s more lackluster than the original (no horns).  Finally “Wishing Well” is a cover of the Terence Trent D’arby song and is full of amusing cheap casio sounds.

“Really Don’t Know” also has a delightful excerpt from the Geddy Lee/Bob and Doug MacKenzie song “Take Off”

The other songs are decent folkie songs.  Primarily they seem to be about relationships (but it’s not always easy to tell).  Although “Careless” is a fun pop-culture mocking song (that would probably still work well live).

Sadly, the last track, the 5 second “How’s the Level,” does not seem to have made it to YouTube.  It’s obviously a goof of some sort, but I would have liked to have heard it.

I can’t imagine how many times this cassette was played before it was sent to YouTube, some of the songs sound very faded which is certainly a problem of the tape, not the original recording, but even those song (where the lyrics are hard to decipher) still sound good (and their harmonies were solid back then too).

[READ: September 13, 2010] The Maze of Bones

For two years now, this series has been red hot.  All of the kids want to read these books (probably second only to the Percy Jackson series).  What fascinated me about this series is that it is written by several different authors (which is a nightmare for libraries who shelve their books bu authors). There are ten books in all.   The authors are: Rick Riordan [Book 1], Gordon Korman [Books 2 and 8], Peter Lerangis [Books 3 and 7], Jude Watson [Books 4 and 6], Patrick Carman [Books 5], Linda Sue Park [Book 9] and, and Margaret Peterson Haddix [Books 10].

I’ve not read any of Riordan’s other books, so I don’t know how this compares.  I felt the story opened a little slowly (there’s quite a lot of information to impart) but once it took off I couldn’t put the book down.

Amy and Dan are orphans living with their mean and controlling aunt.  They learn that their grandmother (whom Amy loved and Dan thought was weird but had cool stuff) has just died.  When they go to the funeral, their grandmother Grace has set up a fascinating contest for the surviving families.  They can either take their allotment ($1 million) or they can give it back in exchange for the first of 39 clues.  Solving the clues will give them the secrets they need to become, literally, the most powerful people in the world (although at the stage we don’t even really know what that means).

It turns out that Amy and Dan are part of the Cahill family, a legacy of powerful people who dates back to Benjamin Franklin and further.  When the family was first founded, the five children fought for power and eventually split to form their own branches: the Lucian, the Ekaterina, the Janus, the Tomas, and the Madrigals.  I found this part a bit confusing to keep together in the beginning.  And, as it turns out, it’s not essential to keep the information straight to enjoy this first book.

And that’s because the story follows Amy and Dan primarily.  But it also follows the several “bad” family members who are trailing them to find the clues.   They all think that Amy and Dan have inside information because they were Grace’s favorite; they are the major competition.  The other teams want to get rid of them and yet they are also very useful for finding clues.  And yet, there are several encounters, where the Cahill’s lives are definitely in danger.

This first book sees them travel from Boston to Philadelphia to Paris (a sort of International Treasure, if you will). And, as I said, once the excitement begins, it continues at a brisk pace.

I don’t generally like adult mysteries, but I love kids’ mysteries, with their over the top excitement and crazy clues (some actual building get damaged in the search, which I didn’t expect!).  I enjoyed trying to figure out some of these clues, and I think if I were younger and had more time I might try to really sit down and figure them out.

But in addition to the clues in the book, the books come with 6 trading cards (which I haven’t opened, in hopes that in several years when my kids are old enough, they’ll be delighted to find the cards, even if the real puzzle will be long solved by then).  And speaking of the real puzzles, there is a TON of stuff online about this book that help you find more clues and learn more details about the treasure, and where better to start than with the main site.  Of course, I’m not going to stumble upon any spoilers, so I’m staying away from online information until I finish all ten books.

This looks to be a great series, and it’s off to a great start.