I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: MOGWAI-Kicking a Dead Pig + Mogwai Fear Satan Remixes (1998).

This release came out soon after Young Team, when it seemed like Mogwai was just flooding the market.  It’s a remix album of a number of tracks from Young Team. And, when it was re-released it contained several mixes of the track “Fear Satan” as a bonus disc.

In general, I’m not a fan of remixes.  There, I’ve said it. Back in the flush 90s, when I used to buy a lot of import singles, I enjoyed the B-sides, but was always disappointed when there was a remix rack.  Some are fine.  Indeed, some are pretty good.  But for the most part you get a very long song that is mostly drum machine and sounds and noises.  And I know that they are designed for dancing, but I’m not a dancer, so despite how much techno I own, I’m very rarely thrilled to ge a remix.

Which is  as good a way as any to say that this is a pretty inessential disc, even for Mogwai fans. Even though Mogwai themselves throw a couple of remixes on there.  And for the most part, what we get are washes of sound.  Since Mogwai don’t really do lyrics, it’s not always very obvious what song the remixers are remixing.

• Hood: “Like Herod” has some interesting staccato, which Mogawi typically doesn’t have.
• Max Tundra: “Helicon 2” is primarily ride cymbal although a guitar motif does come in (with some pretty harmonics) eventually.
• Klute: “Summer” (Weird Winter Remix). There’s nothing distinctive about this.
• Arab Strap: “Gwai on 45.”  I actually expected a lot from this mix because Arab Strap are a weirdly wonderful band and the guys have worked with Mogwai.  But then, they’re not an exciting band–they’re very good, just understated.  And as a result, this remix is okay but nothing too exciting.
• Third Eye Foundation: “A Cheery Wave from Stranded Youngsters” (Tet Offensive Remix) is also okay.
• Alec Empire: “Like Herod” (Face the Future Remix).  Alec Empire usually turns all of his remixes into super fast like 500 bpm noise explosions (just like Atari Teenage Riot). He doesn’t do that here, and the song just kind of melds in with the rest.
• DJ Q: “R U Still In 2 It” has a vocal, but it is mostly one word repeated over and over.
• Kid Loco: “Tracy.”  I liked this track more than many others.
• Mogwai: “Fear Satan.”  It’s weird to me that you would remix one of your own songs, although I guess it’s fun.  I still like the original better.  And I’m fairly certain this one is different from the one on the next disc.

[READ: March 11, 2011] The Revolution Will Be Accessorized

I only heard about this anthology when I read the Sam Lipsyte piece from it.  I didn’t really like his piece, but the rest of the anthology sounded intriguing.  It was put out by BlackBook magazine, which I have a sort of vague awareness of, but couldn’t really say anything about (it’s some kind of counter-cultural fashion magazine or something).  But it seems like the counter-cultural aspect really lends sway here.

This anthology is a collection of short stories, essays and interviews.  There’s also an introduction by Jay McInerney

JAY McINERNEY-Introduction
He talks about BlackBook and the essays contained here.

MEGHAN DAUM-“L.A. Bourgeois”
This is a good opening to the book because it talks about some of the issues that keep cropping up: NY vs LA aesthetic, and how it’s hard to be bourgeois when everyone can buy affordable quality stuff from places like Target.   And it was funny, too.

DIRK WITTENBORN-“When Ass Kissing Became Networking”
Also funny, but meaningful as this article which looks at the rise of networking: ways to get ahead without actually earning it.  The author explicitly states he’s not opposed to stepping on people to get ahead, but he can’t stand ass- kissing to get ahead.

DOUGLAS COUPLAND vs. NAOMI KLEIN
This piece is a dialogue between Coupland and Klein.  Mostly they talk about whether they should even be doing something like this for Blackbook. But they also talk about consumer culture.   It’s an amusing (and somewhat informative) little piece.

GLENN O’BRIEN-“If It Makes You Think, Is It Fashion?”
This opens with a part that I loved.  O’Brien claims to have future nostalgia, meaning he longs for the future that was projected fifty years ago (as we all do…Jetpacks, and whatnot).  But it morphs in to a discussion of where fashion designers get their ideas from.  (The Hasidic community, perhaps).  He wonders if you spend time thinking about where the clothes came from, does it some how elevate it above mere fashion.

EMMA FORREST-“Harold and Maude is Forever”
A wonderful essay about the things that we share with boyfriends/girlfriends, and what it mean to them (or us) after we break up.

BRUNO MADDOX-“The Angriest Book Club in America”
Maddox meets The Underground Literary Alliance.  This alliance was founded by a group of unpublished authors who fought the mainstream publishing empire in myriad ways to try to get their voices heard.   They were basically opposed to mainstream publishing because they mostly published ivory tower, ivy league, rich people.

The began disrupting readings and causing commotions everywhere.  They railed against Rick Moody and Jonathan Franzen winning monetary prizes (since they didn’t have to work day jobs anyhow).  But then the literary establishment took them seriously.  They had a sit down interview with George Plimpton.  And this acceptance by the establishment made them kind of lost their bluster, because as Maddox points out, their writing really wasn’t very good.  And once they were allowed to say their piece, they had lost their fire.

JOAN DIDION vs. MEHAN DAUM
Two authors whom I’ve never read (well except for the Daum piece above).   They discuss what it was like to be a female writer back in the 70s in NY and LA.  It’s fascinating and makes me think I should check out Didion.

ALAIN de BOTTON-“In Praise of Zoos”
de Botton is in the funny position of going to a zoo without a child, and he finds the zoo to be very educational, especially when learning about humanity.

AUGUSTEN BUIRROUGHS-“Santa Shrink”
Burroughs talks about how his mother always wanted to be a writer, and yet he wound up becoming one.  Do we, indeed become our parents, or more specifically, the exact opposite of our parents.  I haven’t read any of his books, but I gather they’re amusing like this piece was.

SAM LIPSYTE-“April Foolery”
Not much funnier in a second read.

DBC PIERCE-“Bullets and Brandy and Ice Dust”
I feel like I never knew what the hell was going on here.  It begins with a man with a rocket grenade launcher in his house and ends up talking about romance.

RYAN BOUDINOT-“My Mother was a Monster”
This is probably the most lasting piece in the book for me.  It is the most fully realized fiction in the book.  It begins with a wonderful bit about his parents: they ate boxed and prepackaged food for dinner exclusively, but his mom wouldn’t let them eat sugared cereal–awesome detail.  Then the story turns in a really really weird and unexpected direction, which brings some literalness to the title.  Dark and creepy but very well done.

THE HEMINGWAY CHALLENGE
This was a challenge to a number of writers: write a story in six words, like Hemingway’s famous: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”  Some are great, others are okay. The authors include:
JOHN UPDIKE, IRVINE WELSH, NORMAN MAILER, ROBERT OLEN BUTLER, MICHAEL CUNNINGHAM, MARY GAITSKILL, AUGUSTEN BURROUGHS, REBECCA MILLER, BEN GREENMAN, JAMIE O’NEILL, RICK MOODY, TOBIAS WOLFF, AM HOMES, JT LeROY, NICHOLAS WEINSTOCK, DAVID LODGE, BRUCE BENDERSON, EDWARD ALBEE, BRIAN BOULDREY, AG PASQUELLA, JERRY STAHL, ANDREA SEIGEL

24-HOUR PARTY PEOPLE: IRVINE WELSH MEETS DAMIEN HIRST
Two bad boys of the art world (who are often mistaken for each other).  They talk about art and writing and drugs and drugs and drugs.

M.J. HYLAND-“The Last Christmas”
Unclear if this was a fiction or non-fiction, but it is a very depressing piece about going home for Christmas

JONATHAN AMES-“Sneakers Made the Boy”
This begins as a kind of story about a fetish for shoes (specifically sneaker).  But it resolves itself nicely about how people perceive you by what sneakers you wear.

TOBY YOUNG-“Demon Club Soda”
A parody of writers who fear they are drinking too much–rather, he is not drinking enough.  Cute, but too long.

DANA VACHON-“Wrapping with Christo”
An interview with Christo and Jeanne-Claude.  This interview felt mean-spirited to me.  I enjoyed Christo’s The Gates, despite, and even because of, its frivolousness, and I felt like Vachon was using a language barrier to try to make the artists look foolish.

BILL POWERS-“Sticky Feet”
How far will you go to stalk someone?

MATTHEW BARNEY vs. JEFF KOONS
Another interview between two prominent artists.  They feed well off each other.  And Koons reveals things that are surprising to me (his inflatable bunny revealed way too much about himself (!).   I still can’t decide if I ever want to watch the Cremaster cycle.

NEAL POLLACK-“Reef or Madness?”
Although I think of Pollack as usually writing about himself, this story was actually about someone else (although he does get a funny one-liner about himself in there).  This is a funny story of hope when a man discovers a coral reef in the Hudson River.

MIKE ALBO-“The Big Sell”
This is an essay about commercialization and how it is becoming more and more insidious, and yet how we kind of like it too.

CHUCK PALAHNUIK-“If Death is Just a Doorway…Why Shouldn’t It Have a Door Policy?”
This is a goof about trying to market death as a way to get nearer to celebrities.

WILLIAM T. VOLLMANN-“Greyhound Across America”
This may be the single shortest piece that Vollmann has ever written (barely two pages!).  Vollmann was asked to share a story of an exotic trip he’s taken.  And so, he talks about riding the Greyound bus.  He compares it to riding buses in other countries (often unfavorably).  And it’s quite amusing.

J.T. LeROY-“Flower Hunting in the Congo”
I’m not sure if LeRoy had been “outed” when the book was published.  And whether or not s/he had, this story is full of possible lies.  There’s even a postscript to the story in which the veracity of the piece is called into question–playing up to LeRoy’s phonyness or not?).

Anyhow, LeRoy claims to be on a hunt for a rare flower with his guide William. T Vollmann.  (This is one of many interestingly placed articles that seem to reference the piece before it in some way).  It’s a weird kind of story/article (which reminds me vaguely of Mark Leyner for some reason).

VICTOR BOCKRIS-“Ghostwalk”
This final piece proved to be surprisingly affecting.  Bockris has lived in NYC all of his life.  He decides to finally go and investigate Ground Zero (he hadn’t been at all–although I’m not sure when exactly this was written).  And, like i felt at my first visit, he found it really and truly moving. I believe he got there before I did because he saw much more than I was able to.  And, he conveys it much better than I could, too.

—-

So overall, this was kind of a lightweight collection (I read it really really quickly).  Many of the pieces are silly.  But I’d say most are serious and try to investigate an issue or two.  It’s a fairly hard to find collection, as far as I can tell.  I had to interlibrary loan the book, and not many libraries had it.  But if you like any of the above authors, it’s worth tracking down.   It’s also worth trying to find the Boudinot story (which is also available in his collection The Littlest Hitler).