I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: SONIC YOUTH on World Cafe, August 21, 2006 (2006).

Travelling back even further on the NPR timeline, Sonic Youth appeared on World Cafe in 2006 to promote Rather Ripped.

This is a brief session (only three songs) but as with the interview with Thurston Moore, David Dye does another great interviewing the band here.  Although it must be said that saying the band is once again a four piece (when clearly there are five people in the picture and in the studio and when he later says two guitars, two basses and drums–which I also think is incorrect, as I’m pretty sure Kim switched to guitars at this point, although I don’t know if she did during this set) is not a great way to start the interview.

Facts aside, the interview is informative and interesting and provides a glimpse into the band’s psyche all these years into their career.

The set is also good (although Thurston’s voice sounds a little off on the opener “Incinerate”).  The surprising thing about the set is that even with the five of them, the feeling is one of restraint. True, the songs on Rather Ripped are not as noisy as previous records, but this feels like they are trying not to wake anybody up the NPR folks.  It’s a weird feeling for a Sonic Youth set, but the plus side to it is that you can really hear everything clearly.

The other two songs are sung by Kim: “Jams Run Free” and “What a Waste” (why do they never promote any of Lee’s songs??).  And there’s the very amusing comment that the first time they played “What a Waste” Thurston and Kim’s daughter said it sounded like the theme from Friends.  Ha!

[READ: April 15, 2011] The Best American Comics 2006

I just recently learned about this series from The Best American line of books.  I had known about the Best American Short Stories and Essays and even Non-Required Reading (which I have not yet read).  But once I found out about the best comics, I knew I had to check it out.

The first issue came out in 2006.  The series editor is Anne Elizabeth Moore and the Guest Editor for this volume was Harvey Pekar.  Each of them has an introductory essay in the book.  To me the amazing thing about Pekar”s essay is how aggressively defensive he sounds (a sort of, “you may not like this one, but try this one” attitude) about these comics and comics in general.  I don’t know much about Pekar’s work.  I know he’s a kind of underground icon, but I seem to have missed him.  My impression of him is that this sort of antagonistic/defensive attitude seems to go along quite well with his comics, so I guess that makes sense, but I didn’t find it very welcoming.

But that’s okay, because I really enjoyed the comics.  And quite a few were by artists that I had never read before, which is even better!

JOEL PRIDDY-The Amazing Life of Onion Jack
This is a wonderful twist on the Superhero mythos story.  It’s pretty standard that the superhero wants to be a regular person, but Priddy twists the twist and makes a wonderful story with a fantastic ending.

KIM DEITCH-Ready to Die
This was a powerful story.  Dietch met a man on Death Row who was found guilty of killing several people in an evening of mayhem.  He gets to know the man and his family as well as family members of the victims.  It’s wonderful reporting, made even more powerful by Dietch’s style.

ANDER NILSEN-The Gift
I had a little trouble following this story.  Although I did enjoy the basics of it, and I rather liked his line style.

LILI CARRÉ-Adventures of Paul Bunyan & His Ox, Babe
I loved this story which had an unsual drawing style.  The story is that Paul Bunyan is on a break from his job of tearing down trees and whatnot.  He talks with Babe about his frustrations in life and his desire to go to the city to fit in.  Very nice.

DAVID LASKY-Diary of a Bread Delivery Guy
A one page story about driving a van. He fits a ton of stuff into this tiny story and tells a really compelling little tale.  The final three panels are wonderfully rendered.

BEN KATCHOR-Goner Pillow Company
This is an amusing hypothetical story about a company that makes pillows for people to lean on when they are gazing out the window and what kind of an impact such a product would have on the country.  A cool unexpected story.

ALISON BECHDEL-Only Disconnect
I love Bechdel.  Dykes to Watch Out For is one of my favorite series of all time.  This is just one day from that series.  How you could pick one from the lot is beyond me!

JOE SACCO-Complacency Kills
This was a great story about a reporter embedded with troops.  What makes the story so fascinating is that nothing really happens while he is there (he’s there for a very short time), but you can feel the tension in the air and from the soldiers the whole time.  And their fear of failure is very high.  Although it isn’t an “exciting” story, I suspect it is very real, and all the more powerful because of it.

JUSTIN HALL-La Rubia Loco
This was a difficult but rewarding story.  It concerns a 35-year-old woman who decides to go on a  backpacker-style bus trip through North and Central America.  The woman is super depressed and confesses that she is planning to kill herself by 40 if things don’t change.

But on the trip she meets a Swiss-German woman whose life is crazier than her own.  She finds herself taking care of the woman as she descends further into madness.  Beyond a tale of compassion, the story suddenly turns into one of a group of people trying their best to help a woman in need, and the obstacles that they encounter.  It was really gripping and very exciting.  Really top-notch.

CHRIS WARE-Comics: A History
I love Chris Ware.  This is yet another of his fantastic microscosms of life.  Fun and depressing at the same time with his inimitable style.

REBECCA DART-Rabbithead
This was a wonderfully unexpected surprise.  I’ve never read any of Dart’s work before and if this is any indication of what she’s capable of, I’ve been missing out.  This story starts as a single row of panels (with a rabbit-headed character burying someone and then riding off on a horse.  But every few pages, a small incident sparks another row of panels, so that soon there are three and then five and ultimately seven panels running concurrently.  It’s a bizarre story with a very bizarre set of characters.  And even if I couldn’t follow everything that was going on, I was completely in love with everything about the piece.  I’m looking forward to reading it again and giving it the time it deserves.

IVAN BRUNETTI-Untitled
This is a short piece about trying to get someone out of your mind (with a Mickey Mouse parody on top of it).

JONATHAN BENNETT-Dance with the Ventures
I loved this slice of life story.  A man sees a bunch of records and other interesting trash out by the curb.  But when he goes to inspect it, someone has beaten him to it.  And he stands awkwardly hoping to God that the guy doesn’t take anything cool.  The man’s eventual score ends on a very funny note.  A great great story.

JAIME HERNAMDEZ-Day by Day with Hopey: Tuesday is Whose Day?
I know Hernandez from Love and Rockets.  I found this story to be okay.   Interesting, but not all that exciting (perhaps it’s part of a story that I haven’t been following).

ESTHER PEARL WATSON-Busted!
I didn’t realize until I read the bios that I know Esther Pearl Watson from Bust magazine.  This story is about a guy talking to his reflection in a trophy case.  He is practicing moves on imaginary women.  The narrator can’t even break his concentration.  Nice.

JOHN PORCELLINO-Chemical Plant/Another World
This is a surreal story about getting lost in the bowels of a Brazil-like industrial complex. It’s simple, but the style is really effective.

DAVID HEATLEY-Portrait of My Dad
This is a really funny series of sketches about Healey’s dad and his bizarro dad-like behaviors.  I laughed harder at these pieces than I imagined I would.

LLOYD DANGLE-A Street-Level View of the Republican National Convention
This was another true reporting event.  Dangle went to the Convention in New York, but he never got a press pass.  Rather, he talked to all of the protesters on the street and brings back a wonderful picture of what the real people were doing while the phonies were in town.

HOB-The Supervisor
A twisted one page comic about an abusive boss.  Really good.

GILBERT SHELTON-Wonder Wart-Hog: The Wart Hog That Came in from the Cold
This story was interesting, but I don’t really like the drawing style.  It’s kind of a Crumb style that I’m just not that fond of .  The story got really bizarre, well, actually it was bizarre from the start.  It was a neat twist on the superhero genre.

OLIVIA SCHANZER-Solidarity Forever
This style was also really bizarre. All the people have very big heads on tiny bodies.  It actually works pretty well once you get used to.  The story was a little confusing in detail although the overall story was conveyed well.  It’s about companies “using” bums to help clean up their alleys.  And how they are exploited no matter what they do.

ALEX ROBINSON-Thirty-Three
I loved the drawing style of this story.  Very clean lines and wonderful detailing.  This is an excerpt from a larger story.  As such it was a little confusing in the beginning (no exposition).  But by the end, you realize just what’s at stake.  It makes me want to read the whole story.

JESSICA ABEL-Missing
I really liked the scratchy style of art in this comic.  The story was an interesting look at dissatisfaction with a relationship and the things women will do for a bad man.

SETH TOBOCMAN, TERISA TURNEE AND LEIGH BROWNHILL-Nakedness and Power
This is a lengthy, powerful piece about women in Kenya.  About how they are basically walked over and their country is treated like crap.  Their only defense is the naked stance, which makes the men uncomfortable.  This works on a local level, but the multinationals are not impressed.  There’s no happy ending here.

RICK GEARY-Recollection of Seduction
This is an awesomely awkward one page story about a blatantly missed opportunity.

TOM HART-The Executive Hour
This was the most “comic strip” style story in the book.  I liked the idea in it but I was a little disappointed by the execution.

KURT WOLFGANG-Passing Before Life’s Very Eyes
This was my least favorite comic in the book.  It’s a look at what happens when we die.  It just didn’t grab me at all.

JESSE REKLAW-Thirteen Cats of My Childhood
This is indeed the story of the 13 cats that Reklaw had throughout his childhood and their (often) untimely fate.  The style is warm and inviting and the story line is compelling and funny (despite the sadness).  It’s a wonderful look at a family history as seen  through cats.

LYNDA BARRY-Two Questions
I typically do not like Barry’s work.  This one, a sort of metaphysical question poised to herself, is one of the best things I think she’s done.

ROBERT CRUMB-Walkin’ the Streets
So here’s the thing with Crumb and me.  I don’t really like Crumbs style of drawing.  I understand it, I know why people do, but I really just don’t (too much dark ink, maybe?).  I find it very unappealing, which I believe is the point.  But here’s the other thing.  I think Crumb is a great storyteller.  And even though his stories are often about repulsive people (himself mostly), the story itself is always interesting. This is a story he began in 1992 and finished in 2004.  And it’s a history of himself and his brother walking the streets at night trying to figure out life and why it sucks.  Very good indeed.

CONTRIBUTORS
This book has the single longest section about the contributors of any anthology I’ve read.  Each artist gets a biographical paragraph and then he or she is given another paragraph to say something about the piece that was selected.  You get so much information, some of which may even affect your opinion of the work.  It’s a good choice, especially for comic artists who usually don’t have a lot of room to say much.

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This was a stellar collection and I’m delighted to know that a) they’ve released a volume a year since 2006 and b) that I have two of them already.