I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: GUSTER-World Cafe Live December 3, 2010 (2010).

I heard that Guster was going to be on the Free at Noon show about fifteen minutes before it started (and then I had to go to work). So I missed this show.  I was pretty excited to see that it was available on World Cafe Live.  But I was surprised to see that the show (plus a fourteen minute interview!) was only about 28 minutes long.  I’ve had questions about how the World Cafe shows work.  It always seems like the show would be longer (four songs for a concert seems like more trouble than its worth).  And then I found…

This page which helps explain the World Cafe stage a bit more.  The Guster concert was a Free at Noon show for WXPN in Philadelphia. The full set list was Set List:  1. Architects & Engineers  2. Satellite  3. Hercules  4. This Could All Be Yours  5. Bad Bad World  6. Stay With Me, Jesus  7. Do You Love Me  8. Hang On.  So the World Cafe archives truncate the sets (which is what it feels like on some of the shows–at least the ones that have an audience).

But then beggars can’t be choosers (especially for a free show).  So, this download includes:  Satellite, This Could All Be Yours, Stay With Me, Jesus and Do You Love Me (plus the lengthy interview).  The set is fantastic (as you expect from Guster), their harmonies are tight and sharp, the songs sound wonderful and they are catchy as all get out.  Two of these songs are from their new album, and they work perfectly with the older ones (even if they do slow things down a wee bit).

The interview is also interesting as it reveals the guys to be smart and thoughtful and it shows a side of them that’s not always apparent from their songs.  It’s a wonderful download.  Thanks NPR.

[READ: April 16, 2011] “The Ice Worm”

This story began as one thing and then turned into something else entirely. As the story opens, Ilka Weiss is in a nursing home, and we learn that her daughter, Maggie, has come to take her home (even though the nurses think she should stay).  When we see Ilka, she is reciting the Bible from memory (the passage where King David is going to fight the Philistines).  This goes on for a page (a funny scene with the family interrupting her but her continuing unabated), but it sets a certain tone for the story.

The next scene sees Maggie getting the runaround in bureaucratic hell as she tries to arrange for a visiting nurse to come for her mother.  It is an absolute hell of misinformation.  And she is not able to secure anything for two weeks.  When they finally call back, Maggie has taken Ilka to the hospital.

And this is where the real plot of the story (a full three pages into a four page story) really comes in.  For when Maggie returns to the hospital to check on her mother, they have no record of an Ilka Weiss in the hospital.  She tries different wings of the hospital wondering if she could have been admitted in a different area or if she’s just lying somewhere on a gurney unattended.  Obviously, this is a panic inducing feeling.  And really, what else can she do?  If the hospital has lost her mother, where can she turn?

It’s a frightening story of helplessness and more specifically of helplessness in the face of old age.  It’s a very well written story and all of the pieces fit together very nicely.