I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: SHARON VAN ETTEN-Live at SXSW (2011).

Sharon Van Etten has a lot of sessions at NPR.  Not too many are downloadable, but this one is.  This is a fascinating set because it’s a special breakfast show for KUT. (See in the picture she’s doing Java Jive).  (She also plays a show later that night, but it’s not available here).

The set is four songs (all from Epic) on acoustic guitar.  The really different thing about this set than any of the other things I’ve heard from her is that her voice sounds really gravelly (like she just woke up–which she may have, almost all of her between song banter is about how it’s early–it’s either endearing or annoying).  Normally, Sharon has a really amazing voice–high and soaring.  This time it’s much  raspier.  But the interesting thing is that it works well.  She never misses a note and it brings an interesting growly tone to these (somewhat) angry songs.

It’s a great (although brief) set.

[READ: March 30, 2011] “Mont Royal”

This is a very brief (three column) story that reads like a stream of consciousness piece.  And that is appropriate because it not only references Ulysses, it actually quotes the end of the novel.

There are many fascinating things about this story.  First off, it is written in direct address: “When I moved to the city, ladies, …” but we never find out who the ladies are.  Second, it begins with the humorous idea that the narrator–upon moving to Montreal–believed for many years that the cross on the to of Mont Royal was a plus sign (he is an engineer).

He has escaped from an arranged marriage back home (and has incurred the wrath of his mother), but he has had no luck finding love in Canada either.   He decides that the ideal woman for him is a woman who has read Ulysses.  Although he himself has only ever made it to page 27.

Will he ever say yes I will yes I said yes I finished?

It’s a strange little story but very enjoyable.

I’ve almost finished reading all of the fiction in the back issues of The Walrus, and I’m somewhat amazed at how multicultural the fiction is.  I mean, I know the New Yorker’s fiction is multicultural too, but since they publish one a week, it’s easy to cover so many bases.  With The Walrus, they publish ten times a year and there isn’t fiction in every issue. So, seeing so many writers who are either not native Canadian or who are writing about locales outside of Canada is pretty impressive.