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Archive for November, 2011

TV Fall 2011

Posted in 2 Broke Girls, Allen Gregory, American Horror Story, Archer, Arrested Development, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Chuck, Community, Flight of the Conchords, Free Agents, Gilmore Girls, Glee, Grimm, Hart of Dixie, How I Met Your Mother, How To Be a Gentleman, Kal Penn, Mike and Molly, Modern Family, Mr Show, New Girl, Once Upon a Time, Pan Am, Parenthood, Parks and Recreation, Project Runway, Ringer, Suburgatory, Terra Nova, The Big Bang Theory, The Office, The Simpsons, The Walking Dead, Tosh.0, TV 2011, Up All Night, Work of Art on November 20, 2011| 1 Comment »

I was planning to write this post early in the TV Season.  I found out that the TiVo website rather helpfully includes a page of all the premiere dates of shows, which in addition to telling us when shows started, has also turned out to be a good way to keep track of the shows that were cancelled already.  Our goal is basically to get every good show cancelled so that we can watch our poor Netflix DVDs (which now that we had to change our policy we have mercifully fewer discs that we are not watching).  Um, thanks for the hike Netflix?

Anyhow, it’s now  about seven weeks into the season and we’ve already lost a number of shows–some as quickly as two weeks in…which, really?  I mean why bother.  Surprisingly, none of the FOX shows were cancelled yet.  That’s probably because FOX didn’t pick anything cool or interesting enough for me to want to watch–that’s actually not true, they have some good new shows this season, but nothing like Arrested Development.

So, this time I’m breaking it down by day of the week (which is silly since we TiVo everything and watch it whenever).  And this time red shows are shows we have given up on and Green ones are ones that we’re still enjoying. (more…)

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Five Dials Number 21: Rock School (5 November, 2011)

Posted in Beirut, Book Reviews, Brendan Connell, Fantasy, Fears, Five Dials, Geoffrey Trease, Great Lake Swimmers, Heathecote Williams, Herman Hesse, History, J.K. Huysmans, Jonas Hassen Khemiri, Kid Koala, Kurt Vonnegut, Lionel Shriver, Lizzy Stewart, Los Campesinos!, Marriage Trouble, Moldy Peaches, Raymond Chandler, Rebecca Delgado, Roberto Bolaño, Shirley Jackson, Short Story, Virginia Woolf, W.G. Sebald, War, William S. Burroughs on November 19, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: HELIUM-The Dirt of Luck (1995).

Mary Timony fronted Helium for a few years.  In that time she was recognized as something of a guitar wizard–not in her speed and flash, but in the weird sounds she conjured from the instrument.

She also had very peculiar musical sensibilities (these songs are quite odd) and a cool feminist attitude.  This album features the amazing song “Superball” (one of the best songs of the mid 90s–check out the video and watch the guitarist playing the strings with a screwdriver!  Man I miss the 90s) as well as a number of unpolished gems like “Medusa” and “Pat’s Trick” (the dual vocals are very cool and the dispassionate “oh oh oh” is very interesting, plus I love the lyric about “long-ass curly hair”).

Her singing style is often quite slacker-y, like in the opening of “Medusa”–she’s not always audible, and she often seems like a kind of buzzy sound more than a voice.   She sounds like she’s singing from very far away–seemingly powerful and yet quiet at the same time.

But combine that with the cool scratchy/noisy guitar sounds she gets and she’s pulling off a very cool combination (think Dino Jr without the hooks and killer solos).

Like “Baby’s Going Underground” features some crazy shoegazer guitar washes for most of its 6 minutes which really changes the pacing of the record.  There’s also the great “Skeleton,” a riff so cool that Sonic Youth used it for “Sunday.”

She also has a way with haunting melodies as on the piano  instrumental “Comet #9” and on “All the X’s Have Wings” which sounds very medieval. I think of Timony as a guitarist and yet there is there are lots of keyboards on the album too–mystical keyboards that are fascinating and seem out of character with the guitars, but actually work quite well.   But the prettiest song is “Honeycomb.’  It’s a sweet song with a wonderful melody.  It is followed by the ender “Flower of the Apocalypse” a guitar-based instrumental that is mostly feedback but is also surprisingly melodic.

Helium had mild accolades back in the 90s.  They released a couple of albums and then Mary Timony went solo.  It’s nice to have her playing now with Wild Flag.

[READ: November 11, 2011] Five Dials Number 21

This is the first issue of Five Dials that I was ready to read when it was sent to me (I’ve been all caught up for a while now).  So that’s pretty exciting!

I was tempted to say that i enjoyed this issue more than other issues, but I have enjoyed most Five Dials issues equally.  But this one is definitely a favorite.

CRAIG TAYLOR–A Letter from the Editor: On Turning 21 and Thinking About Rock Stars and Greece.
The magazine introduction jokes about them now being legal to drink in the U.S. and also about now being old enough to run for M.P. in England.  He also tells us about their “new” section Our Town, which has vastly expanded in this issue.  He also explains that there are many rock stars on hand to give the magazine tutelage (authors that the rock stars enjoy) and three short stories.  He ends with a notice that they have gone to Greece where they are gathering material for Issue 22. (more…)

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Jennifer L. Holm & Matthew Holm–Camp Babymouse [#6] (2007)

Posted in "Weird Al" Yankovic, Cats, Children's Books, Cupcakes, Fears, Funny (ha ha), Graphic Novel, Jennifer L. Holm, Matthew Holm, Mice, Queen, Short Books, Summer, Summer Camp, The Doors, The White Stripes on November 18, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: “WEIRD AL” YANKOVIC-Alpocalypse (2011).

Weird Al’s new album seems, believe it or not, a bit more mature (within reason, obviously).  When I first started listening to Al, he appealed to the 8th grader in me.  And while his jokes are often still childish and silly, he brings a certain older perspective now (he’s like 52 right?).  So this album, again, is silly and funny, but actually deals more realistically with issues like love (again, within the confines of a parody song).

I was also thinking that Al has always been pretty PG, a bit violent, but always cartoonish.   But as pop songs get more PG-13 and even R, Al has had to adapt, whether on purpose or not.  I mean, in his medley he sings “Womanizer” and “Blame it on the Alcohol,” certainly not appropriate for 8th graders, and yet those original songs are, indeed, popular hits.

But enough seriousness.   On to the music.  “Perform this Way” a parody of Lady Gaga’s “Born this Way” is a weird parody in that it seems like a direct comment on the artist herself.  I guess “Smells Like Nirvana” was as well, but it’s one of the rare Weird Al songs that’s not really self-contained–or actually it is self-contained but the joke works better if you know the singer.  And if you don’t know Lady Gaga, this one is kind of flat (catchy as heck and quite funny though).  “CNR” is a great White Stripes style parody.  It gets funnier with each listen and the music is great.  And the idea of Charles Nelson Reilly doing any of these things is chuckle inducing.

“TMZ”  is the first of two internet based songs.  Which is funny in and of itself.  He makes fun of celebrities and the culture of celebrity.    “Skipper Dan” proved to be very funny for us as we had recently gone to Disneyworld and wondered if the boat tour guides got to improv any jokes (I gather they don’t).  “Polka Face” is one of Al’s great polka mash ups.  This one was really enjoyable even though I knew virtually none of the songs (which may be a first).  “Party in the CIA” is a parody of “Party in the USA” a song I don’t know at all.  Based on Al’s version I think the original seems really dull .

“Ringtone” is a Queen style parody which I like quite a bit although I particularly do not like the way they sing the word “ringtone.” The rest is spot on though–especially the solo.  “Another Tattoo” is great–Al is so good at doing R&B and rap songs–the voice, phrasings and echoic recordings are spot on.   And this song is really funny.  “If That Isn’t Love” is the song I was talking about in the beginning, about being more mature.  It’s kind of a follow up to “You Dont Love Me Anymore” in which he shows how much he loves this new girl, but it’s less over the top and yet still funny.  This example shows the joke but how it’s aimed at a more sophisticated 8th grader:

And when you’re telling me about your feelings I try not to yawn
And when we’re at parties I don’t talk about your spastic bladder

or

And I almost never pretend you’re someone else when I’m making out with you

Quite different from “Another One Rides the Bus.”

“Whatever You Like” is a parody of a song called “Whatever You Like” which I don’t know.  It has to be the first parody of a song with the same title.  That bothers me a little, although I have no idea what the original is about.  I do like this one quite a bit.  “Stop Forwarding That Crap to Me” is very funny and over the top.  It’s another email/spam joke but my favorite line is vaguely sophisticated and makes me laugh every time

And your two million loser friends all have my address now because you never figured out the way to bcc:

The fact that it works perfectly with the rhythm of the song, rhymes right on and is a surprisingly clever joke is just stellar.

I’ve saved “Craigslist” for last because I think it’s just great and I can’t imagine how the idea for this was generated.  How do you go from talking about Craigslist to thinking Jim Morrison?  I’m imagining a session in which someone was making a joke about a letter to Craigslist that they read in various voices and then did it ala Morrison and the whole thing just blossomed from there.  But heavens if the music isn’t spot on and the song is funny without being novelty-funny.  You could easily play it on classic rock radio (if you can find such a station) and Doors fans would like it.

This is one of the first Weird Al albums where I knew very few of the songs parodied.  I don’t follow pop music, so that makes sense, but it really shows how out of touch I am with culture.  I also read a review talking about how the jokes are kind of old (making fun of Craigslist is so 2005).  But Al puts out a record every three years and if the songs aren’t timely, the subjects can have more lasting appeal.  Al seems to know what has staying power, so even if it’s not current it’s still funny.

And the band, as always, sounds fantastic.  As does the recording quality–the Doors sounds like the Doors, The White Stripes sounds like The White Stripes.  It’s very well done.

[READ: November 11, 2011] Camp Babymouse

In this Babymouse book, she goes to summer camp.  And as the voice- over points out, what on earth would Babymouse be doing at camp?  She hates everything that you do at camp.

But she’s excited to go and has a fantasy of being a great scout!

Stories always make summer camp seem like hell.  And this one is no exception. It starts when Babymouse gets to her cabin and has to climb to the tippy-top bunk (a great fantasy sequence of King Kong comes in).

The “plot” of the story is that the campers are trying to win the most points for the week.  The winners get a prize and the losers have to wash dishes.  Typically, Babymouse causes some major catastrophes (a Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde sequence provides a good laugh as does a wonderful Moby Dick fantsy during the canoeing competition). (more…)

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Ben Marcus–“The First Venom” (Harper’s, December 2011)

Posted in Ben Marcus, Disease, Fears, Harper's, Helium, McSweeney's, New Yorker, Sleater-Kinney, Wild Flag, World Cafe Live on November 17, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: WILD FLAG-World Cafe, November 10, 2011 (2011).

I’ve been really enjoying Wild Flag’s debut album.  Wild Flag consists of Carrie Brownstein and Janet Weiss of Sleater-Kinney, Rebecca Cole, who I don’t know but who has been in a few different indie bands, and Mary Timony from Helium.

This World Cafe episode is a brief interview (mostly with Carrie, although all four women are present), in which they talk about the origins of the band and what it’s like to play as a foursome. 

There are three songs and the band sounds tight and perfect.  In fact they sound so perfect I almost wondered if they were really playing live (but there’s one keyboard flub that proves that humans are involved).

It’s a great sample of the record, which is all great, and it’s a good chance to get caught up with these rocking women. 

[READ: November 15, 2011] “The First Venom”

This is an excerpt from Marcus’ forthcoming novel, The Flame Alphabet.   I’ve read a number of Marcus’ things in the past and I realized that most of his McSweeney’s pieces I do not like.  Some of the short stories in the New Yorker I have enjoyed, although usually not right away.  So, clearly Marcus and I don’t see eye to eye on fiction.

And that’s the case with this excerpt.  It’s hard for me to say I wouldn’t read a longer piece based just on an excerpt because who knows what else the rest of the book contains (this could be a small fraction of a much different story), but this excerpt absolutely didn’t make me want to read any more.

In the excerpt, a married couple is sickened by their daughter.  Literally.  All of the words that she says and whispers and scribbles wash a sickness over her parents.  They cringe and try to get away but she keeps talking and talking.

At first this seemed like a metaphorical sickness–who hasn’t grown tired of their kid’s incessant chatter, but it soon becomes clear that this is very real. (more…)

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Joyce Carol Oates–“The Good Samaritan” (Harper’s, December 2011)

Posted in Субито, Fears, Harper's, Joyce Carol Oates, Marriage Trouble, Rammstein, Short Story, Threats on November 16, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: СУБИТО (Subito)-“Du Hast” (2011).

Субито (pronounced Subito) is from the Ukraine.  They’re a bunch of miners and they play music.  In addition to this cover, which is generating some meme buzz on the internet, they have a few other songs (and videos) of note.

This cover is notable in that the only real difference between this song and the original is the prominence of the button accordion.  The vocals are nearly identical (he’s got his German goth down perfectly), and the rest of the band plays quiet heavily (I love the triangle instruments!).  But the accordion changes the entire texture and tone of the song.   It’s still ominous (I mean, those vocals!) but the accordion adds an air of whimsy that undermines the menace and yet also somehow makes the rest of the song seem even more menacing.

Of course the video is quite silly which leads one to assume that they’re not taking their version too seriously and yet their playing is impeccable and their backing vocals are right on.

So, yes, I rather like this song, and I like being able to include the word Субито in my post.

[READ: November 10, 2011] “The Good Samaritan”

Joyce Carol Oates has a wonderful way of turning her stories into something dark.  Even if it starts out in a rather innocent light.

This story is set in 1981 on a train coming from Utica, NY.  The narrator, Sonia, finds a woman’s wallet stuffed into the seat of the car.  The story begins with Sonia thinking about the woman, wondering what she’s like, looking at the photos of herself and her family and sort of daydreaming what it would be like to be older and married.  It’s only after a brief reverie that she, a poor college student, checks the money to see what’s there.  (About $25).  She hopes that the woman is old enough to give her a reward, but assumes she is not.

Sonia is to be heading home to help her mother with her ailing grandmother, something she’s not looking forward to.  So she decides that she will return the wallet to the woman who, after all, lives only a few blocks from the station.

What is wonderful about this story is that this innocent setup masks the real story, which is never fully explored, but is hinted at enough to keep us all guessing.  When Sonia arrives at the house, the woman’s husband is home and he seems….surprised that Sonia has brought this wallet home.  She feels sympathy for him when he begins to explain that his wife ran off and must have dropped this wallet on this train while she was fleeing.  Sonia wants to help the man in some way.  He invites her inside and she thinks of all the things she could do for him–stupid things like make dinner or maybe even look at her things to see is she can help figure out where her wife went.  She suggests this last idea and he accepts. (more…)

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Junot Díaz–“He’ll Take El Alto” (Gourmet, September 2007)

Posted in Crosby Stills Nash and Young, CSN&Y, Culture Shock, David Foster Wallace, Dominican Republic, Essays, Food, Gourmet, Junot Díaz, Neil Young, Stephen Stills, The Eagles, The Stills-Young Band on November 15, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE STILLS-YOUNG BAND: Long May You Run (1976).

I’ve known the song “Long May You Run” for a long time, but I never really realized it came from a non-Neil Young album.  The album is by The Stills-Young Band and the history of the album may be more interesting than the album itself (in sum: CSN&Y broke up, C&N made and album so S&Y made an album.  C&N were supposed to be on the S&Y album but they fought and S&Y removed their vocals).

So what we get is nine songs.  Five written by Neil Young and four by Stephen Stills.  The songs are played by Stills’ solo backing band and while the credits suggest that they played on each others’ songs, it doesn’t really seem like it.  It seems like you get 5 Neil Young solo songs and four Stephen Stills solo songs.

It’s also odd that the cover of the album shows buffalo running in the plains (nod to Buffalo Springfield, I’m sure) but so many of these songs are about water.  Maybe that disconnect feeds the whole thing.

By the way, “Long May You Run” is a catchy little country number that I never realized was about his car until recently.

Stephen Stills’ first song is the utterly unsubtle, possibly seductive in the 70s but hilariously outre in 2001 “Make Love to You.”  It’s full of 70s synths and has a very serious tone (despite the 70s synth).  And the lyrics, hoo boy:

Girl your body said everything and I know you knew/I wanna make love to you, make you feel all right/I wanna make love  to you, yes, it’ll take all night

Which is about as long as the shower you need to take after hearing that song.

“Midnight on the Bay” is a pleasant enough song from Neil.  It’s a bit too much into the 70’s-lite music genre for my liking, but it’s not too terrible.

The thing about Stephen Stills is I like his voice.  It’s unusual and unique and I like hearing him sing.  But man his lyrics are crazy.  I like the opening riff of “Black Coral” with its staccato piano.  Yet it seems like he’s got but one thing on his mind.  The song is ostensibly about being underwater:

Got to move slow/Take it easy down there/You’ve only so much air/When you get a little deeper/If you slow down/You might keep her/The sea, unforgiving and she’s hard/But she’ll make love to you/Show you glimpses of the stars.

But maybe that’s metaphorical.  Because when you go deeper, “I saw Jesus, and it made sense that he was there.”

“Ocean Girl” is sort of Neil’s answer to that song.  It’s got a very 70s wah wah sound and a very easy to sing chorus.  Consider it a catchy but inessential Neil song.  “Let It Shine” is also Neil’s song (and there’s more stuff about his cars here–so you know he’s really into it).  It’s a more substantial song than most of the rest although it has a very easy feel.

“12/8 Blues” (love the title) feels like an Eagles song (“Life in the Fast Lane” to be specific, although they both came out in the same year.  Hmm).  It’s fairly generic (like the title) but I like it (crazy time signatures are my thing, man).

“Fontainebleau” is an interesting angsty Neil song that I think would have done very well with CSN&Y.  I never really paid attention to the lyrics before, but it’s fairly interesting and the guitar solos are soft but cool.

The final song goes to Stills.  “Guardian Angel” feels like a combination of all of his other songs, and it’s probably his best on the disc.   It’s got the slinky 70s vibe of  the first song, the staccato piano and, interestingly a chorus that would sound great with the 4 part harmony of CSN&Y.  It also rocks harder than anything on the record (which isn’t saying all that much).  The end has a cool extended instrumental section which I rather like as well.

So this is a weird little hybrid record.  There’s some good stuff for Neil Young fans, although it’s far from essential.  I actually don’t know much about Stills’ solo work so I don’t know how this compares, but he does seem a little one-track here.

[READ: November 4, 2011] “He’ll Take El Alto”

I don’t read Gourmet magazine.  I’m not a foodie and it seems like it’s just a food magazine.  But here’s the second article in Gourmet by a writer that I really like.  The first of course would be David Foster Wallace’s “Consider the Lobster.”  Is Gourmet more than just recipes?  Does it often have contributions from respected authors?  Am I missing out?

This issue is the Latino issue, so it deals with food from Cuba, El Salvador, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.  And Junot Díaz is our resident Dominican, so he’s given the task of talking up the cuisine.

Unlike Wallace’s essay, which was about a trip to the Maine Lobster Festival, Díaz’s essay is about how upper Manhattan (known as El Alto) has become a hotbed for Dominican food.

Díaz explains how when Dominicans first arrived in New York, there were no restaurants.  Dominicans had to eat Cuban food to approximate their home food.  But now that there are vast enclaves of Dominicans living in El Alto, there are excellent restaurants everywhere (the sure sign that a culture has made it is when you have people from other cultures as your waitstaff).

Díaz revel as his own and his friends’ and acquaintances’ preferences for favorite Dominican restaurants.  As this article is four years old and most of the places seem to be holes in the wall (which everyone knows serves the best food, even if they don’t last very long), I’m not going to bother saying which places they are or checking to see if they are still extant).  Okay, well, Malecon is still around, anyhow. (more…)

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McSweeney’s #9 (Late Summer Early Fall 2002) [We Feel This One is More Urgent]

Posted in A.M. Homes, Adventure, Culture Shock, Death, Denis Johnson, Doug Dorst, Ellen Moore, Essays, Eugene O'Neill, Fears, Funny (strange), Gabe Hudson, Gods, Harper's, History, Humiliation, Isaac Babel, Jeff Greenwald, K. Kvashay-Boyle, Liudmilla Petrushevskaya, Masturbation, McSweeney's, Mikhail Zoshchenko, Military, Nathaniel Minton, Nikolai Leskov, Play (Drama), Political Humor, Racism, Religion, Roy Kesey, Scott Greene, Sex, Short Story, Skaz, Sufjan Stevens, Threats, Translation, Travel, Val Vinokurov, Violence, War, William T. Vollmann, Yuck! on November 14, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: SUFJAN STEVENS-The Age of Adz (2010).

Sufjan Stevens has released a bunch of albums of beautiful orchestral rock.  It is multi-layered and complex with classical elements and all kinds of cool instruments.

And this album starts out with a beautiful acoustic guitar melody and Sufjan’s delicate vocals.  Although it is a far more stripped down song than usual, “Futile Devices” seems like it is heading in the standard direction.  But anyone who heard Sufjan’s Christmas album number VIII knows that he has been having some fun with electronics.  And they show up with a vengeance on track two, “Too Much.”

All of the multilayered noise that was once orchestral and (some might say) precious has been replaced by a cacophony of gorgeous electronic noises.  The beginning of the song reminds me of the sounds in Skinny Puppy’s “Stairs and Flowers” (how many Sufjan Stevens reviews mention Skinny Puppy?).  The song is nothing like Skinny Puppy once the vocals kick in–it’s catchy and delicate–but those electronics underpin the whole thing, bringing his pastoralia into the twenty-first century.  When I first reviewed this song I didn’t like it but once you get absorbed by Sufjan’s world, it’s an enticing place to be,

“Age of Adz” takes this electronic nonsense even further with an 8 minute brew of strange sounds and choral voices.  But he always manages to throw in some catchy parts, no matter how strange the song gets.

For me one of the highlights of the disc is “I Walked” it features one of my favorite Sufjan things–falsetto vocals in a beautiful but unexpected melody.  And this song has them in spades.  “Now That I’m Older” has a very disconcerting sound–his voice is slowly warbled and mournful.  It’s a beautiful melody that is alienating at the same time.

“Get Real Get Right” returns to his earlier style somewhat (there’s more layers of music, although the electronica is still in place).   “Vesuvius” is a beautiful song and “All for Myself” is another of those great falsetto tracks that I like so much.

“I Want to Be Well” eventually turns into a manic electronic workout in which he repeats the chorus “I’m not fucking around.”

But nothing compares  to “Impossible Soul” a twenty-five minute (!) multi-part suite of electronic chaos.  It’s a fantastic song complete with autotune (used to very cool effect), repeated swelling choruses (it’s like a Polyphonic Spree tribute), electronic freakouts, and acoustic comedowns.  All in a positive, happy message.  I can’t stop listening to it.  “It’s not so impossible!”

Sufjan continues to impress me.

[READ: November 10, 2011] McSweeney’s #9

After the excesses of McSweeney’s #8, I was excited to get to the brevity (and urgency) of McSweeney’s #9.  This one is a paperback and looks like the first couple of issues.  The cover is mostly text with a hodgepodge of phrases and pleas.  You get things like: Thankful, Emboldened, The (Hot-Blooded/Life-Saving) Presumption of (Perpetual/Irrational (or More Likely, Irreducibly Rational) Good Will, Efflorescence, Our motto this time: We Give You Sweaty Hugs,” Alternative motto: ” We Are Out Looking,” GEGENSCHEIN (no more), and the promise: “We will Do Four This Year.”

This is the kind of issue that makes me love McSweeney’s.  There are some wonderful short stories, there are some nice essays and there are some dark moments all centered vaguely and tangentially around a theme.  There are some great authors here, too.

The back cover image is called Garden Variety by Scott Greene and it’s a fantastic painting.  You can see it here (navigate through the 2000-2004 paintings, but I have to say I really like the style of all of his work.

There are no letters and no nonsense in this issue.  So let’s get to it. (more…)

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Eugene O’Neill–“Exorcism” [from 1920] (New Yorker, October 17, 2011)

Posted in Drinking, Eugene O'Neill, Marriage Trouble, New Yorker, Play (Drama), Semisonic, Suicide on November 13, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: SEMISONIC-Feeling Strangely Fine (1998).

In my mind, Feeling Strangely Fine is the pinnacle of Semisonic’s pop greatness.  I mean, it’s got “Closing Time” on it.  And while I am now pretty tired of the song (can it really be 13 years old?), when it came out it was pretty awesome.  And so I tend to think of The Great Divide as being in the shadow of this record.  But in retrospect, I think I have to favor Divide over Fine.  This album has a bit too much polish, a bit too much smoothness for my liking.  And while there are some great songs on it, I’m not entirely sure it matches up to The Great Divide.

“Singing in My Sleep” is a supremely catchy song–a simple riff, mellow verses and an urgent chorus.  It should have been huge too.   And “Never You Mind” has that Semisonic quality in spades–simple accents that make a song catchy (a little guitar riff) and really catchy choruses.  Plus lyrically, it’s rather clever.  “Secret Smile” is one of their few ballads that I really like.  I guess they have just mastered pop hooks for this record.

But to me the rest of the record pales a bit compared  to The Great Divide.  “DND” is a similar slow song although it’s a bit slinkier.  And there’s some very mild funk on “Completely Pleased” which is a welcome return to the rockier songs but which doesn’t quite reach the heights that they have hit before.

“California” is a fun track.  It could use a bit of oomph but it shows off some fun noises at the end.  And the last two tracks just kind of fade the disc out.

Nothing on the album is really bad.  And indeed, in the right frame of mind these songs are all really enjoyable, but i think after comparing them to some of the earlier tracks and even the earlier tracks on this record overall this one comes up a bit short.

[READ: November 6, 2011] “Exorcism”

This is a Eugene O’Neill play that was believed to be lost forever.  He staged the play in 1920 but after a brief run, he destroyed every copy, possibly to assuage his dying father.  But this copy was recently found amongst a friend’s papers.

So that’s pretty exciting that a new Eugene O’Neill one-act play is now available.  I believe the whole thing is printed here–it’s so hard to tell with the New Yorker.  But they also say that Yale University Press will be publishing the play in the spring.  If the whole thing fits onto 7 New Yorker pages, how are  they going to publish it as a book?  Well, that’s Yale’s problem.

I don’t know that I have read many, if any, O’Neill plays.  I’ve never really taken any drama classes, although I know about O’Neill’s mastery of drama.

So this is probably as good a place to start as any.

This is the classic “nothing happens” kind of story which proves to be a powerfully emotional story (especially as it resonates so closely to his own life). (more…)

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Steven Millhauser–“Miracle Polish” (New Yorker, November 14, 2011)

Posted in Fantasy, Funny (strange), Magic, New Yorker, Semisonic, Short Story, Steven Millhauser, Supernatural on November 12, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: SEMISONIC-Pleasure EP (1995).

The Pleasure EP is an even more alterna version of what we’d get on The Great Divide.  Divide duplicates some songs from this earlier EP, and you can see them all polished up on the full length.

“The Prize” which has a great squeaky solo on Divide is even more raw and noisy here.  And “Brand New Baby” which was dumped near the end of Divide shines here in its more raw version (again, not really raw, just a little raw).

“In the Veins” has some fuzzy guitars (which show the band’s origins) and a bit of a punk feel.  And “Wishing Well” is more or less a typical ballad except instead of piano or acoustic guitar the music is a distorted electric guitar.  It mixes things up a bit, and while it doesn’t really have the hooks that Semisonic would later develop, it’s got a wicked guitar solo.

“Star” is a nice ballad, but “Sculpture Garden” is a good rocker to (sort of) end the album.

I say sort of because the band included seven 20-second ditties at the end of the disc, which they call “Shuffle Stuff.”  So when you put the disc on shuffle, you’ll get all kinds of funny little bits.  It’s nothing special, but it’s fun.  Kind of like this EP.

[READ: November 9, 2011] “Miracle Polish”

I’ve enjoyed Millhauser’s stories in the past, and I enjoyed this one very much as well.  It was a little obvious (I mean with this set up only one thing can happen) right from the get go but I thought he did a good job in changing my expectations and pointing the story in a slightly different direction.  And even though it was a little predictable, it was still enjoyable.

There was something wonderfully old-fashioned about the story.  It opens with a man walking door-to-door selling bottles out of his satchel.  The narrator feels sorry for him and, although he immediately regrets inviting him in, he decides to buy whatever he is selling and be done with it.  The salesman, painfully slow and meticulous, talks about his “miracle polish” which you just wipe on a mirror and…  The narrator says he’ll take one. 

The salesman is a bit shocked by the brusqueness and tries to get him to buy more than one, but the narrator basically tells him not to push his luck. 

He takes the medicine bottle of Miracle Polish and puts it away, more or less forgetting about it.  A few days later, however, while checking himself in the mirror, he notices a smudge in the corner of the glass.  He grabs the polish and rubs it on the mirror.  The smudged area now looks super clear, so he rubs it on the whole mirror.  And he is blown away. (more…)

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Caitlin Horrocks–“Sun City” (New Yorker, October 24, 2011)

Posted in Baseball, Caitlin Horrocks, Death, Fears, LGBTQ, New Yorker, Semisonic, Short Story, Travel on November 11, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: SEMISONIC-The Great Divide (1996).

Before Semisonic took over the world (and irritated everyone) with “Closing Time,” they were a band that formed out of the ashes of Trip Shakespeare.  Dan Wilson created Semisonic evidently because he wanted to be more poppy (which he perfected in “Closing Time,” obviously).

This album came out two years before “Closing Time” and it is a wonderful collection of alternapop.  There’s nothing terribly aggressive or weird in this collection, but neither is there anything so commercial that you want to scream.

The highlight for me is “Down in Flames.”  It goes in a few unexpected directions (especially with that screechy solo).  It’s a little dark, but it’s really catchy without ever pandering to Top 40 sensibilities.  It’s a really great song.

Some other highlights are the first three songs on the disc: “F.N.T.” is a poppy delight, “If I Run” has some great hooks and “Delicious” is a slinky sexy song with some unexpected moments.

Even a song like “Across the Great Divide” which isn’t the best on the disc has some nice surprises-when the vocals suddenly go falsetto.

There’s a couple of clunkers in the middle.  “Temptation” is a little too pop ballady for my liking and “No One Else” is a little bland.  I think their more uptempo songs are their strongest.

But “The Prize” is a satisfying pop rocker.  And “Brand New Baby” has some surprising pop vocals and a wonderful third part that is worth getting to the end of the album for.  While “Falling” is a surprisingly dark but catchy number (a Semisonic trait it seems).

The end of the album is rather unremarkable, but it’s still a solid collection of songs with nothing overplayable.  Sometimes one hit wonders are unfairly labelled as such.

[READ: November 8, 2011] “Sun City”

This was a fascinating story because it went in directions that I never anticipated.

I found the opening a little confusing as there were several women mentioned and no real relationship is given among them.  But it turns out that Vera and Bev are “roommates” and Rose is Vera’s granddaughter.  Vera just died (unexpectedly at 87) and Rose has travelled out to Arizona to go through her things.  Rose’s mom (Vera’s daughter) had a falling out with Vera years ago and won’t be going to the house.

Vera loved Rose but was somewhat disappointed in her–she was single and a bartender.  But Vera was not disappointed that Rose is a lesbian.  And Vera’s acceptance of that led Rose to believe that Vera and Bev were more than “roommates” as well. (more…)

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