I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: BELLE & SEBASTIAN-Write About Love (2010).

I’ve enjoyed Belle and Sebastian’s music since their debut album all those years ago.  For some reason I didn’t get into this album as much as previous releases.  In part it’s because the band has morphed quite a lot from what they used to do.  It’s true that I have really enjoyed their more rocking songs on their more recent albums, and this one is full of them.  It’s also true that a band needs to evolve, but somehow this album just never really gripped me.  I think it’s because the album takes so long to start.  The fade in is like 20 seconds!  But I’ve listened again with renewed interest recently and I’m changing my mind a bit about it.  There are plenty of great songs on this disc. 

“I Didn’t See It Coming” is a classic B&S song (after that awful delay).  It’s a wonderful duet with Sarah Martin (this is how to do a duet, guys–the ending is fantastic!).  “Come on Sister” is one of the great faster B&S songs.  The “gotta have a little FAITH” line is great and then the unexpected shift into the third part of the sing is just stunning.  I also love “Calculating Bimbo” first because who would every have thought there’d be a song with that title but also because Murdoch sings it so wonderfully.  I generally don’t like slow music, but there’s something about slow B&S song that I find myself leaning in instead of tuning out.

“I Want the World to Stop” is another wonderful “rocker.”  It’s a fast paced little ditty with great backing vocals (and it always makes me go “two, three, four” before the chorus kicks in–always the sign of a great song).

“Little Lou, Ugly Jack, Prophet John” slows things down really far.  Possibly too far for me. It’s a duet and it reminds me just a little too much of a Beautiful South duet (not a particular song, just their style).  And I have to say that The Beautiful South would have done it better.  After looking at the liner notes I realized that Norah Jones is the duettist here.  I like that Jones has been providing her services across a wide spectrum of music (Foo Fighters, OutKast etc) but I really just don’t have anything good to say about her.  The melody is nice though.  I also didn’t realize that the sing came out on Norah’s disc before the B&S disc.

The album quickly redeems itself with “Write About Love,” a great keyboard fueled rocker (with backing vocals from Carey Mulligan who I don’t know, but who nails the song “I haaate my job”).  “I’m Not Living in the Real World” has lots more keyboards and oooh vocals (it reminds me of a Who songs from Sell Out) and it’s sung by Stevie. 

From the there, the disc kind of slows down.  “The Ghost of Rockschool” is the least memorable song on the disc for me (although the horn section is nice).  “Read the Blessed Pages” is so quiet (even for B&S) that it kind of gets lost on the disc.  (The instrumental break is pretty though).  “I Can See Your Future” opens with a catchy horn blast that kind of wakes you from the slumber of the previous song.  “Sunday’s Pretty Icons” opens with a cool guitar riff, but it’s not all that memorable either.   While these last few songs are fine, they’re not as strong as the beginning of the album.  They kind of meld together. 

So I guess what I’m saying is that the first half of the disc is great and the second half is okay.  The  good songs are worth it though.  I’ll stop being so hard on the disc.

[READ: January 5, 2012] Machine Man

Don’t worry if you’re suffering from Barry blog overload, this post is about Barry’s new novel, which I just finished.

I have enjoyed Barry’s previous novels quite a lot.  They typically deal with corporate skewering and this book is no exception.  Except that the corporate skewering takes a back seat to the major sci-fi elements of the story.  Before I mention the story itself, I wanted to mention the origin of the story.  In the Acknowledgements at the end of the book, Barry explains that his fans had been nudging him to write something.  And while he had been doing projects, he hadn’t written a book in a while.  So he decided to write the book online.  He wrote a few hundred words a day and posted them online.  And then he sat back and waited for the comments to come in.

He talks about how he’s basically showing everyone his rough draft of a story and letting people tear it apart.  But he found that his fans were supportive and even offered ideas (which he then callously stole, muhahaha).  And so the story online is actually rather different from what appeared as the final draft.  (No, I’m not going to read the online version, but you can.  It’s available here).

Anyhow, as the story opens, Dr Charlie Neumann (I just got the bad pun of that name, shame on him and shame on me for not seeing it sooner) loses his phone.  He feels totally cut off without his phone.  The scene seems a little over the top (he checks his car while wearing only a towel) but it shows how technologically dependent he (and we) feel most of the time.  This kind of mild slapstick scene resolves itself in a shockingly brutal way.  When Dr Neumann gets to his office (he’s an engineer at Better Future) he finally sees where he left his phone.  Unfortunately, he has already started an industrial vice and he’s distracted by his phone long enough to have his leg crushed by said vice.

When he wakes up in the hospital, he is surrounded by people trying to help him–nurses, doctors, therapists, but he’s really just distraught about the loss of his leg.  And then he sees Lola Banks, who is bringing him a pile of artificial legs.  Lola is quite possibly the first woman who Charlie has ever spoken to who seems in any way empathetic to him (Charlie is, admittedly a pretty cold and cerebral individual). She shows him some prosthetics which he’s not too thrilled by.  But when Lola reveals that Better Future is paying for top of the line stuff for him, she shows him the highest end of the high end legs.  And Charlie falls in love (with Lola and the legs). 

Lola Banks proves to be an interesting person.  Not ony does she not recoil from Charlie and his handicap (it is her job), but she seems to almost admire Charlie for seeing the beauty in the prostheses.  Lola proves to be the kind of woman who falls for certain kinds of men, but with Charlie it’s different.  Really, it is.  Shut up, it is.

Although Charlie does see the beauty in the prostheses, he can’t help but see how they can be improved (he is an engineer after all).  And so, he sets out to make the artificial legs not just replacements but better than their human counterpart.  Better Future is on board with helping Charlie recover (which is quite nice, and somewhat unexpected coming from corporation hater Barry), but we see that Better Future knows what it has with Charlie–a single-minded, focused engineer. A man who only wants things to be more efficient.  So when Charlie starts outfitting the prosthetics with motors (and considers putting in wifi) the company is kind of impressed.  And so is Charlie.  The leg is heavy and a little unwieldy, and it’s not very pretty (it has hooves), but it sure works. 

The problem, as Charlie sees it, is that his intact leg is holding back his new invention.  How can he fully test the artificial legs if his human leg is less than the prosthetic?

What I love about Barry is that for most authors this dilemma might propel the whole story.  But Barry moves beyond that in a trice.  And when Better Future catches whiff of his ideas, they are fully on board.  Even though doctors think he is suicidal (why would anyone want to harm themselves like that on purpose), Better Future rep Cassandra Cautery sees serious potential to let him create more and more and more (ah, there’s the corporate satire).

Charlie is given a whole team of interns to help manufacture Better products.  They start with legs, move on to arms and eventually even get into eyes and ears.  And remember cosmetics appearance is not important, so they eyes are creeeeeepy.  That is, until they realize that they can make improvements in their physical make up as well–Better Skin?  Better Thyroid?

At one point, one of the interns asks Charlie if there are any ethical concerns about what they are doing.  You know, would anyone ever tell them that they shouldn’t do something.  Charlie basically doesn’t understand the question. No one would tell them they shouldn’t do something.  If one wanted to take the risk, it was totally worthwhile.  And from this dark premise, Barry pushes the story to the limites of humanity.

Thus we have several different opinions about what Charlie Neumann is–a suicidal man trying to kill himself?  A psychotic man determined to correct all human imperfections?  And if so, is it only in himself or will it be in others as well?  A man willing to do anything to see technology utilized? 

But Charlie is something of a hybrid of these ideas.  And he’s also something else: very selfish.  He wants to explore technology, but only if he makes it.  In fact, he deliberately sends his interns on tasks that will hinder production of their ideas. 

He’s also not suicidal, nor is he a violent man.  But he seems to have the utter lack of moral compunction (even before he wonders if he can have it excised) that will make him the ultimate guinea pig.  At least according to Better Future’s weapons department.

From about the middle of the book, you know that it can’t end well.  There’s no rosy future coming at the end of this book.  But there are just so many different ways that Barry can go with it that you have to read on to see what’s coming next.  Will Charlie be able to unhook himself from his powerful prostheses.  Will the prostheses begin to read his mind and possibly, maybe, anticipate it?  Will Charlie work with Better Future’s plans to make super military prostheses?  Oh, and why does Lola’s heart seem to mess with Charlie’s parts?

There were times when the book felt a little slow.  This was mostly when I knew something big would be coming and the characters were kind of muddling around a bit.  Of course, during this down time, we get to see Charlie’s humanity come out, which really is the heart of the book. So I’m not sure what I would have done about the slow parts.  But for the most part the prose is fast-paced and exciting.  And as the book gets closer and closer to the finish, the plotting and pacing are really stellar–can’t-put-it-down stellar.

What’s really interesting about the book is the way it makes you think about issues of morality.  Are the things that Charlie wants to do immoral or even amoral?  If he’s doing them to himself, is there harm?  Are humans really pathetic?  If voluntary LASIK surgery is okay, what about surgery to replace your arms?  

It may take Barry five years to write a book, but when they’re as good as this it’s worth the wait.

Oh, and I couldn’t help but think of my dear departed Better Off Ted whenever I read about Better Future’s weaponizing plans.