I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: JEFF The Brotherhood-“Bone Jam” (2009).

My friend Andrew pointed me to this song after reading my write up about JEFF’s other song a few days ago.  I’m still not sure just who JEFF the Brotherhood is, but this is easily the most catchy song I’ve heard in ages.  I mean, the whole song is practically one long “oooh”.  And the parts that aren’t “oohs” are simply: “I’m gonna grind your bones to make my bread” and “How much money can we spend?”  This latter lyric is hilariously appropriate when paired with the cheap cheap cheap video that they’ve made. 

The song is simple, fuzzy guitars, three chords and a steady beat.  It’s free of pretension and complexity.  And it will stay with you all day and you’ll wonder why you’re just walking around going “oooooh.   oooohh.  ooooh”

Speaking of the video, I don’t think there’s anyone who looks less like a rock front man than the lead singer and guitarist of JEFF.  I don’t even know what his name is, but look at him.  His mustache makes Prince look hirsute.  Somehow it’s even more charming.  As is the fact that there’s only two of them (not including the guy playing the leaf blower). 

The JEFF package just gets better and better with each exposure.

[READ: January 6, 2012] “Expectations”

Following hot on the heels of a broke family in the Ozarks who I didn’t think I’d care about, I get this story about a rich son a bitch London banker who I didn’t think I’d care about.

The story starts with Roger Yount trying to figure out if he’ll be getting £1,000,000 for his bonus this year.  “Oh, fuck you,” was my first thought.  The story seems to try to give us perspective on this guy and how he needs the million pound bonus because their huge house with £600,000 of additions and their £1,000,000 summer house simply cost a lot of money to keep up.  Especially since the million pound summer house is a bit too dowdy to go for the summer, so they still need a vacation spot. 

Why did I still keep reading this?

There was something about the prose.  It didn’t give sympathy for the man, but it also didn’t vilify him.  It just made him seem human.  Not a bad thing at all.  Plus at this point I figured the story had to end with a massive comeuppance.  I figured the comeuppance would be obvious and predictable and I was bound to be disappointed when it happened.  But I was still curious to see what the comeuppance would be–a poor person who makes him see the goodness of people at Christmas (bleah)?  OWS protestors (too topical)?  A bomb in the building (unexpected by possible)? What?

Well, Lanchester doesn’t do any of those things.  Rather, he shifts the focus to Roger’s wife.  By all accounts, she is a selfish woman.  She has been pissed at her husband since their second child was born.  Of course, she also has people do everything for her and she drives a £70,000 car and all that.  So when she decides that Roger doesn’t pay any attention to her children (she thinks this while the nanny is playing with them) it’s hard to know exactly what to think.  It’s true that he probably doesn’t, but then does she really?   We imagine him to be a lackluster father, but it’s hard to know how good a mother she is either.

So the whole story comes down to a domestic struggle on Christmas Eve. 

There are plenty of very funny moments in the story.  The scene where Roger gets his bonus is awesome (and the figure is stunning).  Roger’s cluelessness about his home life is pretty funny as well.  And then, of course, the scene at 5:30 Christmas morning (“they used to wake up at 10:30 with mimosas”-ha!) is funny and familiar.

By the end of the story I wasn’t sure what I wanted to happen and the surprise ending bit, while not really a payoff, is a nice punctuation to the story.

This was my first story by Lanchester and I’ll certainly be looking for more.