I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: RICHARD THOMPSON-Grizzly Man Soundtrack (2005).

This is a largely instrumental soundtrack by Richard Thompson.  It features some wonderful guitar work (no surprise there).  There are several slow acoustic numbers (“Tim & the Bears,” “Foxes”–which is in the style of his old traditional folk ballads) there’s also the slow impassioned electric guitar solo (set over a simple beat) of “Main Title.”  “Ghosts in the Maze ” is a dark piece, the exact opposite of “Glencoe” a traditional-sounding song, both of these are under two minutes long.  “Parents” adds a cello, which means a sombre song.  “Twilight Cowboy” is one of the longer pieces, and it really conveys an openness of nature.

“Treadwell No More” is a slow six-minute dirge type song.  “That’s My Story” has spoken dialogue by Treadwell, over a simple unobtrusive guitar.  But as the title of the record says, Music composed and performed by Richard Thompson.  Which means there are other musicians on the soundtrack too.  “Small Racket” is where things start to get noisy and a little uncomfortable.  There’s some squeaks and slashes of sound, but it’s mostly a tense guitar feel.  Then comes the darker, scarier stuff.  “Bear Fight,” is a series of cello noises and swipes.  “Big Racket” is indeed that, with guitar from Henry Kaiser and noises from Jim O’Rourke.  “Corona for Mr Chocolate” is all Jim O’Rourke, it’s also odd noises and moods.  None of these three songs are terribly off-putting but they reflect a very different tone.

The album ends with “Main Title Revisited,” which is what it says and “Coyotes” by Don Edwards which has some coyote yodels.

It’s a good soundtrack, really conveying what the movie is about, and while not essential Richard Thompson, it is still some great guitar work

[READ: July 23, 2012] Magic Hours

I thought that I had never heard of Tom Bissell, but I see that I have read three of these articles already (I guess I don’t always pay attention to the author’s name).

This collection of essays comes from the last eleven years (2000-2011).  The articles have appeared in The Believer & The New Yorker (these are the ones I have read) and Boston Review, Harper’s, New York Times Magazine, Virginia Quarterly Review, New York Times Book Review and Outside (which I am starting to think I should really check out more).

Primarily they are articles about writing–he looks at fiction, non-fiction, film or a combination of them.  Bissell is a strong writer and he does not hold back when he sees something he likes or dislikes.  I found his articles (all of which are quite long–about 30 pages each) to be engaging, funny and very persuasive.  I’m really glad I read the book (and was even glad to re-read the articles that I had read before).

“Unflowered Aloes” is an article about the vicissitudes of publishing.  How he (working at Norton) was essential to getting Paula Fox’s Desperate Characters back in print (he knew that people like Jonathan Franzen and David Foster Wallace were fans) and even though he was a young assistant, they listened to him.  But he points out how random that is–that if he hadn’t read Franzen’s appreciation of the book, he wouldn’t have pushed and it would still be out of print.  He delves into publication histories of three giants of literature–Emily Dickinson, Herman Melville and Walt Whitman and how, once again, luck and coincidence had as much to play with their fame as anything else.

“Escanaba’s Magic Hour” is about a Jeff Bridges film called Escanaba in da Moonlight.  Bissell is from Escanaba (which is in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan) and he is the perfect guide to the town that is accepting but questioning of these Hollywood outsiders in their small town.  I’ve never heard of the film and reviews were mixed, but Bissell makes it sound like it should be very good.

“Grief and the Outsider” was in The Believer, and is about the Underground Literary Alliance.  I remember reading it then and enjoying it.  I enjoyed it more now.  The ULA are a group of writers who eschew the establishment, or their definition of the establishment.  And their sites seem to be set on certain young white male writers whom they deem “the establishment.”  Bissell shows the foolishness of their ways and the poorness of their own writing.  The part that made me laugh out loud came when Bissell quoted an excerpt from a story.  He says that it’s not that the author is not able to write but that she has “mistaken emotion and purity of intent for art.”  The head of the ULS (who goes by King Wenclas) defended this author saying:

“There can be no rewrites….  Attempts to impose order–grammar, spelling, and logic–would cause the fragile bursts of immediacy to fall apart.”  [Bissell replies] to that one is tempted to argue that poiaurna fopiuay bnvmnnab (89).

“Writing About Writing About Writing” is a lengthy article about books about learning to write.  He looks at dozens of them, from ones that aim for spiritual growth to ones that aim for a quick sale to ones by famous writers.  It’s an interesting and funny look at the business of writing.  And it’s amazing what people will say to try to get other to write.

“Rules of Engagement” is about several films that were made about the Gulf War. He looks at each one from many angles.

“Euphorias of Perrier” is about Robert D. Kaplan, whom I’d not even heard of.  He is a “political” travel writer whose books have influenced presidents.  Bissell indicates that his earlier books were interesting (if misguided) but as he became more famous his ideas solidified into unsupportable cliché.  He looks at all of his books and points out the incredibly wrong and foolish things that Kaplan says, and frankly it is shocking that this man has anybody’s ear.

“Still Rising” is a strange little two-page thing about Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises.

“The Secret Mainstream” is about Werner Herzog,  I have never seen any of Herzog’s films (which is a bad thing).  This article felt the longest in part because it is something of hagiography of Herzog (although Bissell is not afraid to show how crazy Herzog is), but also because it more or less told about the films, without really introducing much conflict (like in the Kaplan piece, Bissell is so angered, you can feel it in the writing).  I enjoyed it , and it makes me want to watch some of his films, but it felt really long to me.

“Kapuscinski’s Last Journey” is about Ryszard Kapuscinski a Polish travel writer whom he (and many others) admired.

“Great and Terrible Truths” is about David Foster Wallace and “This is Water.”

“Cinema Crudité” is about the cult film The Room.  I loved this article when it appeared in Harper’s, and I loved it more this time.  It looks at how crazy the film is and how much it defies the history of film.  He also interviews the director/writer/producer/star.  Although I’m still not sure I want to watch the film yet.

“A Simple Medium” is about Chuck Lorre and his success over the years.   I read this in the New Yorker not too long ago (Mike & Molly had just started and The Big Bang Theory was riding high).  It’s an interesting look at how a successful man works in TV.

“Invisible Girl” is all about Jennifer Hale, the queen of the video game voice over.  I have never played her games (nor even heard of the one that she is known for–Mass Effect).  Bissell looks at the technique of voice acting a video game (which was fascinating) and the terrible shame that one can play either the male or female lead in Mass Effect and some 70% of people choose the male.  This is a shame because Hale is too good at voice acting to be missed.  Then Bissell plays the game with her–something she’s never done–and she uses it more as a way of taking notes on her lines.

“The Theory and Practice of Not Giving a Shit” is the final article, written in 2011 for Outside.  It is about the author Jim Harrison whom I have never heard of.  He is quite well-regarded and has written dozens of books–novels, novellas and poetry.  He’s from the Upper Peninsula.  Bissell happened to know him growing up (Harrison was a friend of Bissell’s dad), so this is a wonderful look back and look f forward.  There’s a lot of intimacies, but nothing overly personal.  It’s a wonderful introduction to the writer (who was also pen pals with David Foster Wallace–DFW really liked his article “How Man Pray” in the Feb 2002 Men’s Journal).  I really don’t need a new writer to hook up with, but I see that Harrison has a new book of novellas coming out next month.

One side note: this book had a ton of typos.  Most of them were words left out, but there were a few not-caught-by spellcheck errors too.  I’d say at least half a dozen.  Quite surprising.

For ease of searching, I include: cliche, crudite

Contents: [I did not seem to post about the italicized pieces–perhaps they were added to the paperback edition]

• Unflowered Aloes
• Escanaba’s Magic Hour
• Grief and the Outsider
• No Dying Light [An Introduction to John Gardener’s October Light]
• Rules of Engagement
• Euphorias of Perrier
• Still Rising
• The Secret mainstream
• Kapuscinski’s Last Journey
• Symbolic Value [On Martin Amis’ The Second Plane]
• Great and Terrible Truths
• Cinema Crudité
• A Simple Medium
• Invisible Girl
• The Theory and Practice of Not Giving a Shit
• Goddesses and Dreams
• Everything About Everything [Infinite Jest, twenty years later]