I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: KISS-Asylum (1985).

This series of mid-80s Kiss CDs is regarded pretty poorly.  In fact, I believe that Gene and Paul have distanced themselves from Asylum.  And yet, despite its pop metal vine and really dayglo appearance, there’s some good stuff on it.  The solos are really notable on this disc.  Bruce Kulick has taken over lead guitar duties and he is wailing maniac.  He has speed and flash and he, frankly, really stand out (not always in a good way) in these songs.  His solos seem to signal a shift to a more pop heavy metal sound.

The disc opens with a pounding drum salvo and aggressive guitars!  “King of the Mountain” is a classic Kiss song—loud, with a great sing a long chorus from Paul.  “Anyway You Slice It” also rocks pretty hard, one of Gene’s fast, sex songs.  But man I hate songs that break down to just vocals and drums. “Who Wants to Be Lonely” seems like a ballad—lyrically and all—but it’s actually a pretty heavy song, again, perfectly suited for Paul’s voice.  “Trial By Fire” is the first song that really falters.  A generic anthem with the really lame chugga chugga guitars that Kiss would really push in this era.  “I’m Alive” opens with more crazy drumming and wild soloing and for all the world sounds like mid 80s Van Halen.  Until Paul belts out a fast vocal line.  This is a fast, aggressive song with a great chorus.

“Love’s a Dirty Weapon” almost turns into a great song—the chorus is just a little lacking.  And there’s that other part with just drums and a guitar solo—again, very Van Halen, which is good for Van Halen, but sounds really weird for Kiss.  I should hate “Tears Are Falling,” it’s got the chug chug chug guitars, and very little else, but I love a good Paul ballad—when he starts wailing at the end, it’s pretty great.  I am aware that the lyrics suck, yes.  But the solo is more like old school Kiss.  “Secretly Cruel” is cheesy, but delightfully so, and actually sounds like Kiss of old as well.  “Radar for Love” is an awkward song that never quite flows the way it wants.  It’s a good song that shows them branching out, though.  “UH! All Night” is a, well, look at the title.  It’s the kind of throwaway song that is so over-the-top ridiculous that it comes back around to be kind of fun.  And I imagine that some fans are still singing that chorus to themselves.  “When you work all day you gotta Uh all night.”  No one ever said Kiss was classy.  Note:  I listened to this song a week ago and that frikkin chorus is STILL in my head.

[READ: August 11, 2012] McSweeney’s #40

This issue came in a double pack–with a paperback issue of the magazine and a hardback edition of In My Home There Is No More Sorrow by Rick Bass.  I have not yet read Bass’ book [UPDATE: read it at the end of July 2013], because it sounds really depressing [UPDATE: It was].  But I do hope to get to it before the end of the year.  This issue has a few short stories and  a non-fiction at the beginning.  The entire back half of the journal is devoted to the January 25 uprising in Egypt.  It is full of testament and testimony about the event from all kinds of people–bloggers, poets, musicians.  It’s pretty profound–and almost seems like having a silly story in the journal is inappropriate.

As has been the trend lately, the journal also opens up with a series of letters.

Letters:

SIMON RICH
What he plans to do since the world is going to end in 2012 (mostly have food and sex).

AMY FUSSELMAN
The importance of Walden.  And Nutella.

CALVIN GODFREY
Two letters from Godfrey about Vietnam.  One is about the thi a fruit that smells good until you open it and about the transvestites who come to funerals.  If these are true (which I assume they are), they’re fascinating.

ANDREW GOLDEN
Golden knows more about Canada than anyone in America (except Michael J. Fox).

TOM O’DONNELL
O’Donnell regrets the commonness of his name and he hopes that you, the reader, will vote on what his new name will be.  Names are provided.

JESSE ADELMAN
You know what McSweeney’s needs?  Advertising!

DANIEL GALERA
There’s Brazilian steakhouses popping up all over America, but wait till you try chicken hearts!

JACK PENDARVIS
Thoughts on death and on being eaten by your cats.

ROB SEARS
Five theories about the riots in London.

SIMON DE FERRY
A marriage proposal (to someone, not the magazine).  Hope  she reads the letters first!

On to the main pieces

SAÏD SAYRAFIEZADEH-“Notes from a Bystander”
Sayrafiezadeh grew up with a family of protestors.  His mother and father were huge supporters of the Socialist Workers Party. And he accompanied them to protests.  Lots of protests.   He has been estranged from his father for many years now.  He imagined that his father would be at Zuccotti Park for Occupy Wall Street, so he did not want to go.  But he eventually dragged himself there and was surprised by what he saw.  It’s an interesting dispassionate look at the protest, which is a rather rare thing.

DAVID VANN-“All Together Here”
This is a fictional piece in which a boy (who is vegetarian) suffers through some family get together.  The main dinner includes hot dogs, quarreling sisters (his mother is one of them) and a cousin who is feeling him up with her foot.  There is tension and anger and yelling.  And that’s what holds his family together.  The story felt very real and was a little unsettling.

KEVIN MOFFETT-“The Sisters”
This is one of the stranger stories I’ve read recently.  It mixes elements of fairy tales with fantasy and a disturbed reality.  The sisters live alone in a cabin in the woods where a man visits them every day.  He is naked and does  things for them.  It’s not the same man every day–he changes from time to time.  The part I liked best about the story was their job–they edit wedding videos (and make them a little better).  By the end I didn’t know what was true and what was not.

ETGAR KERET-“A Good One”
This story has one of my favorite lines in years: “A pencil mustache rested not quite naturally above his open mouth, as if his upper lip was embarrassed about something and had decided to wear a toupee.”  That is outstanding!  The story itself is about a game-maker who is going to pitch his brand new game Stop—Police to an interested company.  The potential rewards are great.  But when he gets to the building he is held up by a security guard.  And the story goes in a very different direction.

JASON JÄGEL-“Topsy Turvy”
This is an inserted graphic novel.  It has very simple illustrations, which I liked, although I didn’t really follow the story at all.

NEIL GAIMAN-“Adventure Story”
This is a hilarious (and brief) story about a boy and his annoyance at his mother’s lame definition of “adventure.”  When she gets into an interesting (to the boy) story, she quickly sidelines it to talk about more mundane subjects, like shopping. It’s very funny and quite compelling.

NATHAN C. MARTIN-“Big Windows”
Wow, is this story a bummer.  It’s an unexpected look at what happens when people suddenly become “simple.”  It’s rather horrifying, but very well written.

ADAM LEVIN-“Scientific American”
This short story appeared in Levin’s recent collection Hot Pink.  It’s one of the first times I can recall them printing a story that has already been published in one of their books.  I reviewed it here, but I see that that review is more negative than I intended.  The story is certainly weird, and I do agree with my final comment–why didn’t they get the gel analyzed–but i really enjoyed the man’s behavior.  The whole dog sequence is bizarre self-rationalizing (sorry for what happened to it though).

The final section of this issue (about 70 pages) is devoted to the January 25 uprising in Egypt.  The section is called “I am Going Down on January 25: Writing from the Egyptian Revolution.”  I’m not going to comment on each piece, because they speak for themselves.  But I will say that the pieces—blog posts, poetry, songs, pamphlets—really recapture the moments of the uprising.  And, with some remove and without the social media noise, these pieces really stand out.  Contributors include:

NOOR ELASHI, DANIEL GUMBINER WITH ALAA EL ASWANY, ABMAD FOUAD NEGM, ASMAA MAHFOUZ, GENE SHARP, AMIR EID AND HANY ADEL, ADEL ISKANDAR, YOUSSEF RAKHA, TAMIN al-BARGOUTI, HOSNI MUBARAK (his final presidential speech–not willingly given to the magazine), BILAL FADL, SARAH CARR AND ALAA ABD EL FATTAH