I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: BEACH HOUSE-Teen Dream (2010).

I didn’t know Beach House until this album got huge raves in end of the year lists.  I decided to investigate it and I was really pleasantly surprised by the album’s Cocteau Twins meets My Bloody valentine feel.  I have recently read that their first two albums were not quite as big and full and orchestral as this album, which meant that this one marked a recording (but not necessarily song stylistic) change for the band.  Part of me wants to hear what the earlier, more homemade version of the band sounds like, and yet I like the full almost orchestrated feel of this album so much that I can’t imagine going back to a less big sound.

The album opens with a delicately reverbed guitar riff—it feels warm and summery and then the angelic voices kick in and the ahhhs launch the song into the stratosphere.  And it pretty much stays there for the whole album.  There’s virtually no bass and only the slightest hints of drums (time-keeping measures rather than percussion).  Well, okay, “Better Times” has drums but even they are mild.  Victoria Legrand’s voice just soars, sometimes in staccato bursts, but mostly in otherworldly seeming falsetto (with occasion moments when she sounds kind of masculine and yet still angelic–it’s an amazing range).  There’s mostly reverbed guitars but on some tracks like “Used to Be” there are keyboards as well.  They’re even more prevalent (and more 80s sounding) on “Lover of Mine.”

Despite the sameness of the songs, the album doesn’t feel like one song repeated over.  The melodies are unique and the composition of the songs really shows a lot of diversity within a format.  Like “10 Mile Stereo” which has a faster pace than the other but still maintains that ethereal vibe.  Or “Real Love” which introduces a piano into the mix, and the song feels a little less ethereal, but only a little.  The album is also not too long.  It’s like a wonderful blast of summer.

The CD comes with a DVD with videos for each song, although I have not watched them yet.

[READ: February 11, 2013] Click

I discovered this story because it was listed in Roddy Doyle’s bibliography on Wikipedia.  I’m somewhat surprised that I’d never heard of it as I know so many of the authors that were involved (indeed, several of them are involved in the 39 Clues, another multiple author series).  This book is billed as a YA book and I guess it is as many of the sections are about teenagers, but some characters grow old and there’s some talk of the bombing of Hiroshima which may be a bit intense (there’s no pictures and no detailed descriptions, but still…).  It is a quick read though, so I guess it can qualify as YA.

The story is about a photographer named Gee (real name George Keane) and how he impacted so many lives.  In the first story/chapter (each chapter is like a short story that contributes to the overall picture and each one of these is written by someone different), written by Linda Sue Park, we learn that Gee has just died.  He left his granddaughter Maggie (who I came to think of as the “main” character, even though she doesn’t appear in every story) a box with seven compartments.  In each compartment was a shell with a clue, suggesting that she should take all of the shells back to where they came from–a subtle encouragement to travel the world.  But Maggie is utterly distressed by Gee’s death and she can’t get off the couch where she used to spend time with him.  Eventually her parents offer to take her to one of those locations–Japan–getting her life started at last.

David Almond wrote the second one which  is an odd little story about a girl named Annie.  Annie’s mother is a great storyteller and she tells Annie a story about her birth–that her father (whom Annie doesn’t know) was  really a creature from the sea.  Gee happens upon them while they are talking and he takes a candid photo–one which later in the story proves to be very powerful.  This is the only story with vaguely magical properties to it and it doesn’t quite fit in with the rest.

The third story is about Jason.  Jason is Maggie’s stepbrother.  He recently learned he was adopted and he hates his adoptive family.  He is right now biding his time working in a crappy pizza place (as what appears to be a singing leprechaun) to get money to visit his father whom he believes is on the tropics (based on the one postcard he received from the man).  Jason is sullen and angry and focused only on getting away.  He even stole something from Gee to get some money for his trip.  He doesn’t understand why Gee gave Maggie the worthless shells when he gave Jason some amazing photos that he took and which were autographed (Tiger Woods, Muhammad Ali and more).  But he decides he’s going to sell the photos–they must be worth a fortune.  The pawn guy won’t give him much for them (all celebs sign autographs looking to make a quick buck), but he says he’ll give a lot for Gee’s old camera.  Jason decides to steal that too (the old man is dead after all, and no one ill miss it), but when he gets to the hiding spot, something makes him rethink his decision.  This one (by Eoin Colfer) was very moving and one of my favorites.

The fourth story (by Deborah Ellis) was confusing because it starts talking about Lev.  Lev is a young prisoner in Russia.  It really derails a lot of the momentum because we learn about what a hard time Lev is having in the prison–the gruel he eats most of the time and the abuse he takes as the youngest prisoner in the cell.  But soon, we see that Gee is visiting Lev in prison for pictures for Newsweek–because Americans want to see what prisons are like in other countries.  Gee talks with them and learns that each prisoner makes something in the cell–just to have something to do.  Gee wants to buy everything from them and he returns a few weeks later with all kinds of good stuff for prisoners.  The item that Lev made plays a huge role in the story and the way it was explained and tied everything together was fantastic.

Nick Hornby reintroduces us to Maggie in the fifth section.  The story goes in a really weird direction.  First we see that Maggie no longer spends all her time moping about Gee.  Although that makes her feel bad for different reasons.  When her family decides to look through his pictures again, she discovers photos of a woman–too many photos for her to not have meant something to Gee.  And, with a little help from Google, Maggie discovers that Gee was married and a had family in France–something that no one knew.  I’m not a huge fan of this plot because it doesn’t seem relevant to the rest of the book, but what Hornby does with it is really nice and brings an unexpected depth to the story.

Roddy Doyle probably has the most fun with his story.  (I wondered if his story would be very Irish and indeed it is–that’s a very cool thing about this book, the authors keep their own voices even if I can’t always tell them apart). This story relates to the Muhammad Ali photo.   For Gee was on hand when Ali fought in Croke Park.  And the story follows Vinnie, a young boy who met Gee before the match and who hung around with him for a time before and after the match.  This included climbing the barbed wire fence and sneaking Gee into Croke Park the night before the match.  When Gee meets Vinnie’s grandma (a wonderfully funny old lady), she sits with him and dispenses wisdom.  She sees his future and that he will have children and even grandchildren who will be named Maggie and Jason–which brings a whole new insight into the Ali photo. Later, the granny admits she was just making things up, but Vinnie knows that she had the gift.

The next chapter is about Min.  Tim Wynne-Jones opened this story in a very confusing way, making this my least favorite story.  Until, that is, it started to come into focus and then it became my favorite one in the book.  Jason is back, and he has his grandfather’s camera.  His life has been unexpectedly altered by Gee and he is becoming an amateur photographer.   He was taking  a picture of what sounds like some kind of glass dumping area and he sees a girl (who was at a party at the pizza place–nice synchronicity there) reflected in one of the panes.  He decides that she is his muse and he convinces her to let him follow her around taking her picture.  But this story is really about Min and Min’s story is far more complex.  She has climbed into her shell and wants to be invisible.  But this boy won’t leave her alone.  By the end, when all of the details of her recent past are revealed, the story becomes very powerful.

Ruth Ozeki brings the story to Japan (I mentioned Hiroshima).  The story is about Jiro, whose older brother Taro had his legs blown off in the war.  Taro keeps his spirits up, but has to push himself around on a dolly.  Then one day Jiro sees Gee taking pictures of the bomb victims.  Jiro instantly hates the man for documenting their pain.  But soon after  Gee sees Taro wheel his dolly into the street in front of a that truck can’t see him.  Gee reacts quickly and saves his life.  And even Jiro accepts that not all Americans are evil   The story of their friendship is really sweet–with Taro, who knows some English  communicating with Gee and explaining what’s going on.  When they go to the sea of Japan to the boys’ ancestral home, we see Gee receive the first shell that he will eventually give to Maggie.  Again, I loved the way these stories connected.

The second to last story travels to Australia.  Margo Lanagan introduces us to Afela, a young girl who believes that she can peel off parts of her life when things are not going well and that those other versions of herself will have a much better existence.  Afela is on vacation, and she feels bad for herself because her vacation is cheap and it’s with all of her extended family while the rich girls in school go on fancy holiday.  She tries to escape the family so she and her cousin (and his dumb dog) go for a walk on the beach.  Soon, the dog runs after and attacks a woman walking on the beach.  ( I feel that perhaps this scene was a little unrealistic as it surely would have been much more hysterical and litigious  unless I’m thinking too American about it).  Anyhow, before the ambulance comes, Afela learns that the woman is Maggie (as an adult, now called Margaret) and she has finally made it to Australia.  We also learn that Jason was on an assignment of some sort and was killed right here in the seas.  It’s a brief story but it ties up some threads nicely and shows that this story which went as far back as the 1940s will also head into the future.

Gregory Maguire concludes the book in the year 2030.  Margaret is with her niece, Iona, in Nutu (which is New York City Two–after the catastrophe the city was re-visioned).  She is staging a gallery opening for three generations of photographers–Gee, Jason and Iona, all photographers with wonderful skill.  This gives Margaret a chance to go through some of the photos of scenes that we have read about and to let us bring our insight into the photos.  I’m not sure that we need the crazy sci-fi future (clones are legal and recognized as human) I mean, it’s only 27 years in the future from the time of the writing.  But it’s an interesting and somewhat amusing backdrop for this wonderful conclusion to the story, one that wraps up the elements nicely.  I liked that the conclusion wasn’t over the top–all of the people ion the pictures aren’t united in some way and not every question is answered–rather, it’s a nice family story where even they don’t have all the answers.  As the book ends we see that the saga that Margaret has been on all her life will not end with her.

The one thing this story doesn’t do is explain the set up.  I may be the only person who cares about this sort of thing, but I’m interested–did each author pick who they wanted to write about?  Were they given a basic outline to follow?  Did one person come up with the idea and give them all of the details they needed to include?  I’m fascinated by this sort of thing, but I guess I’ll never know.  But that’s okay as the novel itself was really enjoyable.