I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: SINKANE-“Jeeper Creeper” (SXSW, March 21, 2013).

I’ve never heard of Sinkane either (was there anyone at this SXSW that I knew?).  NPR is streaming on song from this band.  It’s about 7 minutes of low-key funk with reggae-like guitars, some great bass jams and simple lyrics.  I really like the vibe that the song gives off.  They would be a great band to see live.

Sinkane later played with Usher and The Afghan Whigs, which shows a very cool range.  And evidently Sinkane leader Ahmed Gallab has collaborated with the likes of Yeasayer and Of Montreal.

Watch it here.

[READ: March 19, 2013] “Kattekoppen”

I had just finished John LeCarré’s excerpt in Harper’s when I read this short story (or possibly excerpt—it ended rather oddly).  So here was another spying operation, although this one was American and military-based.  I know very little about military operations, so this was all new to me.  And there were some things I liked about this story quite a bit. The story is set in Afghanistan where the army has just brought in a new howitzer-liaison (good job title, that) named Levi.  Levi is Dutch and yet somehow still in the US Army–and he is a good soldier.   His wife lives in Texas and is about to have a baby.

Levi gets Dutch care packages a lot.  In addition to stroopawaffles (yum!) are Kattekoppen which are cat-shaped licorice-like objects.  Levi loved them as a kid bit now he puts them on the shelf of things that people don’t want (until they desperately want them).  Eventually the narrator tries one and immediately spits it out because it tastes like ammonia.  He’s not even able to get the taste out with snow… or dirt.  It’s that bad.  I found this part of the story quite interesting.

The rest of the story was more specific to military operations.  He talks about how Levi targeted the howitzer and how he made target rings which offered an area of projection for where the shell would strike.  And that he was very good at it.  The minor problem was that Levi wanted to be home for his son’s birth.  Not a big problem except that thy Generals wouldn’t give them a new howitzer liaison in the meantime.

So they wound up getting a keen kid from another barracks.  The kid was fascinating and I have a hard time believing e would work for the army.  He’s a chubby kid playing mahjong on the computer.  The other barracks doesn’t mind giving him up (I’m not even clear that he is a soldier).  On the way back to the new location the kid asks if he can trade in his bullets for hollow point bullets.  He asks if they use MP5 and he wants to get one (I’m not sure what that is).  He’s basically an annoying little brother of a kid.  But it turns out that he can do the howitzer job just was well as Levi.  So what will happen when Levi gets back?  Well, as it turns out there is an answer to that but I didn’t understand it.

The kattekoppen also return in a fascinating way which I liked quiet a bit (even if it was disgusting).

I have to assume this was a n excerpt, because it felt like there could be a ton more.  of course, I’ve no intention of reading the whole story.  But it was an interesting look at something I’ll never see up close.  Even if I did care more about the candy than the military operation.