I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: TEGAN AND SARA-“Closer” (2013).

Tegan and Sara have been making interesting folkie pop music for years.  While they’ve toiled in indie-land for years, their last album had a couple of songs that fell squarely into the pop world.

Well, “Closer” says, hey pop world, here we are.  It’s got everything that Tegan and Sara do well–catchy melodies and great harmonies–and it adds all manner of treacly delights to it.  There’s little keyboardy sound effects that sprinkle around the song.  There’s a big swirling keyboard chorus, and the song even slows down briefly so that it can build back up.

It’s frankly hard to swallow.  Aalthough I can appreciate just how well written it is.  And I hope they can make some cash off  of it.

[READ: June 17, 2013] “The Crime of Our Life”

Roger Angell’s True Crimes story talks about crime in New York City in the 70s and 80s.  I recall growing up and being afraid of the City (and for all that we complain that it has been Disney-fied and cleaned up, it is nice to not be worried about getting mugged on every dark street).  And Angell, who lived through it, has some less than cheery anecdotes to relate.But he opens with the good news: burglaries and street robberies are down 80% since 1990!  And, as he puts it, “even lifelong Manhattanites like me have almost forgotten the mixture of anxiety and scary anecdote we all shared back in the seventies and eighties.”

He gives some examples: leaving any place at night and immediately walking in the street if you saw someone even remotely suspicious on the sidewalk.  The friend of his who heard “Sorry, Mister, you’re going down” just before he did go down.  The friend who took karate lessons–and then wound up in the E.R.  And the other friend who took to carrying a sword/umbrella and had a chance to use it (with much success it turns out–“Yow–a fuckin’ sword”).  Even the Angells were broken into (their door taken off the hinges and leaned against the wall.

But the final anecdote is the best–the story of friends who were at home with three of their daughters and a son-in-law when they heard a noise downstairs.  On the stairs was a man with a handkerchief over his face asking for $100.  The owners thought it was a joke and grabbed the handkerchief only to stare at an unfamiliar addict’s face.  They didn’t have $100 between them, and the guy insisted on inspecting the house.

So they devised a plan–a plan that called for smashing a lamp over the guy’s head when he came back down.  There’s a very funny punchline to that, which is preceded by another funny moment when they thief refused the kids piggy banks and a “very nice” flute.
Maybe my mom was right to not let me go to the City when I was a kid.