I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: HEY MARSEILLES-Live at the Newport Folk Festival (2013). 

For reasons I’m unclear about, the first two songs (at least the first two listed on the NPR web page, (“To Travels & Trunks” and”Gasworks”) ) are not included in the download.  But we do get the band’s introduction of themselves.  So maybe the NPR list is wrong?  Weirder things have happened.

The band drove all the way from Seattle and are pleased to announce that they are the first band to play the Festival (a nice, if insignificant piece of trivia).

Regardless, we get a solid 35 minute set.  The band opens with “Heart Beats,” a folky song.  Indeed, Hey Marseilles continues the tradition of large bands (6 members at last counting) who play folk music with lots of unexpected(ish) instruments.  But the singer sounds quite a bit like Ben Gibbard.  Indeed that first song sounds like a less commercial Death Cab for Cutie—you keep expecting a big commercial chorus to come but it doesn’t, and there’s something very satisfying about them not giving it to us.

Although the band does sounds quite a bit like DCFC (both in the voice and the arrangements), their instrumentation brings an unfamiliarity to the songs that makes them so intriguing—like when the accordion pops up put of nowhere in “From a terrace.”  Or other songs where strings fill out a song–not in a “look we’re unplugged” sort of way but as  natural part of the song.  I really enjoyed their songs and may track down their CDs (and their cool scarf).

[READ: July 3, 2013] Mermaid in Chelsea Creek

This was the second YA book that McSweeney’s has released.  It is (say it with me) the first book in a trilogy.   And I have to say that I really didn’t like the first 100 pages.

There were a number of small things that kept me interested, but for the most part I found the story pretty dreadful.  On a personal note I really didn’t like that the Chelsea Creek was not revealed to be in the Boston area until very far into the story.  I hated that it was so specific (Chelsea) and yet so generic (which of the dozens of Chelseas was it?).  But more importantly I hated that Sophie (the protagonist) and her friend Ella, play the ‘pass-out” game.  In the game, one of the girls chokes herself until she passes out.  The other girl watches and wakes the first up after about 30 seconds.  This is what they do for fun  This is their cheap high.  And it constitutes a large part of the beginning of the story.  So much so that when her mother finds out about it, she tells her doctor.  And what made it all the crazier was that her doctor reveals that not only did she play the pass out game as  a girl but she is sure her mother did too.  And her mother says yes.  What the fuck?  Oh and her mother is mean and overworked and exhausted and generally always ready to fight with Sophie.

I imagine that if I had another book with me on vacation I would have put this down and read that one instead.  But I pressed on, mostly because when Sophie passed out she saw a mermaid in Chelsea Creek, a filthy sewage filled river.  (The fact that Ella is a germophobe is quite funny, especially when Sophie falls into the creek when she passes out).  That kept me interested as did Dr Chen (the above doctor).  Because the Doctor keeps pigeons on her roof and she has tied flutes to some of their tails so that they make beautiful music when they fly.  This scene was so good–so briefly magical–that I forgave the rest of the book and gave it a blank slate.  I was bummed when the pigeons went away, but was delighted when they came back a little later, once the magic began for real.

And there is magic aplenty.  Especially as Sophie learns more and more about her family and neighborhood.

Sophie’s mother makes Sophie spend her summer days with her creepy grandmother (punishment for the pass out game).  Her grandmother lives at the city dump (which Ella is grossed out by, so we won’t be seeing much of Ella after this).  Sophie hates it there (especially the creepy drunk who waits at the gate).  But when she arrives she meets an androgynous person called Angel who shows Sophie how to use the glass polisher (a very loud machine).  Angel proves to be a wonderful friend who if full of magic.  And it is through Angel that Sophie learns about her own magic as well as her Aunt, who runs a dirty grocery store down the street from her house.

About half way through the book, the pigeons start talking, Ella abandons Sophie and the story gets really really good.  We learn about the different kinds of magic that the various characters possess (like being able to see into a person’s true essence).  We learn that her grandmother is indeed, a wicked person and we learn all about what happened to various members of Sophie’s family.  Each facet is fascinating and compelling.

With barely 100 pages left, Sophie leans a lot of information (and big Polish words) about herself from her Aunt Hennie: she is part odmieńce (magic creature) she can cast zagavory (magic spells) and has a zawolanie (a special magical noise to make when you cast you zagavory).

This onslaught of information leads to a huge fight between Sophie and Aunt Hennie.  Sophie can’t handle it all).  And that whole sequence is wonderful.

And then you realize that of course this is a trilogy because there’s about thirty pages left and we have just learned what Sophie’s “role” in all of this magical land is.  And there’s no way she;s going to finish anything before the end of the book.

The ending bothered me as well because rather than stopping where I feel it should have –as Sophie sets off on her quest, the last few pages have Sophie’s enemy showing up and giving her more of a reason to fight.  So rather than ending the book on a “rah rah let’s get em” type of a note, it ends more on a “ouch we just got beaten down, but we can do it” note, which I feel like we the readers didn’t deserve after reading all of book one.

I don’t think I’ve ever been so turned around about a book before.  If this hadn’t been a McSweeney’s book (which I promised myself I’d read all of them since I pay for them) I would have stopped after twenty pages.  But I’m glad I carried on.  And indeed, I’m excited about book two and intrigued by the title A Girl in the Rover Vistula (I like how the body of water is bigger in the second book and I wonder what this portends).

I’s also like to say that I was pleased that the mystical power was from Poland and I hope there’s more about Polish magic and magical creatures.