I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: THE OCTOPUS PROJECT-“Sharpteeth” (2013).

The Octopus Project play largely instrumentals, but this track has vocals.  It begins with a very synthy keyboard sound–very retro.  But it soon grows huge with big swirling sounds and a ton of other instruments.

I’m not sure why they do so many instrumentals because their vocals–male and female playing at odds with each other–work wonderfully together.  They’re kind of a talkie singing which works well in this song.

Bob Boilen says one of the musicians is a great theremin player.  I assume that that’s what the solo is although it doesn’t have the eerieness of a theremin–perhaps that’s just the production?

By the middle of the solo, the whole band kicks in and it is a noisy cacophony but with a pretty melody still going on.  It’s a very cool song, and I’m bummed that I’ve never heard of them before (they’ve been around over a decade).

[READ: August 20, 2013] The Boss

This is the fifth book in the McSweeney’s poetry series.

I don’t know Chang’s poetry (although I have apparently read it in The Believer) and two things struck me.  She really sticks to her theme and she likes playing with words.

What I found initially very exciting but then a little exhausting (perhaps her poetry is better taken in small doses) was the play on words.

Like the vibrancy of “I Once was a Child”

…the better we did the better the plastic prize made
in China one year everyone got a spinning top
one year everyone got a tap on their shoulders
one year everyone was fired everyone

fired but me one year we all lost our words one year
my father lost his words to a stroke
a stroke of bad luck his words
used to be so wordly his words fired

him let him go without notice can they do that

The poems are busy and fast (there is no punctuation) and you can see how the words trip over themselves to get every meaning out.

Like in “Today is the Boss”

the boss gives us tokens to take a bus
to a restaurant to bus her table she

breaks our plates our dirty plates break when thrown
I sit cross-legged on the floor to do pilates to
plot with my colleagues to glue the plates together again

There are usually one or two words that are twisted like that–given various meanings and almost puns.  And they are very fun to read and will often bring a smile to your face.  But sometimes they don’t really hold up.  Like the pilates in there is a satisfying word choice but in terms of internal logic it seems forced.   And yet I enjoyed each one when it came up.

The title of the previous poem is indicative of a number of poems: “The boss is not poetic,” “The boss rises,” “The boss has a father,” “The boss has greasy hair,” “The boss would like to see,” “The boss wears a white vest,” “The boss wears wrist guards,” “The boss looks over us,” “The boss has a band of people,” “The boss has a daughter,” “The boss calls us at home,” “The boss is a no-fly zone”

I’m never exactly sure what “boss” she is referring to.  It’s never explicit and the gender changes.  It’s not a criticism about the vagueness, it’s just ungrounded–it’s not her boss or any specific boss–just a boss.  And the things the boss does or has are also kind of vague and unspecific.  (And I couldn’t help but thing of the loathed phrase “like a boss”).

What is very specific is her relationship with her father.  Her father is (presumably) suffering from dementia.  And when she speaks of her father (although there is a lot of repetition about it in the various poems) it is very powerful.  Like in “My Father Says”

My father says the wrong things I say the wrong things
my father thinks he is 42 not 69 my father
was born in 1942 my father thinks his address
is 1942 my father sits in a hospital

he thinks the year is 1942 that I am 1942 years old that his
knee is 1942 he thinks his name is 1942

The final things that crop up a lot are the paintings of Edward Hopper.  The poems include: “Edward Hopper’s Office at Night,” [three poems with this title] “Edward Hopper’s Chair Car,” “Edward Hopper’s New York Office,” [two poems] “Edward Hopper’s Automat,”[two poems] “Edward Hopper’s Office in a Small City,” [two poems] “Edward Hopper’s Conference at Night,”

So yes there are several poems with the same title.  And each one investigates the titular painting.

In Conference at Night:

The man sitting on the desk has no eyes or they
are closed or they have been dug out
the man sitting on the desk sits like a boss or
perhaps he wants to be the boss and

the woman and the man can help him

In Office in Small City:

Maybe the man isn’t looking out but he is
looking down even his desk looks
down on him his desk lies his desk tries to make
him look busy but there are no stacks

of paper to make him sick the man
and the desk have nothing they have a
view with no people the man has no computer

It strikes me as weird to write such detailed poems about paintings.  And yet the themes work perfectly well with Chang’s focus on bosses and offices.

Despite my mild criticisms, i really enjoyed this collection.  I think the next time I read the poems I will do only a few at a time, so I don’t get overwhelmed by them.  Of course, thinking back to my last poetry readings, I think I said that then as well.  Perhaps it’s time to realize that poetry shouldn’t be consumed en mass.

And I love the cover of the book.