I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: ELIZABETH ANKA VAJAGIC-Nostalgia/Pain EP [CST035] (2005).

This album is considered an EP, probably because it runs about 33 minutes. And yet with 3 songs and one of them nearly 20 minutes long, it feels like a much bigger release.

The first song, “Nostalgia” is 17 minutes long and begins with three minutes of scratchy violin “warm up” sounds.  Around 3 minutes guitars start playing some simple chords which gives the violin some direction.  Around 4 minutes’ Vajagic voice comes in, throaty and raw like a wounded PJ Harvey crossed with Patti Smith.  The song doesn’t vary all that much in the 17 minutes, but it’s her voice that carries the anguish and pain of the song along.  The interesting touch of the scratching guitars on the edges gives more angst to the song.  Starting around 12 minutes, the song kind of devolves into a series of noises –clicking drums, scratching violins.  A kind of free-form exploration like the beginning was.

So although the song is 17 minutes, it’s really only about nine of actual song.  The rest is sort of an experimental jam, with the volume down quite low in comparison.

Song 2, “Pain” is 12 minutes and opens with a slow guitar melody.  But the real focus is Vajagic’s voice because the instrumentation is basically a guideline.  Until, that is, the 4 minute mark comes around, when the guitar turns electric and more powerful and EAV’s voice goes away for about 3 minutes.  The melody is simple but has a good yearning and building quality with an interesting slow guitar solo meandering around.  Around 8 minutes she begins singing again, repeating the original vocal melody but now with screaming guitars behind her–it’s quite a change and a cathartic introduction of new sounds.  The ending kind of drifts away without ever really letting go.

The final sing is only 4 minutes.  It opens with cracking sounds and a music box.  When the song proper starts there’s more quiet guitars and EAV’s voice and that’s all the song is–like a microcosm of the longer songs and somewhat more powerful for its condensed nature.   Although I do prefer the louder more angsty music she makes, this is a nice showcase for her restraint.

This is the last record that I’m aware of her releasing.

[READ: April 26, 2014] Lord Tottering: An English Gentleman

I saw this comic strip book at work and decided it was interesting looking and might be fun to read.  The title made me laugh as did the Registered Trademark “Tottering-By-Gently” and is a kind of compendium of Lord Tottering comic strips.

Never heard of Lord Tottering?  Me either, but it has been appearing weekly in the magazine Country Life since 1993 and is “phenomenally successful” according to the introduction.  Which also states that Annie Tempest is one of the top cartoonists working in the UK.  (I’ve never heard of her either, but again, that doesn’t mean much).

The cast consists of Daffy Tottering, who reflects “the problems facing women in their everyday life” (if you are rich and British, and live in “their stately home in the fictional county of North Pimmshire).  She also spends time (and I feel compelled to put all of this in here because it is an amusingly long list):

“reflecting on the intergenerational tensions and the differing perspectives of men and women, as well as dieting, ageing, gardening, fashion, food, field sports, convention and much more.” [She must be exhausted].

Her husband is Dicky.  He is basically a retired rich Englishman who hunts and fishes and goes to the kind of club that is mocked endlessly in Snuff Box.

I mock this cartoon a little bit because it is pretty mockable–wealthy aristocrats suffering white people’s problems.  Think of it almost like Cathy for Rich Britons.  And yet, despite all the mocking, I got a chuckle out of a lot of the strips, and I’m sure it brings a smile to many people.

Granted many of the jokes whah-whaaah punchlines, but there were a few that were quite funny, and after a whole book (which seems to span the entire oeuvre, but clearly leaves a lot out) I grew to like the characters and their situation.  I also really liked her drawing style–it was thin lined and a little pinchy, but it conveyed the subjects very well–and it was interesting to see that it had changed from the 90s to the 2010s, but that it hadn’t changed drastically.  She also includes a lot of backing details in the panels–it’s not just two people in a white field, it shows the trappings of their manse (and occasionally the paintings on the wall react to the jokes, which I quite like).

It starts off with some set up of Dicky.  When he gets his hair cut and the chatty barber asks how he would like his hair cut the punchline is “In complete silence, please.”

There are many scenes at the gentleman’s club.  The iPad joke was a funny one (and not at all what you’d expect, i was impressed by it).  And the smoking one was good too:

The anti-smoking lobby killed him in the end…
What? I assumed it was lung cancer…
No.  Pneumonia from being forced out onto the cold streets for a smoke.

And there’s some very very British jokes like at the doctor’s office when the doctor asks if he knows what his close male relatives have died from.  The answer: “Most of them were shot by Germans.”

One that did make me laugh was about corporal punishment.  Daffy asks him if he would ever raise his hand to their grandchildren and he says “Certainly not–it would leave my groin unprotected.”

Another joke that I enjoyed but found a bit clunky was:

Dicky: If you don’t zero your mileometer after fueling up how are you going to work out how many miles you’re getting to the gallon?
Daffy: Women don’t go in for pointless arithmetic like that. I mean where would it end?
Sitting timing how many hours I’m getting per light bulb?

And of course there’s a lot of old people and new technology jokes.  My favorite was:

Dicky: What’s your PN number darling?
Daffy: You don’t need a PIN number–it’s a microwave oven
Dicky (peering at the front display): How do you get the hot sup out then?

Not hilarious,. but an interesting twist on technology.

There’s a whole extended family, including two dogs, which get little mention in this collection.  Although according to the front pages, there are at least 8 other collections of books from the series.

I know this comic strip isn’t really for me because I’m not an aristocrat.  And I should hate it on principle (Jesus, if these were jokes for rich Americans I’d probably be beside myself).  But it is foreign enough and “harmless” enough (what with all of the pheasant hunting jokes and fishing jokes and well, old people jokes).  But it is kind an interesting look at leisure life in Britain–seeing just how universals some jokes can be while other remain very peculiarly of a time and place.

The real purpose of this book appears to be to sell merch from the Tottering Brand which sells “original and stylish gifts.”  In addition to books and prints, you can buy greeting cards, diaries, coasters, tablemats, trays, mugs, tins, tea towels, hob covers, and many other gifts… “including our own brand of Tottering-by-Gently champagne and wines.”  So why not pop on by to www.tottering.com and grab a slice of (upscale) England.

I really need to know if the average Briton knows of this series or if it is just for rich vacationers.  I have the sense that Country Life is a magazine that only appears in first class on British Airways.