I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: HANGEDUP-Clatter for Control [CST034] (2005).

Clatter for Control is Hangedup’s third and (so far) last album.  As Kicker was an evolution from their debut, Clatter feels like an evolution as well.  It feels like a more experimental work with fewer “proper’ songs proper and more soundscapes and ideas.

“Klang Klang” is a fast, yes, klanging song.  The viola is slightly discordant and the riffs are abrupt and staccato and it builds into a frenzy.  “Alarm” is more spooky sounding with tape manipulation. “A Different Kind Of Function” starts with some staccato notes and then builds into merging lines of viola and feels almost like a remix song.  “Kick-Back-Hub” is 90 seconds of squeaking bowing and metal clanking along with some very fast drums. It melds into “Eksplozije” which is 2:25 and is more feedback and big noisy drums.

“Go Let’s Go” feels like an actual song with riffs and chords, while “Derailleur” is another short piece, just under 2 minutes of noise and rattling and wildly untuned viola sounds.  “Fuck This Place” has a bass guitar although you wouldn’t necessarily know it (there is more bottom end), it feels like the viola is actually vocal samplings which is neat. “How We Keep Time” is a slower song with languorous viola sounds and sparse drumming.  “Junk The Clatter” feels like the most song like of the bunch. After a minute intro a fully realized riff comes out.  There’s some beautiful melodies and when the song ends it has a cool rocking section.

I prefer Kicker in Tow, but there’s record is a lot of fun too, full of unusual and discordant sounds–if you like that sort of thing.

 [READ: May 5, 2014] “I Can Say Many Nice Things”

I wound up reading about 3/4 of this story in one sitting and I loved it.  But when I came back to finish the end, I didn’t really like it as much.  I though the first part was engaging and complex without being convoluted.  I was interested in the direction the story was going and I was disappointed that it went where it did.  The ending ultimately makes sense within the context of the story, but I enjoyed so much of what happened before that I guess I didn’t want it to end.

So what was so great?

Fleming is an writing teacher.  A disgruntled and unpopular writing teacher.  He has been given a chance to teach a writing class… on a cruise!  A five day cruise with all expenses paid and ten well-paying students signed up for a morning and afternoon class.  Everyone he knew thought he was so lucky (colleagues pretended to be jealous)–it would certainly be an easy way to rack up positive evaluations from happy cruisers?  But Fleming is a pretty miserable guy.  He’s even more miserable because he intended to get in shape for the cruise, but in fact he got fatter, and he feels lousy about himself.

Even though at heart this is a story about teaching and writing (typically not great story topics), the set up is unusual–especially as we slowly come to realize that he is trapped on this ship. And when you add in some of the other details, I thought this was a really interesting setup.

Here’s some details that i found compelling.

His wife wanted to come along (with their baby).  But they would not have been paid for on the trip and he felt it would be too expensive for them to come.  He uses the phrase “Don’t let’s go home in the hole” to her, even singing it, hoping it will be funny.  But his wife rightly didn’t laugh because “that wasn’t even a line from anything, and that wasn’t how jokes worked.”  This has the dual effect of upsetting his wife and leaving him alone on the ship (he realizes later that his wife really would have enjoyed it).

Also ten students have signed up but only nine have come to class.  He can’t find his roster so he doesn’t know who is missing, but he figures that they paid a lot of money for this, so it’s his or her loss.

Then there is the class itself.  We see three stories in total. They get typically mixed reviews of writing classes.  I enjoyed seeing the types of students that were in the class–archetypes, not stereotypes.  And I especially enjoyed when the one student, Britt, a girl who seems very positive, catches up with him after class to rail against him for choosing two men to go first rather than one woman and one man.  I felt how trapped he was because of a casual mistake.

The students’ stories are given skeletal outlines, and they were interesting ideas.  Since we met most of the other students through their criticisms, I would have liked to hear about their own stories.

The way these plots ply out is really interesting.

He has horribly passive aggressive and then just aggressive phone calls with his wife.  We don’t know if she’s mad about more than not going on the cruise, and their conversations are just mean at some point.  This gives rise to the title of the story which comes up in a very dark but funny exchange.

The stewards begin doing a head count on the ship (is this common practice?).  Everyone suspects that someone has jumped over board.  Was it his tenth student?  Should he try to do something about it?

And of course, he cannot escape his students–he certainly can’t bring his food to his room (the logistics of this plan are described in detail and are very funny).  No matter where he goes, there is someone wanting to talk to him about the class.

Things with Britt turn in an unexpectedly flirtatious direction.  Unexpected because he is old and disgusting (in his opinion) and even his wife seems to dismiss the very idea that someone might flirt with him. It is triply unexpected for the way she flirts with him (with an empty glove).

Fleming is overwhelmed by everything that is happening around him and he acts appropriately, which is how the story ends.  I guess my complaint is that I wanted more. I wanted to hear more from the class, I wanted to know about the missing person, I wanted to hear how the phone calls progressed.  I wanted to find out if Fleming really deserved pity or scorn.  But we don’t really get any of that.  We only see 1.5 out of 5 days!  I know very well that the story makes fun of critics of stories, and I’m not going to say where the story should have started, I just wanted to hear a lot more.  I feel like this story could have been a novel with the ending of the story working as a section break.

How’s that for a critique?