I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: WNYC SOUNDCHECK GIG ALERTS (2009-).

There are so many places to listen to free music.  But i prefer places where you can (legally) download free music.  So here’s a place I’ve just discovered: WNYC Radio’s website which features a section called “Gig Alerts.”  The feature talks about a different interesting band playing that night (in New York).  After a small blurb, there is (almost always) a free downloadable track.   There’s twenty listings per page and 86 pages.  Do the math and that’s a lot of songs.

The feature covers virtually every genre, although there is a preponderance of alt- and indie- rock (mostly lesser known bands).  If you are interested in new (to you) music and in exploring different artists, this is a great resource for a ton of free music.  So, check out Gig Alerts here.

[READ: May 20, 2014] McSweeney’s #44

I was pretty pleased with myself when I got caught up on the McSweeney’s issues.  But I remember wanting to take a break when this one came in.  I now see it has been almost a year since I read the last issue.  So the break was too long and now I have three issues to catch up on again.  Sigh.  But this one proved to be a great issue to return on.

This is a pretty quintessential issue of McSweeney’s.  It’s got letters, some fiction, a special section dedicated to Lawrence Weschler (which includes a lot of art), and a cool, interesting section of plates with full color art.  It’s also got an interestingly designed hardcover with a kind of raw cardboard in the back, a slightly raised colorful section for the spine and then a further raised section for the giant 44 on the front cover.

LETTERS

JESSICA HOPPER
Jessica Hopper, native Chicagoan, falls in love with Des Moines, Iowa.

STUART GLOVER
It’s unfair that cool Brooklyn beards have made it to Brisbane, Australian.  How can an unhairy man like Glover compete?

SIMON RICH
A series of funny short pieces by Rich.  They are very funny and will likely appear in his next book.

ROB CURRAN
Curran went to Oklahoma looking for something Hemingwayesque to write about.  He should have gotten punched in the face, but didn’t.

JENNY SHANK
A hilarious story about getting a tumbleweed stuck on your car.

ANDREW PALMER
A report about last night’s Bachelor.

MIKE SACKS
The Jonestown Massacre involved Flavor-Aid, not Kool-Aid.  Get it right!

STORIES
The full stories are all accompanied by cool swirly art by WESLEY ALLSBROOK

REBECCA CURTIS-“The Gusher”
This story is constructed as a letter to Don Abrax (whoever that is).  It is about a young woman who needs an apartment in New York City.  She ultimately finds one with a strange woman named Cybill who possesses a volatile temper.  She is told that all of the previous tenants have left within a few days of living with Cybill.  But she is determined to live there, so she spends most of her time in the huge walk-in closet studying while Cybill does her own thing.  Cybill is rather peculiar–she is a wealthy Afghani woman.  She has a secret fiance who is also Afghani but who is from a different sect and is therefore forbidden.  He comes over a lot, too. But Cybill is generous in other ways, and they are able to live with each other. Until the narrator’s boyfriend comes in from the West Coast.

The story of how she met him is very interesting in and of itself, but when he arrives things go all weird.  Cybill gets very demanding, and even begins trying to seduce the San Franciscan man.  The title word comes into play in two ways.  I have to admit I immediately thought of the second way (that it is used in the story) and I was surprised when that proved to be the usage.  This is the second piece by Curtis that I have read recently and I have enjoyed them both.

JOE MENO-“Animals”
A man who has been sent to AA (even though he was doing coke, but there’s no NA in the area) has a great responsibility.  He is the sole worker of the Department of Streets in Ada, Alaska.  So when he looks out the window of his meeting and sees a polar bear walk down the street he has to act.  But can he ask his stepdaughter to drive him on this dangerous mission (since he lost his license).  I really enjoyed this story and the way it drifted into different areas.

JIM SHEPARD-“The Ocean of Air”
This is a story about the Montgolfier brothers who were instrumental in creating hot air balloons..  I know of the Montgolfier brothers from Monty Python’s Flying Circus.  I vaguely knew they were real but never gave them any thought.  This story fleshes out their lives for me.  I don’t know if any of the facts are real, but it was certainly a fascinating look at the race to develop the first hot air balloon.  The pacing and style of the story were a little slow for my liking, but I enjoyed the content a lot.

STUART DYBEK-“Happy Ending”
In this story, a theater investor takes his newly-invested-in actors and writers to a party.  We learn about the three acts of this promising play, we learn a bit about the people involved and we learn about the investor.  As the story ends, the investor claims to be unhappy but the star writer tries to prove to him otherwise.  And yes, the “happy ending” in the title is that kind of happy ending.  There is a joke that they were going to name their play Happy Ending (because the woman who thought of that had apparently never heard of that, which I can’t believe at all), but it’s a terrible name for a play.  I have to wonder if it was written before the show of the same name (which I could never watch because of the name) was put on TV.

WELLS TOWER-“The Dance Contest”
Towers’ story is quite long and every page of it is great.  The story is about Wells’ father in a prison in Theb Moob Men’s Prison.  He was arrested for smuggling drugs–which he hadn’t meant to do.  Someone placed the drugs in his suitcase but everyone reasoned there was no way he could have been dumb enough to not notice, so he was found guilty.  But since he is a reasonably wealthy American, he gets to be in  special wing of the overcrowded and unsanitary prison.  Rather than being crammed in with lots of other men, he is in with only six other wealthy men.  The story proceeds and we learn a lot about the dynamic of the prison (which is an inhumane place and where Tower’s father was on the verge of death for want of simple antibiotics).  We also learn that Wells couldn’t afford to fly all the way over there just to talk to his father through a window for a few minutes, so he only writes letters.

There are so many interesting things that go in this prison–including the reasons why most of the men are in the prison–that it’s easy to forget about the dance contest.  For indeed there is one.  The Captain of the prison wants to put a nice face on his horrible prison by having the cells engage in a dance contest which will then be broadcast on YouTube.

There is much discussion about this contest (all of it amusing), and then finally we get to see what the millions of viewers on YouTube got to see.  And we learn of Wells’ reaction to seeing the video of his father.  There were so many wonderful things about this story.

TOM BARBASH-“Birthday Girl”
The ending of this story just pulls the rug out from under you.  As the story starts the narrator has just driven into a young girl who was walking her dog.  And we sit with her as she prays that the girl will be okay.  And we sit with her as she talks to the girl’s parents.  And we walk with her when she takes the girl’s dog for a walk.  And then the story flashes forward to the present where the rug will be pulled out from under you.  It was very good.

 YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS: PORTRAITS OF LAWRENCE WESCHLER

Lawrence “Ren” Weschler has done lot of great things with McSweeney’s (including a new column currently in The Believer)so they agreed to “host” this appreciation of Weschler’s life and works.  The more I read about him the more I wanted to read his books.  I’ve really only read his Convergences.  He sounds like an utterly fascinating man.

RACHEL COHEN: Cohen introduces the whole collection with some good thoughts about the man (who is still alive) and his works

ERROL MORRIS-“The Most Annoying Public Intellectual in America: A Conversation with Lawrence Weschler”
Morris and Weschler are of the same mould–proud to be annoying gadflies.  They talk about other great annoying people, like James Stephen George Boggs, the artist who makes counterfeit money.  You can read an interesting and enjoyable blog post about Boggs here.  The interview was funny and quite enjoyable, they really seemed to get along well.

RICKY JAY makes wonderful announcement (in old broadside carnival style) about what is to come in the issue.

The first is a series of Reminiscences by

WILLIAM FINNEGAN, LAUREN REDNISS, BILL McKIBBEN, BEN KATCHOOR, WENDY LESSER, GEOFF DYER, BILL MORRISON, and RIVA LEHRER.  They each offer a story or anecdote about how Weschler has impacted them.  There is a wonderful drawing of Weschler by RIVA LEHRER and some sketches by LAUREN REDNISS and a  cover painting by BEN KATCHOOR and a portrait of Weschler by DAVID HOCKNEY.

JONATHAN LETHEM-“Impossible Things Before Breakfast or, the Man Who Was Thirsty”
Lethem and others have created slightly longer stories about Weschler and how they met.  This one is about how there is no time for transitions or introductions.

PETER VERMEERSCH-“Passion Pieces”
This essay focuses on Weschler’s writing about Solidarity in Poland.

ANDREI CODRESCU-“Midrashim on Some of Reb Ren’s Writings”
A look at some of Weschler’s books and Weschler’s sense of wonder.

BAYNARD WOODS-“Hopeless Marvel: The Philosophical Reporting of Lawrence Weschler”
A biographical sketch of Weschler from his days of writing at the New Yorker to his present house full of “Ren’s crap” as his wife calls it.

WALTER MURCH-“Lawrence Weschler’s Cabinet of Wonder”
Discussing Weschler’s book Mr Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder and how everything for him is wonder which leads him to being an encourager.

PLATES

RYAN MROZOWSKI-“Disappearing Acts”
A series of full color collages in which Mrozowski stacked seven 1989 Topps baseball cards on top of each other after he cut out all players and identifying graphics.  The key tells you which cards are in which grouping (although I doubt anyone could ever tell).

 

As I said, this was a great issue, a wonderful sampler of what McSweeney’s can do.