I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: CIAN NUGENT-Tiny Desk Concert #353 (May 3, 2014).

Cian Nugent is from Dublin.  In this Tiny Desk Concert, he plays two guitars, including a crappy no name electric guitar with a great raw sound.  For the first song, he plays a pretty acoustic guitar instrumental called “Grass Above My Head.”   It has a slow melody that turns into a ragtime jaunt over the course of 6 and half minutes.

The next two songs are on that electric guitar and are both rather different (he says the songs comes from “incoherent range of the mess that is my musical career”).  Before playing “Hire Purchase” he tells a very funny story about getting a pencil from a garage (and that he uses it to keep his string from detuning–does that work?).  This is an electric guitar instrumental, bluesy and mellow with some great riffs.

The final song, “Nightlife” has words.  It’s a simple blues song. Nugent has a nice delicate voice.  I’m not a big fan of bluesy songs, but he does a great job with this and the other two styles.

He also wrote a song called “My War Blues” which is variations on a Black Flag song (I don’t recognize the original in his version, myself).  But you can hear that here.

[READ: June 4, 2014] King of the Flies 2. The Origin of the World

This book picks up right where Book 1 left off.  This edition was also translated only by Helge Dascher although it says she had help from Dag Dascher and Kim Thomspon (I didn’t notice any change in quality).

As this book starts, Eric’s mother is making serious advances with Francis–the man whom she just met but who she is already calling her fiance.  Eric fantasizes about killing him (his dream sequence mother says this is the 13th time he has killed Francis).  Marie and Eric are still together and, through a strange series of events, Ringo is asking Eric to hold on to a cool looking elephant bowling bag.

By the end of this first story, Eric has saved Becker from drowning.  And yet neither Becker nor Karine bothers to thank him.  Indeed, Karine seems even more angry at him.  But this blow off makes Eric want Karine even more.

In a later story we finally meet Karine’s family who are just as freaked out about her “dating” this old guy.  And, by the end of the story Becker has a heart attack and dies.  When she returns home after the funeral she sees Eric and she confides in him that she is pregnant.

The newest development in the book comes in the next story in which we learn that Damien is a ghost and that he visits everyone that he knew.  Some people who are receptive to seeing him can actually talk with him.  He’s obviously pissed about Eric and Sal, but he has come to terms with a lot of things.  He even forgives the man who killed him (by accident).  He also winds up meeting ghost Becker at some point.

Later, Eric takes Marie to a party, but he is far more interested in Karine at this point (even though Marie’s parents actually seem to like him).  She gets wasted and appears topless and blindfolded looking for a “fifth” kiss.  She winds up kissing David, a man whom Eric just met (they were walking together when Marie ran into them).  Marie’s mother is having a tough time of things, and we eventually see her with a mask on as well (the fly mask is back in this book, but not quite as prevalent).

Now over the course of the stories Eric has done serious damage to his soon to be stepfather Francis.  And Francis plans some revenge (with a woman who calls Francis “her man”) and explains his intention of getting his hand of Eric’s mother’s money.

As the book comes to a close, we get a few more stories.  One from David’s perspective, and one from Ringos’ perspective (he wants that elephant bag back).  In that story another death occurs (which means another ghost).

Near the end of the book Eric is having sex with Karine (who, in the one bit of graphic nonsense is visibly pregnant at three months).  Then while Eric is walking home, Marie’s father picks him up and they have a half-hearted heart to heart.  The final story (pictured below), returns Damien from Mars (where the dead can fly when they want) to check up on things.  The final scene gets us ready for Book 3 (which is not out here yet but should be reasonably soon).

Once again, the art is amazing, and the story is nihilistic and dark (and occasionally funny).