I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: JOHNNYSWIM-Tiny Desk Concert #352 (April 28, 2014).

It was with this Tiny Desk Concert that I was able to get the numbers of the more recent ones.  They proudly announce that this was the three hundred and fiftieth TDC.  Which is pretty hard to believe.  They have almost a year’s worth.  And it seems lately that they have been putting them up at the rate of more than one a week.  How;sa guy ever supposed to catch up?

So I’d never heard of Johnnyswim before.  The band is comprised of husband and wife Abner Ramirez and Amanda Sudano.  They sing duets mostly but he seems to have the main voice.  And it is booming and powerful.  They have been street buskers and they have a great chemistry with each other and the audience (she says she wants to have his baby someday).

The two start as duo then for the last song the full band comes out.  And their third song with the full band “Diamonds,” is a big catchy uplifting anthem that could be absolutely huge, especially with the big sing along oh’s.  And yet the thing is, I don’t really like their voices.  I completely understand the appeal of catchy sings like “Home” and “Falling For Me,” but I just didn’t really enjoy them.

I imagine their songs will be in soundtracks this summer and I’ll get tired of hearing them.  But for now, they’re just not my thing.

[READ: June 6, 2014] “Pending Vegan”

I enjoyed most of this story because it deals with issues that I think many carnivores (at least those who are relatively sensitive) deal with—how do you eat animals but also like animals.  And yet this is not a preachy story.  I also liked it because it is set at Sea World, a place that the narrator (and many people) find questionable (at best) with regard to its animal care.

The protagonist, Paul, is taking his family to Sea World even though he really doesn’t want to go.  His wife thinks its important for their kids to see the animals before they are all gone. Paul is also quitting the antidepressant Celexa, which his therapist (a very funny, inappropriate man who says things like “black folks and Orientals”) says will make him see a lot of bad things (like bums and pickpockets) wherever he looks.

We also learn that in his own mind, Paul has changed his name to Pending Vegan.  It was a bit of a mortification but something that he felt was a step in the right direction (even if he still ate what he wanted).  He of course doesn’t know how to explain this name change to anyone (especially his daughters).  And of course, he doesn’t know how to explain the questionable (at best) behaviors at Sea World.  But he toughs it out for his family.

Paul’s questions about animals arose earlier with their dog. The dog was a terrier rescue. He was a good dog. But once Paul’s wife became pregnant with their first child, the dog began acting very obsessive about Paul’s wife.  He even snapped at Paul once when he got close.  So Paul immediately took the dog back to the shelter and the family was never to have pets again (despite the girls’ requests).

Sea World proves to be a nightmare for Paul (although Lethem doesn’t paint it excessively so–it seems like a harmless trip to me).  The family looks at flamingos and sharks and then the big orca show.  The girls love it as do all the other children there.  But Paul is sarcastic and cranky throughout, and as soon as it was over he said they should go home.  But his wife said they’d bought full day tickets.  So they get lunch (not vegan) and head to another show.

This second show is a pet show in which dogs and cats and ostriches and pigs (?!) perform tricks.  But in the middle of the show things go awry.  I found this ending to be very strange and hard to determine if it was a hallucination (as other things may have been) or a meant to be a profound statement.  I understood how it may have tied together to the rest oft he story, but I didn’t really find the ending satisfying.