I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: PIXIES & “WEIRD AL” YANKOVIC-”I Bleed” (2009).

Yesterday I posted about “Weird Al”‘s new song “First World Problems” which parodies the Pixies’ style. I didn’t know that Al liked the Pixies, but he’s evidently quite a fan.  And the feeling is mutual. Here’s a video from 2009 of Al singing lead on the Pixies’ track “I Bleed.”

Al is totally passionate about the vocals.  The more professional looking video has an audio the mix is a little odd, as Al is so much louder than the band, that his intensity really sticks out, even though I’m sure the rest of the band was just as loud.  Indeed, there’s a fan video that is mixed better (which I have posted below, even though the more professional one has the welcoming introduction for Al).

I like that he starts with the spoken style (even if his spoken voice is not as menacing as Francis’).  And then when the actually rocking part kicks in, Al, keeps up just fine.

[READ: July 1, 1014] “Kilifi Creek”

This story starts out with an interesting technique–speaking about the main character in third person but with great insight and almost a judging attitude into her mindset: “It was a brand of imposition of which young people like Liana thought nothing showing up on an old couple’s doorstep, the home of friends of friends of friends….  mature adulthood–and the experience of being imposed upon herself–might have encouraged her to consider what showing up as an uninvited impecunious house guest would require of her hosts.”

Indeed, Liana is traveling around the world and has stopped at various people’s houses for free room and board for a week or so, all in the name of young exploration.  In most instances, she gives the lucky family a few days’ notice. And she felt she repaid the families not with money but with brightness and enthusiasm.

This particular family was on the Kenyan coast, their name: Henley.  “Regent Henley carried herself as if she used to be good-looking and her husband Beano (a ridiculous name for anyone so old) was a big game hunter.  They were wealthy by African standards and their native help often had little to do, Liana even considered that her arrival would give the help something to occupy themselves with.”

She was staying for six nights.  But rather than doing any major exploring, she spent most of her mornings writing things online to her friends, and most of her afternoons in a bikini, coming to and from the Kilifi Creek behind the Henley’s house.

On the fourth day she decided to go for a swim in the other direction in the creek.  The Kilifi Creek is practically a river by Unites States standards, but they still called it a creek.  And soon enough she is up the creek, figuratively and literally.  I imagined many possibilities once I saw that she was in trouble in the water (and had even cut herself).  I don’t know much about the creeks in Africa, but I imagined all kinds of dangerous animals.  But that is not what happens here.  Rather, as the current picks up she realizes that she is actually heading out to the Indian Ocean.

The last half of the story more or less introduces us to the Henley’s and their mix of annoyance and concern for their unexpected lodger.

But what was particularly odd about this story was that for that last few paragraphs, it jumped many years into the future where Liana grew into a civilized woman.  She never told anyone about her scare in Kilifi, finding it such a traumatic experience that she couldn’t really voice it.  Then one night she meets a man and she feels able to confide in him about what happened.

In order for me to comment more on this story I have to give away the ending, so the next paragraph is all spoiler.  Be warned

SPOILER: She is at a party with a guy and she is sitting on the rooftop.  They talk and when she tells of this traumatic event, she feels a great weight lifted off her life.  And yet the man she talks to seems unimpressed by the story.  She is so upset that this guy is unimpressed that she…get ready, falls off the roof of the building and dies.  Which, I can only say, what the hell?

So I have to say what the hell kind of ending is that?  Why would you develop a character and then be so judgmental of her that you have her go through all of that just to have the story end this way?  It’s practically psychotic and seems crazily misogynistic.  Not to mention the strange way the last paragraphs that describe what happened are quite different form the very detailed narrative in the beginning (as if relishing the suffering but having given up on her by the end).  It almost seems like this ending is meant to be enjoyable for her.

I went from really liking this story to really hating it.  Which I guess takes some talent.

On a happier note, Kilifi looks beautiful according to online pictures.  And the creek itself seems nothing like what I imagined (see pictures here).  Although I see that it costs about $6,000 to fly to Kenya, so nevermind.