I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: ERNEST RANGLIN-Tiny Desk Concert #382 (August 16, 2014).

Ernest Ranglin is a pioneer in ska, by mixing elements of reggae and jazz.  And at 82, he still plays a great guitar.  The solo at about 3 minutes in is really fun and interesting.  What’s interesting about this concert is that Ranglin is playing with a group of very young (compared to him) people.  The backing band is called Avila  and they hold down the beat and the rhythms for the master, sounding like a perfect fit.

They play three songs in fifteen minutes: “Surfin'” and “Jones Pen” which are longish ska instrumentals (“Jones Pen” features a keyboard solo) and “Avila (Oscar’s Song),” which is a more mellow jazzy instrumental.  Sometimes it’s nice to hear some good musicians jamming out with no vocals to complicate what they’re playing, and this is a good example of that.

It’s a lot of ska in one session, but if you like the genre, it’s hard to beat this concert.

[READ: August 1, 2014] Bandette

Sarah brought this book home and said I would like it and she was very much correct.

Bandette is a young thief living in Paris.  She is adorable and sprightly, wearing a black mask, a red wig and a yellow and black cape.  Even though she is a thief she is a good thief–stealing wonderful things but usually from bad people.  But her charm comes mostly from her fun banter and delightfully light personality.  The story is delightful and the art by Colleen Coover is fantastic–I need to see more from her (and I can, at her website).

As the story opens we see her sneaking into a fancy house where she is accosted by an adorable little doggie whom she asks “Want to come along with me on a robbery?” When the dog bounds off with her, she says “Really! You do you naughty dog! You are as bad as a cat”  She easily finds the target–four small drawings.  But she stumbles upon the owner in bed with a woman (the book just crosses the line out of kid-friendly territory).  He calls for the guards to chase her.  Her acrobatic escape is at once exciting and charming.

As she makes her escape, she calls on her cadre of helpers, assistants and urchins.  These kids love Bandette and help her however they can.  There’s the three ballerinas, there’s the group of street urchins and there’s Daniel, a delivery boy for the awesomely named Rad Thai.  He has a huge crush on Bandette and will help her in any way.

We also see that Bandette is sort of working in league with the police.  Inspector Belgique knows that Bandette is a thief, but he also knows that she can help him with more serious crimes.  Like the one he is currently involved with–a group of men breaking into the bank (real thieving).  The inspector asks Bandette for assistance and she helps in the most unlikely way she can.

The second chapter introduces us to another thief in the city–Monsieur (I feel like he could have used a better name since everyone else has such good names).  He and Bandette are rivals for being the best thief. On his latest job when he hears that the bad guys are threatening Bandette, he decides to help her.

As the story progresses, Bandette and Monsieur make a brief partnership in which they will still compete with each other to steal things but they will also work together to stop the bad guy (who was threatening her earlier).  The bad guys are an organization called  FINIS and in Chapter Four, their premier talent, Matadori joins the fray.

The fight between Bandette and Matadori is fantastic with good fighting skills and even better banter “Seriously, I am really good at this stuff.”  The fight goes on for a bit which allows Monsieur to stalk away shaking his head although as he does we hear Bandette graciously asking Matadori where she got her cape.

As the book ends, it sets up a cliffhanger with Bandette and Monsieur agreeing to enter a thieving race, while the leader of FINIS plots against them all.

The book was very exciting and sweetly charming as well.  I’m looking forward to Volume 2.

The book is chock full of bonus features.  The end pages features a series of “Urchin Stories.”  All of these were written by Tobin, with art by different artists.  Each story is one to three pages long.  There’s a story about Inspector Belgique, Monsieur, the ballerinas, Matadori and even Bandette’s dog, Pimento.

After these short stories, there is a long prose story called “Daniel’s Story.”  It is an 11 page saga of how Daniel and Bandette first met.  It’s an exciting tale of intrigue and excitement–well, actually they first met in a dusty old book store but shortly after that they went on a night of intrigue and excitement that involves Daniel being caught in a net while bullets whiz by him.  It’s quite a good story.

Next is a small history of actual items that Bandette has stolen in the story.

And the final two sections are “Writing Bandette” which shows the original writing script of the first three pages and “Drawing Bandette” which is several very detailed pages of how Colleen Coover creates Bandette (it’s almost all done on computer with a drawing tablet).  I found this whole process very informative, telling us what tools she uses Kohl-I-Noor Rapidograph Ultradraw Ink (not Universal or Rapidraw) and Winsor & Newton Series 7 Watercolor Round 2 brush.  And for technologocal specs she uses Manga Studio and Photoshop.  The whole second part of this is a brief but detailed explanation of how to do layers in Photoshhop which is helpful in and of itself. It’s probably the best special feature I’ve ever seen in a book.