I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: FATHER JOHN MISTY-Fear Fun (2012).

I can’t get over how much I’ve been enjoying this album for the last two years.  Father John Misty is J Tillman from Fleet Foxes.

This disc is a gentle folk album with vaguely country leanings.  The arrangements are spare and yet the verses and choruses are so great to sing along to. “Funtimes in Babylon” has this infectious chorus: “I would like to abuse my lungs, smoke everything in sight with every girl I’ve ever loved.  Ride around the wreckage on a horse knee deep in mud.  Look out, Hollywood, here I come.”  “Nancy from Now On” has a great propulsive chorus with oohs and tinkling bells and pianos and Misty’s engaging falsetto.

I was introduced to this album by “Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings” which opens with the super catchy line, “Jeeeeesus Christ, girl.”  I love the big crashing drum sound he has here.  “I’m Writing a Novel” is a fun romp, with the great line “I’m writing a novel because it’s never been done before.”  “O I Long to Feel Your Arms Around Me” introduces a great organ sound.  It’s a full song at only 2 and a half minutes.

“Misty’s Nightmares 1 & 2” opens with a slide guitar and turns into a stomping song with more Ooohs and a great chorus.  “Only Son of the Ladiesman” has a great chorus with the fun couple: “I’m a steady hand, I’m a Dodgers fan.”  “This is Sally Hatchet” has cool guitar blasts and a great bridge.

“Well You Can Do It Without Me” is a countrified 2 minute stomper.  “Tee Pees 1-12” is a big stompin’ honkey tonk song with fiddles and slide guitar.  The disc ends with “Everyman Needs a Companion” a slow ballad with a great piano melody and a fun to sing along with verse and chorus.

I love the lyrics on this album, especially the song “Now I’m Learning to Love the War” a slow ballad with a great story:

Try not to think so much about
The truly staggering amount of oil that it takes to make a record
All the shipping, the vinyl, the cellophane lining, the high gloss
The tape and the gear

Try not to become too consumed
With what’s a criminal volume of oil that it takes to paint a portrait
The acrylic, the varnish, aluminum tubes filled with latex
The solvents and dye

Lets just call this what it is
The gentler side of mankind’s death wish
When it’s my time to go
Gonna leave behind things that won’t decompose

In addition to all of the great music on here, the CD packaging is fantastic with that great cover, done in a cardboard gatefold sleeve including two huge books full of words and drawings and lyrics and everything.  I’m really looking forward to his next release.

[READ: September 14, 2014] Grantland #10

Despite my being in the middle of reading several other things, I was looking for a short article to read the other night and grabbed my Grantland 10.  And, of course, once I started, I couldn’t stop. I put everything else on hold and blasted through this issue.

And so all of my loves and hates are the same with this issue.  I never know how anything they talk about nearly a year ago turned out, which stinks.  And yet I get so wrapped up in the writing that I don’t care.  I’m not sure what it is about the writing for Grantland that i enjoy so much.  It is casual but knowledgeable.  Often funny but not obnoxiously silly. And I suppose that now I feel like I’m in on all of the secret stuff they talk about so I’m part of the club.  I fear that if I were to ever go to the website I would get sucked into a black hole and never emerge.

I often wonder how they choose what goes into the book.  This issue has some new writers and the surprising absence of some regulars.  I wonder what went on there.  And as always, the book could use some editing and maybe actually listing the urls of the links that were once in the online version.  But I think I’m talking to deaf ears on that one.

This issue covers October-December 2013 (that’s ten-twelve months ago!  Some of this stuff feels ancient!)

WESLEY MORRIS-“The Song of Solomon”
This was a fascinating look at 12 Years a Slave.  The article talks about the movie itself and then brings us to a cultural point with Miley Cyrus and Kanye West.

EMILY YOSHIDA-“The Year of Insanity”
More about Miley and her feud with Sinead O’Connor.  Yoshida takes major issue with Miley’s tweet: “This woman is mentally ill, and therefore worthy of mockery.”  Mental imbalance has always been a key ingredient in pop culture and Yoshida explores that issue.

BILL SIMMONS AND MALCOLM GLADWELL-“The Nature of True Celebrity”
This is an email exchange between these two writers.  As the subtitle says, it covers “Johnny Carson to the PED debate and everything in between”

REMBERT BROWNE-“Who Won 2013?”
I love Browne’s brackets.  I love that he has Benedict Cumberbatch vs Vine or Beyonce vs Candy Crush or even Emojis vs The Pope.  Which naturally leads to a confrontation of Kanye West vs The Pope (Kanye wins because Browne wants The Pope to be even more awesome next year).  Who or what won 2013?

KIRK GOLDSBERRY-“LeBron James, Chess Master”
Grantland loves LeBron James and with good reasons.  This article proves that in addition to being an amazing player, often thinking several steps ahead, he is also a good speaker (unlike virtually every hockey player ever interviewed).  This makes me like him even more.  I can’t wait to see what Grantland has to say about his moving back to Cleveland.

CHUCK KLOSTERMAN-“The Eroding Generation Gap”
The Generation Gap has been replaced by the Technology Gap.

KARINA LONGWORTH-“The Legend of Harvey Scissorhands”
Harvey Weinstein is notorious for taking final edit on all of his Miramax films.  Does he have a good sense of editing or is he just a control freak?  (The answer seems to be: both).

BILL BARNWELL-“Brady-Manning Face-Off”
These two iconic quarterbacks seems to have switched places in people’s minds.

AMOS BARSHAD-“Nothing can Kill Danny Trejo”
I love Danny Trejo but, boy he was a bad kid.  And his start in film was really interesting.

RAFE BARTHOLOMEW-“The Beatdown That Heals”
I’m always amazed that people still follow boxing.  This is about Manny Pacquiao and how he helped brighten the lives of Filipinos.

BRYAN CURTIS AND PATRICIA LEE-“Rocked: The 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake”
This is a wonderful look at the earthquake that rocked Oakland during the 1989 World Series.  Many people are interviewed and the verbal recreation is very exciting.

SEAN FENNESSEY-“Jared Leto is Cool”
Jared Leto is a hunk, sure.  So how can he be cool as well?  His band 30 Seconds to Mars, while not groundbreaking, really rocks the house.

ANDREW SHARP-“We Need to Talk about Giannis”
He’s the youngest player in the NBA.

BRIAN PHILLIPS-“The Dad-Rock Prometheus”
Peyton Manning is 37 and is still amazing.

MOLLY LAMBERT-“ARTPOP vs. Commerce”
All about Lady Gaga and her album Artpop.

ANDREW SHARP-“Freshman Report Card”
Looking at some college talent that is as good as the hype suggested.

ANDREW SHARP and CHRIS RYAN-“Get Onboard with John Wall”
John Wall is must see TV when he is on the court.  He may not be the best but he is great to watch.

JONAH KERI-“Boston Strong”
How the Sox went from worst to first in one season.

JASON FAGONE-“The Willy Wonka of Pot”
DJ Short is a pioneer in grafting new strains of pot.  He’s been doing this for decades and now that it is more or less legal, he’s come out of hiding.  The author meets up with him at Hempfest in Seattle.  Learn a ton about pot here.

ANDY GREENWALD-“He’s Effing Out”
Well, I personally never liked Eastbound & Down, so I guess I don’t care that it is ending.

MARK LISANTI-“2013 Year-End TV Power Rankings”
Who is on top in the TV world?  Tywin Lannister of Games of Thrones and Walter White of Breaking Bad.

CHARLES P. PIERCE-“When the Fall is All There Is”
Who will be the face of the steroid era?  Bud Selig or Alex Rodriguez?

THOMAS GOLIANOPOULOS-“Bad Day in Buffalo”
This is a hugely depressing story about two fans who were both killed after a Buffalo Bills game.  Their deaths were unrelated and completely different and yet both were simply devastating.

ALEX PAPPADEMAS-“Boardwalk Vampire”
How to make Boardwalk Empire better?  Throw in a vampire and act like its been a vampire show all along.

ZACH LOWE-“Life Beyond the Arc”
There’s more and more reliance on the 3 point play–how much has that changed the NBA?

CHUCK KLOSTERMAN-“Remembering Lou Reed”
I thought I had read Klosterman’s words about Lou Reed when he wrote them, but i guess I hadn’t.  It’s a good eulogy.

BRIAN PHILLIPS-“Man Up”
The Miami Dolphins’ bullying scandal is pretty onerous.  Let’s look at people’s takes on it.

ANDREW SHARP-“Everything That Will Never Make Sense”
More about Richie Incognito and the Dolphin bullying.

STEVEN HYDEN-“Is Pearl Jam Overrated?”
An album by album, event by event analysis of Pearl Jam.  Verdict: Pearl Jam = properly rated (although Jeff Ament’s hats are underrated).

CHRIS RYAN-“The Fall of Europe’s Sweetheart Soccer Teams”
Borussia Bortmund and Napoli. I feel like I should probably watch European soccer some day.

BILL SIMMONS-“This is Our Papi”
David Ortiz has written his name into the Boston history books.  This article starts by looking at Bill Russell who was so mistreated by Boston that he almost refused to go back there even when they dedicated (at Barack Obama’s insistence) a statue of him

ANDY GREENWALD-“The Teachings of Walter White”
What others [not me as I never watched the show] learned from Breaking Bad.

JONAH KERI-“Baseball Lessons”
Now that Boston won, what did baseball teach us?  Things like bargain hunting can pay off and don’t overreact to a bad season.

ROBERT MAYS-“The NFL’s Modern Man”
Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Connor Barwin sounds like a super cool guy (he also likes Father John Misty) and even though he’s  jock, he is an environmentalist and a lover of alt rock.  He has just turned me into an Eagles fan.

REMBERT BROWNE-“Rethinking R. Kelly”
You know, R. Kelly is really a douchebag.

BILL SIMMONS-“An Offensive Line Between Love and Hate”
It’s easy to understand how the pressure of being a quarterback can really mess you up.

ZACH LOWE-“The Growing Legend of Lance Stephenson”
Is Lance Stephenson worth the money to the Pacers?  I wonder what they did with him.

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And thus another Grantland year comes to an end.  Eventually, I’m going to be in sync with the TV shows and celebrities that they talk about.  And maybe, just maybe they’ll get me to watch more sports.