I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: R.E.M.-Collapse into Now (2011).

“Discoverer” opens this disc with ringing guitars–not exact R.E.M. replicants, but familiar.  And then Stipe comes in and the refresher course in R.E.M. begins.  Collapse Into Now proved to be R.E.M.’s final album, and while some of their latter albums weren’t great, Collapse seems to revisit everything that was great about R.E.M. and tries to spread it all over this album.

The blueprints for classic R.E.M. songs form the structure of a lot of these songs, with chiming guitars, and Stipe’s recognizable vocals.  “All the Best” sounds like classic R.E.M. (although Stipe’s delivery is more current sounding).  It also fits in well with the faster songs from Accelerate and is only 2:46.  But it’s “Überlin” that really sounds like a classic R.E.M. song.  That notable guitar style with Stipe’s very specific delivery style.  And then come Peter Buck’s harmonies.  It sounds like a good outtake from, say, Automatic for the People.

Stipe tends to do a lot of his sing-speaking on this album (and i think the one thing I don’t like that much about the album is that early R.E.M. seemed to obscure Stipe’s vocals and lyrics a little bit, giving them an air of mystery.  Whereas the newer records are all pretty well laid bare).  So “Oh My Heart” has Stipe almost speaking his poetry.  It’s got mandolin and Buck’s mildly annoying backing vocals (I’ve never thought that about his backing vocals before).

An Eddie Vedder cameo is utterly wasted on “It Happened Today,” you can barely hear him as all he does is backing crooning near the end of the song (and frankly the “hip hip hooray” chorus is lame).  “Every Day is Yours to Win” is a pretty slow song.  It doesn’t amount to much but the melody is really beautiful.  “Mine Smell Like Honey” is a crazy bad title, but it’s a great rocking song, really hearkening back to classic R.E.M.–ringing guitars and Stipe’s vaguely disguised voice.  “Walk it Back” is another slow ballady type song and is really pretty.  While “Alliagtor_Aviator_Autopilot_Antimatter” is a rocker with Peaches singing and speaking backing vocals.  “That Someone is You” follows up with another speedy track.

I tend to dislike the really slow R.E.M. songs, so “Me, Marlon Brando, Marlon Brando and I” doesn’t do much for me.  The disc ender, “Blue” reminds me of Out of Time‘s “Country Feedback” (I keep waiting for him to say “I need this”).  And the Patti Smith backing vocals recall “E-Bow the Letter.”  “Blue” is meandering and unfocused but Buck’s atmospheric guitars are quite effective, even if the song itself is nothing special.  I don’t quite get the coda of tacking the opening chords of the album on to the end, but whatever.

So basically this album feels like some mostly great outtakes from earlier R.E.M. albums. And there’s really nothing wrong with that (well there would be if R.E.M. was still trying to release a lot of new music).  But since the band was ready to call it quits anyway, it’s a nice recap of their career.  True, I’d rather listen to their earlier records, but you could definitely throw most of these songs into a mix with the earlier ones and they would sound perfect.

[READ: October 25, 2014] Elmer

Elmer has a  chicken on the cover.  It also features this quote at the top of the book: “It’s the Great Filipino Novel, with chickens.”  What to expect from this book?  Well, chickens, obviously, but I never would have guessed what this book contained.  Indeed, this book is pretty mind-blowing (in a good way).

It has a simple premise, which seems comical but is actually taken very seriously: what if chickens became “aware” and learned to speak?  It sounds funny, right, but Alanguilan really explores this issue seriously–if a species of animal that we normally eat suddenly talked to us en masse, how quickly would we deal with this, and what would humanity’s reaction be?  It tackles issues of slavery and racism and pushes them further.  And while the “change” takes place in 1979, it addresses contemporary society with an inquisitive glare.

While there is some humor in it, this is a serious book.

Jake Gallo is a modern chicken (the book is set in 2003–two decades after chickens became “human”).  He has just been rejected for a job, and he pulls the race card (this would be the hilarious reveal that our main character is a chicken).  While he’s feeling sorry for himself, he gets word that his father, Elmer, is dying and he returns home to be with his mother and family.  On the way home he runs into Farmer Ben, the farmer who helped to raise Elmer’s family.  And he is genuinely glad to see Jake.  Jake seems somewhat put off by Farmer Ben and declines his offer of a ride.

We learn that his brother Frankie now goes by Francis and is a movie star in Hollywood.  He is currently working on a blockbuster and he acts with humans.  We also learn that Jake’s dad is with a human doctor which makes Jake uncomfortable.  And it slowly dawns that Jake is not comfortable with humanity right about now–despite how well his family has assimilated.

A week later, Jake’s father dies. They got to say their goodbyes (although Jake doesn’t get to say everything he should have).  Francis has to return to Hollywood, but Jake stays on with his mom, and that’s when she gives him his father’s dairy.  Jake knew he had kept one and often looked for it but never found it.

When Jake opens it he thinks it is a joke.  The first few entries are in very poor English and Elmer fears the whole  book is in some kind of crazy code.  But he soon figures out that this was his mother and father were just learning to use English and wanted to get everything down while it was still fresh.  But when he skims though the book, he takes some information out of context and accuses Farmer Ben of trying to kill his father.

But Ben has Jake sit down and he tells him about the first time he met a chicken who could talk.  It wasn’t pretty–the chicken was angry and they fought.  There was a lot of bloodshed.  Ben is freaking out because no one believes him about what happened.  But soon, a few days later there is a massacre–the chickens began talking, the farmers began shooting–it was chaos and bloodshed.  Chickens were slaughtered left and right (and a friend of Ben’s even took his life).  And then finally, a chicken came into Ben’s house.  Ben was planning to kill it when it looked at him and said “Help me.”  And that’s when Ben became the biggest chicken supporter in the area.

Elmer’s diary talks about the tough times at first when men were afraid and persecuted the chickens.  Scientists tried to figure out what happened.  There was some acceptance then some backlash, and during all that time, Ben helped them, kept them safe and assisted them in learning their own history.

But then (in the fastest moving legislation ever in the history of humanity), the UN declares that chickens are also humans, with all rights therein.  This means shutting down all chicken eateries, and even allowing chickens to marry.  Soon Elmer gets a job as a writer (a column called Chicken Scratchings and becomes somewhat celebrated).  It becomes cool to love chicken (the haircut joke is very funny). Naturally, humans being humans, Bird Flu causes all kinds of troubles for the chickens and Ben.  But even that passes.

And the takeaway is that Jake learns about his own childhood, and how Ben has always been there for his family.

Alanguilan says people ask him why chickens?  He grew up with chickens (there were some crossing his window as he wrote the authors note).  He says he wondered what they were thinking and then wondered what if chickens could think?  This idea triggered an “avalanche of ideas…KFC…would have to close, religions wold have to deal with chickens wanting to get married, even those wanting to get married to two-legged humans.  …They would take offense to the word ‘chicken’ as a word for cowardice” and on and on.

And so, this odd but really thoughtful book came about.

It would not work at all if Alanguilan did not take the whole premise seriously, which he does.  There are no cheap jokes at the chickens’ expense.  It is a well crafted and well thought out story.  And the writing is really strong.  Plus, He can draw chickens really really well.  It’s a perfect what if scenario, and it is quite thought-provoking.  This is a great book to track down if you’re looking for a well crafted, thoughtful story.