I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: BEN FOLDS FIVE-Live (2013).

This is the first official live record from Ben Folds Five.  They reunited after a decade or so away and put out a great album and this documented their tour of that album.

It’s a fun collection of songs that spans their career and also includes a solo Ben Folds song.

To me, one of the best things about BFF was Robert Sledge’s bass (yes, I know BF is the man and his piano and songwriting are stellar, but the sound that Sledge gets on his bass just brings those songs to new heights of coolness).  And that bass does not disappoint here.

The setlist is taken from a number of different venues over the course of 2012 and 2013, with a lot of shows in San Francisco, but also some from across Europe.  And the songs really span their career, opening with a song from their debut (“Jackson Cannery”) and then following up with one of their most recent songs “Erase Me”).  They even play “Tom and Mary” from their Naked Baby Photos collection.

About midway through the disc, Ben plays an improvised One Chord Blues (which turns into “Rock This Bitch”) in which he makes up “some bullshit” and this segues into part of “Billie’s Bounce” by Charlie Parker.  This is followed by “Do It Anyway” into which he throws a verse from Jesus Christ Superstar.  On the liner notes of the disc he talks about how throwing these verses onto a live album will cost you “a lot.”

For the song “Draw A Crowd” they play a synth opening, but when Ben switches to piano, he messes up and sings “the piano player can’t play…but keep the party going.”  He is amusingly self-deprecating both in his banter and in his song lyrics.

The disc ends with the awesome “Song for the Dumped” which includes great audience participation.  Amusingly as the crowd cheers, he asks them “Would you like us to play one more?” And as they cheer for one more, the disc ends.

[READ: October 28 2014] The Love Bunglers

Jaime Hernandez is one half (with his brother) of the duo who create the cool graphic novel series Love and Rockets.  I have read (and own) some issues of the book, but I haven’t really kept up with it all that much.

But I really like his stuff, so I was delighted to see this book, which was originally printed in Love and Rockets: New Stories 3 and 4.

This is a complex story, written in a back and forth style which only makes the narrative that much more compelling.  As the story opens we see some men playing chess on a street corner.  A woman, Maggie, walks by.  She is older but still curvy and the men size her up.  One of the men, the “new guy” gets up and follows her then hides in the bushes watching her.  Next we see Maggie, naked, lying on a leaf.  But she is actually talking to Reno and relating this recurring dream.

Then we see that she is a landlady and is also friends with a man named Ray.  Ray is an artist who is showing at a local gallery.  Maggie agrees to go with him. By the end of the first section it’s not entirely clear what Maggie’s feelings are about either of these men, but they both seem to like her.

Section 2 is called Browntown and it is a flashback to when Maggie was a child (and was called Perla).  Its a strange neighborhood–where everything (hotels, buildings, even rooms) was brown. There’s also a boy in the neighborhood who seems to have it out for Calvin.  He does some mean things to him but then invites him to the Nasty in Nature club.  At the club bunch of boys sit around naked in the woods, making jokes about sex.  There is foreshadowing to some bad things happening, and one of them actually does–young Calvin becomes the victim of this older boy’s sexual advances.  This repeated rape really sets Calvin’s character.

And then Maggie sees that her dad is actually sleeping around with his secretary.  Between that and Calvin’s lashing out (in a shocking scene), their mother decides to move out of browntown.

Back in the present Ray and Maggie have dinner.  Ray thinks that this is a date, but Maggie has other ideas.  Ray is upset but feels he’s been led on for so log that he’s more or less used to it. And later that night we learn that the man skulking around is actually Calvin, whom Maggie hasn’t seen in years.

There’s some more tensions in the present–which bring some wonderful complexity to the story. But then there’s another flashback.  Maggie is moving back to her old neighborhood with her family about three years after they first moved.  And her best friend is super excited to see her.  But Maggie is resistant to hanging around again.  Since it from the friend’s POV we don’t know why.  But something does bring them back together and they seem happy for a time.  However, when Maggie learns to fix cars she becomes something of a local celebrity and quite a good mechanic.  One of her plans for the present is to buy a garage (perhaps with Ray’s help).

The story comes together in a couple of unexpected ways.  It really explores the lives of some of these characters, many of whom have had some very bad things happen to them.  And even the ending, which seems to be a happy one, has a bittersweet aspect to it.

Hernandez’ artwork is simply stunning.  His figures are gorgeous.  There’s a scene with a live model and it is clear that Jaime knows what he is doing with people–especially women.  His lines are simple and confident and his drawings make great use of white space.  It’s amazing how effective he is with his facial features as well.  You’d swear that his drawings were much bigger than they are given how much detail he is able to include.

This is an impressive story and a beautiful book.