I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: PIER 1 IMPORTS: Holiday Magic: classic holiday favorites (2001).

This collection is a mixed bag for me.  I love a bunch of the songs but dislike a number of others.  It starts out poor but picks up by the end.

EARTHA KITT-“Santa Baby” I hate this song in general, and dislike this version (but less than some others).  NANCY WILSON-“What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?” a slower version than I like for this song, but it’s fine.  LOU RAWLS-“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” I’m mixed about this version as I don’t really like his delivery so much.  BENNY GOODMAN-“Winter Weather” I like Benny although I don’t always love his vocalists. Peggy Lee is cool, but I’m less thrilled by Art Lund’s verse.  ELLA FITZGERALD-“Frosty the Snowman” The first verse is so unexpected (like a prelude that I’ve never heard anywhere else). I like Ella’s version quite a lot.  NAT “KING” COLE-“All I Want for Christmas (Is My Two Front Teeth)” Because Nat is awesome, I like his version of this song (which I dislike in general), but Nat can make anything sound good.

BING CROSBY-“Winter Wonderland” Now we’re talking.  Bing makes everything alright.  JOHNNY MERCER AND THE PIED PIPERS-“Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town” This is a weird version that I’m not really familiar with.  They add some weird verses and call and response.  Like the opening “fat man’s coming fat mans coming” (which sounds like it was on a Bugs Bunny cartoon and is pretty naughty in my book).  I especially enjoy the way the lyrics gets even more threatening as the song goes on.  HOLLY COLE TRIO-“I’d Like to Hitch a Ride with Santa Claus” I’ve never really thought too much about this song but I like it.  DEAN MARTIN-“I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm” a classic version, excellent.  LENA HORNE-“Jingle All the Way” She has fun with this and plays around with conventions, I think it’s cool.  PEGGY LEE-“Happy Holiday” Peggy is back.  I like it even if it is a little stiff.

So overall, this is a pretty solid collection of “classic” songs.  I would have picked a few different versions, but it’s solid.

[READ: December 7, 2014] Ball Peen Hammer

My experience with First Second books has been very positive.  The stories tend to focus on people who may not ft in, and who may not get a voice in every day society.  They’re usually pretty satisfying and/or positive.  Either that or they were children’s books that were largely funny.

So imagine my surprise upon reading Ball Peen Hammer and discovering a violent, nasty story about a dystopian future in which there is really no hope of redemption for anyone.  It is dark dark dark.

The story is pretty simple (although it is told in a convoluted way so you don’t really know what’s going on for much of the book).

It opens with a grotesque-looking man being sick in a basement room.  There is no dialogue for the first several pages (while a giant muscle bound guy drags a bag into the room) until another man shows up.  The man seems normal enough and after some shouted words and threats with a gun, the man welcomes the newcomer as a non-threat.  After he settles down, he reveals that he is a writer.  Of course, what he’s doing in this revolting basement room is unclear.

Next we cut to a kid. He looks a lot more cartoony than the other characters and within the first few panels we see him trying to have sex with a cantaloupe.  But a woman catches him.  She is an actress name Exley (insert jokes about her name here).  This room appears to be a few floors above the basement room

Back in the basement, the guys are talking about what’s happening in the world outside of their building  And that is basically chaos–a plague has struck and nearly everyone is infected.  There are some places where a vaccine is available, but there are others who are hunting down the infected, so is it worth the effort?  Things are dire. And the writer is there to document what the hell is going on.

The scene with the boy and Exley is far more entertaining (if only because it is brighter).  She has tied him up and his is spitting at her from across the room. She decides to get revenge by peeing in a bucket and threatening to throw it at him if he doesn’t stop spitting.  Soon enough they forge a strange bond.

We learn that she has come to this crappy location looking for a singer.  She heard someone playing a guitar and thought it might be him. They met a few weeks ago after a show and had a wild night of sex.  Turns out that the guy in the basement is the singer and he has also been thinking of her.  They are just a few floors away from a connection.

But this a dark story. The man in the basement has a number tattooed on him.  He says it is because he is a dragger.  He brings dead bodies in for the big muscle guy.  Two digits is a dragger; three digits is a sacker.  Sackers hit their victims with a ball peen hammer.  Sackers drag them away.  Why?  Who the hell knows?  There’s just dead bodies (mostly children) all over the place.  Does the writer have any idea what he’s getting himself into?

Between the murders and the plague very few people are spared.

It is a dark, gloomy and deeply unpleasant story.  (And the illustrations are appropriately super creepy as well).  To quote from the inside flap: “An unflinching meditation on art and human nature.  Perceptive disturbing and ultimately heartbreaking.”  No kidding.   This is some seriously dark shit.  Not really meant for the Christmas holidays.