I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: STOCKINGS BY THE FIRE (2007).

This is a Starbucks compilation (Starbucks is pretty good for Christmas compilations).  But I find that the overall vibe of this disc is too mellow for my liking.  Most of the songs are quite pretty, but it feels like a Christmas Party for one by your lonesome rather than a party proper.  Of course, the picture on the cover suggests a romantic night in, so maybe that’s the vibe they’re going for (it’s still kind of sad though).

RAY CHARLES & BETTY CARTER-“Baby, It’s Cold Outside.”  There’s are dozens of versions of this song.  I like this one fine, but it’s not one of my faves (although Ray has some good turns of phrase).  But I think Betty’s voice may be too squeaky for me.
SARAH McLACHLAN-“I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” McLachlan has a beautiful voice, but I like her earlier more robust singing than her latter day TV Commercial songs.  So this winds up being very pretty but a little mopey.  It’s also way too long.
FRANK SINATRA-“I’ll Be Home for Christmas” is also a little slower than I remember.  But I have to assume that if Frank did it this way, this is the tempo it’s meant to be.
HEM-“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” has quiet, whispered version. It’s pretty, if rather stripped down (just piano and chimes).
ELLA FITZGERALD-“Sleigh Ride” is a great version, full of high spirits and fun.  Ella is awesome.
RUFUS WAINWRIGHT-“What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?” is also a slow version.  Perhaps this song is slower than I realize.  It’s a very Wainwright-sounding version with his wonderful warble.
HERBIE HANCOCK-“River” is pretty–Corinne Bailey Rae’s voice is lovely, although I don’t care for the jazzy accompaniment.

The next few songs are the highlight of the disc to me:
JACK JOHNSON-“Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer” is a great version.  Johnson’ voice suits this very well an I love that he added an extra verse about being nice to Rudolph.
THE BIRD AND THE BEE-“Carol of the Bells” has a wonderful trippy quality.  I found out last year that The Bird and the Bee do my favorite version of the 12 Days of Christmas, which is sadly unavailable on record anywhere.  But this version of “Carol of the Bells” has the same qualities that I love in the 12 days.  Love this version.
A FINE FRENZY-“Let It Snow” there’s something wonderfully breathy about this version that I like a lot.  It works very well with The Bird and the Bee song.
NAT KING COLE-“The Christmas Song” is one of my favorite Christmas songs ever.
DEAN MARTIN-“I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm” is another classic version of this track.

Those few tracks are the big highlight for me.
DIANA KRALL-“Winter Wonderland” I don’t care for the way she sings this although the musical accompaniment is cool. And I do like “frolic and play the Canadian way.”
MAHALIA JACKSON-“Do You Hear What I Hear?” I feel like I am supposed to really like this version, but I really do not like it at all. It is way too melodramatic
JOHN LEGEND-“It Don’t Have to Change” not my style of music at all, I’d skip this if it came up on shuffle.  It’s also not really a Christmas song even though it does mention Christmas.
AIMEE MANN-“White Christmas” Aimee tends to write beautiful downer songs.  And you can tell by the opening thuds of the rums that this is not going to be an uptempo thriller.  But Mann has a great voice and a great sense of arrangement and this song ends this quiet disc quite nicely.

[READ: December 4, 2014] Andre the Giant

I really enjoyed this biography of wrestler and actor Andre the Giant (released by our friends at First Second).  I’ve always been a fan of him, but I really didn’t know that much about him.  And, honestly I would never have wanted to read a whole biography about him.  So this was a perfect bite-sized chunk of information about the legend.

Brown opens the book with a discussion of the “fakeness” of wrestling.  It’s a great summary of the “controversy” and how it has been dealt with, especially now that Vince McMahon is running WWE.

And then we move on to Andre.After opening with some kind words from Hulk Hogan (from a 2010 interview) we head to France, 1958, where Andre is 12 years old and already very large. He was diagnosed with acromegaly.  He was so large at 12 that he couldn’t fit on the school bus.  In a bizarre and unexpected twist, on a day when the bus driver refused to take him, he was given a ride into school by Samuel Beckett (!), who played cards with Andre’s dad.

He was told that he would keep getting bigger but that his body would not be able to cope with it and he would likely be dead by the time he was 40.  We jump to 1967 where he is super big and strong (he is able to lift cars to help people change flat tires).  He works as a mover but has few friends (people are afraid of him and often make fun).  He befriends prostitutes, one of whom tells him about wrestling matches.  His size is a huge attraction and he is referred to as Geant Ferre (the French equivalent of Paul Bunyan).  He is successful and he drinks…a lot.

He travels to Japan, where he finds success and then winds up wrestling steadily in Montreal.  But he winds up in the same venue for a long time where the surprise of his size wears off.  Soon, another promoter suggests he travel, so that he is novel everywhere and then when he comes back, his legend will make him seem even larger.

Brown gives a breakdown of typical match in the 1970s (showing how the scripted elements work).

While most people liked Andre and he was generally a pleasant fellow, he seems like an ugly drunk.  He makes a racist comment to Bad News Brown which escalates into a huge fight.  And he seems to like fighting just for fun when he’s drunk.  He is also rude to fans and some other wrestlers. It’s unclear if he’s just a bad drunk or if he was an unpleasant guy.  We also learned that he fathered a child and hardy ever saw her.

In 1974 he appeared on The Tonight Show.  In 1984 he appeared on Letterman.  And in 1986 he filmed The Princess Bride.  He also agreed to be turned into a heel so that Hulk Hogan could become champ.  As he grew older he was in pain more and more often, he even once broke his ankle just getting out of bed (which they made into a plot in the next match).  He made a few wrestling appearances in America, but he was still wrestling in Japan into the 1990s.  He died in 1993.

You get a sense of the fun life he had but of the deeper sadness that was Andre’s lot in life.  Although he was often made fun of, he was able to make friends and to remained largely positive.

This book was really great.  I learned a lot and it reminded me how much I used to enjoy watching him wrestle.

I love the artwork in this book too.  There’s something about Brown’ style that appeals to me in a big way.  It’s simple and yet so accurate.  The opening pictures of Hulk Hogan are just awesome– almost anime, but not quite.  Simple lines and dots for features, but they are spot on.  Brown also explains that he took most of his information from sources, but of course he had to invent some details for the graphic novel (nobody describes the bus that they rode on).

It’s another great First Second release.