I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: SUFJAN STEVENS and FRIENDS present Gloria songs for Christmas Vol. 6 (2006).

I was planning to write about Sufjan Steven’s first collection of Christmas albums, but I had forgotten that I had already done so back in 2009 [Vol 1 here; Vol 2 here; Vol 3 here; Vol 4 here and Vol 5 here.]

The next five volumes (from 2006-2010) came out in 2012.  This collection bucks the rather traditional tradition he had established with the earlier volumes.  Indeed, as the discs progress, they get more and more unusual.

But this first disc is quite traditional sounding.  It has 8 songs and is about thirty minutes long.

“Silent Night” is very pretty with gentle acoustic guitars and lots of backing vocalists. The solo is kind of a singing saw I think—a little odd, but neat.
“Lumberjack Christmas/No One Can Save You from Christmases Past” is filled with fiddles and is quite sweet (with a very familiar melody (and ho ho hos).
“Coventry Carol” I love the introductory melody of this song, it’s so pretty.  The voices feature multiple harmonies;  it’s quite lovely.
“The Midnight Clear” despite the title and first line, this is not “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear,” but a song inspired by that one. This is a very pretty song with a complex melody and lots of filigree in the instrumentation.
“Carol of St. Benjamin the Bearded One” I love this instrumental opening (about 90 seconds) which plays with a twist on “Hark Hear the Bells” and then plays some different instrumental sections but always returning to that Hark section. It’s very cool.  When the vocals come in it mellows out quite a bit and is still very pretty.
“Go Nightly Cares” has a very Elizabethan feel to it.  It’s a lovely 15th century instrumental.
“Barcarola (You Must Be A Christmas Tree)” is 7 minutes long. It begins slow but gets bigger and bigger with a section from Do You Hear What I Hear (the “following yonder star” melody)
“Auld Lang Syne” is a very pretty version on acoustic instruments with lots of singers.  It’s a nice way to end the EP.

[READ: December 5, 2014] Locke & Key 1

I heard about this graphic novel series when Joe Hill was on Seth Meyers’ show.  I didn’t really know too much about his writing style but I knew he wasn’t someone I was anxious to read (even if his book Heart Shaped Box must have something to do with the Nirvana song, right?).

But Seth made this graphic novel series sound really compelling, so I decided to check them out.  There are six collections in the series and they are all available now.

The first collection is called Welcome to Lovecraft and it sets the story in motion pretty much from the get go.  As the book opens we see two creepy looking youths harassing a pretty woman.  We see that they have killed at least two people, and things don’t look good for the lady.

Then we cut to some kids.  An older boy, Tyler; a young teen girl Kinsey (with dreadlocks and piercings) and a little boy. Bode.  They are all complaining about how much they hate living where they are.

Jump cut to a funeral with a bright red urn and Tyler looking down at it.

Turns out the two thugs killed the kids’ dad (but spared their mom).  The dad was a guidance counselor at Tyler’s school.  The boy who killed him also went to the school.  The killer thought they had a pact to kill their fathers (Tyler was just foolishly agreeing because he was mad at his father).  But this is serious in a very bad way.

The rest of the first chapter jumps back and forth between the murder and the family’s new life in Lovecraft, Massachusetts.  Their new home is their father’s childhood home, known as Keyhouse.  (There’s a funny joke about living in a house that has a name).

The murder story plays out with one of the thugs dead and the other one with scars all over his face, wasting away in a juvenile penitentiary.  Although soon voices start talking to him, and they seem to be coming out of the sink.

The Keyhouse story plays out with Bode walking through a door and turning into a ghost.  At first he is (understandably) freaked, but then he starts experimenting with what it’s like to be “dead.”

The second chapter is from Bode’s point of view.  He meets a spirit in the well on the property (the spirit is either male or female and appears to be the same one that the killer was talking to.  he can’t convince anyone about the ghost door, which is frustrating.

Chapter three is from Kinsey’s POV.  We see that Kinsey has straightened out her dreads (is that even possible?) and made herself more wholesome–she wants to forget everything that happened and just blend in.  When someone tries to befriend her, she is hesitant to get involved. By the end of the chapter, we also see the killer escape from prison.  When they let the family know, they comfort them by saying that he is hundreds of miles away and that they’ll put a police presence around their house.

Chapter Four goes back to school where we learn about how the “pact” began.  We also see more insight into Tyler’s character.  There’s even a flashback to the day the killer spent time in Tyler’s dad’s office and learned the details about where the family was living that allowed him to hunt them down.

In Chapter Five, the killer gets closer and Bode is able to find the key that the woman in the well is asking for.

In Chapter Six, the killer returns, and the fight resumes.  But this time there is the spirit in the well and Bode as a ghost to confuse matters.  The family survives the assault, but when a new kid shows up who look suspiciously like the spirit in the well, who knows what will happen next.

The book is gruesome and takes no prisoners, but I am totally hooked and really looking forward (if that’s the right expression) to book 2.

The illustrations by George O’Connor are simultaneously creepy and really expressive.  The way he renders faces is exaggerated but very effective–it clearly lets you distinguish characters and it adds a supernatural element to the whole story.