I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: PRIMUS-“Me Llamo Mud” (2010).

This recording is out of chronological sequence, because it is a re-recording of Primus’ hit “My Name is Mud” done in Spanish.

The big surprise for me was just how different the song sounds–it was recorded in a very different way with the instruments sounding much crisper.  The bass in particular is recorded quite differently.  And Brain is on drums instead of Tim Alexander, although I don’t think their styles are very different on this song.  But I love that those seemingly random guitar parts from Ler are played the same (even if they are recorded differently too).

It’s also impressive to hear Les forcing all those Spanish syllables into his fast wordplay.

¿Adonde va el chico de la ciudad?

[READ: January 7, 2015] “Motherlode”

I tend to think of McGuane’s stories as dark, and this one is no exception.

We start by looking at David Jenkins.  He is in a hotel room with his stetson on.  He goes to get some lunch and while he eats, he gets the sense that a man is watching him closely.

As David walks out to his car, Ray, the man who was looking at David, pulls a gun and says that David is going to take them for a drive.  They have an awkward two-hour road trip ahead of them.  Ray uses David’s cell phone to call his girl, whose name is Morsel (I don’t know why that tickled me so much).  After about two hours of driving a man in a small plane lands in front of them on the road and says they’ve missed the turn.  David backs up and heads down the “road” to a small house.

The long and short of this family is that Morsel and Ray are looking to get into a “family business.”  It’s clearly not going to be on the up and up (they connected online and this is their first meeting, but Morsel is pissed that Ray speaks highly of his wife).  Morsel’s dad, the guy in the plane, has dementia–all he can do is fly his plane.  And David is stuck with them.

Until he gets a moment to look in Ray’s bag where he finds that the gun is a fake and that he has a ton of cash on him (he claimed to be broke).  Ray also has a passport for himself and his wife (whom he said was his ex-wife).

Dave is of course very curious so he decides to go along with them on their scheme.  In fact, once Dave reveals that he knows ray is a bullshitter, they invite him to join in.  So Dave gets the job of picking up “something.”  He figures it’s better not to know what it is.  he drives to Ray’s wife’s house, where she puts the item in the trunk and then he delivers it back to Ray and Morsel.

What could possibly go wrong?  The story was indeed dark but I enjoyed the way it was written and the way it ended.