SOUNDTRACK: MYNABIRDS-“All My Heart” NPR Lullaby SXSW (March 19, 2015).
From March 17-March 21, the SXSW festival raged on. And my friends at NPR Music were there so I didn’t have to be. In past years they have had a nightly recap of their favorite shows of the day. This year they upped the ante by inviting a musician to sing a lullaby. Most of these lullabies occurred in some unexpected outdoor location at 2 or so A.M. after a long day of music.
For this lullaby, the NPR gang met by Waller Creek, giving Laura Burhenn a perfect backdrop to her 2 A.M. lullaby. It’s just her and her tiny Casio keyboard (which is on an interesting setting that makes it sound more like a harmonium).
This is an as yet unreleased song. It is simple and charming. And I really like the way she plays an unexpected note in the chorus. Her voice is dusky and quiet and it all works so well in this setting. It’s a beautiful lullaby.
Check it out here.
[READ: March 23, 2015] “My Mother’s Apartment”
This issue of Harper’s featured five essays (well four essays and one short story) about “Growing Up: five coming of age stories.” Since I knew a few of these authors already, it seemed like a good time to devote an entire week to growing up. There are two introductions, one by Christine Smallwood (who talks about Bob Seger) and one by Joshua Cohen who talks about the coming of age narrative.
I don’t know Barrodale’s writing. She says that she was 24 and took a writing class but only lasted for one day in the class. She felt that getting an MFA was dishonorable. Rather, she wanted to a have a real job but to write fiction on the side: “I wanted to be like William Gaddis. I wanted to work, drink, wear normal clothes, pay my bills and write.”
She was 31 when she realized her plans were not going to come true.
She moved back to Seattle to live with her mother and her roommate. Her mom’s friends are given the wonderful pseudonyms Pat Armstrong and Patience Paradox. Amie’s mother shared a 2 bedroom apartment with a roommate, Jessie. Amie was planning to crash in t living room. Unintentionally, Amie alienates Jesse (quite a lot actually).
Mostly this essay is about her mother’s fearless adventures. For instance, her mother needed serious dental work. So she decided to go to India to have the oral surgery because it would be a quarter of the price there. She had lost 20 pounds because she couldn’t eat–her teeth hurt her so much. But she went through with it, and Amie accompanied her.
I enjoyed the way she describes her mother as “the writer’s wish-fulfilling jewel.” She has since written ten stories about her mother’s life.
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