I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: PHOX-Tiny Desk Concert #423 (March 2, 2015).

Phox play pretty, quiet music (quiet for a six piece anyhow). There’s a 12 string guitar, banjo, bass drums and piano al held together by the lead vocals of Monica Martin.  Her dusky voice is quite lovely (as are the high backing vocals of the piano player).

“Kingfisher” is bright and chipper and that little trill at the end of the verses (and the song) is really catchy.

It’s always fun when artists are nervous about being in a small room–closely scrutinized.  Monica notes, “It’s so bright in here.”

“1936” is chock full of great harmonies (both backing vocals and when the whole group sings together).  It has an olde quality, especially when they start doing the “bum bum bum” in lovely harmony.

The final song is also lovely—the harmonies again, and the delightful times when the music drops out and its’ just piano or glockenspiel are really dynamic.  There’s even whistling!  I wonder if this is what the band sounds like live or if they are usually more rollicking.

This was a very (to quote Monica) “dreamy” show.  Watch it here.

[READ: December 24, 2014] City of Spies

I have dozens of posts about books I’ve read over the last few months that have been pushed back because of other things that I wanted to write.  So I’m going to start publishing these older posts–most of which are about comic books!

I had also decided to read all of the First Second Graphic Novels. There are a lot, and I got a whole bunch from the library all at one time.  I kind of burnt out on them so I haven’t read too many lately.  But now its time to see what I’ve been reading.

I had literally no idea what it would be about (spies, obviously).  So imagine my surprise to find out that it was also about the Nazis infiltrating America in the 1940s.  C. had read it a few days before me, and he said he liked it but after reading it myself, I have to find out just how much he understood.

It’s a clever book in which two kids (who are drawn rather simply–like Sunday funnies kids, which I liked)  try to bring down a secret Nazi spy ring in Manhattan in 1942.

As the story opens, our heroine Evelyn, is drawing comics starring Zirconium Man and his sidekick Scooter.  In reality she is on her way to live with her Aunt Lia in Manhattan because her rich father “don’t want her back until September.” Lia is a bohemian girl (there’s a nude art session going on when Evelyn walks in (it’s safe enough for kids to see–all back).  And Lia is clearly unprepared to house a young girl, since Lia only seems to are about art galleries and symposia.

Evelyn meets a boy in the building, Tony. His father is the super and Tony helps him out. They get off on the wrong foot (in a pretty funny way) but soon become embroiled in some curious shenanigans. First he shows her around Manhattan (and gets her to eat some yummy food), but soon enough they hear of a some suspicious Nazi sympathizers right there in the city.  Naturally they assume that the mean doorman of their building is a Nazi.  But in their haste, they lead the police on a  wild goose chase which not only gets them in trouble, it certainly won’t help them out later when they need the police.

For, of course, there is a later.  Tony bumps into a guy after he buys some comics and in the confusion they switch packages.  The kids wind up with a book called Always Pamela by Edith Woodward which is a steamy romance (and appears to be fictional).  They get a kick out of reading it until Evelyn notices something odd about it–there appears to be some kind of code in the book–certain letters are underlined and they lead to the Alhambra (a very clever ruse is used here which I rather liked)

Evelyn notices that some things seem different in the neighborhood–the bakery that was open yesterday is closed and the guy who dropped the book seems to be coming by every day to look for it.  They must be on to something.

And even if the police don’t believe them, they still have to follow through.  There’s some real edge of the seat moments in the story.

I really enjoyed it and was nervous for the kids on more than one occasion.