I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: DAVID RUSSELL-Tiny Desk Concert #55 (April 19, 2010).

David Russell is a classical guitar player (or “god,” as they call him).  Although I am unfamiliar with his work, apparently he is huge.

And deservedly so. When he started playing the first song I assumed he was looping the low notes while he soloed the high notes.  But no, he is playing the low notes slowly with his thumb while he speeds along the nearly pizzicato notes with the rest of his fingers.  And that’s just his right hand.

His left hand doesn’t move fast–he’s not shredding–but man, the elaborate chords, the expanse of his hand covering so much of the neck at once–are really stunning to watch. The chords are complex and the way he can play solo notes and low notes at the same time is amazing.

The Couperin piece absolutely blew my mind–there are two melodies going at once.  And the Albeniz piece is simply lovely.

It’s also fun to listen to his Scottish accent when he describes what he loves about the guitar he is playing (and his unexpectedly baudy joke about why he doesn’t name it).

The set list includes:

• Augustin Barrios: “Una Limosna por el Amor de Dios”
• Francois Couperin: “Les Silvains”
• Isaac Albeniz: “Granada”

You can watch it here.  It’s amazing.

[READ: May 27, 2015] Dog on the Roof

I usually try to only read books that I’ll enjoy,  but every once in a while you get a stinker.  So this weekend is devoted to two recent stinkers.

I saw this book on a pile at work.  And I thought why on earth did we get this completely out of date book in 2015?  I see now that it was donated to the library. My goodness, thank you random person.

So perhaps you remember that in the 2012 campaign, Mitt Romney put his dog on the roof of his car or something. It was a minor scandal (or a major scandal if you love dogs).  And it was a jokey talking point for a little while.

Well, as happens in political cycles, some people decided to make a jokey book about it.  Kluger and Slavin are satirists who work for All Things Considered.  And, as the blurb on the back of the book says (not too overstate what was a minor incident) “It is the inside look at the Man Who Would Be President and the wild ride that’s sweeping and bewildering the nation.”

So what you get in this (rather pathetic) book is a series of mildly (or less) amusing poems set in different locations.  The pictures (illustrations by Colleen Clapp) are of Romney’s family Photoshopped into a car and a dog on the roof.  Their hair is often blurry and tousled (all computer generated of course).  And so it looks cheap, or at least quickly done.

And we get “hilarious” jokes like the dog looking scared and saying “WTF.”  Every fourth verse of each poem ends with the dog commenting that he is on the roof.   So they go to South Dakota and visit Mount Rushmore.  They go to Salt Lake City and there’s a crack about Mormons.  They go to San Francisco and everyone is gay. you see.  They go to New York City and rave about Wall Street.  And they got to New Jersey and see a …Soup Kitchen?

Okay so I can now ask the writers WTF?  Is a Soup Kitchen really the only thing you could think of for New Jersey?  We have so many things going on and they think soup kitchen?  Especially when the original St Mary’s soup kitchen (which they put a picture of) was founded in Illinois?  Sure I get that they wanted to joke about poor people and the Romneys being rich, but wtf?  It’s also weird that they go to Boston to talk about health care (Going to El Paso to talk about Immigration makes sense, of course).  And the book ends with a really tasteless joke about New Orleans and levees.

Man it’s terrible.  But since it was only about 20 pages, I had to see how it ended, right?

I often hear about people complaining when thee books come out, but usually it is the supporters of the candidate who complain.  In this case, I disliked Romney vehemently, and would never have voted for him.  Ever scandal was a good one as far as I was concerned.  But this is a cheap and lazy cash in, and I’m surprised it was published by Simon and Schuster.