I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: JASON VIEAUX AND YOLANDA KONDONASSIS-Tiny Desk Concert #443 (May 22, 2015).

Typically, the Tiny Desk doesn’t have performers back after they have played once.  But occasional exceptions are made, like when performers who played solo come back as a duo.  Like this.

Jason Vieuax was one of the first 20 people to play the Tiny Desk and Yolanda Kondonassis played back in 2010.  And here they are touring as a duo, which really helps to accentuate both of their skills.  And their music is beautiful together.

Vieuax is an amazing classical guitarist.  And Kondonassis plays an amazing harp that is more about singular notes than trills and “heavenly” sounds.  And in these songs, they work together doing harmony runs and fills–both instruments are lead instruments.

Apparently there aren’t very many pieces written for the combination of harp and guitar.  Kondonassis explains the origins of the Hovhaness piece (which gives some lovely context).

Vieaux explains the origins of the two movements of the Piejo suite.

The first piece is sweet, while the second one is a little more aggressive (but still lovely).  And the third one features some cool riffs and chords (especially on guitar) and percussion done on the instruments.

The three songs they play are

• Gary Schocker: “Elysian” (from Hypnotized)
• Alan Hovhaness: Fuga: Allegro – Andante grazioso, Canon: Allegro (from Sonata for Harp and Guitar, “Spirit of Trees”)
• Máximo Diego Pujol: Vals, Candombe (from Suite mágica)

The pieces are familiar and yet quite different.  And 456+it is much fun to watch their fingers fly around their instruments.

[READ: January 24, 2015] Tommysaurus Rex

I brought this book home for Clark to read.  I wasnt going to read it myself but then I saw that I had read a book by TenNapel before and liked it.

But I did not care for this one.  Perhaps it was because it was marketed in my library as a kids book but I thought it was just too violent or something–the story turned me off.

Perhaps it was just that the story opens with the main character’s dog getting hit by a car and dying.  I mean, who needs that?  And the cover looks so fun, too.

Because of his grief, his parents allow him to spend the summer with his grandfather on a farm.  (Weird, but okay).  Grandpa is cool (and maybe even gives him a beer?).  He helps around the farm but then some local kids come over and immediately start picking on him.  One of them even tries to make him eat dog poop (which he eventually does…what the hell kind of story is this?  Where’s the dinosaur?)

The dinosaur comes later when the boy finds him in a cave.  The dinosaur is afraid of fire but otherwise is very gentle.  Of course he is also very destructive accidentally.  The townsfolk want him gone.  Until he proves to be quite a source of money for tourism.  And the boy is able to train him to do cool tricks.

All this naturally upsets the bully.  At one point we see that the bully just really wants his dad to come back–that’s why he is so mean.  He keeps writing to him but never hears back.  So there’s our bully backstory.

Things work out with the dinosaur in unexpected ways and there’s even a peace offering–although could you ever forgive some one who made you eat dog poop?

I think I didn’t like this because I was reading it through the eyes of my son and was horrified at him having to read this.  Or maybe I just didn’t like the way the story was structured.  But it has soured me on TenNapel.