SOUNDTRACK: THE DEAD MILKMEN-“Anderson, Walkman, Buttholes and How!” (1990).
Yesterday’s album could only be followed by this song. The Dead Milkmen, always willing to mock, wrote this song with that hilarious title. Interestingly, the “buttholes” part is a reference to Gibby Haynes, singer for the Butthole Surfers, on lead vocals.
Despite the title, the song itself sounds nothing like a progressive rock song. It’s only 3 and a half minutes. On the other hand it is almost entirely instrumental and changes style about 3/4 of the way through.
But check out the topical lyrics:
We’ve got to get together
And we’ve got to save the snails
Let’s board the purple spaceships
Before they set sail
I want a Yes reunion
And you know I want one now
No more Anderson
Walkman, Butthole Surfers and How!
Listening to the opera
And smoking angels’ dust
You can’t get more fucking
Progressive than us
The guitar riff is pretty interesting and angular. And it’s sloppy in a wonderful Dead Milkmen way with stupid sound effects at the end of each line. And of course, it’s just funny.
[READ: April 12, 2015] Empire State
I was delighted to see this book at the library. I have really enjoyed the four other books by Shiga that I’ve read (I was sure I’d read more, but I guess they were all close together). This one comes before his mind bending Meanwhile. While it is a pretty straightforward narrative, he does play with time a bit to make the story a little more interesting.
One of the great things about Shiga’s art is how simplistic (I would almost say childish, but that’s not right or fair) his drawings look. His characters are pretty much round-headed with round eyes and oval mouth. They could be done on a computer but I hope they’re not.
The story starts in Oakland, CA, where Jimmy is talking to his best friend, Sara. They talk about her date last night and the creepy Craigslist date she went on recently. All the guy’s profile said was looking for a nice Jewish girl. And Jimmy (who is Chinese) says that he may have to use that line next time.
All of those panels are shaded in reds. The next section is shaded in blues. Jimmy is telling his mom that he is being flown out to New York to interview with Google. He’ll be gone for about two weeks.
Flashing back to red we learn that Sara doesn’t like Oakland. She feels like she’s done it all and is excited to get back to New York where she has a job working for a publisher.
Switching to blue again, we see Jimmy boarding a bus (and meeting all kinds of interesting bus riders who have a ton of wisdom).
The next section was my favorite. It was clear from Shiga’s previous book Bookhunter that he loves libraries Well, in this one, Jimmy works at a library and he shows a co-worker how to put mylar on a book Awesome! I also loved–loved the section where he asks her if she has ever seen Empire Strikes Back and she says no. His reaction is outstanding. The whole scene is hilarious but also emotional.
We flash back to red and see Sara complaining about how exhausting her internship is. She says that Jimmy should come out and visit her. He could bring his web design skills out to the city and see about getting a real job.
And that’s when the pieces fall into place.
Jimmy writes her a letter which is heartfelt and sweet, and then he takes a bus to New York (because he has a romantic notion of what a bus trip will be like–it isn’t like that). When he finally gets to Sara’s she’s dating a guy who is super cool and friendly. The guy winds up helping Jimmy with his web design skills and even knows that Jimmy is Hoisan–this guy has been to Taishan.
There is a lot of romance in this book, even if Shiga tries to undermine it with that subtitle. I really enjoyed his book a lot and I look forward to reading more from him. I also hope that he releases his early self-published books some day!
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