I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: BELA FLECK, EDGAR MEYER, ZAKIR HUSSAIN-Tiny Desk Concert #70 (July 26, 2010).

Bela Fleck is a rather legendary musician, and yet I realized I don’t really know that much about him.  And somehow I never knew he was a banjo player (that’s a pretty serious omission on my part).  I had never heard of the other two musicians, although they are apparently world-class masters of the bass fiddle and the tabla.

I also didn’t expect this Tiny Desk Concert to be so interestingly world-musicy.

This set is only two songs but each is about 7 minutes long and they are both very cool (and from the album The Melody of Rhythm).

Fleck’s playing is amazing, with a tone that is often unlike a standard banjo sound.  And I absolutely love the tabla–I am fascinated by this instrument.  The first song, “Bubbles” is an amazing demonstration of Fleck’s banjo.  About midway through he is playing in a decidedly middle eastern style (which works great with the tabla).  And when the bass starts getting bowed around 1:50, it adds an amazing richness to this already cool song.   There’s a cool bass solo (I love that the tabla pauses a few times during the solo).  The ending is just wonderful.

Before the second song, “Bahar” (which means “springtime”) they talk about being nervous, which is pretty funny.  This song opens with the bass fiddle’s bowed notes (including a very very high note).  This one seems to be a more solo-centered, with some elaborate work from Fleck after the introduction. And the tabla solo, while brief, is really cool to watch.  I prefer the first song, but the more traditional nature of the second song is a nice counterpart to the first.

[READ: August 24, 2015] Grantland #12

I enjoyed this issue as well.  This was mostly the spring and summer of 2014, which sounds so long ago, and yet so many things seem so current.

CHUCK KLOSTERMAN-“The Life and Times of Kiss”
I love this article about Kiss.  And I wrote about it back here.

WESLEY MORRIS-“Poison Candy”
This is about the disastrous state of female comedies.  It focuses on the movie The Other Woman which is ostensibly a female centered comedy but is entirely other.

BILL SIMMONS-“Sterling’s Fold”
A drumming down of Donald Sterling.  It’s hard for me to believe that this happened over a year ago.

ZACH LOWE-“Building the Brow”
An article about Anthony Davis of the Pelicans, who is proving to be better than anyone imagined.

CHRIS RYAN-“The Pinnacle of Sport”
A short article singing the praises of the World Cup.

ANDY GREENWALD-“Rumble in the Red Keep”
An article about Game of Thrones, which I promise myself I’ll watch some day.

ANDREW SHARP-“The Clippers and the Chris Paul Paradox”
Some columns about Chris Paul.

DAVID SHOEMAKER-“History Has Been Maimed”
All about the Undertaker’s loss at Wrestlemania and how it changes the outlook on wrestling.

SAM KNIGHT-“The Rise of the Red Devils”
Belgium (Belgium?) had made an exciting team to enter the World Cup.  Will it unite a nation?

MOLLY LAMBERT-“Welcome to Disneyland”
All about the season premier of season 7 of Mad Men (since the show is now over, I expect at least one more article about it in the next volume).

BILL SIMMONS-“A Celebration for the Spurs”
I didn’t know the Spurs were a big deal.  Evidently they are huge.

JONAH KERI-“The Duncan Way”
This is about St. Louis Cardinals and their dominant pitchers.

REMBERT BROWNE-“Outkast, Forever?”
OutKast reunited at Coachella.  It should have been amazing, but it kinda wasn’t.

BRYAN CURTIS-“Right Down the Middle”
People don’t watch as much baseball anymore.  But they sure buy books about it. He can find recent books about every decade in baseball, and most of them are bestsellers.  It seems nostalgia for baseball is better than actual baseball.

LOUISA THOMAS-“Ladies and Gentlemen”
When Andy Murray hired Amélie Mauresmo as his coach for Wimbledon, he was mocked for having a female coach.  Which is pretty shameful.

MARK HARRIS-“Are We at Peak Superhero?”
It seems like every day there is more comic book related media.  But has Marvel peaked?  This essay looks a lot at Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and what a crazy idea to have a TV show about the non-heroes of the Marvel universe, yet have their shows be somewhat dependent upon the movies.  It’s ballsy.

GRANTLAND STAFF-“The Boys of Summer”
A tribute to the U.S. Men’s Soccer team in their noble defeat at the World Cup

STEVEN HYDEN-“The United States of Lana”
More chatter about Lana Del Rey

JORDAN RITTER CONN-“The Legend of Les Elephants”
In 2006, it is told, a soccer team helped end a civil war in Ivory Coast.  There might be some truth to that but that is a major oversimplification.

THOMAS GOLIANOPOULOUS-“Billy Bob’s Blues”
About the fat actor from Varsity Blues who is now a thin actor and can’t get a role.

SHEA SERRANO-“Which Has Been Your Favorite Houston Rockets Duo to Have Watched Lose in the Playoffs?”
Going through the eras to see who was the best to watch when the team inevitably lost.

BILL SIMMONS-“Letterman’s Last Great Moment”
The sublime way he announced that he would be retiring.

KATIE BAKER-“Another OT Thriller”
How the New York Rangers let Game 1 of the Stanley Cup playoffs slip away.

JONATHAN ABRAMS-“Class is Still in Session”
About rookie Andre Miller who has an amazing calmness and presence and isn’t interested in being a superstar, just a super player.

ZACH LOWE-“God Loves Cleveland”
Notes about the NBA draft lottery

MOLLY LAMBERT-“The Visor and the Beret”
How women are treated when they are whistleblowers.  This one looks a bit at Monica Lewinsky and compares her situation to V. Stiviano the woman who alerted us to Donald Sterling’s scumminess.

WESLEY MORRIS-“Simpler Times of 1994”
Mel Gibson and Jodie Foster were co-leads of Maverick.

MARK TITUS-“The Art of Being a Benchwarmer”
Greg Oden has been sitting on the bench.  Mark Titus knew him when they were younger.  They commiserate about being a benchwarmer, and Titus sees how differently Oden thinks about the role.

KIRK GOLDSBERRY-“The Foreign Legion in San Antonio”
More about the Spurs, this time about how many of their stars are not American born.

ALEX PAPPADEMAS-“Difficult X-Men”
In defense of Cyclops.  Everyone hates Cyclops the most out of all the X-Men.  But Pappademas will stand up for him.

RANY JAZAYERLI-“Pitchers Anonymous”
All about Brad Ziegler and how he is an amazing pitcher but no one knows his name.  And a little history about submarine-style pitchers (which I rather liked)

WESLEY MORRIS AND REMBERT BROWNE-“The Owner and the Owned”
Discussing Donald Sterling and what players or anyone should or even could do about it.

BILL SIMMONS-“The Closing Window in Oklahoma City”
How the Thunder make us wonder if their exceptional play has a limited shelf life.

ANDY GREENWALD-“The Internet Has a Louie Problem”
Louie will do what Louie does.

—-

There were definitely articles in this one that I wanted some follow-up on (like the Andy Murray one in particular).  But I have learned that I will never get the closure I want from these books.

It’s interesting to see how a team (like the Spurs) can totally dominate the book when a few years back they weren’t even mentioned.

As usual, I loved this book, and there weren’t really that manner articles that I wasn’t interested in.  Although I have learned that I tend to find in-depth looks at baseball players to be rather tedious.