I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: MILOŠ-Tiny Desk Concert #138 (June 30, 2011).

Miloš is Miloš Karadaglić, a 28-year-old from Montenegro.  He says he wants to bring classical guitar to a younger audience–to make it cool.

The first piece is a lovely ballad called “Romance” although the author is anonymous.  It is sweetly pretty and everything you might expect from a slow classical guitar piece.  It rings familiar to me, although it’s hard to know if I’ve heard it before or not.

The second piece is where his guitar really comes to life.  Asturias by Isaac Albeniz which Miloš describes as most flamenco and most familiar.  Interestingly, eh says that this was originally written for piano. The introductory riff should indeed be familiar and Miloš plays it passionately.

For the final piece he plays the first movement of a piece by Carlo Domeniconi: “Koyunbaba – moderato.”  This piece has a strange tuning: C sharp minor.  It’s a Turkish song with extraordinary techniques.  He says it reminds him of home–the song is about the sea and the waves by his home.  Whether it’s the tuning or the structure of the song, it is enchanting and exotic and really lovely.

[READ: January 13, 2015] Moomin Volume 2

I enjoyed Moomin volume 1 so much that I was excited to read vol 2.  And it did not disappoint.  This volume was full of the same whimsical, often bizarre stories that were sweet and funny (and a bit cruel, which makes them funny).  It also added some new characters.

This book contains the strips: Moomin’s Winter Follies, Moomin Mamma’s Maid, Moomin Builds a House and Moomin Begins a New Life.  Each one seems to tackle a big idea and pushes it to crazy conclusions.

These stories originally ran in the Evening News, London 1953-1959.

“Moomin’s Winter Follies” begins with Moomin putting on swimming trunks to go for his morning swim (I love when “naked” animals put on clothes to go swimming).  But he finds that the pond is frozen.  Moomin Mamma explains that it is ice.  Moomin Pappa says it is time for them to hibernate.  But none of them want to–Pappa finds it incredibly dull.  They’d rather play in the ice and snow.  Which they do.

Until they meet Mr. Brisk a, great outdoors man.  And while the Moomins are freezing, he is off to ski and skate in his SportCentre.  The moomins try to learn as well, but they fail at skiing and skating.  However, Mymble, (who always looks old to me, although I don’t know how old she is supposed to be) finds Mr Brisk’s masculine behavior quite compelling.  She falls for him, but he has no interest in her.  Even when she becomes quite good at winter sports.  Indeed, she wins the skiing tournament against Mr Brisk, which makes him rather sulky.  He becomes even more insufferable when the women let him win the next competition.  Spring can’t come soon enough, although once again, Mymble is left all alone.

“Moomin Mamma’s Maid” was a particularly delightful story.  Moomins are carefree and kind of sloppy.  But when a new neighbors moves in next door, they learn all about cleanliness.  Mrs Fillyjonk (a pointy character) and her three triangular children are very prim and proper and of course they have a maid.   Mrs Fillyjonk is shocked by the moomin house which has a tree growing in it and dishes under the sheets as well as a garden which is like a jungle (which the moomins especially love).

When Moomin Mamma goes next door the maid answers.  She never goes out because she spends all her free time writing letters to her sister.  And the Fillyjonk place is spotless “up at four every morning to clean and dust.” Moomin Mamma says sheepishly “My family likes reading in the morning” and then “But I like my own way of doing it.”  Good for you Mamma.  The Moonins invite the Fillyjonks over for a party. but it just frightens them.  This inspires the family to break down and get a maid.  The maid is Misabel a bedraggled woman who is miserable all the time.  She comes with a dog named Pimple who wears a face muzzle at all times.  The dog is very sad and says things like “I’ll try as long as nobody is angry with me.”  Turns out that Pimple really likes cats and wants to play with them but a cat will ever allow that.  So she is and.  And Misabel is sad because her sister is so glamorous and exciting and she herself has nothing to show for her life.

There’s a few surprise twists in this story, including an inspector looking into the sudden disappearance of Mrs Filljyonk and a happy moment for Pimple.

“Moomin Builds a House” features yet another full house of visitors for the moomin family. This time it’s when Mymble’s mother comes to stay with them (and brings her 17 other children).  The one notable child is the wicked My who “bites because she likes it.”  The children are everywhere causing all kinds of trouble.  And Mrs Mymble plans to stay until summer.  So the family throws a midsummer bonfire to get her to leave.  But it doesn’t quite work. Nevertheless, in her haste to flee, Mymble’s mamma forgets to take little My, who says she will only be good if she can stay in Moomin’s room.  And thus, Moomin must build a new house for himself.

It is a pretty terrible house–lopsided and ugly, but Moomin loves it and more importantly so does Snork Maiden.  There’s lots of funny jokes about his crooked house.  And there’s a big surprise at the end.

“Moomin Begins A New Life” introduces “the prophet.”  The prophet says that you shouldn’t care about anything–just do what you want and have fun.  So the ants aren’t saving for the winter and Moomin Pappa has moved into a tree (something he’s always wanted to do).  The Prophet is a kangaroo-looking creature with flowers in his hair.  Moomin is frustrated by everyone changing to a new life, “and what was wrong with the old one?”  Things come to a head when Snork Maiden parts her hair differently and decides to start a new life with a man who has a mustache and appears balding on top (she’s quite fickle, no?).

The prophet sets all the prisoners free including Stinky.  Stinky becomes the little devil over Moomin Pappa’s shoulder and encourages him to make some moonshine called “Manhattan Dynamite.” And eventually he convinces Moomin to become a highwayman (with a mask and everything–called Black Hand. Moomin Mamma is so distressed at everyone leaving her that she sets out for a new life a well.

Eventually another prophet shows up.  He is very stern and wears a cloak (I love her depictions of these two) and he says that you must give up all vice and pleasure.  He bemoans their lack of guilt, sin and punishment.  Of course, everyone quickly switches sides and begins eating only oat gruel.  Finally it is up to Moomin mamma to set things right.

I feel like this book tackled bigger, more interesting subjects and that Tove was having a lot of fun with these drawings.

For ease of searching, I include: Milos Karadaglic.