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Archive for January, 2016

Geoff Dyer–essay for “Travel Day” (Harper’s, December 2014)

Posted in Garry Winorand, Geoff Dyer, Gyptian, Harper's, Photo Essays, Sklava Veder, The Future, Tiny Desk Concert on January 21, 2016| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: GYPTIAN-Tiny Desk Concert #102 (January 2, 2011).

dec2014gyptian I had not heard of Gyptian.  He is a Jamaican singer.  His singing style is kind of like rap, but with all of the Jamaican inflections and emphases that make it sound more flowing and smooth.

I enjoyed his sound quite a lot.  It helps that he has an acoustic guitar player (Anthony “Tony Bone” DiFeo) keeping the melody and rhythm.

Evidently his first song “Hold You” was a huge hit, although I didn’t know it.  “Beautiful Lady” has a bit more of a reggae feel, a bit slower with lyrics about, yes a beautiful lady.

The final song, “Nah Let Go” feels like a lullaby with his gentle delivery.  I don’t listen to this style of music very much but when it’s done well, I can totally groove on it.

[READ: January 7, 2015] “Travel Day”

“Travel Day” is a photo essay about airports.  Dyer was assigned to write a short essay for it.  I like Dyer’s work and I found his essay a lot more compelling than the photographs.

Dyer begins by talking about how when he was 8 years old, his family was on vacation in London and took a special trip to Heathrow Airport because, back then, it was a destination.  In the sixties and seventies the glamour of air travel was at its peak.

The earliest airports were designed to look conservative to reassure nervous flyers.  But by the Sixties, airports gleamed with sleek confidence and modernity.  But now airports are just hubs–non places.  The allure of the future that guided the design of airports in the sixties and seventies also makes airports look really dated now.  Especially since the “future” was based on designs from the Sixties anyway.

You can also see it in flight attendants outfits who had sort of futuristic look back in the Sixties (at least what the future was supposed to look like).

He talks about Garry Winorand who took photos of the social landscape in the Sixties and Seventies and has a book devoted to airports.   He says the photos really documented the social life of Americans as much as it did airports.

In addition to the main photos of this essay, there are two small older photos included.  The first is by Sklava Veder and it is a photo of Lieutenant Colonel Robert L Stirm being greeted by his family at Travis Air Force Base in 1973 after spending five years as a POW in Vietnam.  It’s an amazingly powerful photo.  The other is by Winorand which shows a subtle version of the same image– a fellow with a beaming face holding a sign that says “Welcome to California Jane.”  It’s about a person coming to a new place and Winorand captured the eternal promise of flight and of the American West in a single moment.

These photos in the essay were taken all over the world and do show the human condition.  But it is less glamorous and therefore to my eyes less interesting.

The one interesting idea however, is that people have stopped reaching for their cigarettes when the get off the plane and have started reaching for their phones.

But that doesn’t make for very interesting photography.  And with a few exceptions these photos aren’t that compelling.  Perhaps because airport themselves are no longer compelling places.

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John Edgar Wideman–“Williamsburg Bridge” (Harper’s, November 2015)

Posted in Angst, Harper's, John Edgar Wideman, Lizz Wright, Short Story, Suicide, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Tiny Desk Concert on January 20, 2016| Leave a Comment »

novSOUNDTRACK: LIZZ WRIGHT-Tiny Desk Concert #116 (March 14, 2011).

lizz Lizz Wright is a gospel singer with a lovely voice.   For some reason she only has two songs here (the editing makes it seem like she does at least one more).

I don’t know Wright at all, but the blurb gives context: Raised on church music in Georgia, Wright is well-versed in the freedom songs of Sweet Honey in the Rock, without whom none of the music here would exist; “I Remember, I Believe” is by that group’s leader, the great Bernice Johnson Reagon, whose daughter Toshi Reagon (Wright’s best friend) co-wrote “Hit the Ground.”

“Hit the Ground” is upbeat and lively.  Whereas “I Remember, I Believe” is far more powerful, but much slower.

Sadly for me, I don’t really like gospel music, especially the slower songs like the second one here.  So I didn’t love this Tiny Desk, but I can certainly appreciate how good a singer she is.

[READ: January 15, 2015] “Williamsburg Bridge”

I don’t know anything else by John Edgar Wideman, so I didn’t really know what to expect with this story.

I certainly did not expect a long (rather dull) story about a man on the Williamsburg Bridge contemplating suicide.

There were some beautiful passages and phrasings here, especially the reflections on Sonny Rollins, but man, this thing just seemed to go on and on. (more…)

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Joshua Ferris–“The Landing: Learning to Fly Part 3” [of 4] (Popular Mechanics, July/August 2015)

Posted in Airlines, Benny Sings, Elton John, Essays, Fears, Funny (ha ha), Joshua Ferris, Popular Mechanics, Set in New Jersey!, Tiny Desk Concert, Unfinished series on January 19, 2016| Leave a Comment »

popjlu SOUNDTRACK: BENNY SINGS-Tiny Desk Concert #501 (January 15, 2016).

bennyBenny Sings is a Dutch singer songwriter.  I had never heard of him, and no wonder, this was apparently his first performance in the United States.  And “this is also where he performed with background vocalist Jennah Bell for the first time.”

The blurb says that he layers R&B, jazz and pop over hip-hop foundations.  Although the first of two songs, “Love” is just him on the piano.  For the second song “Beach House,” he busts out the drum machine.  But it still comes across as an orchestra pop song (maybe like slower Elton John).

It’s all fine, but nothing special.

According to my records, this was the 500th Tiny Desk Concert.  And if you count all of the concerts on their Tiny Desk Page, it tallies up to 500 today.  But I know that they are planning something big for #500.  So I don’t quite know what to think.

[READ: January 14, 2016] “Learning to Fly Part 3”

Part three of this story (see, I said it wouldn’t be too long before I continued with it) is all about the landing.  Ferris explains that the landing has always been the hardest part for him.  He managed turns and banks and rises and everything else, but frankly, had his teacher not been there he would have died dozens of times with bad landings.

He says that as you slowly (or quickly) sink towards the ground, your instinct is to pull up away from it, which is exactly what you shouldn’t do.

This particular part of the essay doesn’t have a lot of flying details in it, because most of it is taken up with his fears about his poor landings.  Although the way Ferris tells of the time he easily should have died from not slowing down is pretty harrowing and exciting–how is his instructor so calm?

He sums up landing though you need patience when things are most hurried, composure when things are most fraught.  You need focus when your attention is most scattered.  You need a light touch on the controls when the urge to yank hard and pull them off the panel is at it strongest.

Then he describes all of the things that his instructor appears to be doing at once to land the plane:

He was descending, turning the yoke, applying back pressures, lowering the flaps, adjusting the trim, peddling the rudder, adding power, nosing down–all more or less simultaneously.

Ferris swears that he will quit.  He cannot land the damned plane.  His wife will be pleased that he has quit ans she is terrified of him crashing.  But he knows that he will likely not quit–because it’s a challenge and any tough challenge is one you want to quit hundreds of times but which you never do,

But for his final lesson, he was going to go up once more and then quit.  “And that was the day I had my first perfect landing.”

Great cliffhanger

The final part comes next.

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Jeff Lemire–Sweet Tooth: Out of the Deep Woods (2010)

Posted in End of the World, Freaks, Graphic Novel, Jeff Lemire, Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys, Surreal, Threats, Tiny Desk Concert, Unfinished series, Violence, Yuck! on January 18, 2016| Leave a Comment »

sweet toothSOUNDTRACK: STEVE RILEY & THE MAMOU PLAYBOYS-Tiny Desk Concert #115 (March 7, 2011).

rileyI had never heard of the Mamou Playboys, but it turns out that accordionist Steve Riley has been making music with his friend and fiddler, David Greely for 23 years.  But the 2011 Mardi Gras would be their last together because Greely is leaving the Mamou Playboys to save his ears; the loud volume of dancehall shows has been harmful to his hearing.  So he found this acoustic Tiny Desk show to be very palatable.

Steve Riley plays accordion.  Both of them are very strange and almost look like steam punk instruments to me.  The band plays creole music and sings primarily in French.  Strangely, Riley really does not seem to be enjoying himself for such happy music (he never seems to smile), although Greeley is definitely the chatty one on the group.

They play four songs.  “Lyons Point” which is upbeat and fun.  And “Valse de Chagrin/Waltz of Sorrow” which, despite being a waltz of sorrow still sounds pretty happy (it’s that accordion).

The third song was written by Greely.  “Grand Isle” is a place where he used to hang out and frolic as a kid.  But it got drowned in oil by the oil disaster. Despite the ugly association, the music is fun and upbeat and its my favorite song of theirs.   Greely sings this one and play a bunch of violin solos.  And Riley plays a different accordion for this song–it’s less “wheezy sounding.”

The final song is sung in English and is a Fats Domino song called “Honest Papas Love Their Mamas Better.” And Riley finally seems to be enjoying himself on this song.

[READ: June 3, 2015] Sweet Tooth: Out of the Deep Woods

After reading Lemire’s other two books, I saw this one at the library.  The cover image–a boy with antlers–was certainly disconcerting and unexpected with a title like Sweet Tooth.  I mean, what could this be about?

Well, Lemire tends to work dark, so this story is unsurprisingly dark, too.  It is post-apocalyptic.  Turns out that after the apocalypse, children were born as hybrids.  We only see Gus, the cover boy, in this book but he is referred to as a deer-one.  When he is first noticed one of the human men asks if the other has ever seen a deer-one before.  Man #2 says nope and never one as old as Gus neither.

So Gus’s story is a simple one. He was born in the woods.  His mother died when he was young.  He is about 9 years old, his father said.  His father is dying from the plague (hybrids aren’t affected by it).

His father has given him five rules which involve always praying to God and never leaving the forest where they live.  He says that the world is on fire outside of the forests.  But Gus has been to the edge of the forest and knows that’s not true.  He has also tasted the candy bars that “hunters” have left on the ground (which is where the Sweet Tooth part comes from).

And then his father dies.  Gus is on his own.  While he is burying his father he is found by hunters.  As they get ready to capture him, he is rescued by Mr Jepperd.  Jepperd tells him he’ll take him to the preserve where it is safe for hybrids.

And so the two of them march across the wasteland–Jepperd saving the boy from attackers and Gus saying the big man when he gets shot (Gus knows how to stitch a wound).

Gus has dreams that Jepperd is a bad man, but Jepperd seems very nice, so he’s not sure what to think.

By the end of this book they have arrived at the preserve, but that is just the beginning.  I’m not sure how many books there are in the series, but I’m hooked.

I love the mature style that Lemire has developed–clearly his own, but more polished and nuanced than he earlier books.  I really like it.

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Blue Öyster Cult (Wellmont Theater, Montclair, NJ, January 15, 2016 )

Posted in Blue Öyster Cult, David Bowie, Lemmy Kilmister, Montclair, NJ, Patti Smith, Set in New Jersey!, Vanilla Fudge, Wellmont Theater on January 17, 2016| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: January 15, 2016] Blue Öyster Cult

2016-01-16 23.20.39I first got into Blue Öyster Cult in 1981 with “Burnin’ for You” (yep, I knew that before “Don’t Fear the Reaper”).  Fire of Unknown Origin was my favorite album for years.  When I got to college, I met my friend Nick when I drew the Blue Öyster Cult logo on my notebook and he saw it.  And then I found out that my neighbor Glen was the biggest Blue Öyster Cult fan, possibly ever.

He has seen them play a bunch of times, but for some reason I never went.  And that is my one major regret after seeing them–I wish I had seen them before when the whole band was together and when they were 20 years younger.  For while they did not disappoint, they weren’t quite up to the standards I had imagined.

The week before the show I listened to their whole catalog and imagined an ideal setlist–deep cuts and weird songs.  But honestly, they could have played any of their songs and it would have been great.

And I loved that they played a sampling of songs from throughout their career. (more…)

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Vanilla Fudge (Wellmont Theater, Montclair, NJ, January 15, 2016 ) [BLUE ÖYSTER CULT]

Posted in Backstreet Boys, Blue Öyster Cult, Carmine Appice, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Montclair, NJ, Set in New Jersey!, The Doors, The Monkees, Vanilla Fudge, Wellmont Theater on January 16, 2016| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: January 15, 2016] Vanilla Fudge

2016-01-16 20.13.10I had never seen Blue Öyster Cult even though I’ve been a pretty big fan since college.  So when I saw they were playing at the Wellmont, I had to go see them.  As it turns out Vanilla Fudge was going to be the opener.

I have known of Vanilla Fudge, but I realized that I had no idea what they sang.  And when I looked them up, their biggest hits were all covers.  It turns out, that’s what they are–the world’s most successful and unusual cover band (Led Zeppelin opened for them in 1969, and Deep Purple got their organ sound from Vanilla Fudge).

Although they do covers, their sound is very much their own.  They don’t so much cover songs as transform them into their own style.  And that style is psychedelic and very heavy.

The band released five albums from 1967-1969 and then broke up.  They reunited and recorded an album in 1984.  Then split up.  And reunited in 2002 (with a different singer) and released an album of rerecorded old Vanilla Fudge as well as a cover of a Backstreet Boys and an N’Sync song (!).

Then the original lineup reunited in 2007 for an album of all Led Zeppelin covers called Out Through the In Door.  And then last year they released a new album called Spirit of ’67 (a collection of songs from 1967).  This featured all of the original members except the bassist who has retired.

So, here it is almost 50 years later and the original lineup (sans bassist) is still touring.  And they sounded amazing.  (more…)

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Tove Jansson–Moomin: Volume Two (The Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip) (2007)

Posted in Adventure, Animals, Boredom, Carlo Domeniconi, Children's Books, Cute, Drawn & Quarterly, Evening News London, Funny (ha ha), Isaac Albeniz, Miloš, Moomin, Religion, Surreal, Tiny Desk Concert, Tove Jansson on January 15, 2016| Leave a Comment »

milos moo2SOUNDTRACK: 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. (more…)

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Ludmilla Petrushevskaya–“The Story of a Painter” (New Yorker, January 18, 2016)

Posted in All Songs Considered, Anna Summers, Art, Books about writers, Damien Jurado, Greed, Humiliation, Ludmilla Petrushevskaya, New Yorker, Russia, Short Story, Surreal, Tiny Desk Concert, Translation on January 14, 2016| Leave a Comment »

1182016SOUNDTRACK: DAMIEN JURADO–Tiny Desk Concert #114 (February 28, 2011).

damienI had always assumed that Damien Jurado was someone else entirely.  I had no idea that he was (as the blurb describes him) “a big dude playing sad songs.”

And he is.

For this Tiny Desk it’s just him and his guitar.  He keeps his eyes closed tightly as he sings these sad songs.  His guitar playing is simple–just strummed chords and his voice is simple as well–there’s no tricks.  It’s all about his songwriting.

I liked all four of these songs: “Cloudy Shoes,” “Newspaper Gown” (that was my favorite), “Arkansas,” and “Beacon Hill.”

The strangest thing about him was how uncommunicative he seemed to be–almost nervous.  He barely spoke and when he did it was hard to hear.  And as soon as the set was done he immediately stood up to leave.

Although he does say it’s “nice.”

His songs were lovely although I don’t think I’ll be seeking him out anytime soon.

[READ: January 12, 2016] “The Story of a A Painter”

This story was translated by Anna Summers and, as the title suggests, it is about a painter.

But this story delves into surreal territory pretty quickly.  It may even be a fairy tale as the opening line is “There once lived a painter….”

This painter has had some bad fortune as of late.  His landlord promised to get him a lot of money if he would sell his large apartment.  But the landlord sold the place and kept the money (a lawsuit is pending).  Then the landlord offered him a place under the stairs–no running water–which the painter accepted.  But he can’t pay the landlord, so the landlord gives him grief every day.

On another day a man asked if he would rent him his “apartment.”  The painter said yes for money up front.  The man gave him the money then moved his entire family into the tiny, below-the-stairs place and planned to never leave.  Now the painter was destitute and homeless. (more…)

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Karl Ove Knausgaard [Knausgård]–“My Saga: Part Two” (New York Times Magazine, March 15, 2015) [translated 2015]

Posted in Biography, Cigarettes, Drinking, Esperanza Spalding, Foreign Books, Karl Ove Knausgaard, Karl Ove Knausgård, Minnesota, Peter van Agtmael, The New York Times Magazine, Tiny Desk Concert, Translation, Travel, William Blake, Yuck! on January 13, 2016| Leave a Comment »

karlove SOUNDTRACK: ESPERANZA SPALDING-Tiny Desk Concert #110 (February 12, 2011).

esperanzaI didn’t know who Esperanza Spalding was before this show.  But she defied my expectations by being a fairly tiny woman who sings while playing an upright bass (not a very common combination for anyone).

For the first song, “Little Fly,” she plays a kind of jazzy bass, but has a string accompaniment–violins, guitars etc.  But it’s clear that the bass is the star.   And while her playing is very good (she has some great vibrato), it’s her voice that is mesmerizing–she’s hunched over playing the bass and still manages to sound strong and powerful.  “Little Fly”‘s lyrics come from a poem by William Blake.

“Midnight Sun” is a solo performance–just her voice and bass.  I loved the beginning where she sang notes along with what she played.  Then when the lyrics come in she sings in a very jazz voice (with eyes closed the whole time).  Turns out this is a Lionel Hampton song that only appears on the Japanese release of her album which make explain her singing style.

Because on the final song she sounds very different.  “Apple Blossom” is her own composition.  It’s her singing with the string section playing along (there’s no bass).  The song is lovely, but I prefer it when she plays bass in the song, too.

I enjoyed this performance and how delightful Spalding was.

[READ: January 9, 2016] “My Saga: Part Two”

Speaking of not finishing multi part essays, I ended my post about Part One of this essay by saying I couldn’t wait for part two.  And then apparently I forgot all about it because here it is almost a year later before I read part two (which was published two weeks later).

In this second half of Karl Ove’s journey he spends most of his time realizing that he hasn’t really learned very much for his assignment.  I can’t imagine anyone else being able to write endlessly about how he has nothing to write about (and still make it strangely compelling–his stress produces good sentences).

He does make some interesting connections though. (more…)

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Joshua Ferris–“The Stall: Learning to Fly Part 2” [of 4] (Popular Mechanics, June 2015)

Posted in Airlines, Essays, Fears, Funny (ha ha), Joshua Ferris, Natalie Merchant, Popular Mechanics, Set in New Jersey!, Tiny Desk Concert, Unfinished series on January 12, 2016| Leave a Comment »

popmechSOUNDTRACK: NATALIE MERCHANT-Tiny Desk Concert #500 (January 12, 2016).

nat merch Natalie Merchant was supposed to appear on a Tiny Desk show in 2014, but she was ill on that day (she even tells the story of going to the hospital).  She had to cancel the entire tour.  Turns out we saw her on that tour a couple of days before she got sick!

When Sarah and I saw her we both remarked on how great her voice still sounded.  And it sounds great here too.  The same instantly recognizable voice from her albums with all of the power and inflection that she’s always had.

Although I still don’t understand where her speaking voice accent comes from (she’s from upstate New York after all).

“Motherland” (a 2001 song) she dedicates to the staff of NPR.  Her accompaniment is an acoustic guitar, upright bass and accordion and it works very well for this slow, rather sad song.

“Texas” is another pretty, slow song from her 2014 album which she was supposed to pay at the Tiny Desk show.  She says he most regretted missing the Tiny Desk show when she had to cancel her tour.  She had no idea the desk was not so tiny and that it could fit 1000 people standing around watching.

Then she plugs her new album, Paradise Is There: The New Tigerlily Recordings.  It is a reworking of her songs from Tigerlily (and there was a documentary that accompanied it (which they were filming when we saw her).  She plays “Cowboy Romance” from that album.  I don’t know the original (or I don’t recognize the song) but it sounds fine in this stripped down format.

Even though her songs are rather serious, she’s quite silly with the band and crew.  She emphasis “CONfiguRAtion of muSICians” before introducing “Cowboy Romance.”

Everyone assumes she will play only three songs (the standard), but she has a special treat planned.  She says that she heard a story on NPR about how office workplaces would benefit from singing together.  And they are all trapped with her.  So she says they are going to sing a Protestant hymn that she recently found in a songbook in the library.

She says that she and the guitarist are Catholic, the accordionist is Jewish (from Israel) and the bassist has no religion.  he says he’s from the West Coast (she jokes that he’s from a cult in Oregon).  Then when she asks the guitarist what key it’s in and he says, “What song? ” to which everyone laughs because she never mentioned the title.

It’s a lovely old song which she teaches to the whole room.  After the first verse, she says she approves of the group sing-along and says it should be a weekly thing.  I love the way they split the screen to show the whole staff singing along. It’s quite lovely and the staff’s accompaniment is really pretty.

This is a delightful show and a very intimate performance by Natalie Merchant.

[READ: January 12, 2016] “Learning to Fly Part 2”

I really enjoyed Part 1 of this essay, but as often happens to me with broken up pieces, I forgot about the next part until long after.  So here it is over six months since I read Part 1 finally getting around to Part 2 (but at least I have Parts 3 and 4 with me so I’ll be finishing them up soon). (more…)

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