I Just Read About That…

  SOUNDTRACK: JAMES VINCENT McMORROW-Tiny Desk Concert #151 (August 25, 2011).

I don’t know McMorrow. He is an Irish singer who plays acoustic guitar.  His singing voice switches between a kind of raspy voice and a keening falsetto.

He plays four songs and his style and voice reminds me a lot of Bon Iver.

I don’t find any of his song especially compelling. They’re all nice–the humming part of “This Old Dark Machine” is pretty memorable.  As the part in the middle where he seems to get pretty intense.

“Sparrow And The Wolf” has some nice chord changes.  I think my favorite song is “Follow You Down To The Red Oak Tree,” which opens a little differently.

I have to say it’s a little awkward watching him up close as he does some pretty unusual things with his face when he sings.

The final song, “Red Dust” really shows off his falsetto.  I found his songs to be entirely pleasant and think they would sound great in a coffeeshop on a Sunday afternoon.

[READ: February 3, 2015] Moomin Volume 5

Moomin Book 5 is composed entirely of strips written by Lars and drawn by Tove.  These are the final strips that she contributed to.  And, as such, there are only three chapters in the book.  As with the others these stories originally ran in the Evening News, London 1953-1959.

The chapters are called “Moomin Winter” “Moomin Under Sail” and “Fuddler’s Courtship”

“Moomin Winter” returns to the wintertime, but there is no sign of sports figures this year.  But when the snow is epic in proportion, they decide to just hibernate the winter away.  Until they get an unexpected visitor.  A woman who is caught in the snow and seeks lodging.  She wants no trouble, just a place to crash for the winter.  And she keeps insisting she wants no trouble as they rearrange all the furniture to suit her needs.  Soon after, another visitor, the Grompf also crashes with them  He is grumpy, indeed.

After a lot of fuss (but no trouble), everyone finally settles in.  Until the mailman delivers them a Nibling.

The Nibling is a small, otter-like creature and his role is to get into everyone’s secrets (and everyone has one).  He brings out much hilarity as he spies on everyone and learns everything they don’t want people to know.  There’s some good amusing secrets in Moomin Valley and the annoying Nibling actually winds up doing some good.  Until he gets bored when everyone allows their secrets to get out.

“Moomin Under Sail” sees Too-Tiki building a proper sailing vessel for the family.  As the boat is getting built a poet comes along and speaks highfalutin around it–they can’t wait until he leaves.  After many stalls, they finally set off.  But there’s a stowaway–the poet is on board!  And he proves to be more than a nuisance.

The A storm is a brewing and Too-Tiki manages to harness some clouds which comes in handy when they re-encounter the pirates from many chapters ago.

“Fuddler’s Courtship”
It seems strange to devote an entire chapter to a brand new character (even giving him the title!), but that’s what Lars gets up to.

Fuddler is a character with a pot on his head an a box full of buttons.  He is a bit of a bumbler and certainly a bit of a weirdo (he lives in a coffee tin).  Moomin and Snorkmaiden decide that he would be happier if they fixed him up with Mymble.   Mymble is also alone, but she only has eyes for Sebastian (a body builder).

None of he hare brained ideas that Fuddler thinks up do anything to sway Mymble (understandably).  And even with the help of Moomin and Snorkmaiden, Mymble cannot be won over.

They even consult a psychiatrist–Dr. Hatter who has just come to town. The Hatter sequence are awesomely funny.  Dr. hatter is pretty nutty himself.  And he;s rather paranoid, thinking he might just leave the village to get away from everyone.  But the Moomins think he is helping Fuddler, so the whole family pretends to be crazy just to keep the doctor around.  But it’s when they stop trying to help that he assumes they are crazy.

It takes Moominmamma to settle things, and she does it in great, simple style.  I love the way she “cures” everyone so easily.

The next book is written and drawn entirely by Lars and I’m curious to see if there will be a distinctive style change.