I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: SCOTT MULVAHILL-“Begin Againers” (Tiny Desk Contest Runner-Up 2016).

Last week, a Tiny Desk Contest winner was announced. This week, All Songs Considered posted ten runners up that they especially liked.  I want to draw attention to a couple of them.

Mulvahill is a double bassist, and his double bass sounds outstanding.  He slides notes, he plays chords, and he keeps up a really fun, jazzy riff.

He also slaps the strings which provides some percussive sounds.  One of the nice features of this song is that he keeps playing a low open note so the song never sounds empty.   And that’s all there is to the song–just his voice and his bass (and a proper verse/chorus structure of course).

The song s(and his voice) reminds me of a kind of stripped down Paul Simon song. It’s not really my thing, though and I wouldn’t choose to listen to it a lot, but I love his bass sound and I think the song itself is really good.

[READ: February 16, 2016] “Measure for Measure”

This is an excerpt from Moshfegh’s novel Eileen.

This excerpt (and presumably the whole book) is about a woman who I assume is anorexic  She doesn’t eat and seems to relish in her boniness.

I took such poor care of myself. I knew I should drink water, eat healthful foods, but I didn’t like to drink water or eat healthful foods. I found fruits and vegetables detestable, like eating a bar of soap or a candle.

She is reflecting back on her younger days when at 24 she was considered a spinster and had indeed had only one kiss from a boy when she was 16.  It was a prom date that had gone rather awry–she wound up biting him on the neck (and can’t recall is she drew blood).

She concludes the memory by saying “He’s probably dead..Most people I know are dead.”

The meat of the story seems to be about her attempts to run away from X-ville.  She planned her getaway pretty carefully.  She even imagines what her father would say when she was missing.  He’d say she couldn’t be with friends  She has no friends.

Eileen works at a prison.  And the scene then shifts to her prison where a striking woman enters for the first time.

My first impression of the woman was that she must be a performer at the special assembly — a singer or an actress with a soft spot for child criminals. My assumption seemed reasonable. Celebrities entertained army troops, after all. Why not young prisoners?

This new woman Rebecca Saint John dominates the male warden who introduces her around.  Eileen’s task is to show her to her locker. Rebecca makes a joke about her locker combination being like her measurements and then she bonds with Eileen over having small breasts.

Since this is an excerpt and I’m not spoiling anything by quoting the end of it, I’m going to, because I love the way it is written.  Eileen is transfixed by Rebecca.

I figured it was best not to come on too strong. We waved to each other and Rebecca flew off back through the office and up the hall like some exotic bird or flower, utterly misplaced in the dim fluorescent light. I walked mechanically, heel-toe, back to my desk, hands clasped behind my back, whistling nothing in particular, my world transformed.

In the beginning of the story I wasn’t that interested in it because of the whole food angle, but by the end, and the introduction of the powerful Rebecca Saint John, I was definitely interested in reading the rest.