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Archive for September, 2016

Nan Marino–Neil Armstrong Is My Uncle & Other Lies Muscle Man McGinty Told Me (2009) [audiobook 2009–Emily Bauer]

Posted in Angst, Astronauts, Audiobooks, Buzz Aldrin, Death, Emily Bauer, Friendship, Humiliation, Kickball, Letters, Lies, Marriage Trouble, Nan Marino, Neil Armstrong, Nostalgia, Outer Space, Unlikable main character, Vietnam War on September 21, 2016| Leave a Comment »

[LISTENED TO: August 2016] Neil Armstrong Is My Uncle & Other Lies Muscle Man McGinty Told Me

neilThe title of this book sounded weird and fun. So I grabbed it from the audio book collection at the library and we listened to it on the way home from vacation.

Set in Long Island (narrator Emily Bauer does some great Long Island accents for the adults (and a few kids) in the story), this is the story of a young girl, Tamara Ann Simpson (Tammy) growing up on Ramble Street in 1969 just a few weeks from the Moon Landing!

But that’s miles away.  Because it is summertime and all she can think about is kickball.  Well kickball and her friend Kebsie who took off all of a sudden one day without even saying goodbye.

Kebsie was Tammy’s best friend.  She lived in a foster home on Ramble Street.  They did everything together and even had a secret “arooo” signal.  They were BFs and even bought necklaces to prove it.  Kebsie was a straight shooter and took no crap from anyone.  And then one day, she was gone.  As we understand it, her mother returned and took Kebsie away to secret place because there was some kind of abuse in he family and they needed to be removed from everyone they knew. (more…)

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“Weird Al” Yankovic (Sands Bethlehem Event Center, Bethlehem, PA, September 20, 2016)

Posted in "Weird Al" Yankovic, Bethlehem, PA, C., Eminem, Funny (ha ha), Michael Stipe, Sands Bethlehem Event Center, T. on September 20, 2016| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: September 20, 2016] “WEIRD AL” YANKOVIC

2016-09-20-19-37-57Back on June 16, 2015, Sarah and I took the kids to this very venue to see “Weird Al” perform.  He is (amazingly) still touring the Mandatory Fun World Tour, and he made another stop in Bethlehem en route to Radio City Music Hall.  I wasn’t planning on going this time since I know that his shows from the same tour are identical.  But when I learned that my friend Matt and many members of his family were going to go, it sounded like a fun celebration.  So we bought some tickets (not 3rd row like last time, although 13th row isn’t too shabby, it turns out), and met our friends for a fun night.

The Sands is a casino, and we were going to eat in one of the fancier restaurants lining the casino.  Well, PA state law says that a security guard must accompany minors around the casino.  So we got an escort to the Chinese Food place.  Then we sat down, were shocked at the prices–seriously shocked. I mean, it’s a casino, but c’mon it’s Bethlehem, there’s no way any Chinese Food is worth $28 a plate.  So we walked out (a first for me) and got escorted back to the food court where we ate overpriced food court Chinese Food instead.

Then we went in and were pleased with our seats and our neighbors.  And then the show started. (more…)

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Ben Folds and a Piano (Mayo Performing Arts Center, Morristown, NJ, September 18, 2016)

Posted in Ben Folds, Mayo Performing Arts Center, Morristown, NJ on September 19, 2016| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: September 18, 2016] Ben Folds and a Piano

2016-09-18-22-37-01Back in July, we saw Ben Folds play with yMusic at Steel Stacks in Bethlehem.  We were about ten feet from the stage and it was terrific.  Before the show or perhaps just after, he announced that he’d be doing a solo tour in the fall.  And even though we were literally watching him, I decided to get us tickets for that show as well, because it was going to be just him and his piano.  What could be better?

For this show, at the lovely MayoPAC (the sound was amazing), our seats were much further away.  But unlike with yMusic, this time, he and his piano faced sideways.  And our seats were dead center, so we could watch him bang the hell out of that piano.  We could see every trill, every stomp and every riff. It was a perfect view.

Of course it being a dark theater, I was respectful of my neighbors and took only two pictures and only right after he sat down to start the second set.  Not to mention, a venue like that gives you crap photos anyway…witness the one below.

He started out playing a few rockers (watching him pound the piano keys is so cool since even when he is pounding with his fist (or his arm!), he’s always right in tune somehow).  He opened with “Annie Waits,” one of Sarah’s favorites by him, and one we’d never head before.  It was pretty great and set the tone for a fantastic set.

He complemented our ability to get the “clap” in the song solidly on time.  And because of that, he imagined we’d be up for a four-part harmony challenge.  So when he played “Bastard” he had us do the challenge–four vocals parts for people with different ranges.  It was really fun.  One thing I’ve always admired about Ben is how he really encourages his audience to sing along.  He seems to genuinely want people to sing (not just a cursory scream of the chorus), but like he’s trying to get people I who think the can’t sing to realize that maybe they can. (more…)

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Tania del Rio–Warren the 13th and the All-Seeing Eye (2015) [audiobook 2015–Kevin T. Collins]

Posted in Adventure, Audiobooks, C., Children's Books, Funny (strange), Greed, Kevin T. Collins, Quirk Books, Tania del Rio, Threats, Unfinished series, Will Staehle, Witches on September 18, 2016| Leave a Comment »

[LISTENED TO: August 2016] Warren the 13th and the All-Seeing Eye

warren-13I had grabbed this book for C. because it looked kind of interesting.  He said he wanted to read it but hadn’t gotten around to it before we left for vacation. So instead, I grabbed the audio book for us to listen to.

The book itself had a lot of interesting illustrations by Will Staehle which were obviously not present in the audio book.  Often times the audio book version of a book is a bit more fun because of the delivery, but I feel like we really missed out without the pictures.  Indeed, the blurb for the book really talks up the design of it:

The first volume in a delightful new series, this middle grade adventure features an oversized hardcover format, gorgeous two-color illustrations on every page, and a lavish two-column turn-of-the-century design. We guarantee you’ve never seen anything quite like it!

And I still haven’t. (more…)

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Mark Tatulli–Liō: Making Friends (2013)

Posted in 13 Engines, Aliens, Birds, Canadian Music, Cats, Children's Books, Death, Demons, Dogs, Fairy Tales, Fantasy, Funny (ha ha), Games (Non Video), Holidays, Humiliation, Inventions, Liō, Loch Ness Monster, Mad Scientists, Mark Tatulli, Menudo, Parenting, Pigs, Rats, Rheostatics, Squids, Stompin' Tom Connors, Supernatural, Surreal, Talking Heads, The Beatles, Vampires, Yuck!, Zombies, tagged on September 17, 2016| Leave a Comment »

liofriends SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Railway Club, Vancouver, BC (November 1987).

RailwayClub87-PROD91It’s pretty impressive that this show (ostensibly from the same month as the previous show) has such a different setlist.  Between the two shows they play 22 songs and only four are repeated.  And this time five of the songs come from their debut album, Greatest Hits.

This tape begins with a recording of “Indian Arrow” by the 13 Engines.  It sounds very different from the other songs on the tape–the audience is very loud and you can hear a woman say “I wanna sing this one” (!).  I know this song from a Martin Tielli solo tour (and indeed, he sounds pretty much solo here–although there is a piano, too).

The rest of the tape all has the same audio quality but sounds different from the first song.  “Crescent Moon” begins mid-song (as if it was recorded over by “Indian Arrow”).   “Sad Sad World” is more upbeat than the title suggests with a “vocal solo” introduced with Dave and Tim chanting M-R-T-I-N in time with the music.  An upbeat “Ditch Pigs” leads to some silly banter during the guitar solo.  “Churches and Schools” sounds a lot like Talking Heads.  “Bridge Came Tumbling Down” is a Stompin’ Tom Connors song–they really had been playing him since forever.  Then they play a good version of “Higher and Higher” (from Greatest Hits).

It’s their last night in Vancouver, apparently which leads to a lengthy talk about he next song–a funky version of “Good on the Uptake” with lots of screaming at the end (from Tim).

The band plays the full version of “The Ballad of Wendell Clark” (with a some jokes about “Joel” whoever that is).  It’s rollicking and stomping and Martin starts playing “O Canada” as part of the solo.  Bidini stops the song and asks him to play it again, so Martin plays it on a good echoed effect (and Dave Clark shouts “alright Joel!”)  There’s some inappropriate jokes before Martin launches into a delicate version of The Beatles’ “Across the Universe-“-not the best version I’ve heard but still nice.

The final song is a romping stompin “PROD”–the only song The Rheostatics play in G#.  It has a fun shambolic end and it ends the set with them saying they’ll be back to play some Menudo tunes after a short break (which we never do hear).

[READ: January 15, 2016] Making Friends

It’s unsettling to me that the Liō books come in different shapes.  This one is even hardcover!  The contents of these stories are not unsettling to me though, even if they are to some readers (looking online, you can find gripes).

Liō continues to be a strange kid who loves zombies and squids and spiders and playing pranks.  This is his latest book (and I just confirmed to see that he is still publishing daily, so a new book must be coming soon, right?).

Tatulli still has some great gags.  And this format book has some of the strips in color. (more…)

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Charles M. Schulz–The Complete Peanuts: 1973-1974: The Definitive Collection of Charles M. Schulz’s comic strip masterpiece: Dailies & Sundays (2009)

Posted in Angst, Babe Ruth, Baseball, Basketball, Billie Jean King, Birds, Charles Schulz, Citizen Kane, Comic Strips, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Easter, Fantagraphics, Football, Funny (ha ha), Golf, Halloween, Hank Aaron, Hockey, Joe Shlabotnik, Letters, Lucinda Williams, Mad Magazine, Math, Peanuts, Pranks, Technology, Tennis, The Future, Tiny Desk Concert, Tom Waits, West Memphis 3 on September 16, 2016| Leave a Comment »

1973SOUNDTRACK: LUCINDA WILLIAMS-Tiny Desk Concert #412 (December 20, 2014).

lucindaI set tiny, manageable goals for this blog.  They often change over the course of the year, but I like to see if I can complete them.  One such goal was to write about all of the Tiny Desk Concerts from 2014.  And here’s the final one.  (Another such goal is to write about the remainder of the 2016 shows, which is doable).  I also want to write about all of the rest of the First Second Graphic Novels (there’s about 20 of them left).  Insignificant goals that I find satisfying to complete.

I’ve never been a fan of Lucinda Williams.  Although, while I’d certainly heard of her, I obviously didn’t know any of her music. The blurb talks about her distinctive voice.  And it is certainly that.  About 20 years ago a sort of friend of mine saw her open for somebody else and she dismissed Williams as trying to sound like a different singer (wish I could remember who it was).  The irony that Williams has been around since the late 1970s was not lost on me.

But Williams has changed her style over the years.  She originally sang country and has morphed into more of a folk and now a blues style.  This Tiny Desk Concert focuses on her bluesy songs.  I know she’s something of a legend, but I found her demeanor through the whole show off-putting until the end, when she loosened up a bit.

She sings four songs.  “Something Wicked This Way Comes” is rocking blues song.  And I have to say I was pretty shocked by her voice–rough and raspy and sounding not a little hungover.  Her lead guitarist was really the start for me, effortlessly playing some great groovy licks.

For “Cold Day in Hell” (she laughs at saying the title) she straps on an acoustic guitar and then sings like Tom Waits.  That seems like a joke, but the structure of the verses is pure Tom Waits–I would have even suggested he wrote the song.

The third song is the more bluesy “Protection.”  There seems something so inauthentic about this song.  I just don’t believe her rendition of it–I don’t believe that she actually needs protection.  It’s really disconcerting.

She finally smiles after this song and says “Now I’m kinda getting used to this … I’m not a wake yet, that’s what the thing is.  She straps on her guitar and says this is based on the story of the West Memphis Three.  It’ my favorite song of the four–she seems to really get into it.

But all the same, I really don’t like her voice all that much–she’s got a weird drawl and sounds like there are some marbles in her mouth. It’s very strange.  I listened to a bit of a song from a live show from 1989 and her voice was quite pretty–deep, yes, but very pretty.  By 2007, her voice has changed–it’s deeper, with a pronounced drawl.  At a show in 2013, she sounded kind of pretty again.  So, I don’t know what to make of it.  I’ll have to just go back to not listening to her.

[READ: June 8, 2016] The Complete Peanuts 1973-1974

I really enjoyed this volume a lot.  There were a lot of really funny jokes and the characters are really nicely distributed by now.  I don’t want to say that Schulz hit his stride around this time, because he’s been pretty solid right from the start, but this book was easily my favorite so far.  Possibly because it contained so much of Marcie and Patty who have easily become my favorites.

The year starts off somewhat inauspiciously with the anticlimactic return of Poochie.  She shows up, realizes that Snoopy isn’t a cute puppy anymore and leaves.  Never to be seen again.

More interesting is that Linus decides that since Charlie has been their manager for so long and worked so hard that they ought to throw him a commemorative dinner. They plan it for a couple of weeks and when he finally hears about it, his smile is awesome.  They even get Joe Schlobotnick to agree to come. Of course, then Marcie starts saying that they’d all be hypocrites if they actually showed up and said nice things about him since he’s a terrible manager.  And so they cancel it at the last-minute–while Charlie is there. (more…)

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Ian Lendler and Zack Giallongo–The Stratford Zoo Midnight Revue Presents Romeo and juliet (2014)

Posted in #10yearsof01, Acting, Animals, Cat Stevens, Children's Books, Christmas Album, Cows, Death, Elephants, First Second :01, Funny (ha ha), Gorillas, Graphic Novel, Ian Lendler, Lions, Monkeys, Moonshadow, Play (Drama), The Muppet Show, Tiny Desk Concert, William Shakespeare, Witches, Yusuf, Zack Giallongo on September 15, 2016| Leave a Comment »

rjSOUNDTRACK: YUSUF/CAT STEVENS-Tiny Desk Concert #411 December 9, 2014).

catAs this Tiny Desk Concert opens, Bob Boilen tells his story of being 17 years old and saving up money to buy a guitar so he could learn Cat Steven’s “Father and Son.”  He says he’s now old and has a son and the song still means a lot.  And that introduction makes the song even that more emotional when he plays it later.

It’s a shame that he is so known for the controversy about the fatwa back in the 1980s, but his conversion to Islam is pretty interesting: “In 1976, Cat Stevens almost drowned off the coast of Malibu. In his panic, he says, he shouted, “Oh, God! If you save me, I will work for you” — at which point he recalls a wave that came and carried him ashore. He converted to Islam, changed his name and left the pop world after one last album in 1978.”

He released his first non-spiritual album in decades in 20o6.  He released another one in 2014, which was a record of some originals mixed with standards and blues covers.  He plays two songs from this album here (which is a bit of a disappointment, as I could have easily listened to him play the entire Greatest Hits album).  But these two songs are quite nice.  “I was Raised in Babylon” is a bit dark, although his voice sounds great.  “Doors” was originally written for the musical Moonshadow.  It’s a delicate ballad.  And it also as a religious impact with the final line being “God made everything just right.”

In between these two he says he doesn’t know what to play next, but he has some kind of gadget that he scrolls through.  And he chooses “The First Cut is the Deepest.”  He comments maybe some people know I wrote this one, it wasn’t Rod Stewart.  I really like this song a lot.  It sounds different from the record because it’s just him and his guitar, but his voice is unmistakable. and he sounds great.  And if it makes him feel better, I’ve never even heard the Rod Stewart version.

He dedicates “Father and Son” to Bob and it’s just as beautiful as the original.  And yes, it should make you tear up, especially if you have a child.

After listening to this Tiny Desk I really wanted to see him play live.  I know that he is currently on tour and will actually be in Philly on this very night.  There are still tickets available, but since the cheapest seats cost nearly $200, I’ll be skipping this one.

[READ: April 4, 2016] The Stratford Zoo Midnight Revue Presents Romeo and Juliet

I really enjoyed the first book in this series, in which the zoo animals put on a play of Macbeth.  Well, the zoo is ready again for their next performance.  I enjoyed that the audience is aware of the previous play–the kids are even wondering why it’s another tale of woe instead of something happy.  Later when the lion (who was in Macbeth) comes out, someone addresses him as the character from that play.

What I thought was interesting about the way this play was done was that they made the story kid friendly.  I liked this and that it allowed me to share this story with my kids.  Rather than being lovers, Romeo and Juliet want to have a play date, and rather than killing themselves at the end, they wind up hibernating. (more…)

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Aristophane–The Zabîme Sisters (2010) [translation 2010]

Posted in Aristophanes, Drinking, First Second :01, Graphic Novel, Humiliation, Matt Madden, St. Paul and the Broken Bones, Tiny Desk Concert, Translation, Violence, Yuck! on September 14, 2016| Leave a Comment »

zabimeSOUNDTRACK: ST. PAUL AND THE BROKEN BONES-Tiny Desk Concert #410 (December 6, 2014).

stpaulPaul Janeway stands on Bob Boilen’s desk wearing gold shoes  and singing his heart out.  Janeway is the lead singer of St. Paul and the Broken Bones, a seven-piece soul band based out of Alabama.

Janway has a powerful voice and sings in a very old-school soul style.  The Broken Bones consist of two guitarist, a keyboardist, a trombone, a trumpet and drums.

They play three songs, “Half the City,” and “Call Me” (in which he does some great shuffle dances on the desktop and seems to almost fall off the desk) are full throttle dancing soul music.  The final song is kind of a sad song, a story about how the band got together called “Broken Bones and Pocket Change.”

There’s a funny moment when Bob asks if he’s hot way up there and he Janeway replies, “Is it hot?  Naw man, we’re from Alabama.”

The band was fairly new back in 2014, but I see that as of this week, they have a  new album coming out. So good for them.

[READ: March 1, 2016] The Zabîme Sisters

When I read this book, back in March, I had been reading a lot of First Second graphic novels (I’m very close to having read them all!).  And reading this publishers entire catalog has led me to read amazingly detailed and interesting stories about real events.  And that’s pretty awesome.

This story is set in Guadeloupe, but unlike some of the other real-life stories of horror and degradation that I’ve read, this one is a simple story of childhood in a Caribbean island.

Not a lot happens, and yet the story is charming and enjoyable.

The story is told in 3 parts.  It is about three sisters, I’m not sure if they are triplets or just close on age.  I like how they have similar features but distinctive hair. (more…)

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Lat–Town Boy (1980) [translated 2007]

Posted in #10yearsof01, Art, Beavis and Butthead, College, Comic Strips, Dublin Guitar Quartet, First Second :01, Lat, Parenting, Philip Glass, Religion, Set at School, Tiny Desk Concert, Translation, YA Books on September 13, 2016| Leave a Comment »

town-boy SOUNDTRACK: DUBLIN GUITAR QUARTET-Tiny Desk Concert #409 (May 15, 2015).

dgqWhen I first listened to this brief concert for some reason I didn’t realize that the quartet were playing Philip Glass.  Of course, once he stated that that’s who they were playing, it became quite obvious–but having Glass played on acoustic guitars instead of synths or violins, is quite an unusual experience.

The music is still rigidly repetitive, but there is a great deal of warmth added with the guitars (and the human element as well).

The Dublin Guitar Quarter has been around since 2002 and they play pretty much only contemporary and new pieces (despite being dressed in suits and playing on “classical” guitars).

They play two pieces, with two and three movements of each piece respectively.  They were originally recorded for strings, so these guitar transcriptions change things quite a lot (especially in Mishima).

The first piece is called “Company.”  They play Movements 2 and 3. What’s most impressive about the first piece is that you can hear all of the musical lines.  Glass often interweaves line up line of music ad you can see each guitarist playing these lines on high guitar notes and low notes while the other play accompaniment–transcribing these must have been a real challenge.

The loud chords are practically heavy metal chords on the guitar as opposed to what the strings might sound like.  And for all of the repetition, these two movements of clock in at less than four-minutes total.

It’s interesting to listen to the original after this and hear how it’s clearly the same piece but it sounds so very different.  From tone to drama, everything is changed.

The final pieces are three movements from Mishima.  In Mvt 3 there is some fast picking while the other three play chords.  It’s also fun to watch them all doing similar but distinct things through the middle of the movement.  This doesn’t have the fast lines that Glass is known for but it has a lot of loud repetitive notes.

What’s so interesting is that original is full of drums–and parts of only drums.  Obviously these aren’t present here, but the music resonates in a similar (but again, distinct) way.

Mt 2 is a slow meditative piece, and is far shorter than the original (which is also full of drums).

The final piece opens with some chords and then grows very beautiful as the Glass riff takes on an almost prog rock feel because of the guitar and the way the bass notes contrast so wonderfully with it.  It is short in this and the original and is great excerpt to listen to.

  • Glass: String Quartet No. 2, “Company,” Mvts. II & III
  • Glass: String Quartet No. 3, “Mishima,” Mvt. III, “1934: Grandmother & Kimitake”
  • Glass: String Quartet No. 3, “Mishima,” Mvt. II, “November 25: Ichigaya”
  • Glass: String Quartet No. 3, “Mishima,” Mvt. XI, “1962: Body Building”

[READ: March 24, 2015] Town Boy

This book was written (and drawn) in 1980.  First Second books had it translated and published in 2007.

I found Lat’s first book, Kampung Boy to be quite charming.  It was about a boy growing up in a small village in Malaysia in the 1950s.  This is the sequel and it is about moving from the village into the town and being a teenager.

This book is a little less episodic than the first.  Most of the story is laid out as text on one page and a drawing on the next.  But the drawings also have speech bubbles, so there’s a lot of different things going on. (more…)

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Paul Pope, JT Petty & David Rubin–Battling Boy: The Fall of the House of West (2015)

Posted in #10yearsof01, Bill Frisell, David Rubin, First Second :01, Graphic Novel, JT Petty, Murder, Paul Pope, Revenge, Sam Amidon, Superheroes, Tiny Desk Concert, Violence on September 12, 2016| Leave a Comment »

west SOUNDTRACK: SAM AMIDON & BILL FRISELL-Tiny Desk Concert #408 (December 1, 2014).

amidonThe first time I listened to this Tiny Desk Concert, I didn’t like Sam Amidon’s voice at all–he sings with a strangely flat delivery–almost monotone–but never actually off pitch.  It’s rather unusual sounding.

But the second time I listened I found it kind of interesting–compelling in an unexpected way.  I was also able to really hear what Bill Frisell was adding to the songs.

“Blue Mountains” is a folk story-song.  It is played with a very simple acoustic guitar piece and then, of course, Frisell’s interesting leads and chords that dd more and more texture as the song progresses.  The whole things is grounded by Shahzad Ismaily’s delicate drumming.

After the song, Amidon says, “Good morning, welcome to Washington DC.”  For “Pat Do This, Pat Do That,” a song about he banjo, Amidon switches to banjo.  This was my favorite of the three songs.  He plays the banjo very high on his chest (without a strap) and he plays quite fast.  It’s hard to decide to listen to Frisell’s interesting chords or to Amidon’s great banjo playing  For this song Ismaily switches to bass, which gives it lovely low end.

For the final song, Amidon gives a very long introduction about falling asleep on a pillow but dreaming that it is a little fuzzy donkey.  It’s a very strange introduction that doesn’t really end satisfactorily.  The final song is him on guitar, Frissell on electric and Ismaily on bass for a time and the switching over to drums.  Midway through Amidon switches to violin and plays a wild solo that he accentuates with a screeching voice.

It’s a most unusual and somewhat unsettling Tiny Desk Concert.  And I know I won’t be seeking out any more music by Amidon.

[READ: March 26, 2015] The Fall of  the House of West

This book follows The Rise of Aurora West with that cast involved.  I really enjoyed the resolution of the mystery of Aurora’s mom’s death, but otherwise I was kind of unimpressed by this book.

As with the previous book, I hate the way Rubin draws faces, especially Aurora’s–there’s too much face and not enough expression (conversely, his profiles are lovely).

Much of this story is fairly simple.  Aurora believes that she knows who killed her mother and she intends to get revenge.  But her father, the superhero Haggard West doesn’t want her to investigate on her own.  And her bodyguard/teacher is not going to let her do the work on her own, either. (more…)

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