I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: TINARIWEN-Tiny Desk Concert #184 (January 5, 2012).

Tinariwen are a band from northern Mali, whose members met in the training camps of Col. Moammar Gadhafi. Much has been written about them and their story, which is pretty amazing.  I’m only going to talk about this Tint Desk Concert.

Typically, they play an interesting electric guitar kind of trance music.  But for this one they were all acoustic.  As Bob Boilen notes, they are his “favorite electric-guitar-based band on the planet.”  But he says he was:

“initially worried and disappointed when I learned that it was coming to play the Tiny Desk as a trio carrying acoustic guitars. My heart sank a bit more when the three Tuareg musicians from the Sahara arrived in jeans and polo shirts instead of the beautiful, flowing robes I’d seen them wear on stage so many times.

But they switched clothes and they do not disappoint on acoustic guitar.

I don’t know their music all that well, but it feels like the acoustic nature of this show is even more soothing and trance inducing.  The two acoustic guitars interweave–one playing lead (which is mostly hammered notes–not a “solo” per se) and the other strumming.  The percussion is the sound of two hands rubbing, clacking (with a cigarette lighter) and pounding (for bass drum) a large gourd.

The songs tend to be almost looping.  Like they could go on forever.  There’s no real verse chorus structure that I can tell.  It’s more of a meditative sound.

All of the vocals are in Tamashek and I have no idea what the songs are about.

On “Adounia” both guitarists sing and the voices sound very traditional, almost atonal. “Takkest Tamidaret” opens with a more conventional sounding guitar lick, but it’s all so quiet in the mix, that you can’t tell how much his fingers are moving.  The lyrics are a bit slower, but still in that droning style.  I love the way “Tenhert”  has a a cool riff from the lead guitar–one that probably sounds more intense on electric guitar.  He sing/speaks incredibly quickly.  “Tahlamoyt” is a much slower song with the lyrics pretty much all spoken word.

The “Mali sound” is pretty distinctive and Tinariwen are great proponents of it, spreading it around the world for all to hear.

[READ: June 8, 2016] The Complete Peanuts 1995-1996

I was under the impression that these last few volumes of books would show a serious drop in quality.  I had assumed that with the amount of product the Peanuts characters were sponsoring that these strips would be more cute.  But that is far from true.  I enjoyed this book as much if mot more than some of the other recent volumes.

I was also surprised to discover that I really enjoyed the Sunday cartoons more than the dailies.  In the past I haven’t really gotten big laughs form the Sundays–it seemed like the big stories and jokes were in the dailies and the Sundays were unrelated one offs with varying degrees of punch.  But I enjoyed a dozen or so in this book.

One of the major additions in this book is the inclusion of a slightly older Rerun.  He is now mobile and even heading to kindergarten (I love that he is aging while the others aren’t).  But rather than using Rerun for obvious cute child jokes (he’s no longer riding the back of his mom’s bike) Rerun is now making funny “outsider” observations about the world of Peanuts–he is constantly disenchanted with the way  things are going and with the belief that people are always lying to him.  There are also a ton of strips of him trying to shoot a basketball and failing miserably.  Schulz has always tended to take an idea and run and run and run with it, but this one is pretty good for the number that he uses it.

Rerun also loves coming over to see if Snoopy can play.  His mom won’t let him get a dog of his own so he has to borrow Snoopy.  Some days Snoopy has better things to do (like watch TV) but occasionally they play together.  In March they have great time rolling around and laughing, (I love the strips of the kids or Snoopy laughing hysterically) but it all ends when Rerun gives him a cookie with coconut on it.

Despite some references to pop culture, Schulz also seems to be retreating somewhat to pleasures of old. There are days and days of the kids playing marbles and of riding down a hill in a cardboard box.  The happens first early in January when Charlie says his grampa says that kids don’t know how to have fun today there’s too many organized sports.  That they’re missing out on the simple things in life.  I love that the sentiment is true and valid and yet is undermined by the very premise of sliding down a hill in a cardboard box and wiping out big time.

Even though the kids aren’t getting older, it does seem like Snoopy is.  I liked that when Charlie goes to buy dog food for Snoopy he is confronted with many options: Puppy (you’re not a puppy anymore), lite, active, adult, young adult, mature dogs, old dogs, golden years dogs and finally finds one for “dogs who understand a little french and flew during world war I.”   Later Linus asks if dogs change as they get older. Snoopy is wearing glasses saying, “I can’t read the fine print as well anymore.”

In February 1995 Lucy encourages Charlie to take dance lessons to be less lonely and he meets a nice girl (possibly with red hair) named Emily.  She asks hm to dance and he is over the moon.  There’s even a strip where he is lying in bed and the scene of her asking him repeats over and over–a great use of a full panel.

It seemed like Spike hadn’t been used as much–he is kind of a one note character but there s an amusing strip in February where he thinks he has found the Maltese Falcon but it turns out to be Daffy Duck (!).

The marbles section is interesting for everything that goes on.  Charlie has aggies, shooters, immies, milkies, bumboozers, dobies and glimmers.  Rerun says he has round ones.  And a few weeks later when Rerun and another girl lose their marbles to a tough kid, Charlie fights back!

you never lose because you only play beginners and you tell them you’re playing for fun until you win and then you say “keeps” and you take all their marbles.

Charlie glares at the kid and says “Knuckle Down Joe, this is for keeps.”  And he wins them all back.  A great moment for Charlie Brown!

In addition to the usual fears and woes of Charlie, there are now dozens of strips of him lying awake in bed with questions about the world Usually the universe answers in some pithy sarcastic way, but in one of then Snoopy (who has been sleeping with him lately and looks adorable) says “try sleeping.”

Sally is as snarky as ever.   She get a new philosophy “All is Well” but she doesn’t know what it means.  When Sally tells him that he’s going to lose you always lose, Charlie walks away muttering “family values.”  Later Sally says she thought about running for class president but changed her mind.  maybe she’ll run for half-president.

Charlie is helping Sally with her multiplication tables.  He asks her questions and she answers “How Should I Know.” “Who Cares.”  But when he says I hope these aren’t too hard for you, she says Do I look discouraged?”

Later Sally talks about the bus coming through the dense fog “its like a huge monster devouring everything in its path.”

There are several strips over the course of these two years in which the kids wonder if Jesus owned a dog and what kind it would be.  There’s always been a religious feel to the strips, but it seems to be appearing a bit more lately.

There are many attorney jokes as well.  The one I liked best was when Snoopy is defending Peter Rabbit (who looks nothing like Peter Rabbit) but loses the case.

I’ve always like the strips where Snoopy grabs Linus’ blanket.  The one in August of 1995 when Lucy gets mad and throws the blanket in a tree is great.  Snoopy knows he can’t climb trees but he does anyhow and gets the blanket for Linus.  And then two panels later clomps it and off they go.

In Sept 1995 Linus is listening to Sandi Patti and crashes his Rollerblade when she hits a high note. I’d never heard of her.  She is a contemporary Christian singer with a wide range.

My kids have been doing the new math where a big component is explaining your answer.  I love when Patty says “You want me to explain how I got the answer?  I copied it from the kid behind me.”

Even though it’s obvious that Schulz loves sports, I love when he has a character disparage it like the whole strip in Sept 1995 in which the TV announcer says “and then this one team beat the other team in some kind of game.  And this tall girl won over this short girl and the team from around here someplace lost again and this one guy ran faster than the rest of them and that’s sports for tonight and who cares?”

Marcie’s usually the one who undermines sports like “When I kicked the ball, my glasses, my socks, and my shoes all flew off and the ball came down and hit me on the head!… This is a humorous game, isn’t it sir.”

Rerun loses a tooth and Lucy says the tooth fairy will bring you a whole bunch of money because they need the teeth to make piano keys.  He replies “I’m five years old.  I’ve been around for five years and I’ve never believed anything anyone has ever told me.”  Like when he goes to see if Snoopy can come out and Charlie says that he went on a hike with his troops and Rerun asks “Do dogs have troops?”

In 1995 Lucy says that if she pulls the ball away she can sue, and then he runs in with his attorney.

The Zamboni jokes continue, with this being my favorite: Marcie: “So we’re in this coffees shop, see, trying to decide about dessert,  ‘How about ice cream,’ says my dad.  “Great, I said, “I’ll have zamboni,” Then my dad says “at the hockey game tonight did you enjoy watching the spumoni clean the ice Ha ha ha ha.”  Patty: “You and your dad are very weird, Marcie.”

When sally is writing to her gramma, she asks Charlie is it he fat one or the skinny one then says “Gramma should have names like people.”

And in one of my favorite jokes.  Snoopy says to Woodstock “What I don’t understand is how you can fly around up there without bumping into another bird.”  Woodstock replies and Snoopy says “No I realize you’re not stupid.”

Many years ago Schulz bemoaned that there were no cartoon characters on stamps.  Well, in Nov 1995, Sally can’t afford any stamps so she drew her own: “I copied from the new cartoon stamps.”  Snoopy notes she drew a better Popeye than they did

1996 starts off interestingly for Patty when she says “Rats I got grape jelly on my shirt.”  And Marcie says, “In math class?”

In February 1996, Snoopy mentions his brother Andy again in one of his books “Andy was fuzzy.”  But that’s it for him.

In March 1996 Snoopy wins a coloring contest (everyone assumes it was Charlie who did it but no it was Snoopy).  Finally Sally says How could a dog win a coloring contest.  That’s ridiculous.”  And Snoopy says “I agree unless you stop to think about it, a dog’s whole life is ridiculous.”

Remember Emily from dancing?  Well, when he went back the next time she wasn’t there and there was no record of a girl named Emily being there.  He must have imagined her!  Until in April 1996, when she calls him and invites him to the sweetheart ball!  Aw.  He’s so happy.  He rents a tux and goes to the dance and they have a wonderful time and she even says that she enjoys dancing with him.  And then there is an announcement that a small white dog has shown up and Snoopy and Charlie are summarily kicked out and we don’t hear from Emily again.

As we move into the late 1990s Schulz has caught up with the times when Lucy gives Charlie her phone number, fax number and email address.

Rerun says he is wearing a shirt that used to be Linus’  He’s bummed because “he gets all of the throw ups.”

Finally in May 1996 Rerun is allowed to get a dog. He asks Snoopy to write to Spike.  Rerun’s plan is to adopt Spike but when Spike shows up Rerun is terrified of him so Spike returns to the desert.

ON June 6 in 1996 he has a D-Day strip–it says “to remember” and shows Snoopy swimming through the war-torn WWII landscape.

In June of 1996 Lucy says she wants to take a picture of Charlie and she needs an action shot  He winds up for a pitch.  She says he needs a nickname for the photo.  He suggests Duke Brown or Babe Brown or Slugger or Pepper and when he finally see the picture the caption is “Tapioca” brown.  Tapioca has been a punchline for a few strips when Snoopy was visiting Spike as an infantry man in WWI.  All he wants in the trenches is his mother’s tapioca pudding.

It was during 1996 that I noticed that Reruns hair looks a bit different from Linus’.  For the longest time it was really hard to tell them apart.  Reruns is now shaved in the back.   And honestly Linus has been seen a lot less.

There’s a great joke in which Rerun says “I like these nature programs…you see things you never thought could….”  Then snoopy comes in and steals Linus’ blanket in a crazy way and Rerun is left alone to say “happen.”

The kids go into an ice cream store and ask for their flavors, Snoopy says “Woof!” and comes out with four scoops thinking “I never knew what “woof ” meant.”

Lucy and Rerun play cards with Snoopy a bunch of times and “Joe Blackjack” has made a return.

In October 1996 Spike says he went to Hollywood where he met Mickey Mouse who gave Spike his shoes.  (It’s amazing how many jokes there are about Mickey Mouse’s shoes).

In 1996 Lucy has the football but Charlie says he is insulted that she thinks he’s so stupid.  But Lucy says think of the symbolism!  The ball! The desire! The triumph!!”  But he misses the symbolism when he tries to kick it.

In October 1996, Charlie Brown finally gets the nerve to talk to the little red-haired girl, sort of).  Linus says he could impress her if he says something nice to her.  So he shouts “You look really cute today!”  Linus says “She fell right out of her chair.”  Later Charlie walks by her house and waves but he’s mostly waving to her granma.

In Nov 1996, Snoopy has his annual root beer with Bill Mauldin, but for the very first time he says who he was: Bill was the greatest cartoonist to come out of word war II” while he is reading an issue of Up Front.

In December 1996 instead of the national anthem, before every game of ice hockey on the bird bad they all do the macarena.  (The song went to number 1 in mid 1996).

Christmas is sad again this year with Spike by himself with a stocking on his cactus.   After Christmas he tosses it off the cliff.

The book ends in a peculiar way for an end of the year set of strips.  Charlie goes to a booth to pay for an autograph from Joe Shlabotnik.  Charlie says he’ll be the envy of every Joe Shlabotnik fan in the world, “all one of you.”  I cant wait to see how it plays out but it seems weird for this time of year.

For this book the introduction was written by “RIFFTRAX & MST3K” which I was quite surprised by.  The two writers of this intro are Conor Lastowka and Sean Thomason (whom I’ve never heard of despite watching both of these).

They open by saying imagine someone trying to pitch Peanuts today: There’s this kid.  He’s constantly depressed…his best friend is into philosophy and suffers from a crippling addiction to holding his blanket.  He’s got a lovable dog who dresses up like a WWI pilot.  And in the Christmas special someone recites a Bible passage verbatim.

Obviously no one would take that but some one did all those years ago and as it grew in popularity it became “more specific and strange.” (they also note that Snoopy’s sibling Olaf is huge in Japan–almost as popular as Snoopy is).

They say that as writers for MST3K and RIFFTRAX, they love to get mired in little details.  How did Joe Shlabotnik keep getting at bats when his average dipped to .004?  Did Lucy and Linus resent their mother for never taking them on bike rides?

They says that when writing for their shows, Peanuts was always a pop culture reference that everyone would get.  Some jokes went over people’s heads (or under them), but not Peanuts.

Despite the gloom, quirky and plain weird nature of Peanuts, it achieved a level of multi-generational adoration that only a handful of other artist have ever matched.  “Let’s put it this way: Snoopy had his own Sno-Cone machine.  Even the Beatles never got a Sno-Cone machine.”

And finally, Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett riff four Peanuts strips. And you can hear their voices as you read the words.  It’s so much fun!  When Rerun says he asked his mom if he could have a dog and she said no, they comment “Actually, she sad ‘Mwah wah mwahh,’ but I took it as a No.”

At one point, Lucy wonders “Am I my brother in a black wig?”

And in the weird strip about Linus hearing the coyotes “I heard the coyotes howling again lat night, Charlie Brown” the comment is “the title of a much darker Peanuts Halloween special.”

And the final joke is great.  Snoopy says “I was under the covers.”  They quip “upset that after forty years Linus still calls me ‘your dog’ instead of ‘Snoopy.'”

This is a great addition to the Peanuts collection, with no drop in quality at all.